Short resume of the last week:
Monday we went to the cemetery. Primarily to enquire about how much it is going to cost me to keep my parents ashes at the cemetery for another 10 years. After the initial outlay of about 50 quid in 1980 and subsequent renewals costing roughly the same, they now want nearly 200 quid. Sod that!! - was Roy's comment and I totally concur. Thankfully, since the fall of communism they have relaxed their atavistic fear of anything to do with death in Hungary and now, I am told, you can take them home. That is exactly what we are planning to do when we get round to it next year.
However, the highlight of the trip was a visit to parcel 301. This was one of about 2 or 3 areas hidden away in the far end of the cemetery where in the stalinist days they buried all those who have died in prisons, torture victims and especially all those executed and tortured to death in and after the 1956 revolution. It is now a beautiful plot, tastefully renovated and a lovely memorial created to all those who have died.
This, we followed up with a lovely lunch at the old rifle club, now a gorgeous restaurant. The cakes you could kill for there and we took 3 home for later.
Wednesday was rather full of activities: Sheila went home and Roy saw her to the airport, where, apparently, she was royally treated and taken by wheelchair all the way to the plane. I, however, was in a park, running around as one of the organisers of a children's orienteering event. It turned out to be a fantastic day, in spite of the fact that the results printer died on us half way through. We were helped out by a nearby school where we ended up using their electricity. About 350 children attended and due to the enthusiasm of the teacher and his sports club who put this together, who brought his mobile rock climbing wall and other activities, everybody had a lovely time. The orienteering course was also well received, so much so that it was on television in the evening and the local aurthority was impressed as well.
On Thursday we departed once again for the Bukk where we are now. The weather turned cold, but at least I have Roy with me this time, so I am only cold, not lonely as well, like last time. This weekend I am running in the Hungarian Night Orienteering Championships and another two events on Sunday and Monday. The following week I am working with Laci on my course and his and when I got home next Friday I have only one evening to recover before travelling to Ljubjana for another two Trail-O Events.
PS: Won W60 at the Night Champs, which wasn't particularly difficult as there was only 2 of us in the class. However, when you look at all the classes that were on my course I managed to beat all W60's, W55's and M75's as well. I was the only one under 40 minutes, my friend and rival Klari managed 42, all others were in the 50's and the other lady in W60 took over 100 minutes. I congratulated her on her perseverence at the presentations.
Sunday's event was dreadful. The gung-ho planner, who managed to overplan the night courses, but at least that was a championships, tried to kill off allcomers on Sunday as well. There are obviously several Mike Elliots all over the world, but this one is only a pipsqueak of a youngster, but his courses were monstrous. Added to that, the weather deteriorated further, so my 54 minutes for 2.8km, while seemingly too long, still seemed a good time. I fell over several times on slippery rocks and fallen logs, so it felt more like a survival race than orienteering. They cancelled the presentations, mostly because everybody had gone home by then, it was that cold. The car thermometer showed 5 degrees Celsius when we finally got going.
The really bad news, of course, is that if this weather holds, that will scupper the rest of the week which Laci and I planned to spend fine-tuning our courses and doing the controlling for each other. Shall I rub it in that having left everything to the last minute, he is now in a lot of trouble, having wasted 4 days of precious holiday? Well, let us hope that the rain stops soon and we can get some work done before Friday.
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