Fortyseventh week of the pandemic

Interesting week, with some days totally uneventful, others having some fun in them. After FedEx had taken the massive cube full of Alex's books, I started tracking its progres towards Montreal. It first went to Vienna by road probably, although it didn't say. Then it proceeded to Paris, which, in all likelyhood, was by air. It sat there for quite a few days, until in the early hours of last Saturday it landed in Memphis, Tennessee. That's the last we heard of it, but yesterday, on the phone, Alex told me that he had a phonecall which asked him to send $26 for customs. Hopefully, that is the levy of customs duty, as he would have got away with it lightly, should that be the case. On the other hand, it could just be a handling charge, or US customs, not Canadian, but it will hopefully be all revealed soon. FedEx gave the estimated arrival date as 8th February, that's next Monday. I hope it arrives in one piece and with no damaged books.

The public well in front of our house

In the last week or so we had deliveries of my vitamins and my teas, both of which was ordered online. There is also another delivery that I am waiting for, and that is the mystery present that Alex send nearly 3 weeks ago, estimated date of delivery: 5th February. He wouldn't tell me what it is, so I do hope that one turns up soon.

The corridor towards the road

Today we are also awaiting my next 3months' of medication, being delivered - hopefully - by Kati, the village social worker. I suppose I could go to the surgery myself for the prescriptions and to the pharmacy for the meds, but apparently it is her job to look after the oldies, so why not? She is very nice and I like her a lot.

Alex and his comrades are organising their usuall big event at this time of the year, the Montreal Marxist Winter School on 13-15 February. It is going to be a big Zoom event and I have just registered and bought my ticket to it. Unfortunately, as the attendees are from all corners of the world, and it is very difficult to find times that suit everybody, I will probably miss the afternoon sessions, as they are far too late for me over here. Never mind, they are all recorded and will be available online after the event, so I'll watch them then. Alex is one of the speakers, the topic of which is the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Communist Party of Canada. This is a topic I know zilch of, so apart from the pleasure of watching Alex, I will probably learn quite a lot.

I am also still reading Reginald Hill's brilliant thrillers and having finished Death's Jest-Book amd now in the middle of Good Morning, MIDNIGHT. Both exciting and very enjoyable and extremely different. The only thing that is not different in any book is the wit, sarcasm, humour, good storylines and big climax at the end. They all have those, and I can't wait to finish this one as well.

Basilica of our Lady of Assumption

I have left the star event of this last week to the last. On Monday morning the sun shone like it does in summer. OK, it was a bit colder, but the phsychological effect was the same. We are not nearly as physically active as we should be, so I had a go at Roy, suggesting that we went out. I found 2 geocaches within 35 or so minutes' drive away, and finally he agreed. Didn't look very happy about it, but I suspected, (based on past experience), that he would start enjoying it once we are there.

Bridge to the well of the Virgin Mary

 

Well, I don't think he looked too happy, even after we arrived at Holy Well Pilgrimage Centre, but he shocked me by offering to come with me. He just usually goes to sleep in the car and I have to wake him up when I get back. So, this time we got going together and the beginning was quite interesting for him, as he has not been there before. I have been 2 or 3 times, hiking and geocaching in and around the pilgrims' centre. The Virgin Mary cult is strong at this place and you know how popular it is by looking at the size of the car park. The other two caches, one at the holy wells and the other at the hermits' caves I have already found years ago.

The well

The exciting bit came after the sight seeing, when slowly and surely we plodded uphill on the path and suddenly it became covered in ice everywhere. Thankfully, we could just about find a bit of non-iced up forest on the edges of the path, so we escaped unhurt, which was a miracle. The first cache was easily found under a pine tree, and after that we got going towards the second one.

Big boulder

Now, that was a tougher nut to crack, and I was really pleased when after small amount climbing Roy suggested that he would stop, take the rucksack from me and leaning on a big tree wait for me to get back. The air was quite cold in the forest, where the sun didn't get to, but I hoped that I would get back reasonably quickly. I don't think I was more than 20 minutes and he seemed very happy.

My hero

The second cache was put there to show up a steep sided valley, which was a bit like a ravine. Thankfully, I read the comments previous cachers left online, and as all those suggested that near the box the GPS is pointing in the wrong direction, I stayed on the left and found it easily. The valley/ravine was very pretty, there were also large rocks and boulders scattered around.

The sun was setting by the time we got back

We got home about quarter past 2, Roy quickly threw together a prawn stir fry, which was delicious, so all in all that was a lovely day.