Flip-flop would have been again around Lake Balaton…

…in case the weather of June 20th had supported this kind of footwear. 180 km within a day, so this time the lake won with its 220 km. I couldn’t finish it entirely. I surely would have done it if I had been alone and there was no one to pick me up. But my feeling is that I would have been crazy to continue it. So many impedimental factors arose: the pain in my knees, the pain in my ass (even after the 40th kilometres), the stormy wind all along the south shore. I slowed down and the collected kilometres stopped to increase. If I want to find some other excuses, I would enumerate my age which is 4 years more than I was at my last Balaton round, my weight which is 4 kgs more that I ever had but these are negligible and are just excuses. The most important factor is my bike. This is the very same that I used in 2016 but to tell you the truth it also gets older, not only me. Although, we spent on it and fixed what needed but it proved to be not enough. Other cyclists outrode me one after the other, with much less effort but with much better bicycles.

My KTM is a trekking type and is very OK for relative short distances and now I know that it is not a solution for such a huge distance any longer. So I gave up, the car’s GPS showed 38 km till the hotel when I sit into. The temptation of fulfilment was strong. To continue the tour would be the last and most difficult 3-4 hours in darkness, complete darkness between towns, without cycling path. I COULD give up and I believe it was the best choice. I will change my bike to a better level after baby Nolen has grown out the seat and will be able to ride on his own. New bike, new equipment (helmet, glasses, clothes), new speed. Regarding the speed, I expected to be much faster than previously because I was alone and I did not stop at the checking points to collect the stamps. Against my expectation I judge myself very slow with my average speed of 16 km/h. I guess it was mostly because of the bike and of the wind. I can’t wait my super bike. New bike, new challenges.

The most frightening part of the tour was before sunrise, when approaching Lake Balaton from Tapolca. I let myself to be guided by the signs. This can be done during the whole tour. (I only lost the path in Siófok.) Animals ruled the countryside at that part of the day. I had luck to meet some foxes, I needed to tinkle to the group of deers to get out of the road and I also met a cute badger. It lasted hours to meet the first people and cars in the morning. While approaching the Lake Balaton, I often look left to the direction of monadnocks of which the sun tried to rise behind.

I spoke to the sun to rise as soon as possible, I spoke to the application to work properly and I spoke to the lake when it appeared. That was my strategy against darkness – speaking. Seemed a bit crazy but it worked. And once the sun came up, the fragrances became intensive and I hardly could fill up my lungs with it.  

I want to say a big thank you to my husband, without whom this tour wouldn’t have been realized or rather would have been realized in a much different way. He got my bike prepared, invested into a roof rack, supported my goal, took me on a bit during my Balaton-round (near Balatonvilágos), recorded video while cycling, looked after the children and immediately saved me when I decided to give up. He is very proud of me for this achievement and told me million times well done, well done…

Bye-bye COVID, hello SUMMER!

Bye-bye, and we do not want to see you again!! This overblown epidemic seems to die away, easements are desposed gradually, slowly but surely and hopefully everything and everybody returns to the previous wheel-track. Did it change anything? Hope so, in a good sense.

The quarantine period remains recallable from our weights, Dominik's and mine. Equal! Exactly the very same, by decagrammes. And he can lift me up! In the next years, he might be heavier, I must be airier. I have 4 kgs plus compared to my starting weight before pregnancy but I want to lose 7 kgs altogether to reach my goal. I'm working on it, I start my days with gymnastics in the early morning as I used to, so I keep fit and I feel OK, I do not have problems to wear any of my old (even maiden) piece of clothes. The next step will focus on my diet. At this stage I'm rather concessive - knowingly. I have some plans for the subsequent year until I'm at home, and this is one of them: my new body, my final shape which certainly won't be remade by another pregnancy. I have executed my part, I gave birth twice and I think I'm old enough to accomplish this project. The most important thing is that I'm hugely happy with my superboys and it is a great honour to be their mother.

What is sure about this summer that I want to discover a lot of places (as usual) but I don't say that regardless the epidemic. On one hand I'm cautious and on the other hand I also take into account a possible second phase around autumn. Although, the airlines open the sky flight by flight and some of them offer compelling opportunities, we very likely omit travelling by air this year. Near abroad, approachable by car, can be taken into account such as Austria or Slovenia for a nice bike tour on the most amazing and breathtaking cycling paths of these countries. So hello summer! Finally, you are here and I promise we will enjoy every single day you bring us. 

Summa cum laude

I’m proud to announce that I have completed the second exam period with summa cum laude (previous exam period: magna cum laude). So I’m over the first year, just on the half way of getting my marketing degree. It’s an uplifting feeling if you have a goal and you reach it. My goal was different from my classmates’ goal. (Actually, my classmates are workers, 5 male and 2 female people besides me. The boys have families, one of them became father this year and his son has the same name Nolen – the very first time hearing this name personally in the last 2 years – and one of the girls will become a mother in these days.) They all just wanted to pass the exams and get it over as soon as possible, therefore some of them took 4 more subjects than the compulsory subjects, so they had 10 instead of 6, so the next semester they will have much less engagement. As for me, I wanted the best marks. Am I eminent? Yes, the most eminent and actually the only one among 8 of us. Every home assignment was my own effort and every single composition made me richer. I invested a huge capacity in my study, all my free time were consumed in the appr. last 2 months.

Regarding the next two semesters, I have a plan, too. I also take some extra work. My home assignment in food marketing will be extended to present a scientific research and it will be introduced to the board of examiners. In return for the research, one and any of the subjects can be absolved in the next semester, chosen by me. My unhidden intention is to extend this study even further, till the dissertation. The very best thing and the next step could be to make it real! It is about a farm-to-table restaurant, dreamt by me, in the near of my parents' weekend house, on the territory of 1,5 acres. The basic conception and the marketing strategy covering this nieche market is ready. See a miracle: the other day I was going along the site and realized the sign selling that acreage. Just need 22 million HUF to buy it (not expensive at all) and at least other 150 million to build up and equip the restaurant and other few millions to finance the employees. I’m going to work out the possible alternatives of getting money. A lot of money. But I need to play a sure game of course if I have a go at it, because in case fuckup, there would be a very big fuckup…

I had another interesting topic that I worked out from different point of view: a product against air pollution equipped into strollers that is currently not in supply, worldwide. Thanks to my dearest Elizabeth in Calgary, who found me this product in the UK, the product totally keyed me up. At the beginning, I was thinking of developing an own product, but as I have no technical and product designer background, I did not insist on this version. The launch of that product is delayed since 2017 and I do not know the reason why because the invention is brilliant, throughly planned and executed. Real pro. I got in touch with the inventor and let him know that I would be very happy to help him with the selling strategy in Hungary. This was one of the themes I worked out within the frames of selling management and other one was a market research for the same product creating a questionnaire, working out focus group interview and on the other hand I examined the air pollution within the country, discovered the most polluted regions and tried to find out if there is a demand for such a product in Hungary and on what price level can be sold.

At first, I wanted to deal with my company things because that solution seemed to be the most obvious on correspondence course. It would had been a chance for me to stay in touch with business and a chance for the company to get help in market research, etc… to deal with those kind of things that could be very useful for the company that they can utilize, those things they never can deal with because of the everlasting problem of lack of capacity and time. As I do not really like bunkum, I changed my themes and decided to write about something that I’m actually in – about baby-mom-like themes. So it happened that eg. last year I wrote about the monopolistic competition of mineral waters for babies, about baby food as an important quality problem, made a survey about the length of maternity leave among Hungarian mothers… I do not regret at all that I was ’forbidding’ about company things or rather allowed but with strict restrictions because I really enjoyed these fitting themes. And any of them can be developed further in the future. Thank you.