A fine gift 4 us

End of November gift: our friend, Simona (living in Cleveland now) has visited her elderly parents – for the first time in years, as the way back home seems much longer than the way to the USA. Johnnie Brad (a Romanian immigrant in a 1978 successful western spaghetti parody, Profetul, aurul şi ardelenii) was right: “Bace, uneori îi mai lung drumu’-napoi decât drumu’ pân-aici…”) She left Romania and flew to “The Promised Land”, where she got married and then had a daughter. So, here they are, the three of them, for a couple of days. Thus, we finally came to meet their adorable 6 year old Gabrielle and Simona’s easy-going husband, Decebal. We spent an hour chatting in our apartment then the electricity paralysed all the neighbourhood, so we had to go out to a restaurant – we had planned to do that anyway and the accident only hurried us. We went to “Casa cu Flori” – perhaps the best and finest restaurant in our city: courteous waiting and tasty food. Gabrielle and Theodor got on well by the end of day, when they started to play riddles and interact.

A funny incident: on Wednesday evening Simona phones and let us know they are in town. We fix a day to meet and I say that Friday and Saturday night are out of the question, as we have planned to go to concert then. I go on telling her about the location (“Capitol” hall), an ex-cinema – actually the no.1 cinema in our city for fifty years. And here comes the final blow: I tell her I am really happy about the conversion of that place into a concert hall, as it has been invaded by cheesy American movies only…The next moment I realize I am talking to an American citizen...Silly me – I tell to myself - I’m in big trouble now. The best I can do is rely on Simona’s sense of humour (which was to be of great help), on our long-lasting friendship, and I survive all right: she doesn’t take the offence. Still, I can’t be sure of what might happen next time I make a blunder …