Boating

On Saturday finally we went rowing in my keel boat. Roy was very brave and even managed to steer the boat occasionally. Jutka, on the other hand, was the real brave one as she set out on our little trip never having ever rowed in a big boat before. Good job I didn't know that, or we might not have set out in the first place.

The boatman warned us that it might leak, but assured us that there was no fear of capsizing. As it turned out there was not a drop of water in it, which was the good news. Everything else was more on the bad news side:
1. Jutka was absolutely hopeless, although towards the end she started getting better, but by then we were scrapping the whole affair.
2. I was not well enough to counteract the fact that she was useless and we could not go round the moored big boat which is a hotel. The speed of the river round that boat, coupled with the early summer spate it was in stopped us going further up the river.
3. Her seat started disintegrating, which might have just been bad luck or was perhaps caused by her pushing on it due to her inability of rowing properly. The boatman promised to fix the seat, although I am not sure when, if at all, we can go out again. Perhaps when I find myself a strong, big bloke who knows how to row I might risk it.
4. I got myself a sore bottom from the hard seat and a big blister on my left hand from the oar, but who's complaining?

All in all I am glad we went. It was not exactly a resounding success, although we have spent about an hour and a half just going about half a mile up river and back again. Still, the old boat passed with flying colours and if the weather allows it, we might try again sometime this summer.

Today Pete Serres arrived, which is good news. Visitors can be a chore, but he is a great conversationist and will cheer us all up. I am at home alone now while the boys have gone out to dinner and for a walk along the river at night. I didn't feel like it, preferring my cosy armchair and TV.

The War Cemetery

Today we came across the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery en route to our lunch in the country. They gathered all the dead from all over the country and buried them here. Mostly airmen, although there were a few soldiers and one sailor amongst them. Apart from Brits, there were quite a few Poles, some Australians and New Zealanders as well. It is beautifully kept and is in very pretty countryside.

The carved wooden door is somewhere in BP where Roy fell in love with it. These lovely old doors are fast disappearing, so it is always a joy to find some still in situ and in such good nick as this one was.

Finally, the lovely lady in this poster is reputedly modelled on Jolande Aschner, one of my ancestors. We discovered it on a wall by a gallery with no acknowledgements. Her husband was on the board of the Tungsram Factory before the war and originally it advertised their lightbulbs. Isn't life interesting?

Robin Hood

Today we went to see Russell Crowe's new Robin Hood which while not exactly historically correct was absolutely brilliant. Big, Ridley Scott direction, lots of battles and a few stars. Definitely good enough for a couple of hours' of entertainment.

The pictures are from the lovely old cinema, which had all its old time decor in very good order with an atmosphere you cannot have in the modern, souleless large multiplexes. It was also very cheap and we only had to share the auditorium with another 2 girls. Great!!

The Wallenberg Memorial

Long time since my last post. Have been busy, but nothing to photograph, so didn't feel like putting anything up.

One day we went to a park in the XIIIth district and found this memorial to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews in 1944-45 in the days of the worst fascist terror in Budapest only to be arrested by the Russians in January 1945. There were rumours of his presence in a variety of labour camps in Russia for years after the war, but to this day nobody knows, or more correctly, somebody knows, but is not saying what really happened to him.

This is a copy of the original statue erected straight after the war, because that one was removed in 1949 upon the consolidation of the Stalinist regime. It was in recent years that this copy was made and put up in this lovely little park.

We are in the village at the moment awaiting Tom's visit. Tomorrow he is moving on to Belgrade and we will go to BP with him. Unfortunately the weather has turned to torrential rain, which really makes the garden look like a swamp and Bandi still hasn't finished mowing the grass as the bad weather keeps stopping him. Well, we'll see how it goes later on in the week, although I am not sure when we are coming back.

Maps

I kept fogetting my maps for scanning, so it is a bit late, but at least you can see where I have been in April and early May.

The first map is from Day 1 of the Postas Kupa which was in mid-April. Jano took the event back to the area from 2 years ago in the plains with forested sand dunes and lots of technical wiggles, made difficult by juniper jungle, although not as bad as last November's season closer. The course was excellent, albeit a bit long for me at nearly 5km. At least there was no climb, other than up and down the dunes and the soft sand making it a bit more physical than it looked.

The other event was last Saturday on typical continental terrain: steep, forested, rocky and very green in places. I was out for quite a while on 4.8km with 165m of climb. I really felt like leaving it half way round, but persevered, like I always do. It was also pretty hot, which didn't help either.

Night Champs this Saturday where I am likely to end up on the podium as there are only the two of us entered. Unfortunately Ildi starts 4 minutes after me, so unless she makes a large mistake (not very typical of her) I can't see me winning.