emiGrants: Too much birthday and even more dentist

Unfortunately this post is late again, due to "too much birthday". This was a quote from my friend Nata at the weekend, but more of that later.

Here goes the lateral cut

First of all, my dental appointment was postponed, due to some plumbing emergency at the surgery. We thought that was a good omen, as we needed to leave as soon as possible, due to the myriad of tasks that awaited us prior to my birthday weekend, so we left really early on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the patisserie that was doing my cake didn't open until 10am, but we managed to fill the time with picking up a moving cache en route.

Roy committing surgery on the cake

The cake was not too bad, about £60 and it looked a million dollars. They followed my design perfectly and I was hoping it tasted as good inside as it looked on the outside. (It did!) En route home I managed to place the moving cache, so there was no more hassle with it later.

Erzsi, Pityu, Hulk, Haggis, Colin and Nata in the pavilion

The next few days were spent cleaning, bed making, mowing, gardening etc., but come Friday it looked as if we were ready to receive our guests. Anna turned up and paid me for the one night her guests stayed in the Bunkhouse before we left and I bought 12 hiking maps online and paid for it online as well. A private mapmaker, whose brother I know well, was discounting many maps to get rid of some old stocks. They cost only about £3 each and included places where I have never been and therefore have no maps of. Who knows, I might go caching there one day and they might come in handy.

The walnut cake that Pityu made for me

By Friday Roy and I were in need of a rest, but knowing what my crowd is like, there was little chance of that. The first to arrive were Nata and Colin, quickly followed by the rest of them for a late tea. The numbers worked out perfectly, even though I did miscount and one bed was not made up as a result. Still, they solved the problem with a sleeping bag, so all was well. The visitors were:
Nata and Colin, hashing friends
Hulk and Haggis, hashing friends
Pityu, his daughter Sára, her daughter Ágota and Sára's partner Laci / friends I met through Hulk
Erzsike, Pityu's friend
Jutka, Zsuzsi and Ildi, orienteering friends

Zsuzsi and Ildi after tea

I received so many gorgeous presents and cards from my friends that I had to declare, even before the hike on Saturday, that this would probably be one of the best, if not THE best birthday I have ever had. Along with the usual booze and chocolates, I also had 3 roses in their pots, plus a winter jasmine plant, all of which we duly planted the day after the guests left. Only then, because on Sunday evening we both fell into bed literally comatose, that's how good the weekend was :-)

Fazék serving pieces of the cake to the cachers on the hike

Dinner on Friday evening was a big curry that Roy cooked and it went down well. I was pretty tired and retired early, so did Colin. The rest of them - I was told - were up until 3am playing bridge. No way I was going to hike on Saturday on that amount of sleep. Having just said that, I only had about 3 or 4 hours of sleep anyway, as I had to taste every bit of cake and booze and other goodies that were given me as presents. It would have been churlish not to do so, even though I knew that eating so much sweet stuff and drinking so much alcohol, especially that late, would stop me sleeping.

Climbing down to the first cache near a cave

And then on Saturday all except Roy got going in the direction of the Mátra for the birthday hike. Roy managed to cut the birthday cake laterally on Friday, so we could all start eating the bottom bit, while the top bit with the special design in marzipan came with me and was dished out to the cachers/hikers before the start of the hike. All in all I think we numbered about 35 to 40 on the hike, although there were some people who left us after the lookout tower to take their own route going South, while a few actually turned back and returned on the same route to their own car at the bottom.

High up on the mountain, the first panoramic views

Many of those on the hike also brought me presents, which touched me dearly. Most of my caching friends I only see at caching events or accidentally while geocaching, so I really didn't expect so many presents. I was given a variety of lovely things, including booze, chocolates, a lovely wood carving of a dragon, some caching goodies and a fantastic hiking book in a big box which I am expected to use for one of my caches in the future.

A strange looking tree on the way up

All of us, whether we did the entire hike or not, had an amazing journey, although even the early leavers managed to see the special places along the hike. These included a waterfall, a cave, a mountain top, but two main locations are worth a special mention. First off all the big, stone-built lookout tower, which was amazing, considering it was built by a private individual for the benefit of hikers. It is always open, it also operates as a shelter, with firewood in the winter and big sofas which convert to beds and bivouacking opportunities all year round. We even found big bottles of water, which I was told came from the spring further down and which is transported up to the top every day in the hot weather by somebody in a 4-wheel drive jeep.

Hulk and Haggis

The other special place was on a spur where para-gliders launch from and which had a near 360 degree panorama. That is where we took the group photo, which numbered about 30 and for which the light conditions were pretty good. Otherwise the air was a bit damp, so it was hazy and the much vaunted Tátra Mountains a hundred miles away were not visible. You do need crystal clear air for that, but I have seen them once or twice in the past that is truly magical sight.

A clear(ish) view looking NW

Once we were back on the main road, most people made arrangements with friends (like we did) to have one car down there and those took other drivers, so they could come back for their passengers in no time at all. In the meantime the bus came at around quarter to three, so everybody was away soon after 3pm. A few had so much energy left that they added an extra 5km by climbing up onto the mountain on the other side of the road and got an extra 2 caches. I have to say I wasn't among them. My total was 8 caches for the day, including the moving cache which went with the event. A beautiful, very touching and successful hike, during which I chatted to lots of people, took very many photos, saw many panoramic views and one which I will never forget.

Misty distant hills from near the top

Back home we arrived just in time to eat Roy's and Pityu's cooking which filled everybody's belly to full capacity. I was so done in that I actually faded out on the sofa soon afterwards and never woke up until 11pm, when I realised that I missed a lot of fun in the meantime. Never mind, I thought, I watched a bit of TV, then sat with some of the guests playing bridge and retired to my bed to carry on sleeping. This was the occasion when Nata quoted I think Peanuts or some other TV character, who apparently once told someone that he must have had too much birthday. That definitely applied to me at that moment.

Strange tree on the way up

On Sunday most guests just felt like vegging out and this was the time that Pityu's cooking really came into its own. He is one of those guys who no matter how many times you tell him not to bring anything, always arrives ready to feed an army. He brought two types of fish in breadcrumbs, as well as aubergines and other vegetables in breadcrumbs for the vegetarians. Many people brought extra birthday cakes as well as other cakes, there was a lot of salad, pickles, avocado cream and "kőrözött", which is a sandwich filler made of sheep's curds, butter, caraways seeds, salt, pepper, paprika and occasionally even garlic. So most people could hardly move after this meal as well.

Gerlach from our route in clear weather

Originally we planned to go and have Sunday lunch at the Mill, but inevitably there was so much food left over, that that we didn't want to waste it. In the hour before lunch some of us went on a little walk in the village, ending up at the Mill which everybody enjoyed. En route home I discovered several plum trees fully laden with ripe fruit, so even Roy got a present of a carrier bag full of ripe plums for his cefre.

The lookout tower on the top

By about 3pm all the guests were gone, although we did find a carrier bag with keys and documents, so quickly rang the owners and they had to turn round and come back for them. After that the house seemed awfully empty and quiet, but we were glad of the rest, which we definitely deserved. It was my idea to have this celebration, as I thought my 70th shouldn't go without at least a bit of fuss. We hardly ever celebrate anything and this felt right, even though I am still trying to recover from it nearly a week later. I don't have too many friends, but those that I have I love dearly. They are all lovely people and I hope to enjoy their friendship for a while yet.

Jutka and Zsuzsi at the front

Talking of celebrations: I am having four more birthdays, one at the end of July and three more in September. These are the friends who couldn't make it this time, but insisted to have one later to make up for it. Needless to say that these gatherings will also involve a hike, although probably not as big as this one was.

The rest of my time since the weekend was taken up by attending my dentist and gastroenterologist in four separate appointments. It would have been only three, but just as our guests were leaving on Sunday my already slightly sensitive teeth started really hurting. So on top of the scheduled hygienist/dentist double appointment on Wednesday, I also had an emergency one with my dentist on Tuesday to see what the matter was. She told me that one of my upper teeth is very inflamed and will probably have to come out later. The gastroenterologist guy turned out to be an absolute sweetie, which makes a change after how shoddily I was treated by this clinic before. This guy and I hit it off instantly, we sorted everything and now I have a date for the repeated procedure free of charge in September.

The group photo on the para-gliders' launch pad

On Wednesday I had the hygienist appointment (one hour) and the dental appointment finishing the root canal work on one of my bottom teeth (two hours) after which I was like a zombie. Roy was left behind, as he had a few things to do and didn't fancy going to town just for my appointments, so I departed at 4:40am on Tuesday and had nobody to support me in all my agony. Needless to say that I wasn't functioning very well on my own and managed to lose my folder with all my medical papers in, which still haven't turned up. But at least I can reprint them from the net, so that's not such a tragedy. The prescription the doctor gave me, however, is a bit more bother, but hopefully I can have that replaced as well.

The girls at the mill pond

Today I have made an appointment at the lab for an oral CT, which I will have next week before going away for 3 days to Szeged with Roy. This CT will decide whether that upper tooth has to come out or not. And this saga of my life goes on and on, so I think I will stop now, as I am getting tired just writing about the last 8 or 9 days. You can imagine that it was even more tiring getting through it. And in spite of tooth trouble and being dog tired, I think these were among the happiest days of my life which will stay with me forever.