[bestcigsnick]

The trouble, not just for immigrants, but for all of us, especially if of a certain age, as I am. No place exists as it used to. The England of my childhood - you can get a flavour of it in Miss Marple films - ceased to exist years ago.

How beautiful it must have been, Andreas. I love Agatha Christie and have read just about all her mysteries over and over. I would love to have lived in a small village like the one Miss Marple lived in. Aren't such villages to be found anywhere?

Effie

[meteeratymn]

How beautiful it must have been, Andreas. I love Agatha Christie and have read just about all her mysteries over and over. I would love to have lived in a small village like the one Miss Marple lived in. Aren't such villages to be found anywhere?

Effie Well, at first we lived on a main road in Rotherham, a northern industrial town. But I remember playing on the front lawn and stopping to look if a car went past! But later I lived in a small village near Sheffield. You can still find 'Miss Marple' villages in rural areas such as the more remote parts of East Anglia and in Hampshire and Dorset, and in North Yorkshire. The best re-creation of the 1950's is in the BBC Miss Marple series starring Joan Hickson. It's not really nostalgia for childhood on my part since, I'm sorry to say, I didn't enjoy childhood very much. But life without supermarkets, motorways, lots of electrical gadgets, foreign holidays, and without central heating and fitted carpets, washing machine, freezer, computers, DVDs, etc etc was simple and safe if rather harder. Now, we have information overload and get anxious about things we never used to because we didn't know. Daily life in a working-class home in Rotherham 55 years ago, say, would now be thought of as unheard-of austerity for even a monastic!

[popillio]

Well, at first we lived on a main road in Rotherham, a northern industrial town. But I remember playing on the front lawn and stopping to look if a car went past! But later I lived in a small village near Sheffield. You can still find 'Miss Marple' villages in rural areas such as the more remote parts of East Anglia and in Hampshire and Dorset, and in North Yorkshire. The best re-creation of the 1950's is in the BBC Miss Marple series starring Joan Hickson. It's not really nostalgia for childhood on my part since, I'm sorry to say, I didn't enjoy childhood very much. But life without supermarkets, motorways, lots of electrical gadgets, foreign holidays, and without central heating and fitted carpets, washing machine, freezer, computers, DVDs, etc etc was simple and safe if rather harder. Now, we have information overload and get anxious about things we never used to because we didn't know. Daily life in a working-class home in Rotherham 55 years ago, say, would now be thought of as unheard-of austerity for even a monastic!

The thing I like about English films and series is that they manage to be as authentic as possible. We get a lot of BBC series and films here and I enjoy them so much. I have read most of the books they are based on and this gives me even greater enjoyment.

Now, we have information overload and get anxious about things we never used to because we didn't know. This is so true. A lot of it is exaggerated and most of it (90%) is negative.

As I said in another post, we really should throw our TV's in the rubbish, but then we couldn't watch BBC series and the documentaries, could we.

"It's not really nostalgia for childhood on my part since, I'm sorry to say, I didn't enjoy childhood very much. "

I'm so sorry to hear that. I often look back on my childhood because it was such a magical time for me. We were not rich, but we had what we needed. I was never given money to spend though as children are today. The funny thing is that it didn't matter in the least whether I had money to spend or not. The kids on our street had a wonderful time - christmas parties, mushroom gathering, blackberry gathering, going to the sea as a group in summer, shuttlecock games on back lawns, taking part in fundraising for MS awareness, fundraising for our local hospital on our own initiative and surprising the secretary when we presented her with our money. Being invited by one of the more precocious boys to witness his cat having kittens....................... the list is endless. A couple of blocks in our street were still virgin Australian bush when I was young, and I was lucky enough to see a kookaburra one day on the electricity lines. So many memories.

The kind of childhood we have means less or more problems when we grow up - it all depends on our experiences. Adults should do all they can to ensure that their children have wonderful memories when they go back in time. Dickens wrote quite frequently about memory and how it influences our present lives.

Effie

[lXwVlTgO]

A couple of blocks in our street were still virgin Australian bush when I was young, and I was lucky enough to see a kookaburra one day on the electricity lines.

I live in an old suburb (houses date from 1880s to 1920s), with no "virgin bush" in sight, apart from a few gum (eucalypt) trees, some which would be close to a cenury old. Yet we are very frequently graced with the presence of native birds such as kookaburras, honeyeaters, crimson rosellas, rainbow lorikeets, musk lorikeets (rosellas and lorikeets are brightly-coloured small- to medium-sized parrots) and magpies (crow-like birds, much larger than European magpies).

More on Aussie desserts: lamingtons (the size of half-bricks), vanilla slices (one of my favourites!), frog cakes, Kitchener buns (filled with REAL cream, not that horrible "mock cream"), matchsticks ..... and, to return to the Christmas theme, cherries.

Australian Christmas food traditions are quite varied, from the typical traditional British/Northern European turkey, warm plum pudding with brandy custard, through to the more recently-adopted customs more in keeping with the climate and what's readily available. Temperatures of 35-40C are not unusual during December/January, at least in Southern Australia.

Cherries. Seafood, particularly prawns/shrimp, crayfish/lobster, squid, oysters, etc. Cold meat platters. Ham on the bone (cold or baked with a pineapple or honey-based glaze). More cherries. Or a barbecue. Lamb chops, skewered meat, sausages, marinated chicken fillets. Onion rings cooked on the BBQ hotplate, or fried. Potato salad. Fresh fruit. More cherries.

I have fond and enduring memories of many a Christmas Day, of the family coming home from church, changing into casual summer clothes, setting a table under the back verandah. Dad would set up the barbecue (charcoal, of course), and cook up "a good feed". I can still see him at the "barbie", resplendent in T-shirt and shorts, with a pair of tongs in one hand, and a beer in the other. Easter was always FAR more formal in our household.

[AXGreg]

It's a bit ironic that my wife had a wonderful childhood in Moscow. Everything was cheap or free. Long lazy summers were spent with her brother on their grandparents' farm, there were holidays in Crimea and elsewhere on the Black Sea coast, school camping trips to East Germany's Baltic coast, skiing and ice skating in winter, visits to ballets at the Bolshoi theatre, and so on. This was during the 60's and 70's. Of course, political repression was also going on still, though the Gulags had been closed by then.

We're not going to Russia after all this Christmas. The 'New Russians' have made things so expensive, we can't afford to go anywhere. A concert that costs £11 a ticket in London costs $500 in Moscow.

[Vcwdldva]

Again, it may well be a Greek/American immigrant thing. The shout "Opa" is commonly heard in Greek restaurants in Chicago (maybe other places as well, but I am speaking only of my experience) when they bring out the flaming cheese (Saganki?) appetizer. I imagine it's and expression that has been "retasked" to a number of different uses here in the US.

Fr David Moser

Yes, you are right Father. We ordered saganaki in Florida once and they did the same. But in Greece I never had this experience. Thinking of it, the flaming dish has a bit of adventurous "danger" in it and that is actually one case of usage. As a vocal stress outlet maybe, or as a satisfaction that all things went well although the "danger" present. Also Opa has usage like people would say here hop, hop, hop (hmm now it dawned on me that the hip hop comes from Opa! Giggles). For instance when there is a baby trying to dance for the first time adults encourage the baby with rythmical clapping and opa, opa, opa, like saying hop, hop, hop.

It is used also as c'mon let's go. Or when I was kid and elderly ladies lifted me and their back would hurt they would say opa for I guess aiding this activity with a sound (I guess that was their yoga equivalent ).

So all in all it is used as a release of joy, pain, happiness, and in # physical activities. But never with the frequency and exaggeration of that movie - and as I said that gives it the comedy flavor.

Also different Middle Eastern cultures have the same when they dance they say "Op, op, op" and I have heard it form other people. Like here Russians using it too. And surprise the Japanese are also jumping in the bandwagon! Here is a tame version of Greek Opa Opa song.

[Alex Photographer]

I live in an old suburb (houses date from 1880s to 1920s), with no "virgin bush" in sight, apart from a few gum (eucalypt) trees, some which would be close to a cenury old. Yet we are very frequently graced with the presence of native birds such as kookaburras, honeyeaters, crimson rosellas, rainbow lorikeets, musk lorikeets (rosellas and lorikeets are brightly-coloured small- to medium-sized parrots) and magpies (crow-like birds, much larger than European magpies).

More on Aussie desserts: lamingtons (the size of half-bricks), vanilla slices (one of my favourites!), frog cakes, Kitchener buns (filled with REAL cream, not that horrible "mock cream"), matchsticks ..... and, to return to the Christmas theme, cherries.

Australian Christmas food traditions are quite varied, from the typical traditional British/Northern European turkey, warm plum pudding with brandy custard, through to the more recently-adopted customs more in keeping with the climate and what's readily available. Temperatures of 35-40C are not unusual during December/January, at least in Southern Australia.

Cherries. Seafood, particularly prawns/shrimp, crayfish/lobster, squid, oysters, etc. Cold meat platters. Ham on the bone (cold or baked with a pineapple or honey-based glaze). More cherries. Or a barbecue. Lamb chops, skewered meat, sausages, marinated chicken fillets. Onion rings cooked on the BBQ hotplate, or fried. Potato salad. Fresh fruit. More cherries.

I have fond and enduring memories of many a Christmas Day, of the family coming home from church, changing into casual summer clothes, setting a table under the back verandah. Dad would set up the barbecue (charcoal, of course), and cook up "a good feed". I can still see him at the "barbie", resplendent in T-shirt and shorts, with a pair of tongs in one hand, and a beer in the other. Easter was always FAR more formal in our household.

Olga, why so many cherries? The barbeque is something that can in no way be separated from Aussie life. Chuck another shrimp on the barbie, although for us it was mainly lamb chops! you are right when you say Christmas was a happy time - the heat and the wonderful aroma of the christmas trees is very different from our wonderful Christmases full of snow here. I don't really know which I like best. Here we go to church at 6 am on Christmas morning, and then break our Nativity Fast when we return with traditional beef and vegetable soup (brasto) which we prepare the night before.

Talking about the wonderful aroma of Australian christmas trees : A few years ago someone gave me a fir tree as a present for the house. I don't know the exact name of this tree - although I just tried to find it on the Internet - but it is blue grey, slim and tall with tiny cones grouped together. When you spray the branches with water you get the exact same aroma of Australian christmas trees. During summer I used to do this regularly and the aroma immediately transported me back to my childhood. A couple of months ago we chopped it down, because its wood and needles are highly flammable - much more so than the ordinary pines that surround our house.

Easter was always a lot more religious, although we had great fun on Easter Sunday with all our friends.


Olga, even though I would love to, I am not going to talk about any of the sweets you mentioned. I am on a strict diet at the moment.............

well, maybe a lamington or two wouldn't upset my diet that much, would it???

Effie

[carreraboyracer]

It's a bit ironic that my wife had a wonderful childhood in Moscow. Everything was cheap or free. Long lazy summers were spent with her brother on their grandparents' farm, there were holidays in Crimea and elsewhere on the Black Sea coast, school camping trips to East Germany's Baltic coast, skiing and ice skating in winter, visits to ballets at the Bolshoi theatre, and so on. This was during the 60's and 70's. Of course, political repression was also going on still, though the Gulags had been closed by then.

We're not going to Russia after all this Christmas. The 'New Russians' have made things so expensive, we can't afford to go anywhere. A concert that costs £11 a ticket in London costs $500 in Moscow.

All these wonderful memories prove that happiness for each of us means so many different things but it mainly concerns the people around you. If you are happy with your family and friends then wonderful memories are created naturally.

And remembering, we experience the joy of reliving the past, and especially reliving our experiences with those who are no longer with us.

[Redys]

Olga, why so many cherries?

Because December is when they're in season over here, and the season is short! (true, it is possible to get cherries off-season, but these are imported. Not the same as the locally-grown ones ....)

[YTmWSOA5]

Because December is when they're in season over here, and the season is short! (true, it is possible to get cherries off-season, but these are imported. Not the same as the locally-grown ones ....)

Right! Didn't think of that. A friend of mine had an relative who lived until 100. He had cherry orchards in the fruit district of Naoussa. Every year in late spring, he fasted for a couple of weeks - the only food he ate was loads and loads of cherries.

He told my friend that he believes this fasting period, and his cherries, were the reason he was so healthy at such a great age. Who knows!

Effie