A Bee Problem!

Yesterday, I felt  brave, so I decided to finally get rid of these bees.

I thought of not harming them.  I first decided to get rid of them naturally. I had read that bees detest the smell of burning coffee beans, so I put some beans on a piece of  aluminum foil, then I lit a match and placed it in the coffee beans. One of the beans started to burn.  A lot of smoke came out, and I stood underneath the beehive and wafted the smoke toward the beehive. The bees did seem annoyed by the smell and they remained still.  But, suddenly,  it got very windy so I had to abandon this plan.  I was feeling restless. So, I just grabbed the mosquito spray. I made sure to wear light coloured clothing-dark colours annoy them. I hid in the corner and sprayed the hive just once.

After spraying the beehive with bug spray I ran inside. Within a few minutes all the bees had dropped dead. Except maybe two that had hidden behind the hive. These two bees were buzzing around looking for me. The two bees went to the other corner and they were going to build another hive again-they really are relentless and hard-working. I got someone else to spray them head on.

With a painter’s spatula, I scraped the hive off of the wall. It was very easy and the hive was as light as a paper. I then burnt the beehive to prevent the bees from coming back to it.

I washed the wall with some soap and water and cleaned out any remaining pieces of the beehive.

Mission Accomplished!!

A View From The Top/Η θέα Aπό Ψηλά

Πριν απο δυο ημερες κατεβηκα στο κεντρο της Αθηνας και καθησα στη ταρατσα ενος καφε στο Συνταγμα. Η θεα ηταν πολυ ωραια. Δεν εχω δει ποτε την πολη απο τοσο ψηλα. Μου εκανε εντυπωση ποσο πρασινη και καθαρη φαινοτανε η Αθηνα.

A couple of days ago I went downtown and I sat at a roof top café at Syntagma square. The view was beautiful I had never seen the city from above. I was surprised by how green and clean the city looked.

Travel Advisory: Beware of Greeks Bearιng.. Misery*

 

It’s summertime in Greece, and when you live in a country with its hot sun, and beautiful beaches, what else do you need?  Well, there is something else that starts with an ‘M’ and ends with a ‘Y’…Money!  Every year, specifically late in the spring, Greeks ask me where I am planning to go for vacation.  Going to mom and dad’s remote villages doesn’t count. You have to go to an expensive and glamorous island. This year no one is asking anyone that question. If you do you then are a delusional fool. The tragic events in early May:  the  protesting, fires and subsequent deaths and Greece ‘surrendering’ to the IMF bank has effected people’s moods and pay checks this summer.

Greece,  was never a rich country-of course it is rich in history, but there was always problems and conflicts.  In my opinion, Greece has seen worse days, so what’s with the misery? There is more talk of death than life, as if death would be our only saving grace since it is the only sure thing.  The modern Greek people seem to have become goth or emo,  just ask the many tourists who have come to Greece before and have seen a big difference upon their visit to Greece this year. The tourists say ‘misery is not very becoming to the Greeks’ this is due to the fact that Greeks are viewed by foreigners as a happy-go-lucky people. They’re happy because they sing and dance and eat and talk, talk and talk. 

I want to tell those people that it’s hard to eat and dance on shaky ground ( I’m not talking about earthquakes when I mean shaky ground) There is an air of instability world-wide. These are hard times and only a lucky few will be dancing the ‘Sirtaki’ on Greek beaches this summer.

* Taken from the phrase “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeo_Danaos_et_dona_ferentes

Facebook California

A few weeks ago I deleted my Facebook account. I thought that  it would be easy, but while in the process of deleting my account  I  discovered that this popular social networking site was not easy to let go.  First because ‘it’ wouldn’t let me go and second I realised that I had become used to it.  As humans living in an ever-changing environment we learn to adapt and we sometimes forget how things were like before.

There are certain things that become a way of  life,  like the television and the radio and many other things we didn’t have two hundred yeas ago. Many people cannot fathom how someone cannot watch television or even own a television or a cell phone or computer etc. Everyone is supposed  to follow the status quo to embrace the new and complicated things that come our way. If you don’t you will be as backward as the Homo sapiens who lived in caves.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate technology. I have a blog.  I don’t hate Facebook either I think that it is a great idea and you get in touch with people you would have never have been able to get in touch with  in normal circumstances.  As for the privacy issue that really wasn’t my main concern, because I didn’t put much information about myself on Facebook. I had barely any photos of myself and my privacy settings were pretty high.  I just found that it was just too distracting. I would go on the internet and check my Hotmail account and from there I would get interesting links to other sites. Then I would log into my Facebook account. I would go on Facebook and reply to the comments there;  then I would play the various games, and then get constantly bombarded with pop ups from advertisers asking me for my email address.

When I was finally in the process of deleting my account a dialogue ensued with the computer.

Facebook: ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

Me: “If I wasn’t I wouldn’t be on this specific page’.

Then photographs of  my Facebook friends appeared on the screen and a message.

Facebook:  ‘Please send them a goodbye message’.

Me: ‘ Well,  tear out my heart-strings why don’t you!’

Facebook: “Why are you leaving me! What did I do?”

Then  a box appeared with a list of my possible reasons for wanting to leave Facebook.

Me: ‘You were useless!’

Facebook: “You need to add more friends’.

Then some suggestions  to improve my ‘Facebooking’.  I ignore the suggestions and then Facebook retaliated.

Facebook:  ‘Alright then take this!  We’re sorry to let you go. You can reactivate your account by using your email address and the same password. We hope you will be back soon… Sucker!’

On the last page my heart took a dive and my brain spun.   Then I came to my senses and thought  to myself,  ‘it’s just Facebook!’  But, then it occurred to me that  I haven’t really left Facebook.   I am in their hard drive, their  ‘private’ files for ever.  That is when I realised that Facebook is just like Hotel California ‘you can  check out  [log out] anytime you like, but you can never  leave!’…

Link to the lyrics for ‘Hotel California ‘ Facebook California

Beautiful Blonde(?)

Paper Collage by Angela Zafiris

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it” said Chinese philosopher Confucius.

Every culture has their own definition of beauty.  In Greece, if a woman is blonde and blue-eyed she is much sought after. I’m guessing that my Greek compatriots caught the  ‘blonde obsession virus’ during the German occupation of Greece during the second world war.  I find it so odd that even if the blonde and blue-eyed woman has missing teeth or an acne problem she will still be considered beautiful.  Okay I don’t want to be mean or anything.  What I’m trying to  say is that this obsession with blonde and blue-eyed people can’t just be due  to their rare colouring?

This blonde Aryan worship is widespread of course. Blonde ambition began in recent history in Europe and then the U.S. more specifically California where film actresses began to experiment with bleach.  In Hollywood blonde is beautiful, but in Asia you’re a freak.  Today I saw a scene in the film ”The Karate Kid’ [I was flipping the channels around] and Daniel was sitting with his mom at some diner. They were  talking about girls when the mother asked Daniel something like, ‘is this girl who you like  beautiful?’ and Daniel says ‘of course mom, she’s blonde!’  So, I started thinking,  ‘if the love interest was raven haired would she be considered ugly by Daniel?’

On Greek television there is a game show called  ‘Revenge of the Blonde’ .  The contestant stands in front of  300  blonde (mostly from the bottle) women. The contestant  has to try to eliminate all of them by giving the right answers to question covering a range of subjects from sports to history.  The funny things is that I don’t remember a contestant ever winning all of the money. So, in actuality they do get their revenge for being dubbed as ‘stupid’ all of these years.

If you’re not a blonde or you are a blonde and you are  feeling insecure about your looks; just keep this quote in mind: “Every time you see a beautiful woman, just remember, somebody got tired of her”-anonymous.

Grandma VS the T.V (& other technologies)

Paper Collage By Angela Zafiris

How did the animals get in the television set?  How did the ocean get in there?  How did those people get in there?  Don’t those people sleep? These are the many questions that my ninety-something year old grandmother has asked me repeatedly over the years. I say ninety something because it’s hard to keep up with the math. No one is really sure if she was even born in the year 1919 [A.D].  I know it’s strange. It’s a long story.  But, I can’t tell you how many times she asks me the above questions every time I sit on the couch to watch t.v.   How does one explain to an old woman how the television works, when you can’t figure out how it works? Many people will probably suggest that she is inquisitive about the television because she has Alzheimer’s-“she’s old that’s what  her problem is”.  Well, no I’m the one with the Alzheimer’s because I can’t remember what I ate yesterday and there is something that I have to do but I can’t remember what it is; I should have written it down. Believe or not my grandma can recite poetry that she learned from ELEMENTARY school!!   My grandmother was raised in a small  Greek village.  Many families didn’t have televisions sets until the 1980’s.  My cousins had the first colour t.v. and all the kids in the village would come over to watch the American soap operas. However, at that time my  grandma payed very little attention to the ‘box’ in the living room. She would pass by it every day and shun it like it was an ugly piece of furniture.  This went on for years.    Her ignorance of the many things that we take for granted fascinates and intrigues me. How can it be that a grandmother, who can’t turn on a t.v and is ignorant of all technologies,  have a granddaughter who loves her technology?  I have my digital camera,  iPod  nano, flat screen t.v.,  laptop, I even know how to set up wireless internet (!), and of course, create a blog.  We were born in the same century.  But,  the 20th century was quite unique in that it was more like four centuries in one.  Since technologically has progressed so quickly can you imagine how the future will be like in only twenty years?  We will be riding in flying cars, a robot will dress us and do our grocery shopping.  Our children or grandchildren will go on vacation in space to see various planets and stars. Oh my!

 In order to avoid my grandma’s questions about some tech-gadget I have I hide it from her. When I had my digital camera in my hand and I told her that she looked good in the photos she looked at me puzzled and with her eyebrows scrunched down she said “how did you get the photos so quickly’? Her reaction would have been the same as that of a time traveler from the past. If someone from the beginning of the last century were to see the Walkman, Discman and then iPod he would say, ‘ how did that music  (or noise)come out of that metallic thing  that you can put in your pocket?’  But, when my grandma makes that face I feel sorry for her at that moment, because she looks like she is about to have another stroke. So I hide the tech-gadgets from her. To avoid the questions I can’t answer and it’s just safer that way.  In her last days, months or even years, she really doesn’t need to know or see any more unusual metal things from this earth. I say years because she might reach a hundred years old, and maybe by then she will understand how the television works-and maybe I will too.