Hello everyone, I am writing again or rather, continuing my previous note, as promised, although it has taken a while, I admit. The thing is that the more news I read from my colleagues, the more I feel that what I have to say is not as exciting, so I chickened out a little bit. But great talents don’t give up so easy, so here I am again!

It has been a long time now since our St Patrick’s Day party, but its memory is not fading. It was rather successful, most of the invited guests turned up and they all enjoyed the green decoration and good Irish whisky along with Baileys. The dancers had two sessions, danced for about twenty minutes then had a rest for about half an hour and did another twenty minutes. They were fantastic! I have seen Lord of the Dance live and am a great fan of Iris step dancing for a long time but these kids were amazing. I envied the smile on their faces, I’m sure this must be the most difficult to learn when doing step dancing, not to let the effort and tiredness show.
I tried to find pictures of them made during their performance but it seems that no one was taking any, I assume we were all busy watching them. The band who played the music was also really good, and I can say that first time in my life I held a real harp in my hands… while helping them to move the instruments from one corner of the room to the other. Still, it was an experience. After the live music and dancing finished, we continued partying, and the volunteers behind the bar tried to cope with the crowd. They did really well, I’m sure even a professional pub would have envied their customer service skills and the speed they poured Guinness and Kilkenny. To cut a long story short, it was a good night all in all, and I hope we will have more like this in the future.

Back at work it has been busy recently, with the end of the Financial Year, which is 31 March for us each year. It means that we have to close down all the budget lines, and make sure we spent all the money we had and we spent it well. The aim is that we make plans for the whole year and try to spend money evenly during the months, and try not to wait until the middle of March when everyone starts panicking if there is too much money left. Not that it has ever happened to us of course!

Another exciting task at the end of the Financial Year (FY) is the work I have to do on the Embassy’s computer based accounting system. It is called Prism and lots of colleagues have goose pimples when this word is mentioned. I personally like it, although it took some time to understand the whole procedure and to get used to it. I explain in a nutshell so that you understand what it is: Before we buy anything at the Embassy, we have to ask for a quote from the supplier, then enter all the information we have on Prism, forward the so called requisition to the Budget Holder who approves it, the requisition automatically lands in a third person’s inbox, who has to create a Purchase Order (PO) number and only when it is all done, can we order the goods or services. Once it is ordered and we received it, the very first person, who created the requisition has to receive it on Prism, and when you think that you can’t read any longer about it, it is only half way through the procedure. The PO then lands at the Accountant, who receives the invoice and has to find the entries on Prism before he can pay it. If we forget to do any of the steps above, the invoice can’t get paid and London tells us off. So my duty is to make sure everything goes well. Since I like to be important, I enjoy this role and I am really proud that thanks to the work of all the colleagues involved, Budapest is amongst the best on the top list of Embassies in Europe.

It is now June; I can’t believe how quickly the spring disappeared. In June we are busy organising the biggest event of the year, the garden party at the Residence to celebrate the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. Some of you might know that her real birthday is on 21 April, it is her official birthday in June. This tradition was first started by Edward VII, who was born in November in 1841, and who realised after a few unsuccessful, wet and cold parties that the November weather was not suitable for such events. He very wisely moved the big day to June and it has stayed there ever since. The Queen’s official birthday is now celebrated on the first, second, or third Saturday in June, it is different each year. We in Budapest celebrate it on the Wednesday, nearest the actual Saturday. Apart from the obvious celebration of Her Majesty’s birthday, we hold the event to invite all our contacts, who helped us in any way during the year, to say thank you. It is also a great networking opportunity for everyone attending, I am tempted to say it is one of the most famous garden parties in Budapest. As I said, garden party, which means that we pray all year for good weather on the day. There was a year, when it was raining quite a lot before the party, and even though it was not raining on the day, the lawn and the garden was like a pool. I think though, that the most remarkable year was the last one, when it was not just wet, but muddy, and about eight hundred guests were treading ankle high in the luckily warm slob. Some of them very understandably didn’t find it so funny.

The preparations for the party start as early as January to make sure everything is in place. Luckily the script is more or less the same each year, so those involved only have to refresh our memories and consult our files to spring into action. This year is going to be special though, not only because we have a new Ambassador to host the party but because we have invited Hungarian celebrities as well! I wonder who will turn up, since it has never happened before, in fact, I don’t think celebs are often invited to such official events of foreign missions. I might take a booklet to collect signatures… no, I have never been that type!

On the day of the party the caterers, cooks and everyone involved start working very early, so that all the food, drinks, ice, glasses, etc, are ready for the afternoon. This year I hope the gods will like us and there will be no rain, but just in case we've ordered a marquee and some wooden flooring to be on the safe side!
There will be a band playing music as well and Waiters and Waitresses will be carrying food around on trays all afternoon. Everything will have to be in place by five o’clock, when the first guests start arriving. It is fascinating to see them dressed up beautifully, some ladies may even wear hats, and there are more and more people standing and chatting with glasses in their hands as the time goes on. By about six o’clock the lawn is usually so crowded that it is difficult for the Waiters, Waitresses to move around. They however manage to do so and they reward is the grateful smile on the faces of the hungry people.

Kinga Göncz will be Guest of Honour, and the Ambassador says a toast a little bit after six o’clock, then the band plays both countries’ National Anthems. By eight o’clock most of the guests are gone, and the remaining people, mostly Embassy staff (including myself) try to finish off the champagne in very high spirits. The whole party is over in three – four hours….half a year’s work and organisation goes so quickly. A couple of days later the Residence garden looks as if nothing has ever happened there. And soon we will have to start it again from the very beginning. One of my fondest memories is when a few years ago I was standing by the entrance welcoming and directing guests towards the Ambassador to greet them. My forever favourite Writer, Translator and President, Mr. Árpád Göncz was also invited and when I saw him in the queue, I felt really proud that I could go to him, shake his hands and lead him to the Ambassador. He was very kind and honest, just as I imagined he would be. Let’s hope, I can shake hands with a few handsome Actors this year!!

Other than that we say good-bye to a few colleagues this summer and welcome new ones, which means lots of work for our Section. Departing diplomats mean almost as much work as new arrivals and typically enough they more often than not do it in groups, to make us panic of forgetting or missing something. We are expecting two new local colleagues as well in the near future, lots of changes at the Embassy this summer.

If you found my second bulletin just half as interesting as the first one, I am satisfied. Thank you for reading it!

5 June 2008