Resting, planning, 1 concert and return to Bér

The last few days in town, before we returned to Bér, were spent mostly in bed, even though the weather was getting much better. Still, we both needed as much complete rest as we could get. I was sitting up in bed with my computer, organising future geocaching trips and talking to an Austrian friend about Hungary.

Tisza-lake map

The future geocaching  trips are coming up quite fast, I hope I will be up to them physically. The first one is in two weeks' time, when after the Annual General Meeting Gyuri, Judith and me are going caching in town, followed by caching by car with Judith, going out of town in a SE direction, picking a few up, after which she will catch a train home at the end of it and I drive home.

We will travel in a boat very similar to this one

In the meantime, I started organising a waterborne caching trip in May, as there are about 5 caches on the Tisza Lake, that can only be reached by boat. As I am no kayaker or kenuist, I decided to rent a small motorboat with a guide and team up with 3 friends to share the cost. It'll be about £40, which is totally reasonable, in fact, at £10 a head, dirt cheap, methinks.

Once down there, Mariann and I going to cache the day before and hopefully even after the boat trip, if we have enough time left, before returning home.  Actually, it will be only Mariann who is returning home, I'll be picked up by Gyuri and then both of us will go to the Spring Geocaching Festival and Race, not far from the lake. That's another couple of days, so I should be home by Sunday evening.

Currently, all accommodation is booked and the cache plan has been put together by Mariann for the Lake trip. The next one is still to be done, but I have to look at Gyuri's map, so I can pick those that neither of us has. I have also booked all the accommodation for another May trip, this time going West and which has Judith, Gyuri and me in it. As for which caches to get, that will be quite a job to put together, which I am still putting off for the time being.

The Event Centre for the Geocaching Festival and Race

On Monday I had a Messenger call from Emanuel in Austria and he wanted to know about the current political situation in Hungary. We talked for about an hour and half and haven't even scratched the surface. He wants me to provide him with some data on industry, political opposition and new initiatives, as well as a book I mentioned to him and which is about 2000 pages, so I am not very likely to read it by the time he wants all this. Still, I am glad he showed interest and hopefully should be able to put something together next week.

Our B&B in Eger for the Geocaching Festival and Race

On Wednesday I managed to have enough rest during the day and a reasonable night's sleep to risk attending a concert.  And it was the right decision, as it really cheered me up and I realised how much I missed it. Grigory Sokolov, a brilliant Russian pianist, was playing Haydn and Schubert. First half was something I have never heard before, the second had some well known pieces. Good choices are a hallmark of Sokolov. Judicious mixture of new and popular pieces are always liked and he was still as technically perfect and insightful and emotional in his interpretation as ever.

Grigory Sokolov

Thursday we were travelling to Bér via Tesco, where we did a big shop (£130 worth), as the cupboards and fridge were pretty empty when we left. Soon after arrival we put the heating on in the Bunkhouse, as there were guests coming for Easter. I may have mentioned before, but recently we made an agreement with Anna, that from now on we will only let her have the Bunkhouse for guests and that we do not want to work in relation to having them, so as long as we get a minimum of £30 per night (irrespective of how many in there), plus 10% for heating in the winter, and that her staff does all the cleaning and bed-making, we are happy to carry on. We basically got too old for all this amount of hard physical work and as we don't need the money, we were thinking of cancelling the arrangement. But, we are both very fond of Anna and Feri and didn't want to let them down.  So, we thought this arrangement is a good deal for both them and us and thankfully she agreed.

Bunkhouse interior

The first lot of guys were competitors from a cross country truck race from up the hill and the second lot are just ordinary Easter guests of Anna's. The cross-country truckers all drove either little 4 wheel drive all terrain jeeps or enormous pick-ups. There wasn't much space left in front of our houses. However, so far all things have gone off with no hassle, long may it last like that!

The weather, unfortunately, turned very rainy again. It has been chucking it down since early morning today, which must have been a nuisance for those geocachers who were planning to attend a hike in the Börzsöny on a tour with kitkat123, a nice young woman who is into both hiking and geocaching.  I was planning to go, but I am not up to it physically at the moment, so I wouldn't have gone anyway, but the weather must have stopped most of the participants, if not all of them.

The track of the Börzsöny hike I missed :-(

We both are staying in Bér until Wednesday when either both of us, or only me, are due back in town for a concert, followed by the AGM of the flat owners in the block on Thursday, followed by an opera performance on Saturday. I have to get back to vote on Sunday, but whether Roy wants to stay or come with me, is still not decided.  I think he is well enough to be left now, except that I don't think I can trust him to take it easy. So, I might insist that he comes, especially that there are a lot fewer temptations in town to overdo it physically.  We'll see!

New caches, Roy's op and total exhaustion

You may remember that at the end of my last post we were preparing to put out my latest couple of caches, if the weather was suitable. The forecast was OK, although there was snow or sleet promised by about 3pm on Saturday and snow everywhere on the Sunday. I told Roy, this is now or never, as I didn't fancy trudging in knee high snow all over again in that deep valley for one of the caches. So, off we went quite early, hoping for good weather.

Site of first cache in a lovely deep valley

And we were rather lucky, we even managed to include a quick trip to a Lidl and felt really good about it all. Roy waited for me in the car and I had two small hikes and put all three boxes (one cache had two parts) out. I even took some more photos, as the last time I was there, it was deep snow and this time it was beginning to look like spring. Mind you, the snow did arrive, as forecast, so by the following morning there was 6/8 inches of the stuff all over everything, making us think that spring would never come.

Cute little bridge in the forest

Sunday was spent relaxing and for me a new job of proofreading arrived, which I took on as there was only 24 pages of it and this allowed me to read some vintage Alan Woods ahead of everybody else.  I do enjoy these proofreading jobs, even though I often get a headache staring into the monitor for too long. I actually finished and sent it back to London yesterday, I hope I found all mistakes in it.

Alan Cummings

I also did a bit of TV watching, including Instinct, the new vehicle for Alan Cummings, one of my favourite little Scots who made it big in America. He is always good, although the formula of retired ex-agent, now academic, coming back to partner sexy, young female detective in catching serial killers, is not exactly new. Still, if it is well written and acted, I will probably enjoy it.  If not, I'll switch it off. The first episode was fair, I hope it stays like it, or possibly even improves.

Then on Tuesday we departed townwards, with me having an appointment with a fellow cacher for some logbooks.  She is really nice, I met her once before and she offered to make me some logbooks for my spring series. We had a cup of something or other and a cake together and had a nice little chat.

I also had to visit the Post Office (not my favourite occupation on account of the bloody long queues) to pay some bills: quarterly bill for the dustmen, yearly bill for road tax and a donation to some charity I got conned into promising and not wanting to go back on.

Wednesday had to bit of activity in it, first being to get to the clinic for Roy to give another blood sample as they have discovered some antigens in his blood and had to send an extra sample to the blood bank to make sure they send the exact match of blood for his op on Thursday. Costing an extra £85, it turned out totally unnecessary, but you don't want to risk it, do you?

Roy about 2 hours after his op

The other event was a visit (a first one I may add) to a public executive meeting of the geocaching club executive, combined with picking up 3 replacement caches as well. Well, the executive is about as exiting as watching paint dry. However, there was one item, which I found quite interesting and which, since, had started an enormous scandal, possibly resulting in the total meltdown of the club. Most of you who read this, even if you are totally uninterested in politics, know that very few democracies have positions that people fill forever. No matter how good they are and how many  people voted for them in the past, it is one of the much needed checks and balances in any decent democracy to have limited opportunities for powerful people to permanently cement themselves into powerful positions.  Well, for once, the executive had proposed a very good rule change, which would mean that if you have been a moderator for two years, you have to resign for the third one, have a rest and then you can apply again a year later. This measure was proposed in order to encourage younger, newer and enthusiastic newcomers to apply.

Chicken walnuts and broccoli for lunch

Well, you would not believe it what reaction this brought forward from those affected by the change.  I think the most appropriate expression is a colloquial one from Britain: "They threw their toys out of the pram." Anger, self-pity, accusations and general laddish behaviour characterised their reactions.  The tone was mostly of a wife cheated on by her husband: "After all I have done for you!". The upshot was that all those that could not stand the next time round, resigned en-masse in protest. The debate is currently raging on the internet forum and a real war is in the offing. Honestly, people, this is only a game.  It is not about life and death, lighten up a bit, it is not the end of the world!!!

In better spirits on day 2

And now for real drama: Roy had his operation on Thursday. He was very fearful and, to be honest, so was I. It is always harder to worry about someone else, than yourself.  At least that is how I normally feel. The procedure took an hour and a half, rather than the projected one hour. I was getting a bit jittery after an hour, but they brought him out fairly conscious after 90 minutes. He was awake, but he told me that he has no memory of anything, so they must have given him something to make him sleepy. He had an epidural, not a general anaesthetic, so he came to quickly at the end.


The first day was weird. He seemed relieved, a feeling which he has confirmed since. He was very pleased with the surgeon and his staff, they listened to him, they were very attentive and they didn’t hurt him. Another funny thing that struck me was that he was extremely talkative, non-stop in fact, which is totally out of character for him. He had lunch and generally was not at all distressed.

The National Theatre from the terrace on the 8th floor

However, when I arrived the following day, he seemed very tetchy and it turned out that he had very little sleep. I suppose having all those lines into his nether regions didn’t help. He was still in quite good spirits, eaten well, except somehow they didn’t check up on his drinking and his urine started getting very dark. He got told off for not drinking enough, which I thought was a bit unfair, because it is the staff’s responsibility to check up on him and remind him, rather than blame him.  Never mind! I arrived, started pouring a litre per hour into him and things improved.

The prof came in the afternoon, was pleased with his progress and said that barring a relapse, he could go home the following day.  This he did, in very good spirits, flirting with the nurses, cracking jokes and generally being very popular with all concerned. Currently we are at home and having a complete rest (both of us) to aid recovery.  He is told not to lift anything or drive and that it will take at least 6 weeks for him to be back to normal and to notice significant improvement in his waterworks.

The setting sun from the terrace

Yesterday I actually nearly collapsed myself, because the early rising every day, the stress and the actual physical work I was doing non-stop for 3 days without let-up, finally caught up with me. I fell into bed by 9pm and while I didn’t sleep a hell of a lot, I am beginning to recover too. Dizzy spells are the bane of my life, but at least I know that when I start having them I have overdone it. However, it can also be explained, at least by me, that when you have to keep going whatever, you do so, but finally it always punishes you, and that is what happened to me last night.

Another lovely aspect of Roy’s hospital stay was the number of well wishers that clicked Like or commented and sent him good wishes on Facebook was in the several dozens.  I think he was touched and it was nice to see how many people care for him from all over the world. I even had a small comment from one of the nurses how lucky I am to have him.  I told her I was totally aware of the fact, and have several girlfriends who are totally envious of me for having him.

The setting sun in close-up

I am doing paperwork today in bed. I am catching up on e-mails, making phone calls and getting my diary in order.  Talking of diary, I have just noticed that I totally forgot to attend two concerts, due to Roy's operation.  Well, even if I remembered, I wouldn't have gone, as I would not have been able to stay awake. This confirms the correctness of my action in discontinuing all but 2 of my concert and opera subscription tickets for next year. I am only getting older and more susceptible to illness, so a reduction was, I think, very sensible. No end of performances have been missed this year, which is a waste of money as well as upsetting.

The plan now is to stay until next Thursday, by which time hopefully Roy will be able to travel to Bér. We are having guests in the Bunkhouse over Easter, so we should be there. We also have to put the heating on, so when they arrive the house is heated, although the cleaning and making of beds is now done by Anna's staff.

The Citadella at night

Will let you know how we are getting on sometime next week, hopefully, by then from Bér.

The last week

A year ago Roy had taken delivery of his palinka

The visit to the private clinic where Roy had an X-ray and some blood taken went with very little hassle. The place seemed very posh, the staff polite and efficient and I hoped that this would reassure Roy, who has never liked anything medical whether it was he who was ill or anyone else.

Last year's blossom, before the snow storm in April took it

In the afternoon I went to the annual general meeting of my orienteering club, which gave me chance to meet some of my friends whom I have not seen for ages. I got a lift, which was useful as my cold was still with me and going by public transport would have been too tiring.

On Saturday we went to do a bit of shopping and managed to find three really useful pound shops for the little presents that have to go in the cache boxes. I have since put together two boxes that we should place tomorrow, should the rain stop a bit.

Roy on his tractor

Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly indoors, trying to shake my cold, watching TV, surfing the net and reading books. I spent some time dreaming about going geocaching with friends once I am better.  Finally, on Wednesday we went back to the clinic to see the anesthetist, who turned out to be an absolute darling. Friendly, professional, very kind and patient, so I am fairly sure that Roy was quite reassured. It turns out he has some antigens in his blood which has to be allowed for when they get the usual 2 units of blood for the operation. So, we have to go back a day prior to the operating next Thursday to give another sample, so the Blood Bank knows which antigens are OK and which aren't.

Finally, we came back down to the village yesterday on the bus, which left at 7.20am and with it being a national holiday, transport was very few and far between. We got up really early and allowed a lot of extra time to get to the bus station, which was just as well, because the route of our trolley bus was changed and we nearly missed it at the other stop. I have checked just before on the internet all the changes and that one was not there. I suppose some moron either forgot it or they changed something at the last minute and they didn't have the time to change the information online. Good job they put a small notice at the stop, but it took us a quarter of an hour to twig what they meant.

In the French Alps with Alex

The trip itself, however was totally uneventful, the house was fine, there were no broken pipes and since then we have been busy with stuff. First of all we had to move two beds back from the Farmhouse to the Bunkhouse, as we have come to a decision regarding Anna's guests. We feel too old to do any more work, but we still want to help Anna when she has a surplus of guests she cannot accommodate. So, we said to her that we no longer want any guests in the Farmhouse and the Kottage will only take them in the summer, as we usually drain the water pipes there to be safe in the winter. The main property, therefore, that takes guests will have to be the Bunkhouse with 10 beds.

Red is still my favourite colour

We are going to give her a key to that building and to the garden gate and therefore she can have it even if we are not here. We will charge a flat fee of £30 per night, regardless how many people she puts in there and all work: cleaning, bed making etc. will have to be done by her staff. I think this is an ideal arrangement and I think we will both benefit from it.

Must go now as it is tea time and I am feeling rather tired and dizzy, so I'll have an early night, as tomorrow we should go out if the weather is not too bad to place the boxes for the two spring caches up near the Slovakian border and go eat out somewhere en route home. Currently there is a 4 day holiday here, so hopefully we will find somewhere nice open.  If not, we'll come home and have dinner at The Mill.

About 60 people came to my geocaching hike in November

As there was nothing worthy of photographing this week, the pictures you see in this post are a selection of my favourite photos of the last year.  Enjoy!

Back home and sick again

After another night of babysitting, for another outing to celebrate Lucy's birthday, we were looking forward to the weekend when one hopes we could be together with the family more than during the week. Unfortunately, when your son is a working comic, the weekends are even busier than the weekdays, so that was not to be. Also, we agreed beforehand to babysitting the monsters right through Saturday, as Stephen and Lucy were due to go to a wedding in Kent.

Elian playing Lego

As it happens the little monsters were jolly good, spent a lot of time on their iPads, watched some TV and played with us and each other when the mood took them. Unfortunately we couldn't take them out, as the pavements were lethal with black ice and we couldn't take the responsibility for them or for ourselves in those conditions. Elian did some Lego and Xander did some silly running around through the open doors between the kitchen, dining room, lounge and hall.  That is his speciality, he is jolly good at guessing when you stopped running and are waiting for him round the corner. He changes directions so fast, there is no chance of catching him.

Note the Diana look!

Going to bed was an easy affair, they are definitely better than last time about that. However, there was a small amount of overexcitement due to being stuck indoors on Xander's part, but knowing his insatiable need for physical activity, I think he bore it pretty well. Later I thought I might have chucked him out into the garden in some boots and a coat and hat, but never thought of it at the time.

iPads, aka electronic babysitters

On Sunday morning we have discovered that Stephen and Lucy have actually driven home in the night, so they were about in the morning. We never heard them coming in. Still, they could not have slept much, as they both looked a bit freyed at the edges.

The little charmer

Elian went for a party in the morning and later on we all went to The Greyhound for Sunday lunch. I love that pub, there is a pleasant, not too rough, but neither too posh environment and atmosphere there, with the food pretty good in quality, quantity and price. Both the boys have amazing appetites, I couldn't believe the amount they were tucking into and putting away. Roy and I could not fit into the car due to the size of the boys' safety seats, so we walked.  It was lovely. It looked like spring had arrived, although 48 hours before the temperature was well below zero.

My lunch on Saturday

Monday was unfortunately spent indoors again, as Stephen had departed for a 3 day engagement, the kids were in school until 6pm, Lucy was working and doing her other stuff, like sports and Roy and I (mostly I) were going down with yet another lurgy again. I think this one I brought with me from home, as I do recall feeling a draught at the airport on the way out, which would not have happened unless I was sickening for something. Finally it got me on our last day and I was seriously worried about not being able to travel the following day.

Roy monstersitting

Thankfully, after yet another evening of babysitting (the fourth in five days) I felt a bit better on Tuesday morning, so we got going to the airport by train.  The weather was positively springlike by then and transport had no holdups whatsoever. Consequently we were far too early at the airport, but that is still a better scenario than missing your flight.

En route to the pub on Sunday

Daffodils in close-up

Snow drops in close-up

We went through the airport at the other end like a dose of salts again and were indoors barely over an hour after we landed on the tarmac. Since then, however, the cold that has been toying with me all the time we were in Hassocks has finally attacked full force. I am weak and miserable in bed again, hoping that if I rest enough I can finally kick it. However, today was the first step towards putting into effect my plan for next winter, by not buying any subscription concert tickets in The Palace of the Arts for the next season. Bozsa, my good friend who has a discount card sent me the list of choices and I had to decline them with a very much aching heart, but prompted by how miserable I feel. I must try, if I can, stay away from the city in the flu season next year, to see whether that will make any difference.  If it doesn't, I might get back to my concerts the season after next, but I hope it will make a difference and I could be a bit healthier next winter.

Xander in the pub with Mummy

The men round the table in the pub

Tomorrow Roy and I are off to the private hospital for tests, in readiness for his operation later on in the month.  Wish us luck!!

First couple of days in Hassocks

The two musical events, I mentioned at the end of my last post, were part great, part missed. The first, a glorious concert in the Palace of the Arts, given by the Pannon Philharmonic was very good. The main attraction was that the soloist was the now world famous favourite of mine, Kristóf Baráti, whom I used to see regularly, but since he's got very famous, not so often.  Nowadays he doesn't give nearly as many concerts at home as he used to, and when he does the ticket prices are usually astronomic. He was brilliant, as usual and we enjoyed his play on his glorious Stradivarius tremendously.

Kristóf Baráti

Unfortunately, soon after this concert my cold returned, this time with joint aches and extreme tiredness. I decided that I wouldn't attend the opera performance I wrote about in the last post, which then turned out fortunate, as my friend, Kati, whom I usually go with had just lost her mother and wasn't going either.

Tom Burke

I kept to my bed most days, including the weekend, as I wanted to be well for the trip to Hassocks. I watched a fair amount of TV again and read my book, although my eyes were affected by the cold, so I had to have breaks after every 20 or so pages. On TV I discovered that Strike was back and as I loved it last year, got to watch it with much enthusiasm again. I love Tom Burke and the stories, the characters, the acting are all first class. I hope they have more episodes this year than last. Also, I was just about to cancel my hike with my friend Zsuzsi when she rang to tell me that she couldn't come because she had to go in to work over the weekend. So that was off too.

Roy on the lane by Stephen's house

The weather started getting very cold, apparently the air coming from Siberia was going to give us a freezing start to spring, only round the corner. Since then I read on the net, that the end of February/beginning of March has never been this cold ever before.  Or at least not since records have been kept.

One of Brighton's ancient lanes

We packed on Tuesday and departed on Wednesday. They were talking about disruption to travel by the severe weather, but we got to the airport quite easily. Once there, we were told that our plane got stuck in Glasgow, due to the bad weather and we had a delay of about 2 hours until they rustled up another aircraft. This they duly did and after that our day unfolded with not even a tiny hiccup.

Beautiful variegated hollly in a garden

The flight was uneventful, the landing soft and quiet, the airport OK and even though there was a bit of a chaos in the railway station due to cancellations, we managed to catch a late train with only 2 minutes to go. Even with the late departure of the plane we were indoors at Stephen's by 9pm.

Elian doing a puzzle on his iPad

Unfortunately the little monsters couldn't stay up, so they were in bed by the time we got there, but we were safely installed in our usual bedroom and fell into bed half asleep.  On the morning of the following day, we met our little vagabonds. They were off to school and we were off to Brighton to see the bank, Vodafone, have a lunch in the Basketmakers and do a bit of odds and ends type of shopping. The weather was bitter, even colder than in BP or Canada or the US. I think the difference was the strong wind, which added quite a bit of windchill and even though I had a wolly hat and a hood on, my ears were cold.

The power of concentration

Roy, thankfully listened to me and brought his Canadian big coat, boots and lumberjack's hat, so he was warm as toast most of the time. On Thursday we managed to get to all the places we planned, with the highlight being the Basketmakers, as usual.  I had a bit of a shock, as they didn't do my humus dish any more, but I had fish and chips instead, and that was so delicious and enormous, that I didn't mind at all.

The Basketmakers' bar with my favourite barman

In the evening we babysat as Lucy went out with Stephen and some friends to some game to celebrate her birthday. The kids have matured quite a lot since we last saw them and seemed to go to bed without undue hassle. This morning we had to return to Brighton for an appointment and, needless to say, went back to the Basketmakers, this time for a hamburger for Roy and a seefood platter for me.  Latter was equally enormous and delicious as the fish and chips the day before.

My seafood platter

We got back about 2pm and have been veging out ever since.  Half way through the afternoon, just 10 minutes after Roy woke from his afternoon nap, Xander appeared and joined us in our room. It is really nice when a kid chooses to come in and play with you, it is so much more natural and enjoyable when the initiative is from them.  I would never have thought that there is this much entertainment value to a duvet. He crawled under it, over it, did exercises and big jumps on it, we giggled, tickled and mucked about for about an hour, until we got totally exhausted.  4 year olds have so much more energy than old things like Roy and me. Still, this was definitely the highlight of the visit so far.

The Basketmakers

Now I have to go downstairs to see what's for dinner. I can hear the laughing from here, so I am off and should be back sometime next week, probably from home.

Xander and Roy in the bed playing silly buggers