A Sunday In Two Countries.

The power of words.

It was the last day of the Alpine Skiing World Cup in St. Moritz yesterday and a bit sad knowing that there won't be such a smorgasbord of events day after day. Seeing Switzerland from such beautiful perspective was often breathtaking. White mountains , icy pistes and gladiators champing at the bit.

The whole of Austria was in a state of euphoria due to winning Gold and Silver medals at the last race. The gold was predictable and well deserved by Marcel Hirscher who is one of those competitors who seem unbeatable. The silver was won by one of my favourites ( luckily, my other favourite won bronze, despite being a bit long in the tooth at 32. Ah, sorry Felix! ) who is the nicest guy imaginable. A sort of imp and rebel, but a kind one. True son in law material...

The skiing started rather early in the morning and for once I postponed my walk for mid morning. Strange for me and strange for a handful of villagers who I met along the way. Clearly they don't subscribe to the let's make a huge home cooked Sunday lunch club as I met them just before twelve, galavanting through the vineyards...

At the moment I am enthralled by an autobiography that I have been lent to read. Brilliant stuff, often page turning and sadly informative. I say sadly, because it is a story about the Puszta compounds of Hungary in the late 19th and early 20th century. This is a book that will make most of us who love to complain about the unfairness of life sit up and suddenly feel extremely lucky and abundant.

What is even more amazing, is that the lives he wrote about were lived not that far from us and often this past week, I would ask Bob to Google a village written about in the book, only for him to tell me that it is close to Eisenberg.

This book was first published in 1936 and I wondered if the author had written anything else. Googling his name,Illyes Guyla, I found out that this author was a national literary treasure of Hungary. Can't wait to read his other books. Another great Sunday of not doing much, but seeing plenty.

Biggi