Happy Green Beans to me!

14 September, happy name day to me! And to every girl called Stavroula and to every boy called Stavro.

What is a name day? A name day is a tradition that consists of celebrating the day of the year associated with one's given name. Most Greek children are named after some saint or some other churchy thing. My name comes from the crucifix - the male version of my name literally means the crucifix. Most Greek children in the good old days were named after their grandparents, my sisters each got a grandmother's name and seeing as I popped out a girl not a  boy I simply got the female version of my grandfather's name. A name day is basically like a birthday but way bigger. Greek people won't remember your birthday but will most certainly not forget you on your nameday. And they will bring you presents or money. TWO birthdays. Who cares if we get hard boiled eggs for Easter!

Grandpa Crucifix / Παππού Σταύρο

Last year, Niko the good boy sent me flowers for my name day. All the way from Greece!! Well technically he made an online payment and netflorist did the rest, tomato tomatoe, all the way from Greece!!

 Niko sent me pink roses because my favourite colour is pink, Niko is a good boy!

Thank you Niko! For last year. Ηe forgot me this year... με ξέχασε ο πούστης!

The correct wish for a name day is Χρόνια πολλά, it literally means many years. Happy Green Beans came about when some English speaking friends of mine just couldn't pronounce it and decided it sounds like green beans. And it stuck. Ξένοι.

My favourite name day message this year was from Katerina:
"Σταυρούλα χρόνια σου πολλά κι ευτυχισμένα!!!!Πολύχρονη, σου εύχομαι να έχεις πάντοτε την υγεία σου, να περνάς πολύ όμορφα και να διατηρήσεις αυτή την ζωντάνια και την ζωηράδα που σε χαρακτηρίζει!!!! Πολλά φιλάκια!"
Translating it loses some of the fabulousness of the message but here goes:
Google translate says....."Stavroula many years you and happy!! Longtime, I wish you always to your health, to spend very nicely and maintain this vibrancy and vividness that characterizes in!! Many kisses!"
 Erm. Did I select Chinese translation? Here's a better version:
"Stavroula happy nameday! I wish you many years, good health, good times, and for you to maintain the vibrancy and vividness that characterises you! Lots of kisses!"
Lost in translation. Learn Greek!

.

Nelly says

You think I talk a lot. You haven't met Nelly. I am one of those annoying people that insists on chit chatting with the passenger next to me on flights, I met my match. I will chit chat for the first hour or so but once the dinner service has been completed leave me alone so I can sleep. Not Nelly. She jabbered on and on and on, right through dinner, right through the night. I wasn't offering any conversation other than " oh okay, yes, no, wow, soooooo interesting", and all my face was saying was "SNORE!!!!!", at least that was what it was trying to say, I need more Botox.

As annoying as it was Nelly was actually very entertaining . She came up with some pearlers:
- "You know how Jamaican girls dance so sexy? Well they are terrible in bed! They look like they will be wild in bed but they just lie there,"
- "Caster Semenya is a man. Definitely. Didn't you see at the Olympic Games opening ceremony she was carrying the flag? That's a man's job! That's why they put her to carry it. She's a man"
- "I'm 8 weeks pregnant and my 3 year old son knew before me. He started becoming obsessed with my boobs and always putting his hands down my shirt. I said what's wrong with you Bradley but you see he knew there was someone in there" ........if someone is in your boobs we have problems Nelly.

She was actually very funny, I wish I wasn't feeling tired and fluey on that flight, if I had been on top form I'm sure Nelly and I would have been kicked off the flight for disturbing the peace!

Hey Next Door Passenger on my return flight, you have big shoes to fill. Big clown shoes.

.

Mati and the mavraki

My first question at the check-in desk was "Are there a lot of kids on this flight and if there are can you move me?". Before all you good parenty types get a knot in your nappy bag strap let me clarify,I love children, but I was running on minimal sleep and was starting to feel a bit fluey. I needed to sleep on that flight. Corenza C and Grippon overdose recovery kind of sleep. I cannot, I WILL NOT be sick on my summer holiday. Must.Sleep

And then I met Bradley. 3 year old, extremely sick with flu Bradley. My next door passenger for the flight. Damn you Murphy!

Mati! Polu kako mati! His mother Nelly wasted no time telling me how he has been sick for over 6 weeks, SIX WEEKS, what does this kid have?? TB?? Thankfully she was already pouring medicines down his throat, she just kept them coming, and sweet baby angel Bradley drank them without putting up any fuss whatsoever. She just kept them coming.

"Jeez Nelly, how much are you going to give him?" *serious face from Nelly* "I want him to sleep for the whole flight". And just like that sweet Bradley was out like a light before take-off. Oh Nelly, you deserve the best parenting medal there is, bless you!

Bradley had his head in his mom's lap and his teeny body lying across his seat. So cute. And then came the feet. The damned feet!! Anyone who has had a small child share their bed will know the feet. The snot nosed brat kicked me the entire flight, while fast asleep of course.

I hardly got any sleep.

And not just because of Bradley. Oh my god Nelly can talk the hind leg off a donkey!!! Way more than me!! She didn't shut up for a second. On a night flight. While everyone, INCLUDING ME, was trying to sleep. WOOOOAAAAH NELLY!! The sneaky bitch had asked for my headphones at the start of the flight, there was no way to ignore her! Well played Nelly, well played.

.

2011?

A year has passed since I updated this blog. A whole summer holiday in Greece has gone by and not one single blog post from me. How did this happen? *hangs head in shame*

So I thought it apt to post a brief summary of my 2011 holiday on the eve of my 2012 holiday. This is a brief visual summary. There is lots more to see. Plenty more. One day I will get around to doing it *eager face*

Welcome to Greece!

FINALLY!!!!! I have been waiting a year and nine months to be back in Greece. Fuck it feels good to be back. Don't let me leave!!!!!

.

The road to Greece

Olympic Airways always had a terrible reputation in South Africa. The staff were extremely rude and unfriendly. We bitched and moaned about them. But we didn't stop flying with them because they had a direct flight to Athens - you left Johannesburg in the evening and by early morning you were ready to order your first greek coffee. In 2009 Olympic Airways stopped their direct flight to JNB, and we never stopped bitching and moaning.

No other airline offers a direct flight to Athens. I decided to fly with Qatar because they had one of the shortest layover times (of course I booked at the last minute and all the short layovers were fully booked, lesson learned). We left home at 6pm on the Saturday evening and only finally arrived in Athens the Sunday evening just before 6pm, a 24 hour trip, exhausting, bring back Olympic!

Qatar Airlines far exceeded my expectations. The service was amazing, the seats are huge with lots of legroom, the plane was massive with all of the latest state-of-the-art features. Each seat has an entertainment station with endless options of music, tv series, movies, documentaries, news channels, games and much more - there is even a language learning facility!

Not only do you get great in flight entertainment but you get a complimentary little bag with a bunch of goodies inside Eye/Sleeping mask (wtf are those things actually called?), socks, earplugs (very useful in case of singing girls and squeally babies), and a toothbrush with toothpaste. No I didn't need any of those things but I am a sucker for free things! I am impressed to no end, cheap date I am.

Our flight was at 10pm and I was starving, my biggest concern was that I would fall asleep before the food service. Not on Qatar's watch! I slapped the 'Please wake me for the food service' sticker on my seat faster than bullshit spews out of Juju's mouth.

The flight was great overall and we arrived in Doha around 7am. Welcome to Doha!

Doha International Airport has got to be the busiest airport in the world. Every two minutes a flight took off, but bizarrely enough only Qatar Airlines was flying, we didn't see any other international airlines, weird. Apart from watching planes take off you can make use of the airport's free wifi, check into their fancy Oryx Lounge, or head to the canteen for breakfast That's what a 14 euro breakfast looks like...gulp... oh and the chips are standard no matter what your order, at 7am,weird.

My experience with Qatar Airlines was so fabulous, I will always fly with them from now on. My uncle was equally impressed, he couldn't believe we paid so little for such a great flight, his final conclusion is that the airline gets free petrol from the government!

Bye bye Olympic, Qatar please give us a direct flight!!

.

Oumense, vroumense...

Dino, Goomy and I are flying to Athens via Qatar. It's an 8 hour flight. We had a state of the art airplane and were super impressed with the nifty gadgets provided for our onboard entertainment.

The first 3 hours were spent being fed and wearing off the initial excitement of over 300 movies, songs, sitcoms, audiobooks, games etc to choose from. I could hear a cellphone ringing faintly, harmapalarma! But an airhostess with supersonic hearing never leapt out of the shadows to reprimand the culprit. The cellphone kept ringing.

It was only around 3am (once the masses had started sleeping and the cabin was quiet) that I was able to pinpoint the culprit. It was a double discovery, Dino and I glared at each other at the exact same second...
"Oh my god"
"Is that?"
"Is she?"
"Oh my god she is!"
Together now: "SHE'S SINGING!!!!"

The chick sitting in front of us was getting her money's worth out of the audio options. Every time she got to the chorus, of each song, she would sing. Loudly (I heard her through my earphones that were set to almost max volume). At 3am. While everyone else was sleeping. The guy sitting next to her is making a voodoo doll of her and sticking needles in it's beady eyes. I would.

WANTED: for disturbing the peace:
.