Wasn’t meant to be….

Not this one

Not this time

The first one in my life

The miracle that never came to be

Now my belly is empty

And my heart has been left alone

Hopes were being built

Dreams being promised

Never knowing why

Always wondering what could have been

I am sorry you never came to be

The little button that was inside of me

(c) Melanie Kotsopoulos (February 2011)

You can.....

You can shed tears that she is gone or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she is gone or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back or you can do what she’d want! Smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Love of Mother Poem

Now that I am gone,
Remember me with smiles and laughter.
And if you need to cry,
Cry with your brother or sister
Who walks in grief beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms around anyone
And give to them what you need to give to me.
There are so many who need so much.
I want to leave you something - -
Something much better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I’ve known
Or helped in some special way.
Let me live in your heart
As well as in your mind.
You can love me most
By letting your love reach out to our loved ones,
By embracing them and living in their love.
Love does not die, people do.
So, when all that’s left of me is love,
Give me away as best you can.

"Gone From My Sight"

By Barbara Karnes

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says “There, she is gone!”

“Gone where?”

Gone from my sight. This is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “Here she comes!”

And that is dying.

A celebration of the life of Lois (Smith) Illingworth

Peacefully on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 in her 85th year surrounded by her loving family.

Daughter of the late Charlotte and William Smith. Beloved wife of the late William Hazen. Loving mother of Linda (Scott Burrell), Judi, Carol (Chris Boland), Paulene (Andre Bourgault), Jo-Anne, Deb (Malcolm Ravells), Shaun (Isabelle Martineau), Tracy (Lorna Wilson), Darren (Emily Duquette), Michael, Kerri (Andre Mazhar) and Melanie (John Kotsopoulos). Cherished grandmother of Jason Boland (deceased), Sacha Gagnon (Lisa), Trevor Curren (Jen), Courtney Williams (Ryan), Jesse Illingworth, Taylor Illingworth, Charlotte and Rebecca Illingworth, William and Eva Mazhar. Great-Grammie Oosie to Brooke, Austin and Liam Gagnon, Lenni Illingworth, Tazzy Curren and the expected little button. Dear sister of the late Kenny, Corky, Leonard, Elaine, and Bev.

Family and friends may visit at the West Chapel of Hulse Playfair & McGarry, 150 Woodroffe Ave at Richmond Road Thursday 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Visitation will also be held after 10 a.m. Friday, February 4, 2011 at Woodroffe United Church, 207 Woodroffe Ave until service time at 11 a.m. Interment to follow in the spring at Auld Kirk Cemetery, Almonte.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Diabetes Association or The Heart and Stroke Foundation would be appreciated.

Kots' Best of Athens

At Athens Airport, grab the free “2Board Magazine”. It has some great itineraries and recommendations

Best Museums

• New Acropolis Museum (grab a coffee or lunch on the top  floor deck with incredible views of the Parthenon)
• Archaeological Museum (renovated before the Athens Olympics in 2004)
• Benaki Museum (for a nice overview of Greek history, from ancient to modern)
• Cycladic Art Museum (also a good top floor spot for lunch  with a view)
• Byzantine Museum 

Best Tourist Sites

• Acropolis/Parthenon
• Archaeological Walk around the Acropolis (pedestrian area goes around the entire parameter of the site -- superb walk, many places to also take a break)
• Lycabettus Hill and St George Church (for huge views of Athens including the Acropolis)
• Panathinaikon Stadium (site of first modern Olympic games)
• Zappeion (there was a kids Christmas market there, not sure if still up -- area can be reached by foot from the Panathinaikon stadium or from Constitution Sq)
• Roman Agora (in the Plaka area)
• Plaka (touristy but nice to walk through all the small streets. If you want to eat in this area, don’t go to places with photos of their food or menus that prioritise English over Greek)
• Syntagma (Constitution Sq) -- enjoy the ceremonial guard and their wacky outfits 

Best Areas for Coffee/Drinks

• Kolonaki (Tsakalof St, Griveon/Delfon streets, Skoufa St)
• Adrianou (also for food)
• Syntagma (Valaoritou Street, 6th floor of “Public” store on Syntagma Sq for great views)
• Makrigianni (pedestrian area beside the new Acropolis  Museum)
• Gazi (funky former industrial area, near Thisseion metro station)
• Glyfada (coffee, food, stores, beach front walks)
• Faliro Boardwalk (Ostria café has access to the beach)
• Mikrolimano (Piraeus) 

Best Shopping Areas

1.       Monastiraki flea market

2.       Ermou Street (all the major labels -- vibrant pedestrian street)

3.       Kolonaki (for higher end stuff)

4.       Glyfada

Restaurants

1.      For the quintessential souvlaki experience go to the base of Mitropoleos Street right at  Monastiraki square. There are three classic restaurants there that spill on to each other (Thanasis, Savvas and Bairaktaris)

2.       Adrianou (pedestrian street running between Monastiraki to Thisseion metro stations -- great Acropolis views

a few specific recommendations:

• “Fasoli”, “Meat Bar”, “Oikeio”, “Kalamaki Kolonaki” (Kolonaki)
• “Kuzina” (Adrianou)
• “Alatsi” (Museum belt, near Hilton)
• “Sardelles” and “Mamacas” (Gazi)
• Ariston (for hand made Greek cheese, spinach and other pies -- near Syntagma on Voulis St).
• “Palia Taverna Tou Psarra” (Plaka -- touristy but nice  location)

Musical entertainment: Bouzoukia

• Not for the faint of heart, but classically Greek. On Friday or Saturday nights only, see Sakis Rouvas at Athinon Arena (Piraeus Street) – no reservation for bar area/reservation needed for table. But warning, the party starts, very, very, late. 

Kids

1.       Kinepolis in Kifisia

2.       Technopolis (fun exhibits in Gazi)

3.       Avenue Mall

Only 8 days left! Please support this campaign

Born HIV Free

Born HIV Free is a campaign by the Global Fund to mobilize public support for a world where no child is born with HIV by 2015. Originated and supported by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Global Fund Ambassador, this is one of the most ambitious campaigns of its kind.

Born HIV Free will run until the key replenishment meeting of the Global Fund in New York in October, in order to mobilize public support for donors’ decisions which will determine whether the battle to virtually eliminate mother to child transmission of the virus will be won or lost.

Please put an end to the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children by supporting your country’s contribution to the Global Fund.

Sign up here:

http://www.bornhivfree.org/f/#/en/home

Also, see the videos on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/bornhivfree

We need 500,000 signatures by Thursday 30th September 2010!

Third Voluntary Replenishment Meeting

2010 marks the Third Voluntary Replenishment Process.  The replenishment process is critical not only to the future of the Global Fund, but also to many millions of people affected and infected by HIV, TB and Malaria around the world and whom depend on it for life-saving treatment, commodities, support, and services.  The replenishment is not just about money.

The Third Voluntary Replenishment Meeting will be held in New York, from 4th to 5th October 2010.  International leaders, governments and donors will come together to ‘pledge‘ their financial commitments to the Global Fund for the coming three years. The replenishment must raise at least USD$20 billion if the extraordinary gains made by the Global Fund over the past decade are to be sustained and accelerated.  While many may argue that USD$20 billion is a huge sum in these ‘resource constrained’ times, it is a reasonable investment which will continue to pay substantial dividends over many years, when compared to the USD$700 billion deployed overnight to bail out Wall Street banks during the financial meltdown.

Contributing to the success of the Global Fund is its commitment to the core principles of demand-driven, country-owned responses.  Some international donors have pre-empted the outcome of the Third Voluntary Replenishment, and have begun calling for caps on the amount of funding to be made available for each round.  This would be a disastrous consequence, going against the very basic foundation of which the Global Fund was established upon, and would leave countries and communities without the resources identified as necessary to effectively respond to HIV, TB and Malaria.

In signing the letter, we demonstrate our support for the Global Fund and demand that governments commit to the health of communities across the world by increasing their financial contribution to the Global Fund and raising the USD$20 billion at the Third Voluntary Replenishment.

We need 500,000 signatures by Thursday 30th September 2010!

Please sign here

http://www.globalfundreplenishment.org/

Return to Africa

It was my first time back in Africa since I left Equatorial Guinea in December 2008. This is the Africa I remember, this is the Africa that keeps drawing me back. Equatorial Guinea was not Africa, it was its own unique “dark” version of a dark continent a century ago. Being in Nairobi and Juba brings me back.. to other times, other memories, other lives, other reasons for being there. Surprisingly, even being at the UNDP office in Sudan brought back happier memories of Kigali and Kampala. UNDP Equatorial Guinea was not an office. It was an impound lot, a waste site, a decaying corner of a decaying street.

The air in Nairobi was cool but surprisingly refreshing, despite the exhaust fumes! I stayed with Sabine and her family (Jobo, Jimmy and Sophie). Westlands is so lush. I went to bed with birds singing and I woke up to birds singing! I had mangos fresh off the tree.

It was surreal seeing Sabine in Nairobi after all these years (2006). She was great letting me - and my back and forth itinerary – stay with her and her family.

My time in Nairobi was short-lived (and leisure time non-existent) because of a full-day meeting on my only full day there. I took the morning flight (jet link) to Juba, South Sudan. It wasn’t as bad as it was played out to be. The Quality Hotel wasn’t as bad as I was made to believe. Juba itself is like a town being built from scratch. It consists of roads, containers and Sudanese huts. At 35-38 degrees, the weather was not unbearably hot. However, I can’t imagine what it would feel like at 40 to 42 degrees in a container with no air-conditioning! It was even more surreal to see Sujitha (from UNDP Rwanda). It was great to have a quick catch-up over lunch.

In Khartoum, we stayed at the Al Salam Rotana. An oasis in the desert! The children wear military camouflages as their school uniforms! It was pretty… interesting to see.

The Sudanese are a mix of north Africa/Middle East and black Africa. The Dinkas are amazingly tall. I had no idea people could be so tall!

On my back and forth to and from Nairobi to Juba and Khartoum, I was able to squeeze in a dinner with Sabine at an Ethiopian restaurant, nyama choma just before another flight, and an overnight safari in Lake Nakuru.

Ciao Italia!

This past weekend (11 to 13 December 2009) JK and I drove to Italy, reason being Axel’s 40^th birthday. JK picked me up at work and we drove straight to Turin. We stayed at the amazing Le Méridien Lingotto which is located in a converted Fiat factory. The hotel itself is what you would hope for in a renovated warehouse: high ceilings and good use of old materials (furniture, photos, windows, etc.). At 21:30, we threw our bags in the room (#325) and headed to La Pista restaurant. La Pista is located on the top floor (4^th) of the same building as the Lingotto, the same floor as the Fiat test track. We indulged ourselves by going for two different degustation menus. What a steal for four courses with wine! Unfortunately, I only made it through the first two courses (antipasti and primi piatti) because of some lingering stomach bug from Indonesia. So, JK ate most of my main course and I took the dessert in a doggy bag!

....Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention “la piece de resistance” for car lovers: the roof has a race track where Fiat tested their cars.

On Saturday morning, JK and I walked around the entire track (photos will be posted on Flickr later). We then headed to Eataly for our gourmet fix. Eataly is perhaps the best Italian marketplace ever!

After loading up, we then drove to Florence. We stayed at the Hotel Kraft. It had old world charm. We celebrated Axel’s birthday with Carlos and 30 of his other friends at Acqua al 2. The staff kept bringing bottle after bottle of red wine and plate after plate of pasta (I stopped counting at 5) followed by a huge plate of grilled beef, rocket, tomatoes, and parmesan. It was almost buffet-style! Unfortunately my stomach bugs were restless and wouldn’t let me enjoy the smorgasbord.
 

The following day (Sunday 13 December) stored were open as a “special” exception for Christmas. So, we explored the tourist sites (Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio, Il Duomo - Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Ponte Vecchio, etc.) while popping into stores.

After enjoying a coffee and cookies at Axel and Silvia’s apartment, we then drove the 6+ hours back to Geneva.