Playing the Moldovans at Tennis

by Tony Hawks | Travel |
ISBN: 0091874564 Global Overview for this book
Registered by weebly of Hartwell, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on 1/7/2004
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12 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by weebly from Hartwell, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Having read around Ireland with a Fridge - I couldn't resist getting this book too, About another drunken challenge accepted by Tony Hawks.

Update 8/1 - went to go to sleep tonight and found DH reading this book and laughing good sign I think!

The bit that tickled his funny bone was the football match between FC Agro and Dynamo Bender (Tony imagined Dynamo Bender being represented by 11 men who minced about the pitch shouting 'chase me' to a load of bewildered thugs from FC Agro who all got sent of for fighting), and the tennis court where the fence actually was erected along the base line and down the side of the court, and a net across the top, which kind of restricted the game a little.

Journal Entry 2 by weebly from Hartwell, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, January 7, 2004
This is destined to be a ray after I have read it. **Chaneg of Plan - this is becoming a ring so I can release this well travelled book in my local OBCZ at Salcey FOrest Cafe in Northamponshire to end it's days in peace.

Running order and rules :

Gooner - formerly Chrisp93 - Ely, England
Kleptokitty -Farnborough, Hampshire
KathyS - Ramsey, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
TimTheMed - London, England
semioticghost - London, England
perfect-circle - Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear
Olifant - Utrecht Netherlands
EmEli - Leiden, Zuid Holland Netherlands
Jonkheer - Alkmaar, Noord-Holland Netherlands
DJgib - amsterdam, noord holland, netherlands
tachyonuk - Eastbourne, England **Skipped - found own copy**
te-sa - Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany <----- Arrived.
Felsenpinguin - München, Bayern Germany
Anke68 - Hamburg, Germany
Finally - home to me.

To join the list just pm me

Here's how to play:

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 (erm, 4!)

1. When you receive the book, make a journal entry so we can all see that it has landed safely.

2. PM the next person in line for their address. If you haven't had a reply from them after a week, move on to the next name down (and drop me a line to let me know what's happened.) We can always loop back for anyone who misses out due to holidays, etc, but I'd like to keep the book travelling reasonably quickly if at all possible.

3. Read (and hopefully enjoy) the book, and make a journal entry to tell us what you thought.

4. Make release notes/a journal entry to say when the book is leaving your hands and who'll be catching it next, and pop it into the post!

Journal Entry 3 by weebly from Hartwell, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on Thursday, January 15, 2004
I have finished this book in time to take to Chrisp on Saturday when we have a book crossing meet in London.

It was an amusing book, not really laugh out loud, but I am not a laugh out loud sort of person. If you enjoy this you will also enjoy Round Island with a Fridge, by Tony, and Join Me by Danny Wallace. They are all about daft English blokes getting a little bit drunk and being dared or bet to do something daft.

Journal Entry 4 by weebly at n/a in n/a, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, January 29, 2004
Released on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 at n/a in n/a, Bookrelay Controlled Releases.

Posted to Chrisp together with Billy.

Journal Entry 5 by Gooner from March, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Friday, January 30, 2004
Thanks for sending this one to us, weebly. It arrived today.

Will journal it when DH and I have finished reading it.

Because of time-pressures, neither DH nor I managed to get through this one. I read the first 10 chapters or so and was enjoying it, but could not anticipate when I was going to finish it, because of other book group reads that I have on hand.

Thanks for the opportunity.

I took this book to the Nottingham Meet-up yesterday and passed it on to Kleptokitty, who is next on the list.

Journal Entry 6 by Kleptokitty on Sunday, March 28, 2004
Couldn't resist signing up for this after reading Round Ireland with a Fridge which I thought was hilarious. Gooner kindly passed this on at the Nottingham meet up yesterday & I'll get started on it just as soon as I can.

Journal Entry 7 by Kleptokitty on Tuesday, April 6, 2004
I did enjoy this, but it's not a patch on Round Ireland with a Fridge. I think I enjoyed Round Ireland more because it was a based in a setting I could relate to. I also think I'd have enjoyed this one more had I not constantly been trying to compare the two!

Will do my best to get it off in the post today.

Journal Entry 8 by KathyS from Ramsey, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Saturday, April 10, 2004
Well that was a shock - I'd completely forgotten signing up for this bookring. But I'm very happy as I loved Round Ireland so can't wait to get stuck into this.

Thanks for the nice surprise Kleptokitty - and Weebly for sharing in the first place :o)

Journal Entry 9 by KathyS from Ramsey, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, April 20, 2004
I loved this book - maybe even more than Round Ireland With A Fridge. Okay so it doesn't have the glorious Irish humour of RIWAF but it does have real warmth and love for the Moldovan people, even though they tried their hardest to thwart his plans :o) Not as laugh-out-loud funny as I'd hoped but it is a touching tale of a man's effort to prove himself right and win a bet against all the odds. A Great book :o)

Released on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 at Postal Release in Royal Mail, England United Kingdom.

On its way to TimTheMed. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 11 by TimTheMed on Sunday, May 2, 2004
Sorry for the delay in acknowledging the book's arrival. My excuse is that we've had our third child between the book's arrival and now and I've been a bit distracted!

Anyway, things bode well for this book IMHO, as I've started it, and physically smiled and ALMOST LOL-ed at some of the content :)

Tim

Journal Entry 12 by wingSemioticghostwing from Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom on Thursday, September 30, 2004
This arrived yesterday - thanks a lot!! I'm looking forward to it, especially as I have a stinking cold and could do with a few laughs :)
starting to read now and am PMing PC for her address.

Journal Entry 13 by wingSemioticghostwing from Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom on Monday, October 4, 2004
Very funny, though not quite as hilarious as Round Ireland with a Fridge. This one was more thoughtful and I loved it.
Off to Michelle Today, with a little extra :)

Journal Entry 14 by wingSemioticghostwing at on Monday, October 4, 2004

Released 19 yrs ago (10/4/2004 UTC) at

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Sent off to perfect-circle today.

Journal Entry 15 by perfect-circle from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear United Kingdom on Tuesday, October 5, 2004
Arrived today. I loved Round Ireland with a fridge, so I'm hoping this will be just as good, if not better.

Journal Entry 16 by perfect-circle from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear United Kingdom on Friday, October 8, 2004
This was very enjoyable but not as funny as Round Ireland With A Fridge although it did teach me a little about Moldova, a country I knew nothing about beforehand. I also loved the FC Agro vs Dynamo Bender match and the little 'twist' at the end.

Off to Olifant today.

Journal Entry 17 by Olifant from Porthmadog, Wales United Kingdom on Sunday, October 17, 2004
Yes, looking forward to this one and starting directly. Thanks perfect-circle for sending and weebly for 'raying' the book!

Dutch version of Round Ireland with a fridge: Door Ierland met een koelkast
His third book: One Hit Wonderland

Journal Entry 18 by Olifant from Porthmadog, Wales United Kingdom on Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Grigore took a sip from his brandy and it somehow gave him the inspiration to attempt some English.
‘What iz you? Ears?’
‘What?’
‘What iz you ears?’
‘Ears?’
‘Da – ears. Uno, doi, tre – ears! What iz your ears?’
‘I’m not sure I know what you mean.’
Yes I was. I was damn sure I didn’t have a clue what he meant.
‘Me,’ continued Grigore bravely. ‘Me – patruzeci trei ears.’
Ah, I recognised some numbers in there. I’d learned a bit of counting.
‘Patruzeci - that’s forty.’
‘Da.’
‘And trei is three.’
‘Da.’
‘Right. So you’re saying you have forty-three ears?’
‘Da! Da!’ he cried with immense relief.
I looked at him in disbelief. He appeared to be exaggerating by forty-one.
‘Oh!’ I said, the penny finally dropping. ‘You’re saying you have forty-three years.’
‘Da. Da. What iz your ears?’
‘I’m thirty-eight.’


Read the whole book with a smile on my face. I sometimes even laughed out loud. Like when Tony uses strepsils for stomach ache, when he visits Elena’s school and hears about Uncle Oscar, when he has to learn Play Station Tennis. Tony also feels confused and guilty when he compares his weird bet and his life in Britain to life in Moldova.

And... Tony’s scientific experiment concludes that optimism produces results ;-).

Thanks weebly for sharing this book. And off it goes to EmEli!

Journal Entry 19 by EmEli from Voorschoten, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Thursday, October 21, 2004
Yay! Guess what I found in the mailbox this morning! This is the first bookray I'm participating in. I can't wait to start reading, but I have an important exam tomorrow afternoon, so I am going to have to restrain myself. ;-) I'll start reading this weekend and send it on to Jonkheer as soon as possible.

Journal Entry 20 by EmEli from Voorschoten, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Monday, November 8, 2004
I finished the book and I loved it. Now I want to read "Round Ireland with a fridge" as well. I couldn't help laughing out loud, that man is crazy, but what a determination! My boyfriend wanted to read it as well since I had to laugh so much, so he read it after me, he liked it as well, though not as much as I did.
Since I am going to the meeting in Alkmaar next Sunday I will hand it over to Jonkheer there.

Journal Entry 21 by Jonkheer from Alkmaar, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Sunday, November 14, 2004
Op de meeting in Alkmaar heel hebberig een grote stapel boeken meegenomen waaronder deze. En dat terwijl ik al zoveel ongelezen boeken heb. Nou ja op Himalaya TBR dus maar. Ik probeer het zo snel mogelijk te lezen en daarna gaat het naar Djgib.

Journal Entry 22 by weebly from Hartwell, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on Monday, March 7, 2005
I wanted to understand what the last journal entry said, I hope this is an accurate translation which a lovely dutch lady called Hanne did for me.

During the meeting in Alkmaar I have taken a big bunch of books with me very greedy, among which this one.
And that as I have already so many unread books. Well yeah, thus on Himalaya TBR. I will try to read it as soon as possible and then it goes to Djgib.

Journal Entry 23 by Jonkheer from Alkmaar, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Monday, March 7, 2005
Yes Weebly, the translation is correct. I should have made an entry in english ofcourse, i'm sorry. I greedely took it home and put it on that staggering pile of books i still have to read. Ik took it out now and will read it next after that it goes on its journey again.

Released 18 yrs ago (6/26/2005 UTC) at Strandpaviljoen de Schelp in Egmond aan zee, Bookcrossing Meetup -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Een ringboek dat ik al veel te lang in huis heb en maar niet aan toe kom. Het gaat nu dus (ongelezen) mee naar de meeting in Castricum voor de volgende.

Journal Entry 25 by DJgib from Cambridge, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Monday, June 27, 2005
Got this from Jonkheer yesterday at the meet-up. Another bookring just got in first, but that's a small book so I'll get round to this soon enough. I'll make sure I finish it before I go on holiday.

Journal Entry 26 by DJgib from Cambridge, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Monday, July 4, 2005
Finished this a couple of days ago, and had a great time with it. It's amazing what you can achieve with just mindless optimism!

The book was laugh out loud funny, Tony has a wonderfully easy writing style and the way he goes about things is extremely amusing. On the other hand, I agreed with some of the people in Moldova, I too had bad feelings about the fact that he was spending so much time and effort on something so frivolous, in a country where most people don't even have the basic standards of living. The letter from Adrian at the end made me feel better about that, as I'm sure it did Tony.

I have PMed tachyonuk for an address, but no reply yet. As said, I will do my best to move the book on before I leave for my holiday (which is in a few days time). Otherwise the book will move on in August.

Update 25th July: tachyonuk has found his/her own copy. I'm sending the book to te-sa tomorrow.

Journal Entry 27 by te-sa from Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Friday, July 29, 2005
The book was waiting on my doormat as I came home yesterday. I'm really looking forward to reading it, but will have to finish two rings first.

@ Weebly: Couldn't help noticing I'm the last one on the list. Will you further advertise this ray? Should I?

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