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!