So Christmas is over. But Athens seems unwilling to release it from its long, blood-red, manicured talon grip. I ventured into the city center to be swallowed into swarms of scary shoppers and skinny Santas, some pulling along tiny ponies. Mimes, street musicians, magicians, balloons, people, people, people. It was a bit frightening. A bit exciting. And I felt lost, caught unawares, with neither kids nor friends in tote, no money to spend on holiday shopping, no camera to at least capture the action. There weren’t even any after-Christmas sales! I was confused. Still am. I had a simply fantastic holiday though. On the Wednesday prior to Christmas, I hopped on a bus and had an action-packed five-hour journey north to spend a week with Ms. Velocity Girl herself, Kalliope. I had a front-row seat, which afforded me a fantastic view of the winter wonderland that existed 20 minutes north of Athens. It was breathtaking, and unexpected - rolling fields of white, snow-covered purple peaks everywhere I looked. I grew excited. It WAS Christmas! It was a bit nipply when I left Athens at 3 p.m. and the temperature swiftly plummeted along the way. By the time we stopped for our 15-minute break at 5:30, it was downright freezing - the bus driver decided to have some giggles by locking us out of the bus for 10 additional minutes. When we started up again, the sun had set and a silent, serious tone fell over the entire bus as the driver inched along to avoid certain death on the icy roads. It was rather silly, but fun all the same. I love emergency mode. When we passed through little villages, you could see villagers coming together to shovel out the main road and central square. They huddled in cafes and peered out of houses at anyone who dare venture outdoors. When I arrived in Volos, it was only 8 p.m., but the place was deserted, like a ghost town! More than 100,000 residents and only five could be seen. There were no taxis. I stood for a few minutes, watching my breath mist and fall heavily like ice, my teeth chattering, my bones vibrating, my toes freezing, before giving up and beginning to skate along the ice-covered sidewalks to the city center. Along the way I passed a city bus terminal and had the brilliant idea of taking a bus. The guy told me there would be one coming in five minutes, so I bought a ticket and waited with this friendly, frightening chap. When I got to Kalli’s apartment I never wanted to leave again. So warm and cozy. Mmm. I felt like the biggest wimp, this New England girl moaning about a spell of Grecian winter. But the television did say it was -7 Celsius that night so I think I was justified. My God! -7! I’m not entirely sure how cold that is, but considering it hardly ever dips below 10 here, it was quite dramatic. And now that I’m back in Athens, it’s up arouns 17 again. Ha! Insanity! Anyway... my resolution to stay indoors did not last long. Soon we were outside again, running along the beach, the SNOW-COVERED BEACH, making snow angels and burying the dog and hurtling snow-covered objects at each other and trying to shake big clumps of snow off the bamboo sun umbrellas. A mist was coming off the sea, and the whole scene was surreal. And SO FUCKING FUN! I felt like I was 10 years old again. Afterwards we walked to the video store to stock up on horror films. Walking, however, was a bit difficult, considering the fact that every surface was covered with at least two inches of solid ice. So we developed this crazy glide, and skated arm in arm down side streets, singing awful South Park and Christmas tunes. We spent a good chunk of time and money at the supermarket, stocking up on supplies to make enough soup and pie to take us well into the new year - if we didn’t eat it all within the week. Oops. Hell, It’s the holidays! Isn’t the whole point of it to eat, drink and be merry? Well, we did all that, in mass quanities. Oh what a spectacle we must have made, pushing an overflowing shopping carriage home through the streets covred with ice and slush. And later, when we headed to the local park with scary ski hats pulled low, large knives in hand on our way to cut some evergreen branches for our Christmas ‘tree.’ We took the branches home, stuck them in a planter’s pot, tied them together with a bit of twine, and spent the rest of the night decorating it with balls of crumpled newspaper we painted and other random items. We also had an impromptu ghetto dance party. Inspired by my ghetto-looking ski hat, perhaps? Kalli popped on her Ice-T record and demonstrated how she could shake her ass, ghetto style and I was duly impressed. Shocked, in fact, by how bad-ass she truly is, deep down. No twee motherfucking in that house. Give Kalliope a ski mask and she looks like she could pop your ass. Shit, g-friend! Before long we were both bouncing to Cypress Hill and the Beasties. On the last night we shaked our asses a bit to a more subdued beat - that of Belle and Sebastian! At a café! It was completely unexpected. We decided it was high time we left the house and met a few of Kalliope’s friends at a café. The DJ played FIVE B&S songs! And other amazing songs in the meantime, including Heavenly and Love and a whole block of The Smiths. I was shocked. Yay! What else? I don’t know, it’s all a blissful haze. We were going to write a joint post but couldn’t find the time in all the fun we were having! HA! Okay, so perhaps that was a bit mean, but it’s kinda true. To be honest, I never expected to have such a fantastic holiday. I was feeling a bit down about spending my first Christmas away from home, and my family was treating me like a big traitor for being away. I didn’t think it would be a real Christmas without the cheesy movie and music marathons, the pecan pie and huge fragrant tree and evil grandmother evasion tactics. But it was in some ways better! There was no tradition, so we kind of made up the rules as we went along, throwing together bits of tradition, which resulted in interesting combinations. Like tiropita, curry, and apple pie. Ha! There were no annoying relatives to entertain. No reason to wake up at a certain time. No expectations. It’s a Christmas I’ll never forget. Actually, Kalliope’s apartment has begun to feel like home for me anyway. And after each visit, Kalliope and I feel more and more like sisters. To think, it was sinister that brought us together! Ah, what would I do without you, dear sinister? I also liked how Christmas day was punctuated by a steady stream of well-wishing text messages from others in the sinister family, and how that night #sinister was hopping with listees trying to escape their real families. Aww. I’ve spent the final days of 2001 listening to punk covers of the cheesiest songs of all time. ‘Mandy,’ ‘Puff the Magic Dragon,’ ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.’ They are surprisingly fantastic. All from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. I have 11 of them, and I keep playing them over and over again. Then I started crying when I heard the Cheers theme song. “Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.” It’s sad, non? Then there’s the Lionel Richie. The original, no covers there. My former flatmate, Emilie, once tried to single-handedly resurrect Lionel’s career. It was about the same time as a new greatest hits album was released, and she thought it was perfect timing for a comeback. She decided to start in our apartment, of course. Until then I had never realized how much Lionel I knew. More than you’d think. He is quite classy. And now ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’ makes me want to dance all over my cold marble floors. This morning I blasted the punk covers and Lionel and.. Queen! And my flatmate was so startled she actually left her beserk cleaning frenzy to come in my room and ask “Are you playing Lionel Richie??? Just had to make sure.” I think it was a statement more than a question. I think maybe she was trying to imply something. Hmm. At least I wasn’t crying at the time. I’ve been playing a hell of a lot of Alchemy lately. It’s this strategy game from Shockwave.com that Kalliope got me addicted to. I’ve managed to ace it enough to make it to the very final level, which I of course cannot complete. Argh! Last night I made granola. As in, I took rolled oats, wheat flakes, barley flakes, peanuts, maple syrup, honey, raisins and other dried fruit and baked it. Which presupposes that I was in the supermarket, regarding rolled oats and wheat flakes with interest. This is weird for me, in case you didn’t know. I’m still reeling. Today I plan on making my own garden burgers with the mince soya product I also bought in the grains section. I don’t think I’ve ever stood for more than five seconds in the grains section. Whoa. Sadly, there was no bowling in Athens on Saturday. I considered it and even called Joanna. But she was in her father’s village up north. So. Yeah. Her absence also means I have no New Year’s Eve plans as of yet, which disturbs me a bit more. Traditionally I have welcomed in the new year by dancing my ass off to cheesy Top 40 and ghetto rap in a squalid club with my little sister and her best friend. I was willing to make do this year by dancing my ass off in a cheesy oldies club or even an indie club, but it looks unlikely. Coral doesn’t really celebrate New Year’s Eve, she told me yesterday, but might be convinced to hang out downtown as a cultural experience or something. This is kind of appealing. I mean, when I was little I used to watch the festivities in New York City and wish I was there. And now I actually live in a huge city, a 10-minute bus ride away from the biggest party in the country. I should go, non? Yeah. I just don’t want to go alone. Something about being alone on New Year’s Eve depresses the hell out of me. It’s bad enough not having anyone to kiss at midnight, at least I can console myself with the fact that I’m with other important people. Blech. Ah well. Happy New Years lovies.. MWAH ~dahling _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+