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Christmas/New
Year weather ...
In England! Changeable. The bookies will be relieved that it was not a
white Christmas, but we got a few days of superbly deep snow (Magic!!) before
it vanished to become a scattered sunshine New Years day. Have a look at
Crete - Crete Weather Site
Link. _____________________________
Photograph: Our website
Christmas 2005/New Year 2006 Card. A Christmas Ghost... Could be any -
Christmas Past: Christmas Present; or Christmas Future. Think about it,
pick your own ghost. But not before you read the column below and
then... Go on, pick your own ghost.... Waddington
Village Life...Pick your own Ghost...
Well, we are in Waddington, Lincoln, England for the festive season.
Ancient family home - at least 200 years anyway - and that was before Barratts
and George Wimpey. Before MacDonald's even... Parents and children
(our children and grandchildren). Candles. Yuletide logs (saved again by the
central heating). Christmas cards (billions successfully delivered. Christmas
trees (yes, I did say trees - large house. Fairy lights twinkling. The
(dead) turkey cooked to perfection - looking and tasting good. Good neighbours
(who visit Crete). Mulled wine (warm, nice!). Christmas dinner (10,000Kcals a
place). Rich Pudding, lots of double cream (rising cholesterol, narrowing
blood vessels, raised BP, heart attacks and strokes!). The local Inn
(now a modern pub - lease for sale - fireplace cold). Christmas letters,
telephone greetings and seasonal e-mails. And the presents - everything
we all wanted and more. The sparkling eyes as the wrappings come off
(overfilling the bins as our 'household waste' collection was snowed
off!). Huge smiles, laughter and good will to all men. Our family (all
of us) playing in the snow-bound garden, breath almost crystallizing in the
crisp air..
News Years Eve and festivities for the 10 minute firework display at the
London Eye - that huge modern Ferris wheel - absolutely superb (the bill must
have been astronomical).
I must confess that I still miss Jimmy Shand and his Scottish band helping me
into the New Year (better than movies about Chicago ganglands or best adverts
on the year anyway..).
Today
is New Years day. Hello and welcome 2006. We are still here. Eating;
drinking; trying to be merry; challenging the politicians; paying (hopefully)
our dues. Wondering how we can meet the escalating energy costs
(electricity and gas up today) and keep warm! The
New Year Honours List is out (has been for the past week or so) - Gordon
Ramsay (TV, 'F' word chef - OBE); so too (Sir) Tom ('Why, why, why, Delilah') Jones. Heroes
of the London July 7th bombings too are honoured. Well known, not so well known and yes,
previously unknown figures who have served the public good in some way have
been honoured... Good. They all well deserve recognition. They represent
the rest of us - and don't we all. Well,
there is the crux of the matter. Do any of us really deserve
recognition? And if so, for what?
While I was preparing for my Christmas dinner 2005 - during the course of the
past year that is - a lot of things have happened that have made us happy. I holidayed
in Greece (Athens remains magical; drove through Italy (by-passed Naples in
favour of a spell in Rome. Nice one!); took a coffee break in Switzerland at Lucerne
overlooking the lake; spent some time in Epinal (France); and a break in Lille
en route to the UK to visit friends and relatives. Six weeks in the UK before driving back to
Crete. Belgium; France; Luxembourg; Switzerland - a stay at Buochs (Lucerne); and finally
on to Italy - four days in Venice - before a slow boat down the Adriatic and
on via Patra, Piraeus and the good ship Lissos (our favourite ANEK Shipping Lines Ferry) to
our home on Crete. A lot of very nice experiences meeting and sharing with a
lot of very nice people... And that was just one trip last year..
So what does that have to do with now, with Christmas just gone and the New
year still in it's first day? Well, just maybe the ghosts...
Ghosts?
Ok then, memories of things which could have been better for other
people. The Boxing Day Tsunami 2004 left many thousands of dead,
injured, orphaned, homeless and hungry. Easy to say if you say it
quickly and don't think about it.. (A telephoned donation of cash, maybe
someone got some of it before it was too late, maybe someone benefited...). (Continued next col
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But then I could feel more righteous in the New
Year 2005 when Prince Harry (have a grandson by the same name), went fancy-dressing in
Nazi uniform! (know better than that, don't I?).
Before you could blink Mark Thatcher was paying
₤265,000 in fines and receiving a 4 year suspended jail term - involvement
in an attempted coup of Equatorial Guinea. (I would have been jailed - that was
lucky!). And the European Space Agency spent a lot of loot (worth more as
food aid) landing a 'probe' on Titan - a planet a few billion miles away with
no hungry or homeless on board.
It was good, in an extremely sad and moving way, to see ceremonies taking
place across Europe commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz. I watched avidly from the warm comfort of our canape in
Crete. But then, there was nothing that I could have done about that, being
less than a year old at the time of the liberation...
Helen Macarthur circumnavigated the globe in
her 75 feet long trimaran - and no, I could not even think about emulating
that. Brilliant.
Two devastating earthquakes - one in Iran in
February (500 dead, 30,000 affected) - the second in Pakistan in October
(73,000 dead - millions homeless, made me wonder, like so many others no doubt
that nothing we could do would make any difference... Especially since the
second came after Hurricane Katrina devastated the American city of New
Orleans (please, feel free to count the casualties yourself...).
Meanwhile, back on the farm, my own favourite motoring
correspondent and harasser of the aged, Jeremy Clarkson, received an honorary
degree from Oxford Brookes University - and a custard pie to the face for his
trouble. Because of the pie I shall keep my own, real, hard earned and
no custard pie degrees - not return them that is - even though I suspect Clarkson
would consider me ancient. If he knew people existed beyond a mental age
of 25 years that is. Besides, I like Jeremy Clarkson... May his joints seize
ever so slowly!
The pope died and left millions of Catholics
bereaved in April (although not catholic we visited his tomb in the Vatican
with friends). Another loss to the world.
Our own bird watching expert, Paul Smith, also did his best to depart this
world with a serious dose of cancer. An extremely competent and
determined Greek surgeon and medical team prevented this - giving us all hope
that the world is not really a bad place to be. Paul has amazed us - I
suspect has amazed everyone who knows him - by fighting a winning battle....
Wars. Death. Endeavor. Achievement. Failure.
Hope.... Sadness. Loss. Laughter... The world seems to be a confusing place to
be around in right now.
So what does the new year bring for us all?
Dare I suggest that it depends largely upon ourselves. I personally think
that, barring the unforeseen disaster, natural or man made, we can all find a
way through the maze, just by looking forward and trying to achieve our best
shot. Words alone can be hollow things, devoid of meaning.
We here at Cretanvista/s are looking forward. There is often sunshine in
Crete, lots of laughter. While we are very aware of adversity, we are going to
try to bring you our sunshine this year - sunshine & laughter. The best
about Crete. Bringing the sunshine, keeping the rain off - Cretanvista!
So go on, think about it
carefully - then pick your own ghost... But do please be careful,
it's yours for a whole year!.....At least!
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INFRINGEMENT
All of the material produced by Cretanvista is
copyright and belongs to someone who has spent time, effort and money to
produce it. We are often willing to allow the use of our material for personal
(non-commercial) purposes. For example our calendar photographs can be used to
reproduce the pictures for your own
individual calendars, or to hang on granny's bedroom wall.
We will however, take action against anyone we discover using our materials
in any mass distribution exercise, especially for financial gain,
unless specifically authorized by us and we are acknowledged as the source in
the reproduction.
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The Cretanvista Review of
Carol Palioudaki's
'Cool Guide to
Living in Crete'
(A gold mine of information)
Win
a copy - Click Here.
Out Now - Get it
at www.livingincrete.net
Or visit www.coolpublications.co.uk
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