The seventysecond week of the pandemic

The main event of last week was the IMT World Congress that I attended remotely on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The main topic, apart from World Perspectives, was the one on The History of Philosophy. Alan had written a book on the History of Philosophy, which is coming out at the end of September, then the following year he is likely to write specifically about Marxist philosophy, of which he is a world authority. It was fascinating, as philosophy is not my forte. I like lectures during which I can learn things. It would be fantastic, if by next summer we could have a World School again that we can attend in person. I do miss them a lot, almost as much as I miss both my English and Canadian families.

 

Hamid leading off

Due to the audience at the Congress listening and watching from 5 continents, it started in the afternoon and went on until late at night in Europe. Unfortunately, there were some evenings when I couldn't stay up all the way to the end, and on Sunday, we were invited to lunch at the Mill by our Dutch friends, Heino and Manet, so I missed a bit then as well. No problems though, as everything was recorded and we can watch the bits we missed later.

 

Antonio making a few comments

The lunch at the Mill was tasty, but a bit uncomfortable. As all restrictions are now removed, there were lots of people milling round the buffet, which I didn't think too safe. Admittedly, we were outside, but under a roof and on our side there was a big piece of plastic stopping air circulation. It was OK, but I wouldn't like to do it too often.

The fishing lake at the end of my hike

I was busy sorting various problems for Heino this week, as this being their first longish visit, they had to sort out lots of problems. Our idea of recommending Pali as their new caretaker is working out splendidly. He has cut down a dead tree for them, helped in relation to some building works, organised their sewerage removal and is able to communicate somehow. This week Heino's car has been misbehaving, so I helped to find someone to sort it in Bercel and later for the oil change I recommended the local mechanic in Bér. Heino's last bill, from the electricity board, has also arrived, and he is now dealing with it.

The forestry logo

Yesterday, as the weather was quite nice and we fancied an outing, as well as we had to go to Bercel to order our fire wood for the winter, we spent about 6 hours away from home. Ordering the wood was an interesting experience, which I hope I will not have to go through ever again. The forestry, who sell the wood, obviously had not noticed that it is the 21st century nowadays. Memories of the worst days of Stalinism came to mind, suffering their procedures for the purchase of wood.

Straw bales awaiting collection

 

You first had to go to their office, which was almost impossible to find. Nobody knew the address, all explanations that we got as to the location of the office were complete nonsense, and I was just about to give up when a really nice bloke in a car, seeing my frustration, helped me out. The lady in the office listened to what I wanted and made out a paying in slip. That had to be taken to the Post Office, paid and returned. Then when I asked for delivery dates, the answer was: "no idea". This week? Oh, not likely! - she said. Then when, I asked. We only deliver on Fridays - she said. Due to our planned outings in August, we will not have a Friday until September, and even then only about 2.

As I got out of the forest

Thankfully, transport was not involved in the price, so they will have to ring in the morning before delivering, to check if we're in. That cheered me up, as if we are not in, we'll say on the phone, not today thank you, until we are. We have had deliveries in the past when they just dumped it, so we couldn't drive into our courtyard until we rustled up some strong blokes to shift it. Strong, or even weak blokes are thin on the ground nowadays, so I am glad that having to be paid for the transport will hopefully stop them delivering while we are not hat home.

The lookout tower

 

Following this unpleasant experience, came the fun bit of the day. I went and found two geocaches, which were not too far, although one of them I had to do in two bits, as it involved far too long a distance for my joints and heart. So I did the second half of that first, followed by one which was only about 2 and half miles to a lovely tall lookout tower.

Peek-a-boo

After a frustrating and annoying start to the day, I recommend anyone to go and have a hike in the forest. Quiet, peaceful, fresh air and relaxing. I loved it. Roy waited for me at the end of the hike, in one case sitting by a fishing lake, in the other actually coming with me all the way to the tower. It was really beautiful, even though the weather was  really hot againn by the time we finished.

Roy supporting the tower

The next stop was to one of our favourite little restaurants in the country, where  Roy had a gypsy roast and I had noodles with spicy vegetables. We sat outside, on our own for most of it, enjoyed the lovely breeze and the good food.

Roy and his beloved gypsy roast

Upon our return Roy faded out and slept for 2 and half hours. I suppose he did all the driving and the heat is now so intense and has been for so long, that it is getting us very tired. Global warming is here and with a vengance upon an ignorant population who denied it for too long. Many are still convinced that next year will be cool again, and I am hoping they are right, but suspect that they are wrong.

Close-up of Roy's gypsy roast

 

My Asian spiced veg. noodles

Today we had a short visit from Heino and Joop, who has arrived a couple of days ago with Margreet, to stay for a couple of weeks. Joop is a hoot, lovely sense of humour and fun to be with. We are all six of us are going to the Mill tomorrow for lunch and I have just found out that this time it is a la carte, not like last Sunday. I am really looking forward to it.

Stephen at work in the great outdoors

Today, we also had a long Messenger call from Stephen, who has put us into the picture as to how he is envisaging his immediate future, which has got a bit hectic due to the cancellation of his contract with the Brighton comedy club, Komedia. He has many many options, each of them having an up and a down side. He should decide in a few months and then we will see if we can help him. He was definitely upbeat, which was good and we are keeping our fingers crossed for him.

Meaghan, Callum and Alex eating sushi

 

As for Alex and his bunch: he wrote a few days ago that the Canadian government seems to be opening up a bit and hopefully fairly soon there will not be a need for quarantineing arrivals from Europe. At that stage he quoted that probably they will demand a PCR test, which doesn't make me feel at all pleased, but let us hope that we might be able to go in October, without that test and just with our EU digital vaccination certificate.

Callum growing up fast

Alex put up some gorgeous pictures of them eating sushi on a terrace of, presumably, a Japanese restaurant. They look so well and happy, it was a joy to see the photos. On the other hand, it highlighted how much I miss them, as well as sushi. It was always a tradition when we went ot visit them, that at least once, but usually at twice, we went to an "all you can eat" Japanese restaurant and stuffed ourselves with sushi and sashimi. Never mind, this too shall pass, as Alex keeps saying. Let's hope he is right.

Yum, yum!!!

 

Must go now as I am hungry. Next post, hopefully, next week.

The seventyfirst week of the pandemic

A week ago Roy had his second jab. It went famously well. Thankfully this time we made sure that he stayed cool and was drinking a lot. He felt a lot more confident, therefore his blood pressure didn't go up. We also did a bit of shopping, for food in SPAR and in a separate fruit and veg shop, which was quite a find. The choice and quality of stuff there was superb. Prices to match, of course, but I never mind paying over the odds if it is worth it. And it was very much so in this case.

Pásztó Outpatient Clinic

I also bought some stationery stuff, like pens and en route home we popped into our favourite hardware shop in Palotás and bought some more fly traps and another fly screen for the other door. Those dangly stirps seem to keep all but the most demented flies out of indoors. Talking of fly screens, Roy suddenly livened up and had a go at making another two screens: one for the lounge where he sleeps nowadays, and one for the kitchen. It really made quite a difference to be able to keep three windows open overnight.

The masterpiece

It was the weekend of the British GP and I was still boycotting the F1 races, in the vain hope that if I don't watch, Lewis will do well. It didn't work the last time, but it did this time. He and Verstappen collided after only half a lap, but while Verstappen had to retire, Lewis survived it. He did get a 10 seconds penalty for causing an accident, but still won it. He is now only about 6 or 7 points behind Verstappen, but with this happening, the rest of the season will be a true grudge match right through, I think.

The watermill at Bér

On Monday morning András Trenyik arrived to maintain and clean the big pottery stove. He said it was quite clean inside, but the tar is still of some concern inside the stove and in the chimney. He said that we have to do something about the tar, as it might cause a chimney fire, which is very dangerous. He advised to get some stuff, that you can spread over hot embers and that would clean up the chimney. Hopefully it is not smelly, or I will be moving out.

The stove after cleaning

On Monday early afternoon our visitors arrived. Feri, Brigi and Mira, the Akita cross, were our very first overnight visitors for nearly two years. We have been inviting them for quite a while, but with one thing and another it hasn't happened until this week. Also, Karesz, my other geocaching friend finally managed to get round to organising our Mátra hike, but I'll report about that later. At the end of the afternoon I took them caching in Bér. We found 2 of the 3 parts of my 3-parter multicache, as well as the one at the mill.

Mira, the Akita cross

As the Mátra is not far from us, Feri, Brigi and Mira came to stay on the Monday and then we went together from here on the Tuesday. The hike was superb and while it was jolly exhausting, we all enjoyed it. 

Mira waiting for Feri...

...to come back from this mountain

It was an enormously long hike, which we had some help with, or we would never have made it. Karcsi, who stayed in the area, got his B&B lady rustle up a forester, with a massive Toyota Hilux pickup to take us up to the ridge, saving us lots of kilometres and height climb. In all honesty, we would never have made it without that help.

Views to the North

The forester, who was the lady’s uncle, was an absolutely lovely bloke. We could hardly parted with him after he dropped us, he was that chatty, friendly and helpful to us. But eventually we got going by about 9am. Karcsi and Feri first climbed a small mountain for some parts of multi-caches, that Brigi, myself and Mira, the dog, didn’t fancy. Good job we did that, as it was a hellishly steep climb and descent.

Feri and Brigi on Jagus

The ridge wasn’t flat, but the ups and downs were bearable. The weather was amazingly cool, as the heatwave had started abating in the previous few days. Also, we had a breeze, being over 500m height. The first caches were still done out of the pickup, where our lovely guide took us en route to the ridge. So we bagged two springs then, but up on the ridge we were mostly finding mountain tops and another two springs as well.

A classical hanger

With breeze and dropped temperatures, we were bearing up amazingly well. The actual geocaches and the locations where they were placed got better and better as we went along. The views were spectacular in places and we saw a good few pretty wild flowers as well. The best location was the last one, where we sat on the very top of some huge great cliffs with a sheer drop of at least a hundred feet. It was breath taking, although the humidity was quite high, so it was hazy.

On the precipice at the end

At the end of the day, when we were off the hills, we also found a moving cache, which we managed to find a place to leave along the route we drove home on. The statistics were as follows: 23km, 400m of climb, 7 caches and some glorious views.

Feri's drone

On Wednesday we first played a bit in the garden with Feri's drone. It was a fantastic little gadget and it took beautiful pictures and video. We had lunch at home and then went on an outing to Buják to do a spot of caching. I have found both of these caches around 10 years before, but currently they were in comopletely different places. I happened to find both, before the two of them, which was surprising, as I am not usuallly that quick. Although these were places I have been to many times before, I enjoyed them all over again, especially as I was with good friends.

 

The calvary

The 2 Buják caches were the stages of the cross and the castle ruins. Especially the latter, they enjoyed tremendously. The ruins are really overgrown, and that gives them an adventurous, spooky character. They loved it there and we were quie late getting home. We said good-bye there, as we came home to Bér and they went back to BP to their home.

The calvary chapel

Today we rested, especially me, as my joints had a jolly good battering over the last two days. I am trying to catch up with messages, e-mails, FB and other related matters. It is how much stuff piles up when you don't deal with them straight away. We only had the visitors for 3 days, but it seemed I have not looked at my computer for 3 weeks.

Two bits of ruined wall at Buják castle

Today my vitamins, supplements, and dried fruits and nuts have arrived by courier. It was quick, as I didn't order them until Monday. Their website was up the creek over the weekend, so I had to wait until Monday, to complain that the system cheated me out of about £7 on the bonus points. They put it right manually and delivered them today.

Brigi in the castle

Now we have the job of trecking down this KONIX stuff that is supposed to clean the inside of the stove and the chimney of tar. I found some on the internet, but the delivery is very expensive. I hink we will find a hardware shop, a DIY shop, a farm shop or a building material shop, they might have it. We will not be heating the stove for at least the next 3 or 4 months, so we have plenty of time.

The way home

Must finish now as I am falling off the chair fast asleep. Next post next week.

The seventieth week of the pandemic

In order to put my weekly blog posts back on track, this week's offering is a bit soon after the last, but Wednesday being the regular day of posting, here it goes.

Sooty is guarding my roses

There were roughly about three happenings that can be mentioned in the last three days:

1. Heino and Manet's problem with their utility bills has occupied us a bit, trying to help them out;

2. A lovely concert that I watched online on Monday night;

3. And my delightful birthday celebrations which were most unexpected, and therefore that much more enjoyed.

Gas bill comes from this lot

Water bill from this lot

There were only three bills, one of which (the gas one) has already been sorted. Water and electricity were a challenge, but not impossible to solve. The Water Board is thankfully local, and Heino went there last July when they managed to sort it. Unfortunately, what was not sorted, was the facility of receiving the bills by e-mail. We tried a few times, but finally we managed to register Heino via dijnet.hu and from now on he'll get the bills in an e-mail and can pay them from the Netherlands.

Electricity bill from this lot

 

The electricity bills was a harder nut to crack. All the required documents have been sent twice already, once last November and then were repeated in January or February this year. No response ever since, so it really needed sorting. The biggest bit of luck that we all had was that I have friends who work for the Electricity Board. Heino sent me all the e-mails that were sent months ago and I forwarded them to my friend. Miracles do happen: she went to see a colleague, who found that the meter is already in Heino's name, but they didn't bother to send him bills, because they reckoned that being a foreigner, he wouldn't use much, so it wasn't worth it. Any of you out there, who have ever had a doubt about this being a crazy country, now they can be sure it is.

Heino and me doing paperwork

My friend offered me a chance for Heino having a bill, she said that if I pop over and read the meter, she would pass it onto the billing department and Heino would receive a bill soon. This will still be a paper one, but once you have a paper one with all the personal customer ID and other numbers, he can register online or use the app for his smart phone, to ask for electronic bills. Hooraaaayyyyy! Stuff sorted, I feel good!!

Andrea Vigh (harp) and Béla Drahos (flute)

 

The concert on Monday evening was one of those free ones that I get in compensation for all my concerts that have been cancelled due to the pandemic. This time it was put on in the Törley Salon, which, I think, is situated in champagne magnate József Törley's old villa in South Buda. A harpist and a flutist played, sometimes solo, sometimes together and it was delightful.

Andrea Vigh the harpist

And then the main event of the week, my 73rd birthday, happened on Tuesday. It started with breakfast in bed and a bunch of red roses. Then Heino came over to sort some bills and I offered to show him round the "estate". Manet came over to join us, and the three of us walked about in the garden and the three buildings. I also had a most unexpected set of presents from Heino and Manet. The 2020 Booker Prize winner novel from Douglas Stuart: Shuggie Bain, a bar of 70% dark chocolate (my absolute favourite) and a lovely fire lily, which is still alive in the vase with my rose.

Muggins, Heino and Manet

At the end we made sure that we opened the bottle of champagne we planned to toast my birthday with, and it was so nice to sit outside in the gazebo, in the slight breeze that we also had some cheese and biscuits. Heino and Manet made my birthday special. We had some company, which we have been short of for over a year, and it was a joy to get to know them. I am absolutely sure we will be good friends and I do hope that the pandemic will allow them to come more often than just once a year.

Heino, Manet and Roy

Tomorrow we are off to Pásztó, as Roy has his second jab, we will also have to do some food shopping in SPAR and buy a few other bits and pieces. I do hope that Roy's blood pressure will not jump again, like last time, but hopefully we will park closer this time, so he won't have to walk a long way in that heat.

Next post hopefully on next Wednesday and the same day from then on.

The sixtynineth week of the pandemic

Apologies for the delay, but this had been a rather busy, sometimes even hectic week and I totally forgot. Today is Sunday, so this post is 4 days late, but at least today I have practically nothing else to do, so I  can do it at my leisure.

Roy doing tree pruning

In the last 10 days I had trips to BP again, mostly for medical appointments, there was a Grand Prix, the second one in Austria, our Dutch neighbours and friends have arrived, we organised a meeting with Pali for them, who is probably going to be their caretaker from September onwards, Stephen had celebrated his 48th birthday, I prepared 2 new geocaches, had written their web pages and placed them, saw my hygienist, published my 2 new geocaches and had a gorgeous big hike with Anna. As you can see, I was no slouch in the last 10 days, and here come the details.

Max Verstappen heading for victory in 2021

I decided not to watch the Grand Prix, as I am so depressed about what is happening to poor Lewis. Something is not quite right with both the car and him. Does it have something to do with his Covid from last year? Does it simply mean that he is not used to a car that can't be fixed? Or simply there is no way anyone can stay as superbly brilliant, as he had been since he was a teenager, forever? Once or twice in the past I couldn't make a GP and he suddenly started doing well. So, I tried that this time, but no go - he started 4th, and finished 4th, while Verstappen won and is now 32 points ahead of him overall. (sniff, sniff!!) 

Nice vista in the back garden

Heino and Manet from the Netherlands have arrived on Sunday. They also had her daughter with them, but I haven't met her. The other two have been delightful, as I suspected they would be. I tried to help them with getting them a new caretaker and sorting their problems with their utility bills. We all had a meeting on Wednesday, when they agreed salaries, requirements and it looks as if Pali is happy. Apparently, since then he appeared with two demijons of his own wine as a present, so things are OK with them.

Close-up of the pavilion

 

While Manet went off into Budapest with her daughter, Heino came over to use our internet and we sorted the utility bills. He is already paying the gas bill via bank transfer and I am in the process of sorting the water and electricity bills to arrive by e-mail, rather than post, so he should be able to pay it online directly from home. 

Our present from Heino and Manet

 

They were really lovely and brought us a really Dutch present of a cheeseboard, 2 big chunks of cheese, some Melba toast, some herbs, a big piece of sausage and 2 little jars of what looks like chutney. We haven't yet tried them, as we are currently drowning in cheese. Typical Murphy, that we have extra cheese when we have the fridge and freezer laden with the stuff.

Welsh mature Cheddar from Lidl

This happened due to a new item somebody posted on one of my expat groups on Facebook. Apparently, Lidl is having a special week of having 1kg packages of Cheddar for £5 and while in BP I went and bought 4 kilos. 3 are in the freezer and Roy is getting through the first kilo fast. On top of those, now we have two fair size chunks of Dutch cheese, plus my Grana Padano, which I also bought en route home from BP, along with two packs of feta, as nobody stocks it around here. We will definitely look like cheese soon.

Stephen training on the seafront

On the 2nd July Stephen became 48 years old. It makes me feel very old writing that. Thankfully, he doesn't look it, he still lives at a 100 miles an hour and is happy with it. Work is picking up with the opening up in the UK, although I have my worries about that. He has not mentioned his headaches lately, so perhaps they are getting better, but he is good with stuff like that and I am keeping my fingers crossed that all symptoms of his concussion should be gone soon.

The lovely smiley face of my dentist

I also saw my hygienist in BP on Monday. She was very kind about my teeth, but I know they were in a dreadful state. Her bill was £60, which is a reflection of how much she had to work on them. I went 4 months late, a full 10 months since the last visit, so they were rather bad, whatever she said. The receptionist also told me a bit of extremely bad news. Our dentist, Vivien, is leaving at the end of the summer, as she is going to Italy, presumably to work there. I made an appointment for both of us in August, as we need a dentist urgently, but also to say good-bye. Why is it, that every time I find someone I really like and can trust, they disappear? (sniff, sniff!!)

Muggins on the big rock

The final, and I must admit the best, topic is about my new geocaches and the hike to place them. The last time I put out a new cache of my own was in March. That has proved very popular, nearly a 100 people have found it since then and most of the comments are positive. I was thinking of putting out another two, as I have had some ideas from hiking magazines and my "Wonderful Cserhát" group on FB. One was to some interesting large rocks, which have a legend to go with them, the other one to some weird geological extrusions, not far from the first one. Both are in Nógrád, so not too far from us. 

The Highwaymen's table rock

I started gathering the photos, data etc, and had written the cache pages. I submitted them for moderation and they have gone through with no bother. As both included a good few kilometres of hiking, I  couldn't really go on my own, so Anna, my new friend, whom I have been keeping in touch with, but have not seen for over 2 months, agreed to come with me. Due to the heatwave I was trying to put it off, but the weather just got hotter and hotter, so we decided to have a go last Thursday.

My hiking friend Anna

We were supposed to start at 7am, to avoid the worst of the heat, but she was about half an hour late as well as I was pretty slow on the trail. Additionally, she lost her map, went back to look for it and still didn't find it. That took another 20 minutes or so, making us later and later. The temperature reached 36 degrees Celsius by the afternoon, so I was suffering. Still, we took plenty of water and we survived it, she with no bother, me with some struggles.

One of the gorgeous views on our hike

The first location was about 2 miles from the car, up a not too steep, but relentlessly uphill location, on the ridge of a mountain. We made one cock-up with the navigation, which was mostly my fault. Where the map had shown a 90 degree turn to the left, there was a clear waymark pointing into an overgrown meadow through an open gate.  So we went. On our way back we realised that the sign was only there, because whoever was told to paint it, couldn't find a tree in the right place. Should we have gone on 20 yards, the path properly turned left there. Brrrrrrrr!!

Another lovely set of views on our hike

The struggle through the meadow, including fighting some jungle at the end, was fun, although it managed to give us some nasty scratches and bites, as well as some more delays. The significance of the area where we were putting the cache, consisted of some amazing large andesite rocks. This is a very volcanic area, but these rocks looked as if an angry giant had lost its temper and had thrown them about with abandon. The most famous one had an absolutely flat top, like somebody had cut it like it. As it looks like a table top, it is called the "Highwaymen's Table".

Sisa Pista, the leader of the highwaymen

The legend goes that in the 19th century, many local highwaymen used to meet there, to dicuss and organise their raids from there. The thick forest offered good cover and they could scatter in all directions, should the military discover their hideout. Whether this is true or not, the place is unique enough to warrant a hike to it. Especially, as right underneath where we placed the cache, Anna discovered a rock wall, which was either natural, or an old quarry abandoned decades ago, that had some unique rocks in it.

Row of wine cellars in the village

Anna has a special interest in geology and her knowledge is far superior to mine in this field. She managed to find some circular rock shapes and actual balls, which erode in a circular manner, like an onion, layer by layer. Fascinating stuff, I thought, although I have no idea what these are called in English. On return to the car, we had our sandwiches, had lots of drink again and moved on.

Circular erosion on a piece of rock

The next cache to be placed was about 6 miles away, so we motored across and started walking on an unmarked path to it, which ran above it on the ridge. Great mistake! There was no way to get down to it from there, although we finally managed it through thorny, thick and very hostile scrub/forest, on an animal track, which steep down, very rocky and gave us both plenty more scratches and bites on our legs and arms.

Sylvan selfie

The significant site where we were heading to is hardly known, not even in the nearby village where we started from. I have a geologist friend, who managed to send me some information about them, which explained it reasonably well. They are rocky extrusions, which are sandstone, but don't look like sandstone. They were formed at the bottom of the Pannon Sea, some 19 to 23 million years ago. Once the sea subsided, some of the sand came under pressure and some biological/geological/chemical processes calcified some of it, that consequently became very hard. Over the millenia, erosion got rid of the softer stuff around them, so now they are visible and look weird indeed.

Weird extrusions in the mountainside

Some look like benches, others like mushrooms, there are few that look like sharks from underneath, one or two look like truncheons, etc., etc. After we emerged from the jungle above them, they were so spectacular that we forgot the agony of getting to them. By then, time was well into the afternoon with well over 30 degrees Celsius, so neither of us had the time, energy and inclination to scamper over them too much. Not to mention, that it would be rather irresponsible anyway, due to causing further erosion and damaging them.

Shark rock

 

So we hid the cache, took a good few photographs and went back to the car another way. They were both published yesterday and my good frind, VP, was the first finder at both of them. He told me of another approach possibility, which I will investigae when the heatwave's gone and I can go back there without heat exhaustion. I was very close to it on our way back to the car, but made it fortunately.

Rocks surrounded by juniper

I hope Anna didn't get too fed up with me having to sit down frequently, especially after we ran out of water. The last 2km was agony, especially that there was a 50m climb in it, so perhaps I will approach it in a different way the next time I am there. Now I have to finish. I hope you are all OK out there and the next post should be, hopefully next Wednesday, or perhaps a day or two later.💓