As many people know, I am now doing a 6-month-stint as a deputy team leader in… my team. Part of that means working “offline”, that is, not taking calls, doing reports and counting emails, that kind of thing. However, I tend to be distracted when counting emails, so I decided that I needed some distraction from distractions. With having some 56 GB music, I pulled up some old favorites in the beginning of the week and found an old love.

Clay Aiken, to be specific.

His first album, to be even more specific.

Now Clay Aiken is my email counting music.

I discovered Clay Aiken through a friend, and through the Aladding DVD I got for Christmas one year. It was way before anyone in Hungary really knew who he was -and I doubt there are many people today, as we are a country untouched by American Idol. Seriously. It hs never been re-broadcast here. We had “Hell’s Kitchen”, “Survivor”, “The Amazing Race”, even “So You Think You Can Dance” or whatever that one was called, but never AI.

I believe that his voice is amazing, and yes, there is that “fellow special ed major” vibe as well.

I have to admit, however, that his most recent album is not my favorite one. But like… I’d love to go to a concert one.

And if I wrote this on a Thursday night, I would have included the below video right away: Clay Aiken on Scrubs!

A step in the wedding planning process involved picking out a dress for me as well for Judit’s wedding.

My best friend is getting married, on May 22, 2010, which also happens to be my 33rd birthday. (Now really, how many of you get to eat wedding cake for your birthdays?)

The other day my sister, my friend and I went wedding dress hunting. In Hungary most people only rent their dresses, and still pay a month’s salary for it. My friend was lucky enough to find a very affordable and lovely dress – which may or may not be the one in the photo – at the first place she actually tried any dresses on. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though the Conservatives think it’s impossible, I’m a proud Hungarian.

Several years ago when my Dad retired, he returned to his hobby of photography. The photographs the city we live in – Budapest – and all the places he ends up going to. He has also been blogging for a few years and upon seeing photos of other bloggers from elsewhere in the country, he came up with an idea of collecting photos from all over current Hungary – soon to be followed by historic (pre-1920) Hungary. He started to expand his hobby into making simple web pages.

As the result of this hobby, the Photograph Hungary! website was born. It is in constant transformation as more photos are added and as we explore different features we want to add to the site, and in the meantime… the photos are there.

People of both sexes, all ages and of all walks of life show how they see Hungary. And this I’d like to share with all of you.

On the left in the Menu you can see the name of the village, town or city, feel free to click through them. You will find some of my photos under Balatonszentgyörgy, Egercsehi, Keszthely, Káptalanfüred and elsewhere, too.

My last post was about the spilar binding thingy I bought at Aldi. It took me almost a whole week to make the prototype.  I decided to use BlogBooker to turn the communal recipe blog Konyhamóka into a PDF file which I then printed off and bound. I like to have a hard copy of my online recipes.

That said we also set up an English version of Konhamóka for those, who don’t speak Hungarian. KitchenAction is shadowing Konyhamóka… and then it might just decide to be its own thing.

Went to aldi and got a thing to put these thingies (plastic spirals) into other things (documents). And a coffee maker that was picked up at Tesco. No more HUF 320 coffee for me.

After all the troubles from the BKV strike, I found some old muffin cup liners in a box, that didn’t match but did the job.

After posting two different lemon muffin recipes on the Hungarian cooking blog my friends and I are running, I decided to actually make some lemon muffins today. That, however, meant that I needed to buy margarine, muffin paper liners and some lemons. No problem, there is a small Tesco nearby, I can hop on tram 21 on the corner, and it drops me off at the Soroksári út Tesco.

Naive thought!

You see, Budapest’s public transport company, affectionately called the fracking BKV, is on day 5 of their indefinite strike.  It has meant some extra income for local taxi companies, and some misery for the rest of the cca. 2 million people who live or work or study in Budapest. It has been nearly impossible to get on the busier buses or trams in rush hour (some buses and trams do run: tram #6 that paired with #4 normally runs every 3 minutes now runs every cca 15-20 minutes, and since the drivers have worked 5 days straight, today they can’t work at all. Some buses that also run at 3-5 minute intervals are now running hourly or so.) Those who do have cars are stuck in a permanent traffic jam.

So no Tesco for me today. There is another store in walking distance that might have the muffin thingies I need, but they cost approximately twice as much as they would at Tesco. Ditto the lemon. So I’m undecided on the muffins, though I know my family would love some.

That said, I will have to venture outside today anyway. I need to buy some lottery tickets, so I can finally win the jackpot and then get a car. So no BKV strike will eat my muffins.

…he was Casanova.

The last two nights Hungary’s public television channel m1 showed Casanova, starring David Tennant, who later became the tenth incarnation of the doctor in Doctor Who, and Peter O’Toole, who shouldn’t need an introduction, as the young and old Casanova.

It was pleasant to watch it, it has always been a favorite of mine – since way before Tennant became Ten. Possibly for the same reason I loved Sherlock Holmes.

…for TP making my evening more bearable with some NCIS and Garfield.

…for finding Russian caviar flavored bread bite snacks.

…for taxi vouchers when the Budapest public transport company is on strike.

…for people I know I can rely on even though we barely know each other, but we have a bond.

…for speaking English and having access to a pile of information that way.

…for someone asking, “Do you have your camera with you?” when a funny thing happens.

So. My ancestors a few generations back, on both sides, were farmers, peasants, etc. They lived from the land. They farmed. Some were independent, landed farmers, others were peasants belonging to a certain landlord, still others had some trade in addition to farming. But all of them had a connection to the soil, to crops and to farm animals.

I’m a city girl. I know concrete and asphalt. I only see soil in pots, and all my attempts of taking care of plants resulted in an awful failure. Just ask my mother-in-law.

Yet, I found a way to keep my farming heritage alive.

I rarely enter giveaways. One reason is that I do not live in North America, but this one giveaway is international. Oh yes.

I found it through Annie’s blog, and I think I like this blog enough to add it to my new and SHINY feedly. It’s by Ciska, and it involves tea, chocolate and a notebook! Oh, and a tea light, too. all so perfect to make my office life a little more pleasant: a tea with coworkers on the roof terrace on the floor during break, something nice to record the daily call/email handled/FUP can really make one’s day a whole lot better!

New position at work.

New sweater (Ok, bought it in 2009, started wearing it in 2010)

New show to watch: NCIS Los Angeles (Thanks, TP, for letting me get addicted.)

New ISP.

New photo challenge.

New challenge: a recipe a week on Konyhamóka. I’ll do it!

Since I would never be able to stick to a photo a day challenge,  I decided to follow a photo a week one. I also decided to start with the first full week. So here is the photo of the week:

I’d much rather not elaborate on the background story, as it involves people at work, but just to say: this photo represents the way the week turned out to be.

A way better picture is to be posted next week.