Ta Synora mas einai...

A true ambassador of culture, Pikifrinos the brave made it all the way to New Haven in Connecticut to bring us this report: In case you need to ask, our intrepid roaming correspondent is always sober when accompanied by his son. They both, however, became drunk with joy at the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament as did the rest of the Marcos Baghdatis supporters.

"Off we went to the Pilot Pen tournament armed with Cyprus flags, Greek flags and a framed portrait of Da Man.

TeePee would have cried with joy, Vassos the Ephemerean would puff up with pride and call Andreas in his tomb instructing him to rise and see...and who knows, we might even have earned one of those “Get Out of Hell Free” cards from the Bishop of Kyrenia to use in the event we vote Yes in a future referendum.

I must say that during the hour and 48 minutes of the match I felt closer to my country than ever before...the Cyprus flag happily waving in a soothing New Haven afternoon breeze right next to the galanoleuki [Greek flag] (a..a...TeePee you see, you see?) and my 4 year old son wearing his custom-made white shirt with a Cyprus flag and the words 'Ela Re!' which encompasses so many meanings in the Cypriot dialect. Didn’t Ouranios once refer to it the oldest Greek dialect in the world...but I digress

We stadium-spotted another little parea in the SouthWest corner with Greek and Cypriot flags and we had a couple of loud exchanges of support for Marco-man.

And then he came in...he ran on the court...his bandana, his long hair (you should be thanking TP, Marco, otherwise you would have had your hair shaved off prwto noumero in the EF) [shorn hair, courtesy of the National Guard] and his trademark yellow shirt ...(Einai trella, einai trella...)

Our group of 10 started chanting 'Ela Marco' ...'Lemesos', and all of a sudden Marcos replied 'Apollon' with a loud, thundering voice...amidst an uproar of emotion from the Cypriots and Greeks. We felt like Leonidas’ 300 ...Long live our Ellinoxristianika idaniques.

Anyway, match under way, 3 Ben and Jerry's ice-creams later and a few bottles of water (in the absence of KEO tsakri) Marcos did not come out with his best performance but he won...

Attempts by radio-controlled bees to make him lose his focus were unsuccessful (we all know which daktylos [The Late and Great Spyros Kypianou's famous finger] was behind those bees...).

The stadium was hot...the cement even hotter and every now and then one ccould detect remnants of the word 'Yes' in the cement aisles. So don't go blaming Dimitris for supporting a ‘cementification’ of Yes...the man tried hard...it was not his fault that all this cement was erroneously diverted to New Haven.

After our Apollo won the game he said a few words and in a nutshell he said he is enjoying his life and tries to do so since there are other more important things in life than tennis...even though the Pilot Pen tennis marketers might not have liked that (repani Agiomammitiko then),

Marcos was right...sitting next to my 4-yr old and watching one of our fellow-men play world class tennis was worth everything...shilia riallia like they say in Kritou Terra...for all I care he could have been playing lingri...as long as my boy is well and healthy...nothing else matters.

So rejoice, hairy Cyprioids all over the world, and especially you at the center of the universe...for we have shown (dkiaorka sou atziapis sou eishe dikaio o Spyros tote) [SpyroMan - the original Cypriot superhero was right all along] that our synors are not at Dherynia but Long Island Sound....

Eagerly awaiting Marcos's next match...till then eat your sieftalies, drink your tsakrified KEO, play tavli and when asked about the Cyprus problem respond: Ws tzi ttemerou..."

You can also catch Pikifrinos' response to a blog entry here.