The joy of names – and some photos from the weekend to show you the changing weather
It was a weekend of changing weather with May-like temperatures and sun on Saturday (and other days recently) and a storm overnight followed by cloud and wind, but blue skies and certainly not cold, on Sunday. We were outside at a barbeque on Saturday in t-shirts, getting a tan and enjoying the view of the hills around the village, and some other malarkey.
Last week’s lesson in commas went down a lot better than I expected, and thanks for the comments. I’ll do more about that kind of grammar thing in due course, and there will be more discussion on the ‘Brexit’ referendum as time goes by too I dare say. Now that it’s official and a date is set, as I understand it, there is only one good outcome I can see from a ‘Yes’ (leave Europe) vote, and that is that David Cameron would probably have to resign. I’m not living in the UK so I don’t get all the details but from what I pick up from others in social media and on some news pages etc., it’s currently a close run thing between yes and no, but once word gets out that Cameron would resign if the country voted to leave Europe, then I can see everyone rushing to vote to leave, just to get rid of him.
The same that I see a lot of people wanting to vote to leave, thinking that it will mean an end to the immigration problems in Calais, the ‘Stack’ on the M20, and things like, ‘no more straight cucumbers, yippee!’ As if the answer to the ills of the world lay in the shape of a vegetable. These are, I think, pretty near-sighted reasons for leaving and come from folk who believe 100% what they read in their daily newspapers. And you know my thoughts on them! Particularly in regard to the old question, ‘Who is running the country?’ Answer: the gutter press, it seems. As for us; well, Neil is registered for a postal vote, no hassles there and me… Well, my story is a complicated one due to my name and variations thereof. I’ve just had a friend complete an ‘Attestation’ form for me to confirm that I am who I am. Why? Well…
I’m not going to go into details, but often people ask me why I am called James and I say because it is my name, and it is. Unfortunately I have two others and one of them has a variable and that variable was long used as my first name (which it isn’t) and so, when starting out at 18, I used it for banks, doctors, work, everything really, and also signed my name with it. Then comes along something called the Greek tax system and associated authorities and the issue of explaining that the name I am known by is not actually one of the names in my passport; so I reverted back to the real first name. In Greece, you see, not only do you need a first name (which comes second) and a last name (which comes first) you often have to use a family name as well. Example:
The barge working on the new jetty
At the Alpha Bank I am Collins James Richard (not my name, my father’s name). In the IKA system I was Collins James Richard Sar- party of my mother’s name. And in other cases I have been Collins James Edward Tobias Richard Sarah – just to add to the confusion. (Neil’s a Gosling Neil Ethel on at least one piece of official documentation.) So, when I applied to register to vote in the up-coming debacle, I was told that my info given did not match the info on file at Department of Works and Pensions. I assumed this was to do with my names. So I tried again, moving from putting my full name, as on my passport, to using the shortened version of the last name; still no good. I then wondered if it was a case of me having used the short version of my third name as my first name as I was always called by that name… But who knows? No one can help unless I fill out another form and post it off, which I will do this week. The joy of names, eh?
