Every Easter the Orthodox are supposed to fast for Lent. Now that I stay in Durban it seems everyone thinks a fast is like the Muslims do for Ramadan: nothing passes your lips from sunrise to sunup. The Orthodox fast is supposed to be a sacrifice as well, but not of meal times, just of…

I don’t know why I chose 100. I wrote it in red figures on a white circle on the shiny black background. I won 2 races in it, and have 2 big trophies at home to remind me. I deserved those trophies, as the victory really was on the edge of my being. It scared…

In the end my father only dealt with super specialists: he had a Chinese cardiologist and another cardiologist who managed his arrhythmia. A pulmonologist who spoke Greek.  A daughter-in-law who is a breast surgeon.  A son-in-law who is a hand surgeon. But in the early years our general practitioner did everything. He delivered my father’s…

My father always had the street maps for the Witwatersrand n his car. Over the years it grew from a   40 page booklet to a 2000 page map guide the size of a telephone directory. We needed the map to guide him to meetings and also to look at properties that were for sale and…

I was listening to a lecture by Alain Aspect, a French physicist. His lecture at the Imperial College of London was entitled “From Einstein’s Intuition to Quantum Bits”. He is a wonderful speaker, passionate and very clear in his argument. He also took measure of his audience. In the first quarter of his lecture he…

We had to attend Greek School at the community hall for 2 afternoons a week for most of our junior school career. The obligation faded in senior high school when the pressure to matriculate well was not helped by a non registered 7th subject. Our first teacher was Mrs Zaxa, an Athenian dragon. The second…

The ’48 Chev with a straight six had curves where most cars don’t even have places. The body work was immaculate. Even the domed chromed hubcaps with the red Chevrolet lightning bolt and plain black print was perfect. The car had been on blocks having been tied up in some old lady’s estate. It had…

“Lacheiopoulieo”. That’s the beauty about the Greek language. One beautiful word that takes an ugly mouthful to explain in English. The other beauty about being Greek is the simple interchange between annotations from male to female first names. My first name is Vasilios.The lacheiopoulieo was called Vasiliki. Vasso for short. She sold lottery tickets from…

The village idiot. That’s what the Moungko was. We were terrified of him as children. When we heard his guttural animal noises as he walked with his obedient sheep we would hide. The local village children would tease him. Funny why we are scared of someone that is different. He was different, I found out…