Random sentences - Since January I've changed my lifestyle. - Since January I've been cutting out sugar. - I've been taking more exercise for two months. - I swear by getting up early. - I swear by Aspirin as a cure for a cold. - Before my work I had been at home with my children five years long. - On Sundays we go to church. - Back when I went to school, I was spending 3 hours a day commuting. - I don't really have time for listening to music any more.

My conference diet When I travel abroad because of an international conference, my institute pays me daily allowance. In such cases, most of the time I eat very little in order to save a little money. If I followed the rules, I would use the shared kitchen instead of my hotel room, but I'm not social enough for this. Last time, bounding for home back, when I arrived at the station, I wanted at last to eat a "normal" lunch, but the train reached the station too early, so I had to throw out the rest. Fortunately, these events do not take long, otherwise I would lose some weight.

Random thoughts 1 - Yesterday evening I took down our Christmas tree because of its falling leaves. I put the ornaments and the lights back into a box. - What you said gave me food for thought. But I also have my fair share of obstacles. I am not able to react on a fly right now. - Don't believe that he is lazy. Take my word for it, he works extremely hard! - Take my word for it, he isn't the same man as he was before. He is completely changed. He helps me a lot and I'm very thankful for him for everything he does for the children. I think I must go back to my work...

My first notebook in English I think that I work better if I jot down everything I've done, so I decided to keep a notebook. Since I work not only in my workplace, but also at home, I write this notebook on my computer in a file, and upload it in a cloud so that I can continue my work, wherever I am. First I tried to write in Hungarian, but my editor (TeXmaker) had encoding-problems with the special Hungarian characters. It is, although, not a problem if I try to write everything in English... The structure of my notebook will be the following: I try to register all steps on a daily basis, so every sections mean a single workday. As I have more projects simultaneously, the different ones will be indicated in different subsections. I mean "all steps" literally: my greatest enemy is oblivescence, so if I want to keep all my tasks up to date, I must jot down not only what happened or what I read in an article, but even the different file-operations also (copying, renaming, etc.). It helps me a lot, when a few days drop out, and try to seek in the directories, or try to guess, what boots the files to. Pull for me that my English records will be more and more better!

Problems on the roads I was on my way home some days back. Our street is not too narrow, but on it's one side there were cars parking. I drove on the other side, so I would have had priority, but a black car didn't give me the right-off way. I tried to avoid it, but my right-first wheel were hit by the curb. I pulled in to see what happened. The wheel trim got all scratched, and the tyre started to get down. Luckily I could drove off and reach my home, but half hour later it was totally down. We used the spare wheel during the next few days.

Being out of petrol There was a problem on our way home yesterday afternoon. Our car started to slow down at a very busy part of the road. The fuel tank was almost empty. Fortunately, we could overcome the last uphill and roll down on the slope to the filling station, but the car broke down right next to it. I didn't stand a chance of turning into the station. I had to call for the petrol station attendant to help me. After the refueling everything was back on the track, I could drive off again. I should always take care not to be out of petrol.

Moving an other flat We moved an other flat three months ago. It is not too far from the previous one, but it is much more convenient and the neighborhood is much more silent. It is a department house with 12 flats. I liked the previous flat very much, but the distribution of the rooms was no longer good for us, because, for example all rooms opened from the living-room. The new one is much better in this point of view. If it is necessary, children and parents can separate more easily, we can at least see guests, and at least my husband (and sometimes me) has an own working-room. Despite its northern orientation, the flat is relatively light. There is fantastic view from the windows of the living- and working-room to the hills of Buda (the western, hilly part of Budapest). The forest is only 3 minutes walk from here - OK, it takes 20 minutes walk to reach the nearest bus line, but I think it is worth.

I would like to learn German too... I must have been about two years old when I was in Vienna first time. I visited my grandparents. I am not of German origin, they moved there in the early '70s, when my grandfather were the head of the Finno-Ugristic department at the Vienna University. So it was no question, that my first foreign language I learnt in the elementary school was German. Initially, I lagged far behind my classmates, despite the extracurricular courses I made, but now, years later I've decided to learn it again. My uncle lives there, and I'm ashamed not to be able to speak with his wife in German.

Gardening My neighbour and I did a spot of gardening at the weekend. I promised to help her a little to grow some flowers. She is a keen gardener, but I don't have green fingers. I didn't enjoy it at all. My hands got all scratched and I don't like getting them dirty. I like being in the fresh air, but rather hiking in the near forest. I know that gardening makes many people happier, and it can be that if I had an own garden once, I also would get to like it.