Beijing Olympics: Women football final. A beautiful game

Last night I was browsing the olymic channels to see what was worth watching. The women's football final caught my attention and rightfully so. I never thought much of women's football as I thought that such a tough game is a men sport. Last night's final between USA and Brasil (Athens's finalists as well) proved me wrong. I should be so happy to go watch such a beautiful game during the entire Super League season. The game I watched last night was equivalent of a champion's league game (without the hard fouls and the boxing involved).
It was evident that a Brasilian irrespective of the sex with the ball on the feet can do miracles. Especially Marta, the Brasilian midfielder, Brasil's 10 that has been named woman footballer of the year for two years in a row.
Unfortunately for Marta that was an absolute joy to watch playing the game ended 1-0 in favor of USA. Brasil had the undisputable dominance in the offensive initiatives but they either got unlucky or the stress of the final got a bit too heavy
The USA with much less offensive attacks scored a goal and were more substantial. They played extremely good defense. So good that frustrated Brasilians. I couldn't help but thinking that if only Otto's men were playing defense so well and were so effective in the 2-3 attacks they unfold in every game Greece would be much less boring to watch.
Anyways, it is not that the best team won. Both teams were very good. They both played as team. The only player's amazing talent that stood out - in my humble opinion - was that of Marta's that reminded me of another great 10, Rivaldo, in his earlier days. The US team reminded me a bit of Germany to be honnest. Efficient but boring.
Brasilians cried during the medal ceremony. I was a bit upset myself. It was schedule and solidity that beat flair and spectacle. And flair should always be praised. Especially when it is so much in abundance as in the case of Marta. In my mind she is the winner.

Naxos beach life

Not all beach life in Naxos was scary. More like it, we had a grand time. I was usually getting up at 8am, jogging a bit and into the sea at 9am. My mates would usually wake up at 2pm unless someone was arriving with a boat earlier so John would have to go and pick them up from the port. By the time the rest of the company woke up I had already jogged, bathed, sunbathed, and in some cases even had a short siesta.
In the afternoons, I had convinced them all we should really go to the Plaka beach and not that dreadful beach in Agio Prokopio with the million people squeezing in a few square meters.
In Naxos I have read 3 books in one week - only one in Mykonos. The books are coming up later in this blog with a short review
Although I find Naxos not my cup of tea really, at least not in the current mood, I must confess that a whole day at the beach of Naxos goes by really smoothly.
The pictures are the proof.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif

In this picture if you look closely you will see me under water. Unfortunately I did not have a waterproof camera so Danny tried his best to take this shot while I was diving

Naxos holidays and the great scare

Well, I might not have liked Naxos night life, nor the ambience and of course I could not but notice its lack of class - nothing like its neighbor Mykonos (or Paros even). But I must say, the beaches are fantastic with a clear blue emerald color, and the food is amazing.
I thoroughly enjoyed the water and beach life so much that I have decided to do somethign that I feared since I saw Jaws at the age of six. You must know something about me. When I was born we were living in Nafplion (I know, I know...why did we ever leave...). Since the age of six I was swimming and I mean swimming, not just floating with the usual 'bratsakia'. By the age of 4 I was a keen swimmer and the fastest of my age and even older kids-even boys. I would spend at least 6 hours in the sea. One day at the age of six we were staying at a rented house in Mati and I have faked my sleep (put a doll under the covers), sneaked out of the house and climbed the wall to the near open air cinema that we were going every day except that day. Why? Because "Jaws" - the original was on and of course my parents thought that it was not a good idea. But given my rebellious nature, I went. I even organized other rebels my age to do the same and three of us met at the cinema. We climbed the wall - as it was a PG13 we were not allowed in - and we watched the movie. Needless to say I have not been since then in the sea at depths that I could not feel the ground. I can not even swim if there is seaweed even at a meter deep.
Yet one fine day at Naxos, seeing the water so peaceful and feeling envious of everybody enjoying sea sports I've decided to do it.
I arrived to the end of Plaka beach - mainly used by surfers and people looking for quiet time. The moment I parked and walked toward the beach I could not help but have a feeling of elation. The beach had fine white sand - the kind that I am thinking is common in places like the Carribean - and the waters crystal blue and in some areas turquoise. There were some surf boards but nobody using them as there was no wind that day. Instead a couple of kids were getting ready to go on a floated sofa where a speed boat would pull them fast and give them some thrill. Seeing that it was only kids doing that thing, I went to the guy and asked if I could join them. I told him that I am very much afraid of deep waters - did not mention of course that I am afraid that a white shark is waiting for me the moment I go beyond 2 meters deep - and he promised that noone ever falls in on that new toy and that it will be very much fan.
In the pictures that follow it is Nik and Danny who tried it the same afternoon and I was on the speedboat taking the pictures. The bloody thing was flying on the water and at one point guess what: it overturned. And guess where: in the deep sea. Pitch black underneath, over my head was the sofa so I could not immediately emerge and when I did the people on the beach looked like small black dots. Panic?? At red levels. When I realized that there was no white shark coming after me, I saw the little girl that was sitting next to me having difficulty coming toward the sofa. The sofa had to be overturned. It was not easy. Panic levels kept increasing despite my efforts not to look down and not to think about the white shark. I did not scream (!!!) as I was afraid I would scare to death the little girl. Her slightly older brother (about 12) and myself turned the sofa to its normal position. I had two choices: save the girl first or climb as fast as I could up. My natural thought was of course to save the little girl. And then I thought what if she can not climb up fast and I was the last one in the deep pitch black sea? So long emerald waters. Now we were really into the deep. And it was not even blue anymore. So I think I flew up - so fast and so high that even Isibayeva would be jealous. Of course nothing happened to me or the girl or her brother as I pulled them both up once I was in a safe...floating ground. Needless to say that the fall was a climax of panic as at every turn we were on the air and the thing was bumping up and down. We had to hold from some ropes. I was holding so high that my palms had white marks for at least ten minutes after I left them indicating that there was no blood flow.
I must say that it will be ages if I ever try this again, but it was one of the scariest, unpleasant yet exciting experiences that I ever had.




I am extremely happy I did this. Yet, despite the fact that I know for sure that there is no white shark in the greek waters I am not sure if I shall ever do it again. Yet, I recommend it to those looking for 15 minutes of extreme fun.
Zizou was patiently waiting for mommy not sure why she keeps that long and she is out of sight. He made friends with a nice lady close by that gave him her ham sandwitch to keep him from coming to my rescue. Needless to say that once I reached land I could not be happier to hold again Zizoulino in my arms

And so I am back from outer space...

Holidays are over. What a dreadful sentence. To try and lift myself I keep reminding me that august is still far from over and that autumn in Greece is more like summer in most european countries. So, there is still hope. But I feel really bad for being back. Awful to be exact. My absense from this blog meant of course that I am having a swell time. Well, most of the time I kept silent.
Every day there were scenes and people that made me say 'I have to put that in the blog'. But after twenty or so days, the amount of times that I thought that made it forbidding. The blog would have been a holiday book and I thought why not stir it up a bit and I might come out with a book.
So, what I have decided to do is to start scribble notes in case one day I manage to write a book and eventually make my dream come true. What that dream is? Live between Mykonos and anywhere else of course. No office, no suit, no fake smiles, no meetings and so on and so forth. A dream, right? In a dream anyone can wish for whatever.
To get back from... outer space, today is the first day back to the office but by no means the first day back to real life. That was last wednesday.
But let's take it bit by bit.
My first stop was Naxos. I did not like Naxos. To be fair with the island, although I spent one whole week, I barely visited more than a couple of places. That is Naxos town, Plaka and where we were staying Amytis beach. The reason is that the people I was with were not in the mood of driving around to go to nice beaches as they would not want to skip the night's party. I understand. But there is no decent bars or clubs in Naxos. A couple of them, playing their lousy music over and over again painfully repeating it every single night with the same song sequence. But of course there is a good side to everything: Naxos is still very cheap and a couple of the beaches I have been in Plaka were spectacularly beautiful. So, overall my holidays in Naxos where enjoying the sea and the sun and good food. Oh yes, I also did for the first time in my life some sort of sea sport. I will refer to it at a follow up posting. It definitely deserves some mentioning.
Zizou had a swell time. and he was worth it.
We were staying at a rented house in Amytis beach that cost 70 euros a night and housed 6 people!!!! Yes, when I am saying Naxos is cheap, it is that cheap. And this is the first thing I saw when I arrived to the house: The window looking at the sea just five minutes away

After looking at this site, I knew that only good things could happen from now on. And so they did.
The second thing I noticed in the house is Tommy waking up. Tommy is a friend from London, whom I just met in Naxos. God bless him he is a hilarious guy. He just got up as I arrived and someone handed him a frape. Obviously the night before had been heavy - as the nights that followed. 'Hallo' he said introducing himself. 'I am Tommy and I am an alcoholic' Tommy - as expected from his opening line - is, a very intelligent, witty, kind and funny person who spoke english with a marvellous posh accent and greek with an extremely heavy cypriot accent. Just hearing him talk like that makes you laugh. Let alone the things he said. His second adolescence on the Greek islands - which I witnessed - made him even funnier. Tommy and the combination of a group such diverse as the rest of the gang - a description of each member will follow - were of course the key ingredients to such an enjoyable vacation.

Zizou could not believe he had not died and been to heaven as it was his dream case scenario. A house on the beach with a huge garden for him alone. After spending an hour or so sniffing and marking around, he climbed up the stairs to our flat exhausted from the heat, running and ecstasy



After settling down, John, our main host, made sure we all relaxed, shook the city off by playing some great tunes on his laptop equipped by a brilliant set of speakers and a 3G card so we can keep in touch with the world. Not that we spent much time online. Of course the house also had its own stereo system that later on we let playing 24/7 a station from Syros where producers rarely spoke and the music was top

After our coffee, settling down and Tommy waking up, we decided to head to the beach for a swim. The boys wanted to go to the busiest beach in Naxos from which of course I stayed away. Instead Zizou, the Merc and myself took the road down to Plaka to relax and enjoy the swim. Later on we joined the rest of the gang for food, back to the house to watch the sunset and head for an almost all-nighter to Naxos - boring if you ask me - night life.

The Magus - the movie

Apparently I was wrong. There was a '68 movie released and Antony Quinn did play Conchis. I swear I had not read that far down the wikipedia posting on the book - I was so right. Quinn is ideal for the role. I will definitely watch the movie as the entire cast seems up for the job. Despite bad criticism I shall watch it - shame if it was not a good one as the book is ideal base for a movie

here is the wikipedia note:

A film version was released in 1968, directed by Guy Green, and written by Fowles. It starred Michael Caine as Nicholas Urfe, Anthony Quinn as Maurice Conchis, Anna Karina as Alison, Candice Bergen as Lily/Julie, and Julian Glover as Anton, and was filmed in the island of Majorca. The adaptation, however, was a failure. Michael Caine himself has said that it was the worst film he had been involved in, because no one knew what it was all about. Woody Allen said "If I had to live my life again, I'd do everything the same, except that I wouldn't see The Magus."[1] The Magus was commercially released on DVD in the US on October 17, 2006 .

The Magus

Regarding my Naxonian holidays I will talk in several following postings. One good thing that came out of it is that I had lots of time on the beach sun..baking and reading. The first book I finished was The Magus by John Fowles. It was highly recommended from a US cisco colleague. It is the story of an Oxford graduate who wants to get away from the UK and choses to go to a deserted Greek island. Story is taking place a bit after the WWII.
There he is involved in the psychological games of a local rich man that keeps himself isolated on his villa where strange things happen.
At the end, our hero undergoes a really crash course in psychoanalysis and his ... torturer, the Greek mysterious man saves him about 20 years on the couch, something he would not have done. And he turns from being an egocentric arrogant intellectual to a person that is now trying to deeply understand others. It was not easy and in the process he almost lost his sanity. In fact, the Magus was a bestseller, partly because it tapped successfully into - and even arguably helped to promote - the 1960s popular interest in psychoanalysis and mystical philosophy. It has been recently featured on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels, #93 and #71 on the Reader's and Critics' lists, respectively.
As a read, it is definitely written skillfully and there are several twists in the story so that the reader stops guessing what is going to happen next. This is the kind of books that should be turned into a movie as the heroes and heroines have roles that require extremely good acting skills. I would see Conchis - the Greek rich man - played by Antony Quinn, he would be ideal of that role had it being filmed while he was still playing. The description of Phraxos, the island where the plot is taking place (in real life it is Spetses) is fantastic. Most importantly how the author describes Greece, it is something I have never read in another book before. Not so much the country, but its people and the spirit of the nation seen in the eyes of a foreigner who redefines himself in the simplicity, austerity, mysticism, beauty, divinity that Greece makes him discover.
It is a great companion for the chaise longue

Notes:
1. More detailed description of the story you can find on wikipedia. John Fowels is an acclaimed author who among others wrote The Collector & The French Lieutenant's Woman
2. The cover picture is the one of the first edition. Current editions have a different cover

Resume

Recently I made again the exercise of re-writing my resume. A task that makes me feel strange. From one side it is a piece of paper where one tries to write the best achievements of their life, career wise.
However, the real achievements can not be written. These have to do with strengthening one's character, with having to put up with people that are abnoxious, unprofessional, political, unfriendly, jealous, and make your life a living hell. After working for about 20 years, I find that the biggest achievement in my life is that of tolerating people that I don't necessarily get along and managing to get the best out of them in any common project.
Endurance, patience, persistence, building talent, listenting to criticism - lawful or unlawful - saving face, learing from mistakes, learning not to trust, learning who to trust, managing to find intrinsic motives, remaining visible, empowering others, getting along with your manager, engaging colleagues, making it to the end. I find these some of my biggest achievements that unfortunately can not be mentioned.
My guess though is that any experienced manager should be able to get the level of maturity of the candidate for the job at the first interview. The question is how much are they taken under consideration in the hiring process

Naxos

36 hours to go - own image to be posted shortly, along with an update on Zizou's adventures. Patience

Remembering Heath

Undoubtably you must have noticed by now that I have become a huge fan of Heath. I was before I knew he died. After watching the Batman movie he has made my top 5 list. Jack has been holding the top spot for years, but is now challenged from an actor his calliber. Jack will probably keep the top spot as Heath has been with us for a short time. He has managed to show so many different faces. I am deeply saddened by his loss. Clips below from Candy, The Grimm brothers, Wish I was there, Casanova, Brokeback mountain, 10 things I hate about you

He should get it

I did watch the movie and Heath is fantastic. Anything I can say is not enough. Amazing performance, impossible to believe that it is the same person that played his other roles. His mannerism, laughter, moves, gestures, voice, everything was different about him. The movie is filled with a 5-star cast, but they all lose their shine when compared to Heath. Even Michael Caine, even Morgan Freeman, even Gary Oldman. But their roles are not that interesting anyhow. Batman is all about his costume. Joker is all about evil. Only Aaron Eckhart may stand close to Heath's performance (btw, I would strongly recommend George to watch Aaron in his 'Thank you for smoking' role, a film making fun of smoking, I am sure you will enjoy it)
Coming back to the batman movie, it is a must see, only because of Heath. And a few times over and over wouldn't hurt. As a movie, oh well...

Here you can watch Heath talk about his favorite role


Heath's fellow actors and film industry experts all agree: HE IS AMAZING