Eger Grand Prix

This weekend's orienteering was in Eger and in the Bükk Mountains. The event itself was in three parts. The first event was on Saturday morning on streets, finishing in a man-made maze. I managed the streets OK, but the maze got me, which was surprising as I love them and usually gain time on them while others waste time. This time the latter was definitely the case with me, taking at least 3 minutes longer than the opposition. I think the main problem was that the tapes were not very clear and the proportions of the gaps between fences on the ground did not correspond to those on the map. As it happens, not having any quality opposition I still won, but I was very angry with myself. I didn't turn on my GPS watch in time either, which then took ages to come on, so no track. Once that was over we motored up the hill to a "Hotel" which was barely better than an old fashioned hostel. It was rather sparsely staffed, but it was adequate. One of the lovely touches, though, was this lovely old painted chest, which adorned one of the landings. I have something similar at home, but with the colours not this bright. I loved it!

In the afternoon, once we moved up into the hills I managed a slightly better run and the watch was working OK as well. This run was in the parkland around our hotel and in the surrounding forest. In one place I was really annoyed, because the overprint was very faint and I managed to miss the one place where I could have crossed a road, so I ran all the way round to a path and up towards the control. I was beaten by 6 seconds that day, but that lady only came on Saturday afternoon, so she didn't feature in the overall results. In the evening we went to our favourite restaurant where we had a lovely meal and I drove back to the hotel, so Roy could have a couple of beers.

On Sunday the course was longer and there was a lot of climb as well. The biggest problem, however, was the weather. The temperature dropped by about 10 degrees Celsius, there was a breeze and it was raining. I put on a T shirt, my O top and a lightweight waterproof. And I was not hot during my run!! I also forgot to turn my watch on early enough for it to be working by the time I started. It wasn't just my forgetfulness, but the dreadful weather and the thick forest that made it take 15 minutes to pick up its satellites. It was also asking me repeatedly: Are you sure you are not indoors? I kept answering: Yes, I am sure, but it still took a quarter of an hour to start working. I suppose the thick cloud cover didn't help. So the track only starts after a few controls, I think. It is such a shame that the older women's classes are so empty. I was only running against one Finnish lady who ran in all three events and she wasn't particularly fast, so I was not penalised (as I should have been) for my silly mistakes. Honestly, if someone as unfit, arthritic and generally decrepit as me can keep going, why can't others? The gold medal is really pretty and is now awaiting its return home to join the others on the new display pole in the library.

An even busier week than usual

The trip to the Skanzen was brilliant. The weather was fantastic, I managed to go and see a lot of exhibits I have never seen before. Now, that is a neat trick, considering how many times I have been there with my visitors in the past. The main attraction this time for me were the animals. We saw some traditional old fashioned Hungarian grey cattle, racka sheep, goats and a few others besides. Tasted some nice freshly made jam in the jam festival, then had lunch in the XVIIIth century inn, followed by a visit to the lovely old wooden church with the belltower.

The shock came afterwards when I found out that having left the headlights on the battery was stone dead. Luckily we were saved by a very nice man who offered to start me up with his jumpleads (mine were in the bit of the boot I could not get to due to none of the locks working without the battery). Then we had to go for a 60km run to recharge the battery and then sat in endless traffic jams on the way home. This got us into such a frazzle that we couldn't find the energy for going to the concert we planned in the evening.

Tuesday went somewhat better. We decided to go out to look at some nice places while doing a bit of geocaching. We started with the Brunswick Chateau in Martonvásár which was surrounded by a glorious park, albeit without the lake which had already been drained for the winter. The cache was a virtual one on the front of the lovely old church which was being repainted and renovated inside.

Then we went to get another cache, but had lunch first in a gorgeous roadside inn, which had traditional cooking and hospitality, even though it was only built a few years ago.

The next cache necessitated a slightly longer hoof across a cemetery and some rough ground, but we found it no bother. On the way home we managed to pop into the Statue Park (the last 20 minutes before they closed) where we took some spooky photos that looked very arty.

On Wednesday Pete went to Pécs to see the Csontváry Museum and the city itself, while I had the sheer delight of chasing after paint, delivering Roy's broken computer to Dylan, delivering said paint to bus station so they can travel to Bér, shop in the health food supermarket for water etc., visit my homeopath, visit the Bank for a variety of currencies, and I can't remember the rest. Only highlight of the day was my lunch which consisted of £20 worth of sushi and sashimi in the form of a revenge on a shitty day. It did cheer me up no end I must admit.

On Thursday Pete went out to the Railway Museum and I stayed in bed trying to get over Wednesday. I managed to catch up on 4 different television programs I missed, including Grand Designs with the lovely Kevin McCloud, the thinking woman's heart-throb. By that time Roy turned up, having abandoned the house painters and welcome he was too. In the afternoon we went to a book signing where Pete joined us. While there I managed to drop into the conversation with Nyáry Krisztián, the author, that I am related to Léda, Ady's great love. As a result of which Roy now has a new commission to find out about what happened to Léda's sister Berta after Léda's death.

Finally, Friday came with a delightful program, which included soaking aching joints in piping hot medicinal waters and listening to the world's most gorgeous and most talented violinist. The morning was spent in the Széchenyi Baths and then, in the evening we went to the Festetics Palace to listen to Kristóf Baráti play Bach, Mendelssohn and Mozart. Seventh heaven doesn't even start to describe my feelings, especially when I got him to sign the booklet from the CD on which he plays every Beethoven violin/piano sonata.

The weekend was spent in Eger and on the lower slopes of the Bükk Mountains where I managed a gold medal in the Eger Grand Prix orienteering event, while Roy and Pete were soaked to the skin trying to sightsee in Eger on the Saturday and spent a fair amount of time indoors in the hotel on the Sunday. The weather completely wrecked the weekend for them, which is a shame, but such is life. At least Peter read a lot of Colin's book, A Country Full of Aliens, while Roy managed to watch the Indian Grand Prix, which wasn't much cop, although Vettel won, which hopefully should make sure that Alonso can't win overall. I agree that Alonso is a genious driver, but he is also a nasty, dishonorable person, so I do not like him. Now we are at home, having collected another cache on the way home. Let us hope the weather improves and Pete can see some of his favourite buildings he is planning to visit tomorrow.

Pete's visit

Just before the story of Pete's visit, I have to mention the dinner with friends that happened the night before he came. My good friend Judit and her husband Laci came for a chat, some food and drink and it was a delightful, if somewhat short evening. That's the trouble with weekday dinners, especially with a teacher who has a first period class the following morning. Judit liked the flat; the jacket potatoes with salad, followed by individual trifles went down well and we have already been invited for a return visit.

Pete arrived on time and Roy fetched him with no hassle. As driving to and parking at the airport is now such a nightmare, the two old codgers have met up and returned by public transport. As they both travel free, that was the best option. The following day we decided that partly because of the painters working on the houses in the village and partly because Pete did want to revisit the place we would go down on Friday.

Saturday I took Pete off for a hike and Roy stayed with the painters. We went to visit the rhyolite cliffs about an hour's drive away. Took lots of pictures and followed it up with a couple of geocaches in nearby villages. Both of them were in glorious countryside, one was down by a spring, the other on top of a mountain by an old castle ruin. As it happens we couldn't find the second one, but the trip was still well worth it.

Today was supposed to have been a lazy day, but we still managed to fill it with all sorts of activities. My sister gave us some quinces the other day and then we harvested our pears. So there were about 5 kilos of fruit waiting to be bottled. We did that together and had good fun with it.

Then we had lunch outside, followed by a trip up to the mill. They are getting on with the building works up there and very soon the building will be covered all round, including the roof. We took some lovely photos of the views from up there and along the stream.

The day was finished with a bit of gardening, as the roses needed cutting back. We decided that Roy would stay with the painters until at least Wednesday, but might even stay until Friday. That will depend on the progress of the work, the weather and how much we will need him with us. Tomorrow Pete and I are off to the Skanzen, let's hope the weather is decent.

New doctor, Downton Abbey, comfrey and guests

Well, doctors are a dodgy topic for Downton fans at the moment (more about this later), but I had a good experience with a doctor yesterday, which definitely makes a change. I had to go and see my GP to get a referral to rheumatology and while there I thought I would get a prescription for my blood pressure meds, which are only dished out a month at a time nowadays. As it happened she was extremely friendly, suggested a few checkups as she had not seen me for ages and gave me three months worth of prescriptions to boot. She also complained about the village surgery as they have insisted that my papers should be with them, so she didn't think I was coming to her any more. That is utter cheek from the village surgery without asking me first. Especially as it was done some time ago when there was no permanent doctor there. Anyway, I prefer her, so now I made it clear that I want my registration to be with her and only go in the village if I have to. In the evening I tried to catch up with my missed TV programs, but unfortunately the bandwidth was crap, so I decided to watch Downton and the others early this morning.

It was yet another spiffing episode, but as devotees of the series already know, we lost Lady Sybil to eclampsia after childbirth. Poor Sybil, she was really the victim of the stuck up royal doctor being no use and nobody believing the local family doctor, who could have saved her. Typical Julian Fellowes script, a lot of melodrama, a bit of period detail and a pinch of social comment. I love it though! I managed to catch up with Homeland and New Tricks as well, which took me to breakfast. As they forecast rain we went to the chemist straight after breakfast to fetch some of my meds as well as try to buy a cream made of comfrey. I remembered buying a tub of the stuff sometime in the 80's and that it was black and a miracle worker. Alex went flying off his bike, really wrecking his knee and this cream made it better in no time. Well, it costs about 10 times more for about a fifth of the quantity, plus it is now white, but so many people recommended it for my knee injury from Sunday and I thought I might invest in a tube of it.

Well, it seemed to have made it better already, so it must be a miracle worker. The plant itself looks like a common weed that grows along streams (see on the left!). I read up on it on Wikipedia and it really cures a lot of complaints, but you mustn't drink it as tea as it is toxic to your liver. Well, as long as I can run again in just under two weeks in the next O event, I don't care! Now I have to go and tidy up and then cook as we have guests tonight. Report on that later!

A medal, some lovely caches and a Moggie

This was the Championship weekend and a good one it turned out to be. Earlier in the week we decided to give a lift to two of our friends to the orienteering, provided they don't mind coming geocaching with us on the way down. This they said they would do So I set about looking up a few caches which were not too far off the M6 and - if possible - contained some interest for Ildi and Klari, our friends. Klari is into church organs, so 3 out of the 4 caches contained churches and organs.

There was a 5 point multi in Ercsi first, then a lovely 17th century baroque organ in an otherwise ugly modern church. The reverend himself showed us round in that church, including a lovely story of the building and the organ. My friends were allowed to sit by the instrument and play a tune or two on it.

Next came a village which we have seen by travelling through it many times before, but this time we stopped as well. A beautiful interesting design for their church, village hall and council, built of stone and wood produced a fascinating impression.

Finally, a tiny little village nestled in some picturesque hills gave us some further adventures. We climbed to the top of the wooded hill at the end of their single street, talked to some villagers on our descent and eventually gave a recital on the harmonium in their little church accompanied by a lovely old lady singing in German. Very pretty and memorable.

The orienteering was interesting, probably in the Chinese curse sense. Rain threatened but never materialised, the forest was rough, steep and full of stones, undergrowth and a lot of climbing and the whole affair was wrapped up in a nasty fall which gave me a painful bump on my right knee. I came second within only a minute of the lead, so without the fall I probably could have won. Well, that is life. This result, along with another second place in the combined championship for 2012 was a reasonable medal haul and the first such success since my illness in 2010.

Roy had a lovely time too, as a long promised visit from a 1969 Moggie kept him happily occupied for ages. He now has a project in tracing the history of the little car through the Morris Minor Club and other internet sources.

A decidedly busy week

After last Sunday's successful hike/geocaching Monday was taken slightly more leisurely. I did manage to get hold of Dylan and asked him to finish building Roy's new computer early, which he did. Thus Tuesday started with fetching and then putting together the computer with the lovely, widescreen monitor. Roy has been getting used to it ever since, especially the quirks of the monitor and a few other innovations. Once that was done I went off with Laci to the City Park to check his planning for this weekend's TrailO. The course was pretty good, I did make a few suggestions, but basically it did not need changing in too many places. Unfortunately the skies have opened and while I was nicely warm from my head to about my knees, below that I was soaked. Foolishly I went in sandals and left my waterproof trousers behind, so by the time we finished we both looked like drowned rats. Still, we checked all but 3 controls and I was convinced that it will be a great success.

Once I got home, had a hot shower, changed, ate something and then tore off to the Opera it was gone 6pm. The performance of Hunyadi László was pretty good. Some of the modern ideas, setting, scenery and costumes needed some getting used to, but it was altogether a good production. The picture is of Miklósa Erika, who sang Gara Mária, the main young female lead. She was superb. On Wednesday morning we got going quite early. We had to go and fetch 20 litres of paint for the renovation of the Bunkhouse and Farmhouse, followed by some food shopping.

Hrncsjar, our painter and decorator, had been working on the outside walls since Monday. This paint was for the wood, but he and his assistant were still working on the outside walls. The one in the picture is the back of the Farmhouse, which has now been reinforced with some netting, then plastered and now is awaiting painting and/or liming. I think in the more exposed places he will put on paint, the rest will just be limed. He has unfortunately fallen down off his ladder earlier in the year, so he will never be able to do high work any more, which is why he now has an assistant with him to do all the dangerous stuff. I like him, as he is careful, fastidious and his work is of high quality.

Thursday was spent mostly in the garden. We repotted the lovely plant we got as a present from Alwyn last week. It now lives in the garden during the day and indoors at night. Roy put a circular wire around the plant onto which it can now climb. It is quite picturesque, I think. We also planted all the remaining rose bushes to replace those that died and a few new ones by the Kottage.

This takes us almost to the weekend. On Friday we came into town and then on Saturday we departed westwards for some orienteering and geocaching. My start time was not due until after 2pm, but we had to travel about a 100 miles, so time was of the essence. We managed to squeeze one cache in, which was well worth it.

We saw a XIIIth century recently renovated church which took my breath away. Its grand dimensions and its simplicity kept me spellbound. Unfortunately we couldn't go in, partly for lack of time, partly because there was a coachload of tourists trying to do the same. Never mind, one place to come back to in the future.

The orienteering was not exactly highly technical, but I enjoyed it all the same. There were very few entries, so the oldest women's course was W45. It has been some years since I ran in this class, but I have not only managed it, but ended up winning it. Not quite fairly, I hasten to add. A good friend of mine, Barbara won overall (I won on Day 1 and she won on Day 2 by a few seconds more than I did the day before), but then declared herself non competitive due to the terrain being her regular training ground. So this became the strange case of coming second and still getting a gold medal. En route home we did two more caches, both having had 3 parts to each. The prettiest bit was an interesting looking church, where the task was to read the numbers on the Western side of its dome. Finally I solved the problem by taking a photo of it and then enlarging it on the viewing screen.

We were at home by 5.30, watched the Grand Prix, had dinner and now I am going to bed.