I found that life in Kiffisia was going on much the same, and Nikos, who apparantly have been a little menace during our absence, told me over and over that I must never go away again! Poor boy, the reason he loved me so was that I taught him to play. Once at a kid's  evening a party, where I had to play in the kitchen with Ermioni as she got hysterical when seeing a clown, he refused to play with the other kids, stating that they can't play, so he didn't love them. Thing is, they couldn't play, and after the clown, an institution at all kid's parties, left, all they did was running around and screaming, driving their nannies crazy! The Greeks are all for  making academics of their children, and kids like Nikos had a roomful of toys that he had no idea what to do with! Anyhow, then it was my birthday! Firstly Dorah had brought a cheesecake and other goodies the previous day, and I had no inkling of the treat in store for me until Ascala started putting small plates and glasses on the table in the diningroom. Then she prepared the big room where the formal dinners were held, shining glasses, polishing furniture, dusting in every corner, until I, having a huge sense of forboding, asked her what was going on, and she said she was preparing for a party. At four people started arriving, the diningroom table now decked out with the cake, one candle in the middle of it, and juices, and crisps and sweeties on the sideboard. While we waited for what I soon realised was my guests, to all arrive, Nikos almost wrecked the cake when Dorah told him that he was not blowing out the candle, as it was my birthday, and  when I saw the stubborn look on his face, I knew that we were in for a tantrum. He calmed down a bit when his best friend from school arrived, and we blew out the candle together, but  after they all, parents included, sang to me, and when it came to cutting the cake, he stated that he would do it, and on his mum trying to take the knife from him, he gave a loud scream and smashed the cake to a pulp! Some of the kids started to cry, and  as if  that was a bally sign, all the grown-ups disappeared into the big room, leaving me and Ascala to cope with the little ones who took Nikos's tantrum as a cue and started running around like a lot of maddened monsters. On this photograph Nikos was already working himself up into one of his famous tantrums, and as we were still waiting for most of the guests to come, I felt a bitty apprehensive! And what then happened is that the poor overworked Ascala and me had to entertain half a dozen sugar charged kids until midnight while in the big room the mummies and daddies had a whale of a time, and I suppose Dorah had told them not to bring their nannies, as we were capable of supervising the lot! Trienkie phoned from Holland, but I could not make out one word she said, then Jan, my son living in Denmark phoned, and I also had to tell him to phone the next day, as the children were running on high revolution, and the noise was just unbearable! But all bad things have an ending, and I was overjoyed when I thought of the next day,when I will have the afternoon and the next day off, and I was happy that we were going to have my real grown-up party at our favourite taverna, The Alexandros in Plaka. Blush-blush!!!!