Fish and chips, final Grand Prix and the trip home

Nearly a week since I have posted, but it seems like two. Just to carry on the journal: last Saturday we did walk over the hill and via the Patcham windmill to Blatchington Road to have fish and chips at Ramsbottoms. The last third of the walk was in the pouring rain, so a couple of nearly drowned rats arrived at Ramsbottoms rather hungry as well. The fish and chips were as gorgeous as we remembered it from last time. It was well worth to get soaked for.

On Sunday we stayed in, which was OK. We played with Elian a lot and in the afternoon watched the final Grand Prix of the 2012 season. It turned out probably the most exciting, eventful and full of incident event of not only this season, but for several years. As far as I was concerned I didn't care who won as long as it wasn't Alonso. Thankfully and after lot of mishaps Vettel came 6th to Alonso's second which meant that Vettel became the 2012 World Champion by three points. Hurraaaahhhhh!!

In the evening Roy and I cooked dinner for the 5 of us, which was mushroom paprikash with boiled potatoes and green vegetables, which Lucy cooked. It was lovely and it was followed by cheesecake, also by Lucy, which everybody had except me as I am off sugar at the moment. Monday was our last day, in the morning we went down to the Post Office to get some money and did our final shopping in the Co-Op. Later we took Elian for a walk in his pram which was quite an event. Initially he was really frisky, not looking at all tired, looking at everything from clouds in the sky through passing cars to flowers and people in the gardens and the street. After about 15-20 minutes his eyes started to get heavy and I suspected that he should be asleep soon. And so he was. We all had a lovely time, he had some fresh air (so did we) and the afternoon nap was dealt with as well.

In the evening we all went to the Black Lion for a nice meal, including Vic, Lucy's dad. Elian was as good as gold and we had a lovely time. On Tuesday morning we packed, visited the now beautifully painted and decorated flat and made Gatwick in plenty of time with Stephen. The trip home was uneventful, even though I had some worries about our bag's dimensions with all those sausages, Cheddar cheese and other goodies, but nobody took any notice of it.

We only stayed in town for me to have a mammography appointment, which found nothing untoward and caught the half past one bus home easily. Since then we have been catching up with a thousand e-mails, updating blogs, Facebook and bottling Roy's pálinka, which arrived last night. All 36.3 litres of it. Tomorrow we are off to town again, doing some geocaching en route as I was beginning to suffer caching withdrawal symptoms.

"Grandchilding" aka unokázás

The funny word above just about describes my last few days. Elian is such a sweet little poppet that this trip is already an absolute delight. He is laid back, easy going, very funny and hardly ever cries. Even when he does, it is pretty easy to work out what's the matter and to put it right. He is a watcher. Knows what's going on and loves people. Physically he is way ahead of his months, standing up well and beginning to roll around. He is always ready with a smile, which makes our visit such a pleasure.

While most of our times is spent with Elian, we also managed to squeeze in a few other events. We had lunch with Pete in the Basketmakers, which was really nice, then went to see Petya at his place of work and gave him his palinka. Amongst the outings first we saw Stephen latest addition to his property portfolio off London Road which Victor (Lucy's dad) is decorating for the first tenants to move in within the week. We also walked up to ASDA for our optician's appointments and looked in Argos to see if we can get a Dyson. Unfortunately that didn't work out, but the walk was nice. While shopping in ASDA after the appointment we ran into Stephen and had a lift back home with him.

Life with the little one is so lovely. He has many short sleeps during the day, but is fun to play with when awake. He has his bath in the lounge and a kickabout beforehand on the floor. Even Roy made friends with him, which is quite an achievement as he is not a baby kind of grandad on the whole. But who can resist such a little charmer?

Yesterday we had a little outing to Stanmer House which had recently been renovated after standing empty for over 20 years. It is now a posh teahouse/restaurant/wedding venue with some lovely townhouses on the side. Elian enjoyed himself both inside the house and outside while walking around in the park, the village and the farm.

Today we were supposed to go orienteering with Ruth and Ian, but the weather forecast plus the difficulties of getting back by public transport put a stop to that. So, it is fish and chips today instead, which is usually one of the highlights of our visits to Brighton.

Victory in the sand dunes

The bus trip in was totally uneventful and we even got in about 15 minutes quicker due getting off the coach at the terminus of the Metro, rather than at the terminus of the coach. We went and tried David's again since the introduction of the the 'eat as much as you like for a set sum' system, which we didn't really like the last time. However, this time we were quite happy. It was really reasonably priced and my mushrooms, potatoes and salad was lovely. I did have two platefuls and went home full up. We popped in to the market for some nuts and fetched my second month's lot of medicines as well.

On Saturday morning I went orienteering on my own as Roy didn't want to come, having left the car behind in the village. I got a lift from some friends and we got there in good time. I love the sand dunes and usually have a good run in them. The last time I ran at this place it was in the Night Champs and I won. This time, there was a great deal of quality opposition as a whole coach load of Skandinavians arrived on the last leg of their tour of Europe. It was my doing that they were there, as I wrote to the tour organiser, recommending this event to him nearly a year ago. I am glad he took my advice as their presence raised the stakes and created a good atmosphere. I think they enjoyed it too by the look of them in the assembly field. On Saturday I managed to pick up my three calendars from Arpi's mother Olga and got back home in good time. Out of 11 in W60 I was in second place overnight, with a deficit of about 3 minutes on the lead.

On Sunday Roy came too and we had a lift from another friend, who turned out very good company. We arrived at the event far too early, but at least I could talk Roy into walking to the start with me which was good exercise for him and provided a clothing exchange for me. The second day's course was a lot harder, both physically and technically. While on Saturday I made no mistakes, I did go awry twice on Sunday. I wasted about 4 minutes being pulled to the left on both occasions. On the day I was second again, but not to the same person. She actually didn't run on Sunday, but a Swedish lady who made a 12-14 minutes worth of error the day before and was way down in the results, did have a blinder on Sunday and won from me by about 6 minutes. Without my 4 minutes' worth of mistakes she would only have beaten me by 2 minutes, but such is life. However, her howler of the day before kept my overall lead safe and I stood on the top of the podium.

This event always gives you a certificate instead of a medal. With all these Skandiavians about, I was really pleased to get one this year. While waiting for the presentations we went and visited the little petting zoo that was attached to the farm near assembly. We saw sheep, goats, chickens and one very pretty young hind. Her soulful eyes and pretty long eyelashes were really photogenic. Unfortunately I had to photograph her through the wire mesh, which doesn't quite make for a good photo.

Just before leaving Peo Bengtsson, the leader of the Swedes gave me a lovely T shirt, which commemorates their tour this year and which made me very happy. He is such a lovely old man and an excellent orienteer. We were on the same course and he beat me by 3 minutes on Saturday. Unfortunately I couldn't take him on on the Sunday as he developed a nasty cold and didn't run on Day 2. We got home very early on Sunday as we were indoors by 3pm.

We were not home an hour when Alex rang and on came my little monster on Skype. He was heard to utter these words: "I want to say Hi to Grandad!" He never said that before. By the time Roy got to the laptop he was into other things and never said Hi to Grandad, but it didn't matter. He did actually communicate again a bit. I asked him for a muffin and he said I couldn't have one. I asked why and he answered: "Cos you are too far away." Correct observation, I thought. Now I am watching the US F1 race and keeping my fingers crossed that Vettel beats Alonso. I know Alonso is a genius of a driver, but I still dislike him intensely. The reason for this is quite involved, I'll write about it one day.

Roses, geraniums and the painter

Back in the village it suddenly struck me that it is definitely autumn. The leaves are dropping, the air is sharp in the morning and the nights are getting below zero. Our roses are still going though and I managed to snap a few pretty pictures of the ones still in bloom.

We started feeding the birds and I await with great excitement the variety of feathered friends this winter. Last year, the usual great tit population was joined by several variety of finches and even a woodpecker. Mind you, the latter creature was not Roy's favourite for eating into one of our facia boards to such depths that the painter and decorator renovating the outside had to use a fair amount of wood filler to mend the damage. Talking of painters: he came today to furnish his account which we settled happily. The two of them worked on and off right through October, repaired/repainted all external wood, all external walls on and around two buildings and it came to about £1360, including materials. My only complaint was that they didn't turn up in September as requested and thus made our October a bit too hectic, as we had to fit them around visitors and a variety of other activities.

This interesting plant, which was a present from Alwyn back in September has survived being abandoned for over a week while I was in Spain/Italy and Roy went to stay in town. Amazingly, it doesn't mind being alone and it carried on growing. Its leaves are quite small, but it's alive and that is the main thing. Yesterday I also started on the Family History Society's translation which I offered to do. The actual translation is dead easy, it is the structure and instructions on the web site which are practically unfathomable. Currently I am doing the FAQ section, which is laughable in its patronising tone, but hopefully still helpful for those who are not exactly computer literate. We are off to town tomorrow as the season's last O event is this weekend in the South. I had a nasty sore throat and earache a couple of days back, so I hope I will be well enough to run, but I have to go, even if I won't be able to run as I must meet up with Peo Bengtsson who I have talked into entering his bus load of Skandinavian travellers in the Juniper Cup. I will also hopefully be able to pick up Arpi and Zita's 2013 calendars I ordered from Olga. Next post probably from Brighton where we are off to visit our little Elian, who is now a very big boy compared to the little 6 day old bundle we last saw him as.

Postscript: Roses are done, geraniums are done, birds fed and one little perisher photographed.

Skyfall, hike, baths and pests

Since my return from Spain/Italy life had been extra hectic, but what's new? On Thursday I spent most of the day on the computer, but still managed to squeeze in a walk to the baths where I booked 5 sessions starting on Sunday. Friday got a bit busier with doing the washing, then more computer work, followed by a visit to the West End to have some large photos of Elian done and while they were developing it we went to see Skyfall. It was really good. The excellent cast and director, as well as a good script ensured much enjoyment. James Bond is really going upmarket in quality and while the car chases are still around, they no longer dominate.

From the cinema we went straight to our friends, Judit and Laci for dinner and a good chat. Their two daughters were there too and a jolly good time was had by all. On Saturday I went on a hike with some of the Hash and met lovely new friends Lehel, Kathleen and Colin.

Lehel was the leader and he took us up hill and down dale, followed by interesting large trees, rosehips and all sorts of berries. Colin is from Lincolnshire and he proved to be great company and an interesting conversationalist.

Sunday took me to my first session at the baths and with my masseur, but before that I had a really annoying discovery. Once you book your sessions you have to pay for them straight away, otherwise the computer cancels them. It was only on Sunday morning that I realised my failure to pay on Thursday, so I went with the sure knowledge that my appointments would have disappeared in the meantime. I was really lucky that all but the first one on Sunday morning were still available and even Sunday's one could be replaced with one in the afternoon. Lajos, my old masseur was still as brilliant as ever and those glorious waters are already doing me a world of good. The only downside I found was today, namely a really persistent pest who was trying to pick me up and would take no hint to get lost. I will have to give that particular pool a miss in future as these guys seem to hang out there most of the time. Tomorrow there is another session, this time with a different masseur, while Roy stays at home waiting for the gas meter reader. As soon as everything is done we are off to the village.

Long time no post

Hi everybody! These 10 days were the longest gap for quite a while, but I wasn't being lazy. I had several days so full of stuff (and without internet access) that I could hardly breathe, never mind post.

Those of you who have been to Barcelona might have recognised this glorious Gaudi building the La Pedrera. I have been to Barcelona many times before to conferences, but never had the time to really look around. This time I went with 6 friends to an orienteering event and a lot of sightseeing. Having seen the Park Guell first we came to the street where the two most famous apartment buildings by Gaudi could be found. The choice was between La Pedrera and the Casa Batlló and our choice fell on the former. It was cheaper and we came upon it first.

It was a real adventure. I always liked Gaudi, but this amount of crazy exhuberance really got me. His colours, tiles, forms and innovations pleased me and provided me with endless amusement. We passed the other building later and I must admit that was really pretty too, but in a more fairy castle way than La Pedrera. We walked through the Bari Gotic later and admired its cathedral - first of many on this trip - and finally climbed up to register for our O event on Montjuic hill.

On our way down we found ourselves in the middle of a festival at the Placa Espanya where the most impressive fountains delight the eye.

Finally the first day of orienteering dawned. It was a sprint race in the old quarter of Barcelona, the Bari Gotic. My course was only 1.5km, but it still took me over 16 minutes. I am no good at sprinting any more, especially in the warm. The weather was definitely unlike November, although rain was promised. It, however, failed the materialise on Day 1 which was quite a pleasure.

Day 2 was announced to be a long race, but 5.1km with 165m of climb sounded a bit too far even for me. As it happens I coped with it well and finished in just over the hour, which is not bad for me in the state I am nowadays. I won W55 (the oldest class available), although by the end I was the only one competing. One lady never turned up and the other one gave up on the long course on the Sunday. My winnings included a lovely middle size rucksack with the event logo printed on it, added to the lovely event shirt and bottoms we were all given totally free. I love the Spanish, they are friendly, helpful, generous and laid back. The two major sightseeing events over the weekend were the Pueblo Espanya and the Sagrada Familia.

I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about the Sagrada Familia, but I must mention how amazed I was at the progress achieved inside since I last saw it about 10 years ago. It now looks like a church, even though they will not have finished building it before 2026 at the earliest. Monday was spent on an excursion to Monstserrat. I wasn't that bothered with the cathedral, monastery, the Black Madonna or the singing, but the environment itself was breath taking. After an hour's journey by train we got on a cable car manufactured and installed in the 1880's by a German firm from Leipzig. It is still going strong, although the sight of the cable going up virtually perpendicularly worried me a bit.

After the cable car we took a further trip on a funicular, to arrive in a landscape weird to say the least. The name Montserrat comes from "Saw Mountain". The penny just dropped as I wrote this that what we are talking about here is a "Serrated Mountain" which it certainly it was.

On Tuesday we caught a very early plane to Bergamo in Italy. That was an easy flight, followed by a short sight seeing trip round Bergamo's old medieaval centre and a train journey into Milan. By the time we found the hotel and checked in there was not much time for sightseeing, but managed to get down to the Dome to have a quick look around.

Wednesday we checked out, left our luggage in the storage room and went into Milan to have more sightseeing. We got some tickets to view the Last Supper in the afternoon, then visited the Sforza Fort, which currently houses a large number of collections both historical and artistic and which you could not do justice to in 3 weeks, never mind in 2 hours. Still, the bits of antiquities, furniture, pottery and glass we saw were sumptuous.

Finally the two absolute highlights of the trip concluded it in a magnificent manner. First, we saw The Last Supper, which I have never realised was a fresco. Unfortunately, it is not in very good condition, which is not surprising. Afer all, it spent several centuries being on the wall of a refectory and then suffered from unskilled restoration. Having said that, the magic of Leonardo da Vinci's genius shone right through the damage and missing paint. We only had 15 minutes to view it, which was nowhere near enough to take it all in, but I am glad I went. There is something special in that picture which talks to you.

Finally finally, we returned to the Dome and climbed all 160 of its steps (plus a good few later)all the way to its roof. Those airy, gothic arches were truly magical, I didn't want to come off, I enjoyed it so much. A real spiritual experience, not meaning anything to do with God or religion, just with the genius of the human spirit, mind and hands that created such beauty so long ago. Unfortunately, there was scaffolding everywhere, as the Milan Dome is a bit like the Forth Bridge: you will never get a time when some part of it will not be under repair and/or renovation.

We caught the train OK to Malpensa in the evening and were home by a few minutes past midnight. Now for sorting out the photos, videos, look at hundreds of e-mails and Facebook messages and just get back to normal - whatever that may be!