Monday, May 10, 2004

HOMEPAGE

Guests

Well I am back and back into things here early this Monday morning. There is a lot to talk about, the most interesting being a guest we have here in town. Paul, whose blog(http://www.livejournal.com/users/djdirect/)I have been advertising has shown up and I put him up with friends and he seems to be comfortable. We got together for a short while yesterday and we will do some going around today (READ: DRINKING) and tomorrow.

However, last night I read his blog written from our internet café and it does seem that I am the one who is to blame for giving him the wrong address. It was not such a remarkably wrong address as you might have been led to believe, but for some reason I seem to have dyslexed the number of the house and this led to some problems for the poor guy.

I guess it all started when he told me he was coming in on Friday but then didn’t show up until Saturday. Normally, this would not have been such a big deal, but the people who had been patiently expecting him all day had other plans for their Saturday. Originally he had told me Saturday, but then wrote me again about this newest change at the last possible minute forcing us all to speed up our plans and preparations for his comfort- this amidst the other work being done in preparation for the Victory day celebration. I thought I had found him a place he might find cozy and homelike and, I guess in my haste to provide clear and accurate information for him in sufficient multi-language variations for both him and anybody whom he should need to ask for assistance, I did indeed send him to number 12 rather than number 24, though with all of the proper names and the phone number correctly listed. This was indeed my fault and my mistake. I was indeed the failure in this and as such, my life is obviously forfeit. However, before my trial by fire, I will go onward with my story.

With unbelievable disappointment in their hearts over his not showing up when he said he was supposed to on Friday, his expectant and thoroughly heart broken hosts went out of their amazingly beautiful and comfortable home which they had opened for Paul as if he was a long time part of the family, and went about their humble tasks of preparing their gardens for the summer. Showing up like a ragged vagabond A DAY LATE, Paul found that nobody in the neighborhood believed his story about having some association with such AN honorable and beloved family, thinking he was some drunken bum looking for a handout. They wisely immediately sent him off to the hotel where they are better prepared to deal with potential problems.

Coming back early from their tasks BECAUSE of a worry about his health and welfare after his non-arrival the day before, my friends found the neighborhood hysterical and close to tears over the drunken vagrant who had come to do them harm. They told my friends that it was their good fortune to have been away from home at that horrible moment. However, with the sort of honor, control and dignity that can only come from a family who has been a pillar of the community for half a century, it was quietly explained that “This vagrant” was indeed known by them and was indeed welcome in their home. Alexander called the hotel, and then sped off to personally assist Paul back to the families loving arms.

I was away until Sunday. When I got back, I went over to see how Sir Paul was doing, and found the whole of the family on eggshells over his presence. They insisted that I must wait and to speak quietly as his majesty was at rest in his private suite. Eventually allowing for the pleasure of a small peek at his eminence, we found the bum lounging around reading travel guides in bed, himself too lazy to have made the five meter walk out to the table to sit and join us.

Humph… royalty.

So anyway, Paul is in town. Hide your daughters.

So about the case,

I am working on a couple of letters which need to be in the mail by say Wednesday. These letters having to do with Bruce’s presence in the courts and about what I want said in my defense by Ms. Irena Krzaczek, my court appointed nemesis I mentioned in my previous blog. Though I cannot be sure of this, no information ever having come to me about the actual process of this court case, the court will probably ignore the appeal I have written- that is to say, the court and Ms. Irena Krzaczek , and will probably again try to defeat my cause by saying that only oral arguments will be heard. In this instance, Ms. Irena Krzaczek will most probably only agree to say what the court wants to hear from her. Get the picture? So, because the odds are that I simply cannot even afford to go to Poland (nor do I want to) I am again having to say on paper what I want said about this case and again, I have no hope that they would even listen to anything I have to say. It is my hope that my man Bruce can come through for me and at least make my wishes known to the courts and to Ms. Irena Krzaczek by at least making known that there is a document that says exactly what I want said, regardless of who is doing the presenting.

In addition to this, I am working to prepare a time line about the history of the case. This would either have its own spot here in the blog system, or perhaps be a part of the OVERVIEW page.
I have been working on this sporadically over the last week or so, but it has been a problem because I simply have not had the time to do such tasks. And perhaps also because I am sick of providing information about this unending case and about Poland and about the misery of my life because of having to deal with their unwanted and ridiculous presence there. I actually have a lot to do simply trying to feed the people I am with here in Belarus, this apparently not being a difficult enough task all by itself according to Poland. I will see if it is possible to have all of this new stuff together by say Friday.

So this is the news. There is going to be some vodka drunk over the next few days… and some mighty intelligent English being spoken here in town.

Oh, and before I close the computer, I would like to make a public congratulations to our young sportsman Egor. Egor was in Kobrin over the weekend and took 3rd place in a regional chess tourney. The under 10 field consisted of about 50 competitors and Egor finished 6-1, the same record as the second place finisher and a half point behind another Pinsk player Konstantine, the winner of the tournament who came in at 6-0-1. His lone loss was in the first game, but his victory over Kot, who was coming into the game at 6-0-1 (his tie against Konstantine), in the final day secured his place on the podium. His wins came on four mates and two resignations from his opponents. As Mel Allen would have said: How about that, sports fans?

Here’s the box score:

Event "Victory Day Tournament"
Kobrin, Belarus"
Egor-Kot
2004.05.9
Opening: "Sicilian defense"

1. e4 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nf3 g6 4. Be2 Bg7 5. O-O d6 6. Qc2 f5 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. Bd3 Nb4 9. Qb1 Nxd3 10. Qxd3 O-O 11. Re1 fxe4 12. Nxe4 Nxe4 13. Qxe4 e5 14. d3 Qb6 15. Qh4 Rf5 16. Bh6 Rh5 17. Qe7 Rxh6 18. Ng5 Bf5 19. Nf7 Rh5 20. h3 Bxd3 21.
Rad1 Bxc4 22. Rxd6 Qa5 23. Red1 h6 24. Rd7 Rf8 25. Nxh6+ Bxh6 26. Qh7# 1-0


More soon…