A brilliant bit of luck and an excellent weekend

On Thursday we came into town as I had a concert and while the weekend's orienteering would have been accessible from the village, as we promised to give a lift to two of our friends to the weekend's orienteering events, we had to start from town anyway. The day started with something really brilliant still back at the village, though.  We were getting ready to depart into town and the first job was to visit our car dealership where we were planning to pay a fortune for a new set of keys. While packing up I spotted the old rucksack I used as a regular bag before some months ago I moved my stuff into the one that got nicked recently.  I looked inside and discovered with great delight the bunch of car keys that we thought was stolen with the rucksack. Apparently, totally unbeknown to us, we have been travelling around without a spare car key for up to a year.  This time, however, this bit of fantastic luck had saved us from unneccesary hassle and expense! Imagine the frustration if we did find this just after we paid for the keys!

After arriving in town we went to see some friends, one of which offered to countersign my passport application and had a lovely time with them.  Such lovely people and their newly redecorated and refurbished house looked really posh.  The lunch was delicious too, so our stay in town this time had a fantastic start.

Várjon Dénes

In the evening I went to the Music Academy for my concert and Várjon Dénes was excellent. Haydn and Chopin was on his program and we had the usual encores at the end. I was lucky that the organiser of that series of concerts was kind enough to spend a lot of time identifying and then printing every stolen ticket for me, for the remainder of this year and the whole of next year and I could pick them up that night. I will be in Mr. Jakobi's debt for the rest of eternity!!

Friday was a walking about day when we personally went to a lot of places until we were both totally exhausted.  Mind you, that is not very difficult nowadays, as we get tired ever so easily, presumably due to lack of sleep and the other after effects of the last couple of weeks.  Anyway, we started  with the post office where the passport application got posted. Then the key cutters to see if they can help us with some of the other keys that were stolen, and they could.  Hopefully they should be done by next week. Then we went to the Panasonic shop where they phoned from earlier that the camera battery charger and the spare battery had arrived and picked those up. We also looked about amongst the new cameras and probably will buy a new one after Christmas. The visit to another concert hall was less successful than the night before as they could not replace my ticket, but there might still be luck with the agency through which I bought it. The rest of the time, before we went for a meal, was spent with "normal" shopping (paprika shakers for Stephen, light bulbs, batteries, a telephone charger and two pairs of shoes for me). Then had a very late lunch at one of our favourite restaurants and then home.  Good job there was nothing planned for the evening as we collapsed into bed quite early, even without doing the packing for the weekend, which had to be done the following morning.

Ács Kúria, Bodony - the gorgeous B&B where we stayed

We left at 7am, picked our friends up at 7.15am and were on our way to the Matra by 7.30am. Roy and I felt that we were due some good luck soon, and I am happy to report that this weekend was therapeutic in a way we didn't dare hope.  The trip was straighforward, the O events excellent, the accommodation perfect, the restaurant where we had dinner superb and I actually won my class and came home with a medal.  Just what the doctor ordered!!

It was one of those events that tried to squeeze a lot into a short day and a half. There were three runs in barely over 24 hours, plus a maze between runs 1 and 2.  Saturday had two sprint runs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning run was totally in parkland around a hotel and an old sanatorium. Unusually, it had a fair amount of climb, which you don't normally get in a park.  The afternoon run was like a downhill slalom, as they marched us up to the top of the wooded hill opposite the hotel for the start and then we came all the way down to the same finish area as in the morning. I have always said that sprint orienteering is not necessarily for those that run  fast, but for those that think fast.  I managed to beat my main opposition in both runs, although not by much.  She did have a bit of a brain fade at the end of her second run, so I went into Sunday with a 2 and half minute buffer.

Eger Grand Prix, Day 1 am

Eger Grand Prix, Day 1 pm

Parádi Kisvendéglő, the little rustic inn where we had lunch

In the evening we had a brilliant dinner in a restaurant that we remembered from 9 years ago when the Hungária Kupa was in this area and thankfully it was still open. We had local dishes and I couldn't finish mine, so I had half of it packed up and ate it cold for lunch on Sunday. Yum, yum!!

Eger Grand Prix, Day 2

Sunday was a real forest event with steep gradients, glorious beech and oak woods with a small amount of pines, lots of stones and rocks underfoot and even a run through the finish area, even for old girls like me.  It was both technically and physically hard, but I loved it. Both myself and my main rival had brain fades, but hers was bigger than mine, so while she did beat me by 4 seconds on the day, I won overall.  No presents in the organisers' budget, but a lovely, heavy medal for my collection. I also collected my replacement maps from two weeks ago, which a couple of kind people brought for me.  All in all a billiant weekend and at the end of it we even got back in time for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Lewis locks up at Interlagos

Lewis didn't win this time, but second place will do.  Hopefully he can either win or be second next time too and that should be enough for the overall championship.  All crossable things are crossed for the next two weeks, until the Abu Dhabi finish.  Let us see what, if any, extra excitement is brought on by the double points at the end!