Stephen won best compere at Chortle awards tonight!!!!

We are both immensely proud and over the moon at Stephen's great success tonight. He is a very good compere, funny, witty, well informed and at times very deep. He is also a great stand-up comic and truly deserved this recognition. But then again, I am biased, that's true!! :-)

Well done son! First of many!!

Culture, lovely weather and friends

A busy week, as usual. We finally took the bull by the horn and closed both the OTP and CIB bank accounts and shifted all our money to the Raiffeisen Bank. This was easy, the problem is shifting all the direct debits as well. I have done the paperwork with the Raiffeisen, but if past experience is anything to go by it will not be settled for at least a month or two. What seems like a straightforward operation in England is a complicated, long winded procedure taking months in Hungary. Still, I think we had to do it and will have to weather the chaos around the direct debits until they solve themselves.

We also had the the parquet guy laying the levelling compound in the Farmhouse in Bér last Tuesday, which didn't take him too long. He is due back sometime this coming week to start laying the parquet itself. What he had done so far looks very good, let us hope that the parquet will look just as nice.

The main event of the week was our weekend away with our friend Andor. (see him taking a picture in one of the piccies!). He is standing on top of the Rezi Castle ruins in the Keszthely mountains in the picture, but I am getting ahead of myself. We left BP on Friday morning and visited the Chateau at Nádasdladány en route. It is an impressive old building, which was built in the 1870's and is being restored at the moment. (see picture above). We found a really lovely restaurant in Várpalota, where we had a good lunch. We arrived at Robert and Volker's house in Révfülöp round 4pm, which was a bit early, but they welcomed us all the same.

The big hike on the Saturday was to Rezi Castle and just to make it special Roy joined us too. We walked up about 4km to the top of the mountain and found impressive ruins only to be outdone by the view, which was spectacular. After this Roy walked back down to the village the way we came, while Andor and I went on a GPS led ridge walk of indeterminate route with no paths, lots of undergrowth and steep climbs. I know ridges are not supposed to have steep climbs, but this one did! When we returned at exactly 4pm we found Roy happily snoozing in the car. He had done the pub, the church and the graveyard, which he found interesting.

The one disaster of the weekend hit us on Saturday night when the only restaurant open in the entire village had a private function and didn't let us in. After a somewhat fraught wild goose chase after a non-existent pizza joint we returned to the house and ate what we found in our bags, which wasn't much, but thankfully we could wash it down with copious bottles of beer purchased earlier in Tesco.

On Sunday we went to see the Hungarian equivalent of limestone pavement, except these stones are sandstone. They were formed at the bottom of the ancient Pannon see due to volcanic venting throwing up stuff that made the sand into stone. Then we visited an abandoned basalt quarry, which was magical. I only put in one picture, but I took dozens. The long organ pipes were fascinating and so was the view from the top. We could see all the way to the other side of the Balaton, although it was a bit hazy.

After an equally delicious lunch in the same place where we ate on Friday we returned tired, but very happy from our outdoor adventure mixed with seeing our good friends Robert and Volker. Must do it again!!!

A busy week

Jo and Chris (see them with Roy on the Fishermen's Bastion) arrived on Monday. We did some sight seeing with them on Monday and Tuesday and then Jo and Julianna went to the Opera. This time there was no roughing it (courtesy of Jo!), we had a first floor box, which was a treat. We saw The Magic Flute in Hungarian, which was unusual. This season all the operas I have seen were in the original language with subtitles above the stage. I suppose I should call them overtitles then! :-)

On Wednesday we popped down to Bér where Jo and Chris had a little wander on their own and we all met up in the pub. A beer or two later she learnt how to roll her own cigarettes Hungarian style. We also drove up to Virágos to look around and were treated to 24 year old plum pálinka in the inn. Got some good ideas for the pig roast for the wedding as well as top soil for the front garden, so it was a useful little trip.

On Thursday Jo and Chris gone out on their own up the Buda hills, which turned out to be quite a nice little trip. They took the cog-wheel railway and then the Children's Railway, which is totally run by children, except for the engine driver. The woods were glittering with hoar frost in the cold air. Jo also had her hair cut for less than a quarter of what it would have cost her at home and we all thought she looked great. Roy and I went and bought all but the last 4 bags of levelling compound for the parquet layer next week, which Roy then drove straight to Bér.

Friday brought a visit to the thermal baths by Chris and Julianna, while Roy went to the Transport Museum and Jo did some work and shopping. Jo and Chris's visit really went past very fast and before we knew it Roy was taking them to the airport. I went to the cinema with a friend on Friday afternoon: we saw Piaf - Le Vie en Rose, which was a revelation. I knew she had a hard life, but after this film I am amazed she lived as long as she did do and had a fantastic career as she did. Marion Cotillard deserved her Golden Globe, BAFTA and several other nominations for best actress for her performance, she was amazing. Jutka and I went to a bar for a drink and a chat afterwards and she was very understanding about me leaving my orienteering club. I have at least one friend left then! :-)

Finally, Saturday took me to some friends' house just outside Budapest where we had two days of lovely hikes, food, drink and good company. As Roy does not hike, he joined us later on the Saturday, having done the shopping for the last 5 bags of levelling compound. The second picture is part of the group on the hike, where the weather was brilliant sunshine punctuated by snow showers and nasty wind, making it feel like -15 Celsius. It was a great weekend and now we are back in Bér.

Opera, Opera, warfare and a nice dinner with friends

I think I will do this week backwards. Today I went to a fantastic free concert in the Castle District which was a revelation. The composer was called Christian Geist and he was a contemporary of Buxtehude. I have never heard of him before and he is great. So was the orchestra and the choir.

Yesterday we had some friends for dinner (see picture) and to look at our Canadian holiday pictures. It was such a nice time to have them over, they can't be persuaded to visit too often, so this was a treat.

In the morning I went to an orienteering training event in what felt like spring rather than winter. I am still not 100% so I just did the 2900 m course and enjoyed it.

Round about Wednesday or Thursday a small war broke out in my orienteering club, upshot of which is that I am leaving and joining another club. Those of you who know me of old will realise that I have done this once before: the year was 1990 and I then left Southdowns and joined Mole Valley. Considering that that was one of the best and happiest decisions I ever made, perhaps this one will be just the same.

Another vaguely annoying event of the week concerned my Bank. As mentioned a few posts ago I was not impressed with my new bank I acquired reluctantly through merger. On Thursday I went to see them and this time I had to wait over an hour in what looked like a totally empty bank. There were not too many customers about, however they definitely outnumbered staff who were decidedly not too numerous and/or working rather slowly. Taking long breaks between customers, chatting amiably, not looking in any particular hurry. After that we had definitely decided the the CIB bank will have to do without us and prompty opened an account with the Raiffeisen Bank on the way home. Since then we had a slight hiccup in not being able to upload the picture they need for making our cards, but that should be sorted this week.

And now for the highlight of this last week: my two visits to the Opera. On Tuesday we had dinner with Robert and Volker, my opera going friends in our favourite restaurant prior to an excellent performance of Rigoletto. Then on Wednesday I went and saw Turandot with Klari and Ildi, two of my orienteering friends, which was also great. Sitting up in the gods for the princely figure of £2.20 ($4.50) is a brilliant idea. The accoustics are so good that it is positively enjoyable, even though the stage is quite a long way away. A couple of good evenings out they were!

Must go to bed now as its gone midnight.

Birthday party in Bér

Sorry for the long delay in posting, but the first week after the last entry nothing much was happening, so I was waiting for something to photograph and/or to talk about, then the last week was madly busy, so I have just got to it. The piccies are all happy ones - more about them later.

First some bad news: Stephen's Saturday morning show on BBC Southern Counties Radio has finished, which apart from being a sad event for all listeners in Sussex, Surrey and bits of Kent/Hampshire (yeah, the biased mother talking! :-)) is particularly sorry news for Roy and me. For well over 2 years now that program was our main source of news of him, as his busy life hardly allows him to ring up and chat. Shame, but life goes on and as we always say: "When one door closes another opens!" That is very much the case in showbusiness, even more that in other professions - he has to move on and build his career in lots of different directions.

Now for the weekend just gone. It was my friend Laci's 60th birthday and as he only has a small flat with neurotic neighbours, who complain about him sneezing, never mind having parties, we offered to put it on. The advance guard of Laci, Zsuzsi and Szundi (see picture of them with Roy round the table) came on Friday to start cooking. I must have put on several pounds this weekend as there was plenty to eat and drink right through. On Saturday there was more cooking followed by a nice walk in the surrounding hills. Once the rest of them have turned up (which made for a crowd of 13 including the 2 of us), after lunch we walked round the village (see piccie of our 13th century church) and then the piece de resistence - the Birthday Dinner. Laci's face watching his fireworks over his cake is delightful to behold. He is not one of nature's natural smilers, but he looked truly happy that night.

On Sunday we walked to Ber's world famous andezite rocks, including two of our guests doing some geocaching nearby. I didn't tell them where the box was, but they found it very easily. I found it 2 years ago with some other GPS wielding friends, although I coudn't remember the exact location myself. The obligatory picture on top of the rocks shows the crowd minus the birthday boy and Roy, who didn't come, me (taking it) and the two geocaching friends who had to leave early.

Now we are back in Budapest as this week is full of Opera visits and visitors coming over to see our Canadian pictures, while next week we have Jo and Chris (Roy's nephew and his wife) coming to visit.

Next post sometimes next week (hopefully).