Christmas 2006

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends everywhere!

It is a grey, cloudy Christmas day in Athens, our second Christmas in Athens since we decided that school holidays is not the optimum time to have a holiday in Cape Town.  We do miss the family Christmas gatherings at brother Douglas and Rosemary's home, and we wish them well for today's edition, where they are welcoming their new grandchild Thomas Wallace Palmer, all the way from Tokyo.

Last Christmas was a beautiful sunny day;  Jacqui and Rory had Christmas in London with Natasha and Andy, and Rory's brother Clint, while Ritsa and I had a wonderful family Christmas with her childhood friend Eleni Atlas, at her beautiful seaside taverna in Kavouri, outside Athens.  This year we will be together with Jacqui and Rory, and in addition we will be have the company of our old friends Chris and Fida Ward, who have come over from Kefalonia for a few days.  Tomorrow, as we did last year, and a couple of times before, I shall walk off the effects of Christmas dinner with a stroll up Mount Pendeli, arrnanged by the British Naval Attache, who rewards us at the top of the mountain with a slug of Navy rum.  (See my photo-set Christmas in Athens 2005)

As suggested above, we had our annual holiday in Cape Town in February 2006, a less frantic time than Christmas.  Ritsa could only spend some of the time with me, since she had to get back to take care of yia-yia Maria..  The highlight of the stay was the wedding of my sister Joy's son Seth to the lovely Lara, which was a joyous affair at Moyo Restaurant at Spier.  I was able to travel around a bit while I was in the Cape, apart from seeing as many friends as was possible.  I also got to spend a bit of time with good friends in Vermont, where we owned a holiday house. If we missed you, our apologies.  I give notice here that I shall be in the Cape again from January 13 to February 25 2007, the last two weeks of which I shall be joined by Ritsa.  I have kept my original SA cellphone number, which is 082-659-2033, so give me a shout if you'd like to get together.

On returning to Greece, I was able to do a bit of travelling.  I took a trip through Epirus and Macedonia, within which I visited the village of Lia, the site of that memorable book "Eleni".  I was inspired to do this after reading the book, "North of Ithaca", written by the Eleni Gage, daughter of the earlier book's author, and grand-daughter of the original Eleni.  I also visited many archaeological sites in Northern Greece, and several noted vineyards, my longstanding interest in wine having been revived by attending the bi-annual Greek wine show, Oenorama.  Travelling backwards and forwards between Athens and Zakynthos, we were also able to explore a bit of the Pelopponese, including the spectacular wine country of Nemea.  We also fitted in a day's skiing on Mount Parnassos.

All too soon, it was time to return to Zakynthos, and to get Freddie's Beach Bar ready for its fourth summer season, kicked off once again by a late Easter, which we celebrated in traditional Greek style with  our neighbours and good friends, the
Tsiropoulos family.

Our season was another stimulating, successful and exhausting one, highlighted by the fact that every week, loads of familiar faces turned up and reunions were celebrated.  We have made some very firm friends among many of our regular visitors, and it is touching to see how much they care for us.  We made many new friends this year too, particularly from East European countries, who are beginning to make up an increasing proportion of our visitors, as the EU keeps expanding eastwards.  They are charming, interesting people, and it doesn't hurt, from Robert's perspective as a connoisseur and photographer, that the women are stunning.  I have an ambition to take a drive some time through all those East European capitals, Belgrade, Ljublana, Budapest, Warsaw, Cracow and Prague, and back through Vienna, in all of which people have invited us to visit and experience their way of life.

Unfortunately, no visits from family and friends this year, apart from Natasha and Andy, who spent a week with us in September.  We would love to see more of our old friends and offer you some hospitality at Freddie's Beach Bar, as well as an opportunity to see beautiful Zakynthos and other Ionian islands. One notable visitor and new friend was David Lundberg, with his wife and muse Vasso.  David is the author of a fascinating historical-cum-travel book "Olympic Wandering", whom I met on amazon.com, and they are a fascinating couple.  We hope to see them at Freddie's Bar again.

Ritsa celebrated a milestone in July when she reached the grand old age of 60.  As it was the middle of the season, we did not mark it particularly well, but 10 days ago, on Ritsa's nameday (a more important day in Greece than a birthday), we hosted a lovely dinner for her oldest and dearest friends, once again at Eleni's taverna in Kavouri, where most of the guests had been at primary school with Ritsa in the Plaka.

In recent days we have spent a lot of time unpacking our personal belongings (crockery and glassware, books, ornaments, photoalbums and the like), which we had eventually shipped over from Cape Town, where they had been in storage for nearly seven years.  It was a bit of a challenge finding room for everything in this tiny apartment, and I did have to make a trip to Zakynthos to disperse some of the stuff, and then bring Jacqui and Rory back to Athens for Christmas.

Regarding the older generation, both Freddie and Yia-yia Maria continue to gracefully entertain visitors to the bar, although in each case, they are slowing down and showing signs of age.  Granny Jess continues to flourish at Pinelands Place, and has been blessed this year with the birth of two great-grandchildren, the aforementioned Thomas, son of Fiona and Michael, and Kerry and Ben's daughter Lia, in sunny Surbiton.

It is time to go out for our Christmas lunch, so I end by wishing you all a wonderful and successful 2007.

I have a multitude of pictures online at Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/robwallace) - if you have not followed the hyperlinks above, do have look, and leave comments. I used a new tool this morning to put some of them together in a photo newsletter, which is at http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=1204-685263.    Finally, our Freddie's Bar Christmas Card is also up on flickr.

Love
Robert, Ritsa, Jacqui and Rory

Stop Press (27Dec2006)
Ritsa and I are delighted to tell you that Rory and Jacqui became engaged last night.  He took her out for dinner at a top Athens Hotel last night, where he had secretly booked a room also, pulled a diamond ring out of his pocket and proposed to her.  I was asked to approve the match, which I gladly did, and Ritsa is ecstatic.