Women, have you got "something special" going on between you and your hair-stylist? A lot of women have, haven't they, but beware - your stylist may be "cheating on you" with other customers, according to this recent news story [Source: Onion News]:
Did you know, however, that there are far worse things that your stylist can do to you than cheating on you with another woman - they can go on and on about politics, and get so carried away that they forget to cut your hair. Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, has really short hair anyway, but her stylist took 2 hours to cut it because her stylist couldn't stop talking enthusiasticallyabout the country's crazy Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.
Tünde writes,
"It took her 2 hours (!) to cut my (short) hair because she was praising Orbán and scolding the others and all that time her scissors weren't moving."
Luckily, that hairdresser's retired now, but Tünde's new one isn't much better for different reasons. Apparently this new stylist says she's "learning to talk to dead people". And Tünde asks, with good reason, "Oh dear, is everybody mad here? I'm [now] looking for [another] new hairdresser!"
ad for a typical Budapest hairdresser's, showcasing
before (előtte) and after (utána) pictures
Yes, Orbán continues to be popular with Hungary's voters, and Tünde doesn't understand why, and neither do I.
Hungary has become the poorest country in the EU, and despite the comparatively high number of Hungarian deaths in the pandemic, the high inflation, the plunging exchange rate for the Hungarian forint, and a health service and education system in ruins, the Prime Minister and his Fidesz party remain hugely popular.
chart of relative household net wealth in the eurozone
So why is Orbán still so popular with Hungarians? It's a question that many Americans have asked about Donald Trump, and in the UK it's the same with Nigel Farage, isn't it.
Remember this recent BBC interview with Nigel Farage, when Farage got annoyed and abruptly stopped responding to questions, to the obvious amusement of his BBC interviewer?
A Hungarian psychologist has light to shed on this question, writes Tünde. This psychologist claims, if I understand correctly, that some people have very strong powers of belief, whether it's that they're strongly religious or have other strong beliefs, about politics or whatever: and any attempt to reason with such people is doomed to failure.
He says it's like a man sitting in a restaurant who sees a delicious meal being eaten on the next table. At this moment, one part of his brain becomes active and says: "I want that meal too, I'm going to order it." But another part of his brain becomes active at the same time and it says: "But it's an unhealthy meal. You want to lose weight. Don't order it."
For most people, these two parts of our brain argue with each other, the psychologist says. But the second part of the brain doesn't work for those who are strong believers in something, he suggests.
I wonder.....!!!!
10:00 Tünde's email gives Lois and me plenty to talk about on our walk this morning on Poolbrook Common, that's for sure!
Lois says she has no idea what Rachel, her own stylist, thinks about politics, if she thinks anything about it, Lois isn't sure - she says Rachel mainly talks about things that she and her partner are doing to their house, furniture they've bought recently, and that kind of thing, which is lucky. And Lois says she's happy to keep it that way! What a crazy world we live in !!!!
Rachel (centre), Lois's stylist, chit-chatting about nothing
in particular during a typical recent session with Lois
Lois and I chat about hair-stylists (and other things!)
during our morning walk on Poolbrook Common
in the lee of the 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills:
here Lois stops to examine a pretty wild flower
- I forget the name
You probably don't realise it from the ever-fashionable look that I "sport" myself, but I personally cut my own hair, by snipping at it here and there whenever I notice some part of it looking "a bit on the long side".
[I'd never have guessed! - Ed]. It's a real time-saver - it only takes a second or two, and it's a money-saver at the same time, let me tell YOU haha!
before ("előtte") and after ("utána") pictures for me,
showcasing one of my trademark "quick-snip-sessions"
Spot the difference competition haha!!! And answers on a postcard, please, as Twitter pundit John Johnston © always says (!).
14:00 Yes, Lois and I have to amuse ourselves as best we can today, but we can safely go to bed this afternoon for "nap-time", without fear of interruption. There's no visit this weekend from our dear daughter Sarah and her 10-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. They're spending time with a bunch of husband Francis' relatives, who have travelled from Bristol and other parts, and are all staying near the Cotswold Wildlife Park outside Burford, Oxfordshire.
It's Sarah's 47th birthday today, and you know, don't you, that you must be getting old when your own children approach middle-age. My goodness, yes!
flashback to summer 1977: Lois and me in our tiny back yard
in Cheltenham, with our two daughters: Alison (2) and new-born Sarah
Sarah today, on her 47th birthday, with her daughter Jessica (10)
at the Cotswold Wildlife Park just outside Burford, Oxfordshire
Where did those 47 years go?
Still, didn't somebody once say, "Never complain about being old - it's a privilege sadly denied to many", and I think that's always worth remembering.
21:00 We go to bed on an interesting Channel 5 documentary about Kate, the Princess of Wales.
I'm the sort of person who doesn't spend a lot of time reading about the royals, I have to say, so that much of the material in this documentary is news to me.
However, as a dyed-in-the-wool introvert, for me it's heartening to learn that Kate is one too, but that she has worked hard to overcome this "failing" (!), and with an amazing amount of success. Maybe it isn't too late for me?
I wonder....!
[Forget that, Colin! - Ed]
Kate was apparently terrified about making her first public speech, something which she had avoided doing for nearly a year after her wedding, but there was no putting it off for ever. And for her first foray into this side of being a royal, she had to speak at an East Anglian children's hospice in Ipswich, of all places, back in 2012.
Body language expert Judi James says that Kate "was a bit like a silent movie star, about to launch her voice on the public".
Kate began her speech with these words: "First of all I'd like to say thank-you.......[long pause].....thank you for not only accepting me as your patron.....[long pause]......thank you also for inviting me here today.... [long pause]. What you've all achieved here is extraordinary.....[long pause] etc etc.
Body language expert Judi says you could tell that Kate had had lessons in public speaking and elocution. She was "doing her speech in 3 second sentences and then pausing for at least 2 seconds in between each sentence", adding, "If there was a mistake here, it was over-training. There was no scope for Kate to be just Kate".
But after Kate's first humorous remark in her speech at Ipswich, saying that it was "just a shame William couldn't be here" (there must have been some topical reference behind this remark, I'm guessing), she got her first laugh out of the audience, and after that, she visibly relaxed and gained in confidence. And since then, her main focus has been on just trying to be herself.
Kate has always been a natural, however, when it comes to doing "walkabouts" and chatting to people in the crowd on a one-to-one basis, often taking so long over it that the walkabout gets behind schedule. Her friends say, however, that when Kate has to make formal speeches, her hands still visibly shake. Nevertheless this doesn't stop her, which is heart-warming.
Maybe it's not too late for me to... [I told you, forget it, Colin! - Ed]
Fascinating stuff, isn't it!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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