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[Nikitas]

Greek street! Anyone know Jimmy's restaurant? The owner and I went to the same law school in London. His family is from Yalousa.

[Nikitas]

Last year I went to Cyprus and met my best friend from London. He is a self made businessman.

We reminisced about London and our wilder times there and suddenly he said something that was a bit of a revelation: "we were dirt poor, but we did not know it". It was a simple and sincere statement, and true.We were poor in London, despite our apparent high earnings. Slaving to bring home a fat wage packet was not appreciated for what it was- slaving, because most people compared it to conditions back home, Cyprus of the 50s and 60s. Very few of us had the means to compare our state with that of the more affluent British.

Because I worked during my studies and some of my jobs brought me into contact with the indigenous affluent population- ie working at a stables in Barnet, a few spells in Harrods, Fortnum and Masons, a longer spell at ITV, I saw that slaving was mostly for us foreigners and the Irish.

Those experiences come in useful now that Athens is flooded with migrants doing jobs that remind me of London- construction, factory work, etc. I can empathise with these people and realise now how the British must have seen us back then.

[purdey]

I spent some time at RAF Hendon in North London in 77. I remember the tailors in the stores were all Cypriots, one of the women who worked in the Officers Mess was known to us as Mrs Anna, from Limassol she lived in Golders Green with her three sons.

[eleni]

Nikitas

You just made me smile it explains a lot I married a foreigner & am 1/2 Irish but not all the Brits were affluent. You just moved in the right circles.

Purdey,

I have turned that on it's head because I'm Mrs Eleni (englesa) from London dressmaking in Limassol.

[Nikitas]

Eleni, I moved in the right circles as hired help, not as an equal participant! Mind you I was allowed to ride for free since I was cleaning horse shit all day.

The big revelation of how the other half lived was Fortnum and Mason and Harrods. I also loved going to the boat show because I am an islander from both sides of the family (Cyprus and Kasos) and i love boats. Seeing people spend the equivalent of a lifetime's earnings (for a Cypriot in north London that is) on what was essentially a toy was an eyeopener.

[purdey]

Mrs Eleni, just to add to the above. I have a daughter 14 years old called Eleni. She has just started her GCSEs one of which is in textiles.

[Nikitas]

Purdey,

an aside here, but an interesting one. I often fit shotguns. My stint as assistant pattern maker at a Jewish owned dress making factory in London taught me a lot about fitting, albeit indirectly. It is no accident that most bespoke makers are grouped together in Mayfair, alongside bespoke shoe-, shirt-, suit- etc makers.

I have even built my own trygun of my own devising to help in my fittings. Obviously this inspires more passion than the law!

[DT.]

Greek street! Anyone know Jimmy's restaurant? The owner and I went to the same law school in London. His family is from Yalousa.

Jimmy's who bought over STellaras with his guitar from the other place Angelos in Bayswater....was there last week.

Starting visiting Jimmy's the past 3-4 years before that had always gone to Angelos while studying from 93 onwards.

The only place in London you can still smoke....(whatever you like )

Stellaras is the same as he was in the 90's, 80's and from what my uncle tells me he's the same as he ever was in the 70's.

I remember we were in there one night and whoever's not familiar with Stellara's style he caught a family of a dad a mother and daughter walking into the club at 2am. He immediately stopped playing (he only played 3-4 songs a night anyway and took the piss out of people the rest of the time)

"Eftihos pou to kamete!! Eshi oulli nihta pou sas perimenoumen"

The poor girl decided to visit the toilet and his response was

"Hmmm ekatalava, irtate na mas shesete tjai na fiete. "

poor girl.

[DT.]

On another note, the Cypriots in the 70's had actually cooperated with the Kray's and had control over Seven sisters Rd (the place is still covered with hookers every night.)

Lazarides was the Kray's main guy in North London and had full control over most of the clubs in the area. This was the time when all GC's opened up a clothes factory before the Pakistanis decided to move their entire families into their own factories and make the clothes at a 70% discount.

Most Cypriot went out of business at that point including members of my family who emigrated. We had anothe other half of the family that moved to Canada instead and did exactly the same thing over there.

[Nikitas]

Not all GCs opened clothes factories. There were fish shops, snack bars, restaurants, groceries, etc, in other words labor intensive jobs that the British did not want to do.

The ever creative Greek language provided terms for these new (for the Cypriots) professions: fishas, foustanas, shefis, sideras, and that inimitable "cabaagis" for the person who bought and sold surplus dress production.