The old ones are the best - even in comedy

ATHENS (Reuters) - "I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it."

For those who believe the ancient Greeks thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch where a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Here is another Greek joke I heard years ago. After an archeology conferences all the guys get together in the bar and start to chat and swap war stories. After a few more drinks people start to get a bit boastful. One of the German archeologists starts saying that when he was excavating a 14th century castle in Bavaria they found traces of cables so proving that the Germans had phones long before anyone else.

"Bahhh!!!", starts a Greek archeologist, "Last years we were exacavating the Acropolis and guess what we found?" , "Nothing!, So that shows we had mobile long before anyone else."

Weird stuff in the square

Weird stuff in the square, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Port worker's demonstration

Port worker protesting, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Port workers in Greece are protesting government plans to privatise the industry.

Happy 2008

I hope that those of you celebrated New Year had a great time. I certainly did, surrounded by friends, eating and drinking to my heart's content. A few images from then, then.

"If you go"

Navarinou at night

I still have some time before the annual safari for private lessons begins so, as Lydia is in the village with her mum, I've been taking time out to take more photos of Thessaloniki. It's just a bit weird trying to readjust to being back in Greece after such a long period back in England.

Ancient

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Street photography

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I first bumped into this guy this morning, quietly drinking his retsina under a tree near Kamara. He kindly agreed to let me photograph him. He told me that he was a a sea captain and had travelled the world.

Later on I saw him outside a church on Egnatia as I was rushing to work. This time I managed to get a better picture. I think he enjoyed the fact that somebody actually listened to what he said rather than just toss a few coins his way.

The Scooter Shop

The sound of metal brutalising metal coming from the front wheel of my Vespa meant that I was off to The Scooter Shop here in Thessaloniki to get it fixed before it fell apart on me. And without my bike I'm stuck trying to criss cross the city using buses or even worse taxis (the drivers of which have their own particular circle of hell). Fortunately, the problem was relatively easy(and cheap, phewwww) to correct and Themis finished the job in less than a quarter of an hour.

So, as a way of saying thanks to the guys at The Scooter Shop I thought I'd include a few photos and their contact info.







If you need work on your Piaggio scooter or are in the market for a beautifully restored vintage Vespa then you can find Kostas, Themis and Paula at

Gamvetta 125

Tel No 0030 2310 869097

email: info@scootershop.gr

Thessaloniki - Seattle: Twin cities?

Well, that's what the New York Times thinks. I just came across an article entitled;

"Greek Youth remake "Seattle of the Balkans"


Photo by Yiannis Kolesidis

"Greek Youth remake "Seattle of the Balkans"

"NEAR the seventh-century Church of Aghia Sophia in the northern Greek city of Salonika, prides of revelers are filling art-grunge bars like Urban and Pastaflora Darling! on lively Zefxidos Street. It's a weeknight — a Monday going on Tuesday, in fact — but it feels like a Saturday. The tsipouro is flowing, the New Pornographers are blaring, and the people, a blend of wispy artists bobbing to the music, balding academics recalling their anarchist years and caffeinated students now living theirs, are energized."

OK, considering the gorgeous weather we've been having lately I'm finding this a little hard to envisage. However, it's great to see an article about the city that doesn't drone on about its history using the same old tired cliches that people trot out when they can't be bothered to actually find out about the place for themselves.

On the bus

On the bus, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude.

Taken on the number 56 bus whilst coming back home. I think the other passengers thought I was crazy still, it was worth the stares.

My walk

Taking my last lesson plan to heart I decided to make a slide show based on my walk to work. Well, I know it was meant to be a walk from work but I decided to take photos walking the other way as it is all downhill, phewwww.

An ancient Greek computer?

I came across this fascinating article just now at the BBC site.

"The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered more than 100 years ago in a Roman shipwreck, was used by ancient Greeks to display astronomical cycles.

Using advanced imaging techniques, an Anglo-Greek team probed the remaining fragments of the complex geared device.

The results, published in the journal Nature, show it could have been used to predict solar and lunar eclipses."

See here for the rest of the article.

Εarthquake ?

Well, that got my attention. We just had a minor earthquake here (4 or 5 on the Richter scale, I'd guess). Enough to rattle the flat, not to mention my nerves.

Reporting live for CNN from Thessaloniki, Greece. LOL