I remember my mum breast-feeding my sister in a dark room. I was standing at the door. I was three.
I remember jumping in rain puddles with my friend Aki and his sister Fotini. I was three.
I remember my dad giving me lunch in the forest, at the fox’s den. There was no fox but I used to wait for her every day. I was two or three.
I remember my dad bringing me a chocolate dessert in the shape of a little mouse. I was three.
I remember choosing storybooks at the bookshop with my dad. I was four.
I remember asking my dad why he was bald. He used to say the wind took all his hair away.
I remember my uncle driving his big lorry and parking it outside our house. In my eyes it was huge. I was three.
I remember my mum hanging the clothes out to dry and wearing flip-flops.
I remember my fruit cream bowl. It was shaped like a boat.
I remember my yellow mini dress and my white knitted shawl.
I remember my hair being pulled behind into a ponytail. It hurt sometimes.
I remember going swimming with my mum. She used to wear a floral swimming cap. I was three or four.

P.S What is your earliest memory?

This is what I made
Easter candles, for the Easter issue of the magazine. We hold candles during Easter Mass in Greece and these candles are usually adorned. Traditionally, your godmother or godfather brings you your Easter candle, along with a chocolate egg and a pair of shoes.

The obligatory Martha moment

This is what I found
I got these two prints from blackapple. I think she is a great artist and I can’t wait to get them in the post.

-A trip
-A nice birthday
-A new computer
-More time with my friends and family, more sleep, less work
-Picnics
-Nice music. Any suggestions? I am a bit stuck.

Art question
How come Daniel Day Lewis is such an disgustingly good actor? He should be ashamed of himself. I saw him in There Will be Blood and I thought he was out of this world.

What are you best at? (I am not recruiting).

You can. If you tell people early enough. Lately, when I am not translating, I cook to relax. However, yesterday I took a break from cooking in my free time my stolen time, to see what I’d like to get for my birthday in an ideal world. The first thing is this wise owl. It perches on top of computer monitors and connects to your computer via USB. "He provides inspiration and watches over your work. He’ll also move his eyes around and rotate his head as if he’s either appreciating or rolling his eyes at your office antics".  Found here

The Diary Shower Curtain: I do my best thinking in the shower, so that should come in handy.  "Just like its papery counterpart the Diary Shower Curtain has a space for every day of the year… You even get a special waterproof marker so you can fill the ‘pages’ with reminders, birthdays, anniversaries". I would also make a note of things I’d like to write about in my blog. Found here

 These are called 7 sisters rings.  I MUST have the 7 sisters. They are the best thing I’ve seen in a long time. I have decided to name each one after a deadly sin. Found here

A Mini Mac, because my PC died

I also need this The HULGER P*PHONE which is suitable for most cellphones (but I wouldn’t use it for that) and connects to your computer and is Skype compatible, which is why I want it. I am not a really retro person, but I think old handsets are really more user friendly.  Found here.

 Note to M: Please, feel free to get me all of these things.

A million years ago, FB tagged me to write 6 things. Here they are, and yes, I know I am neurotic, don’t be too harsh on me.

-I hate glycerine soap with a passion because it easily melts and leaves marks on the soap dish.
-I genuinely believe that if you wear your nightie or pyjamas inside out, the night lasts longer and you sleep more.
-I judge books by their cover. If I don’t like the cover I don’t buy them.
-I am truly amazed when people get to know me really well and they still love me.
-Once I taught English in a refugee camp of Kurdish people. It was chaos but it felt good.
-When I was 14-15 I only wore clothes of disgusting pistachio colour. At 16 I switched to monochromatic pink and from 17 and on to black.

Films I saw this month
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (more boring than death itself).
The departed (I loved that. Actually, the 7th fact –see above- could be that I think DiCaprio is an astonishing actor and a mediocre looking guy).
After the wedding (That is a Danish film that turned out to be an old Greek film in terms of subject matter. Old Greek films are highly dramatic. But the acting is great).
My blueberry nights (Jude Law’s hair looks like it smells of fry-ups. Other than that, ok).
Becoming Jane (if it wasn’t for James McAvoy, I would have given up. Also, Anne Hathaway’s English accent is pathetic).
Edward Scissorhands (For the umpteenth time. I love Edward Scissorhands, I love the way he walks).
Atonement (My friend Blondie said it was a bit blah, but I thought it was great even with Keira Knightley who is purely decorative. The book is wonderful).

And I am reading:

The Sweetest Dream  by Doris Lessing (it does have a nice cover)

Lists take the place of not much life as you can understand. Back to translating now.

Landro Niagara Falls Chandelier According to the creators it has 300 wings of porcelain sculptures with fibber optic technology. The subtle light of the fibber optics brings the porcelain fairies to life and creates an illusion of fluidity. It measures 2 metres in diameter. Start saving money asap, because it costs $90,000.00.

Richard asked me to list three things I believe are necessary for good, powerful writing. I came up with several lists but I didn’t think any of them was definitive or that all of the items were actual prerequisites. Instead, they’d be welcome but not absolutely necessary. I don’t believe there is a single thing (much less three) that if you have it will lead you to good writing.

For example: Being interested in the subject
You can make a mess if you are too interested in the subject sometimes. If you are not careful about it others might feel excluded, or you mind sound authoritative. So it’s not necessary although it helps a lot.

Another example: Being clear
Good poetry is the finest writing product (for me) but it isn’t always clear. It communicates on a different level.

Maybe it’s just a moment of craziness, or a moment of happy absurdity and you have to put it into words. But I am not really sure about that either. I am not a writer. I write for magazines and newspapers. I write what they ask me to write and I get paid. If I was left to my own devices, I’d write a poem every four months. And not get paid for it. If I was really free not to write for work, I’d make images in Illustrator and Photoshop. They communicate what I need to say better. Language has become white noise. People are afraid to use the right words. They fear they won’t sound intellectual enough, or that they will write clichés and are super clever in their writing, or they fear they will sound childish and vulnerable.
Maybe my one necessary thing for good writing would be this: to expose yourselves.

P.S To pass on the tag, I chose: Barrett, Joanna, Devil Mood, Kat, Steph

Song of the day: Monkey gone to Heaven

I don’t think I can find as many as 8 things that you don’t know about me.
However I am going to try because I was tagged by Hattie. That’s not your casual tag. There are RULES.
Okay, let’s see:

1. When I was little my mum made me go to Sunday school, for many years in a row. I grew up detesting any form of organized religion.
2. I have a Master’s degree in “Modernism, Gender and Writing” from the University of Edinburgh. Officially, it’s a Master of Science, not Arts. I don’t know why, a Scottish thing maybe.
3. I got married to M in 2003. Our friends’ wedding gift was a week in Paris.
4. When people meet me they think I am romantic and sweet. In fact, I am very cynical.
5. I had a crush on a girl once.
6. I can’t drink cold water in a room-temperature glass. The glass has to be cold too.
7. When I cook I feel peaceful.
8. Although I am older than my sister, she protects and looks after me as if she was the older one. She has always done so, since we were very little.

Tagged:
Cathy
On a Sunbeam
Barrett
Kylie
Stephanie
Stephanie
Ardent
Neil

The Rules are (I disobeyed the first one, but that’s another fact for another meme):

We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.