Fiftysixth week of the pandemic

Since I last posted we have been quite busy, both outside and inside. Last Wednesday I discovered a delightful movie on Netflix, which gave me a couple of hours of pleasure. The Hundred-Foot Journey  starred Helen Mirren and a selection of English, American, French and Asian actors. It was utterly charming, light, funny, but aware of serious issues in society today, all wrapped up into a sweet love story. Just what I needed.

Charlotte Le Bon

As the weather improved considerably, we went out for some geocaching on April Fools Day. We went East, to pick up 4 caches that over the years somehow got left out from my trips into that region.

Wine cellar

We found a two-parter geocache at the foot of the Mátra mountains. It is an excellent wine region, and the world famous Bull's Blood is produced there. This house has been built in front of the wine cellar, which is dug into the hillside. They are really nice, but unfortunately, due to the pandemic they were not open. Although later we did see one place where they were selling wine, but only for taking away and only white. Roy is a devoted fan of red wine, so no purchase was made.

This is a spring which produces good, drinkable water

After visiting the wine cellars, I walked up the mountain to an abandoned andesite quarry for the second part. The views were lovely and the Mátra in the background impressive.

The abandoned quarry

 

The next cache was a bit of a hassle, as it had 4 parts and at least  2 of them we couldn't find. Still, it was in a pretty village and near a delightful reservoir, which is used as a fishing lake.

The fishing lake

En route home we stopped to do some food shopping, which was useful as we are running out of food at the moment. It is a really long time since we last went to Tesco and Lidl, but if necessary we can exist on just shopping locally, which is what we are doing. The daily death figures are still over 300, which is the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, so we are staying put as much as we can.

I also carried on watching some TV online, once I managed to remember which browser to use. Having used one particular one for years, which is now no use, it is hard to remember the other one. Line of Duty is getting exciting, while Unforgotten has just finished and they have written Nicola Walker out, which is a shame.

Wild garlic

At home we have got on with some gardening, which was much overdue. We did a bit more of mowing to get rid of some old walnut leaves at the back. I also cleared the wild garlic patch, so they can spread. Once they are big enough, I'll pick some for a salad. They are really delicious. Roy also pruned some of the overgrown bushes at the back of the garden and we burnt the cuttings, along with the cut grass and walnut leaves.

Roy burning the cuttings

On another nice sunny day we did some ladder work, cutting off a part-broken branch on the gypsy plum tree and replacing one broken tile on the Farmhouse roof. Unfortunately the weather has now turned very cold, so it is very likely that we will lose our apricot crop, like last year.  It is seriously aggravating to have this happen two years in a row. If the frost was last year, the blossom was not out then yet, if it would be next week, perhaps they would have been fertilised by then and again the frost would not bother them. So, it comes slap bang in the middle of the blossoming, and unfortunately, apricot blossom is very delicate and prone to frost damage. 

The local roofer at work

Earlier in the week, while it was still warm, we also put up the lovely steel hawk that Alex sent from Canada. It didn't need screwed in, as we could wedge it between battens and now it is guarding the pavilion from nasty little birdies that foul up our table and benches in the pavilion. I hope it'll work, as that is very annoying.

The hawk on top of the pavilion

On that day we also had our first al fresco lunch in 2021. The pavilion was out of the wind and the sun shone beautifully. We had Roy's home made vegetable soup, followed by his apple crumble. The latter was made with our Jonagold apples, yum, yum!! 

Lunch in the pavilion

Then today we went to Pásztó Hospital for me to get the second Pfizer jab. It was straightforward, like last time and I was in and out in about 45 minutes, including the compulsory 30 minutes waiting for some adverse reaction. After that we went shopping and I found a brilliant SPAR in Pásztó which had almost everything we love. I spent about £140, so hopefully will not have to go for a while. After that, we will probably shop there from now on.

Part of our shopping today

The only problem now is to get Roy vaccinated as soon as possible. I have just talked to both our family doctor and his wife, who is his assistant. Both said that they have not yet seen Roy's name on the list. The usual chaos, which is THE MOST AUTHENTIC HUNGARIKUM there is, is raging as usual. I have tried to ring the corona virus information line, but no chance to get through during the day. I will try in the middle of the night and see how it goes.

After a couple of long conversation with Eszter, the surgery assistant and my friend Haggis, I did three more things today:

1. I checked if Roy was on the list of people still waiting to be vaccinated, and he wasn't. They gave an e-mail address at the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office, so I wrote to them, laying out the problem and asking if they could help. (I am not holding my breath!)

A full fridge

2. After Haggis suggested it, I registered Roy again for vaccination, but this time with his Budapest address. When I filled out his registration about 5 weeks ago, I put the village address, as I thought that would be sensible. We are here, he registered with the family doctor here, and, consequently he would like to be vaccinated here. Not in Budapest, where he normally lives. But then I realised that the reason why he is probably not on any list, is because once you register they check your details. And if there is something not right, instead of sending you an e-mail pointing out what the problem is, they just discard it. Yet another characteristic Hungarian custom. I would laugh if it wasn't so aggravating at the moment.

Obiviously, should they call him for vaccination in BP, he couldn't have it, as while this murderous third wave is decimating the population, I wouldn't take him anywhere near BP if you paid me. However, I heard it from the assistant today, that it is actually quite possible to ask to be vaccinated somewhere else, provided you are on the list somewhere else and you have been called to have the vaccination there.

3. There is, however, another avenue of trying to get this sorted, and that would be ringing the coronavirus helpline, which I also did today. Needless to say I didn't get through at all. So I am going to try in the middle of the night, considering that I am a fully fledged insomniac now, that should be no problem. Last time they were lovely and desperately wanted to help me, but couldn't. Let's see if the situation is any better in their office!