4 X 10

So here I am in the middle of working on a few posts appropriate to Holy Week and doesn't Lorraine come along with a bit of memish distraction. Well I'm easily distracted and I wanted to post a few pictures from Athens so:

There isn't a cafe in Athens where you won't find a Coffee Frappe - sweetened ice coffee with a delicious foam on top. My favorite is at the Cafe Metropole in the Cathedral Square.

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:
Airline Employee (33 years) - Clerk, Customer Service Agent, Training Instructor, Project Manager
English Teacher to the Polish Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff
Web Editor of an English Language Business Paper in Poland
Security Screening Officer with the Government of Canada

Four Movies I Watch Over and Over Again
The Dead – a beautiful, simple, touching film - Walter Huston’s last based on the James Joyce short story
Raise the Red Lantern – a classic of the Chinese cinema with the incredibly beautiful Li Gong as a young girl brought into a merchant's household as the fourth wife.
Dumbo – What you ain't never seen an elephant fly?
Some Like It Hot – Well no body's perfect!

This tinsmith's shop is located just on the edge of Psiri.

These iron work swans grace the balconies of the Spanish Embassy on Dionysos Areopagitou; and yes, that's the Acropolis across the road reflected in the windows.

Four Places I Have Lived
Toronto, Canada – born and bred
Ottawa, Canada – home base for most of my adult life as I travelled around the world
Warsaw, Poland – our first real diplomatic post together, I was more a visitor in Mexico City, Amman, Cairo, Chicago and Beijing.
Rome, Italy – our current home

Four TV Shows I Watch
(We have 500 channels here – 100 in Arabic and 50 of those are for sex chat lines???? - and there is still nothing to watch)
The Simpsons (I Simpson)– you know its reruns when you can say the English dialogue over the Italian dubbing.
Ugly Betty – reruns on Fox here and we still don’t have this season yet!
Family Guy (I Griffin) – you know its reruns when you can say Italian dialogue over the original English
Law and Order: SVU – reruns but who bothers with dialogue when you can watch Chris Meloni or Mariska Hagerty for that matter.

Sunday around noon the cafes near the Agora where filled with a few tourists but mostly locals enjoying those wonderful frappees and early lunch. Adrianou St. was crowded with street sellers and entertainers including this old man with his antique hand organ.

An open air cinema on Apostolou Pavlou. Its like a drive-in without the cars.

Four Places I Have Visited
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Aix-en Provence, France
Mount Sinai, Egypt
Skagway, Alaska
Okay I’m not bragging here but on one of those map programmes I’ve clocked up 195 cities visited, now mind you that includes a restaurant stop at St. Tite so maybe I should make that 194.

Four People Who E-Mail Me Regularly
Linda Gagne
Charlie Knight
Bev Toomer
Robert Mickens

Many of the houses on the upper reaches of Monastiraki and the Plaka seem derelict.

However this building very close to the Cathedral has been beautifully restored.

Four Favourite Foods
French Fries
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
Scalloped Potatoes
Roast Potatoes with Rosemary and Olive Oil
And yes I am Irish and yes there is a theme here!

Four Places I Would Like to Be Right Now
(Okay I’m going to cheat on this one and going to include places I'd like to be in the coming months)
In Punta Cana for our nephew Andrew and Jessica’s wedding in April
At Mount Tremblant for our friends Martin and Robert’s wedding in June
In my old garden, once the 52 cm of snow has disappeared, to watch things begin to grow
In Rome with Laurent – oh wait a minute I am but I honestly can’t think of a 4th place.

There were many small chapels and churches throughout Athens, many like this one adorned with mosaic tympanums.

This group of cub scouts where playing a round game of some sort on Dionysos Areopagitou on Sunday afternoon. I'm still not sure how the guy in the Asterix helmet was involved.

Four Things I Am Looking Forward to this Year
Our trip to Salzburg in May
Our trip to Venice and Vicenza in April
Maybe, just maybe, a trip to Malta
Celebrating our 30th anniversary in November.

Four People I'm Passing this on to:

Evilgnome
Tater
Subtle Knife
Cowbell

The area surrounding the Theatre of Dionysos was a mass of poppies and the gentlest breeze sent them dancing.

21 marzo - Venerdi Santo