Sixtieth week of the pandemic

Last week was dominated by my visit to Budapest for 3 days. I had a large number of appointments, jobs, bits of shopping etc., etc. to deal with. Obviously, unvaccinated Roy had to be left behind, so that was another first - leaving him alone for this long. En route into town I had to do all my food shopping as the day of my return, 1st May, was a national holiday, with all food shops closed. As it happens, I eventually found that the fruit and veg shop in the block was open, but all supermarkets were firmly shut.

On arrival, by some incredible miracle I managed to find a parking space quite close to the flat. Since the city suspended parking charges, it is close on impossible to find anywhere to park. I dragged all perishables into the flat to be stored in the fridge and/or freezer and then tore off to my medical appointment at the Duna Medical Centre.

The lovely lady doctor, Dr. Éva Dános, was a real lucky find. By her age she was of the generation who is caring and comes quite close to you and even puts her hands on you, which in the current climate was also miraculous. Her manner was business like but very friendly, even chatty at times and with a good sense of humour. She was very happy with my list of ailments, prepared on Word and printed for her, with the list of my medicines and suggested treatments, but we'll have to wait for the hospital to come up with the new version of the Blue Danube Card, before any consultant visits and/or investigations can proceed. The only exception was for a full blood test, which was to be done on Friday.

In the afternoon I started all the shopping that I needed to do. I seemed to squeeze about 3 weeks' worth of shopping into 3 days, so as I am typing this now, I am not entirely shure what I bought on which day. And while this rushing around was pretty exhausting, it gave me great satisfaction that at least 90% of those things on my list were done. They included ordering Roy's homeopathic magnesium, which was running out, and which is never in stock, so you have to order it; a visit to the little Co-Op store for my cornflakes, which are pretty nigh on impossible to get anywhere else; go to our favourite stationery store for bits and bobs and another shop for getting a toner cartridge for my laser printer and some photocopying. I also needed a new scanner and headphone, which I went to the West End centre for, where we usually buy these things. These were all done in the first two days, when I had time in between my appointments.

On Wednesday I had to wait in for the arrival of the technician from the cable company. UPC was taken over by Vodafone and that neccessitated a new box. I was dreading this, as in my past experience, these changes will always wreck the use of the internet, TV programs and landline telephone. Well, I am happy to report that none of this had happened. The guy was knowledgeable, kind, very friendly and efficient. He assured me that he wouldn't leave until he was sure that everything worked, wore his mask and kept away from me at all times. One enormous brownie point to Vodafone Hungary for that.

Ferenc Deák on the 20000Ft note

 I also had to go and exchange some pound sterling for Hungarian forints, as in this country there is still a big chunk of life that is impossible without ready cash. We were getting low, so I did visit our usual exchange place which seemed closed. However, as I was peering in to see why the door was ajar, the owner invited me in and I did the exchange. The rate was no better than anywhere else I have seen in the district, so that bit of advantage is perhaps now gone. I was glad to have yet another of my jobs done, so I didn't bother to look for a better rate elsewhere. As it happens, a few hours later I saw one with 2 forints better, but, to be honest, I am no longer bothered about things like that, my time and effort is more precious that money.

Fire tender in the museum

On Friday I had to go back to Duna Medical for the bloodtest, which was done very efficiently. Afterwards, I had a nice brunch in the hospital buffet, and then walked off towards Zsófi, my homeopath. It was so nice to see her and she was very pleased that my condition was good according to the Vegatest machine. We had a good chat and I made a new appointment for 3 months' time. She prescribed some more trace elelments, which she suggested I am a bit deficient in, so later I bought some chromium, zinc, manesium and selenium tablets or drops.

105 to call the Fire Brigade

On Friday afternoon I picked up the toner cartridge and the magnesium for Roy and went to buy some sourdough bread at a local bakery which makes heavenly, really tasty old fashioned bread, no too far from the flat. En route back to the flat I spotted that the Chinese food shop was open, so bought some Nan bread and giant king prawns, both frozen, so I had to rush home to put them in the freezer.

Church in Árpádföld

In the meantime I also had some maintenance issues in the flat. Thankfully, the loo was not leaking, like last time, but I had to go round again putting water down all plug holes and drains, as they have evaporated and the smell was a bit unpleasant. Thankfully, that solved the problem. Also, the freezer was a bit full of ice stuck to the ceiling of it, so it had to be defrosted. That was done and now there is an amazing lot of space in there.

Some of the semaphores

And then on 1st May, a Saturday, I made my way home, via a few new BP caches, which needed to be picked up. I started with the Fire Service Museum, which unfortunately was closed, but I could get to the cache from the outside. Must go back some time, as there were some lovely looking old engines exhibited there.

Then I drove to a nearby district, where a 3 parter multi showed us the nice buildings of that district. The next cache was the best of the day, as it showed how mad about railways and collections even Hungarians get. In a fairly small garden of a suburban home there were loads of rescued old semaphores which, had not that guy who now owns them rescued, would have just  gone on the scrapheap. I even had a little chat with him, he was such a nice bloke.

Semaphore close-up

Last cache was yet another 3 parter, showing the church and a few nice buildings in another, nearby district, after which I made it promptly home. I was so exhausted after these 3 days that had to sleep for a couple of days to get over them. There were a few things not done, like the organic supermarket, having keys cut, the Hunyadi market, and a visit to the opticians. These will get done next time, I think, because as soon as the Blue Danube Card is out again, I will need to go to the hospital quite frequently, so I can fit them in then.

Lovely old villa in Rákoshegy

Talking of caching, there was a plan to do one cache with my friend Feri, after my visit to Zsófi on Friday, but it fell by the wayside, when Brigi, Feri's wife had a phonecall to get vaccinated, so they rushed off straight away. Apparently, the government has really gone barmy over opening up for mostly football, that being the Prime Minister's mania, so they announced that just that weekend, anybody who wants a Pfizer shot can book him/herself an appointment online. In about 15 minutes the website collapsed, due to the numbers that tried to use it. So they announced, that there is no need to book an appointment, just go to your nearest vaccination point, (these are usually hospitals), and queue. Brigi had this call from a friend who works at one of these vaccination centres, they joined a mile long queue, but were plucked from it by their friend after about 10 minutes. All right for some!

Church in Rákoshegy

Once at home I had to unpack, store the food where there was space, started mowing the garden again as the dandelions were out in profusion, and had to plant out the dill and parsley I bought at the veg shop in the block. Then had to try and connect the new scanner I bought, plus recommission the printer with the new cartridge. Unfortunately, that didn't work. I have no idea what was the trouble, but we can't use that printer any more. Initially we thought that the cartridge was the wrong size, but later we noticed that the printer was flashing like mad and started getting too hot. So, £20 wasted and a need to buy a new printer. Brrrrr!!! Next time, I suppose.

Bartók memorial house

Currently the weather is nice, but there was rain on and off earlier. I had two hikes planned for this week, and unfortunately both of them have been postponed. On Friday, Marianne, Gabi and I were supposed to go hiking and caching in the Börzsöny, while on Saturday I was supposed to go hiking with Anna in the Cserhát. The first fell through as Marianne is due for her second vaccine dose on Thursday, and she is worried about the after effects, while Anna had some family emergency in another city and will have to go there on Saturday. Never mind, both have only been put off by a week, let us hope that the weather is good then.

The Bull cast

Another interesting news is that I now find that albeit intermittently, but I can watch some US programs now with my VPN, provided I use Microsoft Edge as the browser. I managed to watch one episode of Bull and nearly two of NCIS. It's gone to the "This program is currently not available" notice at the end, which hopefully is only because too many people wanted to watch it, not because it sussed my VPN. I am going to try it in a minute, let us hope it works again.

Mark Harmon as Gibbs in NCIS

Must go now, as my poor tummy thinks my throat has been cut. Time to have breakfast and I hope to post again next week!