Show us the five people you'd invite to a dinner party.
Firstly I'd like a couple of my best friends, Jen and Nadia, just to keep things on a level and to act as a bit of sanity when I was completely star struck:
Then I'd invite Kate Winslet because I'm a big admirer of her work and when we'd exhausted that topic I could quiz her about working with the likes of Leonardo Dicaprio and Ewan McGregor to name just two.
And to make a bonkers occasion even more mental it would have to be the brilliantly funny Ross Noble.
Finally, someone who'd be worth a dinner party all on his own for the stuff I'd like to ask him, the deliciously talented Ben Whishaw.
Perhaps the next vox hunt should be show us what you'd cook for your fantasy dinner party...
In my humble opinion, these are the pics from Greece I'm most proud of:
...because it's a man walking his goats!!!
For this one I had to stretch the zoom to max as I wasn't appropriately attired to enter the monastery...
It wasn't all old stuff on holiday, there is an abundance of graffiti and while most of it isn't going to get Banksy worried there were some interesting pieces...
Yiasus. So I have returned from blue skies, alfresco dining and cheap wine to cold, pissing rain and buggered up Sainsbury's online orders but, still, I have my photo's to keep me warm. The whole collection is at Flickr (there are loads but it was quite a photogenic holiday).
Think I'm going to pull together some themed-groups over the next few days but for starters here are the World Heritage Sites we visited which tallied a whopping eight in the end (really like that sightseeing).
First off was Delphi, home an oracle and like the Switzerland of Ancient Greece. It's built right up in the most beautiful mountains and you can see the sea in the distance.
Unsurprisingly the area is also quite a draw for climbers and Bond film crews.
The site is far bigger than this picture shows with remains of temples, hotels and buildings for the officials but this is the competitors entrance to the stadium which still has its original starting line for the races - in marble, naturally. I like to think they had a sign in the tunnel that said: 'This is Olympia' that all the athletes touched just before running out into the stadium. Cheats were fined and the money used to make bronze statues of Zeus which lined the route into the stadium, the cheaters name and misdemeanor were carved into the base.
Moving away from classical Greece, Mystras, our next stop was a byzantine town built on a steep, knackering, mountain slope. A few buildings and a lot of the original streets and steps are intact but a lot is now in ruins. The only remaining inhabitants are some nuns but the whole place has a Tintagel-esque, mystery, magical feel. You could spend hours exploring and I loved it.
The upper town is pretty much in ruins apart from a church but the lower town is very much inhabited. Its narrow cobble streets linked by steep steps create a maze like terrain but nonetheless everywhere seems to have the most amazing view of the sea and mainland.
Two more to go. Epidavros which is the the world most well preserved ancient theatre and still hosts live performances. The acoustics are quite incredible, you can hear a coin being dropped on the marble slab in the centre of the stage from the back row, as demonstrated by the stream of tour guides. Unfortunately some tourists with far less talent than gall like to test the acoustics in their own way.
Yep, our little tour of Greece is on its last stop in Athens and what a bonkers city it is, I love and hate it with equal measure.
We've racked up seven world heritage sites, staying the night in one, culminating in the Acropolis this morning which is a wonder to behold. Pics coming soon.
Some more observations about Greece though:
* There are a 1001 different ways of getting cheese into a meal and the Greeks have discovered each and every one of them
* Wine is v. v. cheap even with the crap Euro/Pound exchange rate and you can order it by the kilo in some restaurants (I kid you not and no I haven't tried)
* Mobile phone etiquette doesn't exist: any time, any place, anywhere, as loudly as possibly and with the most ridiculous ring tone
* All the young people live in the cities
* Greek waiters coined the phrase "looking but not seeing"
* Salads will always arrive first regardless of what you have ordered
And some observations about the roads:
* The rules of the road: there are no rules (unless there is a copper about which is extremely rare)
* There are two speeds of travelling: OAP-barely-see-over-steering-wheel and nutter
* There are bold over-taking manouevres and Greek over-taking manouevres
* Helmets are for decorations ie dangling off the arm otherwise don't waste your money
* Parking can be anywhere, preferably blocking someone in or creating a massive bottle-neck on a busy road
* Pedestrianised - schmestrianised, pavements are just another parking place if you are in a car or, part of the road if you are a scooter.
* Horns are to be used to greet friends and acquaintances or if being held up by a nano-second
* No one has a bloody clue how to use a round about
* Cycling: I wouldn't
London is going to seem sane but I am going to miss it terribly when we fly home on sunday.
Well that's how quickly this holiday feels like it is going. I'm here in Ancient Olympia, well actually its a modern hotel near Ancient Olympia but it's close enough, and I've finally given in to the lure of the internet (it's free here!).
I'll keep this short because Mosh is bound to come tapping on my shoulder soon. Initial observations: Greek people are very friendly and completely bonkers on the roads. Double white lines are merely a guidance to masculinity when driving rather than an indicator that it is unsafe to overtake.
There has been a bit of a petrol crisis - a strike meant that virtually all petrol stations ran dry which caused a bit of alarm for a couple of days when you are depending on the car to get around. It has been a real eye-opener as to what could realistically happen in years to come.
Greek Orthodox monostaries like to depict gory scenes of how saints earnt their sainthoods on the walls and put in words what they couldn't draw.
The toilets in nunneries are a lot cleaner than those in monasteries.
I swear I saw Scarlett Johansson with her mum looking around the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi.
And I'll leave it at that for now.
Will be pictures to come when I get back in just over a week (non of Scarlett unfortunately) - bought a 2 gagillabite memory card so I'm snap, snap, snapping away....
First time I've seen images of David Tennant as Hamlet. Did I mention how excited I am about seeing this at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford in August?
Been planning to upgrade my digital compact for a while. Mosh bought me the little Pentax Optio SV about four years ago and it's been brilliant but technology has moved on and, most importantly, so have shutter speeds.
My only real gripes about the SV were the terrible shutter lag which made taking shots of moving objects very tricky if nigh on impossible and the small viewing screen which made it difficult to see the picture, particularly in bright weather.
Anyway Mosh hinted that he might get me a new one for my birthday which would be just in time for our holiday. As I'm familiar with the Pentax and have all the batteries and memory cards that go with it, it made sense to get another, so now I have a shiny new Optio A40.
Haven't really had a chance to play with it much yet as it's only a few days old but I am already impressed with the improvement in the shutter speed and have discovered one or two new little functions that the old model didn't have for example the soft flash:
With full-on flash (left) and soft flash (right) which I think gives the subject a more natural look.
The A40 also has a staggering 12 mega pixel capacity which is way more than I need but nice to have for those one off detailed shots. I remember when Mosh got me the older model which is 5 MP and he said then that was way more than I needed. Technology doesn't half move fast.
So we are off to Greece at the crack of sparrow tomorrow. All the guide books say how photogenic Greece is so I'm hoping to put my new toy through it's paces and you never know I may actually have learnt how to use one or two more functions on it by the end of the fortnight (or Mosh will have worked them out for me, hopefully)
It's not often I agree with Empire magazine but in this I do. Donnie Darko is up there among my top 5 favourite films of all time and it is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
The Greek for please is pronounced pa-ra-ka-lo, thank you is ef-kha-ri-sto and 'that was amazing' is i-tan ka-ta-plik-ti-ko
Anyone else learn something new today when they should have been working?
