A fine afternoon here.Dizziness is much better and the old body seems to cooperate :)

<So, my friend, as long as a game of chess is always handy and free, no one should ever complain about losses.> In the principle I agree,but sometimes
it can be necessary to complain and let out some frustration(Chess IS a cruel game-at least sometimes).But the trick may be:not to let the frustration settle.But let it be like birds taking a break in a tree,but not allowed to build a nest !

Yes I saw Shark-Nisi and it is rare to see so many pieces scattered around the whole board at the same time.No wonder if the romanian had felt dizzy and lost some of his hair:)

And please read my lips : When you win in chess-you are a genius and when you loose-it is only a game....
No,on a seriuos note:It is difficult to
find the right balance and may be I can feel your frustration.Cause when I look back on my endavours(in all aspects of life)they consist of roughly spoken 50% hard work and 50% gain/pleasure.Something like that.But it aquired a lot ,like fine bodycondition,the motivation to go deep,seeing some results,killer instinct,proper brain functioning,sitzfleisch(patience),fantasy and so forth. Abilites I shure you have,but perhaps they are mean to be put together in another way,than chess !? And/or : your efforts with chess these days will pay off,some other day in some other area !? And if this is the case,perhasp not a single effort is wasted,but just delayed-like a good wine!?....E.g. buddist munks also go through very very hard exercises on the potential way to enlightenment(Which they are not shure will happen) So perhaps you are on the right track after all,in the big picture ! And the love of for the game has in my view,for everyone always been the plus importante.A young kid who goes deep deep into the game and gains everything from it,is,in a way,a better equipped player,than a GM for whom a victory is close to put the tonque out of the window.

<Besides, I'm grateful to chess, as it was the only (perceivable) means by which I managed to overcome a depression (long time ago, long story)! And it's also been one of the 2-3 things which warmed my life in the past, say, 14 years.> Sounds like more than a good friend!

Some of my losses were awful,not only on the board.No consolation and/or empathy from other people ):And it that area e.g. football is much easier. We win as a team and we share the grief as a team.

Nice talking to you,again,and now for a little walk and chess,European Club. Seullement comme une voyer ;)

"a GM for whom a victory is close to put the tonque out of the window." - I'm not sure I've ever met this expression before. Anyway, thank you for the detailed advice, and every part of it is very reasonable and, of course, well received. But the situation (at least chess-wise) is not as serious as it may appear from my words, meaning that, yes, I am experiencing an unexpectedly low level of chess playing power, but this doesn't bother me particularly. On the one hand, yeah, it's just a game, and on the other, this period is gonna pass. There are other things, much more important, in my life, that I should be concerned of - and even these, too, I came to the conclusion that can be tackled with a certain...distance, or humour if you prefer (as long as I can afford it). And I think this is also close to the Budhist philosophy/method you were mentioning - incidentaly one which Cioran (one of my beloved writers) approves, as intellectually worthy. Indeed, the budhist approach can be seen as a very reasonable one.

OK, one more day and I expect to finish the writing requirement and then after presenting my papers on Friday I will have a full weekend free, all for myself - wife goes alone to Onesti. Oh, some works for my apartment looming at the (close) horizon, maybe as close as next week. They are at the external side of walls (attaching pads to improve thermal isolation), but nevertheless noise is to be expected - we will have to tollerate it, as innevitable (and something that you know very well).

I will look a bit at the ECCC later on myself.

Guess it must be around your dinner time !? Here it is 17.19...and pendling between rain and sunshine.

If I should define chess I would call it an emtpy mirror,in where we can project everything...Simular to the first page on an unwritten page. What would you call it ? If you had to.

So you will have the whole weekend for yourself in Iasi !? Sounds great. Or at least I like when Hannah sometimes is away for some hours/days and then to see her happy face again.Just realizing that love exists. Not only a a distant dream of writers but as the living daylight on earth.

Hope your works will turn out well and that you will hit the right flow. A fine flow here today.Still some of the nasty dizziness(or whatever it should be called),but on all other accounts I feel like a frog on a river,just following the stream and watching the the whole scenery.With curiosity and well-beeing.

A bit too early for wishing you a good week-end so just for now:May you have a nice evening and may all your angels ¤¤¤

From the archives:"One evening I was wandering around in town without a specific goal.Just enjoying the present. A policecar suddenly turned up and I immediately went :"OMG ! I have no lights on". Seconds later I realised that I was a pedestrian ;) Have a guess about what kind of bicyclist I was :)

Yup, alone and well, the conferences today fnished in high spirits and I am now resting a bit and thinking of maybe switching to ECCC - or maybe check if there's a cicling race on tv? I've got all the time...so cool.

Oh, and (in case it wasn't a keyboard glitch) Romani is the 'official' term used for gypsy - remember the problem a few days ago at the Euro Cup - so if you wanted to refer to my country it's Romania, and if you referred to my nationality, it's Romanian. I agree that the term may sometimes be misleading, prone to confusions...

Morose weather all of a sudden starting this afternoon, with light rain and dark skies, after a few mostly sunny days. I hope it won't last long.

Define chess, hm....maybe the never ending adventure? or the always renewable one...and of course it has the sporting component, fighting to win against your opponent. Empty mirror/page probably comes close - with the exception of the opening phase :)

Yes I was a tough rider and it all became a bit too egoistic and then after a dream with yeollow alarm light I stopped that monkey bussiness :)

Oh and sorry about Romani.I was thinking like the pronouncation in the european grand prix song contest."Romani douze points".But I knew the right way and forgot it.BTW:MY mom
was a kid adopted and somtimes felt her unknown mother came from around Hungary,Romania.She was very gypsy like in her temper.Her son,when he ws younger more Greek,but about the same stuff.

Sorry the clock is much more than I thought.But may you enjoy your own fine company svp!

Good point.Haven´t thought about it in that way.

<Morose weather all of a sudden starting this afternoon,> Typical of October,nést pas !? According to my sources,if memory serves me well,there will be better weather.Also here.

Had to leave in a hurry before,because of a tvseries we follow."Awakening the Dead",a brilliancy from England about unsolved murdercases.Cold cases. And hopefully you will solve the case with the walls and noise.I´ll send you some of the newgained silence from here!

Same morose weather, and yesterday felt mostly tired for the rest of the evening, after four vials of blood taken in the morning and then 2 papers presented at conferences - but at least I didn't have to drive afterwards for 3 hours up to Onesti, as wife had fortunatelly came up with the idea for me to remain at home in Iasi.

So you think you may have relatives in this part of Europe!:) Who knows, it may well prove true, some day. If you (used to be) high tempered and liked wandering accross the seas/globe, then yeah, it's quite possible there's even a drop of Gypsy in your blood (or Greek, as you say).

Havent seen that English tv series, but my wife also likes to follow this kind of British movies, I will ask her, maybe she knows it. Yesterday although Euronews was announcing a cycling race in the evening, it was football and tennis instead. Also, couldn't play a chess game over the net simply because, my rating getting so low, no one cared to respond to the blitz request...so the foreseen smooth Friday evening alone at home turn gradually into falling asleep after watching a documentary on cold war spies :)

Has just seen pictures from Iasi,and I may say it looks like a wonderfull old city ! And then you got trams! And are they still functioning ? I have alwasys loved trams since early childhood.

Do you also have a minor heathwave in your country ? Here we have the remains,the leftover.But not a big deal.More like the las gasp of the summer that never was.

Wife and i have been doing housework and also in that way celebrating that it is close to 100% over.This extremely big challenge with all the work and renovation.So time for pancakes :)

Sounds like a nice move from your wife
to go on her own so you could get some recovering !?

<Also, couldn't play a chess game over the net simply because, my rating getting so low, no one cared to respond to the blitz request...> Perhaps starting all over on another side ?...

A wonderfull sleep,but still very dizzy this morning,but as a most welcomed surprise it has decreased during the day,so now its a good sunday.

Take care "down" there,I´ll try the same "up" here and now to the pancakes. But dont forget to say hello to Maria !

Yeah, trams have traditionally circulated in Iasi and they're still functioning :) I'm glad you liked it. What can I say, it's a nice city if you know where to go...

Just sent your 'hello' to Maria, she's returned from Onesti a few hours ago and everything went smooth - warm weather there too.

Just won a King's gambit with black over the net in 15 moves...I've noticed by far most of the applauses I've received were given by Germans. Correctness should be a word invented by them.

Great to hear you're doing the homework specific for the end of renovation works! But I don't know why you keep experiencing that dizziness...I still think you should try something, maybe change the doctor, a different opinion may bring new ideas for treatment.

A most quite day an if it wasn´t because
of big D,I would entirely love it.October on its second best with just a slight wind and an almost hidden warmth in the air.But I am hanging in there and thank you for your tip,which may be the first step.But still waiting and hope and try to cooperate the best thinkable way.

So we got,as a seeded nation,Ireland in the playoffs ! And I see it as a big privelledge after all to be here,so looking forward to the 2 finals !

Today my wife is out for some hours with some old colleges.On a bar,restaurant and they certainly talk a lot ;).....they get a lot of energy from it,so it is very nice.She will return home just in time for CL tonight at 20.45...do you folllow it ? Ther are some interesting setups,such as:RM vs Tottenham and MC vs Napoli.

The germans are worldly recognized for there correctness,which I mainly see as a strengt,but sometimes the reverse .As once I HAD to head home from Italy and had no ticket many years ago on a train.So when the conductor has asked me to leave the train my fellow traveller with whom I have had a fine conversation,simply left our company with the words:"Man can nicht ohne fahrcarte reisen". :)

Seeing forward to the Grand Prix,but it takes a little while.

Hope all is fine on your behalf and send you all the best.

Here’s still warm for this time of the year, with mornings taking exception: 8 degrees at 7:30 in the morning. But by noon we get to 25 Celsius. Not that it bothers me, in the least! 

Yesterday I prepared with my father some grape juice (we call it ‘must’ here) – we put the grapes Maria brought from Pancesti (from the vine plantation of my parents in law) into a special device (my father’s been doing this since quite a few years) and after some mixing/crushing/pressing procedure (done manually) we ended up with a bit over two 2 l bottles of ‘must’. Mind you, I’ve never been a drinker, but that was so good….especially knowing it’s made from grapes taken from the vine yard my parents in law worked in for the past 25 years or so.

Good luck playing against Ireland – I will keep my fingers crossed for you at the time of the match. No, I didn’t have time (actually I forgot, but I doubt that I would have followed anyway), as I have to finish the last book of 1Q84 (the longest Murakami novel) and then it also got late and was kinda tired.

Oops, that was some interesting experience you’ve got with that German guy…it happens, although most, if not all of the Germans we’ve interacted with this September were OK, and some even extremely nice and helpful. Time and again we remember the week we’ve spent in Renania-Palatinate, and we still rejoice from so many great moments…

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus really turned water into wine or if it was "only" because he transmitted so much of the holy spirit to his disciples that they felt that way !?...

I,among others,was slightly hit on the front head from a Lama(tibetan),which was all he did.It lasted for around 24 hours and was some of the purest thing I have ever tasted.Like a heavenly mixture of deep deep grounding and the opposite.

Wife is soon comming home from a visit in her small autumvaccation so off to the spaghetties.And thanks for the Maria greetings and all the same energy back to you guys.May you have a wonderful evening and night.

See you around!

And looking forward to tomorrow morning
6.30.
What happens then ??

Autumn rain and temperatures back to normal here. So glad that silence is finally regaining your home - a beautifully renovated one.

For ten days from now on I'll have to do some more work related writing. But will report back soon thereafter.

Hi again and thanks ! Yes,she is really on fire these days.And it feels like Romania and Denmark clashes frequently these days ;).

Has just returned from town after the usual rendezvous with KJ.But then I am also hammered as D is still on the loose ):

Otherwise not so much to write about.But life is also in my book,a lesson to learn and I feel I learn something everyday,so...

Sorry if it came out as if I interpretated your experience with the wine a something like selfsuggestion,which is not what I meant,as I clearly got the impression that it was that wondeful taste after the hard work that you experienced. What I meant was simular to the effect when we love our mothers meatballs and that this state of being make them taste much better,than if we e.g. got them served in a restaurant.

Looking forward to the next tournament and it seems that London Classic will begin the same period as the Grand Prix,so a lot of chess ahead.Just a little patience is needed !

Spaghetti again today.Actually the remains from the other day ;)Recycling is a fine thing nes´t pas !?

And how are your writings progressing ?

Must rest my head,but take care and see you up the road.

Today has been a good day.Less D and after a couple of hard days with colonobstacles it is so nice to be alive again.Even the the last rays of the october sun felt like greetings from above.

And thanks for inviting me into your D world and for clarifying who and what you were talking about.

I´ll also try one day to talk about my D-condition,by poem or otherwise.But it is extremely difficult to put words on it,also to my friends and wife here in DK,which can be rather frustrating as I sense/experience it almost all the time.And know very well how it feels.When I talk to my self.But I´ll try one day...

So good to hear your writings are looking fine!So let us pray for a succesfull conclusion after these last 3 days.Tell me more in due time,if you like.

On thirsday the workers are supposed to be leaving,and let us not hope there is any Stocholm-syndrom left after their departure :)They have done a very professionel job and were some nice and trustworthy fellows.

Looking forward to perhaps another sunny day tomorrow and perhaps,if all fits,going to town with JWH.And hear about the latest progress about his book.

November weather around and I caught a bit of cold a week ago, starting yesterday with some antibiotics, hopefully all will be back to normal soon.

Also back to another Murakami book "Men without women", a collection of short stories, and it looks good.

At the ETCC in Greece, Romanian teams are doing pretty good, especially the men, who are playing today the 7th round at board 3 against Ukraine (but I think Ivanchuk is not in their team), but also the women, playing at 4th board, against...I forgot.

What about you? Any good news?

A good weekend so far and D is not that far away from "normal" so I dont complain ;)

And since we last spoke I have had great times with KJ and JWH in town.KJ being so gentle that he offered me a ride (I have nolicense)to Stanley Rosenberg(the one irish magician I mentioned to you a while ago)and with JWH it is among other stuff a delight to be invited to his Berlinstory as well as his whole writing process.

And what about yours ? Are you soon finished and content with the result ?

Wednesday I will be with a good old colleque who phoned me and we havent met since Christmas.Looking forward to our meeeting and miss her dearly as she has moved to Copenhagen.But that is life....):We have a fine and deep connection,as you perhaps can read between the lines.

Not much chess lately.Keeping the power dry to the Grand Prix and London classic :)

So now wife is returning after (another;) partying with some friends. And now we shall have another two some party....still in love after all these years.

All the best to you and your wife and may the wind be in your sails!