Helena Handbasket

By Tivoli

St John

I am beginning to think that the Canon is less happy in low light than the Sony was. Despite the fact that the Sony was officially a “compact point and shoot” and the Canon purports to be a “mini-bridge” camera, there seems to be a far more limited choice of settings on the Canon than there was on the Sony (unless of course I have missed a tiny fairy door somewhere to lead me into another world). It was the 45 x optical zoom that swung me, that and the fact that the little Canon I borrowed in the summer of 2016 produced shots indistinguishable from those of the Sony. Ah well, perhaps it's just winter dawn and dusk at a higher latitude it doesn't like.

Be that as it may. Today is St John. My builder in Greece is called John and so it is his name day today. His dad is called Tasos, and his son (John the builder's son), is also called Tasos. Tasos (the builder's son) has a son called John, whose name day it also is today. Χρόνια Πολλά (many happy returns of the day) to all Greek Johns. The family surname is Tasos, so we have two “Tasos-Tasos-son-of-John”s and two John-Tasos-son-of-Tasoses. Are you with me so far?

John the builder has three brothers and a sister, all of whom have a son called Tasos, which means that there are another three Tasos Tasoses in the village who are distinguished by being variously; son-of-Diamantis, son-of-Kostas and son-of-Nikos. Sister's son Tasos has a different family name.

Tasos means resurrection and comes from the same root as “East” and “Sunrise” (Anatoli) which is why today's blip is a sunrise and some building equipment.

And the happy news is that when there are Grandfathers and Grandsons with identical names, they might be distinguished by “Big (older)” and “Little (younger)” or maybe even by their Mother's name.

The names of the mothers of all the young Tasoses in the village are; Fragkoula, Flora, Maria, Loukia and Smaragda. It makes you wonder why anyone bothers with boys names at all.

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