We did finally come into BP by car as temperatures have risen and most of the snow and ice had disappeared. The concert at the Bartok Memorial House was magical. The violinist, Kristof Barati (see picture) is a phenomenal talent with an exceptional violin. The Chicago Stradivari Society lent him the "Lady Harmsworth" and the sound he can get out of it is beyond description. The hall was very small, so I was sitting no more than 6 or 8 feet from him, which was an experience in itself. This young man has not only talent, but a personality that is attractive in the extreme. So, I have joined the Barati groupies and am now on the lookout for all his performances. Thankfully he teaches at the academy, which keeps him in the country, otherwise he is in so much demand the world over, that we would never see him at home.
As we had the car we finally managed to find the piece of stone that I need for making truffles at a monumental masons by the cemetery. Hopefully we should be picking them up (we ordered two) tomorrow and take one of them down to Ber. As they weigh a lot we definitely need the car for fetching them.
The appointment with the rheumatologist went well. She seems a nice lady - since then I had some X-rays done and started remedial exercise classes and electrophoresis treatment. When these have finished I will have some manipulation/massage and finally might even get referral to the thermal baths for some water based treatments. Well, it can't hurt, which is usually the attitude I have to these treatments, although I very much doubt they will fix my pack pain. We'll see!! Said the blind man.
And to make the week really mixed the weekend had two really good and one not so good events. The first good news was that Klari rang on Sunday morning with news of two free tickets to the Opera. We saw La Boheme, which was very good indeed. Unfortunately the bad news was that three young women got crushed to death at a nightclub in the centre of BP on Saturday night while trying to flee the premises for some yet unidentified reason. I am not personally involved as I didn't know them and I don't think I had any friends there, but it still upset me. Roy and I have always said that Hungary is one almighty great accident waiting to happen. This was not only a case of the inadequacy of regulation and/or the total lack of enforcement of safety laws. This is undoubtedly a stark example of how corruption, which has permeated every level of life in this country, kills. Apparently, the night club had no licence to operate anything other than a club of about 300, definitely not large gigs for up to 3000 people. So, how could they organise these gigs with no trouble for the last 6-8 months? The right bung in the right pocket, that's how. The guy who organised Saturday's gig openly admitted that he sold 2881 tickets and that he didn't know the club owners had no licence. He also said the accident had nothing to do with him. Since then he had been arrested along with the owner of the club and of the building, but as the courts are often as easy to bribe as building inspectors and licence control officers I am not holding my breath about their prison sentences. And even if they lock them up as scapegoats that will not bring the girls back. Very, very sad, but typical.
And to end on a much happier note: the other good event of the weekend was that we had a little chat with Callum again on Sunday afternoon and the pictures below were taken on Skype.
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