Back home

Monday was reasonably uneventful to start with, but as our departure neared, it got a bit more complicated.  Once we closed down our suitcase, it turned out that neither of us could lift it. At the same time Stephen was working on his podcasts with a girl in his office and we were under strict orders not to disturb them.

Xander, Lucy, Stephen and Elian a good few years back

Normally we would have been able to pull the suitcase along the lane to the station, but due to its weight, that was out of the question.  In the last minute, with still no sign of Stephen emerging from his office, Lucy came to our rescue. She turned up with the boys and we grabbed her for a quick lift, which she agreed to do. We also saw the little monsters for a few seconds, during which Elian enquired: "Is Callum around?" He looked a bit glum when I told him he has gone home on Saturday.

The train came fairly quickly, we struggled with the two ton case onto and off the train and arrived in the airport extremely early. No bother, I had a book to read and it was so fortunate to get a lift from Lucy that a bit of waiting did not matter at all. The irony of our situation came later.  Having arrived at least an hour early, we then found out the flight was late.  35 minutes at first, then 45 minutes then an hour etc., etc.

We are back with Easy since Norwegian left the BP route

Once we were finally boarded it turned out that the airline managed to lose a baby from the flight manifest and that took another hour and half to sort out. While this was going on I fell in love with the very young and extremely handsome pilot of our plane, watching him fight the authorities tooth and nail not to chuck the family, who was totally innocent in the matter, off the plane. So we finally left about 3 hours late, having arrived an hour early it seemed that we have spent the whole day first in the aiport and then in the plane on the tarmac.

The flight itself was fine and we were indoors by 10:30pm, having decided to splash out on a taxi, as we were both completely done in. The flat was very hot, airless and stuffy. We opened the courtyard windows and tried to recover from the day. Tuesday was the day of the tooth extraction which I wasn't looking forward to.  As I haven't yet met the dentist who was doing it I was a tad concerned, but he turned out to be quite nice too. This dental surgery obviously puts it into their requirements for employment there, a nice and friendly disposition. Once it was over I was not in much pain and we departed on the bus, rather than having to take a taxi again.

Our closest big market at Hunyadi Square

Not only that we were using public transport, but I agreed to go and sort my phones out and do some food shopping before getting home. The phone shop had a different bloke in it, but if anything, he was even nicer than the usual chap, who is nice enough for my liking. This one was quite handsome and fixed everything in about 5 minutes. He sold us a SIM card adapter for one of the nano SIM cards and managed to insert each card in a phone, that I have hung onto (wisely) from the past.  I am lucky that they both still work, so now I can communicate with the world - and the world can communicate with me - again.

The market was a bit empty, so we quickly got what we wanted and hoped to get home fast. It was at this time that I started wondering if it was wise to do this much straight after a major tooth extraction. I suddenly felt dizzy and very tired, but finally managed to drag myself home and collapse once indoors. The plug that was put in the hole where my tooth was fell out after a few hours, but the pain was bearable and I started reviving slowly.

Wednesday was spent catching up on the computer, unpacking, putting away, cooking and generally trying to recover. As I am planning a good few geocaching trips, I was also writing lists and doing little maps to aid the search. In fact, September is the month of catch up for me, as I have been suffering from geocaching withdrawal. This year there have been two long gaps, the first one in the late winter/eary spring, when I was ill and also worrying about Roy. The second one was just now, being away for a month in England, while delightful with the family, was also zero caching. Several friends are either coming to Ber or us going to them for weekends, to make up for them missing my birthday hike, and I proposed we are going caching while hiking. That needs planning and recuperating fits in with that.

Planned tri with Ros and Ian

Thursday was the day I had to go back to my not very favourite private clinic for laboratory tests, in preparation for the repeated colonoscopy/gastroscopy, which is due next week. We were very early, but there was no waiting and I was in and out in a giffy. I brought a urine sample, which apparently was not necessary, but I requested a full screen of  it which will be extra. At the end I went to pay for the extra test, but the young man there tried to bill me for another one, which was also extra, but not at my request. Apparently, if you are on blood thinners you have to have another test, but as that is part of the preparation for the repeated procedure, should be gratis. I protested and he accepted it.  It is not about the money here, but about the principle. They should count themselves lucky that I have not sued them, or they would have ended up with a lot more expense than just doing it again for nothing.

And today we are still indoors and considering some activity away from the flat, as we are both getting stir crazy in here. I was looking to do some caching, but there is nothing close and easy enough to do by public transport, so we will probably go a bit further afield if the weather is good.

We are spending the weekend with Laci and Marti in Csobánka, (the first one of the birthday catch up visits), so that should be fun. Next post after that.