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! :-)