"Ένα απόγευμα στην Κέρκυρα"

The reason we don't say "Good afternoon" when in Greece isn't because no-one's around in the afternoon, though we know all Greece slumbers from around noon until the evening, but because compared to "good morning - καλημέρα" and "good evening - καλησπέρα" and "goodnight - καληνύχτα", saying "good afternoon - χαλο απόγευμα" feels tricky - and none of the translation programmes actually gives the phrase back as 'Good afternoon". Hm? For our second Greek lesson Niko had us listening to ourselves on the vocal track on Garageband to practice speaking - in this case saying the word for 'knife - μαχαίρι' - and other tableware - and "Good afternoon" - with its tricky set of vowels - which we were also writing up on screen, getting accustomed to shifting to Greek fonts and pulling up a Greek keyboard layout at the foot of the screen.
We also visited the Ano Korakiana website to practice reading and making sense of what we read about a celebration at Luna D'Argento involving two choirs from Corfu and Cyprus, the Ano Korakiana band - the Spyros Samaras Philharmonia - its president Dr Savvanis, also Andreas Metallinos - paying tribute to his talented ancestor the sculptor Arestides Zach. Metallinos - and a long happy dinner in the company of the President of Cyprus - Dimitris Cristophias - 'surrounded by friends you feel you've known for years'.

Για το βράδυ της ίδιας ημέρας είχε προγραμματιστεί μια συνεστίαση στο «Luna D’Argento» για τα μέλη των δύο χορωδιών. Οι γυναίκες της Χορωδίας του χωριού μας είχαν ετοιμάσει έναν νοστιμότατο μπουφέ, ενώ πολύ καλό ήταν και το κοκκινέλι κρασί του Τάκη Σαββανή. Στην εκδήλωση αυτή γράφτηκε στην ουσία ο επίλογος της συνάντησης. Ο Πρόεδρος της κυπριακής Χορωδίας εξέφρασε τις ευχαριστίες του για την πολύ καλή φιλοξενία, ενώ ο Αντιδήμαρχος Αθηένου, πρότεινε την αδελφοποίηση των δύο Χορωδιών και περιοχών. Ειδική δε αναφορά και ευχαριστίες αποδόθηκαν από τους Κυπρίους στον παπα-Κώστα Φαϊτά. Στη συνέχεια, ο Πρόεδρος της Φιλαρμονικής, Σπύρος Σαββανής εξήρε το ήθος των Κυπρίων φιλοξενουμένων και για μια ακόμη φορά αναφέρθηκε στη σημασία και το συμβολισμό των εκδηλώσεων που πραγματοποιήθηκαν το τελευταίο διάστημα σε Κορακιάνα, Μουδανιά και Δήμο Αθηένου, ενώ ο Ανδρέας Μεταλληνός αναφέρθηκε στα γλυπτά που είχε φιλοτεχνήσει ο πατέρας του, εμπνευσμένος από τον Κυπριακό Αγώνα. Τέλος, όλες οι πλευρές αναφέρθηκαν στις προσπάθειες που κατέβαλε η Σοφία Μαρτζούκου για την επιτυχία της διοργάνωσης. Στη συνέχεια το γλέντι «άναψε» για τα καλά και η διασκέδαση κράτησε μέχρι τις πρώτες πρωινές ώρες, μέσα σε μια ζεστή και πολύ φιλική ατμόσφαιρα, ανάμεσα σε ανθρώπους που θαρρείς πως γνωρίζονταν από χρόνια.

Note: See 'crucial role of education for a united Cyprus'

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On Thursday I took the train down to Winchester to film a political-management conversation. Astute timing by their PAs - given the extra pressures created by the June 22 Budget - had got me forty five minutes to capture something of the working relationship of the Leader and Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council for the second tranche of in-house events on 'Managing with political awareness' (scroll down for ref to feedback on the last tranche) I'm running there in July. This is the first time I've used HD on one of these films and to my relief have been able to process and edit the film for CD, both as a MOV file - less quality of course, though not bad - and as a DVD as well as keeping the conversation on my hard-disk for shared analysis of leadership at the apex during the actual seminars. All this on a laptop which suggests that the big machine I've used in the past for film processing is becoming unnecessary - especially as I can store the archive on an external hard-drive and even 'cloud it' with Vimeo HD - restricting viewing to myself or, if those filmed allow, placing a film in the public domain.

Cllr. Ken Thornber, Leader, & Andrew Smith CEO

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Email from Alan & Honey:

Hi, Simlin. Here's some shots of your balcony with the new railing....In the picture you can see the wood which is holding in the cornice which I will remove on Monday or Tuesday. I'll send you the pictures of that then. I was over there all day with Michael when he was installing the railings. He takes a lot of pride in his work and therefore he was very particular about everything...Some of the things he gave you beyond what the other people were going to do is a stronger, thicker top rail and he brought it further beyond where they were going to take the rails down the steps, as you can see in the picture.

On Tuesday, when I remove the shuttering for the cornice, I will also be removing the scaffolding so that I can start on the entrance porch. I've made all the side mouldings for the steps. Now all I have to do is attach them. Ha, ha! It's another fine mess you've gotten me into, Ollie! Oh, and I forgot to say that while I was over there yesterday, I plastered the inside frame of the door and made it look much neater. Just needs a touch up of paint now. x A (H) [See 28 April before image]

Mikali's railings: το μπαλκόνι είναι εξαιρετική, και αυθεντικά;

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AP 25 June 10: Greek pension reform plans from Andreas Loverdos