March 14th

Recently I have been getting some kindly placed feedbacks that sound something like this ’reading nice life in Szeged is good...’ And accustoming myself with the stats page on blogger I realise it is true, people do like to read fun stuff, not so much not so fun stuff and politics definitely puts many of you off. It has been a difficult week and there have been some difficult experiences. There is politics and considering tomorrow’s pompous display of central European nationalism to come…
But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

We put Lili on the train on Saturday afternoon with some classmates of Jen, my sister was waiting for her on the other end. She is spending a four days long weekend at my mother’s. Just as well, the rest of us aren’t the greatest company. I wouldn’t go into Ernest’s case now, that is for another time but I got ill too on Saturday although I managed to sleep it out within a day and Jen has fallen ill as well. It seems we picked up the bad stuff somewhere along the way.

Still recovering but letting Jen have a rest Ernest and I went for a walk yesterday afternoon. Only a week ago it was around minus 10 in the mornings and we were happy if it was above zero in the afternoon now it gets up to 20 on the sun during the day. Even easy-going fellows like us are still perceptible to put on too much clothes when going out.

After the park Ernest decided on going to our regular café but now sitting on the terrace. On the street down at the end of the square an ambulance screamed by. It was the ‘new born special unit’. I had to fight off my tears. I was still in a messed up state.

After leaving our regular café we started walking home walking by the other café, on the corner which I just call ‘the café on the corner’ although it has a ‘proper’ name too. The terrace was full and the waiter was not so gently trying to help a man away from a table, I noticed it only a moment before the man toppled over the waiter and fell on the ground so I couldn’t have told if there was any ‘grievance’ between them or it was a genuine accident. He fell hitting his head on the stone, the waiter walked away hurriedly.

Shocked instantly, with Ernest sitting on my arm I was the first one trying to help, he was lying on his back. Only had time to try to see if he could understand/hear me and wonder for a moment why am I the only one there, how will I turn him on his side as he was losing consciousness. Fortunately a paediatrician – as I later found out talking to her – came and helped me with the move and as the waiter was coming back around, delivering orders and taking new ones we asked him if they have called the ambulance yet? ‘ah, no.’ he said ‘we called the cops’. The two of us practically yelled at him to call an ambulance.

I could do nothing more but I was shaken. I stood around, clinging to Ernest, feeling weird. I’ve never been looking into to eyes of someone who was slowly drifting out of consciousness. I watched the waiter. He was working, he was stressed, he was stressed already with work and he was stressed for what has happened. Eventually the paediatrician told him to wait for the ambulance where the fallen person was (she was rude, not gentle in her request, she was right although the manager of the café was nowhere to be seen to take charge). When the ambulance came he rushed back to work. The terrace has at least 50 tables, a busy day, only the two waiters.

I went into the café and told the manager to give the guy a break, he most certainly needs it. The manager just looked at me with big eyes, unable to understand what my problem might be. I walked off.

A brave new world it. On a Sunday afternoon a man falls on the street and the person who has been the closest to him when this happens, I am convinced an accident, does not have time to stop, think, help. I am sure the customers could have waited ten minutes. I am sure, I want to be sure. But no, he didn’t have the time, perhaps he didn’t have the will either. Maybe he knows this drunk, not paying for his bills, he has had enough. Maybe he pushed him a bit.

There was an atmosphere at the ‘place on the corner’s terrace. As if that man has not deserved empathy for he didn’t belong there, he shouldn’t have come there, a semi-homeless drunk and crazy Christian whit his silly little gypsy blessings written on scraps of papers. He deserved his faith…

Ernest and I went out for a walk again today. I wanted to go for a walk while he was asleep in the morning but since his recent sleepovers he wasn’t so keen. He heard me quietly getting ready and I could not go undetected. So we went together. More or less the usual route. We had cheesy treats today instead of the ginger biscuits.
We also saw the local communist party gathering for the pompous nationalist celebration. (more on that tomorrow). And we met him. He was there, with the communists. But then he seemed to have gotten bored of them and walked off. I approached him and we had a chat. Through me he now knows how he ended up in accident and emergency. I appreciated the blessing even if… but let’s not have a discussion on believes. ‘do take care of yourself!’

empathy

February 2nd

It is increasingly difficult to restrain myself from mentioning politics or being political in this blog in Szeged. I may have mentioned before about the set up of the city hall where the majority of the councillors are from the governing party but the major is from another, the biggest opposition party (in parliament) so all that happens in the city council is these two pissing each other off for the sake of it. It has affected Lili’s school for instance by not being able to make deals with the council about building and upgrading the building – which we rent from the city and as the owner the city’s permission is needed for changing it. Or more recently the Hungarian government’s début in the European Parliament. And of course now there is Norht Africa, the middle East and Egypt in the middle of it all that I find increasingly difficult to let pass without a comment especially so that we talk about it a lot.

Well, for those who can’t see how this is all –
- Yes and there is the recent pitch, combined direct opposition to the London Govmnt by the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irelander govermnts. Vow.
So if you think this may result into too much politics in an apolitical blog I – and another funny bit, we had some guests today, my mother and her friends and while their were here we haven’t discussed recent happenings in the political spheres of hungary , although I have been talking about it with Jen while preparing tea for our guests in the kitchen - so yes I recommend and finally actually do, this oldish awareness video from Scotland, my second, or maybe third home - depends on how one is sequencing and prioritising. Haven’t quite finalised it myself.

Liliom had a ballet presentation today. They were quite nice. I mean the children. Working really hard and all that. Ernest slept through most of it and I forgot to take off my jumper before settling so I nearly died in the heat but hey, is there anything you wouldn’t do for your children? I still wonder, if a boy these days dared to join the ballet class, what colour would he wear? The bright pink maybe would be pushing a step too far wouldn’t it? After all just because someone wants to dance doesn’t automatically mean that he wants to become the girliest girly princessy vuagh! But what colour would match pink? Black? Not sure. Of course these days in after school or extracurricular sporty activities the ones with balls play with balls therefore the outfit for ballet is not a concern.

Now that I am finally starting to feel better and a bit more up to doing, hm, living life it is Jen’s turn to start falling ill. This is the game (if one dares calling it as susch ) we have been playing since the end of September. Someone in the house would always feel physically rubbish. This puts some marks on our stay here.
Yesterday my head was full of wonderful ideas. In the evening we cleaned the house and ever since I feel empty inside. I never imagined that a tidy and clean house can put a strain on creative energy in such a nasty manner. Quite said.

Ernest has fallen into some destructive behaviour pattern recently. Yesterday we realised that it can be cured by taking him out on to the walking street. Let him stroll around, wave to his admirers, check out shops and places... puts him in a good mood. He tides up and only occasionally attacks Lili. Of course we could be wrong and he is in a better mood because for a change his growing teeth have stopped growing and bothering him. He can realise that life actually is fun