My Life after CELTA

 I visited an old friend today. He's still working for the same company I used to work for 24 years. I woke early in the morning and drove to Budapest. We had a delicious breakfast and a much-needed coffee because I got out of the habit of waking up before the birds. When I returned home, I had some nosh, drank a coffee, and started putting together the next lesson plan before working in the kitchen. When Ági finished her lesson, I started my shift in the kitchen. I had to sand the walls, clean up the mess, apply the pre-paint liquid, and wash the tiles on the wall and the floor. It took me three hours to complete it. I'll start painting tomorrow morning. According to the user manual, I have to cover the tiles before painting two layers to cover all the patches and the traces of spackling paste. I plan to complete it in the morning; thus, I'll have plenty of time to prepare for the Saturday lesson with Ági and Roya. The weekend will be equally busy because the guy who had p...

I had my first class today with a new student. She is a beginner, although she used to learn English by using Duolingo and another application on her phone. I hope she enjoyed our first lesson. Other than my teaching, I continued my DIY frenzy. I had to sandpaper the walls, but even though the masons had applied the spackling paste, I had to do it again today. The uneven surfaces, little cracks and dents were smiling at me, so I had to do something about them. It took me almost four hours to complete the spackling paste application and clean the kitchen. I also had to cover the tiles with a plastic sheet to protect them from the falling paste, liquid and paint. If I could go back to when I was sixteen or eighteen years old and choose a profession, I would opt for a vocation from the blue-collar niche. The weather has changed. The highest temperature was around +22°C today, which is cold compared to what we had to suffer from the day before yesterday. Despite the overcast sky, there was...

What can I say? The DIY episode continued today. I had to apply some spackling paste to the walls. I thought I could complete it quickly, but I couldn't have been more wrong. It went rather slowly. A retired sloth could have done it faster. Actually, my body hasn't recuperated from yesterday's excessive exposure to both the elements - digging at +37°C for hours - and the unusual work, digging. The blisters on the thumb of my left hand and the palm of my right hand prove my ordeal. My arms felt heavy, and my legs wouldn't obey. I still completed the task but was sweating by the end like a racing horse in the derby. Since we don't have a kitchen yet, we ate out. The drive to Burger King was okay, but the menu, however delicious, couldn't agree with my stomach. My system began protesting against more junk food. Nevertheless, we don't have many options. What the local buffets offer might not be compatible with our delicate digestive system, not to mention the pr...

The DIY session officially began. The corner of the house - which had been corrected two years ago - started to show signs of soaking. After the rain, there were wet patches on the inner wall, the undeniable evidence of water trying to find its way into the house. With this in mind, I started digging this morning. I wanted to make a trench and see how things were underneath the soil. To my horror, the front side of the wall was the culprit. More precisely, the cracked concrete leaked water, hence the soaking. After shovelling for one and a half hours, I showered,  jumped in the car and hurried to the craftsman store to buy a special liquid that could prevent further soaking. I spent the afternoon digging because the trench wasn't wide enough to cover it with a waterproof layer. As the problem revealed itself, it was clear that it was much bigger than I could have handled, so I decided to wait for the masons and ask for help. They came at five p.m., completed the kitchen, and looked...

"Stiffer upper lip!" is today's motto. The weather's been incredible lately. Even though we haven't experienced anything similar to the southern European inclement weather (forest fires, never-before-seen heat waves), the extreme heat we need to face makes life difficult. Once the AC units cool off the air in the house in the evening, the radiating heat warms it up by the morning. The thermometer showed +27°C in the attic this morning. No wonder I slept like a restless sloth. However, the weather forecast predicts a colder period. According to the latest prognosis, Tuesday will bring a storm with gale-force wind and, most probably, hail. I'd love to have a word with the climate-change deniers. As for the kitchen renovation, this morning, I was ready and set to apply the pre-painting liquid to the walls, but my zeal ended after trying to re-apply the plastic cover on the door. As I removed the tape that glued it to the wall, it tore some parts of the wall, more...

After a short night's sleep, we woke up early. No sooner had we finished devouring breakfast than the masons arrived and continued the kitchen renovation. They had to smooth and tile the walls. The kitchen is still a mess, but this is a good mess, as we can imagine now how it will be when they finish it.  The weather is shite. It's still warm outside; the highest temperature was around 36-37°C and +31-32°C inside the house. We were sweating like pigs on ice. Switching on the AC units was not an option because the window was wide open while the mason was working in the kitchen. Anyway, despite the anticipated result and what it entails, we are exhausted. Tomorrow, I have to grind some parts of the walls and apply a special pre-painting liquid to them. I might paint the kitchen on Monday morning though.

We are knackered. We spent the day running about and buying things for the kitchen renovation, preparing the kitchen for the masons, dealing with the carpenter and the masons, and, as a final accord, we went to buy some other goods they needed. To top it off, the weather is still terrible. The highest temperature was +34°C, which is not exceptionally high; however, the nights are warm, too, and the walls radiate the absorbed heat, making the house a Finnish sauna-mad house. According to the weather forecast, the next four days will be even warmer, so we must prepare for +37-38C. Our bodies start showing symptoms we haven't experienced yet, so the heat is hard on everyone's body. The masons will come tomorrow early in the morning to complete the tiling and the walls. That will be another exhausting day. 

I went to IKEA this morning. After waking up and devouring breakfast, I drank the much-needed coffee, jumped in the car, and drove to buy some necessary goods. Since the old kitchen extractor hood broke down, we had to buy another one. When I was on the road, it was already hot, +29°C at 10 a.m. The afternoon brought +34°C, and according to the weather forecast, the next few days will be equally warm. They issued the highest alert possible, the red. Ági has always been a summer girl; she used to love the high temperatures. However, this is too much for her, too. Our systems show symptoms of tiredness from the excessive heat that lasted that long. The temperatures have been high for weeks, and the occasional drops were short-lived relieves. It's still not as dire over here as in the southern part of Europe, where the raging heat waves have been scorching the land, not to mention the frightening forest fires that destroyed unimaginably huge areas. Moreover, some of these fires were c...

We spent the night half awake. I was rolling in bed till 3 a.m., and Ági went to the living room at 3:30 a.m. This heatwave is killing us. The attic is like a sauna. Even though the AC was on yesterday evening, it couldn't cool off the walls and the wooden ceiling properly. And since the house is south-oriented, the front side gets sunshine early in the morning, the side wall facing south from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m., and the western side of the house is lit by the sun in the evening. No wonder we feel like we are in a furnace. The walls emanate the heat 24/7. And despite the promised cold front entering the country next Monday, the walls will radiate the heat like hell for weeks. I want to live in Iceland! I went to procure some goods today. I almost bought the LED lamp for the kitchen and got the necessary tubes and accessories for the kitchen ventilation. We phoned the carpenter to discuss the repair of the kitchen counter. I called the masons and the roof guy, too, but they didn...

Due to yesterday's ordeal, we had to take a day off. After waking up and realising how wretched the house was, we reluctantly took Abby for her morning walk, combined with my bun procurement. It was already hot outside, and as the temperature ascended, our spirit descended. When we dragged ourselves home - including Abby, who was walking with her tongue sweeping the pavement - all we could think was getting out of the house. As the kitchen revamping included renewing all our old lamps, we decided to check what LED kitchen lamps were available at IKEA. What a brilliant escape plan! It's cunning but not devious, yet simple and genius. It was a brilliant reason to leave the house behind, and it didn't give the impression of doing something in vain. We arrived at the store far too early, even though we washed the car after the Austrian trip, so instead of waiting like two confused pensioners waiting for a free meal, we checked the department store next to IKEA. We went to a boo...

The dream is over. The grim and sobering reality made us realise how quickly our Austrian revels made their way to our brains' photo album. And even though the memories are fresh, the upheaval we experience today makes them fade even faster.  Yesterday Ági spent the whole day emptying the shelves in the kitchen so that the electricians and the plumbers could start the renovation work. She worked diligently like an assiduous hamster preparing for autumn and winter. After waking up, taking the cars to the public parking lot, and buying some food for breakfast, the guys arrived early in the morning as agreed. They started working at 8 a.m. The plumbers finished at 11:40 a.m., and the electricians are still hammering and wiring, even though it's 3:45 p.m. The plan is to revamp the kitchen, so we need to call the masons to varnish and tile the wall behind the counter and the stove, the plumbers to connect the appliances to the water system, and the electricians to install the necess...

It is a tad difficult to jot down my thoughts. Not only because my wee mind tends to flood my head with a giant swirl of a cacophonic mixture of thoughts, memories, and experiences, but also for the fact, that it is always challenging to write a comparison of two countries unbiasedly. I love Hungary. Its history, however grim it might sometimes be, covers 1100 years with battles, intricacies, and terrible deeds. Although I'm not a linguist, I love the Hungarian language, its unique rules, weird grammatical structures, and vocabulary. Not to mention the Hungarian writers who wield the words masterfully. The culinary delights one can revel in can genuinely make anyone drooling. And despite the poverty and the fact that people tend to accept their fate, even if the conditions are subpar, without feeling motivated or inclined to change their plight because they had given up hope or had never had any opportunity to break out from poverty, I love Hungary. I'm not arguing with those w...

Today is St. Stephen's Day when we celebrate the foundation of the Hungarian State. It's a big do. There is the Festival of Folk Arts, Bred Blessing ceremony, and various parades on and above the river Danube carried out by the Hungarian army during the day. And at 9 p.m., this splendid firework is in the middle of the capital, visited by hundreds of thousands of people. We are fortunate enough to live where we can see the firework from the attic window. And above us, local residents gather to watch the firework on the dog-walking hill. It is a breathtaking national holiday. Many other locations offer various programs for kids and adults - this latter sounded like being in an enormous swinger club - and the streets are brimming with food stalls and other little restaurants that offer a wide range of menus consisting of the most typical Hungarian dishes. It must be fascinating for those who love crowds and don't mind being in the hustle and bustle. We never liked being that ...

Neither of us had a good night's sleep. We went to bed early yesterday, but despite feeling exhausted after giving Ági a foot massage, my wee mind felt like being on a roller-coaster when she gave me a foot massage. I first felt this strong pull that something wanted to pull me down to the realm of dreams, but after twenty minutes, something happened. I felt increasingly awake, and it soon became evident that I was on the perfect wake-up wave. By the time Ági finished the massage, my eyes were wide open. I was rolling in bed for another thirty minutes but fell asleep eventually. We both woke up several times during the night, and the early morning alarm was the icing on the cake. With puffed eyes and disoriented steps, we went to the restaurant for breakfast, which was superb. Once we finished our last culinary revels, we returned to our room, packed our things, hauled the bags down to the car, and we hit the road. However, despite the caffeine, our thoughts lingered around our Aus...

We woke up at 5:45 a.m. after a relatively good night's sleep. Hauling ourselves to the restaurant for breakfast seemed like a two-week-long journey. But we made it eventually and had a delicious meal. The food quality and the selection on offer are out of this world. When we finished our early morning culinary revels, we jumped in the car and drove to Parndorf. Our early morning ride was because we wanted to avoid the Saturday craziness there. It seemed a wise decision. Although the place was brimming with locals and tourists, we bought some staple food and other necessary items. Nevertheless, by the end of the round, we were exhausted by many people. Anyway, with the goods in our trunk, we drove back to the hotel to unpack. After unloading the goods, we drove to where we'd eaten yesterday. We ordered the same food and were over the moon after the dishes. We then returned to the hotel, and after a short break, we drove to the Laxemburger Schlosspark, where we spent one and a h...

After waking up, we went downstairs to have another perfect breakfast; and it was perfect. The selection and quality of food on offer is baffling, and the staff is top-notch superb. We got to know a Hungarian guy who is a real professional. He walked up and down the venue, checking the details and clearing the tables once a guest finished eating. He asked us whether we had any extra requests besides what they offered for breakfast. We then asked him what was worth visiting, and he was willing to help us make a perfect plan for the day. He recommended visiting Baden, a small spa town 26 kilometres from Vienna, and checking a local restaurant - here it is called Heuriger - if we wanted to have a traditional Wiener Schnitzer made of calf. We jumped at the suggestions, so after breakfast, we jumped in the car and drove to "SCS" to buy some goods. We headed for the car with goods in our bags, but instead of continuing our trip to Baden, my bowels decided otherwise, so we left the...

Our revels have continued today. We went to buy some goods in the shopping mall after devouring breakfast, which was phenomenal. We spent two hours there and even visited IKEA, but eventually came out empty-handed. After returning to the hotel unpacking the goods, and shaving my derelict face, we jumped in the car and drove to the "Hundertwasser Haus" and the "Freud Museum" in Vienna. The Hundertwasser Haus was different from what I'd expected. Naturally, it was interesting and unusual, but I didn't feel any cathartic sensation seeing the building. I enjoyed the little shops and the "Flea Market", though. Continuing our visit to the city, we went to the Freud Museum, which was an exciting experience. Being there reminded us of certain parts of Budapest, particularly the fifth and sixth districts, which have similar style edifices. The museum wasn't too busy, but the visitors often seemed to have forgotten their best manners at home. Their demea...

We drove to Oslip today to buy some wine. We spent a long weekend at the winery three years ago and enjoyed the guest house and the wine there. Returning to the hotel with the twelve bottles of wine in the boot, we opted for the scenic route instead of the highway, and it was a wise choice. We crossed a small hill, then small villages, and finally, we arrived at the hotel using roads the locals wouldn't use. After spending five minutes in the room, we drove to Vienna. We had coffee at Aida: Ági had an iced coffee, and I grabbed a ristretto and a Mozart cake. Then we strolled in the city and visited a public garden and a museum. The exhibition couldn't excite us. It was about sci-fi and indigenous things, but we both found it painfully dull. We then crossed another park to get back to the car and returned to the hotel eventually. The weather is warm. The highest temperature was +32°C, and the next days will be equally hot, which is good news since it is much better to have a sum...

We are in Austria. After waking up and devouring breakfast, Ági took Abby to the dog daycare, and I packed my things for the journey. We set out at eleven o'clock, washed the car, and hit the road to get here. The highway was busy, so it took us three hours to reach Parndorf, where we had lunch at Nordsee and drank coffee at Tommy Hilfiger. We did some shopping, only bought the necessary goods and left for the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 4 p.m., checked in, and drove off to another shopping centre to buy other goods we couldn't find in Parndorf. The hotel is quite nice from the inside. However, the facade and the overall look from the outside seem rather outdated; we felt like being in one of Budapest's hotels. Anyway, the staff is alright, the room is clean, and the view is breathtaking. Since tomorrow is a national holiday here, we'll visit a winemaker in Oslip to buy quality wine - Passatutti. We planned to have "Wiener Schnitzel" there and spend the ...

Österreich, wir kommen!  One more night, and we travel to Austria. Despite waiting for this holiday to celebrate many things - our 25th wedding anniversary, Ági's habilitation, my CELTA certificate, etc. - we have mixed feelings about the whole journey. We do not have mixed feelings about whether we should travel or not. It's more about the fact that we have to take the dog to daycare for six days. I know it might sound silly or overprotective, but the truth is, we love this little rascal dearly and will miss her terribly. The rearranging project came to an end on my part. Ági was somewhat active today. She selected the must-go items from the kitchen and carried them down to the pile of garbage we wanted to get rid of. Now my office looks like a rubbish collector's living room. I can hardly wait for the day they hauling them to the landfill. As for my English studies: I asked BING to create five random sentences at the C1 level that I had to rephrase at the C2 level. Althou...

Apart from some worthless minor tasks, we didn't do anything on the rearrangement project today. We weren't in the mood to continue the "job"; more precisely, the Jedi abandoned us, and the force wasn't with us. After waking up, the signs of exhaustion were tangible, and our faces accurately reflected our condition: the elongated jaws imaged us sleeping with teeny-tiny eyelids, and our frightened-sloth-like movements resembled that of the residents participating in the nursery home's snail-collecting championship. Realising how wretched our physical state was, we decided to skip the hard labour today and continue it tomorrow. After all, there is still a whole day before travelling to Austria. I'll miss Abby terribly. I wasn't sure I'd write this down, but I'll miss her. Since we ditched the physical toil, I prepared the lesson for today for Ági and Roya. I thought reviewing would be a good idea, so I put together some pieces from our previous l...

The rearrangement project has yet to come to an end. I worked a lot today to get it done, but there were far too many objects to move around to be able to finish it. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and despite the seemingly stagnant progress, we could rearrange the furniture structure in the basement. Several unnecessary items were selected today, so the pile we had made yesterday got even bigger. Anyway, we can finish the basement successfully tomorrow, so we can travel to Austria on Monday without lingering thoughts about how much work awaits us after the holiday. Nevertheless, I'm exhausted. It took me six hours today to move the objects around, and right now, my body is screaming for some rest. As for the holiday in Austria: we are looking forward to it, and although we know Abby will be in good hands, we will miss her terribly. She will spend five nights at the dog sitter, which will also be challenging for her and us. Well, this is it for today. I'll call it a d...

We worked like busy bees today. After waking up and devouring the usual breakfast - not to mention the much-needed coffee - the move-things-rapidly project began. We were running about in the house like two lunatic hamsters, and the fact that we climbed 31 floors today showed how active our day was, resulting in two new offices. We are exhausted. The wasps, more precisely the hornets, are history. The exterminator came today, and it took him twenty minutes to wipe out the colony. The hornets dug deep into the roof, creating a vast nest. But, eventually, they met their fate. We hope they won't come back. Nevertheless, we must be careful and ensure they won't be able to nest once again. Well, this is it for today; I'll call it a day and hit the hay.

Today was quite eventful. After waking up - by the way, my nights are better in the cold bedroom, but there is still room for improvement in this segment of my insignificant life - and devouring breakfast with the much-needed coffee, I went down to my new office to continue to separate the needed goods from the not-needed goods. Fortunately, Ági came down to help me, so the two-and-a-half hours we spent there were worth our efforts. My office still looks like a mess, but it is an organised mess this time. Anyway, four more days before our holiday, there is plenty of time to progress and achieve what we want to accomplish. The wasps that found refuge under our roof feel tickety-boo. The guy, who was supposed to come today to exterminate these uninvited guests, didn't show up. He wasn't even concerned about letting us know whether he would deign to visit us for a displeasingly considerable amount of money. The price - 200 euros - he asked for the job that takes no longer than 45 ...

There is nothing wrong with Ági's eyes! What a great relief! We were a tad anxious today and the previous days, if I'm being honest, but this is hardly surprising. Vision is essential, and I'm sorry for those who were born blind or lost their sight. Despite my work today, the progress in revamping the basement is insignificant. I'm not worried about not being able to finish the project in time; the magnitude of the task makes me a tad on the edge. Other than that, I'm okay with moving to the basement. The weather is interesting. We woke up to an early October morning, spent an early April day, and experienced a late September evening. What a silly weather this is! Moreover, the weather forecast predicts +33°C for next week - which is great while in Austria. As for my English studies, I completed my homework. And this is all I'd done today because the basement tasks and the visit to the ophthalmologist took a great deal of time from the day. I don't mind them...

The show must go on. The mouldy Walls seemed the same after spraying them with an anti-mould solution, so I had to deploy something stronger. It took me almost two hours to clean up the mess generated by the intervention yesterday, apply a new layer of anti-mould spray on the walls, and thoroughly ventilate the premises. My throat was full of that strong chlorine-based chemical for hours. Eating Ági's pizza felt like being in a swimming pool - especially the one when I was a kid, whose water was snow-white from the excessive amount of chlorine they used to disinfect the pool. Anyway, I took Ági to her hair-dresser, and then I went to buy some goods I needed to revamp the basement office. On the way home, I stopped at the supermarket to buy goods for the rest of the week to get by till our holiday in Austria. But till then, there is a lot to do: Tomorrow Check the walls and if they are dry, putting back my desk and the sofa to their places. Separating the essential and the throw-awa...

We wanted to stick to the plan we had devised yesterday: driving to the craftsman shop to buy adhesive tape to glue together the backside of the wardrobe and something against mould in the wall behind the desk in the basement and continue with our moving project. However, after returning home, the latest discovery inhibited the process: we detected some water leakage in the basement. I wasn't too happy about it. So after batting ideas around, we decided to buy another dehumidifier. When we finished Ági's most delicious pizza, we jumped in the car and drove to another craftsman store to buy another dehumidifier. With the gadget in the car, we drove back home with a huge, strained smile, which eventually turned into a weird grimace. Anyway, I gave Ági a foot massage, then prepared some food before bulking down to the tedious de-moulding process. To cut a long story short, I moved the furniture and other items, sprayed the walls with the thing, and thoroughly vented the basement. ...

It was raining during the night, which made the air unbearably humid. By the time we woke up, the and had already resembled a rain forest. Merely sitting and watching silly youtube videos made us sweat, so when else did we decide to change offices than today? At 9 a.m. sharp, we began to remove our belongings from our offices, and the rest of the day was brimming with walking up and down the stairs carrying books and furniture. After lunch, we nodded off for thirty minutes, but the moving started over when we came to and drank an espresso. I admit I'm a sweaty guy, but today's experience was unique. The sheer thought of carrying another batch of something ignited the sweat glands, and while shuffling up and down, it became even worse. There is no need to go to a sauna... The weather is changing. It is getting rainy and colder. According to the weather forecast, the maximum temperature on Monday will only be +20°C. I don't mind a bit of foretaste of autumn, and it's the ...

We sold the bikes for a reasonable price. They called us from the shop, and since the amount they offered for the bicycles was within the price range we had thought the bikes would sell, we made a deal. Bye-bye-bikes! This piece of news compensated me for the not-so-good night's sleep. I woke up twice. Anyway, with the money in my pocket, we returned home, and Ági had a class, and I finalised the Saturday class lesson plan. Although it doesn't contain over-complicated tasks, the synonym-finding part is quite challenging, so to be on the safe side, I checked every possible synonym. The rest of the day passed quite quickly. Apart from the normal schedule - lunch, foot massage, dog walking - nothing else happened. Despite the high temperatures, the weather is getting worse. The morning was okay until 2 p.m., then the wind picked up, and the temperature started to ascend, which made the air so humid that even sitting and doing nothing made us sweat. According to the weather forecas...

Unsere Gedanken sind in Österreich momentan. We look forward to our first holiday in 25 years starting on the 14. 08. 2023. Well, not the first vacation, obviously, but the first without any hindering relatives or remodelling/repainting/revamping the house. The plan is to spend six days in Wien as our Headquarters and randomly visit neighbouring cities. We'll see how things pan out because Vienna is a bustling city with many touristy places, so we might only drive to the city centre and take long walks there. My English study consisted of planning the next class and correcting errors with ChatGPT. First, I finalised the plan, enhanced the tasks, and tailored the smooth transition from checking the homework to the actual lesson. I enjoyed it. After I asked ChatGPT to provide me with random sentences containing various mistakes, I had to detect and correct them. It went well, and I was pleased with my performance, apart from one tiny mistake. The weather has changed. The morning was ...

Needless to say, how my night was; therefore, it is much easier to focus on what during the wake hours happened.  After finishing the delicious breakfast and gulping the much-needed coffee, I went to study. Today I asked ChatGPT to assist me in error correction. It gave me five random sentences containing various mistakes at the B1, B2, and C1 levels each and waited for my input. It then checked the sentences I failed to correct and explained what went wrong and what I should have to rectify. It went well, and I was pleased with myself, for I spotted every error ChatGPT hid in the sentences. Today I was responsible for lunch, so I prepared a delicious spaghetti with tuna. While devouring the nosh, we watched another episode of Doctor House, which we enjoyed. When I drank another coffee, it dawned on me that I had to prepare for the Saturday class lesson, so as soon as the last sip of coffee found its way into my system, I grabbed the book and started planning the lesson. It's still...

The interrupted sleeping cycle is the new norm. I wasn't planning to wake up, but it seemed it wasn't up to me. Still, sleeping like a log and waking up only when the alarm goes off would be lovely. Let's not dwell on the past and focus on the rest of the day; what happened, happened. Charlette's lesson was excellent. We discussed the possible ways of improving my writing and the steps required to enhance my style. After finishing the class, which I enjoyed tremendously, we went on a 4k walk before the storm. After returning home, Ági prepared fries, which we devoured while watching another episode of Doctor House.  I drank a small beer afterwards, numbing my already numb brain. I'm a bit tipsy, which is a rather economical way of "relaxing". I hope this small portion of alcohol will help me fall asleep and sleep through the night. Fingers crossed. However, I don't have high hopes, so judging by the previous days' nights, I'll most probably wak...