The same story with the lard. The administrators of the meat shops came and bought salt, 10 kilos of it. Out of 100 kilos of lard they put 10 aside and salted the rest with the 10 kilos of salt. The scales did not betray them. I never did this, but heard of it. I did my stealing, true, but it was almost legal. (I. H., 48 and 54)

My most beautiful memory from the ?80 was winning the ? European Champions? Cup? by Steaua, at Seville, a match with the famous FC Barcelona, who played at home. 7 May 1986! Duckadam and his great performance at the 11 meters- he kept 4 goals, entered the Book of Records. As a reward, they each received a car ARO, because of the good will of the person behind the team, Valentin Ceausescu. They were received by the president Ceausescu and they were given the medal Steaua RSR and were declared ? Emeritus sportsmen?. A reward inadequate to the value of the gained title and much inferior to the rewards granted by other Western clubs for winning such a trophy. Not to mention the money the Romanian state and not the club had gained after such a victory!! (V. C., 26)

Steaua couldn?t have won the Cup if Valentin hadn?t involved himself. It could be a thing like Nicusor?s dealing with the horses. Why am I telling all this? Valentin receives an invitation from the Royal family of Greece to take part in a sea cruising, by yacht, for two weeks. At the same time in Brasov a big bridge competition was about to take place. The bridge players had gathered all the papers to make a foundation and suggested Valentin as the president of the federation. He had some friends that he had helped to get out of the country and they have stayed there, they had left for some international bridge competitions in Baden, Germany and hadn?t come back. When Elena Ceausescu heard that bridge was a card game she thought that it must be the same thing like Nicusor?s card games and delegated her friend Bobu to see what bridge was all about; so Bobu came to Brasov. The bridge competition usually started on Fridays and ended on Sunday evenings so people could make preparations for the journey home. So Bobu went there and asked ? what?s with all these people here??  They said it was a competition, the date had been settled long time before. Bobu was about to faint, in front of the ? Culture House?, there was a big gathering of people. They came from all over the country, from Hungary, Poland; there were mutual competitions one had to attend; there were about one hundred pairs and Bobu asked, how they came.