The marriage of Arnolfini... or is it?

This is my favourite painting. It is called The Marriage of Arnolfini by Jan Van Eyck. It can be found in the National Gallery in London. I am in awe everytime I look at it, mainly because it has such detailed work with the light and the shadows.
If you go to the National Gallery Website you can zoom on it and see the details. The shadows on the chandelier, the mirror and the reflections in it, plus the little graffiti "Van Eyck was here" above it. Also the stubs around the mirror contain images from the life of Christ. And so many other details... There have been TV programs about it and scholars are still trying to reveal all its meanings.

For all of the above reasons, I am crazy about it!

I was showing it to my ex-flatmate Angela, who has studied Art and she told me that this painting contains secrets! The man on the portrait is not who they claim he is. It is claimed he is really Putin and this painting has hidden prophecies.
If you're not sure take a look at the Photoshoped version below to see the resemblence...

Spooky!

No Comments... Enjoy!

A rare Who video!

Oh Joy!

On the Saturday of Resurrection I always feel very excited. First of all, very early in the morning, 7:30-8 am, the First Resurrection takes place… This is the most beautiful and exciting ceremony.Priests sing the most cheerful hymns and when they say, or I should say shout “Christ Has Risen” people knock on wooden blocks, leaves are thrown in the air and the church bells ring.

I've only managed to be in 3 of the "First Resurrections" in my life, it is very early in the morning, but I would recommend it to everyone.... On the night, everyone gathers at the church and if the weather is good at the churchyard.The priests again sing cheerful hymns and do readings from the Bible.The Holy Light, directly from Holy Land, is passed to each others bright coloured candles. These coloured candles are usually a gift from our godmother. At exactly midnight, after an “Amen”, which I always recognize, the most joyous thing happens:The priest starts singing “Christ Has Risen” and everyone joins in. The churchbells ring like crazy. People kiss each other, with smiles, wishes and tears of joy. In the islands ships blow their horns. And the most spectacular fireworks fill the sky.
It is absolutely amazing and I love it!
After church all families gather together to eat the “mayeiritsa” a soup made of the lambs intestines (yuk – I hate it and never eat it), but also to smash each other’s red eggs and drink till they drop!

Last night my mother and I went to the Chapel of the Greek Archbishopry in London. We managed to get in and it was absolutely magical… Before the light was given out all the church lights went out.The priest himself passed the light to us. All the people were really beautifully dressed and even the Ex-King and Queen of Greece were there and smashed eggs with my mother! She could not believe it!!!

On the Easter Sunday in Greece, the roasting of the lamb in the big “souvla”, with songs and dance take place. When the food is ready, and I mean A LOT of food of all delicious kinds, the feast from the previous night continues.Wine, wine, wine, food, food, food and dance, dance, dance.
By 7pm everyone is knackered! It is so much fun though and if the Greek weather is sunny it is an experience that no one should ever miss!

Today I was at work! How lovely…

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! HE HAS INDEED RISEN!

Oh, My Sweet Spring!

Today is Good Friday.
For me is the most solemn day of the year. It's the day I feel closer to Him and think about His sufferings and their meaning.
Today is the day I thank Him for His Sacrifice.

Our Greek Churches are beautifully, but mournfully decorated, with purple ribbons and flowers.
Thousands of people come to bow in front of the "Epitaph" and pray. All the priests and vergers carry the Epitaph around the streets and people, with bowed heads, holding brown candles, follow...
The most beautiful hymn is sung, a hymn that makes me cry every time, ever since I was a little girl...

It is supposed to be sung by the Virgin Mary when she buries Jesus:

All the generations around the world
Are mourning for your burial
And make libations
My Christ

Beautiful girls have rained your tomb
With beautiful perfumes

Oh, My Sweet Spring
My Sweet Child
Where has your beauty gone?

The bells ring once every one minute, like a dying heartbeat.
I absolutely adore being in the churchyard and just listen to the priest's voice, smell the flowers and the candles and completely meditate.

I am going to the Greek Orthodox Church in Bayswater tonight. It is so crowded that you can't go inside, but at least I will hear the people chanting my favourite hymn.
And I'm sure my eyes will fill with tears again...

Tonight He is betrayed

Have you ever felt betrayed?
Have you felt that you have given a person more than enough and you love them more than you should and never got anything back but bitterness and ungratefulness?
Dishonesty and cheat?
I am not talking only for boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands and wives...The worst betrayal I've felt was by friends. One or two...And the hurt and the crying was more than being punched in the stomach.

Like it must have been for Jesus. One of his trusted pupils, his followers, his friend, had betrayed him. For money.
But, as Jesus did, we sometimes forgive our traitors.
Because they are our weakness.
That is why it hurts so much. That is why we always hope that they will change. That is why we miss their company all the time. And that is why we never stop loving them, even though they betrayed our love.

And now for the Greek Easter

This week is the Greek Holy Week. This will be the sixth Easter I spend away from Greece and I miss the beautiful traditions more each year.
I am not a very religious person in general, but when Easter comes I really do feel the need to go to Church, to pray, to meditate and to come closer to other Greeks.

Greeks celebrate Easter more than Christmas.
The best thing to do is go to an island: Patmos (pictured) is the "Easter Island", since in it's Monastery's cave, Apostle John wrote the Apocalypse. Corfu has beautiful traditions, bands playing and the famous smashing of jars. And in small islands you feel like Christ has indeed risen on Saturday night, when all the churchbells ring, the fireworks light up the sky and the ships sound their horns...
Absolutely breathtaking!

Holy Week itself, begins after 'Palm Sunday' and runs from Monday, where fasting and observance lead up to the so-called, 'Passion'.
On the Monday I always feel a strange kind of peace, that is brought by the fact that the Holy Week has started. Monday was always the day that school would close for Easter, so that was another reason to feel happy!

My knowledge for all the traditions and religious meanings is not huge, but I will try and explain a little bit about what each day means to me, in the next few blogs...

6-96-2030

I ♥ BLOGGER

So, I managed to publish 96 blog entries and have 2030 people look at my profile, in the past 6 months! That's more people than the population of a small Greek city! LOL...
I don't know about you, but this fascinates me!
What technology, the internet and just one little laptop with a wire can do...

What have I gained from this experience?

New fantastic friends is the first and best thing!
Few freebies from Rachel is the next one!
Endless hours of fun reading so many interesting blogs, laughing my heart out and putting my mind into deep thoughts. Sometime all at the same time!
And so much therapy, just by writing in here and reading all your kind comments. Beats any shrink!!!

We have been through a lot you and I...

To all who took the time to visit my blog and read my profile, Cheers!

To some of you, to which I haven't visited for a long time and to very few of you to which I have never commented, Sorry! I will soon, it's just those blasted working hours...

And to every new friend that has commented, emailed, called and has met me: I'm so happy to have met you and I treasure our friendship!

XOXOXO
M

The long one for the Who Convention!

At last, after four days I can relive the magic and give a few details...

So Friday night, after work, I went to the Goldhawk where a lot of Who nuts, as I call them, were there. People with whom I've been communicating through chatrooms and blogs and never met before. People like the organizer, Ron, my friends Mike and Dino, our blogger friend Meg, Paul who gave me my ticket and cool Mr T, aka Tom Matchett, the MC of the Convention. I had a fantastic Who discussion with "Haribomort". Mate, you have to repeat your name, too dizzy that night to remember it!

As the evening went on, I heard that the Who-nut supremo, Irish Jack Lyons was coming and my heart started beating fast. For those who don't know, Irish Jack is a legend among the Who fans: he was and still is the Who's oldest and greatest fan, knowing the group since they were the Detours. He has written numerous articles, books and stories for the Who and Pete has based Quadrophenia's Jimmy on him. He is still a true Mod and I should say quite handsome!!!

So here I am with him...



...isn't he adorable?


Happy people: Paul, my ticket angel is in the middle and our Meg is far right

At around 10.30 the Wholigans did an Unplugged improptu mini-gig. The Wholigans are the longest running tribute band around. I saw them at the 2003 Convention and they were fantastic, couldn't wait to see them again.
They played A Quick One, Substitute and Magic Bus before I left and they certainly set the mood for the next day!

Barry "Roger" and Chris "Pete"

Next day, was no April Fool's. The day of the Convention was here... I was in a daze. I don't know how I got to the Bush Hall. I got in and the Who's Who were doing a sound check, playing Sparks. The hair on the back of my neck were up and I had tears in my eyes.

I met Simon who treated me like an old friend! We talked about the Attic, the contest I won, his fabulous songs and, guess what else? Blogging! He told me that he'll start blogging again before the end of the tour! Hurrah!!!!

I was going to film the action at the Convention, something that made me happy, especially when I was thinking that I would be at the very front!

I got set up and was ready to shoot just when the doors opened... I was on duty!
I started going around filming the place. Bush Hall is very beautiful and it was full of memorabilia, scooters, a replica of Keith's Pictures of Lily drumkit, John Entwistle's bass guitars, signed photos and millions of other things... I tried to capture everything.
Unfortunately, because I was filming all the time I didn't take a lot of pictures.
I had a break for a Coke and at 3pm Irish Jack came on stage and read stories and poems. I got very angry because people at the back were talking loudly, which I found disrespectful. He was saying very interesting stories about, I suppose, their favourite band and for the purpose of their visit, so why didn't they shut up and listen?

The one thing he said that made my heart beat like Keith Moon was hitting it with his drumsticks, was that Mrs Kitty Moon was in the building! I have been wanting to meet her for many years.

So, after Who's Who played the entire Quadrophenia, with their drummer, Paul Kemp, being a Keith very close to the real thing I run upstairs and greeted the sweet lady. She smiled and listened to me patiently... How many people have told her what I was telling her about her son? Thousands I suppose. But she was looking at me like she heard them for the first time.

This picture was taken by Keith's niece!

I also met Keith's sister, Lesley. A lovely woman, smiling, friendly and I should point out, reminding me a lot of Keith. And two girls, Keith's nieces, who were laughing with my silly jokes and listened attentively to my Keith related follies... What a lovely family, the Moons...

Ace's scooter from Quad

Photo taken by Delbut!

At around 5:30 Casbah Club came on stage. I started pointing at my camcorder and asking people to let me go at the front! Move away, Simon's on stage!!! So here I was at the very front! Casbah Club are incredible! The songs are so energetic and I think everybody felt that. Any Way She Moves is just THE song of the moment!

In the middle of their set I heard someone behind me saying "Look who's here!" I turn on my left and who do I see? None other than Mr Roger Daltrey, standing right next to me! I acted professionally of course and didn't scream, and kept on filming. In a few moments Simon called him on stage and all hell broke loose. People went berserk! I have never seen grown up men shouting "I love you" to another man - not even in Mykonos! But all the tough, tattooed, bearded guys were shouting "I love you, Roger" one after the other...

Roger was the coolest of the cool and sang two songs: Behind Blue Eyes and Substitute. He was stunning looking, relaxed, smiling and I loved him even more after that, if possible! Simon was sooo good singing and playing with Roger!

After...recovering and coming back to reality the Wholigans came on stage to finish us off!
Barry asked us "How do you follow Roger?"
Well, I think they did a pretty good job.
Their energy was amazing, all four of them were really into the whole thing. When they sang Shakin' All Over... I was! Absolutely amazing!

I left the place dizzy, happy, amazed and staaaarving, since I hadn't eaten the whole day.
But for me, music is the food of life!!!

A quick one for the Who Convention, more to follow soon

Ok, this is copied from my account on The Shout, I finished work at 8pm tonight and I have hardly slept for the past three days. I need to get some rest, but little by little I will post pictures and give you more details...

It was U N F O R G E T T A B L E!!!

Well, I'm still amazed by the two wonderful days I had with all of you guys!!!
I had a very busy Sunday today, saying goodbye to some Greek friends, but all day I had images from Friday and Saturday!

Friday night at the Goldhawk was real fun, meeting Meg in person, after blogging and chatting with her in here all these years... Sweet Meg, see you in USA! And of course Mike and Dino, HRH Mr T, Sniff, Pieter and Paul from the Dutch mob, Haribomort and so many others...and - Oh My God! Irish Jack!!!!
The improptu acoustic mini-gig of the Wholigans was a great treat! Unfortunately, I had to catch a train so I left before the second set, but I knew the Convention was going to be awesome!

Saturday morning my backpack with my camera and tripod on my back, jumping from train to train to get to the Bush Hall, I had one thing on my mind: Today is going to be a blast!Ron and

Andy provided me with tapes and I spent all day filming the event. Signore Tornatore eat your heart out!I was on my feet all day, with only a couple of breaks, no food and only a Coke, filming for the DVD. I didn't care, It was fabulous for me! The only thing that upset me was when I didn't get good views...I hope I did a good job.
I had fantastic view during Who's Who - magnificent btw - and during Casbah Club I was very close to the stage and was filming from underneath That was fabulous when Roger came on stage, I got some very good close ups... What a cool guy and what a treat for all of us!

Casbah Club are truly amazing. Any Way She Moves is such a great song. I couldn't get enough of listening to Simon's voice and watching him moving while playing that guitar.

As for the Wholigans ... I have to say they were effing incredible!!!! The energy was amazing. Shakin'All Over - among others - was just unbelieveable! I
hope the film - I was at the side of the stage - captured what great performers they are! Thank you guys so, so much for a fantastic finale to an amazing day!!!!!

One thing that really made my day was meeting Keith Moon's family and especially his mother. I held her hand and told her how much I love her son. It was a catharsis for me, after a very hard winter! She's the most adorable lady with the sweetest smile... And she was very smartly dressed too!
Keith's nieces were very friendly too, one of them - name?- had the same beautiful eyes as Keith. She told me"I'm turning 19 on Wednesday, I didn't know The Who were that big until recently"

Simon Townshend was also very sweet to me, he remembered me from the Basement Jam, we talked a bit about his music (me trying to sing a part of his song) and of course I reminded him that I won Rachel's competition....I also met his daughter Hannah and his niece. Both girls very sweet...

So, more later...! Watch this space!!!