An unstoppable force meets an unmovable object

First I had to come up with all sorts of excuses to go for interviews with a small company called Sunday for a Deputy Editor position on Toyota magazine and another interior decoration title, too. But that wasn't really the painful part. What has been much more painful is actually being offered the job! On the 7th December I got a call from Ollie, who will be my new boss, to offer me a position I had really no idea I was ever good enough to get, and I had to anounce it to Lucy, who also happens to be pregnant, and Ollie's friend of 10 years... I actually could not tell her. I had to wait for the 8th. When I finally did tell her, she was great about it, as I knew she would be, but the management wasn't and they tried to ask me to stay by counteroffering and using all sorts of emotional bait. I decided to stand firm though, and as of the 15th January, I will be in a new job in an office that is a 5 minute cycle away from my house! I have no idea if I can actually do the job, but that's another story...

The reason I rushed to tell Lucy on the 8th was not because I needed to get it out though. It's because I was leaving that day for a long weekend in Budapest and needed to get it done before I left. The fact that our weekend in Budapest was therefore a celebration of our anniversary (2 years!), my birthday, xmas and a new job made it even better than it was ever going to be. We stayed in 'international hoteland' as Krusty called it, where everything is 4 star standard, the staff speak English and the drinks cost 10 times what they do in town, but it was a lastminute.com deal that turned out to be very good value for money so I didn't mind. Especially as they had three hot spring spa baths downstairs to come back to after a long day walking in the cold...

We first saw the Buda castle, where Stephen Fry just happened to be walking around too. I didn't take any pictures of him though, because I now know how it feels to be papped: turns out I am famous in Hungary! As we crossed the Chain bridge, as we walked to the Gresham hotel, we had a strange feeling of being followed. And indeed there was always someone behind us, or another popping out of the bushes with a camera... Our waiter at the Gresham lounge changed
every few minutes so that every one of them could get a look at... I don't know who. Everyone stared at me, it was a very strange feeling. At first I was flattered, but then I kept thinking, 'what if I am famous for taking my knickers off on reality TV?!'

The one place where we were left alone though, were the szechenyi baths, where despite freezing temperatures we were running around outside in our swimming costumes from hot spring to hot spring... The baths are amazing, a real labyrinth of treatments with little pools at 38 degrees and bogger ones at 28, tiny ones made for plunging the head underwater and huge
ones where the salt levels are so high that you can just let yourself float around until you hit the chess boards, where little old men meet everyday to keep up their playing levels. Of course Krusty could not resist a little game, and although one of the rare English-speaking users of the pool told him it was 'useless to try, they never let tourists play', he waited in line for nearly an hour and then we couldn't get him to leave! At last he had found an adversary worth playing against, in his underwear.

So the trip went on, with many fascinating discoveries and appreciations of the art deco architecture and gypsy culture, until we had to leave at last. The next few days were a whirlwind of Xmas parties, birthday parties and leaving parties.

Now my holiday in France is nearly at its end, I have seen Berthe (my great grandmother, 99 years old), Jacqueline, her daughter (my grandmother, 79 years old), Jean-Francois, Jacqueline's son (my uncle, 53 years old), Audrey, his daughter (my cousin, 27 years old) and her daughter Lana (nearly one), all of the generations of the family that put life's little obstacles into perspective. I bet Berthe never worried about whether she was making the right career move... I'll try to remember that as soon as I get back to London and start being the stressed out city girl I seemed to have turned into recently.

Until then, I leave you to answer the call of tournedos coming from my mother's kitchen, an offer I simply can't refuse.

Oh and by the way, merry xmas everyone! x

* If you would like to see photos of Budapest, go to http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=17v44gp5.87j511hp&x=0&y=-6oeoma and click View Photos *