A Few of My Favourite Things

Live the simple life

‘The most important thing is to enjoy your life, to be happy, it’s all that matters’

Audrey Hepburn

Everyone should have a happy list; a list that we can take out and look at when feeling down, just to remember what we have and that the things which make us happy are the simple things in life.

Here are just a few of the things that make me happy; a few of my favourite things, I could add to the list every day!

Storms

Thunder and lightning over the Acropolis.Athens, Greece

Storms; the wilder the better!

Especially evening, summer storms, after a baking hot day.

Sitting in the garden, listening to the patter of the rain on the sun canopy, seeing the trees being washed clean of all the summer dust is bliss.

Solitude

To be the first one up in the morning, to enjoy the solitude, the peacefulness of the garden.

This is my favourite time of the day, just me, alone with my thoughts, planning what I am going to do with my day, reading a magazine or maybe a chapter of my book.

Coffee & Cigarettes

Coffee & cigarettes

I know, I know, I shouldn’t smoke, it is bad for me but this is one of my little luxuries and I try to keep it to a minimum.

How I love to sit at a pavement or sea front cafe and just watch the world go by, observing the people, sipping a good cappuccino, talking with friends.

French Films

French Film

J’adore French films even though my French is not too good, I usually manage to get the gist of it, if not, I just read the subtitles.

Anything with Juliette Binoche or Charlotte Rampling being first choice.The “Three colour trilogy, Red White and Blue” has been watched a few times.

‘Cache’ with Juliette Binoche also many times because I am not yet sure about the ending, another one I have watched more than once is ‘The Woman In The Fifth’ starring kristin Scott Thomas, again because I am not too sure of what is actually happening.

My French is vastly improving through watching French films!

The Beach

The beach at Loutraki

What can I say, I would live on the beach if I could, I try my very best to go there every day, not only to swim but to walk along the shore, to collect sea shells and pebbles, to watch the sea, to smell it, to listen to it.

Winter or summer the sea is always beautiful.

Gin & Tonic

I am not a big drinker, it’s rare I ever have a drink alone and sadly I am not a great wine lover which is nearly a crime living in Greece where we have so many excellent local wines but I do love a Gin & Tonic.

So cool and refreshing in summer, I really think it is the drink for hot summer nights, I am rather particular about the brand, usually Gordon’s with Brit Vic tonic, Schweppes is rather hard to find, in our area anyway.

Lemons

I love lemons

I love lemons, in any shape or form, lemon Cheese cake, I always make lemon, never any other flavour, my own homemade lemon cheese of which I can finish a whole jar eating it with a spoon, homemade lemonade, a great hit with all the family, or just the juice of a couple of lemons in water.

Sometimes I worry that I eat too many lemons!

Eggs

Eggs Forever!

Eggs, in any shape or form: fried, boiled, scrambled, poached, poached being my favourite, omelettes being my least favourite.

I buy the most scrumptious, free range eggs from my greengrocer; I couldn’t eat a supermarket egg!

Again I sometimes worry that I eat too many eggs.

Lager Beer

Drink Beer!

Another great cooling drink for summer nights, our fridge is never without beer, in the summer at least, we don’t drink so much of it in the winter.

Books

Never enough books

Books, I don’t think I could live without books, I usually have two or three on the go, I love biographies, it doesn’t have to be a famous person’s biography, I just like to read about people’s lives.

Detective stories are a weakness and it really annoys me if I have worked out ‘who done it’ before the end of the book.

Freshly – Laundered Bed Sheets

Blowing in the wind

Always white, always cotton, hung out to blow in the wind, never in the dryer, starched, never washed with fabric softener, which makes them limp and ironed using my homemade lemon laundry spray.

Lemon essential oil, pure alcohol, vodka will do and water, poured into a spray bottle.

Another of life’s simple little luxuries!

Faith

Have Faith

My faith, in myself, in others and something higher than us, be it god, the universe, whatever you want to call it, gives me courage, my faith comforts me and is always with me.

My Two Best Girls

My Daughter and my Granddaughter

Two of the happiest people I know; my daughter and my Granddaughter, they cheer me up, they drive me mad but I always love to see them.

I wish them well.

My Daughter’s Hair

My Daughter’s hair

My Daughter has loads of hair, masses of it, thick long and luxurious, hangings lose or up in a bun it is beautiful.

When she has it up she is easily spotted, many times people see her from afar and say they knew her by her hair, it is her signature mark…never cut it Nais.

My Son’s Eyelashes

You have never seen eyelashes as long and thick as my Son’s, when he was a baby I was actually asked by a stranger in the street if I put anything on them to make them like that!

Everybody comments on them.

They are so long that sometimes the top ones tangle with the lower ones.

It’s not fair is it?

MGG – My Greek God

How could MGG; My Greek God not be on this list, we have endured!

It is not always milk and honey but one hundred percent marital bliss…that’s not normal is it?

Home Sweet Home

And my happy place is home, home sweet home.

Be happy!