The Week of Holidays

This week is more or less calm because almost everybody is on holiday at my workplace: bosses, project managers, structural instructors, overmen of the construction sites, even the bookkeepers, except me. There comes a time when… We’re going to Mallorca, Spain at the beginning of August! We decided an immediate departure. Otherwise, our company (RKB) is developing apace, we win projects one after the other. We’re interested in condominium construction over 1 mrd HUF. As a matter of course, ”körbetartozás” touches the company (not our salaries) and the subcontractors as well. Could somebody tell me the proper word to ”körbetartozás” in English (if it exists at all in Canada)? It happens when the principal/investor can’t pay to the contractor/executor and in this way the contractor can’t pay to their subcontractors. Liabilities, outstanding debts. Unpleasant situation, but it’s very common in Hungary.

My sister and her boyfriend came back whole from Corfu where they spent their holiday four of them. They had a good time there.

Ordinary Wonders

I intended to go to a nearby store yesterday afternoon. While I was checking my bicycle, I put my purse onto the engine hood. I found the tyres of the cycle inadequate, it was deflated. As I was in a hurry, I decided to drive instead of ride. It goes without saying that I forgot my purse on the hood and started. When I stopped at the store and got out of the car, I immediately got wise to the terrible fact that I lost my purse! How I could be so stupid – I thought. I jumped back into the car at once and stepped on the accelator. „Somebody will pick it up” – had increasingly on my brain. I instantly called my mum who was at home and said her to go out and look for my purse by the house. I was fast (it took less than 2 minutes to get home) and hoped that by the time I arrive it turned up. Nothing. People – children and adults as well – were walking the street and I thought that somebody found it and stuck it. I started the route again when I discovered my blue flowered purse! I was very lucky because it fell on a tuft, so it was not eye-catching, now a loft of people got by it. Thank God! This story had a lucky outcome, not such as my father’s whose car window was broke open broad day at a shopping center in Budaörs where he stayed no more than 10 minutes. His briefcase was stolen with the employees’ salaries together with irreplaceable writings, contracts, keys etc. Pain mingled with joy: the fourth day somebody found the bag and return it, everything was in it except the money.

Experiences in June

Summer is always full of family engagement. There are several occasions to celebrate. Name-days, birthdays, procession (Corpus Christi), ad hoc gatherings…

The procession – the flower carpet – was as beautiful as usual, were as many people as usual, the family gathered together at the church as usual and we bought shoddies as usual. My favourite is the paternoster, it’s made of – I could liken it unto a – very hard sponge-cake. It’s edible and you can hang around your neck. Each is made up of two colours: usually yellow & red, but this year I bought white & pink combination as well. It may be obtained nowhere else, so I usually buy more pieces.

Summer birthdays are more enjoyable, specially if the weather is with us when we can sit outside. 10 years ago there was a vast birthday party in Epöl at this time of the year. My mother’s father’s brother was 80 years old. This year we celebrated his 90th birthday! It’s a great age. It’s a privilege in the present world. He enjoys very good health (he does crossword puzzle without glasses). The whole family were there, we were about 50 of us. It was great apart from that little accident right at the start when I poured out the soup straight to Chris’ lap. It was a quite red and quite hot goulash soup. Music was provided by a 3-member gypsy band in the evening. There was a festival in Epöl that day. We – the ”children” – decided to ride on merry-go-round. It was a little bit dreadful for me at first during lifting up, I don’t remember the time when I did it last, or if I have ridden on it ever at all.

Part Five: Things Worth Mentioning

Certainly, there are missing links in my memoir, things I still haven’t written about. Robb & Nancy tried to organize a guideline concentrating on those things in which we were interesting most. It was not easy because we had only 3 days. It was very kind of them that they took us to a printing-office as Chris works as a printing mashine operator in Hungary. It was a very same workplace, it was just varied in work condition and salary. We were at several car stores as well like Hummer, Chrysler, Infinity, Lexus… Chris’ wish was to meet with a real Hummer (H2). It was fulfilled: he could drive it and loved it very much. In spite of its size, it’s a ”well-mannered animal”, it gives you a pleasing road-experience – he said. My favourite car was Infinity G35, the black one.

We were twice – once in Ontario, once in Alberta – in a restaurant where you can eat as much as you are able to. Both place was run by Chinamen. They were great!

We celebrated Robi’s and Elsie’s (Nancy’s sister) birthday on the last evening in Calgary. A lot of people were invited and we were lucky to meet with never-seen or only-from photo-seen relatives, like Lonnie & Janine (Robi’s brother and his wife) and their new-born baby Mitchell, Rosemary & Steve, Nándi’s (Robi’s father) brother, Elizabeth’s girlfriend from Hungary and her mother and daughter. We got to know Nancy’s parents on the day of our arrival, they’re very kind persons and I’d like to thank for their present this time and their vigil when we arrived to them late at night.

Other thing worth mentioning: Peter's T-shirt. He got it from friends and he said that this game was over and another game was on. He was true. Absolutely true.

Part Four: Rocky Mountains

When we arrived Calgary we were received cordially with bunches of flowers at the airport by long-seen and not-so-long-seen relatives. The western part of Canada fascinated us. East-Canada was captivating as well but the last one-third part of our journey put a charm on us for life, mainly the second day of our stay in Alberta, when we visited Banff and Lake Louise. This was how I imagined Canada. It was picturesque. I need to write a lot because I’d like to enclose many photos. The mountains fascinated us even from the distance on our way to the National Park of Canada. Our first stop was the town of Canmore, the Bow River runs through it. I liked the bungalows by the riverbank. The next town is Banff. Banff National Park is the birthplace of Canada’s national park system, the 3rd oldest in the world, established in 1885 and named for Banffshire, Scotland – birthplace of two of the original Canadian Pacific Railway directors, built through Banff in 1883. There are more than 1000 glaciers in the park, (its size is 6641 square kms). The slogan is: take only photographs, leave only footprints. We started our trip at a lovely famous waterfall. Reach out and touch the sky… The next stop was the Gondola. It’s almost like „libegő” in Hungary. Fully-enclosed, 4-passenger gondola cabins whisk you to the top in comfort and safety, it’s a quite ride. The upper terminal elevation is 7486 feet (2281 metres) above sea level, even birds fly below you. More mountains in a moment than most see in a lifetime. We had lunch at the upper terminal where we were witness breathtaking views in every directions. The roof-top observation deck provided an unobstructed 360° view. Chipmunks and Whisky Jack were real shows. Whisky Jack is a bird. If you raise your palm with a little piece of bread on it, it comes, touches your hand, receives the food and flies away. We visited the Cave and Basin National Historic Site for the full story of the National Park. For more than 10 000 years, aboriginal people travelled through the Bow Valley, camping and hunting in the mountains. The Stoney Indians told of the healing powers of the hot springs waters. These thermal springs would became the setting for the beginning of Canada’s national parks story. In 1883 three men tried to find their luck at trapping and prospecting. Instead of finding furs and ore, they found liquid gold, thermal springs which they hoped would make them rich. The Reserve was enlarged and renamed more times since then. Lake Louise was a worthy ending of this great day. I dropped my teeth when the scene revealed itself. Snowy mountaintops, green pines, sky-blue tarns. Known to the Stoney people as „Lake of the Little Fishes,” Lake Louise was given its present name in 1884. It honors Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, sixth child of Queen Victoria. Talk the photos instead of me! We had dinner in Grizzly House specializing in Alberta Beef, exotic game meats and seafood. Dining is based on fondue and hot rock because you have to roast your meat on your own. We ate a complete fondue dinner: to start soup, the appetizer was cheese fondue and then each person chose main course. I chose beef and prawn fondue dinner, Chris had a hunter fondue dinner (buffalo, wild boar and venison), I don’t remember Nancy’s choice, and Robb had the most interesting meal, an exotic fondue dinner including shark, alligator, rattlesnake, ostrich, frogs legs, buffalo and venison. You can imagine that we had a really good time during roasting. We either could choose the buttered hot rock or the boiling oil to prepare our dishes. We laughed a lot, we might offered a funny spectacle to Gábor because he didn’t want to sleep in his baby seat, he was just staring at us with wide eyes. The dessert was a chocolate fondue with melted Toblerone chocolate and fresh fruit. We got it with candles on it because Robb had birthday that day. As a matter of curiosity: there was a telephone at each table and the numbers of a concrete table were on the back of the place mat.