29 February seems such an auspicious day. Yet is simply exists because when we developed our calendars in the civilised world we wanted to dice the years into equal parts except every fourth year when we add a day to the year to make up for accumulated time revolving around the sun that was not…
Conversations about Memory
My father had an excellent memory that he exercised often. He remembered dates, figures, names and faces, events and patterns. What was amazing was that he had an excellent memory of his visits to Greece, where he spent six or eight weeks a year. These memories filled his life. He was a good conversationalist and…
Conversations about Culture
As I look back at my writing about my father on this blog it is apparent he was very Greek. Many of the stories are set in Greece, or concern Greek tradition, or revolve around the local Greek community, the Greek Federations of Communities, or SAHETI and the Bank of Athens. It is amazing that…
Conversations with Hippocrates
Long before I had an inkling that I wanted to study medicine and then be a doctor, when becoming an orthopaedic surgeon was still occupied in that part of my brain by a desire to become a game ranger, I dislocated my right shoulder. The injury dated back from primary school and was recurrent, popping…
Conversations about Smoking
If you were caught smoking at school in our day, you were summarily expelled. My father would have whipped us and removed all privileges. Perhaps we would have ended up as labour in the building game. But we had no desire to smoke. I tried three Marlb oros at the end of my medical degree,…
Conversations about Choices
“It’s your choice,” my father would often say. Usually the issues at hand were important, and although there was freedom of choice, it was accompanied by responsibility for the outcome. So he never asked why. He just left the choice to us. There were times I made choices that he did not approve of, and…
Conversations about Dictation
“Dad, you know, you’ve done so much. You’ve been involved in so many things. You’ve met so many people. You’ve lived your life in two continents and spoken three languages.” That is what I was thinking, but could not say it. Instead, in 2006, when I visited my father in Greece I have him an…
Conversations about a Rocking Horse
“Kolisto! Kolisto! – Stick it together!” My father was only four years old but he was adamant. The legs of the rocking horse had to be stuck on to the body again. My grandmother had cut the legs off his favourite toy, a wooden rocking horse, to make it smaller so that it would fit…
Conversations about Passports
“Where’s the passport bag?” My father would raise his voice and glare at my mother when he could not see the large beige unflattering handbag tucked under her arm, the straps cutting into her shoulder as if she was carrying gold bullion. Somehow bullion would not have made my father so tense, because that was…
Conversations about Networking
My father attended many events. One would almost call him gregarious, were it not for the fact that I know he enjoyed being by himself walking or thinking. The events were varied. Business meetings, community meetings, local school meetings, bank board meetings, SAHETI meetings, ambassadorial meetings, church meetings and family events. Had he kept a…
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