Socially Distanced in Budapest: Christian’s Story

During this period of self-confinement, the pace of life is certainly different. Habits change, but the goal remains the same. This confinement is a new situation for individuals, as well as communities. It’s an opportunity to consider the unthinkable, and a chance to recalibrate our conception of the world with how the world really is today. During these past few months, people all over the planet have been focused on adapting themselves for survival. New ideas and new visions are transforming the fear of the unknown into an exquisite expectation of discovering a new world.

March became April, and then May. In my daily life, I’ve completely re-organized the way I spend my time. Taking social-distancing seriously, I am like many people—spending a lot of time at home. I still have a job, so I won’t talk about vacation … there’s no room for laziness! The time seems long, but nobody can go against time. And the best way to tame it is to follow it, and let yourself get carried by it.

This time is not all bad, since I can finally have the opportunity to be able to devote more time to my son, Leonard, and my other half, Zsuzsanna. Since we have no television—just Internet—I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking. I am studying the Korean language (but it will take more than one pandemic before I master it). I play the electric guitar (trying to develop my proto-talent). I devour my library. And I take the opportunity to taste some excellent wines, while tidying up my cellar! I’m also developing some personal projects that I never had time for before.

On the professional side, I can compare the situation to an outstanding wine—we have to make sacrifices to be able to take full advantage of it in due time. I miss our tastings at The Tasting Table, and giving advice to our guests. But I’m happy to be able to keep in touch with them virtually during our facebook live tastings and our private zoom tastings, and also when I so personal deliveries in Budapest. I also miss having contact with the wine producers we work with, but I’m happy to be able to continue supporting them through our videos and our wine sales. Despite the crisis, I’m proud of how quickly we adapted to the circumstances, and our perseverance in developing our projects, considering only the beauty of the goal we want to achieve.

These are some of the things I’ve been reading …

Gibran Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lilly
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Christian Jacq, “The Mozart Series” (The Great Magician, The Son of Enlightenment, The Brother of Fire, The Beloved of Isis)
Márai Sándor, A Négy Évszak (in Hungarian)