Athens, Olympics, and Stadia, Oh, My!

The news has been full of Olympic news lately, mostly with countries bowing out of bidding.
They have good, solid reasons for it.  It's an economic disaster for them. What a city needs to host this event bears limited relationship to what a city needs.
Take Athens, for instance.
Facilities built for the Olympics are unused and crumbling.
Interestingly, this stadium in Athens built thousands of years ago looks like it's ready to use.

Thousands of years old and still in better shape than the stadia
constructed for the 2004 Olympics.

They money sunk into these sites could have gone to way better use like proper infrastructure, cleaning the city up, and getting a handle on its horrible stench.
I'm sorry, Athens. I love you, but you stink.
The Plaka (Old Town) I knew from the early 1980s is virtually unrecognizable today.  It is restaurant after restaurant after tourist trap.
I eventually found my way from Syntagma Square to some of my old haunts, but it was not the same. Not that it should be, of course, but it was crowded, filthy, and overbuilt.
I presume it was done in preparation for the influx of people for the games.  One cannot blame anyone for doing this.  Opportunity came and they jumped on it. Who wouldn't?
That said, the facilities built for then are a blight on the cityscape now. Athens has no need for them and there's no money for their upkeep. Unlike the ancient stadia,  these will likely never be historic sites.
They may serve as historical lessons,  but not the kind of site one dreams of seeing.
Meanwhile, (animal lovers please take a breath) the stray pussycat population of today in Athens is barely a whisper of what it was in the 1980s.

Master and Commander

They were everywhere underfoot at the outside eateries back then. Today, they still come by, but I only saw two or three at a time. Thirty plus years ago one would spot a dozen without even trying.
On the good side, when the government tried to get rid of the stray dogs prior to the Olympics the people got upset. They banded together, adopted the dogs, and put collars on them. These dogs still wander, but they are fed and loved and very friendly.

Athens has gone to the dogs.

Photo - Finish Friday --Snoozing in the Souk

Kitties enjoy the late morning sun in the Khan El Khalili bazaar, Cairo.

It's A Living

The pussycats in Cuba mean business.
These two, like so many others, hung around the tourist feeding places and waited for the visitors to take pity on them.
They were friendly enough in that stand-offish way a cat that doesn't know you has. However, they knew how to beg and did well at it.
They roamed from leg to leg brushing, mewling, and when they had your attention looking plaintive and a little edgy. I wondered sometimes if I didn't feed them, then what would they do?
I never mustered the courage nor froze my heart enough to try.

Photo-Finish Friday -- Friends

Cats just love my husband. He loves them right back despite his allergy.
The cat next door, Toad, spent a winter's afternoon looking at him with unmasked adoration as he cleaned the windows.
Click to enlarge and you'll see how taken Toad was.

War and Pussycats- More Twos on Tuesday

A proper cat scan.

I was so tickled last week to join in on the Women of Mystery’s Two Sentence Tuesdays I thought I’d give it another go this week.
It keeps me writing, for one thing, and for another it forces me to tap out something that I can share with the blogging world without cringing.

This is something we read this week. My husband reads me a bedtime story and has done so virtually every night for the 19 years we’ve been together. We received the Warriors series for a Christmas gift from friends and we’ve just started it. I absolutely love it and can’t help but refer to it as “War and Pussycats.”

Here are two sentences from Warriors: Into the Wild, by Erin Hunter, Avon Books, 2003.

“After a moment’s pause, several of the cats moved forward to lick Redtail’s bedraggled fur. As they groomed they purred hushed phrases to the dead warrior.”

My contribution is from the novel I started late last week about a mirror that randomly plays back images it has reflected.

"Light bounced around the room from the mirror. In its face a man in his mid 30s slapped his forehead and raised his arms to the ceiling."

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be out for most of the day. In keeping with the theme of the today’s post I’m off to the U of A Hospitals for a cardiac CAT scan.

Gratitude Monday - SerpentPuss Edition

All is not as it seems.

One of the neighborhood kitties, Puss, stopped by for a visit yesterday. She's a frequent visitor to our yard and loves to be smooched. Before we found out her name we ID her by her collar so to us Puss will always be Gold Collar.
We can't have cats of our own as my husband is allergic to them, but he likes them and they like him.

I let her crawl on my shoulder and purr in my ear for a few minutes. It's always a pleasure to hear a pussycat purr. I turned her over to my husband who spent a good half-hour out on the front porch in the afternoon sun attending to Gold Collar's needs and wishes.

I'm grateful that she likes us so much and feels at home in our yard. It's good to have a friendly kitty come by to visit and we look forward to whatever time she deigns to give us.

As for the picture, as threatening as those fangs might look, she was only yawning. A good afternoon's smooching can take a lot out of a pussycat.

Slinker

We've been adopted.

Slinker likes our yard. He commonly takes up residence under the canoe by the shed. It offers a lovely view of the pine siskins as they feed and provides shade and shelter for him.

I've no idea if he's a stray or someone's pet or even what his name is, if he has one bestowed by humans. He seems quite friendly, though, and makes every attempt to get a tummy rub.

I decided he ought to have a name and Slinker seemed to fit.