On the Way to Hydra Again

Last year's trip to Υδρα (Hydra) was so wonderful, we wanted to go back. So now I'm sitting in a Catamaran, watching the waves and the coast line outside. There are much more tourists now than last fall. But even if the island is more crowded, I can't wait to walk the carfree streets.

Being able to go to places like this is just one of the things that make me want to live here. A couple of hours and I am on an island. Tomorrow we will also meet with Pat from Switzerland who came over for a visit and I told him to come see Hydra too.

I'm still dog tired from the last days. Thankfully Mary organized all, and even woke me up when I overslept this morning.

Διαβάζω για την Πολιόχνη

Το Σάββατο, σε ένα βιβλιοπωλείο που έχει πολλά αρχαιολογικά βιβλία, βρίσκω στην τύχη ένα μικρό βιβλίο με τίτλο "Πολιόχνη". Το κοιτάω και σκέφτομαι: Υπάρχει και άλλο μέρος με αυτό το όνομα; Ξανακοιτάω την φωτογραφία στον τίτλο, μοιάζει πάρα πολύ με την Πολιόχνη που επισκέφτηκα στην Λήμνο. Το ανοίγω και το επιβεβαιώνω, το ίδιο μέρος. Μόλις 7 Ευρώ κοστίζει και το παίρνω αμέσως.

Ακόμα δεν το διάβασα όλο, άλλα και μόνο από τις εικόνες που βλέπω, θυμάμαι την μέρα που περπάτησα τα δρομάκια της αρχαιότερης πόλης της Ευρώπης. Είναι πολύ ιδιαίτερο μέρος, έχει αέρα όχι μόνο ιστορίας άλλα και ιστοριών. Σε κάνει να φανταστείς τους ανθρώπους εκεί. Το βιβλίο μου επιτρέπει πρόσβαση σε αυτόν τον κόσμο από εδώ, την μακρινή Αθήνα.

Το πιο σημαντικό που κατάλαβα από την Πολιόχνη, κυρίως βλέποντας τα πέτρινα σπιτάκια εκεί, αλλά και στην υπόλοιπη Λήμνο, είναι το ότι η ζωή στην Λήμνο δεν άλλαξε για χιλιάδες χρόνια.

"Code Quality" Book Out Now

Finally Diomidis Spinellis' new book "Code Quality: The Open Source Perspective" is out, as he announced on his weblog. This book is definitely on my "buy list". Judging from his description, the book follows the same principle of the use of careful and real life code examples to explain principles. The book is already available for example from Amazon, but I'll likely go by a normal brick&mortar bookshop to pick up my copy.

His previous book "Code Reading" is one book I tend to go back to browse and read again and again. I also abuse it to look up things like "how should I properly implement an xy construct?" And it's not only me who liked it, the book was quite well received in the market place.

Pushing The Limit On BTreeFolder2

The last few days I've been working at one part of our app that holds lots of small information bits. They are structured very uniform, so there was the thought to take them out of the ZODB and put them into some SQL database. But so far our app has no need for SQL anywhere and adding the installation of a RDBMS to our servers and developers machines would add a lot of complexity to the setup. Given the data structure of BTrees in python, Zope and the ZODB gave some options that I wanted to test and explore first...

Short Visit To The 2CV Club

Monday and Friday nights the folks from the Greek 2CV club open their beautyful club house [1]. Tonight is an easy warm night, so I dropped in for a short visit. Enjoyed the oil talk, but didn't see any close friends. On the way back home I noticed how warm it has become. The thermometer on the pharmacy near my neighbourhood said 20C - at 23:00 at night. No wonder the cafes near Thision were full and people out on the streets, enjoying the easy evening.

[1]: Hellenic Club of 2CV Friends, 38 Thessalonikis str., between the Thision and Petralona stations of the subway.

Back To The Beach

Today is my first full day in the village. Yesterday I arrived, found the little house in good shape. Had to do some cleaning for the dust, but none of the problems with humidity I had dreaded. I slept all afternoon and in the evening went out to meet my friends from the village. Lots of seafood, as is appropriate for the season.

This afternoon I was to take my first ride with the bicycle (which wasn't rusty, at least not any more than last year). I had pumped the tires in the morning.

When I wanted to leave, I noticed the front tyre to be flat again. No ride today. Instead I set out for a walk, and as you can see from the picture, I reached the beach. It's a bit unkept (as usual in spring) but quite nice to be here. So to all my friends out there: Wish you were here.

Aufstehen nach der Auferstehung

Gestern Nacht war das grosse Finale der Oster-Feiertage. Um 11 Uhr Abends machte ich mich auf in die Kirche. Dort sass ich erstmal vor dem Eingang rum und schaute zu wie die Dorfbevölkerung eintrudelte.

Alle waren fein rausgeputzt, die Mädels nutzten wohl die Gelegenheit um mal wieder so richtig den Filmstar zu mimen. In der Kirche wurde es langsam voll, so dass ich wieder raus ging. Inzwischen waren auch viel Freunde und Nachbarn da. Die Litanei war in vollem Gange und kam gerade in die Endgerade. Es trafen immer noch Leute ein.

Dann kamen die ersten Stimmen von Innen "Χριστός ανέστη! Χρόνια πολλά" (Christos anesti! Chronia polla - Christus ist auferstanden! Viele Jahre!) Es kamen auch schon die ersten Leute raus die Kerzen am heiligen Licht angezündet hatten und das Feuer weitergaben. Vor der Kirche knallte und rumpelte das Feuerwerk los.

Auch ich zündete meine Kerze an und wünschte meinen Nachbarn alles Gute. Dann ging es drum die Kerze brennend nach Hause zu bringen. Am Nachmittag hatte es noch schlecht ausgeschaut, mit starkem Wind. Doch am Abend legte sich der Wind und ich konnte mit der Flamme ein Kreuz über der Tür machen.

Weiter gings zu Freunden, wo es das erste "richtige Essen nach der Fastenzeit gab. Traditionelle Suppe, Fleisch, Eier. Bis ich ins Bett kam wurde es spät.Heute also erstmal ordentlich ausschlafen und nachher steht das Osterlamm auf dem Programm.

Visiting Old Friends

On Easter Sunday many people visit with old friends. So do I - took the repaired bicycle on a ride to the Παλαιόκαστρο (paleokastro, "old castle") peninsula near the village of Plaka, on the north east corner of Limnos. Nearly spat my lungs out in the process, Athens city life turned me soft.

Now I'm sitting here, enjoying the view. There is sea on three sides around me. It's like sitting in the front of a big ship. In the distance I see the island of Samothraki.Over to my left I can see the cape with the lighthouse that is the northeast "end" of Limnos. I've been there too by bicycle, but that must have been some eons ago.

The wind is a bit chilly and the sea is really not warm enough to swim. I'll just have a rest, enjoy the scenery and the sound of the waves. Still have to get back home over the hill, so I'll take my time.

I took some pictures to stitch a panorama, but I doubt that it can catch the moment.