Where's Epi?

It's been a fortnight since I last posted a single word, or since I last visited my friends' blogs.

In total embarrassment, I apologise for disappearing off the face of the earth as it were, but it really has been - and still is - pretty hectic.


If I were to sum up the goings on in my life in these days, it would be as follows:

WORK

Yes, that's where I've been! Working like it's going out of fashion!

Clocking an average of twelve hours a day, including - albeit reluctantly - participating in the relief for the victims of the recent wildfires.

That's pretty much it!

I've been spending most of my limited free time catching up on some Z's and trying to keep my house in a livable state.

Highlights of the past two weeks have been taking my car in for a service (and changing break ads) and voting on the general election! That's pretty pathetic for life content in any one's book. Right?

Unfortunately, I'm still not in a position to guarantee frequent posts, but I promise to put in a more concerted effort.

I miss you guys!

Talk to you soon!!!

Nature lovers

You may recall, from reading this blog, that about a month ago there was a fire that reduced 20% of the forest around Athens to to ashes.

It seems that this country is "blessed" with numerous "nature loving" individuals, who want to be as close to the forest as they possibly can, perhaps in an attempt to stop such an occurrence from happening again.

To significant personal expense, they have rushed to be the first to show their love for nature, and the way for future generations.

I am disgusted being a law abiding, tax paying citizen in a country with people of such mentality!

We are a third world country with no hope of development!

The Phoenix has no hope of resurrecting. It's ashes have been covered with concrete!

Disgusting concrete structure in the midst of the burnt trees

Disgusting concrete structure #2 in the midst of the burnt trees

A third concrete monster bearing it's ugly head

And a fourth one!

Nice...Naughty but Nice

Michelle has awarded me with the Nice Blogger Award award for, in her words, being "nice...naughty but nice".

Experience has shown me that being called a nice guy is not always a good thing!

For xample: "You're a nice guy but I'd rather we stay good friends"....you know what I mean. ;)

Anyway, a great thanks to Michelle - I'm proud she called me naughty, too! - and to all of you out there.

The facts, the figures and the usual suspects

Although some of the wildfires are still raging in some places in Greece, things have - with the grace of God - improved significantly over the past twenty four hours.

It is now that the size of the destruction - devastation, would be the most operative word - is becoming evident.

A few numbers to give you an idea of what has happened here:

• 68 dead people.


• 3,000 homeless families.


• 1,900,000 acres of woodland reduced to ashes.


• Tens of thousands of dead animals.


• 150 villages wiped out of the map.


• Financial cost approximately 2% of the GNP.

This is the worst disaster to hit this country since WW II!

What has become clearly evident, however, is the gross inefficiency of government and local authorities. We are talking about people who cannot organise themselves to go to the bathroom!

It has been the heroics of poorly trained, ill equipped fire fighters, who quite literally threw themselves in the flames along with common folk who were fighting against the odds to save their livelihood.

The sacred site of Olympia was just about spared, although the historic hills surrounding the site were badly burnt. It is embarrassing to know that no harm came to that beautiful site our ancestors selected to hold the Olympic games and feed the Olympic ideals, was burnt during our generation.

It will take decades for nature to recover, which raises the question of what will these people do during that time? Their livelihood has been destroyed! People who were working the land, growing olive trees, vines, goats and sheep are left with nothing! Even if their houses were spared during the raging inferno, everything else around them has been reduced to cinders!

In the midst of this - keeping in mind that there's a general election on September the 16th - political parties are making a circus of this calamity by trying to achieve political gains out of the situation, arguing over the ashes, over the pain of the people caught in this disaster.

Enough is enough! It is these blithering idiots who are the main reason for the utter chaos and disorganisation in the government, in the authorities.

We all know who they are! They are the blood sucking leeches, who will do and say anything to gain a government post, not to do an ounce of good to this country, but instead fill their pockets and those of their lackeys.

Don't they know that you only need one coin for the ferry man to take you across the river Styx?

Under Attack

Having disappeared for a few days, inundated with the demands at the work front, I return bearing apologies for my disappearance along with bad news.

For the past three days, Greece and in particular the Peloponese and Evia have been on fire! They even started a couple of fires at the remaining parts of green surrounding Athens, which were thankfully put out. Saturday morning, the skies over the capital were covered by thick smoke, and it was literally raining ashes!

With an approximate 200 odd wild fires over the past days, the situation is pretty desperate, and the whole country has been set in a state of emergency and assistance has been requested from our international friends. Greece is under attack!

The weather is on the arsonists side, since this time of the year the prevailing north-eastern winds keep the fires burning, while they consume tree after tree, village after village, leaving behind them chaos and disaster.

The authorities were once again caught with their pants down, unprepared and in a state of utter panic and disorganisation. Watching pictures of people fighting the fires with branches, buckets of water and garden hoses, trying in vain to save their livelihood from the ten meter high flames, just shows the desperation of the situation.

We are already mourning the deaths of 53 people, who were unable to flee their houses and were caught in the midst of the raging inferno. The charred remains of a woman were found in a car, along with her three children!

Fears that that there is some kind of sinister plan to destroy this country are enhanced by the simultaneous appearance of new fronts during the evenings - when the fire fighting aircraft can not operate - and the recovery of sophisticated incendiary devices. There's even a video of a couple of guys starting a fire at the forests near Athens!

At the time of writing these lines, the raging fire is steadily approaching the sacred ancient site of Olympia - the cradle of the Olympic Games - and it is yet unclear whether the museum has been consumed by the flames or not!

Over the past three days people have lost their houses, all their possessions, while beautiful forests have been reduced to ashes. The only hope is the spirit of these people!

As a country we have been through several disasters over the centuries and still have managed to recover and come back strong.

Let's just hope that the Phoenix will soon resurrect from its ashes and fly high in full pride!

Born on the 13th of February

My dear friend Steph has tagged me for this meme. A meme about what other important events (appart from the birth of yours trully) happened on February 13th through history. Let's have a look see shall we?
Instructions: Go type in your birthday in Wikipedia (month and day). Write down three events, 2 births, 1 holiday and tag 5 friends.

Events

• 1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
• 1894 - Auguste and Luis Lumiere patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector.
• 2004 - The Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093!

Births

• 1950 - Peter Gabriel, British musician (Genesis)
• 2974 - Robbie Williams, English singer.

Holiday

• None, but it's St. Beatrix day!

Tagees, please slot yourself right on the last slot and bump everyone up. And the list: Are We There Yet?, Gran’s Memory Keeping Corner, Teacher Julie, Mommyness is Happiness, This is a miracle, Blur Ting, Remedial Rumination, Epimenides

And now, brace yourselves for my "13 of 3's", the second instalment of the meme:

Three things that scare me

1. Roller coasters.
2. Women with PMS!
3. Isolation

Three people who make me laugh

1. Rowan Atkinson
2. Billy Connolly
3. My girl, when she says "I'll do you in the street" (which means: "I'll take you out tonight" you dirty minded so-and-so's)

Three things I love

1. My family and my girl.
2. Manchester United.
3. Laying on a quiet beach under the sun, listening to the sound of the waves.

Three things I hate

1. Pretentious people
2. Dishonesty
3. Seeing children starving and suffering

Three things I don't understand

1. What was there before the big bang
2. Thousands of foreign languages and dialects
3. Why this particular question is limited to only three things

Three things on my desk

1. My PC monitor
2. A cup of coffee
3. My feet when blogging at home

Three things I'm doing right now

1. Boring you to tears
2. Sweating! (A third heat wave this summer!!!)
3. ...and blogging, I suppose.

Three things I want to do before I die

1. Have a happy family of my own
2. Travel the world
3. Retire a filthy rich person next year!

Three things I can do

1. Liven up a dull party
2. Put a foot in my mouth
3. Cook and iron pleats!

Three things I can't do

1. Retire a filthy rich person next year!
2. Speak Portuguese....but I'm working on it!
3. Stop boring you to tears, I guess.

Three things I think you should listen to

1. A pregnant woman's belly
2. The sound of the sea
3. Your gut feeling

Three things you should never listen to

1. Yourself criticising you
2. My elephant jokes
3. Politicians

Three shows I watched as a kid

1. Stingray
2. Dallas (and later on, Debbie doing it)
3. Bonanza

Please feel free to participate as I will cheat again and not actually tag specific people for this meme!

Just planning ahead

I've been tagged by Wolfgang for this meme about what I do with $1,000,000.00!

Hmmm! Interesting proposition!

I can't say that I'm totally prepared for this, but I have to admit that I've asked myself this question on several occasions.

Here goes then:

1. Make a fund to ensure my folks have enough to take them through old age without needing anything.
   
2. Buy a second house, and rent my current one out.
   
3. Buy me a beach house in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil. A luxurious love nest for my girl and I.
   
4. Buy some sun tan lotion, swimming trunks, hawaianas and a beach towel. I somehow don't think I'll need to work a lot after getting my $1,000,000.00!!!
   
5. Invest a large chunk through a trusty stockbroker, in a guaranteed capital, high return investment. (This is a fictional scenario anyway,is it not?)


6. Visit all my blogging pals around the world, introduce them to me and you know who, and at least buy you guys dinner in the restaurant of your choice.
   
7. Three weeks after giving no sign of life, I'd walk into the office to return my keys, and wish them all a good life!
   
8. Find some kind of a job/work to at least keep the blood flowing to my brain.

My tagees are the following:

• Rebecca
  
• Kate
  
• Amel
  
• Michelle
  
• Alice

Instructions :

**Start Copy**Proposition: If you Have $1,000,000.00…………………………

Requirements: continue above sentences

Tag Mode: 5 bloggers

Link: Add your anchor and post link below.

What They Do With Their $1 Million1.

1.SYH will spend for Family

2. Miche will give to the needy

3. Montessorimum will keepsake

4. Lovely Mummy will spend & save

5. MummyInVain will fully utilise

6. Babyfiona will buy house and open business

7. MonkeyWong will go for a long vacation

8. Emila Yusof will realise her dream

9. Mariuca will open a Perfume Gallery

10.Janice Ng will upgrade house and go for long vacation

11.Hin will blog to donate for charity

12.Bobo will invest in property and let her parents go on a holiday.

13. Adrian will spend it all!

14. Brad will spend all of his money on foolish gadgets

15.Danielle will buy a cottage in the woods and never look back

16. Brown Baron will hold a $17,500 blog contest.

17. Bobby will be on a World vacation forever.

18. Arsenal Marketing will Tithe 10%, use 10K for advertising, Invest the rest

19. Barrett will do ALOT of Traveling

20. Mommibee will Give, Pay Loan and Education Fund

21. Sean will go for family

22. Seiche would Fix you but good

23. HollyGL will invest, invest, invest in herself and others

24. Epimenides will invest, build a lovenest and live on the beach.