Saturday, December 24/2022

 Christmas Eve. Lovely day. Hard not to feel guilty about the truly miserable weather conditions in much of Canada and the US, ranging from high winds, snow, glare ice, rain, flooding, power outages to temperatures below -40. Not everywhere at once, obviously, but covering a fair bit of the continent and leading to hundreds of flight cancellations. As we sit on the balcony drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.

Shopping for tomorrow’s dinner basically done but we do take a walk and stop in at our local Zorba’s bakery. Very busy in a happy sort of way. You have to wait your turn for the tongs to fill your box with pastries or sweets. So we get a small box and put in a dozen melomakarona, soft spice and honey biscuits that are traditional for Christmas, along with kourabiedes. 

The election of the new archbishop of Cyprus is complete and Giorgios, Archbishop of Paphos and not of the Russian persuasion is indeed the winner as predicted. The report is that his first speech after election was accompanied by sharp criticism, as he called for “those who wander from medium to medium and expose both the Church and themselves to stop”. Presumably, though by no means obviously, this is a complaint about those who disapprove of either the archbishop himself or the methods of the Holy Synod and share their opinions with various news media. Does raise a less probable image of malcontents drifting from one old crone to another, crystal balls prominently displayed.

The bakery and supermarkets may be humming but charities that serve the poor see another side and are saying that need has tripled in the last two years and conditions are worse than in the financial crisis of 2013 or the previous covid years. A reality missing, as in most countries, from presidential statements.