x-mas 2012

X-mas is over. December 15 we celebrated x-mas in Sweden with all the kids. It was very nice as always.
Tomorrow we leave Budapest for skiing and snowboaring in Ischgl in Austria.
 

Ginger bread for Schmieden

Hi tuut,
 
due to your lousy inbox, Marge has to display your yearly gingerbread here instead...
 

21 September 2012 - Already Septenber??!!

I guess it's time for some updates. Almost forgot that I have a blog at all.
The super hot summer is almost over, in the mornings we have now chilli 10 degrees, but daytime it's still warm and sunny.
Both me and M have managed Budapest half marathon. M half an hour faster than I was. Next year i'm gonna beat her.
Little m has settled into third grade. Mr Noonan is her new class teacher. This year there is also French on the schedule. It´s her fifth language...
I'm sure there would be a lot to tell, but my memory is not very long, never was.
I will try to make some more frequent writing here during the autumn. That's almost a promise...
 
We celebrated Lindas and Florians birthdays in Sweden
m and Mr Noonan, m is bright as a button, according to him :-)
 
Tired but happy heroes
 

Saturday August 11, 2012 - News from Mars

Finally something new to write about. There is water coming down from the sky. I think it's called RAIN. It was a VERY long time since we had something like that. Ok one or two thunder showers, but plain rain???
Maybe it was just in my mind, because when I just looked out the window everything is dry again...
 
Otherwise? I went to Tallinn to collect my two girls two weeks ago. We had a great weekend together with the Estonian half of the family. Some of the activities; eating, clubbing, go-carting, segway-ing, waterjeting, photoshoot-ing, and loads of other ings.  We were also lucky with the weather. The sun and warm weather came with M&m, and left again when we all took off.
Ask us nicely, and we might be back... :-)
 
Finally the Olympics is more or less over. It's fun to watch for a while, but too much is too much.
 
Even if the politicians in this country are on playground level,  the Hungarian sportsmen and women have proven themselves to be top notch. 8 Gold medals, and nation number 8 in the total medal ranking. And still one day to go... Not bad for a small nation....
 
Tonight m will join Kriszti to see a movie "Iceage 4". Me and M might go and see one as well...??? Then Trattoria Pomo d'oro.Tomorrow pancake day, and Monday we're off to Sweden to celebrate Lindas and Florians birthdays. They fly in from Munich. Then the Swedish side of the family will try to top, or at least level up with the Estonians in meaning of having fun and good time.
 
Some pictures from Estonia;
 

July 24 2012 - a day at the office

Since last entry from Cannes, we have managed to drive back to Budapest. Wash our stuff and repack. We went to Sweden on Sunday, and then M&m left for Estonia the next day. m to spend a week at the countryside with grandma and a number of cousins. M to enjoy Tallinn on her own. Leaving me at the office in Båstad. Nothing much going on as most of our suppliers and customer are off to a coastline somewhere. Booooring! At least I spend the evenings with H&M. FUUUUUN!
On Thursday I will join the grrls in Tallinn, where we will have a great weekent at Swisshotel :-))
 
I have problem to download pictures at the moment :-(  But there are PLENTY of them to be to be found on my Facebook.. account....
 
 
 
 

July 12 2012 - Cannes

Sunday we left home again. This time by car. After one night in Villach, Austria and a second night in Sestri Levante, Italy, we are now in beautiful Cannes. This is as you know our traditional place to celebrate our wedding day. This year number 11. We spend most of the day on the beach, eating breakfast, building sand castles and swimming. And taking sun. Me mostly with a book in the shadow under the sun umbrellas. Evenings we go to our favourite restaurant, and then we just stroll around and mingle with people from all around the world.
This morning I was up 7,30 for some jogging on the Croisette, and now we're heading the BEACH...!!! :-)
 
 
 

July 7 2012 - washing day

Now we are back after one week in Marbella. Most of the grrls; LKSH and M are back to various destinations in Europe. Only me M&m now. Yesterday we had a 6 hrs delay on Malaga airport. Not THAT fun, but after a fantastic week, it wasn't THAT bad after all... :-)
Today we are washing, and tomorrw we're off to Austria, Italy and France by car. Will be back i town in 9 days again.

 
 
 

June 24 2012 - Italy vs England

Italy wins England...

June 16 2012 - school's out....

Yesterday it was graduation day at Britannica. Part of the program was a talent show for the primary students.
Never thought little m actually would stand up and sing on a stage infront of 200 students and their parents
Well done m!!!
She also got a very nice school report (marks)

On Monday we leave for a week in Sweden :-)







June 9 2012 - it's all about food and apple

Again I've been to busy for blogging... After Rome, I went for a supplier trip together with a "cameraman". We worked our way from Italy to Slovenis to Hungary... Took us the better part of a week. The result can be seen at the EPC homepage. But only in August or smthn.
I added some more Rome pictures. As you know we go there mainly for food and wine, and to be just the two of us.
Talking about food; T&G yesterday, Trattoria Pomod'oro tonight :-)
And Apple all the time. Got a new IMac for the kitchen... Bye bye to the Dell laptop
Forgot to flip the pictures....
Our new family member...
M tricked me to buy a new after shave. Maybe the thought i would transform to a Greek god. I didn't...
Still same old me, what I personally think is the better option... :-)
For Linda :-))
What the hell is the guy doing? Anyone can guess?
Kavvamacka mmm... :-)))
m's new summer outfit
After tomorrow there have been THREE birthday paties in THREE days...

Saturday June 2 2012 - Roma

It's Saturday  11,40. I'm sitting in the shadow in the beautiful courtyard of Hotel Ponte Sisto in Rome. M is having a shower.
We arrived on Thursday evening. Had some problems to get our luggage. After disembarking the plane, we followed the signs for "luggage claim". Only thing is there were no luggage. Not from Budapest anyway. After some asking around we got to know that the three terminals each have their own luggage claim. We had ended up in T3 instead of T1. How could this happen?? I blame the unorganized Italians. Not us. Wasn't that easy to get back to T1.
We tried to sneak back the same way we came from, but got busted by a couple of mean looking polices, who brutally kicked us out. Then we had to go to T1 on the outside, and then back through security control. To get through there without boarding passes was a tough task. But finally we made it and got our hands on our bag. :-)
Yesterday we just walked around. Had a very loooong lunch with grilled fish and wine, then dinner and wine...
Much to eat and drink in this city. As usual we have avoided all tourist attractions. Not easy in a city full of them... 

Ok, seems that i'll have to add the pictures later, as the internet is as slow as the locals here...

            

Tuesday May 22 2012 - Mayday (not)

time for an update i guess... May has been busy. Working a lot and jogging a lot. Still without any bigger problems with my achilles. Made maximum 10km in one run so far.
Linda has been here for some days, and now Grandma Irma is here. Came for M's balett show. It was a nice show in a nice theatre. Weather is nice and summerish, even if Linda picked two stormy days, and we had loads of rain today. Can't remember the last time we had almost a full day of rain. Last year maybe???
Tomorrow it's back to big fat sun :-) Perfect day for a field trip. M will go to some outdoor museum outside Budapest tomorrow.

School photo
            
L&M
            

Our prima ballerina
            

celebration of our prima ballerina
            




Wednesday may 2 2012 - Déjà vu

As most places around southern Europe, we had a long (and very warm and summerish) weekend.

On Monday we decided to take a trip to a smaller city, Eger. This is the place where I first made contact with Hungary and the Hungarians. This was back in 1994!!! 1995-1997 I spent maybe a third of my time in Eger. So it was a déjà vu. We stayed in the same hotel as I spent my time during those years. At the time it was a very Eastern Europe looking hotel. Now it was fully renovated and actually nice :-) m especially appreciated the new pool. We strolled around in the very beautiful city and its castle. More correct, the remains of the castle where Hungarians were under siege by the Turkish army for 150 years or so.

In the evening we went to my favorite restaurant. Yes, it was still there. Looked exactly the same, had more or less the same menu, and THE SAME WAITERS!!! They even recognized me. This after 15 years. I must have made an impression at the time. Wonder if it was a good or bad one???

They even placed the Swedish flag on the table. The same old flag they bought when me and my Swedish colleagues started to frequent the place back then.

Even the musician behind the piano was the same. He smiled, and played only Swedish songs all evening. “Kostervalsen”, “Flickorna I Småland” plus dozens of Abba songs.

I almost (ALMOST only) got tears in my eyes. It was such a good feeling to be there again. It seemed that even the prices had remained. We paid 8 000 HUF (28 EUR) for the three of us. Would have been at least 20 000 in Budapest…

We promised the owner and his staff to be back soon again, or at least within some years... :-)

We were back in BP after lunch yesterday again. Decided to try out my inflamed Achilles tendon again. After more than 3 months rest from all kind of training. I still have a daily pain, but I just couldn’t wait any more. As resting doesn’t seem to help, maybe exercising does. Even if it is against doctors order.

Made 6 kilometers on the Margit Island. I got very tired, as it was long time since I had a pulse over 100, and as it was officially 32,9 degrees in the shadow, and absolutely no wind.  Still a good feeling.

We started the 3 of us. Me and M running, and m on her bicycle. However most of the remaining people of the city (those who didn’t go to lake Balaton over the weekend) were roaming the streets and the island. Made it impossible for m to ride her bike in our jogging pace. After a smaller accident M&m gave up…

The final highlight of the weekend we had on our terrace. Grilling and drinking wine all evening long.

I have had worse 1st of May week-ends in my life :-)))

Here the weekend in pictures;

Sunday pancakes
            
Homework has to be done
            

Grilling
            

Same old rabbit as 15 years ago...
            

City center of Eger
            

View from the castle
            

As in good old times
            

Grapeyard outside Eger. The grapes might end up as Bulls Blood
            

Taken over by a two wheeler on ONE wheel...
            


Friday April 19, 2012 I'm starving, soon we're heading T&G

We have loads of professional beggars here in Budapest. Most of them with their Mercedes around the corner I guess. There are also loads of homeless people, mainly alcoholics, but the most of them look really happy, and all of them are very polite and not scary at all.
We have our favourite homeless guy, who is always standing at his "home" traffic light, asking for money from the motorists. We give him some money every day, and he's always happy and positive.
Today we met a new kind of beggar. A very thin guy who asked us for money in perfect english. He was an older very sad guy dressed in a clean but very very old suit. He was openly crying while asking us for some money for food. He was a former professor at a university, who lost his job due to cut downs. He recently was evicted from his appartment, and now had nowhere to stay, and no income or savings at all. We would gladly given this guy a busload of money, but both me and M were without wallets, as we only were on our way to collect m from school. After a long conversation, and after us have to tell him we had no money at hand, he left us with sobbing and with tears in his eyes. Me and M also had tears in our eyes... :-((
After coming back from school we actually were roaming the streets trying to find him and give the bus load of money we wanted to.
He was nowhere to  find. The only thing we saw was an ambulance picking up someone not alive looking person lying on the street. Maybe it was our professor who just jumped from a roof??? He sure looked capable of it as we saw him last time.
Right now all our vacation trips to luxury resorts seem a little too much. Maybe we should spend some money on the ones who need them more than us??
But I guess tomorrow we have forgotten the guy, and already are off in our minds to the next super duper holiday. Sad but truth....

            


Friday April 13, 2012 - Wizzzards

Now we're back again from London. Wasn't easy to get there... We were booked with Hungarian Wizzair, who have a nice and shiny fleet of pretty new Airbuses. New or not. Technical problem can occur, and I do not think any of the passangers would object that the plane was repaired before take-off. But after standing in a bus outside the terminal for one hour, without any explanation, the 180 passangers got pretty upset, some more than other, if you know what I mean... :-) I don't think Wizz is to blame, but the young and inexperienced ground personal. They claimed they didn't know anything. A mad Swede, a madder Britt, and even more upset Japanese tried to make the girls call their boss, or the ramp agent, or someone at Wizz, at least to get to know any information or prognose for departure. They claimed that no one knew, and they had no telephone number, and if they would have a telephone number, no one would know anyway. The effect was that 178 of the 180 passenger were swearing and screaming. NEVER Wizz again was the consensus.
All what Wizz should do is to inform the passengers that there was a problem and they were about to fix it. They could have said 5 or 24 or whatever hours, and everyone would have been maybe not happy, but they would calm down, and THEN been VERY happy for the ONLY two hours delay. Why do they never learn, those carriers?? Kajsa??? Linda???
Anyway, we arrived safely in London, and some very good days with loads of food and wine, shopping, Mamma Mia and Natural Historical Museum, where was a short time exhibition "Inside Animals" just like "Bodies" but with 4 leggers instead of humans.
Soon we'll be heading good old T&G, and tomorrow morning we will watch the qualifying for the Grand Prix in China. Well, at least me and m. M will probably stay in bed and have sweet dreams... :-)

Wonderful Wizz...
            
British easter egg
            
The smallest shower in the world???
            
a Pub???? :-o
            
An inside out elephant
            

            

            
2 professional meat eaters .-)
            



            
After two hours in Londons biggest toy store, m settled for two small plysch animals of the total worth of 7 British Pounds
            
m's other shopping, mine and M's didn't fit into the pictuire...
            




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