David Am Assif - Over a Coffee

Photo David Am Assif by Nigel A.  JAMES

In from the Fringe

Taking the straight road through life is easy provided there is only one you!  But, when you are three, the direct way ahead has to take the diversions as a matter of course. And, one such person who is three in one - and not one in one - is David Am Assif of Israel! 

He is a linguist, a musician and a teacher, and accommodating all three at the same time and in the same city is much harder than tuning an orchestra. The right place doesn’t only mean adequate university space for teaching and high level linguistic research, it also means the right background for his baritone voice as it wanders amongst the fine baroque classics of those days.  And finding the right place has been an ongoing search until now.

In fact, David’s post study life has been a series of zig-zags that have taken him and his wife from their home in Israel to Germany, then back again to Israel, and then, out once again, but this time to Vienna to where they are now!  Life, he says, is better in the centre than out on the fringe; and, in this sense, Vienna has been good to them!  It has given them that which they wanted!  It has opened up Europe and shown them the way!

And the right way isn’t taking them far.  They’re going to Frankfurt in Germany.  David has accepted a post at Frankfurt university which promises to provide just the right balance for all that he loves, and, of course the expansion of his other musical interests, too. He is also a pianist, a harpist, and a conductor, too.  And there is another dimension as well.

With his talents, traveling could easily become part of where he’s eventually heading, and, maybe, where he’s been going has always been where he was at. We can, after all, only be there where we presently are!

David, I’m sure has still a long way to go!

nj. 

Gregor Trieb - Over a Coffee

 Gregor Trieb - Photo by Nigel A.  JAMES

Game, Set and Match

Keeping numbers in check and making them tally is something that few can command. It takes something quite special, and, one of those with an understanding in depth of the  juggling of ins and the reducing of outs is Gregor Trieb of Vienna. He is a man who makes things add-up!

As accountant and company secretary, his job is not only to ensure that the company’s wheels stay financially oiled, but, also, that the present performance fits in with last year’s predictions! A task that requires all of the discipline of one of  the hardest studies of all!

But, life in general is a balance sheet, too!  And, by using his well practiced skills, Gregor is able to evenly spread the right percentages of time for his free-time activities, too. And, topping the list with the biggest slice of the cake is Ulli, his wife, and Katherine, their daughter of 5. And, the rest of the cake that’s left over is there for his interests and hobbies, and one is a bit of a racket!

Tennis is not only Gregor’s way of keeping the stress of his job well and truly in check, but it keeps him very fit, too. And, being fit is one of the conditions for enjoying the best that life offers, and, Austria offers the best of all wines.

And this is the most fluid of his interests. He is a true connoisseur, and, what Gregor knows about wine is simply amazing! And, his cellar, being perfectly stocked, is all that is needed for a well deserved glass, when it’s  game, set and match, at the end of each day!

Anita Fodrasz - A Cutting Encounter

Anita Fodrasz, Nigel A.  James and Maxi B. Acs - Photo by Maxi B.  Acs

Short-Cut to Success

Independence in life is one of the greatest treasures that exists, and, that’s what Anita Fodrasz had in mind when she set out in life on the path of a hairdresser.

 Of course, after a hard training, Anita had to comply with the wishes and rules of the bosses she worked for, but then, one bright day, her future appeared, not high in the sky, but just below ground in a disused cellar in the high-rise socialist block which is home.

It was just what she had been looking for. In front of her eyes was the perfect short-cut to the life that she wanted, a future hair dresser’s saloon of her own!  Her vision was beginning to put on a form of its own.

And so it was, with brushes and paint and her family joining in with their sleeves rolled up, that this once storage hole for old boxes began to take on the dimension of Anita’s dream coming true!

And it happened, a saloon as Anita had wanted. And, judging by her success, the people of Veszprem, the town in Hungary where she lives, wanted it too!

But, her customers aren’t the only ones who are happy! With her apartment just five floors above, Anita has all of the time that she needs for her little boy of four; and, her husband has never long to wait for his favourite meal!

And that’s the key to it all.  Happiness comes with the things that one wants, and, Anita is able to give everyone the thing they like most – good looks! And it’s all thanks to her original dream which took her to the top at the bottom.

Poem for May

 Unspoken Unfound Colours - by Nigel A.  JAMES

By  Alfred, Lord Tennyson

O THAT ´twere possible,

After long grief and pain,

To find the arms of my true love

Round me once again!...

A shadow flits before me –

Not thou, but like to thee.

Ah God! that were it possible

For one short hour to see

The souls we loved, that that might tell us

What and where they be …