Just to wrap up the last couple of days in Brighton: after our arrival back from Bristol we went to the Bank and sorted other official stuff, then met Pete in the Basketmakers. In the evening we babysat again, which was great. Elian is such a gorgeous little poppet that even when he is mardy, teething and just a bit fractious, he is still great. His cold was not getting much better all the week we were there and his little cheeks got redder and redder most evenings due to teething. But he had his bath and had lovely cuddles and was as good as gold falling asleep in the middle of his dinner like he normally does.
On Tuesday we had our compulsory fish and chips lunch, this time with Tish (or shall I say Pat?) at Ramsbottoms on Blatchington Road. It was so nice to see her again after all those years. The trip home was pretty uneventful on Wednesday and we were indoors by early evening. Roy went down to the village on Thursday so that he could put on the heating and start cooking. We were expecting 7 friends for the weekend. I went out food shopping with the couple that were giving me a lift out on Friday and having also picked up Klari we arrived safely, laden with a lot of food and four people plus luggage. The weekend itself was amazing. This was a repeat w/e after a very successful one last summer which had just 4 of them coming, but all girls. Both weekends were great, but very different. Last summer it was a girlie w/e; lots of classical music, a little hiking and a lot of cooking, not so much drinking. This time, as there were 7 of them and a couple of the girls brought their husbands, it changed fundamentally the activities, the atmosphere and especially the drinking. Nearly one whole litre of Roy's palinka went. There was NO classical music, but a lot of hiking, story telling, chatting and communal singing. In a way this was fun too, but I wouldn't mind if the next gathering returns to the more genteel, cultural weekend that we planned originally.
Unfortunately quite a few of the crowd (including Roy and me) had the coughs and sneezes, which is spreading countrywide like wildfire at the moment. Roy did all our cooking, which was very kind of him, but the coughing affected the hikers a bit, although - interestingly - it was the men who were the laziest and the fastest to find excuses to return to their booze instead of climbing another mountain. The real hardcore of the hiking crowd was the women: Jutka, Klari, Bozsa, Ildi and me. Saturday morning we just went up to the andesite, but in the afternoon we all went by car to the Eagle's Lair lookout tower in the sparkling sunshine. As it happens, the snow was so thick that there was no way of getting off the road to park, so it was only Jutka, Ildi and myself who braved the 4 mile walk home in the thick snow, the rest of them drove home the long way round, as not only parking, but even turning round was impossible.
We got home only about 15 minutes after those in the cars, so that was a good march. The lookout tower was closed, but we have discovered that had we rung or faxed them 3-4 days earlier, they could have come out to open up. I never realised you could do that in the winter, but I might do it for the next lot of guests.
On Sunday we just had a small hike around the village on paths I have never tried before, so I had a lot of fun in the deep snow as well. About half way through it we managed to come down the stream amongst the big andesite boulders (including Anna with her bad ankle!) to have a look at the mill renovations. They have really got on well with it and it looks impressive. Unfortunately the views on Sunday were not a patch on Saturday, because the sun was pretty reluctant to come out that day. Still, it was interesting all the same.
Once back in the village, some of us decided that it was too early to return home yet, so we went up Gipsy Hill through a very thorny jungle, climbed some rocks and showed Bozsa what she can expect should she try orienteering one day. When we returned lunch was ready, which consisted of all the leftovers from Friday and Saturday. Yum, yum!! Roy cooked us a curry on Friday and then a leg of pork roast on Saturday, so with all the leftovers from those plus the strudel we bought in the market, nobody left hungry. We have already agreed to do this again in the summer!
On Sunday I got a lift in to town to save me having to use the bus. Roy stayed behind as he went really badly down with the cold and cough, so he is looking after himself in the warm. On Monday I went geocaching with Andor again, but this time the weather was such that there was nothing to photograph. We managed to get 5 caches on a hike of 11 miles with over 1500ft of climb. Considering that I am still suffering from a cold and cough, that was pretty good. No views though, due to fog and drizzle. Yesterday's visit to the baths got cancelled because of my cold, but the Opera was great in the evening. A really weird modern production of Handel's Xerxes got most people giggling. I took a bit longer to get into the spirit of it, but enjoyed it all the same. The music was perfect and eventually I learned to like the humour of the production too. I'm off to the village in a couple of hourse, so I'd better ring off. Bye bye!!
On Tuesday we had our compulsory fish and chips lunch, this time with Tish (or shall I say Pat?) at Ramsbottoms on Blatchington Road. It was so nice to see her again after all those years. The trip home was pretty uneventful on Wednesday and we were indoors by early evening. Roy went down to the village on Thursday so that he could put on the heating and start cooking. We were expecting 7 friends for the weekend. I went out food shopping with the couple that were giving me a lift out on Friday and having also picked up Klari we arrived safely, laden with a lot of food and four people plus luggage. The weekend itself was amazing. This was a repeat w/e after a very successful one last summer which had just 4 of them coming, but all girls. Both weekends were great, but very different. Last summer it was a girlie w/e; lots of classical music, a little hiking and a lot of cooking, not so much drinking. This time, as there were 7 of them and a couple of the girls brought their husbands, it changed fundamentally the activities, the atmosphere and especially the drinking. Nearly one whole litre of Roy's palinka went. There was NO classical music, but a lot of hiking, story telling, chatting and communal singing. In a way this was fun too, but I wouldn't mind if the next gathering returns to the more genteel, cultural weekend that we planned originally.
Unfortunately quite a few of the crowd (including Roy and me) had the coughs and sneezes, which is spreading countrywide like wildfire at the moment. Roy did all our cooking, which was very kind of him, but the coughing affected the hikers a bit, although - interestingly - it was the men who were the laziest and the fastest to find excuses to return to their booze instead of climbing another mountain. The real hardcore of the hiking crowd was the women: Jutka, Klari, Bozsa, Ildi and me. Saturday morning we just went up to the andesite, but in the afternoon we all went by car to the Eagle's Lair lookout tower in the sparkling sunshine. As it happens, the snow was so thick that there was no way of getting off the road to park, so it was only Jutka, Ildi and myself who braved the 4 mile walk home in the thick snow, the rest of them drove home the long way round, as not only parking, but even turning round was impossible.
We got home only about 15 minutes after those in the cars, so that was a good march. The lookout tower was closed, but we have discovered that had we rung or faxed them 3-4 days earlier, they could have come out to open up. I never realised you could do that in the winter, but I might do it for the next lot of guests.
On Sunday we just had a small hike around the village on paths I have never tried before, so I had a lot of fun in the deep snow as well. About half way through it we managed to come down the stream amongst the big andesite boulders (including Anna with her bad ankle!) to have a look at the mill renovations. They have really got on well with it and it looks impressive. Unfortunately the views on Sunday were not a patch on Saturday, because the sun was pretty reluctant to come out that day. Still, it was interesting all the same.
Once back in the village, some of us decided that it was too early to return home yet, so we went up Gipsy Hill through a very thorny jungle, climbed some rocks and showed Bozsa what she can expect should she try orienteering one day. When we returned lunch was ready, which consisted of all the leftovers from Friday and Saturday. Yum, yum!! Roy cooked us a curry on Friday and then a leg of pork roast on Saturday, so with all the leftovers from those plus the strudel we bought in the market, nobody left hungry. We have already agreed to do this again in the summer!
On Sunday I got a lift in to town to save me having to use the bus. Roy stayed behind as he went really badly down with the cold and cough, so he is looking after himself in the warm. On Monday I went geocaching with Andor again, but this time the weather was such that there was nothing to photograph. We managed to get 5 caches on a hike of 11 miles with over 1500ft of climb. Considering that I am still suffering from a cold and cough, that was pretty good. No views though, due to fog and drizzle. Yesterday's visit to the baths got cancelled because of my cold, but the Opera was great in the evening. A really weird modern production of Handel's Xerxes got most people giggling. I took a bit longer to get into the spirit of it, but enjoyed it all the same. The music was perfect and eventually I learned to like the humour of the production too. I'm off to the village in a couple of hourse, so I'd better ring off. Bye bye!!
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