Mountain Bikes

It was a nice Saturday (except for the white clouds of mist trailing on the mountains' slopes) . It was a nice trekking path, Azuga - Gîrbova - Predeal, to be completed on foot in about three hours (except for the muddy part, since it rained all previous week, and the some steep slopes).

So all's well. But ...

It was a mountain bike race yesterday. Therefore, I was walking the path calmly, when suddenly four guys on bikes rushed past me. The fog was dense, as you can see, so they scared the crap out of me -- note that the area is walked freely by bears.

Instead of bears, I was forced to check every minute or so whether some two-wheeled centaur was behind me, ready to throw me out of the narrow path. Well, they usually called for room (the well-known cry "Pîrtieeee!", used mostly in winter sports, but still effective here).

The race was this one: www.mtb-pro.ro .

45 km to go (only 20 for the amateurs), that's something to reckon with! They finished it in about three and a half hours -- that's what the officials claimed when the bikers crossed the finish line.

I captured on photos some of the racers. Click the picture below to look the whole album:

Biciclişti montani :)

Bancuri pur româneşti ...

... pentru cine cunoaşte:

10. Ce-a fost înainte: oul sau gaina? Mai înainte au fost de toate.

9. Ce-i mai rece şi mai rece decît apa rece? Apa caldă.

8. Cînd a plecat de-acasă, Prunariu i-a lăsat mamei un bilet pe masă: „Am plecat in Cosmos. Vin peste o săptămîna”. Cînd vine, găseşte pe masă un bilet de la maică-sa: „Am plecat dupa brînză. Nu ştiu cînd vin”.

7. Un tip trecea pe strada tinand in mana, cu mare grija, un sul de hartie igienica. Trecatorii il priveau invidiosi, iar unul chiar l-a intrebat: „Nu va suparati, de unde l-ati luat?”, „Acum cateva minute l-am scos de la Nufarul…”

6. La usa unui apartament suna un pusti: „Tanti, ai facut supa?”, „Da, puisor, vrei sa gusti si tu?”, „Nu, multumesc”, „Atunci, de ce-ai venit?”,„Te roaga mama sa ne imprumuti si noua osul”.

5. Din dispozitia lui Ceausescu s-au facut experimentari si incrucisari de meri, pentru a se crea un soi de mar pitic, de numai 50 de cm, pe care sa-l poata culege si “Soimii Patriei”.

4. Ultima dorinta a romanilor privitoare la familia Ceausescu: sa moara Nicolae, iar Elena sa traiasca din meditatii la chimie!

3. De ce a luat comuna Scornicesti titlul de „Erou al noii revolutii agrare”? Pentru ca a crescut cel mai mare bou.

2. De ce n-a luat si comuna Petresti titlul de „Erou al noii revolutii agrare”? Pentru ca anul acesta nu s-a acordat titlul si pentru cea mai mare vaca.

1. Un militian prinde o pereche facand dragoste intr-un boschet. Ii duce la sectie si, de aici, in fata tribunalului. La proces, fata e felicitata pentru patriotism si baiatul pentru initiativa. Militianul e arestat pentru intrerupere ilegala de sarcina.

The love helmet

Some more football comments ...

A bunch of favorites -- that is, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, England, even Turkey and Sweden -- have maximum of points. Italy especially is obviously struggling to keep up the pace with the other superpowers, they can't forget so easily the shameful behavior in W.C.S.A. 2010 (I mean World Cup South Africa). Even so, they were almost beaten by the Estonians ... I'm eager to see their friendly match against Romania, which is another derailed team.

France is an unpredictable team. They lost home against Belarus but they have beaten away on Bosnia. The so-much-overrated Bosnia. (Bosnia looks now like the so-much-overrated Colombia in World Cup '94).

Other interesting facts:

1. Bulgaria lost away against England and home against Montenegro. Who is Montenegro anyway -- in football, of course?!?

2. World champion Spain has also maximum of points, however they played only one game.

3. Small teams are -- well, small. No one has done anything worth mentioning, except maybe Georgia (a draw in Greece), Belarus (win in France) and the afore=mentioned Montenegro which has also 6 points.

4. The next Eusopean's final tournament may have 24 teams. This is almost half of the 53 teams in UEFA organization. This is plainly stupid. I recall old times when the final tournament comprised only 8 teams out of 32.

One small erroneous step

Yeah, that's an error alright --

Chocolate (2)

"What's the matter with the previous images?" you ask me.

Well, it's all about chocolate and chocolate wrappings. The late eighties were hard times for nearly all Romanians, and especially the kids. Everybody knows that, so chocolate bars were a delight for me, in such a way I kept almost every wrapping. This way, I was able to recall the chocolate's taste only by looking at these pieces of paper, since the chocolate bars themseleves were few and far between.

You may recognise some western brands, especially Austrian and West German brands, however the vast majority are from Eastern Europe (Hungary is on top) and China. Romanian chocolate - Kandia, for instance - show also many faces.

Sweet memories, if I may say so - in a way - bitter memories on the other hand.

Chocolate

Some football comments ...

OK, let's see:

1. Liechtenstein was leading Scotland 1-0 after the first half. Now that's troublesome - either the Scots are really stupid, or the Lichts became more professional than ever (Frick and Stocklassa are well-known to anyone who has ever played against them: this includes Romanians, of course).

Anyway, Flower of Scotland (remember this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZdwLT2LSMk - the biggest a cappella choir in the world) has eventually overcome Ulrich von Liechtenstein of Gelderland (remember A Knight's Tale? - Heath Ledger amd one of his latest movies, not to mention that tournament's point-awarding system which was a delight for a football fan - 3 points for unhorsing or inadvertently killing the foe, 2 points for a CounterStrike-like headshot, 1 point for a chest hit, or something like that).

Steve McManus did that awful job in the last-minutes sequences. Yeah, awful - I would like to see the Lichts securing one well-deserved point.

2. Cyprus is crazy. They didn't care they were playing against the worst best-player in the world - I mean the guy formerly known as CR7, or was it CR9? - so they secured a 4-4 draw. Now, a 0-0 or even an 1-1 draw woudn't have been such a fuss. But 4-4? with Cyprus leading twice in the early stages of the game? and the same Cyprus levelling the score 1 minute before the final whistle?

Simply unbelievable.

And this was the first day (Friday).

The second day (Tuesday) Portugal was beaten fair and square by the Norwegians, which aren't by no means any kind of top-dogs here. So, I'm allowed to say Bye-bye Portugal! won't see you in the final tournament. And this is only fair, since they hammered those poor North-Korean bastards this summer in WC2010 - their unique and only exploit in South Africa, because whi cares about a tasteless 0-0 against Brazil? (who was Brazil anyway?)

To be continued in another post ...

Euro 2012 Qualifiers - Day 2

September 7
FT	Turkey	3 - 2	Belgium
FT	Austria	2 - 0	Kazakhstan
FT	Germany	6 - 1	Azerbaijan
Euro 2012 - Group B (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Russia	0 - 1	Slovakia
FT	Rep. of Macedonia	2 - 2	Armenia
FT	Rep. of Ireland	3 - 1	Andorra
Euro 2012 - Group C (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Serbia	1 - 1	Slovenia
FT	Italy	5 - 0	Faroe Islands
Euro 2012 - Group D (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Belarus	0 - 0	Romania
FT	Albania	1 - 0	Luxembourg
FT	Bosnia-Herzegovina	0 - 2	France
Euro 2012 - Group E (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Sweden	6 - 0	San Marino
FT	Holland	2 - 1	Finland
FT	Hungary	2 - 1	Moldova
Euro 2012 - Group F (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Georgia	0 - 0	Israel
FT	Malta	0 - 2	Latvia
FT	Croatia	0 - 0	Greece
Euro 2012 - Group G (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Bulgaria	0 - 1	Montenegro
FT	Switzerland	1 - 3	England
Euro 2012 - Group H (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Denmark	1 - 0	Iceland
FT	Norway	1 - 0	Portugal
Euro 2012 - Group I (qualifiers)
	September 7
FT	Czech Republic	0 - 1	Lithuania
FT	Scotland	2 - 1	Liechtenstein

Euro 2012 - Day 1

Let's see what happened Friday in Europe's qualifying matches, and what's the schedule for tomorrow (results are from www.livescore.com, as you may have already understood). We shall see tomorrow's results - and comment them. So, without further ado:

FT	Kazakhstan	0 - 3	Turkey
FT	Belgium	0 - 1	Germany
	September 7
20:00	Turkey	? - ?	Belgium
20:30	Austria	? - ?	Kazakhstan
20:45	Germany	? - ?	Azerbaijan
Euro 2012 - Group B (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Armenia	0 - 1	Rep. of Ireland
FT	Andorra	0 - 2	Russia
FT	Slovakia	1 - 0	Rep. of Macedonia
	September 7
17:00	Russia	? - ?	Slovakia
20:00	Rep. of Macedonia	? - ?	Armenia
20:45	Rep. of Ireland	? - ?	Andorra
Euro 2012 - Group C (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Faroe Islands	0 - 3	Serbia
FT	Estonia	1 - 2	Italy
FT	Slovenia	0 - 1	Northern Ireland
	September 7
20:30	Serbia	? - ?	Slovenia
20:50	Italy	? - ?	Faroe Islands
Euro 2012 - Group D (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Romania	1 - 1	Albania
FT	Luxembourg	0 - 3	Bosnia-Herzegovina
FT	France	0 - 1	Belarus
	September 7
19:30	Belarus	? - ?	Romania
20:15	Albania	? - ?	Luxembourg
21:00	Bosnia-Herzegovina	? - ?	France
Euro 2012 - Group E (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Moldova	2 - 0	Finland
FT	Sweden	2 - 0	Hungary
FT	San Marino	0 - 5	Holland
	September 7
20:00	Sweden	? - ?	San Marino
20:30	Holland	? - ?	Finland
20:30	Hungary	? - ?	Moldova
Euro 2012 - Group F (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Latvia	0 - 3	Croatia
FT	Greece	1 - 1	Georgia
	September 7
19:00	Georgia	? - ?	Israel
19:30	Malta	? - ?	Latvia
20:30	Croatia	? - ?	Greece
Euro 2012 - Group G (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Montenegro	1 - 0	Wales
FT	England	4 - 0	Bulgaria
	September 7
19:30	Bulgaria	? - ?	Montenegro
20:45	Switzerland	? - ?	England
Euro 2012 - Group H (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Iceland	1 - 2	Norway
FT	Portugal	4 - 4	Cyprus
	September 7
20:15	Denmark	? - ?	Iceland
20:30	Norway	? - ?	Portugal
Euro 2012 - Group I (qualifiers)
	September 3
FT	Lithuania	0 - 0	Scotland
FT	Liechtenstein	0 - 4	Spain
	September 7
20:15	Czech Republic	? - ?	Lithuania
21:00	Scotland	? - ?	Liechtenstein

Gara noastră mică

1-1

Ok, so we lost the first Euro 2012 football qualifiers' game. What a sad moment -

But wait! we didn't lose! we drew the match against the Albanians, 1-1. A draw who looks like a victory, given the terrible playstyle of our national team. Luckily, our goalie denied the Albanians the victory in the very last seconds of the match, otherwise we would gloriously lead the standings - when looking from the bottom to the top.

Good work, guys!

Half the team should go home and think. Think hard. Ask themselves "Who am I?", "Where am I coming from?", "Where do I go?", "Why do I insist playing football?" - you know this kind of questions.

The other half, plus some outsiders, are to be beaten next Tuesday in Minsk, Bielorussia. (The Belarus team just knocked down France yesterday, 1-0 in Paris).

This is a crazy world, anyway.

It's Anglo-Portuguese here ...

From now on this blog shall be bi-lingual. I'll use - or I may say I'll try to use - both Romanian and English in my posts.

And no, there won't be a translation of the posts already here.

Speaking of multilingualism, let's try some Portuguese first:

http://www.trilulilu.ro/NoMore/e9cf4ad0cb150b

Didn't ever knew this lady can sing like that ...