Anastasia

Ayia Napa - Short Weekend Away

It was really a last-minute getaway for the weekend as I had a lesson cancelled on Saturday. Getting away from routine even for a few hours and spending a night at one of the most classy hotels in Ayia Napa is certainly an invigorating experience. Alkis made his own arrangements and was free by 12:00 on Saturday. By 1:00 pm we were checking in at The Grecian Bay Hotel in Ayia Napa, at about 40km east of Larnaca.

After check-in, we were shown to one of the hotel's finest suites facing the swimming pool and the garden. The first thing I notice when I step into a hotel room is the bed! And I loved that bed, the soft pillows and the fluffy quilt. I also loved the minimalist deco and all the other facilities - such as the remote control for getting the blinds up or down! AND the number of hangers in the wardrobe! 

It was still sunny on Saturday despite the breeze coming from the sea, so we enjoyed a beer and cashewnuts on the balcony before going out for lunch. Alkis wanted to take me to a tavern called either Argotiko or...Archontiko somewhere in between Ayia Napa and Paralimni. But we didn't find it! So we drove all the way back to Ayia Napa and Christos"s Restaurant at Limanaki.

We didn't have lobster but we loved their fish meze consisting - amongst others- of grilled tsipoura (seabream), octopus, calamari , soupia(cuttlefish) and mussels. We enjoyed our lunch outside in the sun which was off and on and despite the wind from the sea. It wasn't really cold with a jumper and jacket on. But some tourists sitting near us were in T-shirsts and shorts!

After lunch, we went for a walk on the beach but it was very windy so we returned to the hotel and had a short siesta before dinner at Hokaido - the best Japanese restaurant in Cyprus! However much I love sushi, after all the seafood I had for lunch, I decided to go for a Tepanyaki chicken. It was delicious!

When we left the restaurant, it was drizzling. The drizzle turned into a storm during the night. And it was still raining today. But this did not prevent us from going to Cavo Greco to watch the huge waves breaking on the rocks.

 

Wicked February!

For years "Pumpering Day" was on a Friday but as Friday is almost invariably a very busy day at work, I changed it to Thursday which is a relatively quiet and easy day. Pumpering Day translates into a couple of hours at my beautician's for a manicure, pedicure and a facial followed by massage. So today, I got up earlier than usual in order to finish marking before my appointment. After almost a week of brilliant sunny days which seemed to promise summer would be here soon, wicked February brought winter back as a last farewell, I guess.

So I woke to a gloomy sky - so very unlike the sunsplashed island of Aphrodite- but didn't seem to worry too much feeling certain that the sun would be shining again by midday. And just as I was about to get rid of coats and leather jackets, the chilly morning made me change my mind. It was cloudy and chilly by the time I got to my beautician but, at least it wasn't raining. And I was still hoping that the sun would come up soon! But it didn't.

 After a divine manicure and facial and a very relaxing music at the background - including birds singing and waves flirting with the sand - I rushed home to have lunch and get ready for work. I was at the computer checking out my mail and commenting on some friends' blogs, when it really got dark! And it was only 1:30 pm! The sky was threatening with a storm, so I thought I'd rather hurry to work.

At  about 2:00 pm as I was driving to work, the storm broke out causing havoc on the roads.

Well, I had a safe journey to work-just in time for my first class - my Junior B. Out of nine only four of them turned up.                                                       

Giant George

via www.youtube.com

Isn't he cute? Giant George is not only the tallest dog in the world but he is also the tallest living dog! I love him!

Ninjas Service with Swords and Fires!!

Waitresses wield swords and flare flames at diners, who have to get past a moat before sitting at their table in the dimly lit dining hall.

The same customers are also encouraged to take photos with the warrior-like waitresses, who dress in black or red to look like ninjas in keeping with the theme of a dark but lively restaurant that opened last month in Taiwan's capital. "The ninja is mysterious," said Ou Chia-wei, owner of the restaurant simply named Ninja, explaining why he chose that theme for the Japanese-style restaurant. "On that premise, we can do magic tricks and light up the food."

Waitresses working the barely lit dining room floor burn speciality menus, which vanish without a trace of ash, and send flames snaking across tables as customers watch. A moat and screen of cascading water just past the front entrance make customers wait a few minutes until the drawbridge goes up, leading to a dark stairwell toward the dining hall. There are professional magic shows, as well as cabarets, for those who walk in at the right times.

Ninjas were mercenaries who resorted to unusual warfare strategies such as espionage, sabotage and assassination from as far back as 700 years ago in feudal Japan. They remain a common, enduring theme in Japanese folklore. Ou, who also owns a hospital-theme restaurant in Taipei, and his wife put the three-storey Ninja eatery together on their own without hiring a designer, said his landlady Ting Tsui-lan.

The overall investment was T$15 million ($470,000). "The owner had already liked ninjas and figured that would be a pretty obvious, visual theme for the restaurant," said restaurant sales manager Hsiao Dai. Ninja competes with restaurants that specialise in airliner, dinosaur and toilet decor in a city teeming with theme diners.

Owned and staffed by Taiwanese, it serves Japanese food priced for office workers who frequent it at its location in a congested part of town. Japanese cuisine and culture are popular in Taiwan, where Ninja has seen steady full-house crowds of 150 since opening in late January. Customers are intrigued by the theme, with a 26-year-old woman say ingshe might rather work than eat there. "We make friends with the customers," said waitress Tu-tu Lin, laying her sword aside to explain to the woman the tricks of her trade.

via timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Not sure I'd love this kind of restaurant, however much I love sushi, but I'm sure my friend Telis will love it!

Sunday Musings

I've been in a contemplative mood all day today which is not very much like me - especially on my one and only day off work. I've been thinking about a million unrelated issues such as:

• The people in Haiti and how the people manage after that terrible earthquake.
• The political crisis in my country - sounds like our President Mr Christofias will be left alone as most of his partners seem to abandon him.
• The weather - it really feels like summer or almost despite some dust in the air which comes from either North or South Africa - ah right! I'm wreckless at Geography which was my least favourite subject at school, by the way...after Maths , of course!
• Eleni Menegaki and her divorce which sounds like a ...National Divorce!

• My second love after Alkis - The  Sea!
• Planning our summer holiday with my significant other - Alkis. We both want to visit Alexandroupolis again.
• Midterm tests and exams at work which means I'm going to be very busy marking in the next couple of weeks. Meaning...I'm not going to be around much next week!
• Trying NOT to get addicted to Blog It!

Medical Negligence

It took five months for a Czech woman to discover the reason for her pain – doctors had left a foot-long medical instrument inside her abdomen.

It was only this month that doctors at a clinic in the south-eastern town of Ivancice discovered their colleagues had forgotten to remove the spatula-like instrument from the woman after gynaecological surgery in September.

A regional official apologised to Zdenka Kopeckova, 66, saying she would be compensated.Clinic head Jaromir Hrubes blamed "a series of individual failures" and said four employees had been punished. According to the country's CT24 news channel the woman, who complained repeatedly to her doctors about the pain, plans to sue.

via www.guardian.co.uk

How can a human life be measured in terms of compensation, apologies and a punishment of four employees? To my mind, the doctors who forgot the spatula in Zdenka's abdomen should be sent to prison. This is severe medical negligence that could have cost Zdenka's life.

Duchamp's Fountain

La Fontaine is the most famous of Duchamp's ready-mades. It has given rise to a great number of interpretations AND controversy and incited the specialists of the esthetic to redefine the art this object implies. In the first place, Duchamp bought this object - an ordinary urinal - to send it to a certain art exhibition committee whose organisers were involved in exhibiting any kind of artwork. La Fontaine was rejected by the committee.

According to Duchamp, the artist is not a handyman. In art, he claims, the idea prevails over creation. I'm not an art expert, but to my mind La Fontaine - the object chosen by Duchamp - has none of the intrinsic qualities one would look for in a work of art - such as harmony or elegance. Also, the best of ready-mades cannot equal the creative spirit of an artist.

The Meaning of Freedom

To most reasonable people, freedom means more than just ‘free to do whatever I want’. Taken literally, that approach would produce anarchy—every man, woman, and child for himself or herself. Fortunately, none of us has to live that way (unless you’re reading this in Somalia or a similar disaster area).

Certainly freedom does mean the right to do as one pleases—to think, believe, speak, worship (or not worship), move about, gather, and generally act as you choose—but only until your choices start to infringe on another person’s freedom.

This still leaves a great deal of latitude. There is a long list of things that one can say, and say freely, for example, that excludes shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater.

One way to think of this is the difference between “freedom of” (or “freedom to”) and “freedom from”—a point eloquently made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his State of the Union Address delivered on January 6, 1941:

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.

via ieet.org

Love is All Around

Love is All Around: Valentine's Day Interview with Susie Bright

Susie Bright is an author, editor, blogger, podcaster, performer, and lecturer on all matters of sex, sexuality, and erotica. And she's been an extremely popular TypePad blogger since 2004. Out of personal and professional interest, we asked her a few questions as we scramble get ready for Valentine's Day.

What makes Valentine's Day special?
SB: It's a pre-Christian Holiday with such a dramatic history you can't help but throb and weep!

Here's a glimpse from one of my favorite books, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things:

"In Rome in A.D. 270, Valentine had enraged the mad emperor Claudius II, who had issued an edict forbidding marriage. Claudius felt that married men made poor soldiers, because they were loath to leave their families for battle.

Valentine invited young lovers to come to him in secret, where he joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had the bishop brought to the palace.

The emperor attempted to convert him to the Roman gods. Valentine refused to renounce Christianity and imprudently attempted to convert the emperor. On February 24, 270, Valentine was clubbed, stoned, then beheaded.

But while Valentine was in prison awaiting execution, he fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer. Through his unswerving faith, he miraculously restored her sight. He signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that would live long after its author died."

Now is that romantic or what!

How should people keep the sparks of Valentine's all year long?

SB: The traditional gifts of Valentine's tell you everything you need to know. Surprises that smell good, taste good, silky and sensual, declarations of affection, flirtations, and most of all, generosity of spirit.

I also think of Valentines as a family and children's holiday. There is nothing more fun that throwing a Valentine party for a bunch of scissor-and-glue-happy kids. —Of all ages! 


What would you change about Valentine’s Day?

SB:The "swan/consumer" role model of  romance. It's not a day for bitterness and comparisons. It's a hot pink 24 hours to embrace sensuality, let your freak flag fly, love for love's sake.

 

I also miss my mother's valentines, now that she's passed. She was the first one to ever "send" me a Valentine card and her exuberance was contagious...Never missed a year.

What’s your favorite Valentine’s Day story?
SB: Erotic: Well you'll have to visit my blog for some of those stories.

Mommy/Baby: My daughter's mushy valentines to me, every year. She writes a poem, draws a picture of me, and I melt.

Parties: My friend Scottie throws a massive crafty Valentine Party each year, turning his whole house and garage into a Warholian Love Factory. It goes on all night; there are people welding outside and glue-gunning, water-coloring in the kitchen, glitter-spewing, collaging with old National Geographic's and National Enquirer's. You bring your own scissors and stuff to add to the 20-year supply closet. Love is All Around, baby!

OK, it’s last minute, and I don’t have anything for Valentine's. Help! What should I do!?
SB: Two ideas:

• My lover game, 

via everything.typepad.com

Well, I'm in the spirit of the day and loved this interview!Right now I'm looking forward to my very special Valentine night 2010!

Susie Bright is an author, editor, blogger, podcaster, performer, and lecturer on all matters of sex, sexuality, and erotica. And she's been an extremely popular TypePad blogger since 2004. Out of personal and professional interest, we asked her a few questions as we scramble get ready for Valentine's Day.

What makes Valentine's Day special?
SB: It's a pre-Christian Holiday with such a dramatic history you can't help but throb and weep!

Here's a glimpse from one of my favorite books, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things:

"In Rome in A.D. 270, Valentine had enraged the mad emperor Claudius II, who had issued an edict forbidding marriage. Claudius felt that married men made poor soldiers, because they were loath to leave their families for battle.

Valentine invited young lovers to come to him in secret, where he joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had the bishop brought to the palace.

The emperor attempted to convert him to the Roman gods. Valentine refused to renounce Christianity and imprudently attempted to convert the emperor. On February 24, 270, Valentine was clubbed, stoned, then beheaded.

But while Valentine was in prison awaiting execution, he fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer. Through his unswerving faith, he miraculously restored her sight. He signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that would live long after its author died."

Now is that romantic or what!

How should people keep the sparks of Valentine's all year long?

SB: The traditional gifts of Valentine's tell you everything you need to know. Surprises that smell good, taste good, silky and sensual, declarations of affection, flirtations, and most of all, generosity of spirit.

I also think of Valentines as a family and children's holiday. There is nothing more fun that throwing a Valentine party for a bunch of scissor-and-glue-happy kids. —Of all ages! 


What would you change about Valentine’s Day?

SB:The "swan/consumer" role model of  romance. It's not a day for bitterness and comparisons. It's a hot pink 24 hours to embrace sensuality, let your freak flag fly, love for love's sake.

 

I also miss my mother's valentines, now that she's passed. She was the first one to ever "send" me a Valentine card and her exuberance was contagious...Never missed a year.

What’s your favorite Valentine’s Day story?
SB: Erotic: Well you'll have to visit my blog for some of those stories.

Mommy/Baby: My daughter's mushy valentines to me, every year. She writes a poem, draws a picture of me, and I melt.

Parties: My friend Scottie throws a massive crafty Valentine Party each year, turning his whole house and garage into a Warholian Love Factory. It goes on all night; there are people welding outside and glue-gunning, water-coloring in the kitchen, glitter-spewing, collaging with old National Geographic's and National Enquirer's. You bring your own scissors and stuff to add to the 20-year supply closet. Love is All Around, baby!

OK, it’s last minute, and I don’t have anything for Valentine's. Help! What should I do!?
SB: Two ideas:

• My lover game, 

My Valentine

via www.youtube.com

Wishing you all a very happy Valentine's Day. Let's keep celebrating love throughout the year.

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