The weekend continued
The weekend continued, so Monday was a quiet day at home. Say no more.
The weekend continued
All posts by James Collins
Weekend
Weekend
(It’s Sunday morning…) It’s been a fairly typical weekend so far. Husband’s birthday, anniversary, dinner with the godboys and their dad, wrote a chapter, edited a chapter, didn’t save the edits, rewrote chapter and chased a snake out of the courtyard… You know how it is.
It’s colder this morning, suddenly down to 26 degrees after a couple of months of over 30 or over 36 on some occasions, so it’s back to wearing t-shirts. It was plenty warm enough on Saturday night when we went downtown to have dinner. After a drink at Alegrito we toddled off to Meraklis to find it full so doubled back to Trata and enjoyed a mezethe meal and a good chat. After, we waited a couple of minutes for a taxi, and when Yiannis pulled in, we asked another couple who had arrived after us where they were going in case we could share. I could have sworn they said ‘Lindos’, which was perhaps somewhat ambition of them. We told Yiannis this when we got in the car, and he jumped out to check. Turns out they were heading to Nuatilos, so were able to share, which was good news all round.
The village square is busying up again as more northern European visitors come to stay. Friends old and new arriving at the Rainbow to meet up in the later afternoon is always nice, but far too tempting to stay and chat and have ‘just one more for the steps.’ I will rein it in after today so I can debloat in time for Athens on Saturday. Well, the journey starts on Friday with the evening boat up to Piraeus. I booked the cabin months ago and just as well, they have sold out now apart from one or two ‘luxury double beds’ (which I assume come with cabins). Looking forward to that, but it will mean no blog for a few days after next weekend. There, advanced warning. And here’s another one; we are back in Yialos tonight, Sunday, for our anniversary meal… Oh, by the time you read this it would have happened, so that was a retrospective warning. Anyway, enough chatter. That was my weekend, so far.
Saturday photos
Jobbernowl, Johnson and Tory
Jobbernowl, Johnson and Tory
I thought you would find this interesting and hopefully fun. (Read to the end, and you’ll find some unrelated images.)
Up early as usual, sitting on the balcony with a cup of tea reading the online newspaper with the usual mix of outrage, hope and despair, and I started to wonder what my old friend Samuel Johnson has to say about his namesake. I only have a shortened version of his famous dictionary, and the word ‘Johnson’ doesn’t appear in it, but the nearest words to where it would be if it included are there, as is the word ‘Tory.’
Jobbernowl. (n) Loggerhead; blockhead.
Jogger (n) One who moves heavily and dully. (From Dryden: They, with their fellow joggers of the plough.)
Jotlhead (n) A dolt; a blockhead
I also looked in my copy of ‘The Vulgar Tongue’, a dictionary of old slang, but sadly, no Johnson. There was, however, a definition of ‘Tory’ which accords with Samuel Johnson’s:
Tory: (n) [A cant term, derived, I suppose, from an Irish word signifying a savage.] One who adheres to the ancient constitution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the church of England, opposed to a whig.
That word comes between Torvous (aj) Sour of aspect, and Touchy (adj) Peevish; irritable; irascible. A low word.
At least Mr S Johnson knew what he was talking about and what he was doing. By the way, ‘The Vulgar Tongue’ has a slightly different take on the word ‘Tory’, describing it as meaning a vagabond, robber or rapparee.
In that dictionary, the word ‘Tory’ falls between:
Tormentor of catgut – a fiddler, and
Toss Off – manual pollution.
[Page 291 of the 2004 edition of ‘The Vulgar Tongue, Buckish Slang and Pickpocket Elegance’ if you don’t believe me.]
As a Ps: My name, Collins, can also be a noun. To write a ‘Collins’ was to write a thank you letter, but there’s no need for that.
Lazy? Not around here.
Lazy? Not around here.
I was out for a walk yesterday at 6.30, and on my travels I saw something that, at first, I thought was unusual. Yiannis from Lefteris kafeneion was coming down the hill towards me in a bobcat. Not seen that before. A wave, a kalimera, and onwards and upwards. It did make me think about how hard people work around here. Take, for example, his kafeneion. The patriarch of the family is always there setting up when I cross the square in the morning even when I go out at 5.00, as I do in the height of summer. His son works for the council, I believe, hence the bobcat because he was working to clear a section of beach by what used to be Kamaris in Pedi later in the morning, and that’s also why you see him driving the fire truck. His daughter-in-law works in a shop in Yialos, and with the grandmother, looks after the house and family. His eldest grandson comes to the café later to take over and run it through the day, afternoon and evening, until his father puts aside the bobcat after work and comes up to the village to take over running the café to give his son a break. His (the patriarch’s) middle and youngest grandsons work in restaurants on double shifts that may not finish until well after midnight and also come to the café to cover certain hours when they can. Remember that this kafeneion is also often open until well past midnight, and very often you’ll find the family outside their café, around the family table together or with friends, and the grandsons, strapping late-teens/early 20s lads, with their grandmother, shelling beans, or helping with the fishing lines, catching up with the family between shifts.
I just thought I’d mention that so when you hear people say the Greeks are lazy, you can point them this way and tell them to get a grip. And talking of hard work, here are a few images from that walk, with a couple showing you how the civil engineering project is going.
