My twin brother just arrived...

...bearing gifts.

This is what he brought me.


I think Ramona will be able to appreciate this. In case you couldn't read the name of the author, it's Szergej Lukjanyenko, which is Hungarian transcription for Серге́й Лукья́ненко, or Sergei Lukyanenko. It's his novel Звезды - холодные игрушки ("The Stars Are Cold Toys") in Hungarian. Mmmmm.

So while my kids and their cousins are playing ball, I'm sitting with a cold virgin Mojito (Basia, I gotta drive today!) and a glass of ice brewed sweet tea under my orange tree and I'm reading the book.

And the bus on the front? That's a Ikarus. It plays a prominent role in the novel, and for years one bus like this, painted blue, played a prominent role in my life as I took it to school daily for three years as a kid in Budapest. My kids rode these buses in Budapest and before that in Győr for the first so many years of their lives. They rode a bus just like the one on the cover to pre-school camp three years in a row. So now my 6-year-old son J wants to read it. Probably he will lose interest by the middle of the first page with "Oy, adult stuff!"

Now I'm content with my book and my drinks. Oh yeah, and my kids. :-D