What made you smile today?

I smiled at a wonderfully awful pun I heard on the radio this morning:
What do you get when you toss a grenade into a french kitchen?
linoleum blown apart.

That is just terrible, JLN!

which accounts for this song, msolga. Love it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZPDZMuUsuY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9weGGDKeJ8

The neighbors on the other side of the block put the wraps on their noisy party
early enough for me to get to sleep. (Either that or someone called the cops.)

Someone's been listening to Click & Clack.

The Tappet Brothers are always good for a smile!

jpb, Come to Austin in September; we're having a meet on the first weekend.

sorry, ci, no can do this year. Have a great time!

Exactly, RJB. Can't put anything past you.

That show is repeated on Sunday mornings at 11 am. I have absolutely no idea why I listen to it. I have no interest in the inner workings of cars. Their humor is lame and their accents are-to me-a bit painful to listen to. But...

My favorite Click and Clack moment ever was when somebody called in to ask them about the meaning of life. Their answer: "You need to lighten up." (Eh... it's funnier if you hear it with their accent.)

***

My smile today was a Thai woman, maybe 45 years old, who sat on the table next to mine at lunch. She was speaking in a heavy Joisey accent. Aren't melting pots wonderful?

At home in Hungary

Woke up pretty late this morning, had a text from N, with whom I was maybe gonna go out into the hills today. Said she was feeling a little shitty and had to figger something out with a camera but could we meet for coffee anyway?

So I took a shower, put on some clothes, blasted some Peter Fox, took a bit of time, went to Barladino. N soon dropped in and sat down next to me, and we had a croque monsieur and a french toast, and we chatted, talked about possible photo projects - camouflage? body paint? urban or nature? - and I asked her if she wanted to go on a trip sometime in August, now that I'm suddenly getting some unexpected money, a proper holidays of sorts, first time in years, -Italy maybe, or Berlin? And she said yeah and we went through a list of destinations and now were gonna go look for cheap plane tickets.

She went on to meet her friend with the camera and I wandered up to the Corinthia Royal coffeehouse. My favourite waitress with whom I always joke about wasnt working but I had a tea and a turos retes, sent some emails about work and called T, who'd also texted me in the morning to ask if I wanted to go to the baths. Now it was 3:30 so she'd already been, but what else did I wanna do, the hills maybe, be outside? Or to the bridge where her friend P was playing in a band?

Bridge it was - cause the Chain Bridge is closed for traffic on Sundays throughout the summer for the tourists and there's all these stalls but also stages on either side with surprisingly cool concerts, Pannonia Allstar Ska Orchestra last night, and now apparently a band P was in, I didnt even know he played in one.

We met there at 4:30 and she said so glad to meet you and hugged me and soon there was another guy we'd met the time before and hey there's Cs too! The band started with much delay, folk music but a strident kind, Hungarian, Gypsy and Jewish. So I danced with Cs and then the girls with each other and the tourists were all amused at us and then we went down to the river so the girls could dip their feet in it.

From there the quest was for langos (fried dough, dont ask) but wandering downtown we came across the WAMP market on Erzsebet Square. It's a monthly market for young designers, clothing toys earrings bags what not. So while they went on to look for langos I split off and nosed through the stuff there.

S was there too, selling her necklaces and bracelets and earrings all made of buttons, business had been brisk enough she said; and that big homeboy with the beard and the booming voice was on the other side just hanging out, and there were absolutely delightful dresses and skirts and of course nothing for men but lots of pretty stuff all. When I went back a second time to look at a skirt that would look great on N, the woman who designed the stuff and was selling said hey we met before didn't we? And I thought, could be, maybe anywhere, but what she meant was that she remembered me being on the market last year too - "you were with two girls" - damn, what a memory.

I caught up with the others at the Szimpla Kert courtyard cafe, which is nice and relaxed still on afternoons, ordered some good $4 lecso to eat and we chatted a bit still, about nothing in particular, in a mix of Hungarian and English.

The night before, when we'd gone to the French festival by the Danube and then, too, ended up by the Chain Bridge because PASO turned out to be playing and afterwards I'd gone to the Mumus courtyard cafe with Cs and then had met up with N in front of Szimpla and ended up with her in the mystery kosher pizzeria that's never open except, apparently, on a random Saturday night after midnight, I'd given T my bicycle keys because I'd left it at the French festival and she was heading Buda-way anyway so she could use it to get home. So now we took a bus up to her place in Buda together so I could pick up my bike.

I went up for a drink and we talked about life and she showed me old photos of her grandparents and herself in school and gave me some homemade jam to take with me - and then I cycled all the way back down - wheee - to Moscow Square and the Danube and I crossed over the Chain Bridge and on the Pest side the last band was still playing on the stage, and it was this insane folk-funk band with a lead singer looking like a mix between Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix but playing the piccolo flute, but he played that flute into funky psychedelia like Hendrix played his guitar, and their fans cheered and a homeless woman danced like on the best party in her life and danced and danced and danced.

It was 10:40 and I wrote A a text to say I was sorry, I wasnt coming up to the garden pub she works in over in the City Park anymore, but soon again ok?, and she wrote back thats fine, and now I'm sitting in Barladino again drinking a limonade, reading some messages from people on Flickr I contacted whom I'm gonna meet in town next week and thinking about how to go about tomorrow, when I'm checking in at the place where I'll be starting my new job in September to listen to a lecture by someone we're working with now, and posting here and on Facebook, and next time I feel down and lonely and abandoned and confused, remind me of this post and tell me to remember how lucky I am.

'K?

K!

Meantime, smiling to myself,

Turos retes = hungarian cheese strudel



Some langos -



Lecso -

RJB, I also am not interested in the inner workings of cars. I think I listen to them just to hear their laughter--it's infectious.

nimh, If I ever get out to Budapest, I want to make sure we get to meet you and some of your friends.

I like their talk with the people with the questions, in general. Haven't listened to them in a while, time to start again.

Mmmmmm! Those langos look a lot like Bavarian Ausgezogene Krapfen usually just known as Auszogene.


Now you've made me homesick, Osso -- grrrr!

frito pie;

Aw, what a nice post!

It made me smile for you and also reminded me to be happy about the community I've built up here (less colorful, less music, but still lots of running into people and chatting and hanging out and being at home, which I absolutely love).