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| Dezső Ránki |
I also had a dental appointment, where Vivien was great, as usual. She put in a pin and took depressions of my two back teeth, which will have a Procera double crown on for the princely figure of £850. Next time, hopefully they should be properly evaluated and then some clever clog can do the drawing of it on the computer, send it to the States and a few days later voila the crowns arrive back for fitting. Once you consider the high quality of ceramic crowns with no metal in them and the fuss they take to prepare, make and fit, that £850 immediately does not seem so horribly expensive. The current total bill for my teeth, in the last 6 months or so, stands somewhere around £2000 and the works have still not finished. Still, I love Vivien and hope to have a properly looked after set of chompers soon.
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| Tarmac road at the start |
In the evening I went to the Palace of the Arts with Bozsa to hear Dezső Ránki on the piano. It was lovely to see Bozsa after a fairly long hiatus, we had a good chat and enjoyed the concert. She gave me a lift home, which was, as always is, much appreciated.
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| Bright blue sky above the forest |
Wednesday was the day of my hike in the Visegrádi Mountains, which finally was taken just by Jutka and me. Zsuzsi couldn't get a day off and thus missed it all. That is a great shame, because a combination of gorgeous, warm and sunny weather and the magnificence of autumnal colours, made it special.
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| Priest's Meadow |
We drove in Jutka's car to Szentendre and took the bus from there to the top of the mountain range. From there the hike was mostly, although not entirely, downhill. We were looking for 6 caches, three of which were multis and not all of which were there. Some points of some of the multis I have already got on previous hikes and one of the multis we couldn't find. The rest of them were fine, exciting and requiring a fair amount of searching in undergrowth, especially under a thick layer of dead leaves.
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| It won't move |
Occasionally we took tarmac roads, which didn't have any traffic on, but were easier to make progress on. Once off the road, the paths were totally covered in fallen leaves and especially where we had to follow unmarked paths, you had to really have your wits about you not to lose them. The foliage was breathtaking. The reds, browns, yellows and oranges created such a brilliant hue that even towards the end when we were getting tired, we never stopped loving it. We also saw some magnificent large and old trees, mostly oaks, but occasionally beech or sycamore.
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| One of the large trees we saw |
We had our sandwiches outside a lovely little sylvan cottage, where there were a couple of tables with benches in brilliant sunshine. The spring nearby had a cache so easy to find that it made up for the half an hour digging and scrambling where we couldn't find the previous cache further up the mountain. Thankfully, after lunch all the trudging was downhill, although the aching backs and knees slowed us right down.
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| Roots |
Once out of the forest, we had a couple of cakes in a cake shop in the village where we had to catch the bus back to the car, so we were in good spirits. There was a lot of traffic on the roads and the bus was about 10 minutes late, followed by the unpleasant surprise of no seats left, it was so full. I was suspecting that it was not a very good idea to catch public transport on the eve of a 4-day holiday, but the worst was just to come.
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| The cottage where we had our lunch |
As we got back to Jutka's car, it became obvious that she left the lights on and the battery was dead. We desperately tried to get somebody in the car park to help us, as we had some jump leads. The first guy chickened out when Jutka's car wouldn't start, not even when attached to his battery, but finally another guy was willing to charge the car for 3 minutes before turning the key in the ignition. We got going, but then we were worried about running out of petrol as Jutka forgot to fill it up in the morning and now we were worried that if we stop for petrol, the car will not start again. So we travelled the minimum 10km required to charge the battery sufficiently to risk turning it off. It worked!!
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| Foliage |
However, by the time we have finally sorted all our car miseries, the traffic on the roads got so bad that it took another hour and half to get home from a place the trip should have just taken 20 minutes. This misery carried on the following morning when having got up, packed and sorted the flat, I obviously got going far too late for a day when everybody was on the roads going away for 4 days. It took me nearly 3 hours to get home to Bér, instead of the usual 75 minutes. Serves me right travelling on and around long holiday weekends and also for not getting going earlier.
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| Top canopy |
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| Tree + Jutka |
Having been away on Nelly's birthday, I had to make something for her to make up for my missing it. I had an idea and made some truffle mix and put it into a glass with almonds and walnuts on the top. Apparently she liked it, but complained profusely at the damage chocolate did to her digestion. Friday was mostly spent typing up the geocache lists for the various trips coming up and sorting out a few domestic chores.
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| The oldies are gathering |
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| The three graces |
Saturday came up with the old people's dinner and entertainment, which we attended for the first time. It was considerably less painful than we both thought but still not something we would like to do too often. The dinner was quite edible, we sat near some lovely old ladies whose company was pleasant, Roy had several beers and I enjoyed the guy who sang folk songs. The final act, however, was positively painful to listen to. A lady doctor was singing and assured us that she now has her own television program doing the same. (This tells you all you need to know about the quality of Hungarian TV shows!) All the sounds coming out of her mouth were shrill and unpleasant and the songs stupid. We took Nelly in the car, so we talked her into leaving early, thus giving us an excuse to having to leave early too. Even with this ruse we were there for two and half hours, which is plenty for the next 2 or 3 years.
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| Mihály Zsuzsa, born in Bér, singing folk songs |
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| The lady doctor - brrrrr! |
Today we went to have lunch at the mill, which was delightful. We both had prawn curry, which was delicious and made up for the privations of the old people's do. Prior to going we had a few domestic chores sorted:
1. Pali came and we agreed that he would take the cefre to the still on 16th November.
2. Csaba came and climbed up on the Bunkhouse roof, replacing about 20 of our perishing and broken tiles. He also agreed to turn up tomorrow to do some more jobs that the two of us cannot any longer do around the house and garden.
3. I pruned my roses for the winter.
4. I varnished the two bird boxes Roy had made recently to repair my lost or broken caches with.
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| The lovely ladies who cooked and served our lunch |
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| The lovely ladies who cooked and served our lunch (2) |
Tomorrow we will have to pack and depart for yet another 3 days/2 nights outing, this time to Makó and as we will return to BP for a while afterwards, the house will have to be decommissioned and properly locked up. We will not be back here again for a while, but at least, even if we are not here, Roy's pálinka will be attended to, which is an important event in the calendar.
In town, after our return from Makó, I will have some more concerts, and will have to do some shopping too. The following weekend I'll have another hike, this time with Mariann and Gabi on the Saturday, followed by Roy and I having a quick trip down to the Balaton to spend a day with some friends there. This is the place where we were invited in January for somebody's 70th birthday and missed it due to going down with the flu, so I am really looking forward to it.
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