'sneb yn becso dam

twitter

2009-11-06T22:45:00.003+02:00

Joined twitter recently to find out what it's all about. After nearly a week as a member I'm still not sure I know what it's about. Anybody out there ever used it?

2008-09-23T23:12:00.002+03:00

Just a quick blog - request for help. Any Black Country bloggers got a decent recipe for groaty pudding? And does anybody have any idea what groats are in Greek??

2008-08-31T23:50:00.002+03:00

Back to my childhood - place I went to every year until I was seventeen - and still my favourite beach in the world

what's in a name?

2007-06-21T22:28:00.000+03:00

For some obscure reason, the mobile telephone company I use has decided to change its name. It used to call itself "Tim", itself a fairly saft name for a company, but probably
better than calling itself Keith or Malcolm.
It has now decided to call itself "Wind", which means that
thousands of
users, when asked which company they use, , will be forced to reply
"I have Wind."

This unfortunate marketing ploy reminded me of a similar doomed choice of name by
an Athenian slimming company a few years ago. The company's main aim is to persuade
people
to lose a considerable number of pounds, both in the
avoirdupois and financial sense of the
word,
by availing themselves of its services. The enterprising company developed a marvellous
machine
which could analyse your body fat electronically and inform you that you were
overweight.
I can derive the same result by lifting my shirt up in front of a mirror and being brutally
honest,
but technology is so much more fun. The company needed a name for its device.
Here in Greece, many new products are given an English name. It makes them sound
more trendy, more scientific, and so the company decided the machine would have an English name. Many larger than life
posters soon appeared around the city featuring a slender woman with a huge smile on her face. And smile she should. Apparently
she'd just spent half an hour on the "Analiser." I was ready to sign up
immediately, but
unfortunately the posters mysteriously disappeared one night and the company
reverted to
calculating body mass indices with a tape measure and set of weighing scales.

My sister in law's job involves helping companies outside the UK to import their
products
into Britain. She recently received a request for help from an Eastern European
company which manufactures a marvellous toy which offers greater mobility to disabled children. She was
delighted to help, until she saw the name of the toy.
The manufacturers had originally decided to use a beautiful German name, Spasswagen, which means "fun car".  In full awareness, however,
of the fact that
the average Englishman has no ability to pronounce correctly any foreign word
which is not
associated with curry, they decided to anglicise the name somewhat. And thus,
the
Spaz Wagon was born. Predictably, it was not to be a commercial success.

Good night each, kalhnyxta kai nos da i chi gyd

2007-04-08T22:45:00.000+03:00

Something wonderful happens in this big old city every Easter. It empties. Everyone goes to their village to celebrate Easter and a peace decends on the Metropolis that will not exist again until the middle of August. The few of us who remain get an idea of what it must have been like here forty years ago. I'm not being antisocial - I also enjoy the bustle when all five million Athenians - native or adopted - are packed in here like sardines. But it's pleasant to enjoy the contrast every now and again. And I get to enjoy the
pleasure of planting my bottom on a comfortable chair on my balcony or tending to the plants without hearing boy racer
zooming by below on his decibel-maximising souped-up moped cum sewing machine every five minutes.
I also get to enjoy pottering about. It's hard to truly define "pottering about", but basically it's the art of doing something for hours
without actually really doing much that you couldn't have done in five minutes if
you'd put your mind to it. But who wants to put his mind to anything much in an empty sunny city where the most important decision is whether to deadhead the
red geraniums or the white ones. I plumped for the red ones. The white ones will happily wait until August.
Kalhnyxta se olous, good night each each, a nos da i chi gyd

2007-02-08T22:54:00.000+02:00

At last. Just read as ow they'm a-gi'ing Black Country lessons tu nusses worram werking in ospitals in the Black Country. Baht tahm too. I've sid me Gran in ospitals. Her cor understond wot the nusses am a-saying to er, an they doh understand er nahther. They gid er a test t'uther day to see if er wuz
compos mentis enuf ter mek a cup a tay on er own. They day gi'er ne'er a tay pot, an there ay ne'er an old
ooman az ull mek a cuppa wi'out a tay pot, so er day av a clue ah to goo
on an failed the test. Er did ask weer the tay pot wuz but they day understond er. Mebe wi a bit a linguistic lerning by the nusses the old uns wot ay never lernd to spake lark a docta ull get diagnosed right, 'sted a bein classifahd as mentally defective cuz they doh spake lahk they cummen from Lunden.
Kalhnyxta se olous sas, good night each a nos da i chi gyd

Happy to help, guys

2006-10-11T22:46:00.000+03:00

Wow, 655 000 dead SINCE we stepped in to help out Iraq. Bet they're glad we turned up just in time. According to a recent report:

More than 600,0000 civilians have died as a result of the war in Iraq, according to a team of American and Iraqi scientists. The estimate - far higher than previous figures - was arrived at by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households. But US President George Bush, who has previously estimated a figure of (a mere) 30,000, has called the latest number "not credible".

US President George Bush would probably view any number with more than three digits, and any word with more than three syllables, as not credible.

Then the report gets worrying.

Violent deaths in Iraq are currently totalling 100 a day. The UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland says "many of those are killed by gunshots or have been tortured to death".

But then things look up a little.

Of the 655,000 estimated "excess deaths," 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study.

So you can only blame us for 601 000 deaths. The rest were caused by poor hygiene and clumsiness.

Any other countries needing a helping hand to topple an unpleasant dictator just contact
www. T he W ar A gainst T errorism S quad.com

Kalhnychta se olous sas, nos da i chi gyd and good night each

gwastraff o amser

2006-09-14T22:52:00.000+03:00

Mae'n gas gen i'n swydd i. Dwi i'n eistedd yn y swyddfa bob dydd trwy'r dydd wrthi'n gyfieithu sothrach. Mae'r bos yn edrych arna'i bod tro i mi gyrraedd fel rhwybeth sy'n byw mewn afal. Mae ei chwaer hi, Mopey Dick, wedi bod yn gwrthod i siarad a fi am chwe mis- diolch byth - a phopeth am 800 euro y mis. Cachi! Be wna'i? Dwi'n meddwl am fynd nol i Brydain, am chwilio am swydd yn Sainsburys. Diolch byth mi fydd hi'n ddydd Gwener yfory.
Kalhnychta se olous, good night each a nos da i chi gyd
Ol-ysgrif - Sorry am y camgymeriadau yn y Gymraeg. Os dach chi eisiau'n helpu fi hefo chywiriadau - croeso!
Jamie

success at last

2006-09-03T23:40:00.000+03:00

Success at last

Technophobia

2006-09-03T22:38:00.000+03:00

I am one of the world's great technophobes. Installing anything on my computer usually leaves me shirtless, trembling and soaked in perspiration. I wake up every day to several hundred if not thousand pounds worth of technology, little of which I have any idea how to use. I will shortly have ASDL fitted. It comes with a telephone. I shall no doubt be unable to make a call for six months, terrified that dialling my mother will somehow wipe my hard disc, whatever that is.
Today I have been inspired to overcome this crippling phobia. I paid a visit to the ever charming Sissy, who has recently been on a spending spree in IKEA. She asked me to help assemble some of the furniture she had bought. I panicked. Assembling furniture is on a par with partitioning my hard disc and installing Linux for me. The last time I tried to assemble something was when I bought some bookshelves from the ever blessed Lidl supermarket. It collapsed when I put the first book on it - first the top shelf, then the next one down and then the third. Then the two upright sections collapsed in on themselves. I left it, went to the gym and somehow managed to disable myself by dropping a ten-kilo weight on my right shin.
Tom and Natasha came round later to patch me up. In between helping Natasha to stem the flow of blood, reset the bone, disinfect me, etc., Tom somehow also managed to put together a robust set of shelves from the ruins. Within ten minutes I had bookshelves that would be a credit to the Bodleian Library. I could do nothing but look on in pathetic admiration. It was in the expectation of a catastrophe similar to that of my shelf-building effort that I set about helping Sissy.
As we worked the time passed quickly. One hour. Two hours. Three hours. Eventually, flushed with triumph, we attempted to put the drawers in. We tried again. And again. No way. We collapsed on the sofa and lit up a therapeutic fag. Eventually we returned to the task. I perused and contemplated, panicked, breathed deeply and reconsidered the problem. And eventually we realised we'd put half the drawer together upside down. A mere two hours later the piece of furniture was complete.
The inspiration from actually managing to do something - albeit three hours later than a normal person would - has driven me to attempt more breakthroughs. I shall now attempt to upload a photo to accompany this drivel. If I succeed, I shall publish and be damned. If not, this piece will remain a draft testament to my technological ineptitude forever. Wish me luck.
Kalhnychta se olous, nos da i chi gyd and goodnight each
Jamie

PS I see no picture. I tried. Bugger!

age is no barrier

2006-08-14T22:32:00.000+03:00

Like a lot of gay people, I am "out". All my friends know and it is not an issue with them - friends are friends and are totally unconcerned who I sleep with. My colleagues at work also consider it irrelevant, as it is. It's rarely even a matter for discussion. It's only with older family members that the old barriers come out and things are not spoken about, hidden. I use all the old cliches others use to explain why I've never told them - they're too old, I'm too far away, why worry them, it would hurt them, they're from a different generation where such things were swept under the carpet, they're too old to change their ways, etc.

My siblings are of a different generation and have long since known - again, they're utterly unconcerned. It's now only my parents and my grandmother whom I have left clinging to the hope that one day I'll bring home a nice lass and eventually produce someone to carry on the family name. The idea that I prefer men would, I've always assumed, be incomprehensible to them - especially my grandparents, for whom I thought the word "gay" still meant happy or brightly coloured. I remember once watching wrestling on television with my maternal grandmother before she died. The two wrestlers we were watching were called "Gorgeous George" and "Magnificent Maurice". As they camped it up and fixed their hair after each neck lock, my grandmother turned to me and said "Dost know what? Those two blokes am a couple of lesbians!" This, I assumed, was indicative of my grandparents' understanding of homosexuality.

I went back to England this summer. I was met at the airport by my brother's partner. She has recently given birth to my beautiful niece, whom she and my brother had presented to my other grandmother, now ninety-six years old, a few weeks before. As we drove home, my sister-in-law told me about the conversation when they introduced Gran to the kid.

Gran looked at the baby, turned round and thanked them for giving her a great granddaughter at last. "Her's grand. A day think as ah'd ever av ne'er a great granddaughter (She's beautiful. I never thought I'd have a great granddaughter - Gran only speaks the local dialect and struggles to understand so-called standard English - I'll translate the rest). "Your sister was always too worried about keeping her slim figure and your brother sticks it in the wrong place." My brother and his girlfriend both spat out their tea on hearing this last comment but my grandmother continued unperturbed. She was watching "Will and Grace" at the time. She pointed at the screen and said, "Your brother's like them. He's like your Uncle John. Always preferred the boys. I don't mind though. I still love him."
Years of concealment, only to discover that someone born four years before the First World War not only knows, but is totally unconcerned. We often think that those born many years ago are naive, uninformed. Turns out they knew just what we now know. They just didn't necessarily know the "right" words to talk about it.
Kalhnychta se olous, nos da i chi gyd and good night, each.

a million words?

2006-04-13T22:28:00.000+03:00

I recently read an interesting article in the "Independent" newspaper about the English language. According to the article, the language is about to generate its one millionth word. Apparently, at the moment, English has approximately 988,968 words. Stirring though this is to any true Englishman, I can't help but feel sceptical about the whole idea of how many words a language has. And what I really don't like is any underlying implication that this somehow relates to the inherent superiority of a language.

To begin with, coming up with any reliable definition of what a word is is in itself difficult. Is it a phoneme or set of phonemes that can be uttered individually and have meaning? Try saying the word "the" on its own and see how much meaning you convey, yet most people would agree it is a word.

Then there is English's admirable ability to absorb words from any language it comes into contact with. "My doppelganger's schadenfreude was evident at the barbecue I organised on my patio." 13 words, 7 of them probably etymologically English, but all of them now to be found in many good dictionaries of the English language. Can we really claim the other 6 words as our own to back up our argument we're about to hit the million word mark?

Then try looking at the words "give" and "up". 2 words. Put them together in the phrase "I gave up smoking last week" and the two words, when used together, take on a whole new meaning. Perhaps the phrasal verb "give up" should be recognised as a single third word in its own right. You may say this is not possible, because they are written as two words, but that only holds true, of course, in the written language - there is no gap between the two words when they are spoken. English also has the word "tooth", the word "brush" and the third word "toothbrush". It also has the word "scrubbing" and the word "brush", but lacks the third word "scrubbingbrush", but is there any logical reason to count "toothbrush" as a third word, but not "scrubbing brush"? It may seem unimportant, but when you come out with figures as precise as 988,968 words, it does make a difference.

German happily joins two or more words together as one to make a new word and so go one up in the numbers game. Germans have "Geburtstag" - birthday, "Kuchen" - cake, and the third word "Geburtstagskuchen". English misses out by having only two words, "birthday" and "cake", but we can still talk about a sweet thing decked with candles we cut on our birthday and are in no way disadvantaged by having one word less.

I live in Greece, a country whose people are rightly ferociously proud of their beautiful language. They will happily tell you their language has far more words than any other. However, this is partly because Greek, like German, can easily combine two or more words to produce a third, whereas other languages have to keep the two words separate and so immediately lose out in the word count game, but in no way lose out on the ability to express exactly the same idea. I also used to live in France - another place which is rightly proud of its language, and have recently read a scathing comment that French has a mere 100 000 or so words. How this figure was arrived at, I do not know, but even if we assume it is true, all we have to do is read a little French literature to understand that the number of words is no indication of the quality of a language.

Kalhnyxta se olous, nos da i chi gyd and good night each

within the linguistic framework of lexical roadmaps

2006-01-19T22:39:00.000+02:00

One of the painful things about my job is I get to see lots of texts created by the EU and begin to see what liberties they take with language. This is not one of those "Of my God, my England look what those Europeans are doing to English" posts, by the way. A Greek colleague assures me they make just the same dog's breakfast of the Greek language.

I quote a good one I got today.

The Parliamentary initiative to participate to and actively support implementation of the EC Treaty, which found its expression in this Conference, was recognized as an excellent example of regional ownership and cooperation. In order to improve the parliamentary procedure of the ratification of the EC Treaty, parliamentarians will create an informal network for cooperation and use the proposed structure of a Balkan COSAC. They could jointly develop road maps for the parliamentary tasks involved, checklists for the implementation of the acquis communautaire and a communication strategy to explain to the public the Treaty and the challenges it raises.

An initiative found its expression??

Procedure here means what you do when you move forwards, not procedure as in "how you do something". Like saying "My procedure through the park was interrupted by a dog attack."

Words to do with future plans have all been blended into the all-encompassing expression "road maps." To avoid any hint of obligation, informal networks are now de rigeur. Regional ownership apparently means "doing it yourself", eg. regional ownership for the bathroom upgrade road map" means you get to decide yourself what colour you'll paint the bathroom next week.

Anyway, I trust that within the framework of their roadplan for post-operative relaxation initiatives, all bloggers will have established some informal network for a liver function downgrade within a local ownership context - or failing that, I trust you're planning to go out for a beer with your mates in a nearby bar over the weekend.

Kalhnyxta se olous, nos da i chi gyd and good night each,

Jamie

office rudeness

2005-12-01T23:07:00.000+02:00

How do fellow bloggers deal with rudeness? I ask this question because unsolicited rudeness is something I find hard to deal with like a resonsible adult. I usually sulk about it for days until the offender is accidentally nice to me and then just put it down to him/her having a bad day - until it happens again, when I usually do the same.

On Tuesday, I answered the phone to a customer who asked to be put through to Rita - names changed to protect the innocent - i.e. me. I took the name of the customer and attempted to put her through to Rita. The line was busy, so I tried to get the customer back on the line and take her details so that Rita could phone her back later. As I did so, the line was cut.

I went into the main office and approached Rita. "Rita," I said. A Mrs Z. phoned and wanted to speak to you. Your line was busy and I'm afraid the line got cut before I could get her phone number."

She fixed me with the kind of glance you usually reserve for half a worm you've found in your apple after you've just taken a bite out of it. "The line was cut because you tried to put her through to me when I was already speaking on the phone. That's what happens when you try to connect people with phone lines which are already busy, isn't it." She turned away glacially and made another phone call.

Apart from demonstrating a lamentable lack of awareness as to how telephone systems operate, the terse retort from my co-worker was definitely somewhat lacking in common courtesy. I was miffed. What would fellow bloggers recommend? Should I search for an opportunity to respond in kind? Should I put it down to a bad day? Stick rusty pins into any doll I can find which bears a passing resemblance to my ungracious co-worker? Take an assertiveness training course and then sit her down and have a mature chat about the need to respect the rules of day to day courtesy? Let her tyres down? The alternatives are legion. Except she's part owner of the school and best friend of the boss of the company, so any of the more enjoyable responses could have a serious impact on my employment prospects.

Kalhnyxta se olous, good night each a nos da i chi gyd,

Jamie

spam me baby

2005-11-13T23:07:00.000+02:00

I am kinda fascinated by spam mail. Where do these people get my address? What makes them think I am interested in what they have to offer? I'm now getting spam from people who just LOVE my blogspot. Somebody yesterday was so moved by my blog about Kyoto, written as usual under the influence, that they thought I may be interested in their weight loss pill. I have numerous faults - smoking, swearing, being under the influence, etc., but as all these vices leave precious little time for food, weight loss pills are the last thing on my mind at the moment. Recent unsolicited offers have included lotions to restore my hair - like how do they know I'm bald? (which I am, but it doesn't bother me so why are they trying to help?) - numerous offers of viagra - (I'm going through a lack of libido stage at the moment and I can't even remember if I need viagra - though now I've posted this I'll probably get spam offering me libido pills) - and a weird one some time ago asking me if I'd like to watch somebody doing something anatomically inadvisable with a horse. I also get frequent mails from the American government inviting me to apply for a green card - I wonder how many Cubans get similar mails.

I've been online for four years now, and not yet received one spam about anything I actually want, so how economically viable is all this business? So, to help spammers everywhere. Send me an unsolicited offer of a night out with a team of heavy smoking foul-mouthed Welsh speaking ouzo drinking nineteen-year old body builders who enjoy gardening, baking cakes and watching ludicrous American teenage tv series and I promise I'll send you all my bank details by return of post.

Good night, kalh nyxta se olous a nos da iawn i chi gyd

Jamie

But Kyoto's bad for the American economy

2005-07-23T22:25:00.000+03:00

Just got mailed this by a friend. Happily, illustrious world leader Dubya is sitting safely in air-conditioned splendour, valliantly defending the American economy.

PHOENIX, July 22 - A relentless and lethal blanket of heat has settled on much of the western United States, forcing the cancellation of dozens ofairline flights, threatening the loss of electrical power, stokingwildfires and leaving 20 people dead in Phoenix alone in just the past week.Fourteen of the victims here are thought to have been homeless, althoughthe heat also claimed the life of a 97-year-old man who died in hisbedroom, a 37-year-old man who succumbed in his car and two older women whodied in homes without air-conditioning.Daytime highs in Phoenix have remained near 110 degrees for more than a week, and municipal officials acknowledge that it is almost impossible to deal with the needs of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people living on the streets. The city has barely 1,000 shelter beds, and hundreds of them are available only in the winter.The lack of preparation for the homeless here is obvious to those sweltering on the sidewalk outside the Society of St. Vincent de Paulrelief center in a zone of desolation between the office towers of downtownPhoenix and the State Capitol."I'm dying out here," said a homeless man in his 40's who goes by the name of Romeo, crouched in a sliver of shade on a littered sidewalk while waiting for a handout meal and a bottle of water. "The police are making us move all over the place. Where do they expect us to go? They need some more shelters."The Phoenix police and private social service agencies have been passing out thousands of bottles of water donated by grocery chains and individuals. But the fierce heat continues to take a toll."We've not seen anything like this before," said Tony Morales, a Phoenix police detective. "We get heat-related deaths every summer, usually 5 to 10 deaths through the whole summer, but nothing like this."In Maricopa County as a whole, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs, 21 people died of heat exposure all of last year, just one more than the city's toll in the last several days.Officials of the National Weather Service estimate that more than 200 heat records have been broken in the West during the last two weeks. On Tuesday,Las Vegas tied its record for any date, 117 degrees. Reno and other locations in Nevada have set records with nine consecutive days of temperatures at 100 or higher. The temperature in Denver on Wednesday reached 105 degrees, making it the hottest day there since 1878. The highest temperature for the entire region during the heat wave has been129, recorded at Death Valley, Calif.The weather forced airlines to cancel more than two dozen flights thisweek, remove passengers from fully loaded planes, limit the number of tickets sold on some flights and take other measures to withstand the heat.The reasons for that are related to engineering. Aircraft manufacturers have customarily set temperature limits at which their planes can be safely operated. (The limits are lower at higher altitudes, as in the RockyMountains, and higher at lower altitudes, as in the desert that surroundsLas Vegas.) High temperatures mean aircraft engines must take in more air in order to create the greater thrust the planes need to leave the ground.But airplane makers also have limits on the amount of thrust that an engine can produce. If the engines exceed those limits, they may not perform properly. At that point, aircraft manufacturers advise, the airlines should remove weight from planes - either passengers or cargo - or, in the worst cases, not fly at all.United Airlines canceled seven United Express flights out of Denver onWednesday, when the record-tying temperature there exceeded the operatinglimit for the carrier's propeller planes, said a spokesman, Jeff Green. "Itwas just so extreme, and stayed on so long, that we had to cancel flights,"Mr. Green said. America West canceled 22 flights out of its Las Vegas hub this week, 11 each on Monday and Tuesday. The temperature of 117 there was approachingthe limit for America West's regional jets: 117.26, above which they should not fly, said Linda Larsen, a spokeswoman for Mesa Airlines, which operates the flights for America West.On the other hand, Southwest Airlines, one of the biggest carriers operating in Las Vegas and Phoenix, has not canceled any flights because of the heat, a spokesman said. And Frontier Airlines merely refused to fly any pets.The extraordinary heat has lasted for many weeks in the Southwestern desert, where it has exacted a high price in lives along the Mexican border. Officials of the United States Bureau of Customs and BorderProtection say 101 illegal migrants have died of heat so far this fiscal year, which runs from October through September. That compares with 95 heat-related deaths in all of the previous 12 months.Twenty-one border crossers have died in Arizona just since July 1, saidSalvador Zamora, a spokesman for the border agency. The agency has stepped up its efforts to rescue migrants from the heat, using trucks and helicopters to aid people in distress in the brutal sun.Here in Phoenix, where the issue of rescue involves the homeless, Moises Gallegos, the city's deputy director of community services, said that space was available in downtown shelters but that some of the homeless refused to use it. Some are drug or alcohol abusers who do not want to be tested and treated, a condition for entry, and others are mentally ill and refuse all offers of help, Mr. Gallegos said.But some private social service agencies contend that there is a critical lack of shelter space here, and criticize officials for not opening a 500-bed city-owned homeless shelter that is used only in the winter."We need a year-round overflow shelter," said Terry Bower, director of the Human Services Campus Day Resource Center. Elsewhere in Arizona, firefighters are struggling to contain a swarm of 20 wildfires around the state, most sparked by lightning, including a 60,000-acre blaze northeast of Phoenix that shut several major highways. Across the West as a whole, 32 large wildfires are burning, fueled by the heat, dry conditions and a profusion of brush created by the winter's heavy rains, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.And in California, the state's Independent System Operator, which handles the flow of power to three-quarters of California customers, declared a Stage 2 emergency on Thursday and Friday, the first in two years. Stage 2 means that utilities are within 5 percent of their maximum production ofelectricity and that interruption of power to some customers is possible.Stephanie McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the Independent System Operator, said the emergency was in effect for Southern California and asked residents to conserve electricity. Ms. McCorkle said the system had experienced 14 consecutive days in which demand in Southern California was near capacity."The Bay Area is not hot, and that has been our saving grace," she said."L.A. is sizzling."Craig Schmidt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's regional headquarters in Salt Lake City, said records had been falling across theWestern states since the heat wave started on July 12. In Phoenix, it was at least 110 every day from July 11 to 19; on Friday the temperature peaked at 108.There may be some relief in sight, though: monsoons are moving into the area. The rain and cloud cover will cool things down a bit, officials said, but humidity will rise, prolonging the misery."Throughout the Western states - you have to estimate, but more than 200 records have probably been broken, and that's just talking daily records,"Mr. Schmidt said. "These records are no fun to break." Among the most remarkable was the one in Las Vegas, where the 117-degree reading on Tuesday matched the record for any date, set in 1942. The 95-degree low on Tuesday was also a record for Las Vegas, as was the average temperature that day, 104 degrees.In Death Valley, meanwhile, the temperature never dropped below 100 degrees in two 24-hour periods. Mr. Schmidt attributes the heat to a high pressure system that refused to budge."This one went on for so long, because there's a very strong ridge of high pressure centered over Utah and Arizona," he said, "and it kept the monsoon moisture from working its way northward. That usually cools things off with thunderstorms and clouds."Andy Bailey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Las Vegas, said:"It's probably fair to say what just wrapped up was probably the most intense heat wave the city's ever seen. We had a string of four days where it was 115 or above."Now, however, the region is facing a new threat from the expected summer monsoons and thunderstorms, Mr. Bailey said."We're concerned with flash flooding today and tomorrow," he said. Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from New York for this article,Katie Zezima from Boston and John Dougherty from Phoenix.

Duw, mae'n boeth!

2005-07-12T23:22:00.000+03:00

Oh man it's hot here in Athens! I am fantasising about a week on a beach in Iceland, sunning myself on a glacier somewhere. In a while I shall go to bed, sure that I will wake up in about four hours with an unquenchable desire for cold orange juice. I have orange juice, but never enough for this heat.
Waiting for the bus in Chremonidou St in the morning turns into a frenzied battle with a dozen other commuters to occupy the one spot on the pavement which is shaded by an overhead balcony. This is followed by an undignified brawl on the bus to secure a position near the air conditioning unit. Walking from the bus stop in the centre of the city to my office now requires advance planning to chart out a route which offers maximum shade potential. Work, incidentally, is almost pleasant now, thanks to the air conditioning, though in an act of unparalleled malice my company has just deleted all the games from the server in order to encourage us to work just that little bit harder despite the heat. No chance!
I remember, when I was a kid, a well-known trash newspaper called the Sun, famous for its recent "scoop" which consisted of photos of Saddam Hussein in his boxer shorts, reported on a British "heatwave" with the memorable headline "Britain sizzles in the seventies" For those unfamiliar with trusty old Fahrenheit, 70 degrees F. is about 21 degrees centigrade, positively arctic compared with now.
Unable to sway the world's great leaders, I shall instead take full advantage of the global warming George Bush has decided to embrace rather than threaten the American economy and head off in a few days to the island of Serifos. I shall expose my genetically unprotected British skin to unwisely long periods of UV radiation and use foolishly low SPF sun cream. I hope many bloggers will be able to do the same or something similar.
Have a great summer, bloggers, or a great winter for those south of the equator.

Enjoy the summer, kalo kalokairi a mwynheuwch yr haf

Jamie

Gone, but not forgotten

2005-06-25T22:16:00.000+03:00

It's called Faslane. A highly lethal, environmentally unfriendly (it says so with admirable honesty on the packet) insecticide, probably banned in most of Europe. Greece, bless it, allows pharmacists to sell it with impunity. The chemist warned me that it was expensive, and at twenty euros it was. I went home and read the enclosed instruction leaflet, which informed me that the contents of one tube were enough to decockroach nine average flats. I used half the tube in my one underaverage-sized flat in the next twenty minutes.

Later I began to feel queasy. My stomach was churning. I have a phobia of toxic chemicals. I convinced myself I had somehow accidentally ingested some of the Faslane. The information leaflet informed me, encouragingly, that in cases of accidental ingestion, there is no antidote. All medical science can do is treat the symptoms and then leave you to hope for the best. Eventually I managed to reason with myself. The only way I could have ingested any of the poison would be to have accidentally licked behind the radiator or got my tongue stuck in the crack between the door frame and the wall. I knew both of these events were unlikely to have happened, at least without my remembering them, and calmed down.

I awoke the next morning and staggered into the kitchen, desperate for the swig of orange juice that kickstarts my system just after I wake up. As I entered the kitchen, a cockroach fell from the ceiling to the floor with an audible thud . The fall stunned it. It never awoke. Over the next few days the carnage continued apace. I found them everywhere. In my cutlery drawer, under my fridge, behind the washing machine. Faslane sends cockroaches into a state of lethargy. Then their vital signs begin to weaken. Ouzo does the same, and far more cheaply, but Faslane adds death to its list of side effects. My kitchen was awash with lethargic cockroaches for days afterwards. Then it was full of dead ones, each day requiring several gruesome sessions with the broom lest I tread on one, barefoot, as I always am at home. Next there was a brief period when only immature cockroaches were still evident, presumably hatched after the parents had expired and making a defiant last stand from their final enclave under my kettle. Then there were none. For two days now I have not seen a single one. Is this the end? Or are they merely taunting me? I shall let you know.

Good night, each. Kalhnyxta se olous sas. Nos da i chi gyd.

it was worth a try

2005-05-29T00:04:00.000+03:00

The exterminator came. I opened the door to him, expecting a short bald man with round rimless spectacles and an unhealthily expansive knowledge of endomological breeding habits. Instead in walked a handsome yet silent young man with enough toxins in a tank on his back to eliminate Birmingham. He was here for just five minutes, dealing death with every squirt.

He left.

The cockroaches pissed themselves laughing and organised a family get-together in my sink. It was like Naked Lunch but I kept my clothes on. The roaches are still giggling as I type.

Somewhere, around some corner, I shall find THE poison.

Kalinyxta se olous sas, good night each a nos da i chi gyd.

Jamie

Ach fy mhen i

2005-05-23T23:16:00.000+03:00

Penblwydd arall ddoe.

Pen dost y bore 'ma ond pwy sy'n becso dam? Pedwar deg pedwar o flynyddoedd wedi dod a wedi mynd a phob un yn dda. Does gen i ddim hawl i ddathlu? Dim boyfriend, dim job (wel, dim job perffaith), dim problem. Dwi'n teimlo'n optimistig iawn heddiw. Will it last? Mi wela'i.

Kalhnyxta se olous, good night each, nos da i chi gyd a phenblwydd hapus iawn i chi gyd,

Jamie

2005-05-15T22:28:00.000+03:00

Apart from saving money on shampoo, one of the more satisfying aspects of getting older, or reverse youthing as I prefer to call it, is a heightened sense of pleasure at being in your own house. I recall, when younger, a sense of panic if Saturday evening was approaching and a night out somewhere had not been planned. Now the idea of a cup of tea and a DVD to take me into Sunday sounds utterly acceptable. Whereas I was once incapable of remaining in the house all Sunday, the thought of having my backside firmly ensconced all afternoon on Dolores (this is not a sexist comment - Dolores is simply my pet name for my trusty deck chair, a snip at twenty-five euros from the ever blessed local LIDL supermarket) now sends a cosy frisson of pleasure down my spinal cord. Today's list of dizzy thrills included repotting a shrub and dead-heading the geraniums, interspersed with a dozen cups of Tetley's tea and frequent bouts of bum on said deck chair.
Sadly, tomorrow is Monday, and my pampered backside will be in intimate contact for far too many hours with the chair in my office. But Friday is just few short days away and much of the the intervening eveningtime will be spent with Dolores anyway.

Have a good week, bloggers, young and reverse youthed alike.

Kalhnyxta se olous, good night each, a nos da iawn i bob un ohonoch chi,

Jamie

Xronia polla

2005-05-03T22:44:00.000+03:00

Ach, I am back. Xronia polla blogosphere and thank you Helion for your kind comments. England was fine this time.The colours in England in spring are amazing. I know that's nostalgic trash 'cos the colours in every country are amazing in spring, but ex-pats are allowed a little extra nostalgia.
I am now back in front of the computer, somewhat the worse for wear after a fine evening last night with anatomy of melancholy. Sorry we never actually got round to watching the DVD, anatomy, but I've made a copy so we can do it some other night. I thought our rendition of Theos An Einai was exquisite by the way, though I suspect the neighbours were less enamoured of it. Never mind. I am usually a nice quiet neighbour, so I'm sure they will indulge me this once.

Have fun.

Kalhnyxta se olous sas, nos da i chi gyd and good night, each.

tempus fugit

2005-04-20T22:28:00.000+03:00

Giati o xronos pernaei toso grigora; Xthes htan Xristougenna. Shmera einai Pasxa. Avrio tha einai kalokairi kai methavrio tha eimai pali sto grafeio gia allo ena xrono. Hrtha sthn Ellada prin apo dwdeka xronia gia na meinw "enan xrono". Duo sxeseis meta kai eimai akoma edw. Mou leipei h Anglia apistevta synexeia kai molis ftanw sthn Anglia bariemai aforita kai metraw tis hmeres mexri na gyrisw. The grass is always greener, etc. Se liges hmeres tha eimai pali ekei. Tha perasw kalytera aythn th fora; Tha doume.
Kalo Pasxa, Happy Easter a Phasg Da se olous sas sth Blogosfaira,

Jamie

Theatre on the Roof.

2005-03-31T22:35:00.000+03:00

I was persuaded to attend the theatre last night, a rare change of Wednesday-night routine for a home-loving lad such as myself. Going turned out to be the right decision. I went to a place called the Train on the Roof, in Konstandinopoleos St, close to the big Praktiker in Pireos St. The theatre is housed in one of three old wooden railway carriages. The other two carriages are used for a restaurant and a bar. The evening was superb.

The theatre itself is excellent. The middle seats have been removed from the carriage to make way for the "stage", and if you're lucky enough to get the seats at the front, you have to keep moving your feet to make sure you don't trip the actors over - the place is tiny. The performance was memorable and superbly acted by the cast of seven. If you get the chance, check it out.

Excellent evening, or, as we say in Orc language, ardderchog!!

Kalhnyxta se olous, good night each, a nos da i chi gyd

nos sadwrn yn ein pentre bach ni

2005-03-19T22:55:00.000+02:00

Nos Sadwrn eto. Rydw i gartre yn gwrando ar miwsig i. Dwi ddim yn gwbod pam, ond yn y dyddiau hyn dwi ddim eisiau mynd allan o gwbl nos Sadwrn. Mae ffrindiau'n ffonio ac yn gofyn i mi am fynd allan rhywle, ond pob tro dwi'n ffeindio esgus i aros fan'ma. Nos Wener, nos Sul, does gen i ddim problem, ond nos Sadwrn mae'n well gen i aros yn y ty. Yn fuan mi fydd yr haf yn dod. Gobeithio bydd y pethau'n newid. Mi wela'i.

Nos da, bawb. Ewch allan! Nos Sadwrn yw e.