Getting ahead.

Things here are distinctly different from the UK. Whereas, for example, Hungary has embraced capitalism to such an extent that they are so bust they had to get USD 10 billion from the IMF, Romania is still a very agrarian economy. The banks mostly exist to perform currency transactions for all those sending back money from overseas. To tell you how unsophisticated they are, the last time I was here I enquired whether - with cash on deposit - we could borrow short term against it.
Absolutely - just transfer the money from deposit into your current account.
No that's not what I meant. Leave the money in the deposit, take a small amount out of the current account.
Definitely not.
I was reminded of the Railway Children. There is a scene when the son is stealing coal from the station pile. He eventually puts it back, but the point is there is a white line painted round it to tell whether any has been stolen. Of course, it doesn't actually stop you stealing it, it just tells the authorities it has been stolen. Similarly, I was most amused to see piles of concrete railway sleepers with white lines carefully painted on them - and a big gap in the middle where some had been stolen. As there is a railway heritage project nearby I can almost guarantee where they have gone - and so can everyone else. When the local policeman arrived at the project, he was met with a huge pile of railway sleepers - but all with carefully painted black lines. Honour was satisfied by a smaller pile of sleepers with white lines - which the manager of the project said he had found dumped nearby, and had every intention of returning to the railway managers.
Although English is spoken by many people, what one might call the agrarian population doesn't - but clearly have aspirations. Every T-shirt has an English slogan, and bomber jackets are universally emblazoned with English across the back.
I spotted one which was " Make your own destiny" on the back of what looked like a tramp - but then, when you work in the fields rather than sitting in a tractor you do get messy.
Through Alin, I asked if the wearer knew what it meant.
Definitely - he had chosen it because he liked the shape of the saying, but a friend had translated it for him. Now he was trying to live his life in such a way as to make it come true.
And was it working? I asked.
Definitely - he had already got a job rather than living off handouts and stealing.
If only everyone in certain parts of the UK would make the same committment, things might be rather better.