Guess What?

Tomorrow we're going south. Again. This time we're off  to move son no 2 into the Glasgow flat, lock stock and barrel, which will mean quite a few  trips between Kirkcaldy and Glasgow, not to mention quite a few trips to the Glasgow IKEA.

Also looming is a visit to the Ph D supervisor, but I've taken the edge off that by arranging to meet someone I know so far only from the virtual world of Ravelry straight afterwards, in what looks like a rather wonderful café cum bakery cum delicatessen.

 

I doubt I'll blog while I'm away, although you never know...

Wrapping Up Greece Part 2

Be warned, there are no pictures this time. Which is a bit annoying for me, and I'll tell you for why. When we got back to Athens on our final afternoon the coach driver offered to drop off anyone who wanted to go to the National Archaeological Museum at the door there rather than the hotel. Since we were quite keen to go, mainly because all the exhibits from the sites we had visited during the week had been vacuumed into the all consuming maw of the National Museum ( and I wonder what that reminds me of?) we took advantage of this opportunity.

 

And we had a great time. We started off with lunch in the café which was busy but efficient and possibly the nicest food we had in Greece all week. The only downside for me there was the visiting pigeon which of course alarmed and upset me. (I may not have mentioned this previously. I am seriously phobic when it comes to pigeons, but embarrassed generally to admit it). However it got shooshed away and I bolted the rest of my lunch before it could gather sufficient wit to return.

 

Then we took to the galleries, and spent most of our time where the artefacts from Mycenae were displayed. It was so beautiful. Obviously I adored the jewellery, but was surprised to be also captivated by the pottery. I've done my fill of walking, glassy eyed, past cabinets and cabinets of Roman pottery lamps and vases in museums from Italy to Portugal - they must have been produced by the million - so I've never really thought myself a fan of ancient pottery. But these were glorious; beautifully shaped and  balanced, in warm earthy colours; really I'd have been happy to have some of the jugs in my cupboards.

 

And all the way round, rather than take photographs, which was allowed, I was planning what to buy postcards of at the shop. I knew there was a shop and I sort of assumed that there would be racks of postcards of all this beautiful stuff. And a good book in English about the site of Mycenae.

 

Well, how wrong can you be? The shop was large, dark, and badly stocked. The book section was very limited, even in Greek, let along in foreign languages, and there were no postcards to be seen. And not just because it was dark. It was because there were none.

 

I won't expand on that. Except to say they are missing a trick, which in my experience is unusual in a museum.

 

Wrapping up Greece. Part 1

I can't help feeling that since I've posted half my Christmas cards, albeit they are going out a tad early this year, it's more than time I finished the tale of our trip to Greece. Especially since it is taking longer to write it up than it took to experience.

 

Nafplion was our last port of call really; after three nights there we were back on the bus and heading back to Athens. We did this by way of the Corinth Canal; not that we travelled through it on a boat you understand, just drove over it on a bridge. And then walked back over it on foot, then returned on foot on the other side, all the time tangling with visitors from the Far East all determined to take pictures of themselves with the canal in the background, and never mind how long they blocked the very narrow pathway for everyone else.

 

The tour guide had given the canal a big build up, so it came as rather an anti-climax to me as I had been expecting something much longer. When you stand on the bridge you can actually see the sea at both ends of the canal simultaneously which wasn't what I was expecting, but I'm sure that it is still a huge feat of modern marine engineering. Or something.

 

Pictures? Well yes I do.....

 

 

oh look, in this direction you can see the sea!

 

and look, the other way you can see the sea too!

 

this is some weird European habit this year apparently. Young couples putting padlocks on bridges. It's a sign that they are locked together forever by their love. Colour me cynical but I wonder how many of them are still together now that summer's over?  

 

Nafplion

Nafplion is a small town on the coast of the Peloponnese. It is also somewhere where, we were told quite a lot, real Greeks go for their summer holidays.

This does leave the question of where artificial Greeks go for the summer and I suppose that must depend on what they're made of. If they're plastic they probably go to Scandinavia, because if they went to Nafplion they would melt.

We were also told it was a charming little town and I suppose it was, although I think taking people there when it's so hot, leaving them there for three days and booking them into a hotel without a swimming pool is not the best itinerary decision a holiday operator ever made.

Anyway see how charming you think it.

 

the view from our hotel room balcony - looking a bit dark there

 

The Main Square.  Yes it is raining. In fact it is chucking it down. This happened all three evenings we were in Nafplion. It was a total nuisance.

 

Nafplion once belonged to the Republic of Venice, as commemorated by this rather sweet little Lion of St Mark. I know, you have seen better carved lions in your time. Haven't we all?

 

One of the 'charming little streets'

 

Lunch. Yes seriously. This was lunch one day. I shall stress how virtuous I was by pointing out that mine was the Peach Melba so I was at least getting some vitamin C. And I couldn't finish it. The chocolate concoction on the left was the OH's. No vitamins. And he finished it too.

 

You may be getting the impression that I wasn't too taken with Nafplion and if so you are probably right. If there'd been a pool we could have used I expect I would have loved it, ditto if the hotel had had a restaurant we could have eaten in where an evening meal for two would have come in at less than the cost of flying back to the UK and eating there.

 

But there you go, don't let me put you off. It is a pretty little town and I expect that by the time we reached it I was just a bit fed up with the other people on the tour, and the heat, and it unfairly coloured my perspective. If you want to go somewhere Greek by the sea and you don't mind that the beaches are all stones, there are myriads of naff restaurants all touting for your business and a menacing looking beggar with a tin who wanders round for at least 18 hours out of 24 then Nafplion is probably just the place you're looking for.

Sold One, Bought One

I really can't remember whether I ever confirmed on here that we had actually sold our holiday rental flat, but we did, back in June. I veer between being really pleased to be shot of it and worrying that we let if go too cheaply but you know....too late now if we did.

 

And then we bought another one in Glasgow. Son No 2 will take up residence there at the end of the month and the OH and I will use it for shopping weekends (no not really, he's not that big a shopper), but the opera anyway, and overnighters before flying away on holiday and I can use it when I go to see my Subject Supervisor, and when I need to do research in nearby-ish Edinburgh.

 

I have to say I'm not, and never have been, comfortable at the idea that we own more than one property. But Son No 2 needs somewhere to live in the Central Belt and Glasgow is better than Edinburgh for us all for a whole bunch of reasons. And we're sick of paying rent for him.

 

We applied all the lessons we had learned from years of watching Kirsty and Phil, I spent hours trawling the Internet on a weekly basis for flats in Glasgow, registered with more property sites that you can never escape from, than you could shake a stick at and we ended up looking at six of which at least four would have been totally suitable.

 

We are not emotionally invested in this place. So it is the right size, at the right price in an OK location for what we want to do, and all we had to do was turn a key and walk in. Also buy furniture but that's another story and possibly, down the line, another post.

 

We took possession last week and we hope to move Son No 2 into it at the end of next week. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly. No doubt if it doesn't I will at least be able to make a funny story of it.

The Confusing Question of the Tartan Stiletto.

Yesterday, on the way home from yet another trip to the Central Belt ( I know, you don't need to tell me ) we stopped for lunch at a place where there were newspapers to read. One of them published a picture like that above. It may even have been that exact picture. The shoes worn by Nicola Sturgeon to address the SNP Conference.

I had two immediate reactions.

One was to smile and say 'Oh, they're nice.'

One was to frown and think 'When did they ever publish a photograph of the shoes Alex Salmond wore to address the SNP Conference.

Patriarchy. Alive and Well throughout the British Media. Whatever people might tell you, the work of feminism is far from over.

Epidaurus

Mycenae only took up half a day and for the second half we went to Epidaurus. Often known as the birthplace  of medicine, apparently it would be more accurate to describe it as the birthplace of psychiatry, because of the holistic nature of the treatments that were undertaken. Whichever description you go for though, it has to be said that it is a beautiful place, perhaps the nicest natural setting for anything that we saw in Greece.

 

Part of the prescribed treatment for patients here was attending plays, which means that it had to have a theatre. It seems the acoustics are amazing - we did have to play a little game to demonstrate how amazing they are, but I'm afraid my attention had wandered by that point; of all the bossy guides we had during the week the one who took us to Mycenae and Epidaurus was the worst and I had lost patience with pandering to her by he time it came to her explanations of the acoustics.  I'm sorry I can't explain it to you; there again, if you're bothered, you cold always Google it.

 

Meanwhile here is a picture of part of the theatre. I hope it gives some idea of how beautiful the place is.

Can I Let Go Now?

I have been fighting off a cold for over a week now. If I'd been able to give in to it and let it rip, it would by now be nothing but a distant memory, but I couldn't. This was partly because the OH was yet again in London working so that I had to be up and about, feeding myself, and more importantly feeding the cats. Equally the builders have been in, building us a new room on the front of the house, which was another good reason for not curling up under the duvet for three days while my incipient whatever ran its course. I was not however up to much. Although I managed to bash out a couple of lemon drizzle cakes today ready for the OH's return. They sank, which my cakes never do, but that was par for the course today sadly. Everything I touched went west.

 

Well it's the weekend now, and the OH is home and the builders won't be back until Monday so you'd think I could retire to bed and give in to the germs. But I can't because tomorrow we need to go to town and on Sunday it's Remembrance Day and on Monday the builders will be back and in any case we need to go to Glasgow next week for an unknown length of time.

 

Perhaps if I manage a couple of afternoons over the weekend doing nothing much and keeping warm I'll be full of the joys of spring by the time we catch the ferry again. Maybe.

Mycenae

After Delphi, Mycenae was the site I was most looking forward to, and although it didn't quite have the oomph of Delphi for me, it was certainly an amazing place. The OH, who is deeply into the Neolithic, understandably so given where we live, did his usual irritating thing about it being 'Modern Rubbish' because it is a Bronze Age Site. But I didn't care. The so called Tomb of Agamemnon was absolutely amazing. It's all very well saying its the same basic shape as Maes Howe here in Orkney, but let's be honest, you have to get into Maes Howe by crawling through a tunnel and one man could touch the ceiling of the chamber if he sat on the shoulders of another. You enter the tomb of Agamemnon through a doorway that positively dwarfs you, because it is eighteen feet high  and inside the chamber towers up to  forty four feet at its highest. While we were in there someone with more vanity than manners decided to demonstrate the acoustics by singing. I would say bursting into song, but whatever it was she was singing was more stately than that. Showing Off is what she was doing, and we didn't appreciate it one bit.

 

After the tomb we went to the Citadel Site, through the famous Lion Gate. The gate has been heavily restored, but the lions have no heads since it can't be decided whether they were originally lions or lionesses. The case can be argued both ways apparently. And we couldn't get into the actual citadel building remains because they are restoring that, apparently they are doing a reconstruction so that in a few years time visitors will be able to see what a Bronze Age Attic Palace interior actually looked like. Sounds like an interesting project, although I doubt I'll rush back to see it. There'll no doubt be pictures on the Web in due course.

 

And talking of pictures, here are a few photos of the tomb and citadel site

 

 

The Entrance to the 'Tomb of Agamemnon'

 

The domed 'beehive' ceiling.

 

 

The Lion Gate

 

 

One of the Grave Circles - Plus a view of the plain. The citadel dominated all the country around

 

 

Right up at the top is where they're doing the reconstruction - it would have been a long climb on a hot day, so perhaps not being able to go was a blessing in disguise!

 

Also last week....

 

We were in Fife. Again. I didn't really think I could face going south yet again, but it was a bit of a research trip for me. I spent the first day with a good friend, and her visiting Canadian sister in law. Not a research day obviously but very enjoyable for all that.  We went to Dovecote Studios, where we watched people weaving large tapestries and saw an exhibition of Afghanistani gems and jewellery. As I said when she suggested it - jewels and textiles - my name's all over it. I talked myself out of buying some gorgeous topaz ear-rings, also some slightly cheaper and equally gorgeous small cups that had bits of lace included in their  making. The scones in their café were OK, but had a touch too much bicarb in them.

 

Later on we indulged ourselves in the Valvona and Crolla café in Jenners and I may have bought a few treats as well on the way out. Mainly for someone else's birthday it must be said.

 

It was a lovely day (although I still rather regret passing on the ear rings). What with that and Mr Moffat the following day - well two good ones out of three ain't bad. As for the third - watch this space.

 

 

 

 

 

Poets Pub

This a Very Famous Painting. If you move in circles where C20 Scottish painting or poetry is a known quantity that is. It normally lives in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, although at present it's 'on tour' in Montrose.

 

It shows almost all the great C20 poets and is by the Scottish painter Alexander Moffat. Sadly it doesn't show my particular poet although he is not the only one missing - in any case it was never meant to be a picture of the Flower of Contemporary Scottish Poetry. It's still quite a good collection though.

 

Now long term readers of this blog may remember a while back when my Director of Studies promised me that doing my Ph D was going to be a time of Joyous Opportunities. I have to say that to date the joyous opportunities have been conspicuous by their absence rather than their presence. But last week a day of joyous opportunity finally arrived.

 

I got to talk to Alexander Moffat. In person. Just him and me. About his picture and the people in it (and some of the people not in it!) and painting in the 1950s and 60s in general and it was great.