The last of 3 weeks in town

The last short week had two major events in it: one was my visit back to Békéscsaba on Sunday and the other Roy's visit to the consultant on Tuesday. The rest of the time we either rested at home or did bits of shopping, plus I went to a concert with Bozsa, more about that later.

Tomi and I at the foot of the tree

The visit to Békéscsaba was my third one in a month, and this was just as enjoyable as the previous ones. Surprise surprise, it was connected to geocaching, but also to attending an event organised by Gyuri, my newfound caching friend.

I've got it!

There is a cache in a Békéscsaba park called Easter Bunny. I know it is not Easter yet and to be quite honest I have no idea why it is called that, but what is really unusual about this cache, is that it is 30 feet up in a tree.  It is a lovely old horse chestnut and without help it would be very dangerous and/or pretty impossible to climb it. However, Gyuri started organising events for people who are interested in the climb, by enlisting the help of a fellow cacher, who happens to be a professional industrial alpinist. His name is Tomi and he is an absolute pussycat of a man.

Tarsolyos, Gyuri's friend

I caught the train at 7:10 in the morning and Gyuri picked me up from the railway station at 9:45am. The park was only about 10-15 minutes away and all was set up by the time I got there. A young man has already done his climb before we got there, but I decided to go next. I had to put on some harness and Tomi promised that he would help with the rope if I find it hard.

Tarsolyos and Gyuri, the good friends

Well, amazingly, I hardly had to climb, he simply pulled me up all the way to the cache. I got the box out, put my name in the logbook, posed for some photographs and came down again.  It was really fun and I am ever so grateful to him for the opportunity to get this cache, which would have been way out of my reach (in more ways than one) without him.

Tomi going up to dismantle the ropes

Three more caches were also bagged on Sunday, the permanent one in the park, a moving one that Gyuri brought for everyone to log and the actual event cache, which travels from event to event and which I have never had before. I was at home just after 6pm and while pretty shattered, I was very, very happy indeed.

A spectator

On Tuesday Roy and I went to his urologist who was pleased with his progress, his test was negative and he was told to carry on taking the medicine he prescribed for at least 6 months. He has an appointment in three months time, when his further progress should be checked on. He did mention that after 6 months he will evaluate his progress and if it is not as successful as he expects we might have to consider an operation. Let's hope that will not happen.

Another inhabitant of the park

That evening I had a concert in the Palace of the Arts, which was brilliant, as usual. János Balázs is a superb pianist and he was playing Chopin and Mendelssohn. György Cziffra, who was a virtuoso in the same vein, and who suffered discrimination and prejudice for being Roma, is  János Balázs's favourite pianist and whose playing style he is very close to. Full of feeling and technical virtuosity, he is sometimes a bit too turbulent for my liking, but still very enjoyable. It is a tribute to his fame and drawing power that he managed to fill the entire Béla Bartók Concert Hall of the Palace of the Arts, which is enormous. There were very few empty seats, and that's quite a feat.

János Balázs

And then yesterday morning we came down to Bér after buying some medicines en route plus a large Tesco food shop. As we were coming through the gate we spotted one large and glorious red rose bush in full flower.  It is late October, but some of my roses are still flowering strongly.

A red beauty

We are hoping to stay in  Bér for close on a fortnight, as quite a lot of garden work needs doing and the guy who built the large pottery stove is coming to do some maintenance on it. This coming weekend I will have to pop into town for an opera performance and a concert, but I'll be back immediately afterwards and Roy will stay in Bér.

A salmon beauty

The next time we both leave here will be for the first weekend of November, when we're due to spend Friday to Sunday with Pityu down by the Balaton. I hope the weather will be good and I can climb a few big hills in good company, not to forget the good food and bridge that is also a compulsory part of the festivities when in Monoszló.