After our lives were completely turned upside down by the first wave of Covid and as we were already preparing for Covid II, multiple changes across various fronts in our lives called for a home transformation. The nesting mood usually hits me in late summer to early autumn, and although this year’s urge wasn’t as strong as in previous years (see the Sweet Home posts from past years on https://daysonpaper.blog.hu), I still had to give in to the inner drive and get a few things for the house. Since a piano became part of our family back in March (which, due to lack of space, displaced the sofa—the only remaining sofa…

Oh my goodness, how much time and how many events have passed since I was last here..! To be honest—and as everyone knows—new times are upon us, and when I come home from work to an eight-year-old chatterbox… well, my first thought is not to sit back behind a screen. As much as I love these pages, sometimes one needs real surroundings, real books, real music, real connections—especially now, when circumstances threaten to stretch the distance again. Nevertheless, I want to share with you some moments from one of the most girly days of the recent period—a lazy, coffee-scented autumn morning soaked in sunshine with Grandma, when a mother-daughter breakfast…

I definitely wanted to spend one of the last summer days in Vác—if only because in normal times I spend so much time here, and who knows when I’ll have the chance again. Due to the ever-changing circumstances, I fear that this year I won’t get the opportunity to take peaceful morning walks along the Danube, explore playgrounds with Ru, and enjoy a heavenly slice of cake at Mihályi Confectionery (which truly lives up to its reputation). In this post, I’m sharing with you the irreplaceable last moments of the slowly fading summer heat that we managed to catch in this captivating town. Dated: Sept 19, 2020

– Reggeli & Bánk – These five days went by faster than I thought, but at least I had this much time, and I didn’t have to focus on anything else but my little rascal. We planned Friday as a calm day with lots of rest and good food—we started with a nourishing breakfast at Művész, and ended the day in Bánk with Grandma and Grandpa, stopping along the way to admire a sunflower field. Dated: July 21, 2020

– Szécsény – On the third day of the camp, we decided to go have lunch at one of our favorite places and enjoy some quality “me-time” chatting. After lunch, of course, mom wanted a coffee and the kid wanted a cake, so we ended up in Szécsény at Frei, having an iced caramel ginger latte and an iced orange caramel. A while back (last year? The year before?), one of my Krav Maga students showed me a painted playground in a side street of the old town, so we settled there in the afternoon, enjoying the sunny, breezy weather and the fact that we still had one more full…

– Budapest with breakfast and a little magic – They say, “Everywhere is good, but the best is on the way”—and as a tourism professional, a mother, and from a personal viewpoint, I absolutely agree. With my kid, it often happens that when we travel, we have to race against time (like the Bangkok-Frankfurt-Budapest route—check it out on the original Hungarian Daysonpaper site; that was something else!). Although this time I didn’t have to bring home my golden girl from the other hemisphere in flip-flops, the day’s mood was set when we had to sprint to catch the suburban train. Fortunately, we were both in good shape, so we started…

– xBox party & movie afternoon – Considering that Ru is attached to home and enjoys some downtime after the constant coming and going, we planned an Xbox morning for Tuesday. It really sharpened my already battle-hardened sense of compromise lately, but what could I do—I would enjoy the familiar warmth of home too if I were in his place. So I agreed to play through a few games, in all of which I suffered crushing defeats. FIFA was the only exception, as we managed a draw! I’d rather skip the little truth that at 3-0, Ru swapped controllers with me and scored another 3 goals under my name in…

After we dropped Grandma off at the station, before heading to the beach, we still wandered through the town (because of course I packed everything for the kid, but forgot to bring sunscreen for myself). I bought this and that (and a few little things, and some not-so-little things, because the mood really took hold of me). By the time we reached the water, we were both longing for that splash. There, lying on the ground by the poolside with my eyes closed, warmed by the sun and listening to Ru chattering about games, videos, and everything else, I was overcome by that long-felt feeling that in that moment, everything…

A few weeks ago, I couldn’t even imagine (actually not even a few days ago) that I would really be able to come away for five days and that the two of us could do whatever we wanted during those days. But the rest time finally arrived, and in this short but all the more precious period ahead, we are beginning to recover from the exhaustion of the year so far—not just mine, but Ru’s as well, since let’s not forget that the virus turned children’s lives upside down too. Unfortunately, Ru didn’t want to go abroad for a vacation and had been away from home so much that he…

1.) I am learning to play the piano. Back in early March, when we only felt the first signs of the pandemic, I started taking weekly piano lessons. Later, when I came home in the evenings to an empty apartment, I would play for hours to clear my mind and, even if only temporarily, focus on something other than our cases or other circumstances. I believe that without music, I would have been under medication long ago. Of course, without my piano teacher’s flexibility, creativity, and professionalism, I wouldn’t have gotten far either, so I am deeply grateful to them here for sometimes holding lessons at impossible times—sometimes via video,…