Putyin visits Hungary

Enormous traffic jams can be expected over Budapest today and tomorrow because of the Russian PM’s stay. He is one of the 4 best guarded persons of the word, beside the American and Israeli PM and the Pope. The city center is full of sharp-shooters and policemen, distractions and parking restrictions, tow-away-zones. People are suggested to use public vehicles instead of cars on these days. I’m afraid in advance how we’ll get to the dancing saloon tomorrow afternoon. Normally, there are traffic jams over the city not only in the rushing hours and there must’t be a special event like this to be traffic jams. There are too many cars on the streets (hand in hand with pollution) in contempt of the very high, unreal fuel prices. Thank God that I’m sitting in an office in Budaörs and I don’t have to take part in the downtown transportation day by day. But this situation lasts not long, the company will soon move into the capital, in a few weeks. :-(

Ballroom Dance

Krisz and me have learnt to dance for one and a half year in a dance school at a dance club. We are ambitious, so we were dissatisfied with the figures and the dance standard providing by the school. We found it too little and after we had realized that we haven’t got two left feet. We wanted to do it much better and looked for the Hungarian champion-couple to teach us. To tell the truth people can’t acquire the perfect movement until there are 20 couples around him. In a dance school you are shown how to step and how many step have to walk back and forth, left and right, but this is not the real dance, it’s not flattering. If you already have seen competitive dance live, or professional dancers live, or a good film dealing with dance teaching, in which the leading man learns to dance very well in the end and has a big success, you know this feeling and you want to dance, to dance very well that catches the eyes.
Krisz would like to be a competitive dancer and participate in performances. So far am I skeptical but my mind will probably change seeing our advancement. In point of fact I’m glad to take part in this private tuition, these lessons are much more effective and I can’t wait to show our „show” at the wedding. We’re planning to dance and to present the different kinds of dance, standard and latin as well (we prefer latin dances). Recently we’re dealing with rumba, it’s roughly speaking the basic of the other dances.

Rendezvous in Venice

We travelled by night. It was full moon, so I could see the black shadows of the big trees of the Alps on the white snow-blanket clearly through the bus window. It was a little bit strange being next to the see in February. After we had collected some shells out of the wet sand on the desolated beach in the morning, we went to the harbour (Punta Sabbione) to cruise to San Marco Square, Venice.

We enjoyed rambling and hanging about the tight streets and alleyways, the canals up and down, bridge by bridge, although it was the day before the opening ceremony. We tasted the Italian pizza but it was not better at all than the Hungarian one. In every single restaurant (being smaller or bigger, low-level or high-level) the waiters wear black trousers and white coat with black bow-tie, they are embarrassing elegant. I think it’s a little bit misleading.

Next day began the real amusement. Venice was extremely full of tourists (mass of Chinese) and each has a camera in service. It was a challange to take a good photo because of the others. More and more strange figures appeared, some of them was frightening, some of them had great prestige, some were glamorous but each of them was to regale our eyes. The sun began to shine, so the view of the opposite bank became picturesque after the previous day’s misty veils.

Valentine's Day

The day of lovers. It's not a typical Hungarian holiday and we usually don't deal with it very much, but I always covertly hope for something little unexpected surprise. The uncovered present will be the carnival in Venice. I can't wait it. Time to be téte-a-téte. Time to devote time to each other. Time to enjoy Italy and its places of interest. Time to take hundreds of photos! We set off on Thursday evening.

"Doubt that the stars are fire,

Doubt that the sun doth shine,

Doubt that truth be liar,

But never doubt that I love."

/Shakespeare/

Morning Surprise

Our street, view from the terrace, the entrance, the fence and the spoor of our pussycat. I came to the office with my camera in my pocket to take some photo en route to work. I wanted to go on foot but I left home too late and I had to get on the bus. As I passed by the ancient cemetery I saw the untouched, virgin snow. I wanted to immortalize but there was some disturbing factors. Maybe in my way home.

Snowing

I’m staring out of the window sitting at my desk in the office. The falling snowflakes and the snowy landscape flatter me. I’d go for a walk for choice on the hill over there. Unfortunately, it mightn’t be so cold outside, I see melting the snow from the cars parking.
The party was great at the weekend, although there were problems around the preparations. I was afraid of not being ready with the planned things. I baked the pancakes to 2 AM the previous day and I was nervous because the meat and salad arrived just in time, and all my plan almost collapsed. The menu consisted of ”palócleves”, ”hortobágyi húsos palacsinta”, ”sonkasaláta”. Chris & me created these dishes and my mother was so kind and helpful to prepare the dessert. These were ”hájas sütemény”, ”sajtos golyócskák” and a fancy cake called ”bombajó”. The guests were satisfied with everything, they liked and praised everything and I only can hope they didn’t lie. We tried to do our best.

Matyi atya

Yesterday evening was our first (moral) education in related to wedding & marriage. We take part in two lines and the reason of this is the following: the ceremony will be in the Roman Catholic Church in Budaörs but it will performed by my favourite priest who got to another place to another church society many-many years ago, to whom I used to go to religion lessons as a little child, with whom I made my first Holy Communion and later my Confirmation. He is Matyi atya. He encouraged me to play the flute during the Sunday Holy Mass. He’s famous from his directness, his love of children, his jokes and funny comments and gives noteworthy pieces of advice and nothing escapes his attention. He was the first (and the last) priest in my life so I exactly knew that I look for him one day. I found him in Százhalombatta and he recognized me at once even through the phone, in spite of that we saw and heard each other much more than ten years ago. We visited him on a Sunday and I really enjoyed his mass, it reminds me to my childhood, it was just like a time-travel, he hasn’t changed. He invited us to the education on Mondays in Százhalombatta and we also have to take part in the meetings on Sundays in Budaörs, but I don’t mind at all. Anyway, he will be a surprise for the wedding guests.

Ticket Controllers of BKV Ltd.

I’ve been penalized in the morning en route to work. Normally, I travel by bus in the short run - without a valid ticket. I find the fare system of Budapest Transport Limited very unfair. The tickets should be validated by the puncher right after getting on board. The controllers are authorized to check the validity of your ticket any time during your trip. No matter how many stops you travel, you always pay the same. One ticket costs 185 HUF when you travel only one stop and in case of travelling from a final station to another as well. Anyway, the percentage is good as regard my travellings because this was the first time to pay a fine since last May (since then I've been at this company).
I made up my mind that I won’t pay regurarly as long as the vehicles are dirty, every single man of no credential and bums are allowed to get on, the controllers are unschooled, unintelligent, and rude, the fare system is unsolved and so on... Whenever I can, I rather go by car or on foot. Otherwise, I don’t want to go to work by car every day, the engine doesn’t warm up during getting the office, so it’s not worth getting it out of the garage and I feel sorry for it standing all day long in the stone-cold weather or standing full in the sun. You can also take it in at http://www.carstyling.hu/car_shower.php?id=665