About flags, balloons and filmstars

Next year the Special Olympic World Summer Games 2011 will take place in Athens. Prior to the games the athletes will spend a few days in various places throughout Greece.
Our island has the honour of being the host town for the British delegation and today there was a special ceremony in the harbour where a memorandum of cooperation was signed.

Children dressed in white and holding white balloons filled the harbour.

Speeches where being held by all the officials. Amongst the guests of the event was also a famous couple, miss G. Hawn and mr. K. Russell. They were here not as Hollywood filmstars but as holiday makers with a special love for the island (they have been coming to this island for some years now) and for the Special Olympics.
Impressive was the British ambassador who spoke in perfect Greek.



Our fantastic choir sang, accompanied by the local brass band.

A delegation of athletes came from the mainland to present the official flag.

The flag was raised

and the balloons were set free.

Now we have a year ahead of us where we can make plans to make this stay unforgettable not only for the athletes and their companions but also for the local community.

Summer is here

Aah, things have changed since the last, weather related, post since we are now in the middle of a heat wave. It is only early morning but the temperature is already 33 degrees celsius and no wind.

I find it hard to keep up with blogging now that I am working full time. There are so many other things to do and sometimes I don't open the laptop for days which I have to admit is not necessarily a bad thing because I do get carried away once I start clicking around the world and come across so many sites and blogs that I like.

A little update on our Skiathos Cat Welfare Society that I wrote about in another post:

The visitor's centre

They have now a proper visitor's centre where people can get informed about their actions and buy some various cat related (and not only) items to support the charity.

That bag looks familiar!
I just love to make them.

I also left some of my seaglass pendants there to be sold.

To my big surprise quite a few people have already bought a pendant before I even took them to the visitor's centre! I find it is not so scary to sell something that you made when it is for charity but it is still quite a thrill when they actually buy it.

I haven't found any good quality pieces of seaglass lately. Maybe it is because it is summer and there are many people on the beach? I don't know. So even I would have time, I have to stop my production line anyhow because of lack of material.