{"id":5218,"date":"2024-05-03T16:58:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T14:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/?page_id=5218"},"modified":"2024-05-06T15:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T13:20:44","slug":"athens-april-2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/redhairedgoon.com\/index.php\/photographs\/athens-april-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Athens – April 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Five years later, a return to the same hotel in the same city for the yearly AON now Wavelengths event. Different circumstances. The lead on to the event was also a lot easier for me this year, easier than any other, while I was also being slightly confused as to what I was meant to be taking care of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all kind of worked out OK. But there probably wouldn’t have been a post here if it weren’t for the French air traffic controllers’ strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the Tuesday evening, the event had been unremarkable. Less well organised than usual, but I got to see the Wolves v Arsenal match on my iPad while working on Saturday night not long after arriving, and work itself went pretty well. The Monday evening ‘Welcome Drinks’ were unusually not in the demo room, but up on a terrace bar in the sixth floor of the hotel, less work pressure and an altogether better setting. The weather wasn’t great but the view on the Acropolis was very nice indeed. No made-on-the-spot Gyros this time though, so it wasn’t ALL better. Even managed to sneak in a 7.5km run to and around the Acropolis the next morning as we weren’t starting early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last time around I’d missed the big shindig because I didn’t feel up for a fiesta, but this time I went, it happened in Golf Priv\u00e9, on an evening when the Sahara sand coloured the sky a strange orange\/yellow hue. I’d come prepared as there was a big Arsenal vs Chelsea match, so I essentially watched the first half on my phone while polishing a drink or two in the place and then finished watching it on the bus. I missed the start of the second half but caught most of it on the iPad while in the lobby bar drinking beer and mezcal. Happy days. And then, not long after midnight, I received notification that my flight the next day was cancelled (I’d only heard of the strike during the evening out when someone mentioned that was going ahead).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorted out the next day (and the head was thankfully fine), I could only fly back on the Saturday. Well it was a messy scramble for solutions, and while I tried my best to have us who were on a certain flight go to another one, in the end, looks like I mostly sacrificed myself. Anyway, won’t dwell on some of the particulars, because I got a litle annoyed more than once, and I ended up having to trace my own path again despite trying to work for the community, but that’s fine. Bottom line on the bright side was that I’d be around to see the Olympic Flame handover, which was a free event and open to the general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the bad side, I had caught a sort of flu that took about a week to clear (only getting back there now, the Friday after), and, worst of all, I lost my home keys, not entirely sure how that was possible, but as I’d spent the whole of Friday morning in bed and suffering, I wasn’t in the most lucid state to take decisions on what to wear or what to put in pockets. I tried to be careful but somehow my attention must have slipped, maybe when I got up to leave the Stadium. Anyway, the ceremony was nice, lovely weather though a bit nippy at the end, and certainly the highlight of the ‘extended’ stay, though having to fork out a grand for a locksmith, insurance deducted means I could really have done without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So below are a few photos from the stay, and, mostly photos and videos from that Olympic ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunshine over the Intercontinental Entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Watching Wolves v Arsenal while working<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our view from the Welcome Reception<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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…and at the end of it, phone camera night shots = not good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Arsenal vs Chelsea – First Half<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Arsenal vs Chelsea – Second Half<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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