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| My three year old granddaughter, Melina |
Last night I had the most wonderful time, a time I’m sure to keep in my heart, as one of my fondest memories.
“What did I do?” you
are wondering, spend the night at a five STAR luxury hotel with MGG (My Greek
God), or did he take me for a slap up gourmet meal, no expense spared?
Neither of the above, I
spent twelve Euros and took my three year old granddaughter, Melina, on her
first visit to the cinema.
This week, the local,
open-air cinema, ELECTRA opened its doors for the summer season.
I had eagerly been anticipating
this event, just for that reason, to take Melina, as I had taken my two
children, usually accompanied by a gang of unruly friends, so many years ago,
too many years, in fact, to mention!
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| Electra Cinema, Loutraki Photo courtesy of Electra cinema Loutraki |
Each week, on
Wednesdays and Thursdays, Electra shows a children’s film, and, as luck would
have it, the first one of the season starred Tinkerbell, a favourite of
Melina’s.
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| Tinkerbell and the Monster of Never |
Photo courtesy of
Electra cinema Loutraki
Electra cinema Loutraki
Plans were laid, most
importantly; Melina had to have had an afternoon nap, as the cinema is
outdoors, nothing starts before nine fifteen in the evening, when the sun has
gone down.
When I spoke to her,
late afternoon, Melina, who had been informed of this wondrous outing by her
mother, excitedly told me that we were going to the cinema together, and that she
would wear her new dress.
I picked her up at
nine, there she was, ready and waiting, all spick and span in her new dress
(which she proudly showed me), smiling like the Cheshire Cat, we said our
goodbyes to her mum, and off we went.
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| Cheshire Cat Alice In Wonderland. Louise Carroll |
Melina held the money for the cinema tickets tightly in her little fist, and on arrival, shyly paid the cashier.
She was rather quiet,
gazing around with a look of astonishment on her sweet face as she chose our
seats. (Surprisingly, not at the front, I had been worrying about that, thinking
about the stiff neck I would have suffered later).
It was still quite
light when we sat down, but in less than five minutes, as happens in Greece ,
it was suddenly nightfall and the lights went on, much to Melina’s delight.
This delight was nothing
compared to her reaction when they went off again and she gleefully exclaimed:
“It’s starting, it’s starting”
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| Electra Cinema Photo courtesy of Electra cinema Loutraki |
I had noticed, beforehand, quite a few of the parents and grandparents had ipads, tablets and the like, at the ready, headphones attached, and thought:
“What a good idea, that will relieve the
boredom of sitting through ninety minutes of a children’s film”
How wrong I was, what
those people missed!
I didn’t see much of the film; I couldn’t take
my eyes off Melina, the expression on her face was priceless, the awe, the
wonder, the explosive little chuckles, the way she sat, so alert, on the edge
of her seat, and, every now and then, she asked me “Is it a bad monster?”, “Where’s Tinkerbell gone?”
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| Monster of Never |
Photo courtesy of
Electra cinema Loutraki
Electra cinema Loutraki
At the end, when the
credits rolled, she turned to me and her face was a picture, pure happiness,
bliss, my heart felt like it was about to burst with love for her.
“Shall we come to the
cinema again Yiayia (Grandma)?” she asked me.
Yes my little
darling, we shall, but never will it be like it was tonight.
Melina and I made a
memory together, we will make many more.
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| Photo courtesy of Electra cinema Loutraki |
