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. 😉