Chapter 28
At Last in School
The greatest day in the boyhood of a child arrived at last. It was Monday, the first school-day, on the previous Friday the opening ceremony took place already. Although my daughter-in-law stayed at home on paid leave, I accompanied them to the school – the same one my son finished his elementary – as I had to go into the bank. This was his very first day in school. As far as my visit of the bank is concerned, it was necessary to transfer a certain sum on to my account for current payments, because the latest gas bill had been refused as there was not enough funds on it. I had been doing a monthly transfer automatically, but as costs had been growing ever higher, there was not enough on it. I also wanted to raise the monthly sum transferred on to it. During the latest months the prices of gas and electricity had been raised arrogantly (assisted by a lot of factors from Mr.Putin’s gas price rise through the increased consumption of China and India to terrorism), thus I couldn’t avoid taking it into account that, although my pension had been raised to double that of the original level during the seven years I had been getting it (I wouldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the original notice of decision, it was so little), at that moment I was still standing at the same point, because my costs were also double high. At the beginning of my pensioner life I had to add about 30 percent to it, and it was the same situation seven years and a lot of pension rise later. When I was thirty years old – or rather young – I wouldn’t believe that at seventy I would have to pull in my belt.
During that year the additional insulation of the roof at the inside was finished and I wanted to conserve the wooden covering of the façade with the appropriate paint. For that I bought a telescopic handle up to 3 m and used up all the old paints remained ten years before after the same operation. Of course I had to buy also new paint as it didn’t cover all. It was good that I did it – only the uppermost one fifth of the surface remained unprotected, even the long handle couldn’t reach over six meters. It remained so and it would be painted during a larger construction work the next year.
Also my son was working diligently. He was at the last stage of the construction of the garage, putting up the slates on the roof. As my daughter-in-law stayed home on paid leave, she could help him a lot. In the afternoon I always changed guard with her when she went to school for the boy and so my son could carry on the work. The large plates of corrugated slate made us work hard. At the same time I was content with the steel structure I designed, it took the load well, with almost no strain. It would also be very fine in the winter under the thick cover of snow.
A bad period followed in the world. The upside down financial transactions in the real estate field (called ‘sub-prime credits’ by understatement) launched a recession surpassed only by the Great Recession seventy nine years before. In my opinion it had been ready to brake out for twenty years. It was an inflated variety of the banzai going on in our country since 1990. As far as the recession was concerned the situation was recognized at last even by those people, who should have to do long before that, because the lever on the global financial management had long been in their hands. I myself began to see things in dark – about the middle of the ‘80s – when junk bonds appeared. For me financial safety has always been a significant thing, no wonder that one of my hands is enough to count how many times I applied for a credit to buy something.
It is silliness that is a fashion nowadays to give credit on almost no personal contribution. It was a solid principle that was the habit with us twenty years (and more) ago: you were able to get a credit on your construction only, if you were able to prove that you had at least such a sum of money either in construction materials or on an account that equalled fifty percent of all costs. I am convinced that the numbers meaning funds in global statistics (this kind of stock, that kind of assembly, etc.) are empty ones in ninety percent. Actual fortune in the world is only one tenth of that included in statistics. Similarly when the same accomplishments are counted many times as different items within the sum of GDP. It will become a kind of cotton candy, it looks large, but is almost empty.
And the other thing, namely what went on here for one and a half a decade – from Antall to the first term of Gyurcsany – had only been a parade of the honorary finches. Those finches thought they had to do only to be there in the cage, to put things in order in the country, it was the job of someone else. And when at last it occurred to one of them that it wasn’t so at all, and began to sing – only not in the finches’ language – there came the outcry, and from then on, we had been allowed to hear the lyrics ‘Gyurcsany clear off!’ at every national holiday. I am convinced, even he wouldn’t recognize the true situation, hadn’t the EU poked him with a stick in his own cage, and that stick was called convergence (to EU rules).
I myself felt the recession too. Not only cost life (gas, light, food) double that it did a year before because of the oil price rise, besides the complementary bonus of the pensioners (13th month pension it was called) became endangered because of the IMF loan. At first an upper limit was determined, with me it was 80 thousand forint, I lost about 40 thousand at the end of the year. I thought actually it was a small price for us to push the country in the good direction. A funny thing again, the leader of the opposition – who had caused ninety percent of all problems with his sabotage/obstruction – commented that it pushed Hungary back by about ten years, he said it set the country equal to Iceland and Ukraine. Did he think really that the king was more naked if it was acknowledged?
Also my daughter-in-law took a hard decision: she left her employer and went to another one that she found some time before, but she couldn’t make up her mind. Her terrible two-shift work ended with it and, although the new place was only a little better, she could spend much more time with her family. Besides, all of her weekends were free.
My grandson was visiting the school diligently and he was excellent in everything where his brain was needed. However, it was his behaviour that caused the problem. He was too lively and – as in the story where the small boy is crying to his father who told him to count the seven rabbits: ‘This one is squirming all the time, I cannot count it!’ – was too hard for the teacher to bear him among the calmer children. They were only scored in their skills in written sentences, but behaviour was noted by colours: the best was red and the worst three light blue, dark blue and black. The boy was rarely getting better than light blue. Once the form master and the afternoon teacher visited our home to speak to the parents, even the school master joined them later. All of them were women.
It went on for a while and then either both teachers recognized that not all children are the same or the boy found lessons more interesting, as there were less dark dots for his behaviour. When the cold weather arrived, he was already an ordinary pupil. This change was beneficiary for him, as I wanted to force him in the good direction by saying that he would get a Christmas gift from me only if he behaved well. I decided long before that he would get the present in every case, but waited until the last day before Christmas arrived and then we went together to the shop and he chose the favourite LEGO set.
The new year also arrived and it brought us the usual problems. Similarly to the welder in the shipyard who had said: “We are in trouble! There is no gas!” (a pun in Hungarian, but it is impossible to translate) we could say the same. It was Mr.Putin who sat in the middle of it, even if the world thought the bad boys were the Ukrainians. Well it was the latter’s dirt, it is true, that they were not paying for something they had used up, but it should have been the business of the two partners, not ours. Ukrainians were guilty also in that issue that they tapped the transit pipe if there was nothing in theirs. But if the Russian chief had arranged it during summer, his two aims would not have been reached. One of these was to deter industrial consumers from gas and route them back to oil in order to drive the price of oil up. Thus he would have more in his pocket. And the other was to prove that Ukraine was an unreliable partner. Then the EU leaders would be keen to nod approval to his two new pipelines (Northern and Southern Currents) that go around Ukraine. Also it would be more difficult for them to stick to Nabucco (another line avoiding Russia) with the Azeri and Turkmen gas. It was all about to make competitors lose and recreate the Great Russian Empire.
In February my grandson took home his first school report. With one exception he got excellent mark in every subject, that one was good. Even his behaviour was rated improving. I hoped it could improve further, and his marks made us all content. For a time I had had a feeling that this boy was very similar to myself in that age. I had always been under the other pupils with my behaviour, if it had had been possible for certain females with a lust for power, they would have made me repeat the first grade. Fortunately, the helm was in the hand of such people who knew that a child is no machine, it is a living creature. I hope that my grandson can get over this problem.
This year closed a door for me that had been good for two years. The recession made people moderate their expenses, also the luxury travel magazine had been stopped I was making translations for. My translating work discontinued. The owner of the website answered on my question that he didn’t need my activity. Well, it lasted so far. Thus I had more free time and started to go on my shipbuilding technical book.
Something happened again in February 2009 that could push the whole world into motion. A visit in the pub ended in tragedy. A young sportsman, a class already in his twenties with a bright future, a foreigner who came to play in the handball team of the town Veszprem, was stabbed to death in the night. The press was not very outspoken, but rumours were spreading. Two of the offenders were captured the same day, although they were in Austria already, but accidentally the third one wasn’t, although he was widely known – poor innocent lamb –, he was believed to have killed two that far, only it had not been proven. It was again the problem I wrote about earlier: it is hard not to outcast a minority, if its members outcast the majority.
It was believed the group was collecting protection money in that Irish Pub, but the girl at the counter was new and didn’t know them. Her cheekbone was broken in an instant, only news didn’t mention it. Allegedly the sportsman wanted to protect her when he got a knife in his kidney. He could still run out together with both his friends, but the second thrust found his heart there. One of his friends was taken to the intensive care, the other only had his head broken. The two wounded young men were Serbs, the victim a Romanian. He was the best man in the team of Veszprem, everyone liked the two metre giant, his name was Marian Cozma. Involuntarily the question were raised in you: wasn’t it possible that the local policemen were somewhat colluded with those criminal circles? Namely, the third – hard to capture – offender had been the leader of the so called ‘Balaton two-hundred’ gang one year before who were collecting money in that region.
To come back to better topics, my grandson took part his first Mardi Gras ball in his school life. He was dressed as a cowboy and my daughter-in-law made quite a few pictures. Alas, flu viruses were not the only problem for his health, the weekly practice in the swimming pool had been making rash on his skin, I had to take him again to the doctor. The first such thing occurred back in December, neither the paediatrician, nor the dermatologist recognized eczema, the latter treated it as a wart. During the holiday season he wasn’t going to the pool, the rash receded, but it appeared again. At last the paediatrician recognized it and the boy had to use three kinds of ointment. Also, he wasn’t allowed to go into the water for a month, I hoped it wouldn’t come back.
That year was not benevolent to our population. When the winter made a new attack in the middle of February, there were blizzards in the western part of the country. Well, skill comes with practice, already it didn’t took a week to raise the felled electric pylons, only two days – not long before there was a similar weather. It was no wonder that it happened, we were shown the accumulated ice as thick as a man’s thigh on the wires. A funny detail: there were debates if the electric supplier was responsible for the spoiled meat in the out-of-order freezers and had to pay damages. The world was changing, people had less common sense than twenty years before. Then it happened to us (caused by a broken down freezer chest instead of snowstorm), we lost no time, the stuff was packed into the boot of our car parked in the garden. It didn’t matter that instead of minus 18
C there was only minus 2 during daytime and 5 in the night. For two months it was our freezer. The meat was fried soon, thus it didn’t do any harm that the rest (mainly red currants) partly melted during day and froze again in the night.
My problems has begun with the car that had been working well until then. I couldn’t get rid of them since. My daughter-in-law had a free day and she took the car for a shopping. Soon she came to me for help. The car wouldn’t start when she finished her business. I thought about the battery, we went there – about one and a half km from home –, it was really flat and we took it home. After five hours of charging I took it back, the battery turned the engine all right, but still it wouldn’t start. Then I checked the carburettor, it was completely dry, even the filter in the pipe looked empty. The nearby service frequented by me towed it in and repaired: the fuel pump broke down and let gasoline flow into the oil. It was a Friday, until Monday they wouldn’t tell me anything. I tried to calm my daughter-in-law that it was not her fault, but a vis major case.
Also the relatively calm period with my expertise ended. I got a letter from the Ministry of Justice that informed me that all the experts of justice would have to renew their permits. I had to fill in a form and send it back to them, together with six different documents (inclusive the original of my diploma, I couldn’t believe my eyes, I didn’t understand, how they even thought of that), and had to take into account that it was compulsory for all experts to pass an examination on basic law (I would be exempt of that because of my 33 years of practice) and besides to take part in a training course two-yearly. Already the check was enclosed as it would not be free of charge. In case I wouldn’t reply I would be excluded from the registry of experts. Well, it came just in time, it had long been my intention to take a tender farewell from them. But I wanted to inform them also about my reasons why I decided so.
My grandson had his saint’s day (it is coinciding with the International Women’s Day) and he got a better monitor for his PC. Also a good board game. I saw a constant development in his behaviour, he could comply much better with others than before. At the same time, and it was not his fault, his grandmother wouldn’t relate to him as a responsible adult, but in such a way, as if the child were the decision maker instead of the adult. It was good that his mother took him to a psychologist a few times, his points in the school were sometimes even good. His records in the school were very good, he was bright, even he was diligent. His cursive writing was positively pretty. I decided that as spring was coming he would get a fine soccer ball from me and I would take him out to the communal soccer field (which was going ever more down, alas).
As far as our national holiday on 15 March is concerned, it could not pass without rampaging also in that year. The true cause of that was that the Godfather called people on the street on 23 October 2006 and those people, who do like rampaging, were keen to go. From that year on it went like that. Fortunately in the year I write about (actually last year) it was not so fierce, as their idol moved the venue of his mass celebration from the inner city up to the castle, to the Disz Square (I began to presume that he wanted to become head of state instead of premier), even he wasn’t telling that the government (it was already the professional one) was to go, but he told the audience that in the next year when there would be a change of government (and that was already certain in the knowledge of the poll data), the country would need a basically new economy instead of crisis management (that had been the aim of forming the professional cabinet).
Although the police in the town where the young sportsman had been killed took into custody three more persons, there must have been something foul, as there was still no suspect for the actual killing. Of course, all the six were of the mentioned minority. About that nobody was speaking, it was widely believed that the truth would never be known, namely, as someone tried to get near it, the concerned document would be made secret for thirty years. As it happened sometimes that TV channels applied for information, they got such copies of the documents where only the subject and the verb was readable, all other text was marked black in them.
My grandson was very good in his school report as before, however, his behaviour improved less than I had expected. At the same time, there are periods when he behaved well. A minor problem was that his form master was a very orderly woman and she was rather critical with him. I continually tried to convince him to get on with her better, as she would have liked to be proud of him because of his fine performance, but she couldn’t, as he was always spoil it with his bad behaviour. I was still hoping that he would calm down later.
As the good weather made us possible to make longer walks in nature I took my grandson with me one Sunday. First he wanted to play soccer with his new ball (alas, although I wanted to buy him a soccer ball as an Easter gift made of leather, nowadays all are plastic). He soon lost interest in soccer and we went walking. Not far from our house at the M5 highway there is a small stream flowing in the direction of the wetlands in Ocsa on the southeast. Although it is a municipal stream it is not so contaminated as you would think. We went there. Already there were frogs, he caught one, but let it go. We didn’t have rubber boots with us as usual when we plan our trip there, he could operate only from the bank. I was afraid that he would fall in, the water was very cold yet, but he avoided such accidents. The excursion made us rather tired.
At last I decided myself to have a part of my house insulated. It began when I saw that on the second house from us work was going to do so. The method involved the gluing of a thick layer of polystyrene foam on the existing wall and covering it with a hard layer of cement and painting. I stopped there and asked them if they would undertake such work on my house. I had long had the intention to do it, but scaffolding made me a headache. Fortunately I had the funds for it still. It would make my gas bill less and also the heat would be more bearable in the summer. The person I was speaking with organized it with his friends and the work could soon start. It would last longer than I thought – and would cost twice as much – as I took advantage of the opportunity to improve the wooden façade too.
That construction work coincided with the second problem with my car. My daughter-in-law wanted to go somewhere, but she found that it wasn’t starting. My attempt to charge the battery was postponed by a silly fault when I wanted to connect it with the opposite polarity. As soon as I got a spare fuse from a shop I charged it, but it wasn’t faulty, however, when I checked the oil it stood high and was very thin. So, again the gasoline got into it. At the service when I took the car to them I was grumbling for the bad work done lately by them, but it wasn’t the matter. The carburettor was in a bad condition, perhaps the casing was cracked. They gave me a new one free of charge as it was a non-current part in stock for ten years. Alas the car wasn’t good even so. However, I put the question away for lack of time and money.