The sixtyeighth week of the pandemic

A short week of an extreme heatwave and otherwise not much to report. It was also full of driving to and from BP, as I had lots of doctors' appointments and procedures. It had a delightful concert, which cheered me up and otherwise I was a bit down in the dumps.

Misi Boros

Misi Boros is 18 years old and has been giving recitals with world famous orchestras since he was about 8 years old. Won lots of competitions and got accepted into the special talents' class at the Music Academy at 13. And in spite of all that, he is a delightfully genuine and likeable young man, with both feet on the ground. He loves football, so he manages to live as an 18 year old, in spite of his daily 6-7 hours of piano practice.

Misi Boros (2)

His program included J. S. Bach, Chopin and Debussy. His technical ability is amazing for such a young man, but he is also beginning to play like an adult, with much emotion, insight and depth. I hope he stays true to his basic nature, never lets fame affect him, as world wide fame is sure to follow his every step in the future.

All 20 cars at the start of the Styrian GP

The concert was on Monday, before that we had the first of two Austrian GP's. Same story I'm afraid as in the last few races. Neither Lewis, nor his car are at their best. While Red Bull and Max Verstappen are in the ascendent. I have a dreadful feeling in my gut that Lewis will not win this year. I hope I'm wrong, because it would have been so nice to have him go out on a high. Winning 8 World Championships would beat Michael Schumacher's 7 and set a challenge that would be difficult to beat. Still, I haven't given up on him yet, but it is more and more looking like unattainable.

One of my glorious apricot roses

En route into town I managed to do some shopping in my favourite organic supermarket and then in Lidl. On the way back home I filled up with petrol, as after more than a year of using hardly any petrol, we are using it quite fast at the moment. In the organic shop I managed to get myself a few bottles of nut butters and very dark bitter chocolate spread. I also stocked up with washing liquid and fabric softener. Only one gallon bottle of high pH water was bought, because I couldn't carry more than that.

Pale pink

On arriving home I heard the good news from Roy that the guys from the council did the strimming in our street and let him waylay them to do our garden too. A fiver a head for an hour's work is a good wage in these parts, so it cost £10 altogether which is perfect. Currently, in the heatwave, we are having no rain at all, so the grass doesn't grow very fast. This should put the next date off by a few weeks, but I'm sure it'll have to be done a few times yet before the autumn. Unfortunately, the drought is not doing any favours for the fruit trees, which is a shame, but such is life, it can't be helped.

I had to cancel my date with a couple of large caves, into where Mariann organised a trip for the multi-cache there. I have an offer to take me down there from my friend Feri, so I might take him up on that sometime in the future, when I feel like it. He rang me quite late yesterday, but it was nice to chat to him, as he hasn't rung me nearly in a week. I think he went caching with Karesz in the meantime and wanted to keep it quiet. Silly man, I was thinking of ringing him, but then I was so hot and bothered in town with temperatures nearly 40 degrees Celsius, that I didn't. They went to two out of the four caches that I was hoping to go for myself, before the heat got to me. Great minds think alike, is my motto! 

 

The baby swallows

Back in Ber we had an interesting happening in the courtyard. We long suspected that we have a swallows' nest under the tiles in the Bunkhouse roof. Well, they must have reared a very large number of fledglings, because upwards of 20 of them did an aerial display by speed flying up and down the courtyard. Managed to photograph a few, once they had a rest on the telephone lines.

This one is growing up nicely

The Dutch are arriving this weekend, so we will have to organise a meeting with Pali. I tried to contact Laci, but  couldn't. I either never had his phone number or lost it. He is a good plumber, so perhaps he would be better, but I will exercise no opinion or preference, so that I do not get blamed when it goes wrong in the future. Laci can be unreliable.

Must finish now as I am off to BP again. Be back tomorrow hopefully. 😉