Perhaps the most important happenings of the last week were in relation to Roy's vaccination. I have spent several days on the telephone and on the net, trying to find out information, then writing to various bodies, phoning, answering the phone etc., etc. I met with a large number of people virtually, both on the net and on the phone. Some were delightful, kind, polite, patient and trying to be helpful, others were rude, cold, officious, preaching and unpleasant. Unfortunately, the latter type dominated, but I always cheered up when talking to a nice person, but invariably they were the minions who had no knowledge, information and power to do anything. In fact, there was one lovely lady, who nearly ended up in tears, caused by the frustration that she could not help me.
The authorities seem to be mired in an unstable, illogical, hopeless computer system of their own creation, which is so ridiculous, that if you mistype one letter, your registration for the vaccine is thrown out. They are also very xenophobic, in as much as those who are unable to register for vaccination are primarily foreign. They have been promising an update of the system, so that those without a health card could also register, but this has already been going on for over two months with no end in sight.
So I decided to take the bull by the horn and went for a solution that has been around for ages, but I was reluctant to take. This is now in progress, but I am keeping it to myself, because I know that there are many chances of it going wrong. I am hopeful, but I will not write anything about it until it has happened. Will leave it at that.
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| The three main characters in Line of Duty |
BBC's Line of Duty Series 6 is still rumbling on. My VPN seems to work better (but not really well) with Microsoft Edge than it did, or rather didn't, with Firefox. It still spools a lot, but that might just be the slowness of the internet here with not enough bandwidth. Or my computer, which is also playing silly buggers sometime. I absolutely love these characters and the plots, and currently am really worried that they are going to disband the lot of them. I suspect a very corrupt very high ranking copper being the culprit and Hastings with his team will unravel it soon.
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| A winter view of the Dutch house |
There had been some correspondence between our Dutch neighbours and ourselves about their house. It seems that they had enough of their caretaker, and wanted me to get them a new one. I talked with Pali and he seemed interested, so now we are in negotiations about salary and expectations. Unfortunately, no matter how nice people are here in the village, they are living in the middle ages, in terms of paperwork and contracts or anything like that. I hope he takes it on, as the Dutch could not have a more capable guy than Pali. He is pretty honest and reasonably reliable too, and I hope that finally they learn to communicate with each other, so I don't get saddled with the role of intermediary and interpreter again.
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| The so far not arrived hair strimmer |
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| The lovely rocks Anna and I plan to climb up to |
Still no sign of the hair strimmer from China. I had a notification about a couple of weeks ago that it has arrived in the country. Then they gave me the likely delivery date of between 12-20th. Nothing since. Apparently they are so used to stuff going missing, that they have already given me the date beyond which they will refund what I paid. I think that is in the first week of May, so let us hope it'll turn up before that.
My soon to be good friend from the Wonders of Cserhát FB group, Anna, has been posting quite a lot lately, and the group, where I am moderator now, has grown exponentionally lately. I would really like to meet her, so we decided that provided the weather is decent, we are having a hike, just the two of us, next Saturday, the 24th April. Hopefully I will be fully protected by then, as that is 16 days after my second jab. The forecast currently is fine for that Saturday, but there is still 10 days till then, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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| The valiant tractor driver in the back garden |
On Monday I spotted that the forecast was pretty windy and wet for this week, so I suggested to Roy that we did some more tidying and mowing in the back garden. We got the tractor out first, and did a good job together. We alternated with each other on the tractor, and later Roy finished the bit around the trees off with the ordinary mower. It was really lovely, as about an hour after we finished and put the machines back in the barn, the skies opened. It has been a bit damp, but occasionally sunny too, ever since.
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| The back garden |
The apricot tree has suffered from the cold and will have no fruit again on it this year. The other trees are hopefully all right, but I wouldn't bank on that yet, as the weather is prone to produce below zero temperatures at night and most of them are in full bloom. I think I will have to find that apricot orchard that I have once seen in the South of the country en route home from an orienteering event in the Mecsek mountains. Perhaps Google maps might help me. I can't live without home made apricot jam, after that lot two years ago. It was sensational and I must make some more.
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| Mí apricot crop in 2019 |
Finally, it now seems very likely that I will go into BP on 28th and stay two nights for the arrival of the new cable modem and some doctor's and homeopath's appolintments, as well as buying long overdue things, like a scanner, which you can only buy in town. I will leave Roy here, but hopefully I should be fully protected by then. Unfortunately, the year's medical card at the private hospital, which was available until recently, is now under review, so I might have to cancel my appointment.
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| Duna Medical private hospital |
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| An antigen fast test |
I will need an antigen test as well, but not if the other one has to be cancelled. I will leave that until later, when I have to go again. Until Roy has been vaccinated I am not letting him go anywhere, least of all into town. I have just heard that our mobile grocer is in hospital, and while nobody says it's Covid, everybody reckons it is. Considering that all the primitive idiots in the village never wear a mask or keep their distance, I wonder what'll come of it.
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| Pásztó SPAR |
As it happens, due to our sojourn into SPAR in Pásztó last week, I didn't have to shop for a while from him, so hopefully we stayed safe. Even my own sister, who should know better, never wears a mask when coming to the mobile shop. As I made a comment lately on FB, between the greedy capitalists and their lackeys in governments, and the idiot people who do not comply with safety regs, I can't see this pandemic leaving for a good number of years yet.
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| Sample resident card |
Finally, I have had some help from a Brighton friend, who's based over here for the time being, and he has worked out how to do a submission for permanent residency under the withdrawal agreement online. Unfortunately, that's another bloody bit of aggravating bureaucracy that we will have to struggle through for Roy. He doesn't yet know whether his form submission worked or not, because confirmation is an unknown concept over here, but eventually, the net took his form, which prior to that time it didn't for about three hours. He was telling me that the user's guide said that other than the main 3 or 4 sections, the rest could be left unfilled. That made some sense, he said, because it seemed to refer to migrants and refugees, which he isn't.
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| Sample address card |
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