How to deal with stress when moving to Hungary

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Wish we had a few "Freds" in the family.
Try these tongue twisters...Athanasius, Onuphrey and Anisia.
Sounds more like Latin names for drugs rather then real names someone would actually give a child!
Yes, these come from my family tree, thankfully they have all passed on and I don't have to look the fool trying to pronounce their given names!

Actually names for drugs are often a mix of Greek and Latin (as is the word "television" for example). and often called  hybrid words and used to be frowned upon by prescriptivist grammarians sucha s H. W. Fowler.

Plant names tend to have rather sexy names because Carl Linne, (the linnean system of classification) was a bit sex-obsessed so he named orchids as the Greek for testicles for example.

Yes Athanasius does sound like a plant though, about like Narcissus (no hang on he was definitely Greek) and Anisia presumably is the plant that gives us aniseed (yeah, I know, I know...)

Onuphrey I have no idea, that sounds more Old English to me. Corruption of Humphrey perhaps, but I am just guessing there. My Mum's side of the family emigrated from Germany to England before the First World War although the surname is vaguely Jewish but obviously nothing to do with running away from hitler (wrong war) and don't think there is any Jewish in the family although the Surname is  typical Jewish one in Germany. (The surname got anglicised and is not my one, but I dare not give it as there are living members of that branch of the family, not that Hitler is coming back except daily on the Yesterday Channel, but that is not my prerogative as we discussed).  I am often mistaken in Hungary for being German, I suppose because of my light colouring (going nicely grey/gray what is left of it, salt-and-pepper beard)  so THAT helps... I say sorry I am not German please speak in Hungarian... I know a few words of German from the stuff in ALDI and Lidl (and OBI etc) but that is about it...

The motto of my local council in Cambridgeshire, South Cambridgeshire District Council, is "niet zonder arbeit", the family slogan of Cornelius Vermuyden who came over from Holland to England in the 18th century to drain the Fens after doing the same with all the dykes in Holland. It does sound suspiciously Nazi, doesn't it,  but means "Nothing without Work" and is Dutch not German.. tax bills from the local council used to arrive with NOTHING WITHOUT WORK on the postmark - thanks very much

My odd named relations come from hundreds of years of hiding out in "them there hills"in SE Poland.
My husband is always saying things to me like, they were hiding from their enemies or they were deserting or running away.
Not true, just his silly way of communicating.
Yes, suppose one could say they were either noble Highlanders or Hillbillies.
Actually using the term hillbilly is no not PC.
Have to use the term, Bluegrass people or Bluegrass Americans.
The world is getting to be very strange indeed.
When we visited my dad's village 4 years ago, I was a bit nervous about meeting my family for the first time.
I was picturing toothless people with banjo's playing.
They actually all had their own teeth, were educated and lived in nice homes.
At the big blow out party on our last night there, one lady opened her home up to all of us and had all sorts of food and drinks for about 20 of us.
I confess they did bring out a accordion and some homemade vodka!
Moonshine and music, it was great really.

Mentioning Greek does make sense.
The Ruysn's of Poland are Greek Orthodox people. Most anyways.
My cousin in Conn. had a grandfather who was a Greek Orthodox priest, they can obviously marry and have families.
She marred a man from India and is not religious at all, actually follows her husband's background more then her own.
Not sure how or why Polish people follow Greek traditions but there must be a good story there somewhere.

Speaking of stress in Hungary, off soon to the official translation office to ask a few questions. Wine is waiting for my return home, sure I'll be needed a glass or two later.

I sure hope your wife was not planning on you "kicking the bucket" for you BD!!
Just joking, not sure about why that would be a good present unless it was a hint to help with clean up?
My sisters last husband used to give her BD presents like a new stove, fridge and then he redid the whole kitchen, just before they divorced and he kept the big house.
Not very smart on her part, should asked for diamonds or T bills.
She should of taken her "gifts" with her when she moved out, that would of taught him not to mess with a women's pride.
I always ask for cash  money if I get anything at all.

SimonTrew wrote:

...The motto of my local council in Cambridgeshire, South Cambridgeshire District Council, is "niet zonder arbeit", the family slogan of Cornelius Vermuyden who came over from Holland to England in the 18th century to drain the Fens after doing the same with all the dykes in Holland. It does sound suspiciously Nazi, doesn't it,  but means "Nothing without Work" and is Dutch not German.. tax bills from the local council used to arrive with NOTHING WITHOUT WORK on the postmark - thanks very much

That's not entirely Dutch.

Niet = not in Dutch
Zonder = without in Dutch
Arbeit = work in German, Arbeid would be labour, werk would be work.

If it was entirely Dutch, it would be "niet zonder arbeid" - not without labour - or "niet zonder werk" - not without work.

We used to live next door to some biker Dykes in Holland.  At the beginning they made Mrs Fluffy nervous as she wasn't familiar with that lifestyle.  But they were very nice and nothing for her to be nervous about.   Quite rightly there it's "leven en het leven" - "live and let live".

Coincidentally enough on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_fourfm) one of the interviewees was a woman who has cut her hair very short. You might like to listen to it (hit Listen Again) I didn't listen to the interview thoroughly. (They do have  men on the programme it has just been called Woman's Hour for about 60 years and can't be bothered to change it). The gist of it was she just got very fed up with having long hair and always having to tie it back etc. I wasn't listening to it very thoroughly because I was fiddling withm FM radio (no digital radio in Hungary but got the GM side set up, faraday cages notwithstanding) but you may find it interesting. I think she said she dyed it bright red as well. Good girl! If you are going to dye yor hair, make it something ridiculous.

I once tried it got a bottle of women's hair dye a bright red (when I had more hair). followed the instructions in the bathroom and so on but not really made for men's hair. By the time I had finished my hair was still ginger-blonde (no grey in it at that time) and the bathroom looked like Sweeney Todd's barber's shop. Um, the missus wasn't too impressed with that one.

SimonTrew wrote:

Coincidentally enough on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_fourfm) one of the interviewees was a woman who has cut her hair very short. You might like to listen to it (hit Listen Again) I didn't listen to the interview thoroughly. (They do have  men on the programme it has just been called Woman's Hour for about 60 years and can't be bothered to change it). The gist of it was she just got very fed up with having long hair and always having to tie it back etc.....

I've stopped listening to Radio 4.  Now I listen to LBC on the Internet.

The most obvious short haired person that comes to my mind is Sinead O'Connor:



But this short hair fashion has been going on for years.  Look at Lori Petty too:

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

...The motto of my local council in Cambridgeshire, South Cambridgeshire District Council, is "niet zonder arbeit", the family slogan of Cornelius Vermuyden who came over from Holland to England in the 18th century to drain the Fens after doing the same with all the dykes in Holland. It does sound suspiciously Nazi, doesn't it,  but means "Nothing without Work" and is Dutch not German.. tax bills from the local council used to arrive with NOTHING WITHOUT WORK on the postmark - thanks very much

That's not entirely Dutch.

Niet = not in Dutch
Zonder = without in Dutch
Arbeit = work in German, Arbeid would be labour, werk would be work.

If it was entirely Dutch, it would be "niet zonder arbeid" - not without labour - or "niet zonder werk" - not without work.

We used to live next door to some biker Dykes in Holland.  At the beginning they made Mrs Fluffy nervous as she wasn't familiar with that lifestyle.  But they were very nice and nothing for her to be nervous about.   Quite rightly there it's "leven en het leven" - "live and let live".

It is old Dutch, not modern Dutch.... eighteenth century. Like all languages they drift apart, of course they are closely related (as English is sorta, drifted apart with Latinate additions with dictionary freaks such as Johnson.

But you and I are both wrong. It is 'Niet Zonder Arbyt'. I drifted towards German too much, sorry. I had quite a few good Dutch friends (in real life), too, unfortunately when we moved away from Europe I didn't keep in touch with them.

Sorry can't agree with you about those byker dykes. Live and let live, for sure, but those damned cyclists are a bloody nuisance, knocking me off the pavement when I am carrying my shopping home.

fluffy2560 wrote:

But this short hair fashion has been going on for years.  Look at Lori Petty too:]

Yeah, I managed to pull a stud out of the missus' earring on the weekend. I didn't hit her or owt, we were  chasing each other around in the garden and I just grabbed her her around the bonce (very gently), but forget she wears earings as she has shoulder-length hair. No harm done (she lost a stud but then I am forever  losing cufflinks) didn't hurt her ear or anything.

The old song, "A man chases a girl until she catches him"...

I keep asking her to cut her hair shorter cos I think it is much secier. I remember when Sinéad O'Connor first was singing that on Top of The Pops or whatever, 'I do know Mandika' which is when she really hit the British market. It was kinda then surprising when she wore longer hair. She has some nice ballads, but her Irish (in Irish) ballads are a bit of a pain, I mean, they are like the Hungarian ballads get on with it deary we got the message. See, racist sexist and homophobic all at the same time... I am doing well this afternoon eh

SimonTrew wrote:

....

Sorry can't agree with you about those byker dykes. Live and let live, for sure, but those damned cyclists are a bloody nuisance, knocking me off the pavement when I am carrying my shopping home.

I give in on the various arbeid/arbeit/arbyts.   BTW, in Dutch, the Y is often a IJ.

These ladies were on motorbikes.  Lovely people. 

But if you live in Holland, having a bike is essential.   Some immigrants have to have bike lessons as they've never had opportunity to master it.  Masters of integration the Dutch.  Someone locally could do with learning a few things about that.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

....

Sorry can't agree with you about those byker dykes. Live and let live, for sure, but those damned cyclists are a bloody nuisance, knocking me off the pavement when I am carrying my shopping home.

I give in on the various arbeid/arbeit/arbyts.   BTW, in Dutch, the Y is often a IJ.

These ladies were on motorbikes.  Lovely people. 

But if you live in Holland, having a bike is essential.   Some immigrants have to have bike lessons as they've never had opportunity to master it.  Masters of integration the Dutch.  Someone locally could do with learning a few things about that.

Yes, Cambridgeshire is great for cycling too as it is very flat and easy cycling, and people of 60 or 70 will take their bike to go shopping not just jump in the car. The worst in UK I think is the habit of councils (local authorities) to paint a line along the road for about a mile and say we have built a cycle lane to claim some money off central government. No, you have painted a line for a mile along a road. I don't need a cycle lane there, I need cyclist advance at junctions and not shoving me into the middle of the road where I have to now watch cars on BOTH sides of me whizzing past me, cycling along a straight flat bit of road is not the tricky bit, is it?

Budapest I don't think is too bad and the cyclists are generally pretty polite if you share a pedestrian pavement with a cyclist, you would get run over in Cambridge if you tried that. On the other hand if you leave a bike in Cambridge for more than about ten minutes, locked with a secure D lock, it will not be there when you get back. Bike theft in Cambridge is astonishing, most people take them just to get home then dump them. I would wheel them back to the police station I got my missus a nice Ridgeback and I a nice I forget Raleigh I think, by handing them back, if they are not claimed after three weeks they are your legal property says Officer Dibble. But they do get about 60% to their owners, I assume many of the others for more expensive bikes are claimed already on insurance so when they are handed in they can't exactly claim them back (double claiming/fraud) and prefer to get a new bike.

I know the "IJ" is kinda like Hungarian J English Y. I asked a Dutch friend many years ago is it i j or an umlaut on top of the Y as often they wrote it as a Y. They kinda don't seem to know themselves, because a bit like Hungarian they are treated as distinct letters so it is in a technical sense meaningless to call it eye jay. I know what you mean. Like, for example, sz in Hungarian is considered a single letter so you can't spell it "ess zed/zee"in speech and so it is sorta meaningless to ask how to spell it. Pronounced more like a long Canadian "eh?"I don't know the IPA for it or whether IPA carries on this forum (just learning this site's syntax...) my childhood friend was called Dijkstra which of course is quite a common surname in Dutch. He would say it kinda like in my British English dialect "deggstra". But then he was Far Eastern by birth and the Dutch missionaries adopted him, I am pretty sure he said to me Korean but that doesn't make much sense, more likely Indonesian? His first name was Kim, I hope he was doing alright. He used to call me "Shymon" he would pronounce English S as English SH. Hey, Shimon! Boys  being boys we used to tease him about that, but I don't know why he would pronounce it like that. Not as in Jewish Simon Perez or anything, he was Christioan Protestant, I don't know where he picked that one up from. He had been very badly burned in some war (Malaysia? He said he was Korean and I have never thought until now perhaps. Vietnam?) and had lots of burn scars he was quite proud of from skin grafts. I haven't really ever thought of him much until now you reminded me. We studied in Cairo together when we were early teenagers, at the British School in Cairo.

When you are growing up you don't have any prejudices at all. You just takee people as you find them, I am not sure even "live and let live"is really right to describe it, cos you don't say "this person is different from me, I must learn to like him", You just DO. It is as we get older that we acquire our prejudices. We are born, really, innocent. How come we get all these prejudices later in life? I grew up in the age where gays were figures of fun. I think there ware wrong things, like gays being able to choose to be civil partners (in England and Wales) AND being able to choose to be married, i.e. homosexuals have more rights than I do as a heterosexual, because I can't choose to be a civil partner. But that is something that you sort out at the ballot box. You don't have any prejufices against blacks or women (except when your Mum tells you to do the washing up) or anyone at all. You acquire them or reject them through your culture don't you think? I have been lucky enough to grow up in an Egypt, to work in the US for a couple of years, to work in Hungary, to experience many different cultures and backgrounds and "social norms". I am all the better for it, I hope. Many people don't get a chance to get the experiences I have had. Where I lived in a small village near Cambridgeshire there was a halfgway house for mentally ill people.  Seriously chronically mentally ill. Got on well with them just fine, everyone in the village would help them out when they were in trouble, forgotten their keys or whatnot, but most of the time they were just fine. I hope I have lived enough not to judge people, or ever did.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....

Yes, Cambridgeshire is great for cycling too as it is very flat and easy cycling, and people of 60 or 70 will take their bike to go shopping not just jump in the car. The worst in UK I think is the habit of councils (local authorities) to paint a line along the road for about a mile and say we have built a cycle lane to claim some money off central government. No, you have painted a line for a mile along a road. I don't need a cycle lane there, I need cyclist advance at junctions and not shoving me into the middle of the road where I have to now watch cars on BOTH sides of me whizzing past me, cycling along a straight flat bit of road is not the tricky bit, is it?

I've got a bee in my bonnet at the moment about pavements (US: sidewalks) and cycling here.  They never build proper pavements here.  There are so many roads here without a path for pedestrians.  Morever, between here (Budakeszi) and Budaors, there's a road (quite dangerous) and there's no cycle or pedestrian paths.  It means riding on the road.  I find it quite horrifying due to the close proximity of the traffic and drivers that go too fast.  There are various industrial places on that road which would be easily reachable by bike from here.  Mrs Fluffy and I are considering lobbying the local government to build a proper path.  There's more than enough room for it as they own the public land each side. 

SimonTrew wrote:

.....
I know the "IJ" is kinda like Hungarian J English Y. I asked a Dutch friend many years ago is it i j or an umlaut on top of the Y as often they wrote it as a Y. ....my childhood friend was called Dijkstra which of course is quite a common surname in Dutch. He would say it kinda like in my British English dialect "deggstra". But then he was Far Eastern by birth and the Dutch missionaries adopted him, I am pretty sure he said to me Korean but that doesn't make much sense, more likely Indonesian? His first name was Kim, I hope he was doing alright. He used to call me "Shymon" he would pronounce English S as English SH. Hey, Shimon! Boys  being boys we used to tease him about that, but I don't know why he would pronounce it like that. Not as in Jewish Simon Perez or anything, he was Christioan Protestant, I don't know where he picked that one up from. He had been very badly burned in some war (Malaysia? He said he was Korean....

What the Dutch do is  write the I above the lower rounded part of the J so it looks like a U with umlaut but with a cut in it on the left.   They put a Y in sometimes as well as it's easier to type.

Dijkstra is a common Dutch name including some famous people.  One important algorithm is Dijkstra's algorithm - the shortest path between two points. Very important in Sat Navs, networks, logistics and military matters (move your troops and gear quickly).  We used to use these algorithms when I was working in an industry that needed that kind of thing.   

If your mate was Kim then he almost certainly was Korean.   But there are Koreans in many places as they had established small groups over the years. 

There are Korean islands of activity in places in former Soviet Central Asia but I believe most of these were established when Stalin deported them from other places.  I've been in Central Asian places and seen plenty of Korean signs and met people of Korean origin. 

Over the years, I think there might be some people here too as I've seen people who look very Asian but are actually Hungarian. So much Asian looking, that people actually ask them where they are from.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.....

Yes, Cambridgeshire is great for cycling too as it is very flat and easy cycling, and people of 60 or 70 will take their bike to go shopping not just jump in the car. The worst in UK I think is the habit of councils (local authorities) to paint a line along the road for about a mile and say we have built a cycle lane to claim some money off central government. No, you have painted a line for a mile along a road. I don't need a cycle lane there, I need cyclist advance at junctions and not shoving me into the middle of the road where I have to now watch cars on BOTH sides of me whizzing past me, cycling along a straight flat bit of road is not the tricky bit, is it?

I've got a bee in my bonnet at the moment about pavements (US: sidewalks) and cycling here.  They never build proper pavements here.  There are so many roads here without a path for pedestrians.  Morever, between here (Budakeszi) and Budaors, there's a road (quite dangerous) and there's no cycle or pedestrian paths.  It means riding on the road.  I find it quite horrifying due to the close proximity of the traffic and drivers that go too fast.  There are various industrial places on that road which would be easily reachable by bike from here.  Mrs Fluffy and I are considering lobbying the local government to build a proper path.  There's more than enough room for it as they own the public land each side.  .

Go ahead, I'll support you. I grew up in a town called Stevenage New Town, which they put in all the cycle networks completely separate from the roads (it was designed by an American and is very American grid system). All the cycle tracks go under the huge roundabouts/traffic circles and stuff, and as a child I could cycle six or seven miles/ten kilometres without every even SEEING a car, so it was natural to us to get on our bikes to go to work etc.

One other thing that gets my goat is that PAVEMENTS ARE FOR PEOPLE. I don't drive, and I get entirely fed up with cars parking on pavements. I am coming back with my granny shopper full of stuff from ALDI I do not want to have to move out into the road to then wheel that back just so you can reverse that in. I can drive trucks and my brother was a bus driver and had bought an london bus and we restored it, so 'I can happily swing around a forty foot by ten foot double decker, I can drive fork lift trucks and have a tracked vehicle licence for driving tanks to move them from place to place on Ministry of Defence owned land. I have a Texas driver's license too but that's expired a long time ago, Just I have no need for a car in Budapest what with my missus working for a well-known Detroit-based car manufacturer, we just get one when on the rare oddassions we need one out of the pool, rather than own one and have buggering about with that. Hehehe and I have a double garage witha  six-foot deep inspection pit in it but don't have a car to put over it! No need for a car in Budapest proper. BKK is fantastic compared to English or American public transport. We sold the Jaguar s-type before we moved here, and hauled all the stuff in the Ford Mondeo that the missus learned to drive in in England, that was exchanged for a pushbike from someone in or around Budaors to use on his farm) but I still have the trailer if it is any use to you, all the leccy and stuff works on it I was offered 30.000 for it but not interested in any money, if you can come and get it then you are welcome to it for 0ft, it has just been sitting in the garden in my other place in Sulysap for two years (British plate still on the back), never re-registered it not worth the effort cos would have to register it separately from the motor etc unlike in UK where you put it on the same plate as the thing that is pulling it. If it is useful to you, please take it is is about twelve foot long by six foot wide wooden box trailer about  three feet you can work out the cubic measurements. If not but you have a friend who is willing to pick it up, there for anyone for free to take, it did its job to haul our stuff to Hungary and has just been sitting there doing nothing. It is on a metal chassis that I did all over with hammerite etc and five pin input into your towbar, I can give you all the plugs and leads and the backplate lamps is on it but you would have to change the plate of course. The wood was not brilliant when I bought it and certainly sitting under a tree doesn't help but that is easy bash out job and replace with new wood. Ideal camping trailer if you are going to Balaton or wherever in the summer. As I say, no charge, free on collection. I have hauled the bloody thing by hand, very Steptoe and Son, not having the fron tend of it to put it on. Padlock on towbar probably quite rusty by now and would need to grind that off I imagine.

I Totally agree with you and I would be happy to support you if you want to support it. You and the fluffiettes deserve some safety, and if there is room for it, I strongly suggest you petition for it and I will be the first to support it.

As you said, live and let live. Don't want Mrs Fluffy and the Fluffiettes dying on the roads.

SimonTrew wrote:

..........
Go ahead, I'll support you. I grew up in a town called Stevenage New Town, which they put in all the cycle networks completely separate from the roads (it was designed by an American and is very American grid system). All the cycle tracks go under the huge roundabouts/traffic circles and stuff, and as a child I could cycle six or seven miles/ten kilometres without every even SEEING a car, so it was natural to us to get on our bikes to go to work etc.

I know Stevenage. I used to live up the road from there and we always passed it on the A1.  Bit like an earlier and smaller version of Milton Keynes.  All those roundabouts!  Totally confusing if you don't know.  I haven't been that way for years.

SimonTrew wrote:

..........
One other thing that gets my goat is that PAVEMENTS ARE FOR PEOPLE. I don't drive, and I get entirely fed up with cars parking on pavements. I am coming back with my granny shopper full of stuff from ALDI I do not want to have to move out into the road to then wheel that back just so you can reverse that in. I can drive trucks and double decker buses and whatnot, according to my British licence (and I have a texas driver's license too but that's expired a long time ago, I didn't convert it I juist took the test, still have the Texas Drivers'License Manual somewhere). We all have to SHARE the road. Totally agree with you and I would be happy to support you if you want to support it. You and the fluffiettes deserve some safety, and if there is room for it, I strongly suggest you petition for it and I will be the first to support it.

As you said, live and let live. Don't want Mrs Fluffy and the Fluffiettes dying on the roads.

If I could get the Fluffyettes away from their PCs and phones, and it was safe, then we'd be cycling down there. 

There's a circular route for cycling from Budakeszi, past Farkashegy airport,  towards Budaors, pass the German War Cemetery then turn right towards Aldi's distribution centre (direction of Biatorbagy) up the hill towards the motorway, pass underneath, then turn immediately right up towards an industrial area and cemetery on the right, turn right up the road immediately next to the cemetery, then through the forest towards the road to Páty and across to Telki.   All public paths but one has to lift the bikes over some animal fences.   There is a short cut through an industrial area (called BITEP) which shortens one's traffic exposure.   But I don't go that way now as it's  just very very dangerous and scary even for adults. With kids, no way.  Someone is going to die on that road. 

They could easily build a nice forest bike path to Budaors which would be a pleasant ride too.

I've got alternative routes I take so I'm going to leave the politics to Mrs Fluffy.

Re: the driving licenses, I've probably got the same as you with the 7.5 tonnes truck class but I've noticed they've started to put restrictions on things like the trailers so that the whole thing cannot be more than 8.25 tonnes (restricted to 750kg trailer now).  I am sure it was a lot more than that before.  They keep eroding these classes.  God knows how this will work out post-Brexit.

Sorry was just taking the bolts off the old toilet seat had to use hacksaw to get thrm off. Same offer applies for Mrs Fluffy, I will be the first to support it. I don't know that particular route (never cycled much in Hungary) but I see what you mean.

Yes, I lived north of Stevenage for a while in a village called Ickleford and then in St Neots, which is a right bugger for cycling and you can cycle along the towpath and a teenager too busy on his mobile phone was not watching out, and knocked me straight into the river great ouse which will take you out to bedford pretty sharpish. ( I lived by the lock on the bedford drain etc). Fortunately I learned to swim when I was a child, not common here (my wife can't swim). Not to olympic standards but kept treading water against the tide and eventually with calls for help someone managed to throw me a lifesaver cos I couldn't climb the banks wearing heavy clothes (it was wintertime) sodden with water.

I walked home just about, it wasn't far 200 yards or so but n heavy wet clothes it is a long way. I ran a bath, the missus got home and phoned ambulance. When they arrived I was in the bath warming up and said to her I was blood temp 32C and most people are unconscious at that point.

But I don't take indestructability for granted, I am not Superman, just PRETTYGOODMAN; truth, justice and  the Icknield Way. I can leap tall buildings in two or three bounds. But I want to be safe,  too. When I teach her sparks or plumbing or whatever I show her how it is to be done properly. if the piece flies off the grinder it should fly in front of you not into your eyes, I WILL GET OUT OF THE WAY. I will stand behind you. "Then you won't see what I am doing" I am not standing in front of you and that, I will stand behind you. We get minor cuts and scrapes which neither of us notices we have done it, because we both bleed very easily (proper English blood in my case, Hungarian in hers)  but have never had a proper injury yet.

I hope you realise I am not patronising you as I sorta worked out you were English but from the wordlwide point of view I tend to explain where these places are and and add US English translations etc. I hope that is not patronising.

Didn't go to the translation place as planned. Instead took a nice walk in the misty rain to the large market hall.
My husband walked all the way there with me but as he is the one to haul everything back home, he takes the subway and I walk home alone.
I am a fast walker so I enjoy walking by myself.
Yesterday we walked to a park setting in the 5th with a garden, can't remember the name of the viscount it belonged to in the day.
Just behind the National museum.
Another crazy story again, my husband mentioned that when he lived in Paris around 1971, he hung out with a ton of old Hungarian  French Foreign
Legion Freedom fighters he knew in France.
The  Viscount had left HU and was living on a good pension in Paris and often sat near the opera house cafe in Paris. They all knew him by name and would call out to him if they passed by, he was called The Red Baron, because he thought he could just get by after WW11 with telling the soviets that they were welcome to his property. Sort of funny really as they would of helped themselves no matter what his objections were.
In 1986 when we returned to Paris he went to the local bar where these old timers were regulars and bought all that were still living rounds of drinks. They remembered him and a couple came outside to meet my son and I. My husband wouldn't allow us to enter that skanky bar. We waited outside while he visited his old friends.

While walking yesterday  a single rider young lady on one of the rental MOL bikes was coming up past us. She stopped at a light and my husband walked in front of her bike as she waited and I went behind the bike, kept a good few feet from her backside as I know how "dumb" most of these riders can be
Well, wouldn't you know it, she started to move that big old heavy bike backwards as I passed by without even looking first.
No problem since I am experienced at how lame these young riders are usually. I told her to watch it and just moved on.
I'll never forget how close one young guy was to hitting our very elderly neighbor one rainy day, his brakes were wet and he got within one foot of hitting this tiny fragile late 80 something lady right in front of our eyes.
We took the time to walk her across the blvd. and then he comes up out of the blue at full speed in the rain. I told him off but he was weak and just biked on ., would of loved to get into it with him but he seemed afraid of what he had done and what I was saying. Jerk!!
One has to watch every move they make lately on the sidewalks in the city, so many , yes. I'll say it, fat young stupid young brain dead idiots with cell phone in their faces who don't know their "A****" from a hole in the ground, dangerous even to themselves.
I never ever have or find any issues with middle aged or senior people outside, only the young o
nes who have zero clue and are slower then many older people. Something is not connected right in their heads.
On my way home I decided to go a bit further on my walk and went near the NY hotel and down Dob  utca.
There is a hostel on that st.
I noticed on approach that several police men were talking with obvious looking middle eastern young men who were lined up on the sidewalk in front of the hostel.
I almost crossed the st. to avoid any BS but it seemed to clear up as I got closer by.
I wonder what that was all about, maybe checking ID's to see who was legal and who wasn't?
No idea but for some reason they cleared my path and let me pass without any troubles.
Maybe the cops gave them a good talking to before they left?
Whatever, live and let live.

SimonTrew wrote:

Sorry was just taking the bolts off the old toilet seat had to use hacksaw to get thrm off. Same offer applies for Mrs Fluffy, I will be the first to support it. I don't know that particular route (never cycled much in Hungary) but I see what you mean.

Yes, I lived north of Stevenage for a while in a village called Ickleford and then in St Neots, which is a right bugger for cycling and you can cycle along the towpath and a teenager too busy on his mobile phone was not watching out, and knocked me straight into the river great ouse which will take you out to bedford pretty sharpish. ( I lived by the lock on the bedford drain etc). Fortunately I learned to swim when I was a child, not common here (my wife can't swim). Not to olympic standards but kept treading water against the tide and eventually with calls for help someone managed to throw me a lifesaver cos I couldn't climb the banks wearing heavy clothes (it was wintertime) sodden with water.
.....

I hope you realise I am not patronising you as I sorta worked out you were English but from the wordlwide point of view I tend to explain where these places are and and add US English translations etc. I hope that is not patronising.

I know St Neots quite well.  Does it still flood down on Riverside (?) park?  Been a while since I was there. I was once or twice at the golf club  on top of the hill opposite the Ouse riverside. One of my brothers is married to someone from St Neots - Eynesbury.   I also spent a fair bit of time in Huntingdon.  Haven't been there for many years but I am sure it's not very different now.

I also add translations for US readers.  Typically pavements vs sidewalks and mis-spellings by those across the pond who do not know where to put the U - i.e. Labour/Colour/Flavour etc etc.   And let's not start on date format - either here, the UK and the USA.

Your Missus needs to get down to Balaton in the summer for some serious swimming experience.  Basic life skill like driving.  I have nephews and nieces in their 30s who still cannot drive and no plans to do so.  Even my FIL and MIL cannot drive.  Mrs Fluffy's aunts cannot drive either.  Truly shocking.  When I was 17, I wanted my license immediately.  The Fluffyettes are going to be behind the wheel when they are 18 (here it's 18, UK 17).  I taught my eldest to drive on farm tracks - one in Spain and the other on Southport beach and private land.  Both can drive now as they are in their late 20s.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

Sorry was just taking the bolts off the old toilet seat had to use hacksaw to get thrm off. Same offer applies for Mrs Fluffy, I will be the first to support it. I don't know that particular route (never cycled much in Hungary) but I see what you mean.

Yes, I lived north of Stevenage for a while in a village called Ickleford and then in St Neots, which is a right bugger for cycling and you can cycle along the towpath and a teenager too busy on his mobile phone was not watching out, and knocked me straight into the river great ouse which will take you out to bedford pretty sharpish. ( I lived by the lock on the bedford drain etc). Fortunately I learned to swim when I was a child, not common here (my wife can't swim). Not to olympic standards but kept treading water against the tide and eventually with calls for help someone managed to throw me a lifesaver cos I couldn't climb the banks wearing heavy clothes (it was wintertime) sodden with water.
.....

I hope you realise I am not patronising you as I sorta worked out you were English but from the wordlwide point of view I tend to explain where these places are and and add US English translations etc. I hope that is not patronising.

I know St Neots quite well.  Does it still flood down on Riverside (?) park?  Been a while since I was there. I was once or twice at the golf club  on top of the hill opposite the Ouse riverside. One of my brothers is married to someone from St Neots - Eynesbury.   I also spent a fair bit of time in Huntingdon.  Haven't been there for many years but I am sure it's not very different now.

I also add translations for US readers.  Typically pavements vs sidewalks and mis-spellings by those across the pond who do not know where to put the U - i.e. Labour/Colour/Flavour etc etc.   And let's not start on date format - either here, the UK and the USA.

Your Missus needs to get down to Balaton in the summer for some serious swimming experience.  Basic life skill like driving.  I have nephews and nieces in their 30s who still cannot drive and no plans to do so.  Even my FIL and MIL cannot drive.  Mrs Fluffy's aunts cannot drive either.  Truly shocking.  When I was 17, I wanted my license immediately.  The Fluffyettes are going to be behind the wheel when they are 18 (here it's 18, UK 17).  I taught my eldest to drive on farm tracks - one in Spain and the other on Southport beach and private land.  Both can drive now as they are in their late 20s.

Got bolts off and gave the tiles a good clean down with a proper mop. Stuck in some mastick at the bottom of the toilet pan that is a bit of a bodge job not by me by previous owners but I don't want to take off pan to ave water flooding everywhere so I am covering over with silicone gun (mastick) what is US for masti
Yes, the floodplain is still there essentially on purpose for when the River Great Ouse floods. But they built a new cycling bridge over from St Neots to Eynesbury, which makes it a lot more convenient to move between the two. That is a fantastic cycling brige called the Someone Or Other From The Council Cycling Bridge (to nobody's surprise). But it does make it a lot easier rather than having to go all the way into town or to take the A421 bypass. (which is no fun when cycling.) I don't think I ever cycled over it, but walked over it many times,  I was teaching my missus to drive rather helping her practice (she had never learned to drive, so I got her professional instructor of course because otherwise it is asking for trouble, but helped her practice in Tesco car park etc). I don't think I ever cycled over it cos they had only just finished building it. There is a llarge comprehensive school well Cambridge Village College on the other side, and they are slowly eating into the floodplain, with inevitable results in ten years for headlines of "River floods school, not many drowned" etc. But it is a nice bridge. Before that on foot I would have to go over the lock gates at the end of my street, which despite obvious inconvenience on a pushbike to get up and down, didn't get you to anywhere you really wanted to be, the Eynesbury side was just riverside footpaths not good for cycling. OK and fine for leisure biking on a day out but not when you are trying to do business biking get the shopping home from Tesco's.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....
Got bolts off and gave the tiles a good clean down with a proper mop. Stuck in some mastick at the bottom of the toilet pan that is a bit of a bodge job not by me by previous owners but I don't want to take off pan to ave water flooding everywhere so I am covering over with silicone gun (mastick) what is US for mastick....

Yes, the floodplain is still there essentially on purpose for when the River Great Ouse floods. But they built a new cycling bridge over from St Neots to Eynesbury, which makes it a lot more convenient to move between the two. That is a fantastic cycling brige called the Someone Or Other From The Council Cycling Bridge (to nobody's surprise). .........

There was a bridge at the far end of Riverside park which was like a wooden arched bridge. I went over it a few times. I used to walk the dog there sometimes. It was a retriever cross so it liked to swim. Was very smelly afterwards so I don't know what was in the water way back then.

Yesterday I put my cooker (stove) hood in - twice!  Got it wrong the first time as measured the wrong part and then had to do it again. Still, it's in now and that's done.  It's a bit of a stupid design as Mrs Fluffy cannot reach the buttons and I'm in danger of bashing my head (and not a brick wall in sight).  If they put them further down, it'd be a lot easier for both of us.  Well, never mind.  We can always move it ...again.... 

I also just today shortened the cable on our temporary cooker (stove) as it was too long and I needed the cable for the real one.    Took me 30 mins as  it's a fiddly place.

Luckily I can "work" from home for the moment doing this stuff but eventually I'll have to actually do something useful - I actually had to do something today.

I am not sure the mastic will work long term.  With people sitting on the loo and whatever, there's too much movement (so to speak) and the seal will fail.  Better really to get it out and stick in a new one with improved waste pipes.

I think we're woefully off topic now...

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I noticed on approach that several police men were talking with obvious looking middle eastern young men who were lined up on the sidewalk in front of the hostel.

Why was it so obvious that they were young. men, or looking towards the Middle East? Were they praying to Allah?

"Middle-Eastern looking men" "what next? "Far-western looking people of  unsure age and the non-male gender"? Really, that is a very racist and sexist assumption. Non-sexism and non-racism works on both directions.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.....
Got bolts off and gave the tiles a good clean down with a proper mop. Stuck in some mastick at the bottom of the toilet pan that is a bit of a bodge job not by me by previous owners but I don't want to take off pan to ave water flooding everywhere so I am covering over with silicone gun (mastick) what is US for mastick....

Yes, the floodplain is still there essentially on purpose for when the River Great Ouse floods. But they built a new cycling bridge over from St Neots to Eynesbury, which makes it a lot more convenient to move between the two. That is a fantastic cycling brige called the Someone Or Other From The Council Cycling Bridge (to nobody's surprise). .........

There was a bridge at the far end of Riverside park which was like a wooden arched bridge. I went over it a few times. I used to walk the dog there sometimes. It was a retriever cross so it liked to swim. Was very smelly afterwards so I don't know what was in the water way back then.

Yesterday I put my cooker (stove) hood in - twice!  Got it wrong the first time as measured the wrong part and then had to do it again. Still, it's in now and that's done.  It's a bit of a stupid design as Mrs Fluffy cannot reach the buttons and I'm in danger of bashing my head (and not a brick wall in sight).  If they put them further down, it'd be a lot easier for both of us.  Well, never mind.  We can always move it ...again.... 

I also just today shortened the cable on our temporary cooker (stove) as it was too long and I needed the cable for the real one.    Took me 30 mins as  it's a fiddly place.

Luckily I can "work" from home for the moment doing this stuff but eventually I'll have to actually do something useful - I actually had to do something today.

I am not sure the mastic will work long term.  With people sitting on the loo and whatever, there's too much movement (so to speak) and the seal will fail.  Better really to get it out and stick in a new one with improved waste pipes.

I think we're woefully off topic now...

Silocone mastick that is exactly what you should be using to seal up these things. It also does a little pleasure as decoration (not as sealant as such) to go rount sockets etc, it takes the shadows and edges away.

Getting the cooker hood on was good on your own, that is a bit of a two-hander wrestling with that while holding a drill and a screwdriver between your teeth etc. I didn't realise here there ''was'' a topic! I have put a British socket in every room which comes in quite handy. The Dyson, which used to be known as  a Hoover (which is just the perfect word, cos when you switch it on it goes HOOOOOVE obviously american vacuum is just woefully wrong there, patently it goes HOOOOOOVE in an onomatopoeic fashion, it does not go VACUUM VACUUM VACUUM).  That runs off of a british socket and some other things do, saves the bother of always looking for converters.

I didn't bother with a cooker hoold because I have kinda plenty of windows and vents etc so it wasn't worth my bother. But standing up a ladder on your own getting the sodding thing on is well I tip my titfer, panache my panama, and cock my cockade at you, brush the brow of my brown bowler and heighten the height of my hopera hat.

Well those guys were speaking a Arab language as I passed by. I'm not the ones who called the cops out on them, just a observation while walking right by them.
Not sure but someone must of taken offence to 10 young men idioling  on the "pavement".
Call a spade a spade, can't change the facts that yes they looked very middle eastern.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....

Silocone mastick that is exactly what you should be using to seal up these things. It also does a little pleasure as decoration (not as sealant as such) to go rount sockets etc, it takes the shadows and edges away.

Getting the cooker hood on was good on your own, that is a bit of a two-hander wrestling with that while holding a drill and a screwdriver between your teeth etc. I didn't realise here there ''was'' a topic! I have put a British socket in every room which comes in quite handy......

I didn't bother with a cooker hoold because I have kinda plenty of windows and vents etc so it wasn't worth my bother. But standing up a ladder on your own getting the sodding thing on is well....

Actually Mrs Fluffy and I did it together so I obviously "misspoke" by saying I.  Should have said We.

I suppose I could have done it myself actually as there's a metal bracket one needs to affix and this has a flat hook on it.  So it could have been up with two hands while on the stepladder and then held steady with one hand while getting the screws in but probably a bit risky.  It wasn't very heavy.  I had to modify the supplied bracket and then used some coach bolts on it.  Short on an earthquake, it'll never fall off.

The topic is "reducing stress when moving to Hungary" but if we end up on a tangent, we can all transfer to Absolutely Anything Else as that has no topic as the title implies.  It's a free for all there.

Re: the mastic, I find it usually dries out or eventually breaks due to movement.  What you need around the pipe is "Plumbers Mait" but try finding that here.  They've never heard of it!   I had to bring two tubs with me from England.  It's very useful for making waste pipes seal.  Never dries out.

SimonTrew wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I noticed on approach that several police men were talking with obvious looking middle eastern young men who were lined up on the sidewalk in front of the hostel.

Why was it so obvious that they were young. men, or looking towards the Middle East? Were they praying to Allah?

"Middle-Eastern looking men" "what next? "Far-western looking people of  unsure age and the non-male gender"? Really, that is a very racist and sexist assumption. Non-sexism and non-racism works on both directions.

They could have been praying but the Islamic people usually do that on Fridays.  They go in the street when there's no room at the mosque.  I've seen them lined up down the street doing that (not in Budapest - Maldives and some other places).  But I believe there's some sort of rule of X mosques per km2.  So they are everywhere really and it's never more than a few minutes walk to a mosque wherever you are in an Islamic town.