Sunday, April 25, 2010

Santorini News 04

It’s been a while since I have written any news. Things are great in Santorini. The weather is not picture perfect yet but it’s getting there. My mother visited and stayed for about 10 days. She brought some household staff for my apartment which was good. The furniture themselves are not enough to create a cozy atmosphere and there were a lot of little things that are not only decorative but useful like ashtrays for example. Also I am going to have new curtains soon. Anyway once all the finishing touches are ready I will create a new video and show my “new” place of.

Work is great. So far it’s easy, nothing I can’t handle or haven’t seen yet. The guests are all polite and manageable and there haven’t been any major screw ups by me or anyone yet. I have been reading some of my previous posts about my time in “Mystique”. I can’t believe some of the things that happened to me. I think that now because of my previous experience I am feeling a lot more relaxed and confident.

I don’t know if I mentioned it before but 2008 was a very bad year for me. I accepted a post that seemed perfect in paper but was actually the job from hell! I had a boss who was unreasonable to put it mildly. He “liked” me (though not sexually, thank God he was gay) so he decided to “educate” me by throwing all sort of impossible tasks to me. There was a point when he seriously told me that after working for him for several months I should be able to read his mind and he wouldn’t have to explain himself so much. I realize now that I should have walked in the first 3 months like everybody else instead of hanging on and trying for 12. But that is all in the past.

This season I have set certain goals. There are things I wish to do this year and I operate better when I make lists. This season’s resolutions are:
  • I will try Chinese food (done)
  • I want to find my own apartment (done)
  • I want to eat at a gourmet restaurant (done)
  • I want to visit the red and white beach of Santorini as well as explore Pyrgos and Exo Gonia
  • I will learn how to cook
  • I want to get my driver’s license and a car
  • I want to register at least 100 books in Bookcrossing.com
  • I want to travel abroad. London is my first stop. I really wish to visit the British museum. Rome and Paris are my second and third options but I don’t think I will have the money or the time to do all.
  • I want to learn a second foreign language. I’m thinking Spanish because it’s easy and it would be a great advantage to my line of work.

Well that’s all for now.

Friday, April 02, 2010

The True Story of Alexander the Great (01)







Santorini News 03

Where to begin. I am settling fine in my new apartment. It’s still pretty empty – I don’t have the resources or the time to “personalize it” yet but it’s pretty cool. Naturally I am way over budget – again. But that can’t be helped.

I have cooked for the first time in Santorini. I made an omelet (with feta cheese) and hamburgers (the pre – made ones that you just fry). Next I am going to try to make a steak and maybe chicken. I just hope that I get better at this because otherwise I am going to starve. On the bright side this year I am not going to gain any weight. I am going to return home as thin as I was in Paros (53 kilos instead of 63).

My new job has started – finally! I have just started day three. I still haven’t found my way around the rooms. Typically – this being Santorini the hotel couldn’t be a nice apartment building – no, it a small maze of corridors and upstairs and downstairs and volcano view rooms and east facing rooms and blah, blah, blah. Also this is a five star hotel and apart from my brief month in Mystique, this is the highest profile hotel I have worked for so far. My feet are killing me as my very stylish ballerina pumps are cutting my feet’s circulation but they do look pretty. There is tons of info that I have to remember and after a few weeks of unemployment I feel that I have lost my touch. Well I think I will need a week more to get my bearings.

To top it all I have caught a cold. Imagine that: first day on the job trying to make a good impression and being sick as a dog. Thankfully it wasn’t very busy, just a couple of arrivals but the fact that I had a sore throat and a fever and couldn’t stop shivering didn’t help much. The good news I’m feeling better. The bad news tomorrow we are expecting 22 rooms. Half of them are an organized group so they are all coming at the same time. Yupi! And they are all leaving together on the 5th.

So I’m saving my strength and going from the hotel straight back home, but at some point I’m going to have to go to a hairdresser and get my hair done. It looks awful. I’m thinking brownish – red highlights and a haircut.

Just finished reading “Berserk” by Tim Lebbon. Not a very nice horror novel. I am currently reading “Η μεγάλη μέρα” της Catherine Alliott.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

In the footsteps of Alexander the Great by Michael Wood


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Vergina) 2


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Troy) 3


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (gordion knot) 4


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Issus & Tyre) 5


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Gaza) 6


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Alexandria) 7


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Siwa) 8


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Lord of Asia) 9


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Susa) 10


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (the trap) 11


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Persian Gates) 12


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Darius Dies) 13


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (no going back) 14


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (land of wolves) 15


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Kabul) 16


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Afghanistan) 17


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Uzbekistan) 18


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Bactria) 19


BBC - In footsteps of Alexander (the mountain) 20


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (into India) 21


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (ends of earth) 22


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (The Kalash) 23


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (climbing pir sar) 24


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (crossing the jhelum) 25


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (monsoon rains) 26


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (the fleet) 27


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (multan city) 28


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (Indus Delta) 29


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (the Camel trek) 30


BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (ending) 31