Another week or so, this time in the village

Andrea Vigh

Just to round off the last blog, the concert that I mentioned at the end was absolutely magical.  It was all Mozart and as it is nearly the festive season, there were a few popular pieces there as well.  However, the concert started with a fairly obscure piece, a Cassation in G major.  I have never heard of a Cassation before, but looked it up and apparently it is a minor musical genre related to the serenade and divertimento. Judging by the low K number (63) it must have been an early piece by Mozart.  It was charming and lovely to listen to. This was followed by a clariet concerto and after the interval Andrea Vigh, who is an excellent harpist as well as the director of the Music Academy, joined a flutist and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra to play the Concerto for flute, harp and orchestra in C major, K. 299, which was also superb. This being the last concert of 2015 for me, it left not just me, but all three of us, Bozsa, Eszter and me, elated and very happy. We were definitely in the Christmas spirit after this concert.

The Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra

On Friday was the premiere of Star Wars VII, which I still haven't seen on account of having left for the village first thing that day.  Never mind, hopefully I should be able to go and see it next week.  The trip down took us to Tesco first, where we collected Nelly and then home.  The weather was not at all wintery, rather mild, dark and miserable, but we were hoping for a bit of sunshine and/or snow later.

Xander concentrating

The cheeky grin that melts my heart

On Saturday Xander called on Skype and we watched him being cute, clever and all those attributes he has in such abundance. Elian wasn't in a good mood, so it was just our little Xander who entertained us.

On Sunday, having realised that the salmon wouldn't last until Christmas Day, we invited Nelly over for dinner, she and I had the salmon and Roy had a piece of fillet steak, like he always does. It was a pleasant meal with pink champagne and some cakes afterwards.

Roy and Nelly round an early Xmas table

Monday was supposed to have been the day we went to photograph a couple of old Jewish cemeteries, but the weather was so foul we chickened out. It was not only cold and miserable, but there was a thick fog which would have made photography close to impossible. During the day I called on Pali and agreed a date for him taking the cefre to the still and presented Monika with a couple of little toys for her new born twins.  In fact, Monika was not around, so I gave them to Ildi, her mother.

Bercel Jewish cemetery

Vanyarc Jewish cemetery

On Tuesday, the sun miraculously came out and we tore off to Bercel and Vanyarc. The first one was the further one, but they must have had some EU money for restoring and securing the cemetery, as it looked properly fenced off with a locked gate and very tidy. Unfortunately, very few had legible names on, partly because they were all in Hebrew, which we don't read, partly because the condition of the stones was much weathered and the letters got barely legible. Still, we took photos and hoped that somebody somewhere might be able to decipher them.

Vanyarc cemetery was probably the most neglected and incomplete we have ever seen. You had to walk for about 10-15 minutes out of the village up a mountain into a forest before you got to it.  It was together with another cemetery of another denomination, which must have been Christian, but I couldn't work out which. That part had more graves and in better condition than the Jewish part and I stood and thought about the past with sadness that it got to that state.

After we got back we had a lovely Skype call from Canada where Callum was opening his presents. He had to do it 3 days early as they were off to Bogota, Colombia for Christmas and he had to leave all his presents from friends and family in Canada behind. He was really lovely and we not only watched him opening and playing with his new toys, but we also played a couple of games of Transatlantic hangman.

On Wednesday we did the bit of cooking and baking we decided to do for Christmas, which was fun.  Ros brought us some mincemeat, so we made ten mince pies. She also brought some marzipan, so I made petit fours with the marzipan cut out into little circles and topped off with molten bitter chocolate and either a half walnut or a Morello cherry. Finally, I also made some truffles, most rolled in bitter cocoa and some in chopped walnuts. I took some over for Nelly and she chomped away on a mince pie with a funny look on her face. Very nice, she said, but strange.

Mince pies

Truffles and petit fours

Finally Christmas Day arrived and we decided to make it an Indian one. We defrosted a large pack of tiger prawns and made a curry with them. They were delicious.  We accidentally left the mango chutney in town, so we substituted Branston pickle for it. Strange but nice, was the typical comment.  We also had mixed veg curry, boiled rice, pappadoms and dhal with it, yum yum!! We washed it down with another bottle of champers, this time a dry one and followed it with Morello cherry compote with whipped cream.  Now I can hardly move, but feel all content.

Prawn curry

Dhal, pappadoms and the BB champers

Scalextric is fun

Xander with his hallmark cheeky smile

Is Daddy winning?

What's he up to?

In the meantime the Hassocks mob rang on Skype and we watched the little monsters play with the Scalextric that their parents got them with the money we sent for Christmas.  Needless to say that Elian was so enamoured of it that Xander didn't get a lookin.  No probs, he is a patient little soul and knows that sooner or later big brother will get fed up with it and then it'll be his turn. I managed to snap the entire family (Stephen, Lucy, Elian, Xander, Jenson, Matt, Emily and Helen) on Skype and here's a selection of the shots.

Elian looking pensive

Cousin Jenson

Uncle Matt

Stephen (aka Daddy)

Auntie Emily

Helen (aka Ground Control)

Lucy (aka Mummy)

The third week in town

To carry on from where I left the last post: Bridge of Spies was brilliant.  Yes, perhaps some emphasis and even detail was not quite as it happened, but the characters, most of the actual story and the atmosphere of the times was captured perfectly.  Roy was quite reluctant to go with me, but admitted at the end how much he enjoyed it.

Tom Hanks in Bridge of Spies

On Saturday evening I went with Bozsa to the Festetics Palace to hear Vilmos Szabadi to play the violin, which was excellent. Unfortunately, this season there were very few violin concerts, which I regret as I prefer violin to the piano, although I like both. I doubt if we will be back to the Festetics Palace soon as there are no more concerts scheduled there.  That is a real shame, as that building is so beautiful and I especially love the Venetian chandeliers in the actual hall where the concerts are.

Vilmos Szabadi

On Sunday I managed to attend another Hash run, which this time did not include Ros and Ian, but was still a lot of fun. We travelled up to the end of bus 11 yet again and had a route which in spite the fact that we hash there far too often, was still unknown to many of us.  Hulk, as hare, led us to some nice tops for Father Abraham and then to 2 Hash Views, so we were happy.  We ended up in the Trombitás for lunch where Roy joined us.

The hashing group on one of the tops

In the evening I went with Jutka, another friend, to see one of the plays I saw only about 10 days ago.  It was, if at all possible, even more enjoyable than first time round. No break and sitting there for nearly 2 hours, listening to a brilliant actor enact somebody's war diary from 70 years ago, was spellbinding.

In front of the cave where I had to climb the rockface to get to the cache

Monday had only one not particularly exciting event in it, namely the gas meter reader coming to do the yearly reading of the meter. On Tuesday, however, there was something much more exciting and enjoyable on the program. I went geocaching with Gizi again and this time we had even more fun than last time. The daylight is  short, so we left at 7am and didn't get back until 6pm. Gizi ended up with 10 and I with 7 caches.  I had those other 3 from before, but let Gizi go and get them while I sat in the car, as they were all drive-in caches taking very little time. We saw some lovely places and while it didn't rain, like last time, it was still dark and overcast all day.  Still, all the lovely places made up for it.

A recultivated bauxite mine, site of another cache

Wednesday was spent having a rest, as this week was shaping up to be yet another marathon of activities. Today, however, there were several events and activities, not all of which were totally enjoyable.  The first one, a Hungarian film by the title of Fever at Dawn was probably the best piece of cinematic art I have seen in a while.  I have read the book a month or so ago and now the film didn't disappoint either. If you can find it in an art cinema or anywhere else where you live, do go and see it! the book is coming out in English, published by Doubleday. It is an absolutely true story, which is so beautiful and so insightful and so life affirming amidst the horror and the aftermath of the holocaust, that you shouldn't miss it! It is very rare that once you read a book, the film is just as good as the book was. This definitely was one of the exceptions to that rule. Here's the link to the trailer for the film. Enjoy!
https://vimeo.com/138878104

The hero and his doctor in the film

I went shopping for fillet steak and salmon for Christmas after the cinema, then went home, followed by a hilarious if somewhat ludicrous trip by trolley bus to buy a season ticket for some discounted massage treatments, which was recommended by a friend. There must have been some trouble with the electricity supply to the buses, because for a while they didn't come, then 5 came all at once, then the one we were on stopped. Then we got off and it got going again sailing past us. Sounds funny as I write it, but at the time it made our travelling time about treble what it should have been. Finally we went to have lunch at one of our favourite restaurants and booked a couple of seats for New Year's Eve while there.

Now I am off to a Mozart concert at the Music Academy with a couple of friends and tomorrow we are off back to the village. Hopefully it shouldn't snow before we get there as Roy hates driving on snow, but after that I hope it will come down in spades. Oh, perhaps not until after Monday, as we are off to one of our nearby villages where Roy has decided to do another project documenting and photographing the graves in their old Jewish cemetery. Talk to you next week!

The second week in town

We are still in town where our stay has now been extended until next Friday, due to another concert and some more stuff to do. I left off the last post prior to going to the theatre with a couple of friends.  That play turned out to be a revelation and I am glad to say that I am going to see it again this Sunday with another friend, as she didn't want to go alone.  No probs, as it was so intricate and involved that I am sure I will discover details on Sunday that I missed last time. It was basically a one man show, the recently retired director of the theatre playing a famous playright towards the end of the 2nd World War and the script was based on his diaries.  These diaries were totally unknown until recently and have never been published.  As the author, Jenő Heltai, was a humorist as well as a playright, it was both tragic and funny at the same time. It covered the period between March 1944 (when the Germans invaded) and March 1945 when war was nearly over. It was one of the best done histories of the war I have ever seen on stage and well worth seeing.

The happy hashers before setting off

On Sunday the weather looked ghastly, but I decided to risk the hash, mostly because Ian and Ros were going too. As it happened, we had quite a little bunch of people: 6 in the forest and 8 in the restauant.  The latest arrivals were Rabies, who had to do some professional laughing (don't ask!) and could only join us for the food and drink, and Roy who never does anything with the hash, but eating and drinking.It was really foggy in the forest, but as Hulk decided to set a really nice and short hash, we didn't mind. Hopefully, I should be able to go this week again, although without Ian and Ros, as they have gone home on Tuesday.

Carey Mulligan

On Monday we went to see the film Suffragette, which was pretty good. Obviously there wasn't any politics in it, as it concentrated on Emmeline and the ordinary women of a factory, rather than Christabel and her socialism.  But that was OK, mostly as the script and acting were superb and to me especially, Carey Mulligan was a revelation.  I haven't seen her in anything before and thought her absolutely brilliant.

Monday had the final episode of London Spy which didn't have too many unexpected turns, althugh had a few revelations to wrap the story up.  OK, but a bit weak, I thought.  Still, after this I am a devoted Ben Wishaw fan, that's for sure.

Ben Wishaw

On Tuesday I went to the cinema on my own, as Roy was not interested in Black Mass, which was also quite good. Johnny Depp and Dominic Cumberbatch are a strange combination, but it worked. The make up staff excelled in turning Depp into Whitey Bulger and it was well done, if somewhat brutal.

Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger

Accidentally, I got dragged off by a friend to the theatre in the evening of the same day, to a play which was not very easy to understand and thus to follow.  The story was based on the deportation and murder of over 20.000 Jews to Kamenev Podolsk in 1941. The story was told from the inside and with brutal honesty about some of the Jews, but at the same time showing the tragedy of it all. In a way I thought it didn't concentrate enough on the real culprits, but it was interesting.

Muggins at a place where the cache was gone

And then came Wednesday, when in spite of the disgusting weather Gizi and I went off geocaching along the River Ipoly. It was fascinating, if a tad frustrating at times. Our GPS's played silly buggers at times, but finally we found everything and even placed one of Gizi's moving caches. The villages were a bit away from the centre of activity in the region, but still seemed pleasant enough. The countryside was very pretty, at least as much as we could see of it in the pea soup fog and it hardly rained, so we didn't get too wet.  I used 4 wheel drive for a short bit where the lane was so muddy and rutted that the car was a bit frighteningly sliding all over the place.

The memorial to 1782

The main cache that I wanted to get was by the memorial to a legal massacre of gypsies in the late 18th century. Apparently, the local authorities wanted to get rid of the gypsy population and arranged to arrest all of them and proceeded to torture them until they made incriminating confessions of cannibalism against themselves. They have already hanged and beheaded about 40 or 50 when the emperor intervened, so the remaining 100 or so were saved. The old maps showed where the scaffold was for decades after 1782 and that is where the memorial and the cache were placed. Nowadays it is a small forest and there is no sign or path or road leading to it.  Shame, I would have thought at least the current Roma authorities could look after it better. This cache had especially reinforced my feelings about geocahing being a pastime that takes you to places you would never otherwise go or not even know about. It was dark by the time we finished, but it was a very enjoyable and successful day, totalling 9 caches for me and 8 for Gizi.

Last night I went to hear Gábor Farkas, a brilliant young pianist, play Chopin, Liszt and Saint-Saens. He was absolutely superb. I have never heard him in a solo capacity, always in chamber groups and supporting violinists. He stood his own ground and gave us a magical evening.  I also managed to have a nap in the afternoon, so I wasn't as tired as I usually am, which also enhanced the experience.

Gábor Farkas

And finally, in about half an hour we are off to see Bridge of Spies, which is apparently a million miles from how the Gary Powers prisoner exchange had happened, but I think Spielberg had never let the facts interfere with a good story, did he? Let's be honest, as long as he doesn't change it so much that it totally falsifies the facts, I am not bothered.

Have a good week, all of you, and I'll be back in about a week myself! :-)

A two centred 11 days

The week in the village was spent quite quietly with the weather slowly, but surely turning cold.  Finally on Sunday we had the first snow flurry of the season, which thankfully didn't stay for long.

Snow in the yard

As the temperatures descended we remembered to start feeding the birds. We managed to find the remnants of last year's sack of sunflower seeds, but knowing how hungry those little things are, it won't be long before we will have to make a visit to the agricultural shop for a new one.

2 cute little tits on the seed bowl

I watched quite a lot of TV, although my favourite US series seem to have started taking their Christmas vacations early. Homeland is still going and I must admit it is getting better again. Both the storyline and the dialogue is getting much more exciting of late. I am enjoying both London Spy and Cuffs, but in different ways. I have no idea how long Cuffs will go on, but the former is finishing next week and I await the final punchline (if any) with trepidation.

Some of the Cuffs cast

Talking of Christmas, I managed to put together our annual Christmas message (no rivalry with her Majesty, of course!) and send it. Amazingly, only 3 came back, so it looks as if my e-mail address list is getting nearly completely up-to-date.

Abu Dhabi F1 2015 - the top three

In the middle of last week I had a phonecall from a hapless cacher asking where exactly the moving cache was. I thought I have hidden it very well and I also described the hiding place in quite some detail, but this particular punter was pretty hopeless at finding it. I started worrying about it, suggesting to Roy that we might go to town a couple of days early and check on it en route, but thankfully, before we could do so somebody else found it and moved it on successfully. I was relieved that nobody nicked it, just that guy was as hopeless as he sounded on the phone.

The highlight of Sunday, of course, was the season closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. I had a feeling that a reactivated Rosberg was unstoppable and that is exactly what happened. He won again with Lewis second and while the championship went to Lewis several weeks ago, he was very downhearted about Rosberg getting the better of him three races in a row. The final tally between them ended on 10 wins to Lewis and 6 to Rosberg, but if just one of the last three went Lewis's way, the ratio would have been 11 to 5, a much more respectable ratio. Never mind! Let's hope Lewis has a good rest and comes back in Rosberg beating form in March!!

And then on Monday we came into town. As the bookshop made such a hash of my last book purchase, we went and fetched the latest one straight away before they sold it to someone else. This latest acquisition added to a pile of yet unread books on the shelves, so I hope it is a very cold and snowy winter, allowing me to do a lot of reading!!

On Tuesday we visited the Jewish Family History Research Centre, as Roy had taken on some paid research for someone in Italy. He met this guy on the Tracing the Tribe Facebook group, membership of which he much enjoys.  Jewish people all over the world, trying to trace their ancestors ask questions and he loves answering them.  This is definitely a win/win situation, they get the information they need and Roy gets to do research which keeps him happy and occupied. I am pleased to say that the visit was almost 100% successful.  We found the actual ancestors in the Synagogue registers and paid for authenticated copies to be sent on in about a week.  When we followed this up with visiting another office within the same building where they keep the cemetery records, the experience was quite a lot less pleasant.  One haughty lady, who seemed very inflexible and unhelpful, while admitting to having the record we were searching for, refused to let us have it, as we are not relatives. She finally relented and gave us her e-mail address, suggesting that the guy in Italy write to her directly. She said this service was free, but I wonder if that is true.  We'll see!

Árpi and Zita's 2016 calendar

On the way back we went to pick up our 2016 wall calendars, which are now definitely the last ones from Árpi and Zita, our cycling round the world friends, who have arrived back home in September. The pictures start with Central America, then go onto South America and finish with Europe.  They are holding presentations on their trip all over the country and I hope to catch them at one of these soon.

The original cast

Once back at the flat I started watching Star Wars films. About a month or so ago, one of the TV channels had spent an entire Saturday playing Star Wars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.  Presumably in preparation for Star Wars 7 coming out on the 18th December. I recorded it and now set about watching all 15 hours of it in one go.  Well, I didn't manage it, finally I watched them over three days, but the main fun was the first three (the ones that were made 22 years after 4, 5 and 6) as I didn't really remember them at all. I think I watched the first one, the second one only partially and the third one not at all at the time they came out.  This way, I could remind myself what crap they were compared to the earlier ones (I always thought that) but a refresher of the story line was useful before I go and watch the latest one in a few weeks' time.

The Lone Cedar

On Wednesday this week I went to see the Csontváry exhibition up in the Castle District. He was a really crazy genius, who was a loner, a bit weird all his life, but painted the most incredible pictures.  I have been fond of his ouvre ever since I was a kid and I have never actually seen this many of them all in one place.  My back can only take maximum 2 hours standing around, so I had to make sure that I saw everything in that time. I also bought the catalogue, which was £20, but worth every penny.

To make this week an arty one, I followed this up with another exhibition the following day in the National Gallery of a very obscure Russian born Hungarian painter by the name of El Kazovsky. She was a really mixed up lady with weirdly complicated sexuality, hung up on dogs, angels, ballerinas and lots of other zany things in her pictures, but I found her absolutely fascinating and very powerful.  I don't pretend I understood everything she was trying to convey in her art, but it made a strong impression on me. After I put some of them up on FB somebody wrote that her style was somewhere between Dali, Freda Kahlo and Picasso.  I think that was fair comment. My back gave out again after 2 hours, but that was enough in one go.  I think what was there would take me a week to take in properly, but I had to be content with 2 hours.

The fist wall of paintings at the El Kazovsky exhibition

And then the mother of all parliaments voted to bomb the shit out of the poor, stressed people of Syria, as if 4 years of war would not have been enough for them. The  name of the 66 Labour MP's who voted for the bombing will live on in infamy, so will Hilary Benn's speech. I am glad Tony did not live to hear that, although I wonder if he would have had the temerity to deliver that speech had his father was still alive. Along with many of my friends I changed my FB cover photo to Picasso's Guernica, as the parallels are striking. Shame on them, history will not forgive them and neither will I.

Hilary Benn making his infamous speech

For some better news, we had lunch with Ros and Ian yesterday, as they are back in town for a week or so. They are such lovely people and any time we spend with them is always thoroughly enjoyable.  Yesterday was no exception.  We took them to the Regős, which they liked a lot. Very reasonably priced at £15 per couple for a 3 course set meal with wine, beer and mineral water. The atmosphere was lovely as well, due to it being full of pre-Christmas crowds and a buzz.

They said that they are planning to attend the hash tomorrow, so I might have a go at that as well, provided the weather is decent. But before that I am going to the theatre with a couple of friends, so I better pack this up and start getting ready.

Roses, the oven and Bond

The rest of the week was quite peaceful. On Tuesday my new telephone contract arrived by mail and the latest post from Ruth which was about due. In the evening we watched Henry Cole doing his 2000 mile bike trip in the Balkans, which brought back quite a few memories from the summer.  It is definitely much better to watch film of places where you've been, as against ones that you haven't.

Elian in the bath

Lately we had several Skype calls from Hassocks, one day from the bath, the other from a nearby forest.  While it is never easy to make sharp, non fuzzy and fun pictures of those fast moving little rascals, I still managed it, sort of!

Xander in the bath

Gardenwise the focus was on the roses. I managed to cover all 60 of them. Some had earth and grass cuttings, others even had some of the leftover peat. As the cold weather did arrive since then, it was worth persevering with all that digging and covering.  I also cut off all usable herbs for Gizi, which were extremely gratefully received and she even popped in for them on Friday.

The stupid or crooked or both women at the bookshop, having sold my ordered book, I ordered it again, albeit a bit dearer now as the early large discount had finished.  I fetched it on Saturday and as soon as I got home I got the e-mail about the next one.  Unfortunately that will only arrive just after we left for the village, so they will have yet another chance to nick it before we get back. I think I will have to ring and threaten them every day not to do so, that might work.

Elian in the woods

Xander in the woods

Big stick taking little boy for a walk

Apropos of books, I am still reading Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling and it is just as funny as it was to start with.  However, there is one change in him that I noticed which is interesting. He is a lot ruder now than he used to be before. Not that I object, as he seems to be rude about people and things that I would be even ruder about, given half the chance.  Still, I am wondering if he is getting a bit grumpier in his old age or I am getting a bit more sensitive?

On Saturday I had a concert at the Music Academy. Christian Zacharias was playing baroque and Chopin.  Interestingly, he was superb doing the baroque pieces, but not so good playing Chopin.  Somehow his playing style suited the precision of Vivaldi etc. rather than the romanticism of Chopin. Both Bozsa and I were really tired. She, because of 15 hour work days, me, due to my cold still persisting and not having good night sleeps because of it.

Christian Zacharias

My most recent cache, which is a movable one, has finally gone live last Monday evening.  It proved really popular, as there seemed to be at least one, occasionally more, finds per day ever since. I am keeping a very close eye on it currently, as I am waging a war on those cachers that refuse to move it on, in spite of the rules of this cache requiring it being so for a distance of at least 1km. So far one guy deleted his log after we requested him to do so, but another one steadfastly ignored us ever since, so he became the first name on a Shaming List I established on the cache page.  Since then there have not been any more cachers like that and let us hope that my measures so far made the rest of the lazy buggers see sense!

This Monday had started with a trip to Ros and Ian's flat where we awaited the oven repair man, who duly arrived at 7am and fixed the errant machine in about 5 minutes flat. The loud racket coming from it was caused by some morons installing the fitted oven with a massive dent in its top.  So when the cooling fan came on it kept hitting the metal, thus frightening the living daylights out of anyone around. Typical of negligent workmanship, but still, we were very pleased that it could be fixed so easily and without having to wait for parts, which is always a pain. Ros and Ian are now not arriving until next Monday, so we'll see them sometime next week.

Moneypenny, Madeline, Bond, Lucis and Blofeld

Q, Moneypenny, Bond and M

Yesterday we went to see the new Bond film, which I really liked.  A lot of criticism was aimed at the pathetic storyline, but what do people expect? The story has always been, Bond=good guy, chief baddy wants to rule the world, Bond kills bad guy and gets the girl in the process, for as long as there have been Bond films.  So why should it be different now? What I liked about this one was, obviously, not the storyline, not even the gadgets, special effects or the chases, but the fact that it was sort of wrapping it up. Lots of faces reappeared from the past and the fact that Bond threw his revolver away at the end makes me suspect that the plan is to finish the series. That may not be true, especially that they didn't kill off the chief villain, but personally I think that it is time to stop and quit while you are ahead. I suspect Daniel Craig is getting out as well, which would make the decision that much easier. We'll see!

Finally, today we are awaiting the arrival of the winter tyres at the garage and if they have arrived we are off to the village via the garage, going shopping while they are fitting them and then carry on.  If it hasn't arrived, but if they are likely to be delivered by tomorrow, we'll stay another day and I might go and see an exhibition I have been planning to see since July and which is closing at the end of the year.

Chunky with good adhesion

PS: Winter tyres are on the car and it feels even more stable with them on. Steel rims came without centre hubs. They cost another nearly £40, would you believe it? Still, Roy is so fond of this vehicle that he would spend anything on it!! :-)

PPS: En route home I managed to find my own moving cache, replenished the stock of  "Sorry, the box had moved!" slips and moved it about 2km on to the other end of the village from where it was. While trying to hide it 2 guys arrived and sat in their car looking at me all the time. I hope they didn't go back and nick my box, or I'll be really angry.