Coughing (both of us), country, town, concerts and trying to get better

The gaps are getting bigger and bigger between posts. This winter has been so full of sickness that I have lost track of how many times I thought I was better, only to go down with something else or possibly the same lurgy coming back. It was not that I didn't feel like blogging, I simply forgot about it altogether until Roy mentioned it. Ahhhh! Talking of the poor man, finally he also got the lurgy, but he seems to bear it better. He is faithfully taking his medicine and hopefully should be better soon.

After my last post the highlight of the weekend immediately after was a fantastic concert with my beloved Kristof Barati. He was playing solo, in duo AND conducting, so we were all in seventh heaven. I do hope that diversifying into conducting will not mean that he will play less, as I still think he is one of the best in the world. On Monday I went to see the doctor, who said that the X-ray was OK, but as they said something about me having a gland enlarged close to my lungs I need a control X-ray before she is happy about the whole thing.  In the meantime I seemed to have caught yet another bout of coughing (probably in her waiting room), so we had to put off going down to the village until Thursday. Thankfully, no plumbing disasters awaited us and the weather got really mild and sunny again.  Unfortunately, due to the cough and cold I couldn't take advantage of it and spent most of it indoors.

Monday morning we returned to town as I had some cultural pursuits approaching. If for no other reason, this made it imperative that I get rid of my cough, otherwise I wasn't going to be very popular during concerts. On Monday evening I attended a concert in the Music Academy which received a complete renovation and remodelling in the last 5 years, while retaining all the decorative style of the first few days of the XXth century when it was built. It looked magnificent and the concert was superb as well.

Balazs Janos, at his grand old age of 25, is already such a virtuoso and he entertained us with three different moods of the piano.  1. Love and Passion; 2. Music of the night; 3. Technical bravura/virtuosity. His program included Liszt, Chopin, Ravel, Bartok, Czifra, Schumann and Balakirev. I was sitting up where the choir stands, when there is one, and as the lights went down I sneakily moved to an empty seat right above the piano. I have never seen a pianist's fingers from such close up, it was brilliant.  So was he and we got him back for three encores, as usual.

Yesterday we  went to see The Monuments Men, which was great.  I know that the demands of Hollywood embroider everything, but whatever the exact circumstances all those years ago, those guys who risked life and limb for the altar panels of Ghent, the Madonna and child of Bruges and thousands of other pieces of art deserve some recognition.  Even if it ends up a bit of a vehicle for the good looks of Matt Damon and George Cloony.

Tonight I am off to another concert with some friends, tomorrow is a family history visit to some Jewish archives with Roy and our new friend Ancsa, while Friday (assuming the weather and my health allow it) is set aside for geocaching. The orienteering season starts this coming weekend, but the most I am likely to do is one day (probably Saturday), but we'll see how I feel. Speak to you again in March (probably!!)