Horizon a bit wonky but, then, I had been at Tzouma’s bar on the waterfront at Pandeli for a while. September, last year. If you’re from the south of England, you pronounce ‘grease’ as in ‘Greece’. If you’re a Scot, you pronounce ‘Greece’ – well, ‘Greece’, and ‘grease’ – ‘greez” – with multiple r’s at the beginning, e’s in the middle, and z’s at the end.

The movie ‘Grease’ came out in 1978, just before I went to work in Scotland as Director of The Other Company (the touring theatre arm of Dundee Rep.). The wonderful Helen Watson, Administrator of the company, confused me totally, Sassenach that I was. What was this film she was enthusing about? Took a while for us to meet in the middle. John Travolta was, probably, the catalyst… No! It wasn’t the lovely John – it was Hylda Baker and Arthur Mullard, who made a cover of  ‘You’re the one that I want’. That’s what it was. Take a look. 

In its defence, you had to be there. In the 70s. We were much less sophisticated then.

Anyhow, I need Greece, not Grease or grrreeezzz – and I’m nearer Hylda Baker than Olivia Newton John these days, anyway.

By the bye… (‘By the bye’ is an old sailing term. ‘Sailing by the bye’ means sailing close-hauled i.e. close to the wind direction. If you weren’t sailing on the bye, you would be sailing large, sails out and away from the wind’s direction. To refer to all forms of sailing one would say ‘bye and large’.) …apparently, according to WordPress, Sassenach is a lake in Canada and also:

So there you go, whether you’re into Greece, Grease or grrreeezzz, Scot or Sassenach, or in the middle of a lake in Canada: Échete éna charoúmeno Sávvato (Έχετε ένα χαρούμενο Σάββατο.) Have a happy Saturday.