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Greek Carols Around Melbourne

Fani Toli — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:48:38 +0000

Thousands of Greek Australians attended this year’s Christmas Carols, organized on an annual basis by the Archdiocese of Australia for the past 28 years.

The Festival Hall was filled with joyous faces over a wonderful feast!

The impressive Christmas stage, created by known artist Yannis Chrysoulis, enchanted the audience, while sweet music from Handel’s Oratorio “Messiah”, before the opening of the main event, generated a unique atmosphere.

What was special about this year was the participation of prelates from the Coptic and Romanian Church in Victoria, invited by His Grace, Bishop Ezekiel of Dervish.

The glorious celebration began with the reading of the Holy Nativity Gospel by members of the Seminary of the Archdiocese, and concluded with hymns, sung by the Byzantine Choir of the Archdiocese. Three beautiful hymns were also chanted by the multi-member choir of Deacons of the Coptic Church.

Numerous bands and artists followed, performing carols from every corner in Greece and Cyprus, while something different and unique was presented by the Romanian choir, who performed their traditional carols.

Roar A Champion Team – Ange

A. Papapostolou — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:04:25 +0000

Any other result would have been an injustice. Brisbane Roar are worthy champions of Australian football.
The team that has dominated all season fittingly won last night’s memorable grand final, but not before receiving an almighty scare from the Central Coast Mariners.
Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou says his side showed the characteristics of a champion team to come from two goals down late to win Sunday’s A-League Grand Final on penalties.
Having admitted before the match that they had been second-best all season and had played their grand final a week earlier in beating Gold Coast United to qualify for the decider, the Mariners played the role of the underdog to perfection – almost.
Two goals up with three minutes of extra time remaining, the Mariners must have thought they were about to break their run of grand final outs, having twice previously lost deciders since the inception of the competition five years ago. Even Roar midfielder Erik Paartalu admitted he had given up hope.
But this Brisbane team has something special.
It’s a core reason why they have lost once in 33 matches, last night’s final included, in the greatest campaign in the history of Australian football.
If Paartalu had given up, he must have been revived by Henrique’s 117th-minute goal.
Then it was time for Paartalu himself to fittingly stand tall, with his last-gasp header sending the 50,000-strong crowd crazy.
There was only ever going to be one winner after that, despite the 50-50 nature of penalty shootouts.
Fittingly, Paartalu and Henrique took decisive spot kicks, with goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos – a grand final specialist – playing his part with two great saves.
One of the reasons Theoklitos was brought to the Roar by coach Ange Postecoglou – another grand final freak with five wins from as many attempts as a player and coach in the NSL and now the A-League – was to establish a winning culture at the Roar.
Having won two grand finals and two titles with Melbourne Victory, Theoklitos was not about to settle for second-best with the Roar. And neither was Postecoglou.

Hottest Greek Mum Shares her Beauty Secrets

carlinat — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:00:24 +0000

Eleni Ratnayka won the third prize, the Ovarian Cancer Award, at the International Mrs World Australia competition last month. Eleni is a 25 year old Greek Cypriot and entered the competition –which is exclusively for married women- as she is married with two children.

- How long have you been modeling for?
- Since I was 19-20 years old. I did modeling for Grand Prix, Auto Salons, and many other companies. It has always been interesting &
different.

- How old are your children?
The one is 4 and is called Tarren and the other is 4 months old andcalled Kalen.

-How did you manage to get back to modelling after 4 months (since thebirth of the 2nd child)?

- I went back to work straight away. I never dieted.I never exercised.
I was just lucky. Even the second time I didn’t get any stretch marks or have any weight issues, so I just continued.

- That’s fantastic! So where exactly are your parents from?
- My mum’s from Cyprus and my Dad’s from mainland Greece and I was born over here. I have only visited Cyprus, not Greece yet.

- I wish you all the best in all your future endeavours. Do you mind my asking you your age?
- I am 25 years old.

- And how do you find balancing work and family commitments?
-A little bit hard. My husband’s family is overseas. And my Mum works.
Also my husband works all day too. I manage to squeeze it (work) in here & there amongst my household duties. I can’t stop working; there’s no point in wasting time.

- Do you speak Greek at all?
- I understand Greek and can read it, can speak it but not fluently and I don’t speak it at all at home

- To whom would you like to dedicate the award you received?

-The award I won is for everyone that helped by donating and also for those that have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer

- You’ve mentioned you work with youth in your Melbourne suburb- what
is it exactly that you do?

-I mentor youth and would like to lead the young on the right path

- How important do you think a woman’s appearance is? Especially one with children?

- A women’s appearance is really only important to how the individual feels about how comfortable they are in their own skin and have a choice to modify their appearance with make-up etc which can help them feel better,although in reality you are judged by others upon your physical appearance. After having children it’s important to take care of yourself but as long as you feel good and are healthy then trying to look almost perfect is not necessary. Some people as celebrities have babysitters, nutritionists, personal trainers and can afford to get back into shape and others are naturally able to bounce back to shape with no diet and exercise as myself

- Do you prefer Greek or Sri-lankan food?

- At home I cook all types of food and so we not only enjoy Greek and Sri Lankan food although I think Sri Lankan is my preference

- What do you hope to achieve by winning the Ovarian Cancer award?
- By winning the ovarian cancer award I hope to spread awareness of this cancer further and to help those diagnosed and surviving

- What are your current projects? Any future projects?
- I’m still deciding on my future and what I prosper to continue with

- Any culture conflicts in the family (Greek Sri-lankan)?

-Their are no culture or religious conflicts, my husbands Buddhist and I’m orthodox but we just believe in giving and being good people and thats the most important aspect of any religion I believe.

- Thanks so much for your time, Eleni and all the best!