GOTG 2015 - Round 4 - January 2015

Round 4 Winner - Miklós Morandini

Miklós Morandini is almost out of university, and freshly introduced to the perils of a full time job. He is desperately trying not to become the average drone in a multinational company, since those are rarely any fun. Laughter, however, is very important, and he is here exactly for that. A returning speechslammer, an amateur actor, an avid videogamer, and full time idiot (in the good sense, mostly), he's also here to settle a score.

Round 4 Competitors

Matty Ryan's CV and his LinkedIn profile tells him that he's an accomplished Senior Finance and Administration Management Professional with a wealth of international finance experience in permanent and interim roles in finance, project, program and transition management in industries including IT, Construction and Professional Services.  Well, that's just grand, especially given that he paid for it, but it does not tell us that he's been in Hungary since May 1992, before Becketts was even born, at a time when all the Expats in town went to the Fregatt pub every weekend, and on most weekdays too. What fun that was! He has 4 lovely daughters, 3 of whom are here with him in Budapest, with his wife Edit, and the other one is back in Ireland. Matty likes to work hard and play hard, and those who know him well will resonate easily with this self-characterization...he hopes. On weekends, he's very much a 'red' man, supporting Arsenal in the foci and Munster in the rugby, with a bottle of red wine in front of him!

Gordon Cross is a confused middle aged man who still thinks he is an attractive chap in the prime of his life, whilst everything  indicates the opposite. Having had an ok start in life on a northern UK sheep farm where a few profitable years were spent on his education, he has since squandered his inheritance on east European property and pension schemes... a race to the bottom in terms of investment yield.  He tried  to make his fortune in the big city as a young man, but left in his early 30s on a motorbike to being his drift East, unable to sell magic beans as a consultant and no longer prepared to work 14-hour days to support the UK benefit system. Gordon likes looking for universal truths and is a politically incorrect and unashamed critic of the forces that would destroy civilization as we know it ....  His second GOTG performance, if it is allowed to run for the full time without breaking house rules, could be an unmitigated disaster and may probably mean another long motorcycle trip to escape the embarrassment of failure.

Daniel Stalter was raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He entered the US Navy in 1966 and eventually retired from their in 1992. While he was there he managed to stay out of trouble as a Hospital Corpsman. After retirement, he worked as a civilian contractor for the US Army in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Serpska, Kosovo, Kuwait, and Iraq. The man gets around. Dan's been in Budapest since 2006 and reckons he has a few more years to go. This is is first GOTG appearance above floor-level.

Peter Temesvary moved to Hungary in the late 1990's from Vilnius, after completing a PhD in Ancient Lithuanian Pottery.  He had thought the Baltics would be the best place to observe the fall of Communism from, but quickly realised the climate was just a bit too cold for someone hailing from the beaches of Southern California.  Visions of herdsmen on the Puszta, and dreams of garlic lángos and nagyfröccs on the shores of Lake Balaton brought him to Hungary to seek out his roots.  He got here just in time to see that last of the Wartburgs and Polski Fiats  He's developed quite an affection for Hungary, in particular for pálinka (which leaves even the best starka in the dust), all this in spite of the Hun and Magyar pottery being decidedly less extravagant than that of the Sudovians and Ruthenians.  He reckons he'll stick around for a few more years.