More Olympics and some preserves

It's been nearly a week since I posted and I really don't know where to start about it all. My time has been dominated by the Olympics, like the week before and most of the excitement and pleasure came from that. Both Britain and Hungary are having the best Olympic Games in many a year, so there was a lot to get excited about.

The medal tally with three days to go stands at 8 golds, 4 silver and 3 bronze for Hungary, while Britain stands at 25 golds and 14 each of silver and bronze. These dry statistic, while tell you some of the story, get nowhere near even suggesting what this is all about.

The real pleasure is in seeing the flesh and blood athletes struggling, fighting, winning, losing, having fun or just enduring. The smiles of pleasure or the grimace of pain at the end and the interviews which give you insight into their psyche, especially if conducted straight after the finish.

I am not into the jingoism and the nationalistic hoo haa, in fact, I feel sick on occasions listening to the chauvinistic crap that can come out of commentators mouths. I have been known to get rid of the sound and just watching without commentary. But the genuine achievement, pride and pleasure in that achievement by athletes and fans alike has been a joy to witness. Some of the athletes I enjoyed watching in no particular order have been:

Usain Bolt(200m sprint), Charlotte Dujardin (ind. dressage), Eva Risztov (open water 10km swim), Rudolf Dombi and Roland Kökény (kayak doubles), Mo Farah (10,000m).

Obviously we have not only watched the Olympics, but got on with life in general as well. Roy managed to pick all the available plums off our trees as well as Laci's and now we are without plums. Except those on a tree that produces absolutely tiny ones and therefore useless for the cefre.

So, the other day Roy made 2 litres of jam out of them, while on the same day I decided to use up all the peppers, onions and tomatoes we had to make some lecsó. Lecsó is a bit like ratatoullie without the aubergines and courgettes. It was gorgeous, we ate one potful and bottled the rest.

As you can see the jam looks very dark. Roy used our ancient, Mrs. Beeton type, cookery book for a Damson Jam recipe and the little bit I tasted was delicious. So I don't care what it looks like if it tastes that good. Next post might be a while, unless the WiFi works where we will be staying for the Hungária Kupa next week. TTFN!