Love and best wishes for 2011

Stay Young

We all need to read this one over and over until it becomes part of who we are!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Try everything twice.
On one woman's tombstone she said she wanted this epitaph:
"Tried everything twice. Loved it both times!"

2. Keep only cheerful friends.
The grouches pull you down.
(Keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches!)

3. Keep learning:
Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever...
Never let the brain get idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.'
And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud.
Laugh until you gasp for breath.
And if you have a friend who makes you laugh,
Spend lots and lots of time with HIM/HER.

6.. The tears happen:
Endure, grieve, and move on.
The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves.
LIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love:
Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever..
Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health:
If it is good, preserve it.
If it is unstable, improve it.
If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips..
Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county,
To a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
I love you, my special friend.

11. Forgive now those who made you cry. You might not get a second chance..

And if you don't send this to at least 4 people - who cares?
But do share this with someone.

Roy before the bank job

There was more snow overnigt, so the snow shovelling service got into its stride yet again. At least there was also bright sunshine this morning, so it was really gorgeous to watch him at his toil. The tits are mobbing the seed and fat and the fire is roaring. I know that it is a pain trying to drive in it, but in every other respect this weather is glorious and makes me happy. As for Roy, I can't say, but he did look happy and rosy cheeked when he got in after making the path to the gate. We are expecting a DHL man today, so he can get to the house on foot now. If he tried to drive up I wouldn't be sure if he would make it. We'll see! Or not, as the case may be, knowing Amazon's recent delivery record! :-)

It's coldddddd!!!!

I have been meaning to take a picture of our outside thermometer for ages, but usually forgot about it or didn't want to go out into the freezing cold. However, this morning is so gorgeous that somehow it doesn't seem too cold to get out in it. I wish I had someone to go for a little walk with, I'd love to see how long I could take it. The sun is making all the snow and ice on the trees sparkle, it is truly magical today.

I got up around 8am and it was -16 on the thermometer then, which means that in the early hours of 3am or 4am it must have been at least -20 or less. By the time I took the photo above it went up by a couple of degrees, but even now - at about half past 11 it is still around -9 Celsius.

Reminiscing - end of year reflections

As we are getting close to the end of the year one can't avoid feelings of deja vue when trying to draw up the balance sheet of the last 12 months. If we are honest, we must admit that 2010 was yet another challenging, at times pretty horrific, but ultimately good year. On the minus side were instances of illness and all that flows from that, the major event of the plus side was the trip to be with the family and especially Callum. That little fella gives us so much pleasure, even from 5000 miles away, he is a gem and he is developing into a strong, fascinating little character whom we love dearly.

Lifestyle changes are on the way and some of them have already happened. Orienteering has taken a knock this past year and while there are already plans for some 'O' next year, I don't think it will ever be as central to my life ever again as it has been for the last two and a half decades. Notwithstanding creeping dicrepitude, I still enjoy it tremendously and have just realised that had I been able to make the Night Champs, for which I was entered, I could have been on the podium even in the combined championship in W60 at the end of the year. As there was only one other entrant in the Night Champs in W60, provided I finished the course I could have scored 2 there and with my other two bronze medals in the Sprint and Classic - link to the podium photo here:
http://img8.indafoto.hu/3/9/16419_25819c8fe224033cc89bafa6a16cdd04/9766767_b519b8860be1c9841bffcef216f0bc28_m.jpg
my 8 points would have been enough for third place. Still, I am sure Roy would have been furious having to hang around for even longer after the Classic Champs for an extra presentation, as he was very grumpy that day.

Christmas this year was quiet, relaxed and very enjoyable. I like the peace and quiet that being just the two of us gives us. We finally spoke to everybody on Skype, having managed to catch up with Sheila finally. Stephen rang me on his mobile while out for a walk and we had a long chat with the Canadian mob yesterday. We had lovely food and even had some champagne. Long may we be this happy on our 'estate' which we created and which is really our home now. The snow is still falling outside, so there is some more coach travel on the horizon as Roy is threatening to put the car in the garage yet again. Let us hope that it all melts by Wednesday!

The return of the snow

Just after I whinged to both the Canadian and the UK branch of the family that all the snow has melted and it was a dark, dingy, muddy and miserable day, suddenly the temperature dropped, the skies opened and it got all white and sparkling again. The photos were taken this morning, because by the time I discovered the pretty snow cover it was dark. The tits had also returned and made pigs of themselves (now there's a mixed metaphor if I ever saw one!) with all the sunflower seeds and fat we put out.

Our own Christmas lunch was really gorgeous: Roy had his fillet steak with a slightly pink middle, which could have been rarer - he said. Still, it was delicious and now that I know that the quality of beef from this butcher is OK, he can have it going moo next time. I made a complete pig of myself with the piece of salmon I got and even risked a little bit of stinky. For those not in the know "stinky" is a special mayonnaise we have been using since the 1970's when we learnt how to make it from a Swiss friend. It consists of: mayonnaise, ketchup, mild mustard, garlic, chives, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Yum, yum!!! Its name comes from the high garlic content!!

Today's lunch is roasted peppers for me and roast chicken for Roy. I think I will have the remains of the salmon for a cold salmon salad in the evening. I am still chasing Sheila & Co. for a phone chat. They seem to be always out when I ring them. Well, she is off to Toby's tomorrow, so I have today to catch them in sometime today, as I have no numbers for Toby.

Must go now as the fire needs topping up. Once that big stove gets going it takes very little work to keep it piping hot. It is amazing therapy for my arthritic back leaning against it. Aahhhhhhh!!

Callum's Christmas morning

We managed to get through to Ottawa on Skype and take these snapshots. Callum was quite lively and wouldn't stay in one place for long, but what is new? Stephen called in the middle, so we had a non-video conference call and chatted a bit. Sheila is never in at Chris's, so we haven't got hold of her yet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

As you may see in these photos Roy has so far got his usual Xmas treat of a cooked English breakfast, aka a cholesterol cocktail. Unfortunately I had the silly idea of cooking it in an ordinary frying pan instead of a non-stick one, so the egg broke. He still loved it as you can see.

Currently we are a whole floor apart, as it has been the custom lately, due to the WiFi and the new desktop upstairs, which instantly became his domain, while I am on my laptop downstairs. What would we do without computers and the Internet? Well, probably talk to each other and such old fashioned pursuits! Seriously though, we have just been saying today that who would have thought what sort of a revolution the Internet would represent in our lives, even just 10 years ago? The globe had shrunk, I can have regular video chats with my grandson 6000 miles away totally free at the push of a button; I can shop for anything from anywhere on the planet and it will arrive in 3 days. Well, if you are lucky, like I am - poor old Stephen is obviously plagued by Amazon never to have his presents on time!! :-(

Our Christmas presents to each other this year were: a new desktop computer with headphones and printer/scanner for Roy, a truffle making course and equipment for making them at home for me. I also had in the post a lovely little parcel from Callum with some more excellent examples of his art and for further amusement a few of his report sheets from daycare. He has a fascinating, varied and nutricious diet there, which sometimes does and at other times does not seem to have any relation to the number of his nappy changes during the day. :-) Roy got a CD with the Sussex Marriage index on from Stephen and Lucy which will help him with his family history research. The highlight of the day, of course, will be the phonecalls, which are not due until this afternoon. Hopefully we can connect up with all of them spread around the globe to wish them merry Christmas.

The snow unfortunately has melted, so our much awaited White Christmas has not materialised, but we are still happy, just the two of us, quietly having a good time together. Roy's fillet steak (his usual Christmas treat no.2) has been marinading in the fridge since yesterday and my enormous piece of salmon awaits its lemon sauce eagerly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR EVERYONE READING THIS!!

The little moo cow

I have no idea what the occasion was, but Callum looks really cute dressed up as a cow. Another picture shows how much he loves his Mum and the picture in the park shows off his walking skills. The little hat naming him a little monster is spot on, what a cheeky little villain he is, very lovable, even though he is strong willed and very bright with it.

We went to the electronics shop today to get these and a few more pictures printed. My album of Callum is getting quite full. Still, it is a big book and it should take another 18 months or so to fill. We also bought a headphone set for those of our machines that don't have built in speakers and microphones and a scanner/printer for the new desktop. We also bought some lovely fruit and veg in the market, so christmas shopping is nearly finished. We will need a final food shop before we get on the bus on Wednesday, weather permitting.

I have unpacked and tried out both the headphones and the scanner/printer this afternoon and they are both great. In fact, I am seriously considering going back tomorrow and buying another scanner/printer for the spare laptop as it is so cheap (£30) and extremely easy to use, which does matter for Roy.

Snowed in

It is definitely arctic over here, although I know we are not alone. I have just done a little research on the net as well as listened to the news and it seems that Father Christmas is the only one moving anywhere in Europe, the rest of us are stuck indoors.

My plans for making truffles has fallen through as we couldn't go out to buy the equipment required. Hopefully the chocolate we were given at the course keeps a bit longer until I can get the slab of marble or granite, the spatulas and a few other ingredients I haven't yet got. The other day when we managed to get to the market I saw lovely bunches of tiny fresh chillies, but I resisted buying them until I know for sure when I can make the truffles.

I have also been struggling with my kidney infection. Doctors are a species that one should really stay as clear of as possible. I try to keep to this principle, but yesterday I finally couldn't take the pain any longer and went to the emergency doctor just round the corner. She was a trainee, with a brisk manner, but at least she listened and thought about it for a while. I got an injection into my bum to take the edge of the pain off and she prescribed an antibiotic for the infection. Which is what the original stupid woman should have done nearly two weeks ago. Things are looking up a bit, but I am not celebrating yet. Tuesday I have an appointment for an ultrasound to see if I have kidney stones after all. Aahhhhhh!!!

In the meantime we have resumed our weekend chats with Callum. The snapshots above were taken from Alex's big AppleMac, that is why it is of a superior quality to the previous ones from lowly netbooks. I usually see Callum playing in his snug, but yesterday he was more that usually active. Running around all over the place. While he was having breakfast he was at least stationery, but even then he concentrated on the grapes and ignored the cheese and crackers. Alex will have to get crafty and only put up the grapes last or he will never eat anything else. I totally agree, I am rather fond of grapes myself.

Must go now to see what Roy is getting up to downstairs. This WiFi is great, expect we sometimes only see each other at mealtimes, the rest of the time is spent with me upstairs and him downstairs on our two laptops.

The Lady has arrived

Nelly's old dog, Szuszi has died about 6 months ago and we were all wondering if she was going to get another one. There are lots of arguments for and against, but Roy and I were hoping she wouldn't. As she is 80 next year, walking a dog twice a day, spending all that money on its feed and the vet, being bound to the house etc., etc. would be the negatives. The positives are: company for a lonely old lady, lots of love and in this day and age - security as well. Not to mention keeping pests: stray cats, other dogs and even mice down. This is also a consideration in a village.

Well, she got herself a Golden Retriever from one of her son's friends. A little girl this time whom she named Lady. I think the choice of a bitch is actually quite a wise one. Szuszi became a real menace every time the bitches of the neighbourhood were on heat and that really caused a fair amount of hassle for her. After her maturity she will have Lady neutered and thus a problem will be eliminated. She is really sweet and is visibly growing every day. Apparently she was the runt of the litter and after initially being quite well fed during the lactation period, recently she was getting less and less food in a litter of six puppies. She only arrived 5 days ago, but she nearly doubled her weight since then, so she is catching up fast.

I had a session of chatting to her, cuddling and stroking her this morning and her fur is like silk. Very sweet and I think we will be good friends.

Chocolat

Long time no blogging. This week gone was a bit of a writeoff on account of my backache. I spent some time getting some tests done which have all come up negative, so we are back to my arthritis, which obviously has taken a drastic turn for the worse. We are back to the village at the moment, so once I am back in town I might consider badgering the doctor for a referral to rheumatology. We'll see.

I have been to the theatre twice last week: on Monday I saw the Producers for the third and definitely last time. The interesting thing, however, was the fact that this was the best of the three, even though the lead was played by my friend's husband for the second time and now I loved it a great deal more. I suppose every performance has its own dynamic, or perhaps I was in a more receptive mood. Who knows, but that was great.

The play last night was a different kettle of fish. A two hander, it was based on the age old formula of the Jewish mother and son relationship. It was funny and even witty in places, but the formula somehow didn't grab me sufficiently for the non-stop 90 minutes it was on for.

The star event of this week, however, was my truffel course.(see pictures!) I signed on last month to learn how to make truffels at my favourite chocolate shop. It was 4 hours long, cost £30, but that included taking home all the truffels we made plus the ingredients for the first batch to be made at home. So I think it was pretty good value. As it happened, I had a really good time. It even made me forget my excrutiating backache and I learned a great deal. Bea and her husband, Peter are really lovely people. The pictures above (except the last one) were taken by Peter and they show us girls making a mess on the granite slab while tempering chocolate, then rolling the little balls, finally dipping and decorating the square truggels. The last one shows the truffels I brought home (except two square ones which got eaten yesterday). The little decorated squares are plain ganache inside, then dipped in tempered chocolate and decorated. I made 8 of these and they are delicious. Even Roy likes them and tomorrow I will try them out on Nelly as well. The small pack of dark coloured balls are rum truffels which were rolled in cocoa and the balls in the cellophane bag are orange truffels rolled in cinnamon sugar. We haven't had any of those yet, as we are trying to make them last and I can't have too much sweet stuff all at once anyway. The only slightly risky thing about this is that we have not added any glucoze syrup to the ganache, so they will not keep as long as otherwise, so we need to eat them fairly sharpish.

My next plan is to go out and buy some equipment for making them at home and the first item is a big square of granite or marble for the tempering of the chocolate. That is an amazing procedure and it includes heating it up to about 40 degrees Celsius, then cooling it down by pushing it around on the marble slab to below 30 and finally bringing it back up to about 30 degrees before working with it. If you want shiny, smooth coating for your truffels, or you want to make bars of chocolate, that is what you do. The coating on my square truffels is tempered. It cracks as you bite into it, which is due to the special crystallisation the tempering causes.

The first snows

Well, the snow arrived here as well, although not nearly in such quantities as it is in Brighton I gather. I saw a lovely picture taken by Stephen looking out into his garden and drive. He was looking for his car which was totally hidden under large amounts of snowfall. It is not so bad here, but we had a lot of black ice the other morning, which is a lot more dangerous than snow.

The main event of this week has been Dylan's visit, a result of which we now have WiFi in the village as well. He even brought us a really fancy little gadget which made the new cheapo desktop we bought in Tesco have WiFi reception as well. It goes in the USB port and works like magic. Unfortunately the old desktop could not be joined to the WiFi network as it is so old that its encryption is too old to go with the new gadgetry. And this after Dylan even brought a part that would have given us 4 new USB2 ports, but the encryption question could not be resolved. Never mind, that old machine is now only for some of Roy's old programs and files, plus for using the scanner and colour printer.

The new desktop will also be having a new simple black and white laser printer and scanner of its own, and after that let us hope we will not have to spend any more on computers for a while. I was keeping my fingers crossed that the weather does not turn nasty to stop Dylan coming, but he turned up quite OK around midday. He was here for nearly three hours and finally only charged for that time, not for his travelling, which must have been another 3 hours. The whole thing complete with WiFi router, USB gadget for the desktop, his motorway pass, petrol and his labour charge came to about 130 quid, which is reasonable. Now I can use my netbook in bed without needing the mobile dongle, although the reception is not too brilliant upstairs. It is the 2ft thick walls, which stop the signal. I hope that by putting the router in the window the signal will carry across the yard to the Bunkhouse, although the Kottage is too far and through too many thick walls to work. Well, anybody who wants to use their laptop will have to sit in the Farmhouse kitchen, where the signal is OK. In the summer I can open the window and with the nice long cable can even put the router out in the corridor, so that should be OK.

All we need now is to start the backpackers hostel, as we are ready with all facilities, including WiFi. I can't see it happening before 2012 though, as next summer is already full. The tickets are bought to Canada and Scotland and it looks as if we are teaming up with Philip for the car hire for the orienteering. We are going to camp and the only ticket I am still to buy is the one down back from Edinburgh to Gatwick on the 9th August. I need to know Philip's exact itinerary before I buy that.

Must go now as I am falling off the chair asleep. I was up at 5.30am for some reason, so I should hit the sack now.

Juniper Cup maps and courses

I promised to scan the maps and courses, so here they are. I have my own day 1 and 2 courses and a day 2 W50 course, which I have because we were going to go out for Barbara late on day 2, but eventually she turned up and we didn't need the map.

You can see the amazing juniper jungle, which is hellishly difficult to correctly navigate by. It is a very accurate map, but it is still so hard to identify features on the map as against on the ground and vice versa. Day 1 had a 1:7500 map, which was slightly easier to read, but still not easy. The course was excellent, but 100% map contact was needed not to get lost. The leg between 1 and 2 on day 1 I executed mostly walking and even then there was an unnecessary hook in it when I went further in the white forest than necessary and then had to go round one bit of dark green. Still, in the history of this event (this is the 5th year of it) I have so far always had at least one control in this bit and this time I executed it with only a small mistake. I have had 20 minutes worth of mistakes in this bit before, so I am slowly improving. I got beaten by Ildi by 2 and half minutes on day 1, which I was quite satisfied with.

The real shock came on day 2 on the 1:10000 map, not because it was more difficult to read, but because W60 were given a 2 year old map and a hand drawn course. The technical challenge of this course was nil and I believe that an intelligent 12 year old would have been bored by it. Had I been well and fit I could have done it in 20 minutes, but even then it would have been a travesty of a course and an insult for us to be given an unupdated, old map. I have scanned the W50 day 2 course for comparison. That was on an updated new map and visited the juniper again, which we hardly did. 2.4km is an insult, especially as we are perfectly capable to run double that, or at least 3.5k and that might have got us away from the boring, low quality area which lay between the start and the finish. The planner was a guy whom I have always had a high opinion of before, but I will have to revise my ideas in the light of this event.

I wonder what area they will take the Spring Juniper Cup in March 2011? It will depend on that whether I will enter it or not.

Back in the village

After everybody has returned home following the Juniper Cup Roy and I stayed in BP for another 3 days to recover. I seemed a bit slow to get over my gastric flu and I also had an amazing book to read which is always easier in the flat. Less to do and easier to put your feet up. This book is a new kind of thriller (at least for Hungary) where the author is a TV journalist who put his fictional story in a milieu which is 100% accurate historically, politically and militarily. I am really enjoying it, even though the hero is a macho SAS type and the baddies are all Russians. Still, they mostly gangsters, so they can get their comeuppance any time the hero wishes to bump them off!!!

While in town Roy fetched the last laptop from Dylan, so no more Vista machines, hoorraaaahhhhh! This one acquired a second hand hard disc for £16 and Windows 7, so hopefully our problems should be less from now on. Dylan is due on Wednesday to install WiFi in Ber and after that all we need to do is to clear up the hard discs now and again, defrag and maintain them and should anything go wrong, just holler for Dylan.

We got home on Friday afternoon after quite an uneventful bus journey. The snow arrived that night. The fridge is empty, so we are living on handouts, what we could get in the village shop and what was still in the freezer. Hopefully the sun should come out tomorrow and we can go to Tesco's in Hatvan.

Callum was supposed to have had a small operation yesterday, but a few emergencies have bumped him off the surgeon's list. Hopefully, next time he is luckier and can get it over with. Today, his parents went to do some Christmas shopping and rang us on Skype to show us what they got him with the money we sent. I have also managed to take some video snapshots while we were chatting, so the pictures above are of the little fella using his new piece of cardboard with a pencil and playing with the Zany Zoo he got from us for Christmas. He is still as sweet as ever. I can't wait to see him next summer - he will be 2 years old by then.

The Juniper Cup weekend

Gillian arrived on Thursday and on Friday morning Roy went out with her to show her a few of BP's sights. I was feeling a bit sick, so I didn't go. The minibus arrived even before 2pm and after a slightly fraught trip in the rush hour we got to the airport a little bit late. Carol, Barbara and Nigel were already waiting and we made tracks towards Kiskoros. It got rather foggy and dark towards the end of the trip, but with Roy driving all was well. Except I was sick (thankfully into a prepared bucket) in the back of the bus. This was not a good sign as Roy had gastric flu earlier in the week and now it looked as if I got it.

Once at the Hotel we met up with Nick, Sarah Jane, Elizabeth and John, who then joined the crowd (minus me) for dinner at one of Kiskoros's rustic eateries. I managed to be sick once more in the night, but otherwise got a few hours of shuteye.

Next morning - after no breakfast for me - we all went to the event. The day was mild, the juniper as fierce as I remembered, the courses excellent and it looked as if everybody had a good day. Even I had a reasonable run on a completely empty stomach and no sustenance for over 24 hours. Ildi only beat me by 2 and half minutes. In the meantime Roy joined the sicklist as he managed to turn his ankle outside the restaurant the night before and was by now seriously hobbling.

We went back to the same restaurant in the evening where we all had a lovely meal. I only had half a bowl of soup, but that was more than the night before. The unexpected 30% discount of the night before unfortunately did not reappear, but we still had good value and nice food in a lovely atmosphere.

Sunday dawned a bit colder and there was a promise of easier courses. The sicklist grew further with John having severe toothache which needed early attention. After some painkillers he decided that the dentist can wait, but he didn't dare to compete. The rest then valiantly went out for the second time to wrestle with the juniper.

While most of our group had good courses, the two W60 ladies had a really raw deal. We had a rubbish, idiotic insult of a course, that was barely adquate for a 14 year old on a 2 year old map and which I am going to complain about. I finished about 3 minutes down on Ildi, so I finished 2nd overall. Considering my general state of health + the gastric flu, that was an excellent result.

Of the rest of the group Nick was also second in M21, Elizabeth 2nd in W21, Carol 3rd in W50. Barbara had definitely had her money's worth, but finally turned up just after the launch of the search party (Nigel and Gillian). Amazingly she was very happy, in fact on a high after she doggedly struggled through and did not let the juniper beat her.

Sunday's dinner was taken in a fish restaurant up country, which proved a gem of a find. The group photo above is of the 6 of us there as the younger contingent left straight after the event. The earlier photos are of Nick flogging CompassSport and Carol being pleased with her 3rd place.

Building gazing in BP

We had to go out for some shopping yesterday and combined it with a bit of sightseeing and photographing. I got involved with a new web site called I love Hungary and needed some interesting photos for the article I am writing. I chose the topic of how much artistic pleasure you can get even from ordinary buildings,if you keep your eyes open and look up high, rather than going around with watching your feet. Starting with a school which is only just round the block, followed by some gorgeous mosaics up high on an apartment block, then looking at the Basilica, the entrance of a bank, majolica decoration on an Art Nouveau building, ending up with some "boys from the black stuff" it was an interesting hour and a half walking about.

I was also involved with something very important yesterday: I circulated by Facebook and e-mail a Petition from the staff of the Philosophy Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences asking people to sign it, if they agree with its sentiments and demands. I will paste an English translation here with the link, so if anybody reading this blog feels like looking into it, nay sign it, they can.


Petition to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

To: The Hungarian Academy of Sciences

János Boros, the recently (at the beginning of this year) appointed director of the Philosophy Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has yet again declared the majority of the researchers unsuitable for their work at the Institute: he lately shared his opinion with listeners of Hungarian Radio, stating that most of them do not even know the necessary basics.

We appeal to the friends of philosophy, those working in this field and those outside it, inside and outside Hungary, that if they value the freedom, prestige, and multifaceted nature of philosophical research in Hungary, to sign our petition and thus protest against János Boros’s high-handed regime, which has so far led to dozens of unprecedented cases in the labour court.

János Boros (1) established as normal practice the total disregard of workers’ rights, daily confrontations, threats, misinformation, regularly takes advantage of his professional power and a practices a level of secrecy which the ombudsman declared illegal and against the constitution;

(2) This summer as a response to opposing opinions he unilaterally declared as “unsuitable” nearly two thirds of the Institute’s staff (amongst them professors, academic doctors and – in all likelihood motivated by political considerations – the entire staff of the Lukács Archive). He did this using such a secret process that even he had to admit later that both its legality and validity could be questioned and might only be limited. This was confirmed by his boss, József Pálinkás, the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences;

In spite of this (3) and totally disregarding both the President’s declaration as above as well as a warning from the Philosophy Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he recently started wrecking the Philosophy Research Institute by removing five researchers (Sándor Ferencz, Pál Horváth, János Laki, Miklós Mesterházi, Miklós Tamás Gáspár) and threatening further dismissals.

With our signatures we join the internal and international protest and ask the leadership of the Academy to intervene and put an end to the terror, established by the director without any professional basis and without any legality, currently existing in the Philosophy Research Institute.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned


http://www.petitiononline.com/MTAFKInt/