Images from Kefalonia

Ithaki, from Poros beach


Aenos foothills, from Tzanata


Snowy mountain scene, from Valerianos


Telegraph pole snapped off, Valerianos


Telegraph pole blown over, Valerianos


Crumpled pylon, between Valerianos and Platies


View towards Poros, from Agios Gorgios (Pastra)


Lemon tree, cactus, snow


Deserted village in the snow

News and views (power supplies permitting) in the ELSOKAI Forums

News from Kefalonia

Latest news re situation on Kefalonia at the ELSOKAI Forums in the Local News: Kef - power down

Turkey moves forward, UK moves abroad

The UK government is to follow banks, airlines and phone companies by exporting British jobs abroad. Staff currently giving information to the unemployed will presumably be able to get the latest advice on how to claim unemployment benefits by phoning India, where wages are about 20% of those paid in the UK. Ah, that must be international socialism at work?

Turkey, at least, has shown common sense by dropping charges of ‘insulting Turkey’ against Orhan Pamuk and by re-arresting the man who shot Pope John Paul II. Mehmet Ali Agca, a known criminal with links to Turkish far-right paramilitary groups, had been released early while serving a sentence for murdering a left-wing journalist.

Henceforth, Greece will have a national day of remembrance for victims of terrorism.

And despite notices on the cars stating their status, specialist volunteers who worked to save the whale stranded in the Thames returned to their cars to find parking tickets on them. Nice one, huh?

News and views in the ELSOKAI Forums

Artic weather here

Picture from the
Whale & Dolphin Trust

Extreme weather conditions, with fierce storms, heavy snowfall, northerly gales and a big drop in temperature, looks to be sent in for the next three days.

The real estate market looks set to continue attracting consumers as the growth prospects in the real estate market are favourable, with demand expected to continue increasing in the next five years.

In the UK, record levels of gun crime are being blamed on the fact that more people than ever are carrying firearms as fashion accessories.

At the same time, it’s been revealed that the police spend more than £500 million a year on paperwork - a sum greater than that spent fighting robberies and house burglaries.

There’s an interesting article in a non-political American blog headed, “The UK is heading toward a police state”. HEY – it’s not just me!

And the bottlenose whale which captivated the world as it swam up the Thames has died before it could be released back in to the ocean.

News and views in the ELSOKAI Forums

Cool running

A survey released on Sunday shows that almost 40% of Greeks would prefer closer ties with China rather than with the US, while 66% of those surveyed replied that they like the Chinese.

A strategic agreement signed between Greece and China yesterday is aimed at bringing the two nations closer together. 60,000 tons of Greek fertilizer will be exported to China and Greece will be promoted as a transport hub for Chinese vessels shipping products to Southeast Europe.

So, is Greece going to export sh*t and import… dodgy Chinese electrical goods?

Poultry sales have plummeted by up to 40 percent recently as fears that bird flu will enter Greece from Turkey have driven consumers to opt for other meat on their dinner table, despite continued reassurances from authorities that eating (Greek) chicken and eggs is completely safe.

A seven-tonne whale has made its way up the Thames to central London.

A Jamaican sled-dog racer has arrived in Aviemore, Scotland, to enter Europe's largest husky racing event.

And a farmer in Wiltshire, UK, has received a speeding ticket for driving at 85mph… on his tractor.


Pictures from Kefalonia
News & views in the ELSOKAI Forums

Ho hum, fiddle-di-di

Former judge Constantina Bourboulia, who had been on the run from authorities for the last four months, was arrested in Paris yesterday. Bourboulia is alleged to have taken a €350,000 bribe from a lawyer in return for not remanding his client, a corrupt stockbroker, in custody.

The Greek government has recently bought a number of US-made Hummer vehicles for the army at a cost of €195,000 per vehicle, almost double the price in the USA. The Defence Minister said the vehicles bought by Greece had different specifications from the ones usually available on the market.

62% of Greeks have economic difficulties with more than half unable to pay for a week’s holiday every year. One in five Greeks cannot afford to adequately heat their homes. For the first time more companies are closing down than opening. 30,000 small and middle-sized firms are facing bankruptcy, partly because people have no money to spend and partly because of newly-arrived big trade centres.

UK supermarket giant, Tesco, may be expanding in to Greece.

State inspectors yesterday issued a report slamming the levels of hygiene at the historic Varvakeios Market in central Athens and partly-thawed frozen food was seized and destroyed in Thessaloniki.

A large proportion of Greek factories have not been built to withstand the pressure of an earthquake and many offices lack basic safety features, seismic experts revealed yesterday.

More news and views in the ELSOKAI Forums

Greed, corruption, & food

Incidents of dishonesty by food merchants, who up until recently were trusted by consumers, are on the daily agenda. Television coverage of a filthy storeroom behind a butcher’s stall at Athens’s central meat market, aired on Star channel’s Saturday news bulletin, was hair-raising stuff.

Viewers were shown a trapdoor leading to an underground catacomb containing darkened cuts of meat, wild pig heads on shelves and cockroaches scuttling along the floor — an ideal backdrop for a horror movie.

The recent wave of horrifying reports about unsuitable food products making their way onto the local market is due to increasing profiteering at the expense of public health.

Some say the stricter and more regular controls are a public relations exercise ahead of local elections in October. Although there is certainly some truth in that, criticism does not change the essence of the problem but merely underscores the vital need to disengage the system of food inspections from petty politicking.

And once again, checks at supermarket chains have revealed that the prices charged at the checkout are higher than the prices marked on the shelves.

About a year after building work started on new homes near the Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE) oil distillery at Thessaloniki a court has ruled that the buildings fail to comply with relevant laws.

Police and the anti-terrorism squad are continuing investigations into an Athens bank robbery on Monday that resulted in gun shot injuries to three people. The gang were very heavily armed and a connection with terrorism is strongly suspected.

And a new website has been launched that maps more than 25,000 surnames across Britain. Anyone can tap in their name and with the click of a mouse glimpse a profile of how others who share their name are distributed around the country.

News and views at the ELSOKAI Forums

Crime on the rise in Greece

New crime data released yesterday by the Public Order Ministry confirmed that crime in Greece is on the rise. The number of murders across the country shot up in 2005 from the previous year, as did incidents involving fraud.

Health Minister Nikitas Kaklamanis yesterday urged citizens not to travel to neighboring Turkey unless necessary after Turkish authorities confirmed their fourth bird flu victim, but he added that Greece has been advised not to close its borders for now.

Greece’s worst ferry accident, the Express Samina disaster off Paros in 2000, was caused by an under-qualified captain and a poorly trained crew who were indifferent to their duties, a court heard yesterday.

A recent opinion poll suggests that 75% of the people support a separation of the Church from the State.

More news, and comments welcome, in the ELSOKAI Forums

The da Vinci Code

“There are the people on one hand, and on the other there are some people at the reins of the organization that we don’t know; it’s as if they’re hidden. I have a feeling that the whole event has almost been hushed up. There is still hope, though, that a fresh wind will blow.”

More Pakistanis kidnapped?

Changes at the Greek National Intelligence Agency?

No – it’s Patras, European Cultural Capital for 2006!

Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis inaugurated an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings in Patras yesterday, launching a year of cultural events in the city which holds the title of European Cultural Capital for 2006.

Despite bird flu running rampant, and a suspected fourth death, Turkey has declined an offer of Greek aid.

And does the launch of ASPIDA, a new political party, signify the rise of the Roma empire?

Comments welcome in the ELSOKAI Forums

So why are you in Greece?

A short time ago EllasDevil posted this question at ELSOKAI:
"So why are you in Greece?". I came up with the usual answer:
the sun, the sand, the sea, the relaxed way of life on a Greek island.

Reading through the press recently has reminded me of other reasons:

The Muslim cleric Abu Hamza preached that killing non-Muslims was justified. Guardian Hamza was heard calling for the "blood and destruction" of non-believers and describing Britain as a country "like the inside of a toilet". Telegraph

I am no fan of this bigoted, bloodthirsty racist leech. However, I’ve often heard ethnic Brits declare that Britain is going down the toilet.

Peter Wareing was beaten unconscious in an unprovoked attack and left in a coma. He was placed on a life support machine and his wife was told that he might not survive. He has been left with some permanent disability and had to give up his career as a barrister. Telegraph

A teenager punched a father-of-four in the face so hard that it left him fighting for his life. Phill Carroll confronted youths who threw a stone at his car. The punch knocked Mr Carroll to the ground, causing him to hit his head and a blood clot to form on his brain. He was in a coma for 18 days and needed three operations on his skull, one of which removed part of his brain. Mr Carroll still suffers from memory loss and mood swings and is unable to resume work as an engineer. Telegraph

Mr Waring’s attackers are to be imprisoned for 18 months. Mr Carroll’s attacker for 12 months.

Now consider this: A posse of police officers arrested a student and charged him under Section 5 of the Public Order Act for making homophobic remarks… about a police horse.


Photo from RollOnFriday

So, I quite like living in a country concerned about the return of a 2,400-year-old marble heel. BBC

Not that I’m claiming it’s perfect. For example:

In an opinion poll for Skai Radio, reported in Kathimerini, 32% of respondents thought the Albanian community was at least partly to blame for the murder of a 17-year-old Albanian in Crete, on New Year’s Day. OK, I don’t have a problem with that as such, as I’ve seen part of the local Albanian community act provocatively when Albania beat Greece at football – which resulted in an Albanian being killed on Zakynthos. However, I do have a problem accepting that anything in any way justified these murders. 44% of the 949 people questioned agree with that. Uh… guys… what about the other 56%?

Over the past six months or so we’ve repeatedly been told that Greeks are anti-immigrant, so I was surprised that 53 percent believe the Pakistanis were kidnapped and questioned. OK, so are they happy with that?

Meanwhile, a substantial number of Greeks do not seem to trust the official explanation about the death of a Russian prisoner, Maxim Zhilim, this month. Zhilim (allegedly?) shot and killed two police officers while being transferred to prison but was found dead three days later. 20% do not believe that Zhilim committed suicide but thought that police officers killed him. Just over half of those polled accepted that Zhilim shot himself. I wonder how many of those 20% think it would be a good thing if ‘the police’ had shot him? I’m just glad that he didn’t get the chance to kill anyone else. And if ‘the police’ did kill him, well, some proof would be nice.

It seems the government are struggling to communicate its views on these issues – well, communications are a problem out here.

Elsewhere in ELSOKAI:

Would you go home for €4,500? Thousands of asylum seekers are to be offered millions of pounds in cash to return to their home countries under a scheme announced by the UK Home Office.

The Gospel according to Judas: Was Judas acting at the behest of God when he sold Jesus to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver?

Comments welcome in the ELSOKAI Forums

Dying to be in Greece?

Welcome to Greece, the last sanctuary for smokers in a European Union at war with nicotine. But is Greece at war with the cigarette?

Despite laws passed three years ago outlawing smoking in public places, and designating special areas for restaurants and cafes, pharmacists and doctors sneak a drag on the job, elderly matrons savor cigarillos in pastry shops, and taxi drivers light up with the windows sealed tight, passengers be damned.

Papastratos Cigarette Company S.A, member of Philip Morris International, announced on Tuesday a 100-million-euro investment for the construction of a new, modern factory at Aspropyrgos, Attica. It is the largest foreign investment ever made in Greece and the Development Minister, Dimitris Sioufas, congratulated the company on its decision. Smoking: a way of life

Well, we all know the perils of smoking, but death is the only certainty in life. Never a laughing matter in Greece, death is even more grave for the country's non-Orthodox communities, whose shortage of sanctioned burial grounds has long been compounded by legal restrictions and official apathy by the Greek state. Dying to be in Greece?

To help promote the re-population of the Orthodox faithful, the Church of Greece is preparing to establish a Marriage Institute and training programs for couples about to be married Marriage training by the Church

Comments welcome in the ELSOKAI Forums

Lay back and think of England...

What do you see? Red phone boxes? The British ‘bobby’? Fish ‘n’ chips?

So, what represents England to you? icons.org.uk are inviting people to vote for their favourite ‘icons’ of England, be it St. George, the Notting Hill Carnival or real ale. You can see the most popular icons so far, and vote yourself, here: Icons of England. You can test your knowledge in this fun Icons quiz

Don’t even think about nominating the 'Elgin' marbles - Greece has announced that a German university intend to return a piece of the Parthenon, increasing pressure on the British Museum to do the same with the Parthenon marbles.

And if you missed voting for the 'new' Seven Wonders of the World, here’s the link: n7w.com

Officials in Turkey admitted yesterday that the deadly strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus was marching across the country and had infected poultry in 25 cities. The Turkish tourist industry is increasingly worried, especially as the UK has advised people not to visit areas affected by the outbreak, now including the popular resort of Kusadasi – just across the water from Samos. It seems one of the victims, a young girl, caught bird flu after kissing her pet chicken. Bird flu fears

And here’s a rather odd tale about 15 Cubans who had fled their homeland to make a new life in America. Fortunately, they landed on a bridge in the Florida Keys just as their leaky vessel began to sink, but the Department of Homeland Security sent them back to face the wrath of Castro’s Communist regime — under US laws, fleeing Cubans who manage to reach dry land are allowed to stay in the country, while those intercepted at sea must return to their homeland. The department claims that the bridge did not qualify as terra firma… because the bit they landed on was broken away from the bit connected to dry land… A bridge too far

In the pc section, news that Microsoft has released two patches for Windows, rated ‘Critical’.

More news in the ELSOKAI Forums

No imminent threat

While Greece faces no imminent threat from bird flu, state services remain on standby, especially at border entry points. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, no evidence has been found suggesting Turkey has been negligent in controlling the spread of the bird flu virus. However, Turkey's health minister had to be protected by police as he was besieged on a visit to the town where two children have died from bird flu and fears are growing that the deadly disease could migrate westward to Greece and the rest of Europe. Britain's leading medical scientist urged people not to visit the parts of Turkey affected by bird flu – which now includes the popular resort town of Kusadasi.

Seismologists reassured the public yesterday that the powerful earthquake which rocked Greece on Sunday was not the precursor for an even bigger quake.

A Greek-Russian cosmonaut said yesterday that he is willing to help train a Greek to go into space.

More news in the ELSOKAI Forums

You gonna wear that, or smoke it?

A UK charity is to sue the Albanian government for loss of revenue after the Albanian Interior Minister announced a "major drugs haul" – legitimate industrial hemp for the textile industry.

More news in the ELSOKAI Forums

Currying favour

Thank heaven for corrupt judges – without them the Greek media would struggle to fill their news reports. Although it does seem that the judiciary gives them plenty to report on. According to the head of the Athens Bar Association, the ongoing investigation into corruption within the judiciary has only skimmed the surface.

And if it isn’t the judges then politicians and police are a good bet, especially when the two can be combined: Public Order Minister, Giorgos Voulgarakis, has denied a press report claiming that he had been informed of problems regarding prison transfers prior to the murder of two police officers.

In the UK the neighbourhood curry house and Chinese takeaway risk being replaced by souvlaki shops as an unexpected consequence of Britain’s new immigration policy. It seems that there are not enough ethnic Asians and Chinese in the UK who want to work in corner-shop catering and they are being told to recruit East Europeans. Interesting dilemma – if Asian and Chinese caterers insist on Asian and Chinese cooks and waiters, are they being racist? If you go out for a curry or a Chinese, would you regard it as authentic if it was cooked by a Croat and served by a Serb?

More in the ELSOKAI Forums

6.9 quake shakes Greece & Med

A very strong earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale rocked Greece at 13:34. The epicentre was located in the sea, between the islands of Kythira and Crete.

Two children and an adult have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in Turkey's capital Ankara, the city's governor Kemal Onal has said. In the eastern region of Van, three children from the same family died last week, at least two of them from the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain

More details in the ELSOKAI Forums

Theophany Cross tragedy

A 19-year-old youth died yesterday while trying to retrieve a cross thrown into a frigid lake during a traditional Epiphany ceremony in a village in central Greece.

State services are fully prepared to tackle a possible outbreak of bird flu in Greece, the Hellenic Center for Disease Prevention and Control (KEELPNO) has said following reports that three children in Turkey have died from the deadly strain of the virus.

The social security system's financing needs threaten to overwhelm the Greek economy after 2010 if reforms are not urgently implemented, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns.

Tomato growers are dumping crops after prices fell to as little as €0.50 a kilo on street markets.

And a minor quake shook Kefalonia this morning.

More details in the ELSOKAI Forums

The technology is here... is the will?

New photovoltaic technology will mean that no local community needs to be without reliable, economic street lighting, with the added benefit of wi-fi technology outside their front doors. New lampposts will use light-emitting diode (LED) technology to provide bright light using low power derived from solar cells, which use daylight to recharge even in overcast weather. The idea will combine lampposts with solar energy and wi-fi wireless internet access.

And the severity of a recently discovered .WMF bug in Windows files has made Microsoft release a patch for the loophole early.

More news in the ELSOKAI Forums

The Feast of Theophany

The Feast of Theophany in the Orthodox Church on January 6 celebrates Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan, at which time both Jesus' divinity and the Trinity was made manifest by the appearance of Jesus, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, while the audible voice of the Father was heard.

Orthodox Churches perform a "Blessing of the Waters" on Epiphany: following Divine Liturgy, clerics proceed to the nearest body of water, be it a beach, a harbor, a quay, a river, a lake, a swimming pool, a water depot etc, and after a short ceremony they cast a cross in the water. If swimming is feasible on the spot, any number of volunteers may brave the cold winter waters and try to recover the cross. The person who gets the cross first swims back and returns it to the cleric, who then delivers a special blessing to the swimmer and their family and household.

For Churches which still follow the Julian Calendar, today is Christmas Day.

It is also known as Women's Christmas (Nollaig na mBan) in Ireland because of the tradition (still strong in Cork, though only just surviving in the rest of the country) of Irish men taking on all the household duties on that day and giving their spouses a day off.

Moving swiftly on, it is also the celebration of the ceremonial birthday of Haile Selassie, religious symbol of God incarnate for Rastafarians, although he was a devout Ethiopian Orthodox Christian his entire life.

And while I have a lot of respect for the Greek Orthodox Church, I’m not really into (any one particular) religion, so if I’ve got anything wrong here feel free to correct me via the Guest Spot at ELSOKAI

Too many hours

An insurance company which insures some 89,000 cars in Greece was closed down yesterday by the government on the grounds that it had been falling behind on its legal obligations.

The suspicions of Greeks who feel they spend too much time working were confirmed when EU statistics made public yesterday suggested that employees here work on average 4.5 hours more every week than their EU counterparts.

A plan that proposes a drastic change in the way primary healthcare works in Greece and calls for the appointment of 4,000 more doctors was given the government’s backing yesterday but left the opposition wondering where the money to pay for it will come from.

Greek Police Chief, Giorgos Angelakos, yesterday urged regional police heads to ensure the force's regulations are strictly adhered to in the wake of widespread criticism following the killing of two officers during a prison transfer last week.

A group of about 100 Albanian youths staged a demonstration yesterday outside the Greek Embassy in Tirana in protest at the murder of a 17-year-old Albanian on Crete.

A British climber missing while scaling Mount Olympus turned up safe and sound yesterday in Litohoro.

In the World News:

Taliban militants beheaded a headmaster in southern Afghanistan for teaching girls. The killers forced his wife and children to watch the murder.

In the UK, a mother described hearing her son shot dead after he refused to convert to Islam.

The British are more tolerant and positive about immigrants and their cultures than many other Europeans, according to new research.

One in five of all births in England and Wales - and one in two in London - is to foreign-born mothers, partly due to arranged marriages.

And 66% of singles looking for love in Britain turned to the internet last year.

In ‘Life in Greece’ (registered users):

An amusing account of travelling by bus.

In the pc section:

The next variant of the Sober worm is set to attack computers at the stroke of midnight GMT as Jan. 5 turns into Jan. 6. And more news on the .WMF threat which could overwhelm pc’s.

More details in the ELSOKAI Forums

Wonder of the World

The most prominent symbol of ancient Greece, the Acropolis in Athens, and the former landmark of Christian Orthodoxy, Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul, are among 21 sites competing to be named among the new seven wonders of the world.

Three Pakistanis who claim they were abducted by secret agents and interrogated about terrorist attacks in London yesterday repeated their claims that they had been beaten and threatened by Greek police and British security forces.

An illegal immigrant drowned when the boat transporting him and 19 other illegals sank close to Lesvos yesterday.

A prosecutor in Rethymnon, Crete, yesterday charged six Greek men and a Bulgarian woman with the murder of an Albanian youth on New year’s Eve.

Greece had the third-highest rate of road deaths per million inhabitants in Europe in 2004, according to European Commission figures.

And the world must wander what the Automobile Association in the UK is playing at. It refused to help the family of a member who died at the wheel of his car. The AA insisted that his death terminated his membership and that another member of the family would have to pay to join.

Microsoft hopes to have a patch ready next week to fix the most recent flaw found in its Windows program - a flaw that could leave computers vulnerable to a virus.

More in the ELSOKAI Forums

Greece has a bright future - EU

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso cited Greece, in a statement made public yesterday, as an example of the benefits of EU expansion. On the 25th anniversary of the Greece joining the EC, Mr Barroso said, “The accession of Greece…made Europe bigger and stronger. If they continue to progress over the next years as they have over the last decades, then they — and Europe as a whole — can look forward to a very bright future indeed.”

Police in Rethymnon, Crete, were yesterday bracing for a possible outbreak of interethnic tension following the fatal stabbing of an Albanian youth by a group of Greeks on New Year’s Day.

The head of the Supreme Court prosecutor's office has ordered a preliminary investigation into the death of an escaped Russian murderer.

The Greek Consumer Organization EKATO warned parents yesterday about their children looking for Santa Claus on the Internet on websites that feature Father Christmas but also call for personal details, such as credit card numbers. Ekato said that parents should supervise children surfing the Net, especially if they are under the age of 12, as there have also been occasions where paedophiles set up such sites to lure victims.

Spain is planning to give refugee status to those fleeing persecution on grounds of gender or sexual orientation in a revision of its asylum laws. And it seems the UK has an – unofficial – variation on this theme:

Following on from yesterday’s post regarding a call for zero tolerance towards foreigners who commit criminal acts in the UK, claims today that the immigration service does not check passports to see if immigrants are ‘wanted’ abroad – because immigration staff are too lazy.

The claim is in an article alleging a ‘sex for visas’ racket at the UK’s main immigration centre: “A pretty girl would only have to smile, bend over the desk and she'd get a visa. Officers said about ugly girls: She's bloody disgusting - let's send her back."

Just before we celebrated Agios Vassilis, Archbishop Christodoulos warned that ‘enemies of the state’ are trying to "de-Christianise" Greece. Maybe it isn’t just Greece - an Italian judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed.

For most people, one of the places where we learn about religion is in school – but should schools be scrapped? Here’s an extract from an article I’ve posted at ELSOKAI: Schools are structured today in much the same way as they have been for hundreds of years. Schools should simply cease to exist as we know them. We need to stop producing a nation of stressed-out students who learn how to please the teacher instead of pleasing themselves. We need to produce adults who love learning, not adults who avoid all learning because it reminds them of the horrors of school. We need to stop thinking that all children need to learn the same stuff. We need to create adults who can think for themselves.

Well, I can imagine what Archbishop Christodoulos would make of a woman ‘marrying’ a dolphin, I wonder what Spain will make of the idea? Or the UK immigration staff? And how about this - news of a new internet-dating website in Greece – for animals.

More in the ELSOKAI Forums

Hm, wonder if the EU has a bright future?

What madness is this?

The old year ended on a sad note as a fight on New Year’s Eve between Greek and Albanian youths on Crete ended tragically when an 18-year-old Greek stabbed a 17-year-old Albanian to death.

The New Year has, perhaps, started better. The Russian fugitive wanted for killing three people, including two police officers, was found dead on Monday morning, having apparently commit suicide. At least no-one else has been killed.

Serious criminal behaviour by foreign nationals in the UK should be met with zero tolerance, according to MigrationWatch.

And in the UK, the Post Office's 350-year-old monopoly on carrying letters ended yesterday with its competitors now able to collect, sort and deliver post for the first time since the reign of Charles II.

In the Weird, Wild & Wacky section: In Israel, a 41 year old British woman has wed her 31 year old ‘toy dolphin’. Yup, dolphin. According to Sharon Tendler, a millionaire rock concert producer, it is true love and she is not a pervert. Yeah, well, who’d want to shag a dolphin? Just try a Google search for ‘sex with dolphins’…

More details on all these stories in the ELSOKAI Forums

Agios Vassilis Day - Have a great 2006

Today we commemorate Agios Vassilis (St. Basil), the day when Greeks traditionally exchange their season's gifts. According to Greek customs and carols, it is this Greek Orthodox holy martyr who has the gift-giving task - not St Nicholas. In older days, families would place a large log in the fireplace for Agios Vassilis to step on as he slipped down the chimney with a bag of toys.

Kalh Cronia