Messages

kamehameha

Lilian Calmejane (French cyclist)

Farewell

Fart

Well, I had thought the World Cup will re-raise my interest in football, but it didn't happen... In the past 15 years, I had seen a lot of things happening. I can observe the chance of a match being fixed in every match. The role of money and player neutralization reached extreme high levels. My bet was France as champions and Mbappé as golden boot winner, but these were rather anticipated instead of being technically explained.

I still prefer to watch ice hockey, alpine skiing, ski jumping, road cycling, or if these are not available, handball, biathlon, nordic combined, car racing or sometimes even water polo, volleyball, futsal, basketball instead of football...

I forgot Kahdra, my wife... I also made her a Stunts driver.

Maybe. More chance if some old WSM participants turn up, too.

I've never been to the Netherlands, not counting an autobus transit (1994, to GB and back, around Maastricht) and an airport transfer (2018, to GB and back, Schiphol Airport). So that is favourable. Spring is O.K., too.

However, it would be a bit expensive. With Flixbus, the return ticket would cost around 60 000-80 000 HUF from Budapest, per capita. (1 EUR=405-410 HUF, average Hungarian salary is around 250 000 HUF I guess). By car, it would cost around 200 000 HUF gasoline+highway tolls, not counting two transit accomodation in Czech Republic/Germany. More people sit in my car, less it costs per capita. I guess flying would cost somewhere between travelling by bus or car.

So let it stay: maybe.

Böbszlee, Akoss Poo, Usrin, Lupuszka, Kahdra, Zak McKracken, Umberto Ácsó, Bonzai Joe, Dinmor, JTK, KHR, Lise...

Keeping aside family pipsqueaks (Manowar, Eddie Brother, La Popis) I met Paleke, Goyo, Gutix and Lukas. I thought the list was larger.

Drivers I have known before becoming a Stunts driver:

Family: Lupuszka (I made her a Stunts driver).
Former classmates: CTG, Usrin.

Drivers I met during Stunts meetings:
2003: Zak McKracken (and dunno who of him, friends, girlfriend, relatives... some of them participated in the competition)
2004: KHR, JTK, Bonzai Joe, Dinmor
2005: Aignur, Krys Toff, Diesel Joe
2006: Lised

Other drivers:
-Szabee, a friend from the University, I made him a Stunts driver for one race.
-Böbszlee, around 2014-15.
Other interesting fact: I heard Gutix playing HammerFall's Dreamland's intro guitar riffs online.

There is a huge difference between winning a single fixed match and being the surprise team of the tournament.

The eponymous of the famous Okány Driving Style celebrates his 40th birthday today. 

We are getting old!

The eponymous of the famous Okány Driving Style celebrates his 40th birthday today. 

We are getting old!

It is still Okány-Style Driving, as it was originally labelled ~25 years ago.

Present state of my coin collection:

I'm keeping three coins (Argentinian 1 peso, Omani 50 baisa and 25 baisa) for your collection.

Oh! A peso? Thanks! Can't wait to feel it in my hands!

Sometimes I also forget about the baisas.

(Then 42 currencies of countries instead of 40.)

Omain, Argentinian and Saudi Arabian coins have arrived to my collection. Half a Cypriot pound was also added to it. I also have some new coins from Jordan and Israel.

In the meantime, I've noticed that I have Slovenian and Russian coins in my collection, too. I've identified my oldest coin (from 1800), it is a 1 Austrian kreuzer coin.

And partly genetics. Latino people are really good at football. Chinese people will never be on that level. Just like Europeans (and South Americans) will never touch the table tennis ball like them. It is their sport. And none of us will run like Kenyan and Ethiopian runners.

I don't think genetics has an effect as large as culture. In Italy most kids will be exposed to football, many to volleyball and skying, a good number to track and field events. It took me 25 years to see a table tennis table, and running any long distances is a pain with too many hills and mountains. So a really large pool of young people is constantly interested and "tested" in football, and you are bound to find the individuals motivated and interested in training.

Another thing that statistics point to is wealth: in rich countries kids and young people are more likely to have access to equipment, and time to play and train. This gives you again a larger pool, and better resources to improve. In poor countries, only exceptional individuals will be able to train, instead of working to support themselves and their family. Fewer participants, strong results, but usually only in "low cost" fields, long-distance running being a prime example.

Well, as far as I know, China has a huge football development program launched around 5-10 years ago, I'm really curious about its success. So they spend a lot of money on it. South American countries are not among the wealthiest nations, still, they can play excellent football. They don't need money to develop, they play great football in the small pitches between the houses, too.

About table tennis, it is a successful and relatively popular sport in Hungary. Maybe its success has been decreased a bit in the past 10-20 years, but earlier it was the case that Hungarian players were good at European and World Championships until they had to face a Chinese or a naturalized Chinese player...
I know a few people who were playing it as a registered player in sports clubs (one of them in the third Hungarian division), however, they weren't professional players. I also like to play table tennis very much, sometimes I play it against my wife. Many of us grew up in playgrounds where there were table tennis tables (from concrete of course).

Not the same for volleyball. It is quite an unpopular sport somehow in Hungary, especially related to its world popularity. Volleyball is introduced to only a very few children. I guess most Hungarians were never taught playing volleyball and never played indoor volleyball. In schools, rather football, basketball or handball is played in classes. Some people are playing it only on the beaches as 100% amateurs. But there are surprisingly few professional Hungarian players and teams registered (one of the top Hungarian teams is in my hometown, Kazincbarcika, so the popularity here is higher than in most places in my country). Our international teams are weak, too, especially the men's squad.

About running, let's see short distance running. In the world elite (for example, in an Olympic final), you will find only massive, muscular black people (once or twice a white man might occur, but really rarely). White people can load tons of money into short distance running, they still won't or barely run under 10 seconds. When you see long distance running, its the field of tall and thin African people. White athletes can rather dominate in technical events (e.g. pole vault). I find the genetic factor almost as important as culture.

Yes, skiing needs money (and mountains, too). It is not a sport for Hungary, that's sure. Though I like alpine skiing very much and I follow the World Cup every year on Eurosport or ORF1.

ENG 0 - HUN 4 

What a beating!

Well... I guess the English players really took this match easily. As for team Hungary, our Italian head coach built a decent team. We have some Bundesliga players, but of course individually the English team is better. But on that night, our team functioned better. And wanted the victory more. And had a scoring efficiency which is very rare. That's a shame for the English team, under no circumstances should they let a medium-level team win against them 4-0 in England. They deserved it because booed and whistled all the time during our anthem.

Tell me how a small country with 3,5 million people like Uruguay can have such high level in football? That's remarcable, they are up there almost since the football was born and they are so few. If India or China or Indonesia or Phillippines with their much higher population have had the same football culture than them we could face a major opponent.

You gave the answer partly: football culture. Fanatism, enthusiasm, sense of football, atmosphere. And partly genetics. Latino people are really good at football. Chinese people will never be on that level. Just like Europeans (and South Americans) will never touch the table tennis ball like them. It is their sport. And none of us will run like Kenyan and Ethiopian runners.

This is good news, Italy will soon be available for all without vaccination or test: https://www.thelocal.it/20220530/italy-set-to-scrap-covid-entry-rules-for-travellers/

I'm sorry, I'm always checking the web page of the Hungarian Consular Services to be aware of up-to-date COVID travel restrictions. So what I've written, is only valid for EU citizens. Yes, according to Daniel's information, you need a proper vaccine (or tests) to enter the Netherlands. Or a citizenship of an EU country.

I'm interesting in knowing what the CoViD situation is in your countries. In particular, if people are required to prove vaccination to go to restaurants, shopping centres, etc., and in that case, how they normally prove it. I am vaccinated, but I have the Russian vaccine that's not recognised almost anywhere and even worse right now. I think now it is possible to get other vaccines so if I'm to get another dose, I'll try to pick according to convenience.

At the moment many European countries practically don't have COVID rules (including NOR, SWE, GBR, CZE, HUN, POL, ROM, NED, DEN, CRO, AUT). But some Southwest European countries and Western Central ones (ITA, ESP, BEL, FRA, POR, GER) still hold on to the importance of the vaccination (these countries generally require 3 vaccines, at least the last one being a Western one). Without adequate vaccination, a PCR test is required, which have to be paid yourself. I'm not well informed about the Eastern European region.