A new week began...

…and I’m full of energy thanks to the weekend happenings! After all we could spend 2 whole days and a half together with Krisz. On Friday evening we were invited to a dance club where our teachers and other good dancers had a performance as an opening ceremony. I would had gladly seen their show but in consideration of Krisz’ weariness, we rather stayed at home (he didn’t have to work on Friday night but he had to go to the office in the afternoon after the previous day’s nightshift).
On Saturday we were invited to a wedding ceremony in Szentendre. One of my colleague got married. They went out together almost for a long time as we did. The workmates presented them a bottle in which some similar banknotes was put (after clearing) and had a unique wine bottle tab made with their names, the date and a quotation on it.
We got up early at Sunday dawn and set off at 4 AM with my father. We joined him and went to his hunting ground to Nógrád to scout in the forest. It is appr. 80 kms far from Budapest. It was completely dark even when we arrived. After we had registered in the hunting book and visited my father’s hunting box, we went to the forest. We got out of the car at border of the woods. It was still dark and I hardly knew where to step. In spite of that it rained more than a week ago, it was splash here and there and some plashes. It was quite exciting in the darkness. Fortunately it began slowly but surely to dawn, to light up. The air was vaporous, the grass was dewy. We spoke in whispers all the time while we were in the forest. Once in a while we stopped and keep our ears open. We harked to stags’ (male deer) rut. We approach the voice but we had to sneak and mind our steps and the sticks under feet. Sometimes it was a little bit terrific when a strange burr sounded straight from the surrounding bush and I don’t know what it was. My father always exactly knew. Sometimes he sniffed wild-pig smell in the air or saw deer-flies or showed foot-prints which were giveaways. The acorn fell out fluently which was a little bit illusive. Summing up: 7 kms walking, a wild-pig family, an old deer, a little dead mole. Then we went back to the hunting box to have a full breakfast with bacon, onion, sausage, tomato, etc. and gathered up the apples and we struggled with hornets.
On our way home we had a look at the pensioner’s house in Alsópetény that my father is building. It’s almost completely ready. It’s a very huge buildup.

In Sunday afternoon we went to our weekend house to collect the fallen nuts and to beat down the rest of it.

Convalescence

It’s high time to get well. I was ill for more than a week. I didn’t stay at home because I knew that I would’t have relaxed or have a rest. I tried to cure myself of the cold only with hot honeyed tea. I’m against medicament, I swallow a medicine only in case of emergency, when it’s necessary very-very much. My wisdom tooth-growing was of this kind. Anyway, it’s said that the illness lasts for a week without medicament – 7 days with medicament. There was only one day when things changed for the worse. At that time I decided to have a sick-leave but by next morning I was much better. By now, only my voice is that I don’t like.
Krisz had a nightshift last week and still works at night this week as well. They have a lot of work (from September always, then the top is in December with calendars, Xmas cards, leaflets, cds…) and the printing mashine need to operate round the clock, it mustn’t be stop in the management opinion. He is very exhausted, he hardly can sleep by day.

Fall is here

We got a peaceful sunny weekend over. Mornings and evenings are cold but in the daytime the weather is fine. Owing to this treacherous weather (6-8 degrees in the early morning, 26-28 degrees in the afternoon) or to my doubtful clothing or to the epidemic or to the yesternight sweaty jogging or either of the children infected me on Saturday at Erika’s place or I don’t know how I’m confined, I have a cold. I drank 2 cup of honeyed tea in the morning, it was momentarily better but I still have a sore throat, I feel discomfort, my nose is running. I hope that I soon recover.

On Saturday evening the family gathered together, on Sunday evening Chris went hunting with my father.

Unfortunately, we still need to wait at least one more week for the wardrobe.

The House

At the weekend we were busy with primping the House. Chris cut the grass, I tidied the rise level. Mainly the bathroom need to be cleaned because our water-meter was changed because of a water-pipe cracking in the street which caused pluggage in the meter. The water was hardly flow from the taps. When the repairmen fixed it up and we made water, it was very gravelly. The bath was as if somebody had came from the sands and had had a shower and had left the sand behind. Beyond that there were other servicemen in our house last week. We bought the selves and the stands and Krisztián set up. I’m going to pigeonhole books and photos in beautiful frames. I can’t wait to spread the carpet on the floor and I can’t wait to move completely in. At this time we’re waiting for the wardrobe, it’s out of stock. If we get it, we can put our clothes into it and can move in. It will be a large one (300x58x236) and is just like other furniture in the dining-room, in the bedroom: ancient pickled dense pine. The two huge mirrors were also put in its place in my gym. It’s an entirely empty room with mirrors, there is a door overlooking the garden. The new wardrobe will be here. It will stand from wall to wall. If the House will be presentable, I enclose some inner picture.

Krisztián's New Beloved

Stormy Fireworks

Another thick sqall in Budapest. Unbelievable destruction was caused by the storm on the day of our first king Stephan, on the day of the establishment of the kingdom. I can’t believe that this terrible tragedy could happen.
That Sunday was a shiny one (the last dog-day in meteorologists opinion) and there was no sign of rain or bad weather and we were informed by the news in this way: ”Those who are planning outdoor program this evening take raincoats with themselves…” This year we decided to see the fireworks from the top of the hill of which foot we live. It’s ages since we last went up at this occasion, usually we go to the downtown. It was 5 of us: my mum, my sister and her boyfriend, my HUSBAND and me. We settled down, a lot of people were waiting for the play of lights on the sky around us. It was a few minutes to 9. It began still lighten behind our back. It meant nothing to nobody. Then it began to breeze. Some people stood up and start to go down from the hill. Then it began to blow hard, catching up screes and dust, then it began to rain. A dust-storm sprang up, we couldn’t open our eyes, we had to get down from the hill. It was blowing so hard, I was afraid of going with the wind, down to the deep. The rainwater was over our ankles, it was flowing in large quantities. While we were running home I was just laughing without intermission because it was a very funny situation, never in my life got a soaking like this and we did not see the fireworks, only the very beginning in the midst of finding the way of escape from the hill. My father laughed at us at home when we entered soaking wet with dripping clothes and hair.
All things considered, in the downtown where over million people came together to see the fireworks, it was not funny at all. A windstorm with rain broke in upon the crowd at a speed of 120 km/h. It was stampede, the fear of apocalypse just like in a disaster film. Five dead, five hundred injured. Some clipping from the press release:

Szülők kisgyerekekkel futva menekültek haza, közben a tetőről cserepek estek le, a kitört ablakokból üvegszilánkok zuhogtak a járdára, több helyen megszólaltak az autók riasztói, a hegyről pedig patakokban zúdult le a víz. Az eső a nagy szél miatt vízszintesen esett, látni egyáltalán nem lehetett.
· Egy 12 éves kislányra és egy 30-40 év körüli férfira a budai rakparton egy fa dőlt rá, és már nem lehetett megmenteni őket, egy idősebb nő halálát pedig szívinfarktus okozta. A Dunán felborult egy hajó, két utasa eltűnt, egyikük holttestét Ercsinél találták meg.
· A legnagyobb problémát a trolibuszok és villamosok vezetékeinek károsodásai okozták, az infrastruktúrában keletkezett károkat néhány tíz millió forintra becslik. A MÁV-nak néhány kidőlt fa okozott gondot, 30 vonat késve indult a fővárosból. Mintegy 250-300 millió forintos kár keletkezett a Fővárosi Kertészeti Rt. (Főkert) kezelésében lévő, a budapesti fás területek negyedét kitevő faállományban, 364 fa fordult ki vagy tört el, a fővárosban összesen mintegy 1500 fa pusztult el és 10 000 sérült meg komolyan a vasárnapi viharban. Az üvegezéssel foglalkozó cégek forgalma jelentősen megugrott vasárnap óta. A legtöbb bejelentés a Budai Várból és a IX. kerületből érkezett, de Budapest minden részén betörtek üvegeket a repülő ágak és tetőcserepek.

Responsibility, insurer’s relief, and how could have been this tragedy avoidable are another long stories.

Spanish Holiday

We spent a week on Mallorca from 8th to 15th August. It was beautiful with its palm trees and we gaped at the jahts at the port of Palma de Mallorca, one was more beatiful than the other. Actually, I don’t wish to go back any more. It was entirely full of tourists and the most of it were German youngs. They’re infamous for their revelry and ill-behaviour. E.g. they go into the sea with cigarettes in their hand and put it out in the water, they’re lying about all day and set off to rave in the late evening and when they arrive at dawn it’s impossible not to wake up for their noise-making and howling. The main problem is that they leave countless waste about and the whole island is full of every kind of rubbish. Our accomodation (**) was well under our expectation. It was a little hole with musty smell, we spent most of our time without doors. We thought that it can’t be worse but the car that we rented (Fiat Punto Cabrio) was a wreck, there wasn’t an unbroke part of it, it was dangerous, life-threatening, dirty, disgusting (we had to reserve in adavance). So, we were suffer some disappointment but we liked the freshly pressed orange with ice cubes, the refreshing salty waves of the sea, the mindless lying down on the beach, the island course by a boat, our sun-tanned skin that we got during a week and to listen interesting stories about the island. E.g. the reason of the numerous mandel tree – a long time ago there was snow (!) in a morning on Mallorca and the queen liked it very much and wanted to see another time as well. The king was suggested by the counsellors to set mandel trees. So, at the period of blooming it is just like snowing. We visited a lovely little town called Valdemossa where Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta Jones have a summer villa which can be approachable only seaward. There are three Michael D. and two C. Zeta Jones jahts at the port.
The point is that it wasn’t our most pleasant holiday but time beautifies everything…

Hungarian Bulletin

COMBINO-scandal
Damn instead of blessing – say the articles about the new trams of BKV Rt. called combinos. By now, they’re out of order owing to the thoughtless installation, they’re disabled. According to words by the beginnig of the next year 40 same trams will have arrive to Hungary, 830 million HUF per piece. I travelled once by a combino. It’s roomy but it’s without A/C and the opening windows are very small. So, in a hot summer afternoon it’s about 40 degree and no ventilation!

Hungarian FORINTS became pensioner
In 1946, 1 August came out the Hungarian Forint, exactly 60 years ago. As matters stand, it will live its 65th birthday. After the pessimists’ opinion it will live even the 70th birthday (thinking about the Euro). During 60 years, 210 Eiffel Tower-high banknotes and 2000 truckful coins were produced according to the Hungarian National Bank calculation. By the way, the official exchange rate of MNB: 1 EUR is 272,1 HUF today, 1 CAD is 189,45 HUF today.

Weekend in the Country

We spent the weekend at my father’s native place with Ancsa & Lajos. Füzesgyarmat is a dinamically developing hick town and I adore being in the country. I’m fond of the country air, the lowlands, the animals and mainly the scenery. It’s a different living and attitude to life. There’s poverty, people try to pay their ways, produce their food, make living by very little money. There was a car show in which we were interested but principally we were at the baths. There are several gorgeous external and internal pools: one for babies, one for children, one for swimmers, a thermal one for old men and for men suffering from sore parts of the body. Many people visit it from the surrounding villages as well. We ate ice-cream in large quantities because it was very delicious and creamy.

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.

Part Three: Towers & Open Houses

We had the opportunity to get a great panorama of Canadian buildings and natural beauties owing to some towers in both state.

The first one was at Niagara Falls that I mentioned earlier. The elevators usually climbed very fast up to the top and I had a little sense of fear because of the see-through glass doors. But there was a more fearful thing that I did not dare to approach: the glass floor! As you can see in the picture I was strongly hanging on to Chris. The next tower was CN Tower in Toronto. We couldn’t reach the highest point of it because of the bad weather. It’s said to swing 10 meters right and left when it winds. The third one was the Calgary Tower. We saw the downtown of Calgary at sunset. We were above the highest buildings! It was nice to see the rays of the setting sun reflecting in the hundreds of windows. It was almost as nice as the mountains were mirrored in the lakes in Banff. The restaurant of Calgary Tower was spining round and round. It makes a full circle during an hour.

Open house means houses for sale and anyone can take an inside view any of them. It was a great experience. We visited some open house at both places. It was incredible for me that people can ramble up and down in somebody’s house and nobody is watching on him. There was only an agent in each house who inquired about nothing and put no questions to us about purpose of buying a house. So we were just marvelling and lost in wonder. Mainly in Calgary where we inspected houses (villas) over 1 000 000 CAD. They were huge and there was ample room for more generation.