A week in town (again)

Last Friday, just before we left for town we harvested our grapes. In a summer when none of the fruits were particularly plentiful, the grapes bucked the trend. Admittedly, every time I watered the garden I soaked the 5 old grape plants that have been around for nearly 10 years, but neither of us thought of ending up with such a crop. We stripped the stalks off as best we could and they filled a third of a barrel. Best lot so far and they might save a bit of money on the bought-in plum front.

Roy with his harvest

Once we got to town we found the flat safe and sound, which was a relief. There was electricity and according to the neighbours the power cut there was of a very short duration. As for flooding, I did find a slight musty smell in one corner cupboard in the kitchen, but hopefully that should be remedied by leaving the door open for a while. Rising damp is a problem on the ground floor as the cellars are rather damp underneath us.

Red Haring and Twin Cheeks

On Sunday I went to join the Hash, hoping there will be somebody there. Often nobody turns up and I don't feel like going out on my own. This time I had luck, as not only regulars like Rabies, Twin Cheeks, Burnt Toast and Sunny Side Up turned up, but we had visitors in the shape of Heiko from Germany and Graham with his wife Agi as well.

The singing of Father Abraham somewhere on the trail

Unfortunately the co-hares Rabies and Heiko laid a live, but very steep trail, which frightened Graham and Agi away, so we were down to 6, with 2 hareing and the other 4 only walking round. We were also missing somebody with good knowledge of hash songs too, so singing was a bit of a hit and miss affair, but we still had jolly good laughs all round.

A pretty butterfly on a thistle

Twin Cheeks suggested an innovation on the booze front, which I hope will stick: namely a bottle of champagne, which also went down well, even though it was not cold. The Hash repast was taken in the otherwise shunned and despised Vigadó, which despicably refused to let the Red Dress run in a few weeks ago.  Still, the food was good and we didn't leave much of a tip.

The hares, Rabies and Heiko at lunch

On Monday we departed to ExpatTech with Roy's desktop computer from Bér and my brand new laptop from the flat. Former needed completely clearing and everything reinstalled, mine just needed an installation of Office. I haven't seen Dylan in years and I didn't see him again on Monday. On the other hand we were lucky that we happened to take the computers in at a time when apparently they had a bit of a break and could see to them straight away. When we fetched them again on Wednesday I saw Szabolcs, who is now doing all these repair/maintenance jobs and had a lovely chat with him.  On the phone, when I managed to catch Dylan he told me that he got married last year and had a little boy Ivan James last autumn, so he seems to be happy and totally settled now. As I am a long standing customer I still only got charged for 2 hours worth of labour (about £30) which is very reasonable.

On Monday we also bought two ordinary landline telephones, as the old ones are coming to the end of their lives.  I tried one out and it seems very good, even though they only cost £12.50 each. We also visited the Panasonic shop, but didn't buy anything as I wasn't sure if the micro SD card would fit my tablet.  On arrival home I checked and realised that I should have bought it, but on the day when we went fetching the finished computers we did and now I can download my photos when I am travelling and carrying only the Samsung tablet with me. Good job Alex told me that buying a micro SD card with an adapter would work.  Silly me, I have been using it for about 10 months without realising.

Cold cucumber soup with yoghurt and dill

On Monday I also made a cold cucumber soup which was delicious.  The idea came from one of our favourite restaurants, where along with the cold fruit soup I found and tried the cold cucumber soup too.  It was gorgeous, so I searched for a recipe online and had a go on Monday.  Unfortunately it had to sit in the fridge for a minimum of 8 hours, so I could only eat it on Tuesday. Other than cucumbers it had yoghurt, lemon juice, olive oil and lots of spices and herbs in it. I used garlic,  red onions, dill, parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper and it tasted delicious. Even Roy had a bowlful, although he then said that he'd rather not have any more. I think I will add this soup to my repertoire for dinner parties in the summer.

Elian, the charmer

Tuesday turned out an eventful day.  We had a Skype call from the little Hassocks monsters, who were in an exceptionally good mood for once. They are extremely difficult to take pictures of, as they never stay put for a second, but I managed a few reasonably visible snaps this time.

The end of the day was spent at the Nemesházis, where we were invited for dinner. We also wanted to see their new kitchen, which was finished months ago, but we haven't been to their place for a long time. Laci also told me that I have got a relay team for the weekend of 12th/13th September, so we will be away that weekend then. As the event is a long way away I said to him that I don't feel like travelling all that way just for the Sprint Champs on Saturday.  Considering that I am not that well at the moment, sprinting is not my forte currently.  However, if I can run with others in a relay team on the Sunday, it might be worth going.  Apparently I can run with him and Kari and we can enter the S195 sprint relay class, as our combined ages add up to 197.  That really made me feel rather ancient, although I am not the oldest, I think Kari is about 75, Laci 55 and I am 67.

Xander, the happy chappie

Today we were waiting in for the annual chimney inspection. The guy has just been and he was rather talkative. I don't mind, it is always nicer to have someone friendly and communicative, rather than the usual dour, miserable git, that you get in these parts.

Two more appointments today: 1. the hairdressers at 1.30pm and 2. the doctor sometime between 4pm-8pm for a repeat prescription.  The rest of the week is also full of stuff: tomorrow we are going out to an Indian restaurant with Nata and Colin and on Saturday with Mr. and Mrs. German whom Roy known from the internet while doing family history but had never yet met. Sunday is the Hash Splash, which includes paddling on the river, so that should be fun and finally we are off back to the village on Monday.  On Tuesday Gizi, my new geocaching friend, is coming for a couple of days, so that we can search out a good few Nógrád caches neither of us got. I'll post probably in the middle of next week or thereabouts.

Hungaria Cup

After a good 2 weeks' worth of not feeling particularly well, having some dizzy spells every day, we set off to Salgótarján on Saturday, 15th August.  Amazingly I immediately started feeling better.  I never know whether it was the activity that helped or perhaps that just took my mind off it, but I was looking forward to seeing my friends and to orienteering. The accommodation that I booked looked really nice, plenty big for the 5 of us, clean and well equipped. We arrived first and picked the slightly bigger room, especially that the WiFi router was in that room. As we were all quite hungry by early evening we went and had dinner in the Kiskulacs, which was recommended by our hostess.  The food was excellent, although the waiters seemed a tad forgetful at times.

Roy with a plaited pork fillet

Day 1 W65 course with my route

The first two days were about 10 miles down the road in a forest above a cute little village with a famous rhyolite site right on the first day's map. (See the small out of bounds bit to the N of control 5!) I didn't take my cap on the run, which proved fatal as it started raining hard and in the last third of the course I couldn't see the map or even the ground at times due to wet glasses.  The major cock-up of the day was overshooting 5 and taking about 6 minutes to relocate. Otherwise I enjoyed the course, even though it was physically very hard descending into and then climbing out of all those ravines. I ended up 4th on the day, which was OK, considering the headless chicken act.

Monday's lecsó cooked by Brigitta, our friend

On day two we were a bit to the North of the village with the Finish on the village green. The course was pitiful, not even a challenge to the average 12 year old. I ended up 5th as my lack of fitness made me slow on a primarily runner's course.

Day 2 W65 course with my route

The weather seemed a bit more clement on Day 2, although the real rain came long after we all finished running and managed to almost drown those of our party who hiked up to the rhyolite. I have seen it at least three times before, so I was back at the accommodation warm and dry. That evening we didn't go out to eat as one of our friends cooked dinner for all of us.  This was really nice, because the day before they went to Slovakia to have a look at a castle and had dinner there, leaving us to our own devices, as there was nowhere to eat in town, all restaurants being either totally closed or closing by 6pm.  The lecsó was delicious and we had it with bread.

Day 3 W65 course with my route

Day 3 was the sprint event in the centre of the city of Salgótarján. I liked the course (I came 3rd!) with its switching from forest to town and back again and the fact that the rain avoided us yet again, although managed to fall on those that ran later than us.  The first drops came down just as we got in the car to get back to the accommodation.  We also made contact with our Swedish friends whom we met in Albania and they were enjoying themselves too.  This was their 7th Hungaria Cup, although due to a clash with the O Ringen next year, they might miss that one. We arranged to have dinner with them in the Kiskulacs the following day.

Kazár folk costumes at the O event on Monday

The heatwave, which was in the process of breaking with all this rain had finally broken by Wednesday on Day 4 of the competition. On the 4th and 5th days we all ended up looking like drowned rats and chaos reigned around parking and other matters too.  These were the days when we were supposed to park on the plateau, accessing it on a steep dirt lane from the village of Rónafalu. This became a quagmire, so we took the local football pitch over and walked to the start. I, unfortunately, reacted to the sudden change in pressure caused by the torrential rain and ended up really unwell for most of the day. Thankfully, I recovered by the following day and managed to get round on Thursday, albeit rather slowly. On the day when I was not on top form, the course was actually excellent, just in my rough state I couldn't really appreciate it. The climb from 2 to 3 nearly finished me off, but I persevered and finished it. I actually came 4th, which was quite a feat in the conditions both meteorologically and healthwise speaking.

Day 4 W65 with my route

And then we came to Day 5: up the same steep hill to the start, but this time our courses circumnavigated the plateau, with both the Start and Finish up on the plateau, and the course in the forests and semi-open areas below and round it. As it was a chasing start with my friend Ildi in 3rd place nearly 10 minutes ahead of me and the 5th placed lady 20 minutes behind me, there was no need for any great rush. I pootled round slowly and while I came only 6th on the day, I comfortably finished  4th overall.

Day 5 W65 with my route

We left the event really early, it was around midday, had a shower, packed up and paid at the accommodation, and were at home before 3pm.  Since then we have done 2 lots of washing and hung it up, unpacked everything, opened the post, picked up the fallen plums and put them in the barrel and spent the rest of the day on the computer.  I am now heading to bed as we are leaving tomorrow morning for BP, having run out of all food.

The Heatwave

Well, nothing unusual happened, but as we are off on Saturday for the Hungaria Cup I thought I might as well write this week's post now. The heatwave is getting worse.  According to the Met Office the air in the upper layers of atmosphere is getting bone dry, so it will be quite a while before any cooling could be expected. We are hiding indoors mostly, trying to do gardening and any other necessary outdoor activity before 7am and after 7pm.

Glorious two-tone rose

Last Thursday I had Nelly come over for lunch as I wanted to share the rather large trout I bought in Tesco with her. She told me that she has never had trout before.  Strange, I thought, but she seemed to enjoy it. We had parsley potatoes and sprouts with it, which was also nice.

My vertigo, which first appeared in June, then went away thankfully, has returned. Luckily not as bad as it was then, but it is still a bit disconcerting. I will not see a doctor for ages yet, as they are all on holiday in August and I have no intention to leave my cool house anyway, so I need to walk by railings if I don't want to fall over frequently. As we are soon off for a 5-day orienteering event, that should be interesting in the forest, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it next week.

The squatting petunia

On Monday, 10th we also had another fun morning and half an afternoon, as there was no electricity.  Appparently this was a planned powercut, but our street - as usual - has heard nothing about it. No computer, no phone as my battery just died as the power went, no lights, no fans and no hot water. No gardening in the heat, I couldn't read outside for the same reason or even indoors as all the shutters were shut to keep the heat out, so other than sleeping there was not much else to do between 8am and 2.30pm. Still, in spite of 36-38 degrees of Celsius in the shade, I did manage to dash out for the odd 5-10 minutes to do some work in the garden. We managed to water the geraniums and the roses, hose down the pavingstones and take a few piccies. The crimson-pale yellow two-tone rose is producing a new flower and the petunia, which appeared last year out of nowhere, is also growing quite happily amongst the roses. I never knew that petunia is perennial!

My delicious Stanley plums

I also noted that one of the recently (well, not very recently, probably about 6-7 years ago) planted plum trees, the Stanley variety, started producing more than just the so far common 2 or 3 plums.  This summer it managed about a kilo and I quickly harvested it before they all turned to prunes in the desert heat outside.  I put them in the fridge and they are absolutely gorgeous in both taste and texture. These plums will never go into the cefre for palinka, they are for the table, or as this year, down my throat.

Tamzin Outhwaite and Nicholas Lyndhurst

By the way, Roy was considering not to have any palinka distilled this year as the fruit crop is pitiful again, but with the old plum trees having produced almost a barrelful, he changed his mind and now wants all 4 barrels full.  We are going to have a great grape harvest later on, but even with those we'll only fill one barrel.  So the great plum hunt was afoot this week. I tried the lady in the neighbouring village, but her trees are not producing either, so it was down to the guy we bought the 350kg from last year.  Unfortunately I could not remember his name or his telephone number, so I had to do some nifty detective work before that got sorted.  He promised us the same again and I will have to ring him again mid-September.

When the power supply was available, although rarely without the occasional blip, I have been watching TV this week.  New Tricks is back, but I gather it has been scrapped, so this is the last series.  Shame, I have always liked it, ever since the beginning. Last night Dennis Waterman was written out, but apparently he wanted to leave. Another program I have discovered quite accidentally is one called Flying to the Ends of the Earth on Channel4. It is presented by an ex-marine in a wheelchair whose charm, enthusiasm and sheer enjoyment of flying is infectious. He goes by the name of Arthur Williams and I am one of his fans now.

Arthur Williams

Another bit of good news is that Who Do You Think You Are? is back, starting tomorrow, with Paul Hollywood. That is one program that both Roy and I love, not only because our hobby of family history, but because they usually come up with some interesting bits of history that neither of us knew about.

Finally, we are off to the Hungaria Cup on Saturday, although I have my doubts about running any of it. What with this vertigo persisting and the heat, methinks a brisk walk will probably the best I will be able to manage, especially on those steep hillsides in Northern Nograd.  Never mind, I will enjoy it anyway and perhaps will do some geocaching as well as socialising with my orienteering friends.

Our little house in Salgótarján

The IMT World School

The IMT banner behind the rostrum

Apologies for the big gap, but my fears about the WiFi at Bardonecchia were justified.  We did have some, but only in the bar and it wasn't until the last but one day that I discovered that the best strength signal was at the far corner of the bar, where the bookstalls were, so I struggled most times.  Also, there was very little time for anything other than listening to, reading or talking politics, therefore I only spent little time online and only sent the daily e-mail to Roy before either the signal went or I had to be in the next lecture.

Alan Woods speaking

The World School itself was absolutely fantastic.  For a variety of reasons (bad health, other commitments etc.) I haven't been for 6 years.  In fact, the last one I attended was the last one held in Barcelona and that was the one where I got robbed, so the memory was not particularly positive.  Since then it was held in Italy somewhere in a seaside town for 3 years and for 2 years in Greece, also in a beachside hotel. The reason why I definitely decided to go this year was manifold: 1. I missed it all these years; 2. I love mountains; 3. It was held at only a 15 minute car drive from a good friend of mine whom I have not seen a long number of years.

Lal Khan speaking

So, on this mammoth trip, having done the family visiting (Hassocks and St. Columb Major), I took off to see Ginny in Nevache and rounded up the trip with the World School in Bardonecchia.  The road between Nevache and Bardonecchia was breath taking, as you might have already seen from previous posts. Bardonecchia itself is not very large, but it has a nice, oldie worldie centre with a pretty Main Street and church.  The rest is basically a ski resort which really comes into its own in the winter.

Downtown Bardonecchia

The lectures and discussions were excellent.  One massive difference I saw against the last one in 2009, was the prevalence of young people.  Large numbers were new, totally unknown to me, and I made quite a few very good new friends.  The Canadian contingent, numbering 13 this time, had accepted me as an honorary member and I spent a lot of time in their lovely company making friends. The topics at discussion were partly the usual ones: Perspectives for World Revolution, Organisational report, Work in the Mass Orgnisations, Economics, Nationalism etc.  The new topics were, obviously, Greece and Scotland. I attended many of them, choosing the more topical ones when there was a choice. Although a large proportion of the people attending was new, I still managed to catch up with some of my old friends from far flung places on the planet.

The Canadian group plus me, an Austrian girl and another guy

On the free afternoon we went up on the chair lift and then went for a hike up the nearest mountain. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the top, as we had to turn back due to the last chair lift going down at 10 to 6. We still managed to squeeze in a few beers as well and had a really good time all round.

Marco, Jessica and Adam on the chair lift

One evening we attended a dinner organised by the British delegation, which foodwise was a bit of a disaster for me, as there was very little I could eat, but otherwise I had a fantastic time with those friends that were on my table. Chatting about all sorts of things in the evening makes for such a change after concentrated politics from 9am to 8pm on most days.

Manuel, Sunny, Adam and Karen in the restaurant

The conclusion of the School was tremendous. It always puts a lump in my throat, the singing and the enthusiasm that nearly 300 people generate. Instead of the train, on Monday we caught the bus organised by some brits and arrived at the airport really early.  Last Monday was a hell of a day for me for many reasons.  For the first time ever, parting with Alex was hard and I was very near tears most of the time. Also, I had less than 2 hours' sleep the night before, that didn't helped either. After several hours' hanging around, finally I caught my plane from Turin to Brussels and then had a 6 and half hour layover until the next one. Arrived at the flat just after midnight, totally exhausted, but in one piece.

Plums on the ground

Stayed in town for a day to recuperate and then yesterday came down to the village.  In spite of the occasional downpour, the weather must have been very dry while I was away, as the cracks in the ground are wide enough to lose my arm in. Yesterday we picked up 5 days of dropped plums, which filled about half of the first barrel for pálinka. Today, as soon as the high heat (35-40 degrees Celsius) is gone we'll pick up today's lot and water the roses, veggies and herbs, plus do a bit of tidying and deadheading.  Currently we are hiding indoors, where the temperature is still at least 10 degrees less than outside, so our 2ft thick stone walls are still doing their job!!

The one apple tree with many large apples already

Other than a 5 day orienteering event, which is in our own county near the Slovakian border, we are staying in Bér for a month at least.  Let us hope that the heatwave would have abated by then, so should we have to get to town any time we would not be near heat exhaustion.  It is really amazing how much cooler it is here at the start and end of the day.  During the daytime it is only a little bit cooler here, but the evenings, nights and early mornings are considerably cooler, sometimes by up to 10 degrees or more.

Will write next week, or sooner if anything unusual happens!