Positive Messages for 2008

In the latter months of last year it was hard to escape the fact that in certain mountain villages in the outlying regions of the Rethymnon Nomos there were serious problems involving drugs, weapons and general lawlessness. Things came to a head when mainland forces were drafted in and young policemen were critically wounded by Kalashnikov fire. The people of Rethymnon expressed their feelings by staging a peaceful demonstration on 3rd December, 2007.

We can’t give you the most idiomatic translations in the world, but firstly, the poster on the left effectively says: Everyone [stand] in front of the County Hall! Because we want to be living in and creating a Rethymnon that is safe for us and for our children.” The banner on the right, outside the County Hall says: “No to weapons, No to drugs, No to criminality. Yes to a Rethymnon that is secure and creative.” And so say all of us. Peace for the New Year, please.

Sporting Life: Female Power!

It’s not that we’ve given up on bloke sport —who could do after that “Classic Boxing Day Cracker of a football match between Aston Villa and Chelsea that will be talked about for years to come”? Our girly sports commentator wonders how it has come to pass that though she has moved to so much Southern Europe that it is closer to another continent, (and, happily as a result has escaped the ins and outs of Eastenders and the twiddly bits and frettings of Strictly Ballroom etc) has not even bothered to try and get a dish thingy that gets you UK TV, and just relies on normal Greek satellite, that it STILL HAPPENS THAT SHE GETS TO HEAR BRITISH FOOTBALL CLICHÉS ON BOXING DAY. By the way, the score was 4-4, in case you were wondering. Don’t even get her started on why BBC World have decided to spread ‘Top Gear’ across the globe like a very nasty rash.

This particular rant is possibly not terribly helpful if you want to learn about sport in Rethymnon. Well, on the one hand there is much to tell, and the other not much to tell. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: “It’s a game of two halves, and it’s never over until the final whistle blows”.

Asteras are still off the pitch — see pretty photo on the right of empty football ground. As we reported in December, they’re not allowed to play because the league has been suspended due to financial issues. AGOR, our basketball team, we’re not sure that we adore so much anymore. Sliding down the slippery slope, but perhaps this is a cruel snow-boarding analogy. They’re clearly finding it tough at the top (so did Eddie the Eagle — remember him, the kamikaze British ski jumper who had a Top Ten hit in Norway?).

Up to the girls, then. Well, apparently, according to our local Jimmy Hill (loosely translated as Dimitris Vounas) women are doing really well in Rethymnon because they actually have a football team. And some of them even know the offside rule. This is not entirely fair, our female team ‘Kρήσσες Ρέθυμνο’ (translation: Cretan women from Rethymnon, as if you hadn’t guessed) are playing in the National League, whereas the Cretan women from Hania, Heraklion, Sitia and Timbaki are all playing in the regional league. Hah! And the female basketball team are smoking hot right now….