PING-PONG AND SALSA DANCING

Tinos isn’t a particularly big island (resident population about the same as the Highland town of Tain) so I’m astonished to discover there are 71 men signed up for the Tinos Winter Table Tennis Tournament (try saying that quickly), one of whom is Sam. If you’re a bloke, the place to be on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights is the ping-pong club. Sam played his first match of the tournament last Saturday. Bad luck, he was drawn against one of last year’s finalists, a fellow who travels regularly to Athens to compete in club matches. Okay, so he lost, but not too badly, and there’s still a chance he’ll go through to the next round if he beats the other guys in his group. Let’s hear it for Scotland! Who says I’m averse to showing some national pride?

It’s worth pointing out that there is a distinct lack of anything resembling pub culture in Tinos. It simply doesn’t exist. Civilised coffee drinking with friends and family in pleasant cafés, yes (such as my latest haunt, the newly opened Halaris Art Café). But going out to get blootered on the weekend? Nope. And why would you anyway, when you could be playing ping-pong? It’s free. It’s a sport in which middle-aged men with beer bellies can obliterate the youthful competition. And it gets you out of the house THREE NIGHTS A WEEK.

Feeling the need for a little change of scene myself, but careful not to clash with ping-pong, I’ve got my third Latin dance class this evening with the incredibly elegant and terrifyingly bendy dance instructor, Georgia. We do rumba, salsa and cha-cha-cha on Mondays and Wednesdays.

A short word now on cultural differences. Max was unwell a couple of weeks ago, plagued by headaches, so we took him to the children’s doctor in Tinos. She wanted to check his neck for any stiffness, so she asked him to say no.

Max: No.

Doctor: No, not like that. Say no.

Max: Uh…no?

Doctor: No! Make a no.

Doc then demonstrates how people say no in Greece: upwards tilt of the head, roll of the eyes.

Doctor: Got it?

Max: Tilts head and rolls eyes towards the ceiling.

All of which makes perfect sense now we know what’s been going on. You go into a shop, ask for something obscure, like fish fingers, and the person behind the counter rolls their eyes at you and glances at the ceiling. You think they’re being dismissive or they reckon you’re a crazy foreigner. But they’re just saying NO! The Greek way. It’s a revelation. (The whole ‘no’ thing is made even more complicated by the face that ‘yes’ in Greek is pronounced ‘nay’.)

While listening to Max’s chest, the doctor did what doctor’s do and asked him to breathe in and out. I guess it was a direct translation from Greek (or more likely Latin) but she asked him to ‘inspire’ and ‘expire’. Technically correct, but I’m relieved to inform you that the boy didn’t expire on command and is now fully recovered from a bout of sinusitis.

Michael and Max have left their Greek school now and for the remainder of their stay in Tinos are having private lessons in Greek language and history from Professor Takis. Takis is an expert in Greek ethnology but lost his teaching job last year due to government cuts. Since then, he has been working in the local computer shop. Last week, the shop closed down suddenly and Takis no longer has a job. Lots of local shops have closed down since we arrived here.

A day out, some fishing and a sand beer belly before the weather turned stormy:

So the weather really did turn cold (relatively speaking - nothing compared to what's happening in Serbia and even the north of Greece) and we had a string of power cuts and some stonking electrical storms. The beach has rearranged itself again and is very different from the stretch of shore we first saw back in October. All sorts of strange rock formations have been uncovered by fierce southerly winds. People here get quite depressed here when the weather is bad. Greek women always manage to look classy no matter what the weather’s doing (maybe it’s the shades?), but many of the men appeared to have raided their grandpa’s clothes closets and were sporting days of stubble growth. For extra warmth?

Festivals keep the islanders’ spirits up through the winter months. Carnival is happening in ten days and a festival of lights took place recently. For a small place, where people are really feeling the pinch, there is an admirable amount of enthusiasm for public events.

Some of you have been wanting to know how I’m getting on with making myself memorable to the Bin Dude. The truth is we haven’t seen him – or any of the scaffies – for some time now. They’re on strike. And I don’t blame them. But there is quite a lot of rubbish piling up here and there. The feral cats are having a field day.

And finally, some new artwork by Flora and Sam. One of the pictures is of Flora by Sam. Another is of Sam by Flora. But can you tell which is which?