Shopping for the holidays

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Merry Christmas

Christmas is coming! Hide!, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

To all those celebrating, have a happy Christmas and a wondefrul New Year. I'm off to hand out presents, cook turkey and relax with friends and family for a couple of days.

Jack's back!!!

Suburbia, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Me and Lydia arrived in England last night just in time to experience some of the worst weather the country has experienced in 50 years, which made a nice change from Greece's hottest June in 50 years. Parts of the north, around Sheffield resemble disaster zones as two month's worth of rain fell in less than 24 hours.

However, none of this dampened my spirits (bad pun intended) as it was good to see my family again after such a long while, not to mention being able to sleep in conditions that didn't feel like you'd entered a sauna wrapped in a wet blanket.

Walking to to the centre once again revealed how much Bristol has changed since I last lived here and was a real eye opener as far as the people were concerned. Chatting to British model makers about a piece of work that took them 10 years to construct, having Jamaican style curried goat with a trainee radiologist and discussing the pros and cons of church conversions with an Irish guy fron Clonmel, all of whom were complete strangers, were just a few of the highlights.

What a great way to start a holiday.

May Day in Thessaloniki

Clean Monday

Today was Clean Monday or Kathara Deutera in Greek. It sees the start of the Greek Orthodox Lent and is marked by many different traditions. The most visible one is people flying kites, though this year the lack of strong winds meant that most of the them, at least in my neighbourhood, remained stubbornly grounded.

Was that the fat lady I heard warming up?

After 5.30pm I'm officially on holiday!!!!! I can't wait to do nothing, as these last few weeks have been exhausting.

St Dimitiris's Day

Photo courtesy of Jakebouma at Flickr

Today is a public holiday here in Thessaloniki as the city is celebrating it's patron saint's name day (click here for more information). As a result I don't have any lessons, except for a private outside the city limits, near Thermi. Still, better than nothing.