A busy week (again)

The last week was crazy and we were travelling back and forth with frightening speed. On Sunday we were invited to Erika, our Canadian friend for dinner and that worked out great. She had a couple of people there that we didn't know, plus an Australian, who we have met before. They were all very good company and a good time was had by all.

On Tuesday I went to a concert in the Bartok villa again, this time a gorgeous young flutist played a variety of pieces all with great enthusiasm and with skill and feeling belying her very young age. She was not only a joy to listen to, but lovely to look at, not to mention the interesting things she told us about the composers and their works on her repertoire.

On Wednesday we got a lift from the friend who was coming down for negotiations about the orienteering event menioned in the previous post. We had no problems getting the required services and a very advantegous agreement was made. After that he went for a 2 hour run all over the terrain to check it out, then we had lunch and around 4 o'clock they went home. I only opened the post after they went, only to find that the Opera House moved forward the performance of Die Fledermouse to Thursday of this week, so having lost the chance of a lift from our friends we had to bump in on the bus the following morning. Mind you, I did watch a couple of really good TV programs that night, so the day wasn't a total loss after all.

Die Fledermouse was fun, if a bit too long. Unfortunately Andor couldn't come as he was working in the North East and couldn't return early. I hope we can get him another ticket for some future date, although I doubt he would go on his own.

In the meantime I got commissioned to write an article about the recent events in Hungary for the IMT website, so I had to start collecting material for that and hopefully that'll get written in a few days' time. My favourite political conference - this time in Italy - has announced its dates in the summer, so I am now trying to make up my mind whether to go or not. Summer is already shaping up to be busy (what's new?) and the plan was to stay put. I suppose Roy would not come to this, so perhaps I can go. We'll see! A bit of a good news in the village might have a bearing on this: Attila, son of a good friend of ours in the village, has decided to relocate back to his birthplace and asked if we have any work for him. He is a graduate horticultural engineer, so a tad overqualified as a gardener, but he is desperate for any work, so we might offer him the position and that would ease our need to be around right through the summer. When we are back there we'll have a chat and see if he would accept our offer.

Finally, this morning we made a train trip to a friend to pick up some O maps of our hills, because I can't for the life of me find the old stock I had from 7 years ago. It was fun, especially that we were on brand new rolling stock, quiet, fast and clean. No scratched windows or graffiti anywhere!! Long may it be that way!! On our return we had a call from the little monster from across the pond, as you can see from the photographs.

Tonight I am due to go to another concert, this time in the Palace mirrorred hall and the soloist is my absolute favourite, Kristof Barati. I ran into him on Thursday night en route to the Opera and that was exciting enough. Tonight he is playing Beethoven, Bach, Brahms and Saint-Saens, so I will surely be in seventh heaven.