Broken bones, shopping, Elian and the end of things

Puzzling title, isn't it? It has been a strange week so far. One of the bad news is that little monster from Canada managed to fall down the stairs and break his collar bone. When I talked to him on Sunday I was told that he hurt his shoulder, but he looked quite OK, albeit in a bit of pain. By Tuesday it was quite obvious that something more serious happened so they took him to the clinic and the X-ray proved it. Apparently, he must have fallen on the toy he was hanging onto for dear life and that did the damage.

They provided him with a sling, which he wore for the total of 10 minutes while he was asleep in the car on his way home from the clinic. They can't do much with it, so let's hope it heals soon. I also had a phonecall from Nelly about the gas meter reader coming again on Tuesday, so we decided to jack in the Family History Group meeting we were planning to attend on Tuesday evening and departed for Ber on Tuesday morning. As it happens, the Family History Group had given me access to the registers without being a member as I am doing transcription work for them and also offered to help with the English translation of the pages on their web site, so there was no urgency to go to the meeting anyway.

On our way home we managed to pick up a couple more geocaches, so the grand total for the weekend was 10. The first that day was in the park surrounding the palace at Gödöllõ (remember Renee?), the second one in Máriabesnyõ behind the cemetery in the forest. Walking through the lovely old sylvan cemetery I saw some interesting graves, especially the one belonging to one of Hungary's past Prime Ministers, Teleki Pál, who killed himself out of shame for breaking a non agression pact with a bordering country back in the 1940's. There is no honour nowadays amongst Hungary's politicians, even though these are the times when honour is badly needed. I thought of him, unable to live with himself and giving up his own life to save the country's reputation. As all this transpired on the 11th of September, remembering the past - local or half way round the world - was very poignant. Shopping was also quite exciting as with the exception of my favourite salmon, which was still missing, all other recently unavailable foodstuffs, like Greek feta and our favourite brand of Cornflakes have turned up again in Tesco, so we stocked up, just in case they disappear again. I know, it is hoarding like this that cause shortages, but I don't want to be caught short again!! Once at home the gas reader chappie turned up, dutifully photographed the meter and pootled off happily. They only read the meter once a year in these parts, but then they insist on photographing the numbers on the meter.

This picture is not mine, but couldn't resist saving it off the net, as I am going hiking this weekend with a group of friends and hope to see something like it. I doubt if it will be that golden, but due to the drought the trees have already started to change colour and drop their foliage. By the way, the group that was coming for the weekend are not coming after all, we are only assembling at our place, going for a hike and then everybody goes home. It is debatable whether we are happy or upset about this. On the one hand it feels like a snub, but on the other hand everything has to come to an end one day and this way we have a lot less work. This group has been coming for years mid-September for a weekend, but if they don't want to come again, that's their lookout. Talking of endings, I had a feeling that our trips to Robert and Volker have run their course too. Nothing too drastic, just a slight feeling of not being as welcome as we were years ago when the friendship started. I suppose they hardly ever come this way, so we cannot return the compliment in kind, so we think this was probably the last one of those as well. Such is life!

And finally, so that I can finish this blog post on a high: we had a call from Elian on Thursday and he was in a fantastic mood. I took quite a few snapshots on Skype, but since Stephen and Lucy have put some much better quality pictures up on Facebook since,I will put some here from those. This first one is really cute. While I was chatting to him and Stephen, suddenly he started yawning and then went very quiet. He went to sleep on Stephen's shoulder. This photo was obviously taken by Lucy in a very similar situation, except this time Daddy is fast asleep as well.

He is nearly 3 months old now and can giggle with the best of them. Stephen manages to tickle his nose, which makes him happy. I don't know what he'd done to him for this sweet and happy photo, but he looks very cute.

And finally a rudey-nudey picture to wrap up this post. He is developing very nicely. He is happy, relaxed and very laid back for such a young baby. Sleeps through most of the night and is a joy to look after, as I read his other Grandma's comment on Facebook lately. Now I have to go to pack for tomorrow, so they don't blame the late departure on me. Assuming they all turn up for 9am as well! (Highly unlikely, methinks!!)