I have always prided myself on my ability to understand and to be understood in Greek. I visit Thassos frequently, throughout the year, often for a short period of time admittedly, but my Greek friends are very kind indeed and always communicate with me in Greek. They allow me to speak to them in Greek and I have on many occasions been praised by the Thassians for my ability to speak Greek, which is not a usual trait found in tourists who visit this beautiful island.

Most likely I don't really have a great skill, but the fact that I am not easily embarrassed and don't mind making mistakes probably goes the long way in enabling me to continue talking Greek even though I'm probably making really no sense at times. It's probably a lack of self-confidence and a wish not to seem daft (and thus say inappropriate things) that the majority of other visitors to Thassos actually have in abundance, and thus will be more careful than I am when expressing themselves in Greek...

Along with many others I am quite certain that I smiled at some of the errors that Tom Stone quite happily told readers about in his endearing book “It's all Greek to Me”. I laughed when he went looking for "onions" (κρεμμύδια, cremedia) for the roof of the house that he was renovating instead of "roof tiles" (κεραμίδια, ceramidia).

In my time on Thassos, I have made many similar if not quite so dramatic mistakes. In the butchers in Limenas last May, I asked for a kilo of "juice" (χυμό, hymo) instead of a kilo of "mincemeat" (κιμά, kima). Equally I had been searching for "little children" (παιδάκιa, pedakia) in the butchers instead of "cutlets" (παϊδάκιa, payedakia). I constantly get mixed up between going to the "bank" (τράπεζα, trapeza), and going to the "table" (τραπέζι, trapeze). A girlfriend of mine, in Thassos town, has bought a very nice "disgusting", (χάλια, halia), for the floor of her lounge, instead of a "carpet" (χαλί, hali).

But I made the most embarrassing potato (πατάτα, patata) yet. The new rule which requires anybody who is taking out a new pay-as-you-go card for their mobile phone requires identification to be shown. The nice young lady in a telephone shop sent me away to go back to my flat and come back with "two batteries" (δύομπαταρίες, diobattaries). I duly complied, always having a spare cache as one never knows when the electricity will go off and we will need torches. When I returned, oddly enough she couldn't stop laughing because she had sent me away to get my "passport" (διαβατήριο, diavatirio)!

Please laugh out loud – I did!!

Helen of the deflated ego!!