Mixed week

We did finally come into BP by car as temperatures have risen and most of the snow and ice had disappeared. The concert at the Bartok Memorial House was magical. The violinist, Kristof Barati (see picture) is a phenomenal talent with an exceptional violin. The Chicago Stradivari Society lent him the "Lady Harmsworth" and the sound he can get out of it is beyond description. The hall was very small, so I was sitting no more than 6 or 8 feet from him, which was an experience in itself. This young man has not only talent, but a personality that is attractive in the extreme. So, I have joined the Barati groupies and am now on the lookout for all his performances. Thankfully he teaches at the academy, which keeps him in the country, otherwise he is in so much demand the world over, that we would never see him at home.

As we had the car we finally managed to find the piece of stone that I need for making truffles at a monumental masons by the cemetery. Hopefully we should be picking them up (we ordered two) tomorrow and take one of them down to Ber. As they weigh a lot we definitely need the car for fetching them.

The appointment with the rheumatologist went well. She seems a nice lady - since then I had some X-rays done and started remedial exercise classes and electrophoresis treatment. When these have finished I will have some manipulation/massage and finally might even get referral to the thermal baths for some water based treatments. Well, it can't hurt, which is usually the attitude I have to these treatments, although I very much doubt they will fix my pack pain. We'll see!! Said the blind man.

And to make the week really mixed the weekend had two really good and one not so good events. The first good news was that Klari rang on Sunday morning with news of two free tickets to the Opera. We saw La Boheme, which was very good indeed. Unfortunately the bad news was that three young women got crushed to death at a nightclub in the centre of BP on Saturday night while trying to flee the premises for some yet unidentified reason. I am not personally involved as I didn't know them and I don't think I had any friends there, but it still upset me. Roy and I have always said that Hungary is one almighty great accident waiting to happen. This was not only a case of the inadequacy of regulation and/or the total lack of enforcement of safety laws. This is undoubtedly a stark example of how corruption, which has permeated every level of life in this country, kills. Apparently, the night club had no licence to operate anything other than a club of about 300, definitely not large gigs for up to 3000 people. So, how could they organise these gigs with no trouble for the last 6-8 months? The right bung in the right pocket, that's how. The guy who organised Saturday's gig openly admitted that he sold 2881 tickets and that he didn't know the club owners had no licence. He also said the accident had nothing to do with him. Since then he had been arrested along with the owner of the club and of the building, but as the courts are often as easy to bribe as building inspectors and licence control officers I am not holding my breath about their prison sentences. And even if they lock them up as scapegoats that will not bring the girls back. Very, very sad, but typical.

And to end on a much happier note: the other good event of the weekend was that we had a little chat with Callum again on Sunday afternoon and the pictures below were taken on Skype.

The demon banana flinger of Toronto town

Had a lovely session with Callum this morning. His breakfast was an enormous banana, which disappeared very quickly. Bits of it towards the end seemed to be flung in several directions, but most of it went straight down the right way. If I had a banana which was in the same proportion to my body size as his, it would have been at least a foot long.

After breakfast he was obviously training for some endurance event, because the maximum we could have him in one place was about 10 seconds. He had some lovely new shoes on, which he insisted on putting on his feet, even though he has not yet got out of his banana jammies. See the offending fruit on his bum!!

We have read a good few books, but only after we pulled every single book off the shelves and thrown them all over the floor. We had some climbing practice too, occasionally on the step ladder to see what's outside, other times onto the safety gate between the dining room and kitchen. Definitely Daddy's son!!

His appetite is amazing. Apparently, at day care if he just eats a normal portion the attendants worry about his health. His habit of playing with non-toy toys is still quite prevalent. Alex commented that with hundreds of dollars' worth of toys, he most enjoys to play with an old window shade from the car, especially that it rolls up suddenly which amuses him no end.

Today the weather around here was really weird. The fog was so thick that I couldn't see the other side of the valley. The temperature stayed above zero, so if all goes well we are off by car tomorrow.

R. I. P. sausages

We have come back down to Ber on the bus, so we couldn't carry much food with us. Never mind, we thought, we'll raid the freezer. Well, it is getting more and more difficult to do that on account of the hard winter and Roy's reluctance to use the car on these dreadful roads when it is thick with snow and ice. Road clearing is a thing of the past, so it is pretty lethal to travel on them, especially around the village and for about 15k beyond.

Anyway, we carried as much as we could the rest came out of the poor freezer, which is getting emptier and emptier by the day. Roy managed to dig out his last 4 sausages, ate 3 of them for dinner and is looking forward to the last one put into a sandwhich some other time. My fish, as you can see, is looking splendid. It is called pangasius, no idea what that is in English, but spiced up with salt, pepper, mixed herbs and a bit of garlic and then baked with a little bit of butter in the oven, it was delicious.

The fuss over the new Media Law rumbles on. The EU still doesn't give a monkey's ... about Orban flirting with the extreme right and all things are great in the presidency of the EU. I have just read this morning that some parts were left out of the English translation of the law as sent to Brussels, including a directive of not really putting it into effect until after Hungary handed over the EU presidency to Poland in July.

It will be interesting to see what happens in 2011 when the economy does not recover, or it might do so slightly, but nowhere near the expectations of the masses who put this rabble into power in the spring. Decent people are still keeping their heads down, but a few are beginning to lift theirs and are making a stand. That is hopefully the beginning of something good that might offer resistance to this despicable shift to the right.

New Media Law in Hungary - One of the first complaints

Those of you that read the news might have come across the furore caused by Hungary's Conservative government passing a new media law. This includes some ludicrous and very restrictive clauses, calculated to gag any and all criticism of the government, protect the government's image of what is moral, acceptable and promotable. The text of this great "national unity" they are building is now on the wall of every official place and we all supposed to read it in awe and live by it. This whole thing would be laughable if it was not backed up by a newly appointed Authority, whose members are all conservatives and who have near unlimited powers for 9 years, including the issuing of extremely punitive fines and the possible closure of newspapers, television stations and radio stations.

So the other day I have got an e-mail from a friend which advised me that an eminent academic put the new National Media & Communication Authority to the test by making a complaint about an antisemitic article using abusive language. We all know what sort of complaints this Authority is expecting: against blasphemy, against anti-authoritarian and anti-religious views. In fact, one line in the Media Law demands that news presenters put no opinions, interpretations or any views of their own into their programs. You see, even conservative Hungary seems to be full of pinko journalists, not just the BBC!

However, this professor's complaint is absolutely in line with the Media Law's provisions. He is complaining on the basis that this newspaper article was "offensive to his beliefs" and that practically calling for the murder of Jews is definitely "capable of disturbing the peace". We all wait the authority's response with bated breath!!

THE COMPLAINT

Subject: Complaint
From: "Istvan Mayer"
Date: Tue, January 4, 2011 14:29
To: info@nmhh.hu

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Media Authority

I am very pleased that I managed to find your e-mail address.

Please deal with the matter of the deplorable article that appeared in the Magyar Hirlap, written by Zsolt Bayer. URL: http://www.magyarhirlap.hu/velemeny/ugyanaz_a_buz.html

As the quotation below shows, this article, apart from the barely hidden anti-Semitic incitement (by only mentioning from the myriad of articles on this topic in the world press those authors whose names sound Jewish) is tantamount to a call to repeat the massacre at Orgovány. This latter call is in all likelihood contrary to the statutes of the Hungarian Criminal Code; I believe that it is your duty to also notify the State Prosecutors office of this fact.

The text of the quotation:

“There is a “stench emanating” from Hungary – writes some stinking excrement from somewhere in England by the name of Cohen. Cohen, Cohn-Bendit and Schiff. And Népszava appears as a red man with the hammer, demanding press freedom. And most people think that this is something new and there has never been a campaign like this before. Nonsense, there is nothing new under the sun. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to bury all of them up to their necks in the forests of Orgovány .”

Looking forward to your actions in this matter,

With respect

Prof. Istvan Mayer
Chemical Research Centre
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
H-1525 Budapest, P. O. Box 17, Hungary
Phone: (+361) 438-41-41, -42...-45 (ext. 295, 107)
Fax: (+361) 438-1143, 438-1142, 325-7554, 325-7750

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Lovely chat with Callum, Meaghan and Alex this morning. Breakfast was cheese and pears with crackers. He seemed to be rather fond of it and so was the pussycat. She was very clever and when nobody was watching managed to snatch quite a few pieces of cheese off Callum's tray.

Let us hope 2011 will be an improvement on the last 2 years.
Amen!!

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! :-)