11th April 2011
Három, kettő, egy (3,2,1)…and thankfully the gun goes off when I squeeze the trigger, starting the family race in this year’s Vivicitta Budapest. (Vivicitta is an international running event held in April in more than 50 cities to promote “sport for all”.) The competitors – including my colleagues Eva and Levi – surge forward. Among […]
25th February 2011
Earlier this week I sat with the UK Sports Minister and leading members of the Hungarian Olympics and Paralympics Committees. Hugh Robertson was visiting to attend the Sports Ministerial Informal meeting at Gödöllő and at the end of his programme made time to meet our partners and ask what we could do to help them […]
25th November 2010
Sports of all kinds are popular in Ukraine. I’ve blogged before about that fact that at my 1:1 lunches, some of Ukraine’s top decision-makers are ready to have a quick game of table-tennis (a trend which continues – Ed) and about Kyiv’s fishing frenzy. So it’s an honour to have to lunch at the residence […]
11th November 2010
I was recently privileged to attend the Champions League match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Arsenal at the splendid Donbass Arena in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. As with all Champions League and Europa League matches in Ukraine, the embassy put in place consular arrangements including a small team travelling from Kyiv to Donetsk. Representatives of the Metropolitan Police also came […]
9th June 2010
What’s the toughest thing you can do to a Ukrainian student sitting an important English oral exam? How about bringing in the British ambassador to watch your conversational efforts, together with the head of the training institute and a photographer? That’s what happens when I visit the Kharkiv Aviation University and am shown round the […]