Anastasia

Pets

Most people do not doubt that pets are great companions and that they are good for everybody (young and old people). To many adults, especially those who live alone, animals are like family members. They fulfil your need for affection and attention like only animals can do. To children, in addition to being their companions all day, animals also serve to help them learn day-to-day things. Animals show the circle of life in an accelerated way compared to human beings (birth, youth, adulthood, old age and dying). They also show children other things related to life such as having an accident, getting ill and knowing how to take care of themselves. As these phases are more accelerated in animals than in human beings the children learn about them through the animals. Moreover, animals help the children to develop their sense of responsibility, since they need to be taken care of constantly. In a study performed by Robert Bierer it was concluded that children, aged ten to twelve who had animals had more empathy towards others and higher self-esteem. Pets also help children to reduce their anxiety, tediousness and fear and to develop a better capacity to integrate and to be more focused in school.

According to a study carried out in Paris, France, seventy-six percent of the people interviewed believed that the presence of a pet favoured the communication between family members. A group of sixty children was observed and sixty-three percent of them owned a pet such as: dog, cat, bird, fish or turtle. The results of the inquiry confirm the importance of these animals to the development of affection in children and adolescents. The fact that the animal is permanently available for sociability with its’ young owners appears in the study to be a key-factor for the relationship between family members and this also shows that the presence of pets in homes is of great importance.

I had my first pet on my first birthday in April 1959. My parents offered me a puppy which was then one year old just like me.

I practically grew up with Argos - he turned out to be my best friend during my childhood and teen years. It took me time to get over his death 12 years later. Then came Arodaphnousa the cat and Chérie the poodle. A kitten and a puppy. They used to share their food in the same dish - Chérie would leave the fish for Arodaphnousa and Arodaphnousa would eat all the meat PLUS the fish but would leave all the bones to Chérie. They also used to sleep together. Unfortunately, I lost all their beautiful photos in 1974 during the Turkish invasion. Somebody must have found them , though, in occupied Famagusta. I also lost both my pets during that time.

As a student in Geneva, Switzerland, I had a Swiss friend who wanted to find a home for her 2 year-old dog - the offspring of a german pointer and a labrador! I only had a room then with a bathroom and a kitchenette but I fell in love with Pupuce and brought her home. We had her for 5 years and when Alkis and I got married and decided to leave Switzerland, we wanted to take her with us. However, we learnt that in Greece and Cyprus imported dogs had to spend 6 months in quarantine, then. I couldn't do that to Pupuce. She'd have died! And she was only 6 years old in 1983! So, however hard it was, we decided to give her to a friend of ours whose parents were blind. With some training, Pupuce became their guide dog.  Here she is with Alkis in my room in Geneva.

Next came Chap the naughty boy. I thought poodles behaved themselves!

And then in the 90s Michel the cat. Alkis and I had him for 3 years. Then one day, Alkis challenged him badly with his favourite toys - mouse and ball. As a result, Michel scratched him badly and we gave him away. But he was the cutest cat I've ever had!

He also loved my plants and flowers!

Finally my mother's labrador, Blanche. She was such a great dog - smart, intelligent, loving. My mother often brought her to Larnaca for a visit and , unlike Chap, she'd behave herself! She passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 18!

 

Since we gave Michel away, I haven't had a pet as both Alkis and I live in a flat and work long hours. So any pet would be very unhappy with us now!

Monday's Greek Recipe- Melitzanes Imambaildi

Melitzanes Imambaildi - Baked Aubergines Stuffed with Tomato Sauce - is of Turkish origin and was brought to Greece by the Greeks of Asia Minor after the  exodus in 1922. My grandfather was one of them. When he married my grandmother in 1934 he set a condition: "I love you dearly", he told her, "but you must learn to cook meltzanes imambaildi." And truly she did! I'll never forget her delicious meltzanes imam baildi. She then taught my mother how to do them. As you can see in the picture above, my mother followed the tradition and she now boasts her imam. Here is the original recipe as it was written down in my grandma's cookery notebook. 

 Ingredients (5-6 servings)

6 medium-sized aubergines

4-5 onions cut in round slices

2-3 ripe tomatoes skinned and finely chopped

2 tomatoes cut into slices

3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

3-4 garlic cloves (sliced)

2 teacups olive oil

2 teaspoons sugar

salt - pepper

Directions

1. Remove the stem ends of the aubergines and slice them in half - lengthwise .

2. Drop them in a pot of salted water for about 1 hour to remove their bitter juices.

3. Strain them well and fry them in plenty of oil over a medium fire.

4. Now arrange the fried aubergines in a baking dish.

5. Using a teaspoon scoop half their pulp out, place it in a bowl and keep it aside.

6. In a saucepan, sauté the onions adding the chopped tomatoes, the garlic, the reserved pulp, the parsley, the sugar, salt and pepper. Let them cook for about 20 minutes.over a medium fire.

7. Fill the aubergines with the prepared stuffing, cover each stuffed aubergine with a tomato slice and bake in medium oven for about 45 minutes

Source: The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking (Editions Haitalis)

Welcome to Larnaca - A Virtual Tour

Larnaca is a small town of about 70,000 inhabitants situated on the southern coast of the island of Cyprus. When I first came to live here in November 1984, it looked like the middle of no where! People would stare at me as if I were an alien just because I I was different from them. Back to the 80s it was unheard of for a Greek Cypriot lady in her late 20s to have lunch BY HERSELF at one of the few tavernas at the time at Finikoudes Seafront. Most people thought I was from ...Iran . Here's what I looked like ! Long black hair and a very fair complexion!

 

I had once stopped at a petrol station and when the man filled up my car, I politely said : "That's very kind of you, thank you". He looked at me strangely and said: "Where on earth are you from?" That was then ...as Alexander Rybak from Norway sang to us  at the 54th Eurovision Song Contest. 25 years later, I feel I belong to Larnaca. The proof? It's been a long time I haven't visited hometown Nicosia. Funnily enough, I feel I don't belong there any more.

So, let me show you around Larnaca tonight - a hidden jewel in the Eastern Med.

 That was then ....

And this is now... Finikoudes (the Palm Tree Promenade) is  the symbol of our town and the town centre.. The palm trees date back to bygone years but now the area boasts one of the cleanest beaches in the eastern Med which has won a Blue Flag. There are also many cafes , restaurants and bars - my favourite being Ve, and the new Hobos Restaurant with an amazing view to the sea. From Finikoudes let me take you to Saint Lazarus Church.

At the corner of Faneromenis and Agiou Lazarou Street is the church of Agiou Lazarou (Holy Lazarus), built in the 9th century by Byzantine Emperor Leo, on the site of St. Lazarus' tomb. According to legend, Lazarus travelled to Larnaca after his resurrection, and became the city's first bishop. His tomb is inside the church, under the main altar. The entrance is decorated with a number of icons. The church belltower was built in 1857. The church houses a small museum, containing beautiful samples of Byzantine religious art, including old wood carvings, icons and liturgical utensils.

  

From Saint Lazarus Church let me take you to the Salt Lake home of more than 12,000 pink flamingoes which choose to spend the winter in Larnaca.During the winter months the lake fills with water whilst in the summer the water evaporates, leaving a crust of salt and a haze of grey dust. According to legend, the lake's saltiness stems from St Lazarus' request of an old woman for food and drink. She refused, claiming her vines had dried up, to which Lazarus replied: "may your vines be dry and be a salt lake forever more." A more scientific explanation is that the salt water penetrates the porous rock between the lake and the sea, making the water very salty.

Aren't they beautiful? And how about an ice cold frappé - Greek iced coffee - at my place?

My blog today was inspired by my dear friend Stefania's blog on Blogger

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 - The Grand Final

 

The Eurovision Song Contest has been by far Europe's most favourite TV show for 53 years now. It is also the world's longest TV show! After more than 5 decades, featuring some 1,100 songs, the contest has become a modern classic strongly embedded into Europe's collective mind. The 54th Eurovision Song Contest will be held at Olympisky Arena in Moscow , Russia who was last year's winner. After the two semi-finals, which took place last Tuesday and Thursday, here are the 25 finalists out of 42 in the order in which they will appear tonight at 9:00 pm CET

1. Lithuania - Love

2. Israel - There must be another way

3. France - Et s'il fallait le faire

4. Sweden - La Voix

5. Croatia - Lijepa Tena

6. Portugal - Todas as Ruas De Amor

7. Iceland - Is It True?

8. Greece - This is Our Night

9. Armenia - Yan Yan

10. Russia - Mamo

11. Azerbaijan - Always

12. Bosnia and Erzegovina - Bistra Voda

13. Moldova - Hora Din Moldova

14. Malta - What If We....

15. Estonia - Randjad

16. Denmark - Believe Again

17. Miss Kiss Kiss Bang

18. Turkey - Dum Tek Tek

19. Albania - Carry Me In Your Dreams

20. Norway - Fairy Tale

21. Ukraine - Be My Valentine

22. - Romania - The Balkan Girls

23. United Kingdom - It's My Time

24. Finland - Lose Control

25. Spain - La Noche Es Para Mi

Now  here are my own predictions for the three top winners:

1. Turkey

2. Norway

3. Greece

What are your predictions and who would you give your 12 points? (Bearing in mind that this counts for only 50% this year). The other 50% will be the EBU committee's verdict!

Eurovision 2009 Countdown!

The Eurovision Songcontest will be held in Russia following its victory in the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia with Dima Bilan's "Believe". Despite the unwillingness of the Mayor of Moscow to hold the contest in the city,[4] Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, eventually stated that the contest will be held in Moscow.

It was proposed by Channel One, that the contest be held in Moscow's Olympic Indoor Arena and this proposal was evaluated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and confirmed on 13 September 2008. The Director-General of the venue, Vladimir Churilin refuted rumours of emergency reconstruction of the building, saying: "It will not be required for the Eurovision Song Contest. We now can take up to 25 thousand spectators."

 Contest 2009 is the 54th Eurovision Song Contest, taking place between 12 and 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia. Changes in the voting procedure will occur with the re-introduction of a national jury alongside televoting while the format of the semi-finals will remain the same. Forty-two will participate in the contest; Slovakia has announced it will return to the contest, while San Marino has withdrawn due to financial issues. Latvia and Georgia originally announced their intention to withdraw, but it was later stated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that both countries would indeed participate.However, Georgia decided to withdraw once again after the EBU rejected its selected song claiming a breach of contest rules.

Here are my 10 most favourite songs :

1. Greece

2. Montenegro

3. France

4. Ireland

5. Turkey

6. Island

7. Sweden

8. Portugal

9. Israel

10. Malta

What are your Eurovision 2009 top ten ?

Sarah The Robot on Facebook

No, no - not Sarah Palin - don't worry.

Researchers are giving a robot its own Facebook profile page to help foster meaningful relationships with people. The page will be populated with interactions the robot has with people as well as photos of the time it spends in human company. Its creators hope that embedding it in a social web will demonstrate that a sustainable friendship can grow up between man and machine. The coupling of robot and social network is the idea of Dr Nikolaos Mavridis    (of Greek origin! Ah right, I've always thought Macedonians are geniuses. That's why I married one!) and co-researchers as they look into ways of overcoming the reluctance of people to stay in touch with robots. While robots that can engage people have been produced before now, research suggests that humans lose interest - at most a few weeks after being introduced - as the behavioural repertoire of the machine is exhausted.

The researchers want to find out if this can be thwarted by giving humans and robots a pool of shared memories and if they are part of the same social circle of friends. The platform for exploring the problem is a robot that can recognise faces created by Dr Mavridis and colleagues from the Interactive Robots and Media Lab (IRML) at the University of the United Arab Emirates plus co-workers in Germany and Greece.

The prototype is based on a PeopleBot machine from ActivRobots to which they have added a range finder, touch screen and stereo camera. The current prototype is called “Sarah” but when the project begins this will be swapped for a machine with the face of Islamic scholar Ibn Sina, aka AvicennaUnder the hood the machine has three software modules to help it interact with people it meets at IRML. One module recognises the faces of real people or the images they place of themselves on Facebook. It also has a language module so the machine can carry on real-time conversations and it will maintain a database of its friends and their social relationships based on information in Facebook. This social database will also keep its own Facebook profile up to date!

Personally, I can't wait to talk to Sarah! Just imagine the fun !

Dear Diary .....

I am too tired to listen to your neverending chatter or moaning about neglecting you - something which I have never done - despite the fact that you will never be a decent electronic diary, in my opinion, and in more ways than one!. What's really strange is that the TypePad team loves you as they have chosen YOU amongst all my categories to appear in full CAPS ! This means that you have made good progress by accepting your new electronic nature. See? I have chosen the best electronic site in the blogsphere for you. So don't you ever dare moan and groan!

I haven't been doing much online  these days as I have been very busy lately both workwise and socially. But I was really glad to make time and get away with hubby even for a few hours on Labour's Day. Right now my priority number one is work - the end of yet another school year is just around the corner. Final exams at my school start on May 25 not to mention  the IGCSE ( International General Certificate of Secondary Education) issued by the University of Cambridge, UK, International Examinations.. The IGCSE (extended) in English as L2 is  on May 15 (Reading and Writing) and on May 22 (Listening) . The Mock Examination at my school  - Reading and Writing - is tomorrow and their Listening exam on Wednesday 13.  With the actual exam  on May 15, I have only got 9 days to mark and assess 9 papers consisting of 25 pages each. So, dear diary, there's no way of talking to you again before some time in June! The good thing is that once back home , well after 9:00  pm, I am greeted by a loving husband who has already made dinner for 2 served at a candlelit dining table every single day of the week! That's when all the tension of the day goes away.

Lefkara

Just after the Easter break, Labour's Day was a very pleasant day off in an otherwise hectic school term - the last term of 2008-2009 school year. For most people in Europe it is also a long weekend, not for me , though, as I start workearly in the morning tomorrow. So we couldn't get away for the weekend , as Alkis had suggested. Besides, I had a pile of IGCSE compositions to mark. I got up early in the morning and by 11:00 o'clock I had finished my marking and got ready for an outing. We went to the nearby village of Lefkara    - home to the finest local embroidery -  and had lunch at Iason's Restaurant. The fresh mountain air gve us a huge appetite and had a hearty meal, as per usual when we eat out in the countryside.

 

Lefkara is situated at an altitude of 750 metres, south west of the Troodos Mountains. You can say that Lefkara lies in the heart of Cyprus, because it is only 50km away from Nicosia, 35km from Larnaca and 55km from Limassol. The dry and healthy climate, the hospitality of the people of Lefkara, the beauty of the landscape and the art of embroidery are only a few reasons to come to Lefkara. Thousands of tourists from all over the world visit Lefkara each year.

And since I am a history lover, here is a very brief historical survey of Lefkara.

The village attributes its name to the surrounding mountains: Lefka Ori, White Mountains.
Historical sources show that the different conquerors of Cyprus have left their tracks behind in Lefkara. In the period of the Franks (the French Kings also known as The Lusignans), Lefkara became the seat of the bishop of Amathus.Under the authority of Venice, Lefkara became a sanctuary for women from Venice. According to the legend these women taught the local population to embroider.During this period the famous Leonardo da Vinci reputedly visited Lefkara and legend says he bought a big table-cloth for the altar of the Milanese cathedral.Around 1570, when the Turks invaded Cyprus, Lefkara offered lodging to a lot of refugees.