The eightyfirst week of the pandemic

This last week has been spent in BP, after we travelled into town on Wednesday. I had two medical appointments, one on Wednesday, the other on Thursday, which went off OK. On Thursday I had a haircut at the hairdressing salon situated in our own block. It was reasonably priced and the cut was very good, so I think I will go back to her in future. On Friday I had to go back to the hospital for some blood tests again, and I am happy to report that the nurse was pretty good this time. No pain, no bruise and quick flow of blood from the appropriate vein.

Roy with  his beloved Talisker

I was preparing for Roy's birthday on Monday and bought a litre bottle of Talisker, (£65), a particularly smoky and peaty malt whisky, from a specialist shop in downtown BP on behalf of Stephen and Alex, as their present. The purchase was done online and not wanting to be stuck in the flat for days waiting for the delivery, I opted for going and fetching it ourselves. Unfortunately it was not delivered to the shop in time on Saturday, so we only got it on Monday. Roy was very pleased with it, as we both love it.

On Sunday I attended the online launch of Alan Woods's new book: The History of Philosophy - a Marxist Perspective. It was an excellent introduction to the book, which I know that Alan had been writing for at least 25 years. When I was involved in providing material for his book: Reason in Revolt, back in the nineties, he told me that he wrote a bit on philosophy to go into the book, but there was no space for it any more. That was the beginning and this Sunday the launch of the book that bit became in the last 25 years. I ordered a copy of the book which is coming out in print at the end of October.

Perusing the menu in the Zila

Monday was Roy's 80th birthday, which was spent with much travelling, some eating and drinking and generally having fun. He chose to have dinner in the same restaurant where we celebrated our Golden Wedding over 18 months ago. The city is so dug up for renovation and reconstruction of underground, tram and other lines, that a usually 45 minute journey took nearly 2 hours. Still, the food and drink was that much more welcome after a trauma like that.

Pike-perch in almond batter

Beef with fried onions and an egg on top

 

I had pike perch, Roy had beef and onions and we both had a sweet, which we don't normally do. Roy had a Somlói galuska, which is like a chocolaty trifle and I had a truffle cake. I dread to think how many calories my cake had, but it was beyond delicious. Roy had beer and I stuck to my usual spritzer. That was the day we fetched his Talisker and also went to the Telenor shop to have my new phone adjusted a bit. Now, thankfully, I only have to put in the safety code number once, not after every time the screen goes dark, plus the aggravating habit of my phone contact book coming out with names in all stupid order, was also set back to normal.

Truffle torte

Somlói galuska

 

We both suffered from a great deal of indigestion for the rest of the day and the following night, which was just punishment for eating so much and even more of the stuff we shouldn't eat, but how often do you celebrate your 80th birthday? I think you can sin just now and again. 

One of the really gorgeous birthday gifts came from Sheila, in the form of a very large birthday card. Apparently, Carmella designed it using Sheila's old photo album, full of pictures of Roy at all ages. They had it printed and sent it in the post. I was hanging onto it until his birthday and it was a delightful present. Photos from top left hand corner clockwise: 1. Pam, Roy and Sheila appr. 1945, 2. Pam saying good bye to Roy, who's leaving to appear in The King and I at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, 1953, 3. Roy with a bottle of phony tadpoles at a fancy dress do in Westhill Rd. Brighton, 1946, 4. 19 year old Roy on the seafront in Brighton, 5. Roy and I at the Eden Project appr. 20 years ago, 6. Roy at St Michael's Mount in 2015, 7. Roy and Sheila in the garden of the Museum of Furniture in Budapest appr.10 years ago, 8. Roy on board Oceana early last year, 9. Roy outside 22 Petworth Rd. Brighton 1952, 10. Roy at Westhill Road, Brighton, aged 3, 11. Centre photo, Roy on the seafront in Brighton, in the paddling pool, aged 2.

Brenda Blethyn in Vera

While in town, I watched quite a lot of TV, as the speed of the internet here is so much faster that the VPN works a lot better with it. I am currently into Endeavour, Vigil and Vera. I like all of them, as they are similar in some and very different in other ways. Vigil has finished, more or less as I expected it to, Endeavour and Vera are much of the muchness, what we are used to, but very enjoyable the same time.

 

Reading books had to take a bit of back step lately, due to my eyes, but recently I picked it up again, this time re-reading a series of 4 books by Tamás Frei. His genre is a strange one, I don't think there is a word for it. They are thrillers, with real places and with hints at real people too. The historical events quoted are all real, but the main characters are fictional. This first one, which came out about 10 years ago is about the main hero's personal story and his fight to "redress the balance", as he calls it. What he means here is that while he believes that it is usually the baddies that win, he can, with his bravery and fighting ability, redress that balance in favour of the goodies. Lots of love, fighting, swashbuckling with 21st century arms and plenty of political comment. Very good entertainment, and it helps me switch off. I have already finished the first one, and will move onto the second volume when we get back to Bér.

 

Yesterday we went to the dentist, where finally things got moving a bit, mostly to do with me putting my foot down and letting the dentist know that we are not 100% satisfied with Roy's progress. Originally, I used to go with him into the treatment room to translate. Then the following few appointments, they told me that the dentist speaks English and there is no need for it. Well, that was a mistake, not because he doesn't speak English, on the contrary, he is quite proficient. The trouble is with his communication skills, in any language I suspect and Roy's propensity to misunderstand people. 

Muggins at the Zila

So, this time I marched in and told them that I am attending, so that Roy is fully informed, if there is any difficulty, I can translate and if he misunderstands anything I can put him right later. I stood in the corner watching the dentist work, and I must admit I was quite impressed. He was caring and thorough, and this time talked to Roy quite a lot, making him feel that he was welcome to answer and/or ask things. I think I will have to do this, if not all the time, but periodically, so that this level of effort at both communication and dental work is maintained. Roz since confirmed to me that his mouth feels much better and the temporary bridge is much firmer than the previous one was.

Roy with his food at the Zila

I have also expressed some concern about the cost spiralling out of control, with unexpected extractions and the need for many interim temporary bridges, as well as 2 implants, after which he promised to produce a written copy of the altered treatment plan and a re-examination of the costs. He straight away promised to give us £150 discount to ease the raised costs due to the delay in treatment while Roy's jaw heals. That was most welcome and now, I think, we are back to consider staying with the surgery, which we were thinking of leaving before.

And finally, in the spirit of all things medical, I had a brain MRI, which was ordered by the neurologist to eliminate potentially serious problems that might be causing my headaches, dizziness and double vision. It was done with efficiency and courtesy in a private clinic for the princely sum of £106, which is pretty reasonable, if you ask me. I got the CD, but I decided I will not look at it to worry me, until I can discuss it with the neurologist, when I next see her.

The conservatory at the Zila

The interesting thing today was that Roy and I had a nice walk about in another part of downtown BP en route to the clinic, which we knew better than the one last week, but which still was quite interesting. We walked from the terminus of no. 70 trolleybus, right through Liberty Square, past the American Embassy and many other massive buildings, which were quite photogenic. The other welcome aspect of this walk was the realisation that for once, that the government, while renovating the square, managed to leave many of the ancient trees in the square alone. This government is known for its murder of thousands of trees in the city, but thankfully Liberty Square still has many of them.

Travelling by bus

Tomorrow I am supposed to go geocaching with Feri and Karesz, but I very much doubt if anything will happen. Firstly, the weather forecast is dreadful, and secondly, my dear friend Feri has not been particularly reliable to keep his promises lately. If we don't go caching, I think I will just laze around at the flat and get ready for our weekend away at Monoszló at Pityu's place with lots of good friends. Next post sometime next week.

The eightieth week of the pandemic

As the last post was very late, I will make this one a day early to catch up to more or less my schedule. There is really only one event to report on and that was on Sunday. To save work, I will paste here the report from Facebook, where I posted lots and lots of photos. If you already saw them there, tough! If not, enjoy!

Group photo at the start

 

The target in the middle of the Danube

 

This Sunday I had a brilliant trip out to Zebegény, a small town on the banks of the Danube river. It was a 75-minute drive from home, but well worth it as a friend of mine organised a trip to a geocache which can’t be reached on land. The geocache was placed on an uninhabited tiny island about 400 yards from the mainland. She talked with the canoe hiring place by the ferry dock in Zebegény and after a small amount of negotiation we hired a 5-person canoe. 

First boat crew getting ready

Launched, now they are getting in.

 

There was 12 of us, 4 guys, 6 women and 2 kids. The weather was around 20 degrees Celsius with a bit of a breeze which occasionally got stronger. The first boat took 3 guys, 1 woman and the boy across. There were some conflicting instructions from the boat hire people, but amazingly the crossing was quick, efficient and no bother.

In the middle of the river, heading for the island

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I went across in the second boat, and thankfully one of the others took some photos, so that I can prove that I went across to the island too. There were some in our group that finally chickened out, but most of us went across. Obviously, while paddling furiously, you cannot take photos, especially of yourself, which was ashame, as I took much better, zoomed in pictures of the first boat and its occupants, while I cannot be seen in action in Anett's photos. Never mind! You hopefully can recognise the woman with the red baseball cap, that's me.

Landed on the island and disembarking

 

The cache was quite easily found, as I was mostly worried, not about the dangers of a big river, like others, but mostly having to go into the jungle for it. We walked up, after docking on the spit, on the other side, away from the town bank, which was considerably colder than the sheltered Eastern side, due to the fierce wind. Still, it was lovely to see that tiny island in its raw natural state and I can imagine going there in the high heat of summer to cool down. 

First boat arrives on land

Second boat leaving with me second from bow

 

The cache was quite close to the water, but high enough not to be engulfed by the regular flooding on the Danube. The return trip was even more straightforward, we got back in a jiffy. I am eternally grateful for Mariann for organising the outing and will remember it as one of the highlights of this year’s geocaching.

View from the island

Ancient, gnarled tree on the island

 

After the canoeing I ended up with a really nice new friend by the name of Zsolt, and the two of us went geocaching in the area and collected 4 more caches. The weather stayed really nice and sunny and we managed to finish the 4-parter multicache in Zebegény itself, followed by a study route, which was a bit overgrown, then an interesting baroque Calvary and finally a lovely floodplain cache near the confluence of the rivers Danube and Ipoly. 

Zsolt at the Danube/Ipoly confluence

Autumn crocus

I also finished a long multi, whose last point was near the car park, s o the total tally of caches found for the day ended up at six. En route home I filled up with petrol and did a bit of food shopping in SPAR. All in all an excellent day, memorable for sure.

The seventyninth week of the pandemic

Sorry for the delay, but I have been in a bit of a bad place for the last few days and totally forgot about the blog. There is a bug going around that causes sneezing, coughing, sore throat and even a bit of an earache. I seemed to have caught it and it put me low. The other reason is that somehow I feel more locked in than in the days of the lockdowns. Now we could go anywhere, but with one thing and another, (Roy's teeth and eyes, my various lurgies etc.) somehow I take it to heart and get easily anxious a lot more than before.

The lake by the first cache

Usually, I can put these phases right with a bit of an outing, or travel, but in the last two days the car was having its yearly service as well as its MOT, so we were stuck here. The weather is still beautiful and it was doubly miserable to be stuck at home when the sun shone brightly. This morning, when we might have gone somewhere, it was pouring hard with rain. Later it got better, but by then we didn't feel like going anywhere. It is hard to ignore all the things that are not going well, but are beyond our own control. Still no sign of Roy's settlement permit, but hopefully that should sort itself soon, when they caught up replacing the wrong ones issued in the first 8 months of 2021.

The cycle lane

I have been doing a lot of reading and that is a good way to get away from bad thoughts. But my eyes are now getting very dodgy too, so I had to limit reading hours and computer hours too. So, I'd better get on with this blog post before my allocated hours run out.

En route to the second cache

When I last posted, I had blood taken for a thyroid function test and I am glad to say that it looks as if everything is OK. Mind you, I am not due to see the endocrinologist until next Wednesday, but a rough look at the numbers imply that the values are within required limits. We'll see what she'll say next week.

The fishing lake

Thankfully, when we had to spend a few days in town for my doctors' appointments, we managed to squeeze in some geocaching on a couple of days. On Wednesday we went to two caches, one in the North and the other in the South of the city. We nearly got done for parking at the first one, but Roy  got lucky and nobody queried his sojourn by the side of an unmadeup road by a big lake. I went to get that one on my scooter and for the first time I flew fast and easy on smooth and perfect tarmac on a cycle lane. That was fun.

Roy staring at his duck breast

The other was one half of a very long hiking cache, (first part of which I have done some time ago), South of the city, between Sóskút and Biatorbágy. It had some lovely views, an abandoned quarry, a lovely fishing lake and some fascinating rock formations. We followed this one with a re-visit to one of our favourite restaurants in that part of the county, where food and drink are superb and pricey. However, neither of us minds paying for quality and even though there was a new chef since we last visited there, the food was as good or even better than last time.

A 424 steam engine outside the Transport Museum

On Thursday we had a late afternoon dental appointment, so we thought we cheer ourselves up with visiting the newly opened temporary Transport Museum, where there is also an event cache, which can only be found until the end of October, when the temporary exhibition closes. It was very interesting, but I must admit, being over 70 made it even more enjoyable than if we were younger. Being over 70 we went in free, but the entry fees being rather high, I am not sure that had we had to pay it would have been worthwhile.

A rail bus from the 1930's

The hall was a now disused repair works place for trains, wagons and all thing to do with the railway. It was enormous and even though there were quite a few engines and other related stuff exhibited, the place looked near empty. At least 5 times that many could still not fill it completely. Still, we did enjoy it and we found the cache as well. In about 5 years' time the new Transport Museum, covering a bit more aspects than just the railway, will open there after they remodelled and extended the building. I dread to think how much the entry fees will be then, but should we live that long, I hope the free entry will still be available for over 70's.

The 1st class interior of the rail bus

The dentist was a disappointment. I know that Vivien is a hard act to follow, but I had strong pain for a couple of days afterwards, which never happened with her in the past. And I did have some heavy stuff she had done in my mouth, but her tiny little hands, her care and finesse, I do miss terribly. Roy's temporary temporary bridge is just about holding, the dentist took out most of his stitches and we have to go back at the end of the month to see if his gums and jaw had healed enough to take an impression for the temporary bridge. Once that is done, he has to wait for 2 or 3 months until work on the proper, final bridge, including one implant can start. Long, painful and expensive process, but unfortunately unavoidable.

An early Kandó railway engine

Rang the guy about the opthalmic surgeon and he still coouldn't get a date out of her for Roy's cataract operation, but I am keeping fingers crossed that that will happen while he is waiting for his bridge to be done. I suppose, having read this, (assuming you have read this far), you might just get the message of why I am a bit overanxious, stressed and occasionally depressed. There are so many things up in the air, uncertain and undecided, that on top of having had to give up my trip to Canada, as well as not being able to travel even within the country, due to all these health problems, things finally got to me. I am fighting it, and as I have had times in my life in the past when things got to me just this much and I came through at the other end without lasting damage, let us hope that'll be the case this time too.

Our small grape harvest this year

On Friday we came back down to the village, after some Lidl shopping. Since I have got the piece of paper about being able to buy my blood thinner medicine at subsidised prices, this week was the first time I actually looked at the document. I discovered with horror, that the dosage was incorrect. We will not be back to town for a fortnight, so it needed some interesting juggling to alter that. Thankfully, I will be able to visit the hospital when the cardiologist is there next week and get her to alter it. In the meantime I had to use the prescription she wrote for the half dose, so that will only last me two weeks. I also noticed that the price of that one is the same as the one I normally use. Strange country this is, isn't it? As far as I know, everywhere else in the world they price medicines according to its contents, the lower the dosage, the lower the price. Not in this country!!

Roy destalking grapes

On Saturday we harvested our grapes and did the pressing. Unfortunately, the drought affected the vines too, so we only had about half the normal amount. We had fun using the wine press and put the liquid into the pálinka mash. It actually got it fermenting again, so at least we will not have to buy all the plums for the mash, but even with this little bit of plums we harvested about a month ago, plus the few grapes, we will probably have to buy about 400 kilos of plums to fill all four barrels.

Filling the press

On Sunday we had some lovely unexpected visitors. I was already feeling a bit strange, so I couldn't enjoy their visit as much as I would have, had I been 100%, but it was gorgeous all the same. An old friend that I don't see any more had two kids, and it was his son that came visiting, having brought his partner and little boy with him. We sat outside in the pavilion, had drinks and biscuits and chatted. They only stayed about a couple of hours, but that was really nice.

Attila with a smiling daddy behind him

Most of this week was lost to activity. Monday and Tuesday I felt pretty low and on Wednesday and Thursday we didn't have the car. As my VPN is behaving a bit better than of late, I managed to watch a few TV programs that were recommended. I watched the first episode of the 8th season of Endeavour, but I didn't enjoy it much. It is up for debate, whether that was because I wasn't feeling very well, or because it wasn't very good. I tended to think that it was the former, until I saw the opinions of quite a few Endavour addicts on FB. They all thought it was crap.

Shaun Evans and Roger Allam

I am still watching Vigil, which is not only well written, well directed and extremely well acted, but actually an excellent thriller with plenty of good insight and social/political comment. That was very enjoyable and it is a shame that it's coming to its last episode next week.

Rose Leslie and Suranne Jones

The car has just come back today, having spent two days with the mechanic in the village. As we had a 5 year guarantee on it and it is now 6 years old, until last year we had to take it to the dealer we bought it from for the yearly service and MOT every two years. However, this year with no valid guarantee any more, we thought we would try the local chap. We normally get him to change our tyres twice a year and got him to get us a new battery last year, when the old one died due to the car not being out of the garage for months. He was always nice and efficient and I am glad to say he didn't dissappoint this time either. He charged us £180 for a full service, including the oil change and the filters, swapping the tyres, the cost of the MOT and taking it for the MOT to a town about 30km from here. We'll use him again, I think.

Roy: rare rump steak (choopped for poor teeth)

Me: Salmon, dill, potatoes, cauliflower and carrots

 

So, now having caught myself up, I'll try to keep to my normal weekly schedule from now on. Speak to you next week then. 😉

The seventyeighth week of the pandemic

After our day of rest last Wednesday, we motored home on Thursday to a lovely and sunny Bér. We got quite lucky, as I managed to get through to the firewood delivery man and he agreed to deliver the wood on Friday. We quickly cut back the vines around the woodshed and got ready for the delivery. We also had another bit of good luck as the gas company we get our gas from managed to send a guy for the once yearly meter reading several times during the 9 days we were in town. However, as we were getting into the car in BP to drive home he rang me and asked if he could come to read the meter. I told him that we were on our way, so he promised to turn up very early the following morning.

A nice big bunch of our grapes

I am usually awake by 5am or earlier. So I said to the gas meter reader that he can come as early as he likes. Sod's law, of course, on Friday I overslept (first time in years), and didn't wake until 7am. The guy came at 6.15am. Thankfully, Roy was up and was just checking the front gate, if it would open for the firewood delivery truck when a car drove up. It was the meter reader, so that was done.

The tipper truck in action

The firewood arrived around 10am-10:30am. He was a really nice bloke. He had a rather ancient, but still perfectly working, Iveco tipper truck and was prepared to reverse up the courtyard. Not many would have done that, but thankfully, he had good gears and what's even more important good tyres. He dumped 2 and half cubic metres of ready chopped firewood in front of the cellar, which we then started moving to the woodshed in our wheelbarrow. Bloody hard work, so we gave up and decided to try to get someone take it on for 5000Ft (£12.50) later.

Arnold has nearly finished

 

I did have one more fortunate event, as when I went down to the bus stop, where the guys of the village gather with cans or bottles of beer in hand, for the want of pub, I met Arnold, who took pity on me and offered to come half an hour later to do the rest of the shifting of the firewood and stack it in an orderly manner in the shed. And he did. He was an amazing find and we both hope that he could become our heavy work handyman in the future.

All wood put away neatly

So far so good. We had the gas meter read, we had our firewood delivered and we found Arnold to move and stack it in the shed. To have three successful events on one day is rather unusual, so we thought the 5 days we were planning to spend in Bér had several good omens. On the strength of these happy events I decided to take advantage of the good weather and do some caching. I discovered 2 moving caches in Nógrád County and went after them. 

The house in the forest where the moving cache was

 

I am not that bothered about moving caches, unlike some cachers who live for them and are prepared to travel great distances for them. I only bother in two cases: 1. If I happen to cache somewhere where they turn up; and 2. If I have never yet had them.  This later case was what really got me going last Saturday. It has been around for about 18 months and its theme was 'Houses and huts in the forest'. 

View of the Cserhát hills

 

So, I got up early, unlike the day before, and drove off in an Easterly and then Northerly direction towards the Slovakian border. Following the Tom Tom I had my doubts, but as it happens I was there by 8am and found it quite easily.

Cserhát flora

The other one was closer to home, but not by much, and it was my own moving cache that travels along the marked pilgrimage route dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Finding it was easy again, as it was about 20 metres from the car in the car park, but I then had to move it a minimum of 1km. That I did and had a delightful 2km's walk, in brilliant sunshine and breathtaking views. Took lots of photos and at the end of the km hid it at the foot of a multitrunked tree. 

The second moving caches hide

On Sunday, I had yet another trip out on my own, in order to hide the other moving cache which had to be put near a building of some sort in the forest. It has been many years since I have been planning to visit a forester's lodge in Buják. I thought, this is the time and opportunity to do that with this cache. I had two options of how to get to the lodge. Either I drive round to it, about 6km or 7km, on forestry roads of questionable quality, and where I am not quite sure if I should be driving without permission, or park at the end of the public road and walk about a mile to it.

The forester's lodge near Buják

I did the latter. It was absolutely magical to walk on my own in a rough, but beautiful forest, which was totally silent and a bit mysterious. I didn't bring a map and had no GPS coordinates for the lodge, but I memorised the online map and found it with no trouble. The lodge was totally empty of people, animals or anything that would imply occupancy. On the other hand, it looked cared for and had tons of nicely stacked firewood at the back. So, I am sure they use it for something, or at least maintaining it, but nobody lives in it permanently.

The meadow near the forester's lodge

The area had a big meadow opposite the lodge, where you could see some enormous old trees. All of it was very photogenic and I took plenty photographs. On my return, I found that Roy had repainted Mike's bench and it now looks like a million dollars, or at least as good as when we got it in the first place. 

Mike's bench repainted

 

Yesterday we went over to Tomi, our car mechanic, to ask him to put some air into the trailer, which we will probably use when we go to fetch a lot of plums for Roy's pálinka. I don't think we have enough plums to fill one barrel, let alone four. We also booked the car in for its MOT and yearly service with him for next Wednesday. Things are getting done, the only thing I probably will have to do without is a couple of geocaching trips away, which we even managed two of last year, but with Roy's teeth and eyes, this will probably not happen.

The other end of the meadow

Talking of teeth and eyes: the plans are fluid, as teeth are notorious for turning up to be worse than expected, but currently we are in town where on Thursday we're both going to the dentist, Roy for a more substantial temporary bridge, which then should last 3 or 4 months, while his jaw is healing up. In the meantime, once the current batch of dental work is finished, he should have his first eye op done, if the surgeon is available sometime around the first or second week of October.

An enormous weeping willow

 

Now I have to say good bye, next post hopefully next week. :)