Empty Nest !!!

Well it is so quiet here, its wierd! The babies have all left home now. Gilly has taken the three coloured one and the tiny one (still waiting for an update on names for these two), Alan and Kath have taken the Pale ginger boy (Ozzie) and the dark grey girl (Jezebella or Bella), they have also taken Jessica (the one who looks like Ginger) for a holiday until Sunday as Ginger has to go into hospital to make sure we dont get babies every three months. Its good to be able to walk without looking what might be under your feet, but to be honest I am really missing them. Ginger is too, she is alternating between crying for them and looking under the kitchen cupboards, behind the wardrobe and bookself etc and tramping it with the guys all night.....good job the Op is on Thursday I think ;-)

Oh Yes what a match !!!!!

The boys did it in style today. The annual grudge match between Mochos FC and Archanes took place and this time it was more critical than ever. If Mochos won they move up a league, lose and its all over for another year.......
In the 1st half Mochos did not play at their best and went in for the break 1 - 0 down.
In the 2nd half Mochos got a penalty in after 15 minutes...now it was 1 - 1 and you could feel and hear the tension. The noise from the football ground could be heard all over the village so no-one was in any doubt what was happening. 10 minutes later Archanes scored an own goal, which it is said would have been the best goal of the match if it had been at the other end! Now it was 2 - 1 to Mochos. At this point Mochos found their normal good form and scored another goal, 3 - 1 to Mochos. The noise was incredible and Manthos knew it was all over so went back to the taverna to get ready for the invasion......
Needless to say, car horns, air horns, goat bells, bangers, bombs, gun fire, chanting........what appeared to be around five hundred cars and pickup trucks full of men through the square....and big, big celebrations......Mochos will now be promoted from "A" local league to "D" National league......we ARE the champions!!!!!!!!!

Babies dinner

The babies had their first taste of dinner today.....they followed mummy and the three coloured one accidentally stood in it. She then tried to lick her paws and promtly fell over.....April entertainment sorted then!!

The whole village breathes again!!

The whole village is breathing again after a nightmare two days. Yesterday at 11am a 9 year old autistic boy, visiting from Heraklion for the Easter celebrations with his family, went missing in the countryside after slipping away from his mother whilst she was on the phone. The whole of the police and red cross resources as well as a massive number of villagers searched all afternoon, night and most of today. At around 1pm the police asked that everyone stayed within the village boundary as they were bringing in the helicopter with thermal camera to try to track him down. Shortly before 6pm it was announced by the church bells ringing that he had been found, cold and I believe slightly injured but otherwise unharmed. For a community which lives for its children as this one does this has been visibly devastating to everyone and I suspect the celebrations will continue for another night to mark the little ones safe return.

Its Beirut !!!!

Well Easter arrived with a bang....or several hundred actually...The church service started around 11pm and as it continued the bells got more and more urgent and soon there was a big queue to get into the church. At midnight everyone came out and the bonfire with the effigy of Judas Iscariot was lit. Someone obviously used a bit of poetic licence when dressing him, as I don't think sunglasses and a glass of beer are the regulation accessories! As the bonfire went up (fed with what looked like whole bushes) the bangers and mortar bombs reached a level where you could no longer hear them, you felt them with your whole body. As a finale Manolis had saved the biggest bomb of the lot and even the locals nearly had heart attacks!!! You can maybe see on the (not very good) photos the smoke surrounding Judas is not from the fire, but from the mortar bombs.
After this the priest brings out a flame which has been passed along from one flown to Greece from Constantinople and everyone lights their candle from it. Some of the candles are plain and some are very ornately decorated, there are even childrens ones with Spongebob squarepants on. The trick now is to walk home, with your candle still lit and make a cross in the smoke above the entrance to your house. This is to bring good fortune for the next year.
I lit my candle, got it home and made a really big, strong cross in smoke over the door, so I am assured a wonderful year now!!!!

An Early Easter miracle !!

Well it had to happen, I went to church last night!! My friend Kath encouraged me to go into the church with her whilst the Big Friday service was going on. It was actually really nice and both the mens and womens choirs were singing. It seemed like there were hundreds of people in there and as more came in some left to make room. I lit a candle and enjoyed the spectacle. The miracle is that the church is still standing! At 10pm everyone left the church to walk the streets of the village and visit all the central churches. The entire evening was accompanied by special sound effects provided by bangers and mortar bombs, which were throw in gardens, empty buildings and drains along the route with seemingly hundreds thrown into the centre of the square when we got back there. After an hour and 45 minutes we arrived back at the church, where they prayed for another 10 minutes before disbanding.
I returned home at 1.30 to find that Ginger had abandoned her kittens in their box and was hiding under the kitchen sink unit in absolute terror. I think I will have to leave the TV on tonight to deaded the noise as it promises to be an even bigger night!!

Oh my poor ears already !!!!

Well Easter started last night.....gone is the quiet calm of Lent.....at around six the locally made "bombs" started...they are like English bangers but around 100 times more powerful, a bit like a mortar bomb.....they throw them in the middle of the square and some were so loud my windows shook.
Then a little bit of a lull overnight until just after 8 this morning....more bombs and the church bells have been ringing constantly for the last two and a half hours. I think they will keep going now all day. I will be going on the walk around the Churches tonight for the first time and will report on that later.

A New Home

The babies finally have a new home. I persuaded Ginger to move them to a box in my bedroom from the drawer under the back bed. Maybe now I can get to my computer equipment and do some work.....