Another week in the village

Winter has finally arrived and while there has not been much snow, temperatures have definitely plummeted recently.  This caused our little wild birds appear in ever increasing numbers, so nowadays we feed them out of 5 different wooden bowls hanging from the rafters all along the corridor. The clever little tits found the new ones quickly, the rest of them are still mostly on the original two front ones looking out to the street.

A goldfinch and a great tit

Last year we had greenfinches and hawfinches as well, but I am yet to see those. Hoopoes and jays are usually around as well, but they do not come to the feeders. When the weather gets a bit milder I'll spend some time in the garden in hope of seeing them.

The last week was spent mostly indoors, except when we had to work in the garden to tidy up some of the overgrown areas and then cover up the roses.  I had a feeling that the seriously cold weather was approaching, so it was especially important to protect the roses.  I have 62 rose bushes now and they all needed little mounds around their bases made of earth and then covered by fresh grass cuttings.  We had to have three goes at them, digging being rather tiring, and have just managed to finish it all when the temperatures dropped.

5 roses put away for winter

As we have put the car away for the winter and lately Roy stayed in the village with only me popping int to town whenever I had a concert, the shopping was limited to small shops and the quantity to whatever we could carry ourselves.  Or, to be more exact, what I could carry myself.  I grabbed a suitcase with wheels and twice now did the shopping in local shops and markets near the flat. We are real life artists, we can manage on little food and make it last until we can go shopping again.

Callum on Christmas morning with his new iPad

With Mummy and my mountain of Christmas presents

In the last week we had several calls from all three grandchildren: Callum called just before Christmas, then we called them in St. Catharine's on Christmas Day, Stephen called that day too, and then again today with Elian and Xander in the bath.  What marvellous invention Skype is. I can keep in contact with all my little monsters via Skype.  Ahhhhhh!

Waving to Grandma from the bath

Bye, bye Grandma!

Two lovely happy faces

On one of the days when we worked out in the garden we cut off all the mint and made it into mint sauce.  On the same day we had a go at making mince pies for the first time and while they could have been better, they still tasted OK.  I think next time I will get the pastry thinner and the filling about twice as much.  The left over mincemeat was put in jars and is awaiting our next go at making mince pies.

Mince pies and a jar of freshly made mint sauce

On Christmas Day we had a lovely quiet time.  I had my usual big chunk of salmon, Roy had a glorious piece of fillet steak, which I must admit was the best quality I managed to find for years.  When I chopped it up into single portions I already knew it was going to be lovely as my knife went into it like butter. Roy chomped away on it with delight and confirmed its quality. I think I will be back to that butcher's, because I don't just like the quality of his meat, but his manner and attitude as well. On Skype we managed to talk to not only the usual suspects, like Alex, Meaghan, Callum, Stephen, Lucy, Elian and Xander, but Sheila and Chris as well. It was a very nice Christmas Day, just as we like it.

That fillet WAS rare!

On Boxing Day we discovered an interesting hole in the Kottage garden, which must have been there for ages and which could have swallowed people whole, but thankfully it didn't. Roy was digging out a particularly stubborn dandelion when the hole appeard right next to the cesspit.  As we looked into it, it turned out that we were looking into the cesspit itself.  Except the cesspit is supposed to have concrete sides and a top as well, so what has happened to that - we wondered? The guy we bought the house from was a real bodger, nothing that he made stood the test of time and we thought we had got rid of all his bits of substandard stuff by now.  How wrong can you get? I suddenly thought of how during Alex's wedding we were all hanging around in the marquee in that part of the garden and it is a miracle nobody fell through the nonexistent top, finding themselves at the bottom of the cesspit.  That would have made it a memorable wedding indeed!!!

The hole is under that row of rooftiles we put there as a reminder

During the week the weather got colder and colder, but thankfully also brighter and brighter.  Sparkling sunshine made me spend some time reading up on my new camera and then on Saturday I went out into the garden and took a few pictures.  Unfortunately, just as I started clicking away the sun went in, but I still took a few good piccies.  I think I will have to learn how to take pictures with manual settings or at least half automatic settings, so that I can produce good photos in any condition.  With the previous camera I never bothered and to this day I just snap away on automatic.  Let's see if I can make this a New Year Resolution and then keep to it!!

The farmhouse with Mike's bench

On Sunday I was thinking of taking the 6.15pm bus into town, as there was a forecast of a lot of snow for the following week and I worried about the transport stopping on Monday due to bad weather and then I would have missed my concert on Monday night.  During the morning Roy spotted my nephew's car outside Nelly's and suggested I might try to cadge a lift from him.  I did and I had a much more comfortable trip in than I would have had on the bus. Had a good chat with my nephew and his son and was in the flat by 3.15pm. It was perishing in town too, so I just went out when I had to and spent the rest of the time indoors.

The concert was sublime. It was the third and last concert in a series called Pure Baroque. We had Vivaldi, Gluck, JS Bach, CPE Bach and, of course, Handel. I loved it.  Bozsa was a bit critical of the young female violinist, who wasn't a patch on Kristof, of course, but you can't expect that kind of genious from everybody, can you?

Finally, today I finished the shopping and then caught the bus for a completely uneventful journey down to the village.  We are here for at least a week. My next concert is in about 10 days, when we will probably go up to town together, unless, of course the roads are impassable. We'll see! (said the blind man!)

Back in the village

All went according to plan and on Tuesday, with a detour to the Orienteering Federation offices, we took the bus.  The detour was for two things: 1. to pick up our calendars that I have already paid for at the last O event of the season, but which only got printed at the beginning of December.  This is the one that is produced by our friends, Arpi and Zita, who are cycling round the world. This is the last one they are publishing as hopefully by October 2015 they should be home.  The pictures in this one are from New Zealand, the US, Mexico and a few from Central America. 2. The other reason was that the Federation had just got some new electronic timing chips in and I bought myself one, as the old one was nicked along with the other stuff in October. Unfortunately my record with my chips is not a very lucky one: this is the third one I had to buy, as the first one flew off my finger and got lost while competing in a sprint O event in the park of the Chateau of Betler in Slovakia many years ago and the second one got nicked just recently.

My new chip

Finally, we arrived back in the village in good time, surrounded by a pack of noisy school kids who were returning from an end of term outing.  Luckily, everything was fine in the house and garden, which is no longer taken for granted by us.  After all we had been away for three weeks and after the disaster nearly 3 years ago when we had a flooded library and hallway due to broken pipes, I always worry after such a long time.  But no disasters and within a short amount of time we were back in the groove. This place has a magic of its own and both of us feel relaxed, happy and totally at home in the place.

The last rose of the year

Due to rather mild weather, there was even a beautiful red rose in the courtyard in full blossom. A wicked little mole made a few more molehills, but Roy set about getting rid of him/her pretty sharpish.

The stove well lit

Although the sun shone brightly and for December it was mild, the songbirds were in clear evidence looking for food and it was cold enough to fire up the big stove.  Amazingly, it took no time to take and in spite of a total lack of wind outside, it pulled like it never did before on the first occasion. Within less than 24 hours it was heated through and giving warmth of the kind only a pottery stove can.

Lesser spotted woodpecker

I was happy to see that the woodpeckers were back and during the day we also saw blue tits, great tits, some finches and a nuthatch.  The latter is not a very common visitor in these parts, so hopefully we are in for a good winter of bird spotting round the feeders.

Most of the week was spent partially with putting together this year's tax return, while trying to feed ourselves out of the sparce amount of food we brought with ourselves on the bus and by raiding the freezer.  It is roughly at this time when we normally set about clearing the feezer, so that it can be freshly stocked again.  Roy put the car away before we left, as he is not very fond of the frozen, potholed roads in these parts and because the public transport is good enough to use for about 3 months until the weather cheers up again.

Robert King

On Sunday, 21st December I went into town, partly because I had a concert and partly because somebody had to do the Christmas food shopping. The concert was a sublime rendering of Handel's Messiah by The King's Consort of Robert King. I knew the Messiah, of course, but I realised early on that I have never seen/heard it on the concert podium in person before.  It was extremely good and very enjoyable indeed.

Then on Monday I did my shopping, preceded by a visit to the insurance company to submit the last document necessary for their settling the claim over the robbery, now nearly two months ago. Most of the Christmas shopping was done in my favourite market where I got a nice big chunk of fillet steak for Roy, a big bit of salmon for myself, all the ingredients for mince pies, fruit, nuts and vegetables and when the suitcase I took for a shopping trolley was full I departed. The bus trip was uneventful and now we are here for nearly a week before returning to town for New Year's Eve. The  plan for tomorrow is to make the mince pies, which should be fun!

A few more comments from the sickbed

Considering that we mostly spent the last week in bed, or at least inside the flat, there is not much I can write about.  By Monday Roy was down with the lurgy too and since then I found that this time he is recovering a lot slower than me.  Perhaps the fact that he only ever catches something once every 10 years, doesn'thelp. His cough is tighter and is much slower to loosen up than mine.  But let's get back to the beginning!

Monday Laci came with the  goat cheese, which is actually quite a saga. An orienteering friend and his wife make gorgeous goat cheese and about a year or so ago I started buying it in chunks of between 1 and 2 kilos.  About a third or a quarter usually goes to Nelly, the rest to us.  It takes me a few months to eat it, (Roy sticks with his Cheddar!), which is due to its denseness and its flavour.  A sliver provides plenty of zing for a sandwich. My friends are excellent at making the stuff, just not so good on the logistics of how to get it to me.  We even had to go and drive all the way to their house in the North once, as they seemed unable to organise something as simple as that.  This time, however, I got really pissed off when having rang especially and asked if they were coming to a particular orienteering event, they answered in the negative, and then he turned up with lots of cheese to sell, except mine. Also, quite by accident I discovered in a nearby market a cheese stall, which was selling hard goat's cheese just as good as theirs and a lot cheaper. So, now there is an alternative, and while I would still carry on buying theirs out of loyalty, but not if they cock up the delivery system every single time.  Anyway, after the last O event where I was watching everybody disappearing with big chunks of cheese with mine not available, I was happy to buy the stuff from the market and ignoring them, when eventually they went to some event where I couldn't, due to a concert and anyway I was sick by then, and took my cheese there. It  was passed to somebody who then brought it to me.  So, this is how Laci turned up with a kilo and a half of goat's cheese on Monday.

The Music Academy

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent indoors, me mostly in bed, Roy on the computer, but by Thursday there was a need to go out for a variety of reasons. Having recovered much more than poor old Roy, I ventured out.  I wrapped myself up in my puffy down jacket, big scarf and new Nepalese owl hat and walked the following round:
1. photocopy shop to take copy of my mammography report for doctor;
2. doctor's surgery which was chock a block full of coughing and spluttering patients, so the epidemic is still raging, obviously. I had to wait about three quarters of an hour, but once I got in she was very smily and efficient. (Makes a pleasant change!!) I gave her the copy of the mammography report with pictures, told her about the lurgy and got prescriptions for both lurgy and the next 3 months worth of  blood pressure and heart meds.
3. pharmacy, where I got the meds prescribed, but forgot to get the vitamin C.
4. Music Academy: picked up the tickets I bought for Bozsa and myself on line for next spring/summer.
5. tried to buy my sourdough bread at the bakery, but they sold out yet again;
6. went to SPA to do some food shopping and
7. to the greengrocers to get fruit, veg and nuts.

This was the first longer trip I had out since the lurgy started and while I managed it quite OK, by the time I got home I was done in, like I did 15 miles on the hills. Methinks this lurgy will be a bugger to shift, just like the one last year!! :-(

Steven Isserlis

And then came Friday, when I tried to rest all day, so that I would be up to going to the Music Academy for a concert, which I was looking forward to for a long time.  I have heard about Steven Isserlis a lot, but never yet had the chance to see him in the flesh. I listened to him playing his glorious Stadivarius chello on YouTube a lot, but sitting a few meters from him I was hoping would enhance the already good impression I had.  Well, it was an absolutely magical performance, living up to all my expectations and more.  It is not only his beautiful instrument and his inspired, insightful and brilliant playing, it was the whole bloke that really had such an effect on me. His smile and enthusiasm is infectious.  You can tell he loves and enjoys playing and that he puts his heart and soul into it.

Dénes Várjon

He was sharing the podium with Dénes Várjon, a brilliant pianist, whom he had actually met way back in the 1980's when Várjon was still a student attending one of his master classes in Cornwall. The program was fascinating, a perfect mixture of traditional (Schumann and Beethoven) and some lesser known and played, but excellent pieces from Bloch, Kurtág and Foure. He unashamedly promotes romantic music, pushing those pieces that had the misfortune to go out of fashion in their own time when they are good and worthwhile pieces to perform.  Bozsa and I stayed for the interview/discussion with them after the concert, when Isserlis had displayed his personality traits even further.  What a lovely man as well as a superb performer!!

On Saturday we decided not to go to Maggie and Jerry's Christmas party as Roy definitely did not feel up to it and while I could have gone just for a couple of hours, I stayed at home out of solidarity and fear of picking up a follow-up infection.

The plans currently are that we will go down to the village on Tuesday, should we both feel up to it. Not Monday because according to Nelly there is a scheduled all day power cut on Tuesday, so there is no point in sitting in th dark without computers. As the bus doesn't get there until 3.45pm, by which time we are promised a return of the service, we chose Tuesday.

Quiet words from the sickbed :-(

History is repeating itself (again)!! It is definitely at least the second time, but could even be third or fourth, that I go down with some nasty lurgy straight after returning from visiting family around the end of November/beginning of December. I did last 2 days OK after our return, but then 2 days ago I started sneezing, coughing, having a temperature and headache and just generally feeling dead. As I had two fantastic concerts I went out for both, but the second one was probably irresponsible.  This morning I was close to writing my will, but Roy made me porridge, I also took a couple of Paracetamols, and now I am a bit more alive!! :-)

I also realised, reading the last two posts, that I didn't go into any detail about a couple of concerts and an opera before we went to Hassocks, so the first part of this post will be a report on those plus the last two concerts and an opera performance from the last couple of weeks.

Dezső Ránki

Back on 24th November I saw Dezső Ránki at the Palace of the Arts playing Haydn, Beethoven and Chopin. The second half was taken up by 24 Chopin preludes, which were magnificent.  He is superb, but not very willing to give encores.  Other than that, I can't fault him.

Tannhauser First Act

The following day I went to the Opera House where Wagner's Tannhauser awaited, but I forgot that it started at 6 instead of 7pm. I should have known, as Wagner's operas take forever and nobody wants to be there at midnight. I had a phonecall from my friend Eszter, asking where I was at about 5.50pm. They were also dishing out free tickets to the likes of us in the gods.  I told her not to wait for me, I'll get there when I get there. I think I arrived sometime between quarter past and half past 6, but couldn't get in at the side door, which is the normal access point to the gods, so I tried the front. I told two young men there my story and one of them disappeared for a minute and then returned with two VIP tickets to one of the first floor boxes.  That was fortunate, because you can go in and out of boxes any time you like, while if it was for anywhere else I would have had to wait until the first interval. Unfortunately somebody took our places, but there was one seat left, so I spent the rest of the first act there.  In the interval I found Eszter, we asked the others to move and we had a very good time, minus my lost 20 minutes at the beginning. As I have written before, I am not an enthusiastic fan of Wagner, but I loved Tannhauser, which must mean that I am mellowing in my old age. Last year it was The Flying Dutchman, this year Tannhauser, bring it on, bring it on!!

Kim Kashkashian

On Wednesday, the night before leaving I had one last concert of the week at the Music Academy.  An Armenian/American viola player, Kim Kashkashian, gave a glorious recital after a bit of a mishap that befell her program.  The other soloist, Hungarian Péter Nagy, a pianist who lives in Germany had fallen down the stairs in his hotel that morning and broke his leg. They only had a few hours to rejig the program, find other artists, rehearse, but did it perfectly well. I even saw my absolute favourite,  Kristóf Baráti, who also played something, and very well he did that too. Her encores were Armenian folk songs, which were beautiful and the whole concert was gorgeous.  I bought one of her Bach CD's at the end, as I really do not possess too many viola CD's.

János Balázs

And now for the last two days: on Friday it was the last concert of a series of piano recitals in the Festetics Palace, where János Balázs, an up and coming young talent treated us to his  brilliance. The program was Beethoven, Robert and Clara Schumann with Liszt involved with the Clara Schumann piece. This guy is only 26, but his virtuoso technique is fully developed.  Also, unlike many virtuoso pianists who play mechanically, he has a soul and much insight with emotion that comes through in all his playing.  We loved it and hope to see him again and again. Especially that he doesn't begrudge us plenty of encores, so we love him even more!! :-)

Kristóf Baráti and Klára Würtz

Finally, last night, when I was already pretty sick, I went to see my beloved Kristóf Baráti. When I got out of bed, Roy enquired where I was going and then realised that the question was superfluous as I would definitely have to be at death's door to miss one of his concerts.  3 Brahms sonatas for violin and piano, C and A major and D minor were on the program and I must admit I did manage to forget my aching head, throat and joints for about a couple of hours. I had a lift home, which was a lifesaver, after which I fel into bed in a heap.

Cutting the cake

The only two other events since we came home were a lovely outing to a pub on Thursday and Callum's Skype call yesterday. The pub is not too far from the flat where some friends have celebrated the birthday of one of them and we went to see them for the occasion. It was a good decision as Weichmann's, the pub is just the type of place we both enjoy and probably will use in future. Not too posh, not too rough with a lively, nice crowd and good atmosphere. Zsuzsa, Cedric and their friends, colleagues and family were also very, very nice: laid back, funny and interesting people and even the beer and the food was lovely too.  I must admit, it is a long time since I have seen Roy as happy as he was that evening.  Mind you, it might be that I picked up my bug there, but then again, you can't shut yourself away just on the off chance of catching something. Not even in the winter. Weichmann's has definitely had the thumbs up and we'll be back.

For a variety of reasons (mostly being away at weekends) we have not talked to Alex and Callum for quite a while, so it was a really pleasant surprise to receive a Skype call from them on Saturday afternoon. The monster was first playing with his stickers and then built a Star Wars gun from Lego. All this wearing only his underpants, but their apartment must be quite well heated. I am really pleased that I now have some Callum pictures to put up, as photography lately seemed to be concentrated on the Hassocks monsters.

Filling the sticker book

What did you say?

Gun manufacture in process

The final product

Hassocks, grandsons, hospital and lots of fun!

Hassocks High Street

November 29th was the date when the Christmas lights went on in Hassocks. We actually missed the moment when they went on, but still had lots of fun looking at the stalls, having pizza, playing with light sticks, stroking Shetland ponies, having a go in the teacup merry-go-round and generally enjoying the Christmas cheer. Some of us even had mulled wine, but not me. En route home we bought some fish and chips and gorged on it for tea at home.

The cheeky chappie

The little happy chappie, who was in a good mood even before we left for the fair, has such a joyful, sunny disposition that it is sheer joy having a chuckle with him

Elian with windmill

The little star (two of them)

Elian admiring his windmill light stick. It amazingly survived the trip and when we left, it was still in working order.  And that in spite of several battles between him and his little brother for possession.

Daddy, Elian and Xander

One of the Shetland ponies

One of the Shetland ponies that were loved to near exhaustion by the hundreds of children stroking them.

On the merry-go-round

Mummy with the two little monsters in the teacup.











On Saturday we went to the park, where we met Rosalie with her Dad Ben, while her Mum, Esther was at the hairdressers having highlights put in. It was a bit muddy, but we all had a really good time on the swing, climber and other equipment.

 Elian climbing up the slide with Daddy's help.

Xander on the rope bridge with Mummy's help.

Out of the way Xander! I am coming through!!

Like Father like Son!

On Sunday Mummy and Daddy had a well deserved half day out on their own, while Daddy's Daddy (aka Grandad) and Grandma had the joy of playing with their little monsters all afternoon and evening. Xander is fond of computers, but usually only deals with TV remotes and the iPad.  However, this time he discovered Daddy's work computer, which also turned out to be lots of fun.

In the Basketmakers

Monday was Grandad's and Granma's day off, when they went to the Basketmakers (one of their much loved haunts) to have lunch and some warm, delicious beer. That pub is an absolute delight.  It had not changed one iota in decades, it still has the same publican, the food is locally sourced and delicious and the beers are varied, beautifully kept and tasty. Roy had a steak and I had my usual: humous with a feta salad and pitta bread.  All washed down with Gale's HSB. Yum, yum!!

We also did some shopping in our usual express fashion, which is the only way we both prefer.  No trying on, thinking about it and changing our minds x number of times.  If you see something you like, go in, buy it and that's it.  The only place where this system broke down was in Argos, where I saw the camera I wanted at a good price, so in we went. The queue was short, we paid for it and then joined the other queue for receiving it. The announcement was loud and clear, but still no sign of camera.  They never admitted, but I suspect they had a computer breakdown in the sparsely staffed stock room and chaos ensued. Eventually it did turn up, so that was OK finally too. The total haul of goodies we carted off to Hassocks was: a Panasonic camera with 32gig HD chip, some Imperial Leather soap, special flexible, but sticky ankle bandage, some paracetamol, 4 jars of crunchy nut butters, a Nepalese funny owl wolly hat and a couple of carrier bagfuls of Sainsbury's Cheddar, sausages and other goodies.

My new camera

And then we came to Tuesday, which was the one day there was plenty of stress, but also great joy.  Xander have been having continuous and very painful middle ear infections, which kept him in discomfort for months. Finally, it was decided that he needed gromets in both ears, but everybody was concerned about inserting them at such an early age.  He is only 13 months old, although you wouldn't believe it, he is so bright and capable.  Stephen had to work in Scotland, so I went with Lucy and Xander to the Children's Hospital, which was lovely.  Modern, fairly new building, lovely, friendly and kind nurses and - as it turned out - excellent surgeons too. We were told that it would take 5 minutes to insert the gromets and 20 or 30 minutes for him to wake up and be brought back from recovery.  When nearly an hour went and no sign of the little one, we were understandably anxious. The trouble with consultants is that communication is not their forte. Nobody told us anything and - as it happens in situations like this - we were imagining the worst. After nearly an hour and a half he was brought out, howling his little head off, but alive and in one piece. Apparently his right ear was such a mess, it took a long time to clean it out. He was in pain, a bit shocked at waking up in a strange place without Mummy and also starving hungry. After the fast gulping down of an entire bottle he calmed down and went to sleep. He looked so cute on that large, full size hospital bed.

The brave little trooper

After about an hour he woke up and within a very short time was back to his old self. Went discovering toys and other interesting things. He didn't seem big enough for most of the vehicles, but that didn't stop him.  Ahhhhh!

And finally on Wednesday our little visit ended. We departed with heavy hearts that we will not see them now for a while, but with lots of lovely memories. The last present we treated ourselves to was a litre bottle of Talisker, which almost needs a bank loan to purchase, but what the heck?! You can't take it into the hole with you, so we decided to splash out.  The trip home was uneventful and now we are in the middle of doing the washing, reorganising the flat from the set up for visitors, reading the user's manuals of our new acquisitions, etc. etc.

First day in Hassocks

I know I only posted a few days ago, but a lot happened since. The three days before leaving for Hassocks was rather hectic.  First of all I had to find a way to change my API on the boarding card, otherwise they wouldn't let me on board. Website had no facility for it and no sign of a phone number either. Finally we had to go out to the airport to find a helpful little chap to give me la contact number for EasyJet. (I only realised later that I did have a number, but forgot this fact.) So having sorted that, I visited my hairdresser to tidy me up and then did some washing.

I had a performance every evening and that was actually fun, if somewhat tiring. On Monday it was a piano recital by Dezso Ranki in the Palace of the Arts, on Tuesday, Tannhauser in the Opera and finally on Wednesday a viola and piano recital in the Music Academy. They were all superb, including Wagner, of whom I am not exactly a fan.

On Wednesday, while I was  at my concert,  Michelle and Carmella have arrived. They are spending a few days in town and staying at the flat until Sunday. I hope the weather is good for them, although the temperatures had dropped drastically in the last few days.

And then came the trip to Hassocks. All connections were instant, the plane left on time and we were indoors by 11 pm.  The little monsters were in bed, but they got up early this morning.

I started to get acquainted with my tablet and took this selfie of Roy and me (our first!).

This afternoon they are turning on the Christmas lights in Hassocks High Street, so further reports are due after that.

A busy, if somewhat lonely week (for both of us)

On Monday we saw that the cefre barrels were gone, so Roy was expecting his moonshine to turn up any day. The other major event of Monday was having to ring Nationwide again as nothing arrived in the post as promised.  Another helpful little fellow had to own up that nothing was sent.  At least according to his computer. So he faithfully assured me that this time he personally had a word with the department responsible and they promised to expedite the matter at once. Is this human or computer negligence and inefficiency?

Fenyő László

On Tuesday I was off back to town due to yet another concert.  My favourite chellist did us proud again. His concert had been hit by a serious mishap, just on the morning of the day of the performance. One of the foreign soloists called in sick and he had only a few hours to find others to take his place. He managed it and even the program only had to be changed in one respect. Kristóf was one of the fill-ins, and superb he was too.

The other big event of Tuesday was the arrival of Roy's pálinka. He suspected that there would be quite a lot of it, due to the size and plumpness of the bought plums, but even he didn't imagine that 56 litres of the heavenly brew would arrive in 12 five litre containers.  Considering he only sent 10, good job the distiller had some spare. He spent the following days cleaning, drying and then filling a large number of glass bottles, as pálinka is not very happy in plastic for any length of time.  Even my friend Klári has got involved by supplying some of the bottles. As the excise duty is going back on homegrown booze from 1st January 2015, good job this got done now.  However, the sum, which is rumoured to be a full £4.50 per litre, is a bit of a blow. Not so much as an extra expense, although that is not welcome either, but the fact that this is so steep that the vast majority of the citizens will most probably go back to distilling it illegally at home, thus endangering the survival of the legal stills.  The one we use now is such a good, reliable and skillful distillery, that I would be heartbroken to lose him.

About half of this year's pálinka

On Wednesday I was back in the baths. I was going down with a cold, so I went inside a lot sooner than normal, where I still couldn't find Imre (still staying at home on doctor's orders after his accident), but Annie was there and we had a good chinwag. Afterwards I went and paid Roy's speeding fine, met up with Cedrick to hand over the T-shirts and paid a visit to a ticket office to try and get one of my stolen concert tickets reprinted.  Needless to say they couldn't. When I got home I rang the office of the orchestra performing and they promised to do something about it. As the concert is in next May, the matter is not urgent.  While there I bought a ticket to one of their plays.

One of the lovely building in the Castle District

On Thursday I went geocaching with Klári. We spent most of our time, prior to getting dark up in the Castle District. The sun shone and it was a very pleasant and easy multi. Unfortunately I couldn't say the same about the next cache. The clues were pathetic, the GPS reception minimal, and with the sun setting the air was getting totally freezing. So we gave up, had a cup of tea in a cafe and went home.

Mathias Church in the Castle District

On Friday I was supposed to go to the baths again, but really didn't feel like it. I felt full of cold and spent most of the morning in bed watching TV. Later I pootled off to the West End shopping mall to buy a mouse and keyboard to go with my laptop.  As it often happens I ended up buying myself a Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet too. It is very sweet, fits in my pocket and having just started to acqaint myself with it I can already tell that it will be a lot of fun having it. I had to go back to the concert ticket office as I realised that the theatre ticket I bought two days before clashed with a concert.  She was very helpful and changed it to the following week. I also popped along to my favourite cheese shop in a local market. I bought half a kilo this time of my favourite hard goat cheese. And then for the sensation of the day: about 15 minutes after I got home a DHL man rang my doorbell and delivered my new passport.  Yipppeeee!

Leaving the village en route to the forest

Botond and Ancsa hanging on for dear life

A steep descent on a wooded hillside

Posing for a group picture below the stages of the cross

 And then we come to Saturday, when I had to get up at 6am, catch a lift at 7.15am and then go on a 12.5km hike with friends on an overcast, pretty cold day when the sun wouldn't show itself, whatever we did. At the end my knees were in agony, and not just me, some of our party was hobbling just as much as I was.

Within the stages of the cross

The plan was that we first go to the Eagle's Top and then come back down to Buják to see the stages of the cross there. Needless to say that we got involved with a very steep ravine, wasted a lot of time and then ran out of daylight to get up the mountain as far as where the lookout tower was. We did, however have a fun hike, even I saw some glorious bits of the forest I have never been to. We discovered a spring with a little building next to it and that was pretty close to Virágos. After a short pálinka stop at Virágos we got home by 3pm.

After a quick rest we were all off to the Sandos Restaurant, which was pretty good again. The food was quite quickly prepared, due to my efficient organisation of sending in our orders in advance.  Unfortunately there was only 9 of us at dinner and 11 of us on the hike.  The numbers were originally higher, but the current flu epidemic and a few family commitments put paid to many people's plans for the weekend.

Lewis winning his second F1 world championship title

And finally on the Sunday we watched the final, double points decider in the 2014 F1 season.  And what an event that was. First fantastic joy for both of us happened in the first few seconds of the race when Lewis Hamilton sped past Nico Rosberg to get into the lead, a lead he never relinquished for the rest of the race, other than being second or third when those ahead had less pit stops than him. About half way through the race Rosberg discovered that he lost ERS which made him really slow and finally quite a lot of electric problems, but he still finished the race. This took out the main opposition, but Massa's Williams was also after Lewis in the final stages, as he also suffered from a slow down, plus he nursed his engine, fearing a Rosberg style failure, which thankfully never happened. At the end Lewis held his lead and poor old Rosberg finished out of the points.  This way (and due to the double points) Lewis won by nearly 70 points. A well deserved victory for him in 2014.  He had just as many (if not more) mechanical failures as Rosberg, 11 wins, but less poles than his rival. 

Lewis doing doughnuts to celebrate his win

A couple of hours after the Grand Prix we came back into town, where we have quite a few jobs to do before we depart for Hassocks on Thursday.