Knee ultrasound, Rosa, painting the Pavilion and lots of caching (again)

The day after I last posted I went in to town on the last bus for a couple of days for my ultrasound examination of my knees. I had some problems with finding the place, but eventually got there a tiny bit late. A very young and extremely nice, if swft, woman took not very long over my knees and seemed quite satisfied with the right one, but looked a bit concerned about the left one. She came to the conclusion that I need an MRI to make sure the meniscus is not damaged. If it is, I will need to have the detached bits removed, which is a quick operation with an arthroscope. I have tried to book an appointment in November (with October already full with activities), but they haven't yet made up the appointment book for November, so she promised to ring me back once they have done so. No phonecall so far, so I might have to take my business elsewhere.

The remnant so fan old canal somewhere in the puszta

Once I was back in Bér, the week passed very quickly with garden activities. Before that, I managed to get to Eszter, the nurse, and have the next three months' prescriptions written. She is ever so nice, we chatted and this time I hardly had to wait in the surgery. Next time I will try going at around 9am, they were practically empty by that time.

A glorious avenue of trees on our route

We had two major jobs while in the village:
1.repair and paint the Pavilion
2. tidy up my parents' grave site.
Both had been done, although we have really got tired at the end of each day, especially Roy, although I did a fair amount of ladder work too. The Pavilion now looks a million dollars, although the very bottom got left to later. I can't kneel or bend too much with my knee and Roy was too done in by then.

Our first chateau, this time not derelict and housing a school

We came in  to town on Saturday, carrying large amounts of bedding in preparation for the invasion of family, now very soon. Rosa was supposed to turn up on Friday, but didn't. Eventually she popped in on Saturday, looking OK and now back on diplomatic terms with Barnabás. I hope she doesn't take him back after the physical violence, but we have no right to interfere, it is her life, but I hope she doesn't.

Sculpture in the park around the chateau

Then we departed in the direction of Gyula on Sunday morning. We bombed down the M5 and started geocaching in Szentes and finishing in Orosháza. Sunday turned out quite enjoyable with the final tally for the  day being 7 caches. Thankfully, in these parts, churches don't dominate, like they did in the Balaton Uplands, but there were still plenty interesting locations. The dominating structures in these parts seem to be derelict chateuax. There is a cacher who is fascinated by them and puts a cache near practically every single one.

A quirky little chapel

There are also lots of canals with water works of managing the canals' water levels, which were created in the XIXth century when they drained the swamps on the flatlands, so we visited a few of those. There were a preponderance of multis, which got left the last few times we came this way, so we pootled slowly but surely in the direction of Gyula quite happily. The B&B is fantastic, albeit with some quirks. There is nobody here to receive you and information is scarce, but the room is newly built, modern, clean and very comfortable. The owner has a guesthouse somewhere and she is working there, while these four rooms are on their own. The standard of equipment and comfort is excellent, the decoration pleasant and we even have a little kitchen, as well as a modern bathroom. The room has cable TV and air conditioning, which was most welcome in the recently arrived autumn heatwave.

Birdy sculpture in Gyopárosfürdő

We also found, quite by accident, a fantastic restaurant, which made Roy very happy. It was like the ones he remembered from the sixties and loved a lot. Good prices, lovely, traditional cooking, very flexible, friendly, funny and efficient service, a simple large outside terrace with homely atmosphere and music. Unfortunately,  they will be closed tonight for some gas equipment repairs, so we will have to find another one.

After a very successful first day of caching, the second day, NE of Gyula, started badly. I had 8 caches on the list,  4 of them from the quy who loves derelict chateaux, one from someone I don't know and three from my soon to be ex-friend, Gyuri. The chateaux guy has a habit of putting his little boxes in unpleasant jungle, so I wasn't looking forward to those, but Gyuri's caches are usually well hidden and in really nice, accessible places, Well, that was not the case this time. We started with one of his 2-parter multis and had one bit of hassle after another.

King Stephen in Orosháza

I somehow forgotten to copy out some of the important detail, but solved that by ringing Karesz who dictated it to me by phone. But, we weren't really sure which point of the multi was which, so ended up looking for the wrong thing in each location and not surprisingly not finding anything. The stress of this, coupled with a very bad road leading to the points, caused rucktion between Roy and me, which doesn't happen often, but when it does is very unpleasant.

Weird stones in Orosháza

The later caches were much better and we finally managed to find all 8 planned, bar the one at the beginning. Several phone calles later, I had the password even for that, as Mariann took pity on me and told me what it was. In the meantime, I found that Gyuri was quite unfriendly on the phone, when I told him of our problems, thinking that I was criticising him and went on the defensive. I felt that the end of a beautiful friendship was approaching, which was clearly confirmed in the evening when he cried off his promise of taking me round today to places where only he has permission to drive in and thus saving my bad knee long walks. I have finished with him, which is a shame, but also a relief, as he has been no friend to me for over a year now, so I have drawn the necessary conclusions and crossed him off my friends' list yesterday.

Water tower in Orosháza

Today Roy and I are doing the cache list that was prepared to be done with Gyuri and I'll see whether the ones with long drive-ins for which permits are needed, will get done or not. I suppose I could have a go at some of them with my scooter, which could be useful, if the route to the cache is on a hard surface. Failing that, I can always touch Mariann up for the password, as I am not going to ask for any more help from Gyuri, that's for sure.

250 year old oak tree in an ancient forest

And finally, just to give you a weather report: you would not believe that it is the second half of October. Temperatures have been somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. Yesterday I put on shorts again and was still too hot. I am not complaining and hope dearly that it stays, at least until after we do the caching with Ros and Ian on Friday, but yesterday in the tension between Roy and me, other than bad nights' sleeps and that dreadful road, the main culprit, I think, was the heat.

The most spectacular derelict chateau of yesterday

Next post now due probably after the kids have been, as before that we will be insanely busy, first with Ros
and Ian, then cleaning the flat, making beds, and generally preparing fore the family's arrival.

Roy busy repairing the Pavilion

The final result

Funeral, lots of geocaching, Xander's 6th birthday and Municipal Elections

The day after my last post turned out to be quite expensive, but we survived.  Somehow I managed to forget to pay for the refuse collection for the last two quarters, so I had to catch up, plus I finally paid the balance on the cruise, so that is now paid for. I also finished writing my cache list for our journey to the Balaton and then in the late afternoon we went into town.

Cellars at Etyek

Some more cellars at Etyek

On Friday we had a sad happening. One of our good friends lost her mother recently and we went to attend the funeral. There were not too many people there, I would say about 40 or so. But the atmosphere was lovely. There wasn't too much religion and what there was felt genuine. Some people made speeches about her, some colleagues and members of the family. We had a little chat with Tibor and Klári, plus their children who are now grown up and still very nice.

Saturday was a surprise day, as I decided to go geocaching and Roy, having succumbed to the temptations of going for lunch at the Rókusfalvy afterwards, came with me. We went for three fairly recently placed caches close to BP in a Westerly direction. First it was a little well down a dark valley, then a 3 parter in the town of the restaurant and finally another 3 parter, following the line of a recently restored old railway line with a small train in operation not too frequently.

The little railway engine with two wagons behind it

The well was very easy, although I had to watch my knee as the stream side was muddy and slippery. The first 3 parter had a theme of wine cellars. There were gorgeous old nicely restored ones all over the place. This town was mostly settled by Germans prior to 1945 and the building style, both of their homes and their cellars, was very distinctly German. In recent years one of their rows of cellars became famous for the picnic they organise every spring, with lots of lovely food as well as wine. It is now called the "Gastro Lane".

Roy on the terrace of the Rókusfalvy Inn

Finally we started on the little narrow gauge railway, which was difficult to find first. Later we got extremely lucky as I found an engine with two wagons waiting to leave at one of the stations. As it was leaving, I even managed to shoot a short video of it. After this one we returned to Etyek for lunch. The Rókusfalvy Inn has long been famous for both its food and drink. This time, somehow I was less impressed than before, but it was still very pleasant, if a tad expensive.

Avenue of pines in Keszthely, planted by Mary Hamilton

Sunday saw Ian arrive with the post and we had a little chat, followed by me wishing him good luck with the roller blind repair man on the Monday.  A few hours later Mariann turned up for her fleece, which she left in my car the week before after she ran for her bus in Gödöllő. She also sat down with me, trying to do some work on the computer and GPS to show me how to download caches onto my GPS and also tried to do the same for maps.  This one proved a bit difficult, so I think I will have to pop up to Mariann's place in Budakeszi some time to finish off the session.

Gorgeous bush in autumn splendour

Another lovely riot of colours

And then came our 5-day outing to Badacsonyőrs for geocaching. It started brilliantly, with quite a few caches gathered, which included some hiking ones, me climbing up to tops of large hills to see out of a variety of look-out towers. However, as we arrived at the B&B we were told that there is no such thing as our booking, so in spite of her assurances, the owner of the place had done the dirty on us again.  In the summer I could understand, but this time it was criminal to do this to us. She offered an alternative in Tapolca and being late, getting dark and both of us being tired and hungry, we accepted.

First of many lookout towers on this trip

The place was an absolute dump. Large house with 1 bathroom for everyone, dreadful state of some of the walls and floors, no soap, no towels etc., etc. We both treated it as a joke, which was a very successful strategy. The only saving grace of the place was its ridiculously cheap price, although I would have much preferred having to pay more and staying in a decent B&B. This was now the second time this had happened to us by the Balaton, and we decided that we would not come back too soon.

The five days of geocaching had plenty of highlights and a very few low lights. The countryside was persistently gorgeous, scenic, photogenic and generally very pleasant indeed. The weather was mostly good, although towards the end we had some rain. We found a reasonable Italian restaurant in Tapolca and ate there most evenings. We realised that while the B&B was a dump, its location was much better suited to the trips I planned, as it was totally central to them all. We were caching first near the lake, later we ventured further afield into Zala County and en route home into Somogy.

Another lookout tower

As most of them were multi-caches plus my week knee, the total ended up as 28, which is not high for 5 days, but this time we concentrated on quality, rather than quantity. Churches and chapels dominated again, but we had a mill (albeit closed), then plenty of mountain top look-out towers, some remnants of old, now closed, railways, memorial houses and museums, and one very special town where I climbed three hills, the last one being the biggest. The views were generally to kill for, both North inland towards the mountains and South towards the lake.

Lake view from one of the lookout towers

One day we even visited Robert, whom we have not seen since we had him over for dinner months ago. We had a lovely chat with him and he insisted that the next time we are in the area, we should stay with him and not risk the dreadful B&B experience again. We might take him up on his kind offer and I think the best would be to try to tag him onto our next visit to Pityu, who is also very near. We'll see!

Balatongyörök church

On Friday we came home and today we celebrated Xander's 6th birthday. I haven't spoken with him, but Roy managed a short Messenger chat wit him.  We are also getting ready to vote in the Council Elections tomorrow (Roy in town, I in the village), after which I will have to come back to town for the long awaited ultrasound examination of my knees that had to be postponed last time.

One of many pretty views from high up

Long horn cattle in the Kali basin

Strange statues on a small hill by the Kornyi lake

Dramatic lake picture

A picturesque pine tree

The chateau in Zalaszentgrót

Ac classicistic artist's studio somewhere on our travels

Pretty chapel surrounded by vineyards

Another handsome chapel up some hill

XIIIth century cemetery chapel in Kehida-Kustány

Ruined church in Zalaszentgrót

Our last lookout tower

One of dozens of roadside crosses we saw

Computer, Rosa, moving caches, apple juice, lunch guests and a full day of geocaching

With my knee ultrasound having been postponed by 3 weeks, we got on with other things to do in town. I have realised that the money in the bank was depleted very quickly, so I had to go and put some more in to cover the bills. Having done that I went and fetched my new computer which has been put together before we went to the harvest, but we had no time to fetch it then.

Busy

My desk minus computer

Prior to that we rearranged the top of the landing to have space for both of us having a desktop machine. I have taken Roy's space facing the front door and he moved to the back of the landing by the boxroom. Amazingly this provided so much space in the middle that the whole area started looking much bigger than before.

We also realised that this being a desktop computer, there are no speakers, camera, keyboard, mouse and network card with it. So we went out on Wednesday to get all these and managed to add about another £100 to the price. But, just before that, on Tuesday, I attended a private clinic for an abdominal ultrasound and I am glad to report that nothing too untoward was found. Apparently I do have a small cyst on my liver, but the doctor said that that is nothing to worry about.

At the Blood Bank

The next exciting event was my visit to the Blood Bank. I am too sickly and old to give blood any more, but my very very good friend Feri had offered that I could go with him when he next gives blood and then I can, as his companion, log the blood donor geocache, which is behind the front desk at the centre. This is what we did and I was really pleased that I could go. With my currently still dodgy knee, my caching activities have been severely curtailed, so any chance to get the odd point, is most welcome. I also had to go to the hairdresser this week, as my head started to resemble an untidy haystack.

Salmon on toast, radish, kohlrabi and Dreher Gold

And then we started putting together the new computer with its monitor, keyboard, mouse, WiFi stick and headphone, which was fine. I started using it and its speed was impressive. Just as I was enjoying myself by my lovely new table and shelf unit on the landing, the computer cut out, but came back of its own accord straight away. Not a good sign, I thought, but at least it corrected itself automatically, so all was well again.

Hot feta salad with champagne

However, after it had done it another three times I was getting a bit concerned. I rang Szabolcs, who built it and impressed on him the seriousness of the situation, so he came out the following day to fix it. As it happened, once he arrived, needless to say the computer would not oblige us with doing it again in front of him. So finally, he offered to take it back and run it as a long test to see if he can fathom what's going on. I accepted, so I immediately lost my brand new computer. Brrrr!!!

A glorious pink

Fortunately, we were planning to spend the next week in Bér, so we were not going to miss it, therefore I thought no more about it. This one day delay, caused us to arrive in Bér on Friday and our meeting with Rosa, whose yoga retreat apparently went extremely well. The people were very nice, they loved the Bunkhouse and Rosa herself was very pleased with everything.  She cleaned up after the group very well and all was safe.

One of my usual red beauties

The bombshell hit when suddenly she was on the verge of tears and admitted that her relationship with Barnabás is over. Apparently he is abusive, including physical abuse. He had beaten her up several times, accused her of infidelity and was very cold and distant for a good while now. I personally liked Barnabás, he was a good worker, polite and very friendly.  However, I know from previous experience that abuse is almost always totally hidden and outsiders very often have not an inkling that it is going on.

Roy's birthday present

We tried to cheer her up, she got quite a lot of it off her chest and eventually fortified by a gallon of must from Pityu in a container, she left reasonably settled. I was somewhat concerned how much was she up to driving, as coming over to us she drove straight into her own fence and damaged the corner light.  I have tried to ring her without success, it seems to go to voicemail all the time. I hope she is OK, I'll keep on trying, or perhaps send an SMS.

Apple juice production

On Friday the other notable event was Roy's 78th birthday. His main present was a press, primarily for grapes, but apples and other fruits as well. Ultimately, I think he wants to learn how to make cider, but in the meantime we restricted ourselves to making apple juice.  Considering that it was pressed from very sharp, sour and partly unripe apples, I was amazed to find that the juice was really sweet. We pressed about a litre and drank all of it very quickly.

Glass and a half of freshly pressed apple juice

The birthday meal was our favourite hot salad with brown fusilli, cocktail tomatoes, feta cheese, olive oil, freshly squeezed orange juice and fresh basil. This is a dish we will never tire of, it's that delicious. It was all washed down with lovely demisec Törley champagne which was also a surprise. I don't normally like Törley or anything other than dry, but this was refreshing and just as alcoholic as I like it.

Memorial board for a young biker who died at 20

We were staying put over the weekend and most of the following week, in order to rest my knee and catch up with things in Bér. However, totally unplanned things happened, which, for once, were very pleasant. First of all, as I can hardly go geocaching due to my dodgy knee, somebody brought a moving cache and hid it 5 minutes away from the house.  This has happened before (although not too often), but almost always at times when we were in town.

An old well that has been here for nearly 500 years

My other problem is that I don't normally pay too much attention to my telephone and it can beep away like mad and I don't have a look what the message or e-mail was about. Most of the time it is about moving caches, but I tend to miss them, even when they are close, as I don't look at the message early enough. This was on the cards again, but while talking to Mariann on the phone, discussing our planned geocaching trip on Tuesday next, she happened to mention that somebody placed that moving cache very close to us. I almost slammed the phone down in my hurry to get there before somebody else has snazzled it.

Beautiful reservoir, now a fishing lake

It was still there, even though they hid it it on the hillside where one of my own caches has disappeared three times. I was over the moon and was only sad about the couple that put it there, not calling for a coffee and a chat. So, when István called back, seeing that I rang him and he didn't hear it at the time, I told him off for not calling in person. So guess what he did on Sunday? Called back and told me that they are coming to see us and bringing another moving cache. I couldn't believe it, and they spent about an hour with us chatting and sipping coffee. Luki and BlackCat (their geocaching nicknames) are delightful people whose wedding I managed to miss while in France in the summer. As I clapped eyes on her I realised what was behind the rushed wedding. I think she is due in about 3 weeks, and I hope they have a lovely baby. As he was driving and so close to the birth  she no longer drinks alcohol, we gave them a litre and a half of the must to drink later at home.

A romantic, neglected lake

While fetching the second cache, I ran into our Dutch friends taking a walk and invited them to lunch on Monday. They were in the village during my holiday in France and Italy, so I haven't seen them for nearly six months. They accepted and Roy was also very pleased when I told them about it. As we overbought on the food front (as we usually do), that was also nice to make a big meal with a sweet course and entertain some lovely people.

Bull-lake, the most beautiful of the three

Nicely framed shot from the lake side

The weather has gone summery again, and while the nights are now longer and colder, during the day it is always beautifully warm. We laid the table in the pavilion and had a lovely meal, drinks and a long chat al fresco with some gorgeous pople we always hit it off with. The three of them had roast chicken and I had liver. We had quite a quantity of must and finished with apple crumble.

On Sunday there was yet another Grand Prix, the Russian one in Baku, which is not normally known for exciting racing, but this time it proved itself a fascinating effort, which ended up with Lewis having the luck for once, which is usually in short supply for him. The front row was Leclerc and Lewis, but Vettel managed to push Lewis down to third at the start and at one stage he was even fourth. However, there were a fair number safety car periods (both virtual and real) in the race as well as some clever tricks in stops and tyre choices. Lewis finally struggled back to second, when Vettel's engine gave up.  After that he stayed up front, even though young Leclerc was charging towards the end. A very good, exciting and enjoyable race, with the icing on the cake being Lewis's victory. May they all be like this!! Five more races are left, so the overall win is most certainly not in the bag yet.

My friend, Mariann is heading into the jungle

Other achievements on Monday include finding a blind repair map for Ros and Ian. I hope he does turn up next Monday, as promised. I also started writing my caching list for next week, when we will spend 5 days by the Balaton, enjoying the nice autumn colours and finding a few caches in the process.

Old tank stand on a disused military exercise area

And finally, the star event of the week is definitely my geocaching  trip with Mariann yesterday. This was also the first real test of my knee, as I drove all day and walked about 4km in total, with the hardest walk up a big hill at the very end. We didn't do all the caches planned, but that was fairly predictable, partly because of my knee, but also due to bad traffic in the afternoon, as well as some shitty caches which took a hell of a long time to (not) find. All in all that was a very enjoyable day, with good weather, some lovely lakes, views and the placing of the two moving caches from the weekend.

Old, disused geodesic tower

My knee is a bit sore, but I am moving quite well, so hopefully I shouldn't be too lame next week by the Balaton. I will probably only post after that trip, so a longish gap is likely to ensue.