Handful of various thoughts

I was on my way to work the other day. It was Monday, early in the morning and raining and the world seemed a bit gloomy. You probably know the feeling after having a nice weekend to be back to the office. I ran into one of my colleagues in the elevator. So, I asked him how he’s doing. I expected the usual ‘I’m OK’, or the ‘not that bad’ vague reply or a general ‘Monday’ comment. The reply I got was ‘fantastic, you?’! I was so surprised. So, since I am a bit cynical I asked him on what drug he’s on? His reply was: ‘the treasury drug’ (he’s part of the treasury team)! He made me laugh…

So, yes, I had a really nice weekend. After a month of constant miserable weather, it was sunny in London. So, we took the train with JJ and we went to Hampstead, which is a very nice area in North London. We had brunch near the high street and then spent around 2 hours walking around Hampstead Heath which is a vast green area nearby. We tried to run into George Michael but with no luck. We even went to one of the toilets there. For those of you who don’t know, Hampstead Heath is the notorious cruising area where George was arrested for indecent exposure (among other things) to an undercover cop in the toilets. Ignoring that, the area is very nice. There are ponds where (other) people go swimming, the Parliament Hill with extraordinary city views and hiking tracks to walk, jog or cycle. I highly recommend it on a sunny day.

Jumping to a naughtier issue, have you heard the term ‘dizzy sex’? Apparently you have it when one (or more) of the participants hit his head, most likely during foreplay, and feels slightly dizzy but doesn’t want to stop. I should warn you though not to start bagging your head around and be careful not to get a concussion. We were explaining to a friend an ‘accident’ we had and he was like: ‘Oh, you just had dizzy sex’! We were like: ‘what?’!


So, I'm leaving you with Tom Daley, the diving team GB and 'Sexy and I know it' . Have a nice weekend

Political worries

I wanted to write briefly about Greece and the current political situation there. The national election results from last week were fruitless. The voters were spread among many parties, not giving to any of them the power to create a government. To give you an idea, the party with the most votes, only got 18.9% of the whole! Even the neo-Nazi party called ‘Golden Dawn’ managed to acquire 10% of the votes. (I truly hope that people didn’t know what they were voting for). Traditionally in Greece there were two parties (the democrats and the socialists) swapping governments for decades that created the current abysmal financial situation. This time around people got fed up with the current situation and decided to vote differently. In a way they tried to punish the two major parties but the outcome of the elections weren’t the best.

Power is thinned out and distributed to so many parties that no coalition government can be created. The second best party in the elections was the left winged Syriza with 16.8% that refuses to cooperate with any other party that follows the EU’s austerity measures. This idea is of course popular to the masses although they don’t actually say how the country will find the money to pay salaries and pensions or reduce its debt. Syriza tried to create a left wing collation government but the Communist party bluntly refused to work with them. According to them hard core Communists; Syriza is not really left wing, but a fraud. The rest of the parties (excluding the far right and left winged parties) can’t create a government on their own since they can’t create a coalition of at least 151 MPs.

So, after a week of fruitless negotiations, there is still no government formed. Most likely there will be other national elections in mid-June!  This of course costs money and time that the country can’t afford to lose. According to the existing financial minister, Greece is soon running out of money and will need the coming payment from the EU. However, EU mentioned that no money will be given to the country without a government supportive to the already agreed terms of financial aid. So, there’s a deadlock.

Looking and at what happened to Argentina a decade ago when it bankrupted, I believe that Greece needs to stay in the Euro zone. Otherwise, we’re talking about locking people’s bank accounts, having very small available bank daily withdrawals, closing the borders, isolating the country, skyrocketing inflation rates and prices of imported goods, non-existent development in the short term and public panic. I hope that a coalition government will be formed soon.  And since I can only wish, I hope for ‘Golden Dawn’ not to have any MPs. These people are scum.

Update: this is 'Golden Dawn's logo. Ring any bells?

Photos from Greece

I got back from Greece a couple of days ago where I had a great time. I met lots of my old friends, saw my family, went swimming and I also voted for the national elections. I'll probably tell you all about it in a following post. I took more than 80 photos. Here are some of them:

Leaving a rainy London behind, I went there with my parents for a coffee! 

One of the city's floating bars with great beer and views 

A lovely coffee place 

My mum's really happy with her roses this year 

So happy to be working on my tan (trying to ignore the massive gray hair on my beard) 

I was the king of this beach. It was early in the year for other people to join me. I'm not complaining though. I lovely every minute of it.

A beautiful sunset with the slight view of the mount Olympus at the back.

Walking by the sea...