Mamma Mia becomes UK's Fastest Ever Selling DVD

And why shouldn't it be? Mamma Mia has become the fastest selling DVD ever in the UK, beating Titanic, the success of which I never really got anyway.

On my flight back from the UK with Aegean Airlines, they played Mamma Mia and I watched it feeling so happy with my life in Greece. I may not live on a Greek island, but I'm doing pretty well. And just imagine, so many people sitting under grey skies and eating cheese and onion crisps with the heating on in June must watch that movie, sigh and think "How I wish I was living in Greece, spending carefree summers frolicking on beaches."

And that's my life! Isn't it great? Sometimes we watch a movie and try to console ourselves that movies tend to exaggerate things - life in Greece can't be all that sublime.

Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but it is. I may not be rich or extremely successful in my profession, and I don't live in a big house. I have a pile of bills on my desk that adds up to more than our combined monthly incomes.

But I'm still happy with my simple little life in a place that taught me to put that childhood skip back into my step.

My God, how much I want it to be summer right now!

What Kind of Magic Spell to Use?

Yesterday I found Labyrinth on Youtube and went ballistic, watching the movie and replaying the songs and dancing to them. I was incredibly pleased with myself, and sure that Mr Zeus would share my enthusiasm at finding this classic childhood movie. So when he came home from work to find me dancing around he asked me what I was watching and I excitedly told him, "Labyrinth! You remember Labyrinth, don't you?"

And he didn't. Because while I was a five year old, watching Labyrinth with my sisters and friends, my imagination running wild with goblins and fairy creatures, Mr Zeus was already well into his dating life. Of course he wouldn't know what Labyrinth was! Sometimes I forget about our age difference.

I love this movie. It had such an influence on me that I was still wearing costume jewellery well into my early 20s for the sole purpose of using it as currency if I ever needed to bribe a goblin.

It's always a little sad watching movies from your childhood, especially fantasy movies, that you absolutely believed were real. I always thought that I would get to visit the Labyrinth one day. I watched it more as a documentary rather than a movie. So sad that we all must lose that blissful innocence.

Enjoy it here.

Meandering Post

Well it's been a long time since my last post and that's mostly because I've been doing nothing much but monitoring the activities of spots on my face. But now I have a puppy which means a lot less time to sit around doing nothing. The only downside is that since he's still so young, I can't leave the house when there's no one else to mind him.

What am I going to do when I go to the UK for a week tomorrow?

With so much sitting at home I've had time to check out the new MTV Greece channel. It's not bad. I've never watched My Super Sweet Sixteen before and I find it pretty revolting. If you've not watched it before either, don't. Basically all it is cameras following ultra rich and ultra spoilt girls as they plan and execute their 16th birthday parties. It's car crash TV if I'm honest - the one I watched was about a vicious little brat called Cindy who buys a wedding dress and blows a huge amount of money on a Cinderella style party.

She was tiny and she was God awful as a person. I wished I could grab her and flush her down the toilet like the little turd she is.

I am also avidly following Greece's first X Factor. I don't have favourites to win or lose, except to say that Kokkina Xalia are really very good and Eirini Papadpoulou has disappointed me greatly by ditching her curly hair as soon as she got through, and with it went her talent.

But I think ladies, we can all agree that the real star of the show is Sakis *smooch*. No seriously, he's a nice guy too. My cousin (via marriage) was in hospital for some very very serious surgery and he called her to wish her good luck. Now that's star quality! He also left the hospital after the birth of his child wearing this which should really catch on in Athens where only tourists are stupid enough to try to take to the streets with a stroller and nearly get their offspring killed.

A Miracle

How many times have we watched Hollywood movies where the president is portrayed by a black man and snorted "Yeah right!" And now in a case of life imitating art, here he is, Barack Obama, America's very first African American president. Thank you God!

You know, for all my complaining about America, I must say kudos to them. As Obama said rightly, America is the only place where this could happen even though to the rest of us, we doubted.

For an ethnic minority, especially the bad sort of ethnic minority who has darker skin than the population, to win an election in Greece would never happen. It would never happen in the Home Country and for all its "We're more racially equal than the Americans" it has yet to happen in the UK and I somehow doubt it will. We'll be stuck with fuddy duddy, hoity toity upper class old white men for a long time to come. It didn't happen in India, the world's supposed largest democracy when Sonia Ghandi had to abscond her leadership because she was Italian born.

So congratulations to Obama and all he had to overcome to get to where he did. Sadly, he is right. It's a victory almost unfathomable anywhere else in the world. Three words of advice though: bullet proof glass.

Now excuse me while I bake a cake to celebrate!

Image: http://tiny.cc/7zhn0

The World Looks On

Today is an important day for the whole world as we wait to see who the Americans vote for their next president. Hands up those of you who are worried Joe the Yokle isn't qualified enough to take part in such an important world decision?

Needless to say, I've been backing Obama since the Democrats announced him as their official candidate. Previously I was torn between him and Clinton - do I back a potential woman president or do I back a potential ethnic minority president? I wonder if I'll ever see an ethnic minority female president in my life time! But as Sarah Palin shows, as a woman you shouldn't back a candidate just because she's female. *Shudder*

The stupidity of this woman is astounding. Here I was fretting that I was underqualified for my job when I could have been aiming to be Prime Minister, dayyam! And another thing; how can someone so "pro life" be so anti animal life? Surely the two don't match? Oh well, it's the US of A and after 2000 and 2004, I believe most of us resigned ourselves to not trying to understand the mysteries of how the Americans think.

I want Obama to win so badly, as does most of the Home Country because quite frankly, we're starting to get a bit pissed off with American bombs just accidentally finding their way across our borders and killing our people. Currently we're enjoying all the trimmings of warfare - suicide bombings, economic meltdown, no food, no power, no jobs, enemy bombs raining overhead - without actually officially being at war with anyone. Lightly put, it kinda sucks.

So go Obama, go! I'll be staying up to watch the results come in on Skai.

Image: http://images.businessweek.com/story/08/600/0212_obama3.jpg