Saturday, 3 April 2010
Where are Roo?
I can’t understand it. Usually I see twenty or thirty kangaroos when I go for a walk in the morning, but the last two days I haven’t seen a single one. I hope that bunch of goody-two-shoe, busy-bodies, the Clean Up Australia mob, haven’t bundled them up and carted the whole lot off - all in the interests of hygiene, presumably.
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Bastards. I'd have thought that any "Clean Up Australia" campaign would get more popular support by sending the Poms back home :-)
ReplyDeleteWe love our Poms - sort of (and anyway I am one - sort of)
ReplyDeleteAnd for some reason we Poms enjoy being called that and being slagged of by the Aussies :-) Are you not from somewhere in former Yugoslavia, or was that a long time ago?
ReplyDeleteWe just lived in Belgrade for three years - and my husband's work involved going to Albania, Rumania and Bulgaria as well, and most of the time I tagged along and sometimes wrote articles about it. But neither of us are from there. We do live part of the time in Budapest, when we can, although we're not from there either.
ReplyDeleteOhh, I see. But really you're from... Sidcup? What on earth is your husband's work to take him to such exotic places? Next time you're coming to Romania (spelt with an "o" by Romanians, though maybe Hungarians still prefer the "u" version), do give me a call and you'd be welcome to stay with us in Cluj/Kolozsvar.
ReplyDeleteHurrah. My husband says to tell you he stayed there in 1986 in a rather dismal Communist era hotel outside the old town, but the highlight for him was the hotel which Patrick Leigh Fermor describes having visited in Between the Woods and the Water where, on a wintry evening, they heard the overture to Die Fledermaus floating out - and he (my husband, that is) says it still had a certain charm. After living in Hungary, he says (he is dictating all this and I'm doing the typing), he can only really think of Cluj as Kolozsvar - and he also tells me it is dated and pre first world war of me to call it Romania - like saying Servia, so that's me put back in my box, and basically my husband is taking over this blog, it seems. But he'll be back at work tomorrow so I'll rule again then, heh heh.
ReplyDeleteHave you read A Romanian Story by William Blacker? I saw it at a friend's place and loved what I read but then had to leave and am planning to buy it on Amazon
ReplyDeleteThat was me, not my husband, by the way - the bit about Blacker
ReplyDeleteSorry, that should have been Along the Enchanted Way, a Romanian Story by William Blacker.
ReplyDeleteOk, so it sounds like you're in no mood to visit Cluj/Kolozsvar - notice how I graciously described it thus - once again, though maybe I could persuade a Gypsy taraf to play the overture to Die Fledermaus for you both :-) As I stated previously, my own research leads me to believe that this land belongs as least as much to the Hungarians as to the Romanians; but Kossuth (and others) made a mistake by not allowing Romanians equal citizenship, therefore ensuring antipathy and that they'd fight on the side of the Austrians in 1848 - a future post, when I've got the energy.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Along the Enchanted Way, a Romanian Story by William Blacker - thanks for that, I'll see if I can find it - though I have read Between the Woods and the Water and also The Romanian: Story of an Obsession, which is very good.
Hope you've got your blog back now.
I think you misinterpret our mood - for practical reasons, we're unlikely to be there soon, but both very pro the idea of coming to your neck of the woods. Don't worry though, we won't descend on you. Would be excellent to meet up though - and are you ever in Budapest, by the way?
ReplyDeleteRe Kossuth, the Hungarians have many, many fine qualities, but they are inclined to haughtiness (my husband has given me back the blog but only on the understanding that I use the word 'haughty' there, as he [emphasis on 'he'] thinks the pun with Horty (Admiral - wartime Hungarian leader) is actually worth something.
I shall look for The Romanian: Story of an Obsession. There is also a great book of photographs of Transylvania by Peter someone (Erdos???) but all our books about Central Europe are in Budapest and I can't remember its name. Next time I'm there I will tell you, if you don't know it and actually tell me first.
I used to quite like the book set in Bucharest by Olivia Manning, the name of which I've forgotten. Set in WWII, about a rather feeble woman character married to someone in the British Council.
You're always welcome to visit here, and it would indeed be excellent to meet up, wherever :-) I thought I was going to be in Budapest for a whole month to take a TEFL course, but it seems that will be on the back burner for now. If we/I do ever come there then I'll certainly contact you, thank you. (Your husband is right, and I myself also used "haughty" in just such a context, and very wittily too even though I say so myself.) What initially surprised me most about the Hungarians' self-image, though I understand it better now, is their huge matyrdom complex; even regarding their former imperial splendour they complain they were always second best to the Austrians. (Arguably, the Romanians' imperial expansion was just a case of getting lucky...) I find myself here in the very privileged position of being a bridge between the Hungarians (who I also admire) and the Romanians (who I love, being married to them, like). I've been lucky: we have good friends from both communities. My solution to their (very real though thankfully largely non-violent) mutual antipathy is an enforced miscegenation programme, but only on the condition that any offspring are taught both languages. I've never read any Olivia Manning, but I probably should. Another good book (partly) set in Romania is Philip Ó Ceallaigh's Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse.
ReplyDeleteOlivia Manning is a bit wet - I mainly liked the descriptions of Bucharest. Someone said Hungarians are Italians with a German upbringing. They usually react to any plan you may have by telling you how it won't work. They are not always right. I admire them for many reasons but above all because they have mastered their own language, which I love but will never get anywhere with - although i continue to try. As you seem to like the music of the region, take a look at the blog called Dumneauzu, which I've just discovered - it is written by Bob Cohen, who used to write very amusingly as Dork Zygotian and who plays brilliantly and goes off to Moldova to collect music and is generally a wild and interesting guy.
ReplyDeleteAhh, I know Dumneauzu well (at least from his blog) and he is indeed a most excellent chap :-) He trained with a notable gypsy violinist in one of the villages near here and has many great stories to tell. I always had Hungarians down as Finns with a Polish upbringing - in a good way, you understand - whereas Romanians are Turks with an Albanian upbringing - but don't tell them ;-)
ReplyDelete