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| Roses, peas and herbs with new path between them |
The peas were growing nicely, the herb garden was looking gorgeous and even one or two parsley plants have survived the winter. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy parsley seeds when we were shopping, so planting those had to wait until I can got the seeds the following week.
I also returned to the transcription of the Szirák birth registers between 1895 and 1900, so that occupied my time quite a lot that week. When faced with a problem I tried to ring Bocsor Laci, but he was never on Skype. That was suspicious, as he seems to live online, so I had to ring Csaba in Berlin to tell me what was going on. Apparently, while I was not in touch with Laci, there was a palace coup and Laci is no longer in charge of transcriptions. Csaba gave me his new Skype address and that of a young guy who is now the font of all knowledge on transcriptions. I rang him and while he seems a bit less manic than Laci, he is also exactly the type that seems to be de rigeur in MACSE, i.e. obsessional and heavy going. I thought that nobody could outdo the length of a phone call with Laci, but this new guy Tamás is worse. Well, never mind! I will make sure I only ring him as a last resort. I also spoke to Laci, who seems a bit down, due to having been sidelined, but at least the effect of that was a 5 minute phone call, which was great!
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| Alexei Volodin |
On Thursday I went to town for my concert and the way of travelling was great. Instead of leaving on the last direct bus, which leaves at 9.05 in the morning, I went at 5 to 4 in the afternoon and changed in Héhalom. The service was absolutely brilliant, it was on time, I hardly had to wait to change and the coach that arrived from Buják was big, comfortable and of a temperature that was bearable, unlike the normal one from Bér. As its route included the motorway, the change to the trolleybus was straightforward and I was in the flat by 6pm. Brilliant! I will do this again. The concert was great too. Alexei Volodin is a real virtuoso, but with a sensitivity and insight into the pieces he played that made the experience extraordinary. Bozsa and I enjoyed it tremendusly and hope that he will return in the future to delight us some more.
The only downside of the week was a strange bug that I must have caught either in the East or just on any part of the public transport system where people seem to cough and sneeze with gay abandon. It gave me horrendous headaches, a nasty cough, loose bowels and recently an inflamed left breast. As it wouldn't shift, I was debating whether to leave for town early and go to the clinic with it, or persevere and hope it settled down. This was really weird as I have never had one of these, but the internet seemed not too panic stricken about it, so I am hanging on. It even occurred to me that it could be connected to my accident nearly two months ago, but I hoped it wasn't.
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| Richard Osman and Paul Merton in HIGNFY |
TV has cheered me up that week, though, as Have I Got News for You is back and the idea of the rotating chair is great. So far my favourite is Henning Wehl, a German comedian, whose dead pan face, silly smile and fast and very witty oneliners got me giggling till my side hurt. Hinterland is back as well. God, are all Welsh people this brooding and sad? Still, I watch it as the stories are quite interesting and the acting is good.
On the American
front, May is, of course, the month when all series end. We have had a
good few last episodes already, but the big sensation is the ending of
The Good Wife. The creators of the series said the following: "The ending is supposed to be unsettling. But we don't think
characters need to avoid tragedy to be embraced. We were tempted to have Alicia
chase after a man in the end—stop him from getting on a train or an airplane at
the last minute, hold him, kiss him. We like those endings. But there was
something false about it here. It isn't who Alicia is. In the end, the story of
Alicia isn't about who she'll be with; it's about who she'll be." I totally agree and I sort of liked the ending and would definitely have hated it all mushy, as that is not Alicia. On the other hand, they could have at least given us a hint about the direction she might take. It seemed a bit as a non-ending. I will miss her, but just as in NCIS where Michael Wetherley is already in a new series, probably created just for him, I'm sure Julianna Margulies is going to be back in no time at all.
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| Julianna Margulies and Josh Charles in Series 2. |
The concert on Thursday, as I mentioned above, was magical. Volodin is a wizard, we both loved his performance. The following few days in Ber were dedicated to the garden again (when it didn't rain) and cleaning/tidying the house for Sheila's arrival. One Monday, however, the sun shone so beatifully that we decided to go for a hike/geocaching trip to the Matra. Amazingly Roy has not only driven me there, but actually hiked with me most of the way. The rocks at the end got the better of him, but he spent a good time sitting and dozing on a rock ledge waiting for me, while I climbed to the top and got the two geocaches.
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| Roy on the hike in the Matra |
The following Tuesday had a phenomenal concert back at the Music Academy. Baráti/Várdai/Várjon were on the bill and Bozsa and I simply melted into our seats, it was that good. Impromptu chamber music groups are usually superb, as the members are soloists, but happy to co-operate and do so at a very high level. We heard some of the best played trio pieces ever and went home in seventh heaven.
That week was full of theatrical entertainment for us and Wednesday had Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? in it. Great performance from the Central Theatre by the Opera House and both Jutka and I thought that small theatre worth patronising in the future.
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| Barati-Vardai-Varjon trio |
On Thursday Sheila was arriving, but I had a ballet to see at the Opera, so Roy went out to the airport to fetch her. The ballet was based on Shakespeare's (400's anniversary year!!) The Taming of the Shrew, with László Seregi's choreography and Karl Goldmark's music. I never thought I would like it, but I did. It was probably the best ballet I saw since Les Sylphide a couple of years ago.
Sheila was at home by the time I got back from the Opera, it was so nice to see her again, as she hasn't been for a couple of years. Last year we went to see her in Cornwall, which was also great. On Friday we all journeyed down to the South of the country to stay in a B&B and the program consisted of orienteering, geocaching and bathing in thermal medicinal waters. The latter never happened, as Roy and Sheila didn't fancy it, the orienteering was great, much enjoyed, but pretty exhausting, and the geocaching was successful as over the way down, while there and en route home we bagged 10 caches, so I was happy.
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| Sheila and Roy having cakes and drinks en route down |
The B&B was very good. For £7.50 per person/night we had a large room with en suite bathroom and kitchenette in a lovely, quiet part of the town near the baths. The 'O' was very technical and both map and courses were first class. I didn't enter the last day, as that was to have long courses and anyway, in my present physical shape two days are plenty for me.
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| Day 1 Open course |
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| Day 2 Open course |
Once back in town, we did sort of towny things, amongst them trying out a new thermal baths, as we missed it down South. It was a lot cheaper than the fancy ones and the water just as good. I might carry on going there in future. Sheila enjoyed it too, we had a good time. On Wednesday night I finally saw "Diggerdrájver", the play created from the blog of a guy who moved to England from Hungary and while not an overly educated person, has such a brilliant style on his blog and so many intelligent, funny and quirky ideas, that somebody made a play out of it. I loved it. He was so honest, but still full of emotion, observation about the life of an "economic migrant", that the topic was very current and enjoyable.
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| Epres Attila as Digger |
On Thursday we went down to the village where just as she was getting out of the car, Sheila said: "I love this place!" That really warmed the cockles of my heart, as I do too. Since then we have been busy mowing the grass, planting parsley, watching TV and then on Friday night I went back into town for a couple of days due to a planned hike/geocaching trip which I didn't have the heart to cancel and attending the Hash after about 2 months.
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| A restored early medieaval crypt, site of our first cache |
The caching hike was brilliant, if somewhat exhausting. The final distance and climb were 18km and 725m. We spent about an hour or more looking for one cache, which we had to give up on, but we did collect 6 caches, had good exercise and saw the spring forest in its amazing beauty. I had to promise the girls that I will never again plan one this long and hard, so there should be shorter ones coming up in future.
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| One of our glorious views on our hike |
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| Our trek with the wiggle in the middle when we got lost |
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| Cross section of our height and climb profile on the hike |
On Sunday I went to half a Hash. How do you do that? Well, by abandoning it half way round. After Saturday's 18km's and with my cold still lingering, I was totally done in after about a couple of hours. I think the live hare was heading for the top of the next mountain, and I just had to chicken out. As it happens, I was lucky: in about 1km down the road there was a bus sitting at its terminus, which then left 2 minutes later. I got home pretty quick and nursed my aching muscles, joints and bones. I returned home on the last bus, which was so horrendously uncomfortable that I decided: NO MORE BUS TRIPS UNTIL LATE SEPTEMBER!!! They are usually clapped out, very old ones with no air conditioning and hardly any suspension. It was as good as a 2 hour sauna session, which I didn't need!!
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| The Hash crowd at the trail head |
Today I went to the hospital to be fitted with the Holter belt I mentioned in the last post. This takes a 24 hour continuous ECG, which I have to take back tomorrow morning for download and analysis. I tried to tell my doctor that I have had these before and they were no use whatsoever, because my heart knows when it is being monitored and behaves like an angel. Well, he said we should try and see if we can glean anything from it, so I agreed to wear one for a day and a night. To make sure that it might be under duress, on the way home from the hospital I went to get the cache that I couldn't find last time, as I got going on the wrong path and couldn't cut across. I did it today, it was dead easy, no probs.
I think I will have to stop here, if for no other reason but my head hitting the keyboard. I need a nap. Taraaa everybody, speak to you next week! (perhaps!!)
PS: I had some complaints about some missing pictures, so I had to put them in. The chapel and the tank are both at the 1956 museum where we had a cache on the way home. The rose is definitely the first that has come out like this in 2016.
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| Little chapel at the 1956 museum in Kiskunmajsa |
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| A T-55 Russian tank at the 1956 museum in Kiskunmajsa |
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| The first full rose of 2016 |
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