The eightyfourth week of the pandemic

Apologies for the long gap, but these last 10 or so days would have been heaven if they were only hectic. Nightmare speed, millions of things to do, even more things to worry about, an operation, lots of cancelled activities etc. 

The cancelled hike with Ros and Ian

After I last posted the first major activity was going to get my moving cache, as it is currently crossing my county and is no more than an hour's drive from home. On Friday, 15th October we drove to a lovely level dirt lane, when we parked up before the locked gate, Roy stayed to have a nap, and I got going to find the cache and move it on by about 1km. And then it wasn't there. I think the fault lies with the thief AND the previous player, who put it in a really stupid and unsafe place. I found the stone it was supposed to have been under, but it was in full view of the dirt lane with no undergrowth to hide it and not even a small hole in the ground where to put it, so it must have been so obvious that very quickly someone walked off with it.

A hunter's tower en route to the cache

I went back to the car, an hour's drive and no joy. Brrrrr!! This is my second time this year that I couldn't find a moving cache, this time due to thievery. The previous was some months ago, when within a few hundred yards from the box, I was chased away by heifers. Now this.

Jewish graves in Szécsény cemetery

The saving grace of the day was Roy's plan to visit the Jewish cemetery in Szécsény to look for a grave and just generally look around. So, off we pootled to Szécsény, which didn't take long, but then it took us at least half an hour to find the cemetery, even though we were no more than 500 yards from it from any direction. Finally, a lady came out of her house, as she saw that after parking we looked very puzzled. She turned out to be the keeper of the keys to the gate of the cemetery, which was about 50 yards from her door.

The old and more neglected part of the cemetery

The place looked very neglected, seriously overgrown in places, but fascinating all the same. Once at home, Roy looked closely at all photos, and as it happens we did photograph the grave he was looking for, so he could send it to his family history contact in Australia.

The glorious Nógrád countryside

 

As the weather was brilliant right through the weekend, I decided that I will replace the lost cache and drove on my own all the way there again and then had a lovely, lonely but fascinating walk to where I would have put it, had it been there 2 days before. I even saw a big stag on a ridge to my right, which was exciting.

The stag

 

On that Sunday we were invited to have lunch with Heino and Manet, so I had to be back in time for that from my drive. The lunch with those two was delightful. They are such lovely and interesting people, we hit it off with them the first time we saw them last year, but now I feel we are really good friends. The lunch was delicious, conversation riveting and the idea of a walk afterwards definitely appealed to me. Roy was dropping off to sleep on the sofa, so he went home to have a rest and we went on a short walk around the village.

Manet serving lunch

Manet and Heino descending into the village

We climbed up to my favourite tree, the trip being doubly exciting due to complete neglect of the undergrowth and the height of the jungle that had grown up during the last 18 months. As a result of a detour, we found some lovely rocks, which I have never seen before. We had to say good-bye to Heino and Manet for a short while, but they assure me that they would be back in December, so that's not so far away.

Andesite rocks on our hike

Another rather momentous event was in a phone call from the hospital where Roy was due to have his cataract operation. They rang and offered the date of 22nd October. I was very pleased, as we have been waiting for it for over 2 months, so the sooner the better, I thought. The fact that it was on the date of Alex's birthday, I definitely took as a good omen. On the other hand, it involved a few necessary changes, that I was less happy about. Both my geocaching hike with Gabi and Mariann, as well as the hike and dinner with Ros and Ian, had to be cancelled. To be quite honest, the state I was in, there would have been no way that I could actually have enough strength to do either, so I accepted it, I hope with good grace.

It will also affect the kids' visit next week, but hopefully we can sort that somehow. We came into town on Tuesday, 19th October, as Roy had some appointments on Wednesday, 20th. He needed some blood taken as they had to do a full blood panel prior to his operation. The scheduled ECG was cancelled, as apparently that was to be done in the ward, prior to the op.

Would you want to live near this criminal element?

The night before, just after we arrived in town, we got both the letter notifying the award of the settlement rights, as well as the actual card, which is now used for ID, until he gets one of those as well sometime in the next couple of months. He was so happy, this one took 2 months, which is not too bad, as I know people whose took 3 and half months.

The view from his ward while waiting

 

In the meantime I had a couple of doctor's appointments too, one with the neurologist and another with the endocrinologist. Thankfully, both came up OK. In my brain there are some changes, but those apparently are quite common in people of my age, condition and medications, so no further action was recommended. The endocrinologist was very pleased with the thyroid test, so all's well there as well. Both of them said that I will need to go back for fairly regular checkups, but now I am OK.

 And then the big day came. Roy was pretty much catatonic by then. Unfortunately, they called us in far too early, so he was pretty fed up waiting and his mind was doing overtime with a wide variety of catastrophic versions of what was going to happen to him. Out of 4 people scheduled for that afternoon, he was, needless to say, the fourth. Thank goodness he was out of there in less a half hour, so I didn't get to the panicking stage myself.

The hospital's river frontage

He was scathing about the surgeon lady, who was very bossy and rude and even shouted at him. I was, on the other hand, so happy that is was all over, that I didn't pick up on that until later. Other patients also said that they were being bullied too, so I very much doubt if we will be going back to have the other eye done there. In fact, in the light of that experience, Roy is adamant that he has no intention of having the other one done, but we'll see that later.

Real wizardry how they remove/replace your lens

 

Now we're into the 4 times a day eye drops phase, as well as some pills, and he has to wear the eye patch for a few days, as well. Not all the time, thank goodness, just when lying down. Today we went food shopping at a non-existent Tesco, so finally we did it in SPAR, with two things not available. 

The mafioso look for eye protection

Some of my time here I spent watching my favourite US TV shows. I have to watch as many as I can before we get back to Bér, as the internet is so much faster here than in the village that it is worth binge watching all the ones I have so far missed. I never realised that practically all of them restarted in September, so I'm playing catch up, as much as I can. In Bér it is so slow, that each hour takes at least an hour and half, due to spooling and the net cutting out. Brrrrrrr!! 

Roy and his eye shield

 

Must finish now, Stephen and the kids are coming tomorrow and we are still tidying the flat and making beds. Next post after they've gone home.

The eightythird week of the pandemic

Busy week with lots happening. Having been away for over two weeks, we were ready to get home asap. The last two appointments were an MRI for my brain and the placing of Roy's temporary bridge  which from now on will have to last for at least 6 months. Both went OK, so we were ready to depart early on Friday morning. The car was out in the XVth district, so there was no hurry, but we were up so early that we managed to leave bang on 8am.

En route to the dentist

Needless to say that our good friend, Murphy, made sure that the news we have been waiting for for over 2 months came 2 hours after we left. Anna, our neighbour, who is a really lovely lady and who has been guarding our postbox for several months now, phoned just as we were parking in Tesco. You should have seen me doing a victory dance to the amazement of several shoppers. Anna read it out and it said that Roy's application for permanent settlement has been granted. Yippeeee!! We had a nice lunch and a glass of good wine to celebrate when we got home.

My favourite two-tone rose

 

The combined shopping in Lidl and Tesco ended up about £250 worth. Mostly, because we hate shopping for food and anything that keeps, we usually buy at least 6 of, so that we won't have to go back too soon. The list of the multi-buys started with wine, then went onto cornflakes, litre cartons of Oat Drink, tiny cartons of whipping cream, wafers, bottles of kefir, (which is a Hungarian speciality, a bit like drinking yoghurt, but with a sour taste), boxes of herbal teas etc., etc. Hopefully, we can get by using local shops in BP and the mobile shop in Bér when it comes to bread, milk, crisps etc.  

The old-timer deep red

Monday had a few specifics in it, like the village social worker coming for my doctor's papers, which if I am lucky, (and I''m not yet celebrating), will reduce the price of my blood thinners from £50 a month, to £20 a month. She took it, but I have not yet heard a word. I'm fully expecting some excuse why a totally legal and proper recommendation from a state registered cardiology consultant is not valid, just because she gave it to me in a private hospital. I have the feeling I have got a fight on my hands.

 

The other thing was the delivery of an online order, which arrived, as expected. I ordered 5kg's of KONIX, which is a stuff that helps getting the tar off the inside walls of our pottery stove. Most people only have soot, but the acid in the wood we have been burning in the last few years produced this tar, which is awful. Apparently, all you have to do is to sprinkle a bit on the embers at the end of the day and it will do its work overnight. We'll see, I say.

Plum pickers

 

As soon as we arrived I rang the guy in Galgaguta about the availability of his plums again. Last time he rang,  but we were still in town and there was no way to postpone the dentist. Luckily, the forecast was good for Saturday and he managed to get some pickers, so we hooked on the old English trailer and off we pootled to Galgaguta. It was a very interesting experience.

The still empty trailer

We have been buying his plums for several years on and off, but it was only this time that he called me by my first name and everybody was very friendly indeed. Was this a recognition of how welcome my custom is, or just a sign of the change everybody had gone through during the pandemic? Probably both. 

We're safely home

 

All the pickers were out of work gypsies. There was a foreman, who kept an eye on the pickers and his son was his assistant. He struck up a conversation with me and I got to know him a bit. It is fascinating to watch the social strata in situations as this. The owner is white, the foreman and his son are middle class gypsies and the rest are all very poor, mostly unemployed, declassed rural gypsies.

The plank to slide the barrels off on

One older guy told me that he used to work in a big construction firm in the old days, where he progressed to become a superviser by the end. You could see in his face, that he now finds himself degraded, trying to make a living from temporary, insecure work, like fruit picking. It looked as if they were all very interested in us, I suppose because they heard me talk to Roy in English. It was also nice to see how their faces lit up that I was prepared to converse with them. There is nothing worse, that being looked through, and most gypsies live with that all the time in this country.

The three buckets

The drive home with 400kg of plums in 4 barrels and 3 large plastic buckets was a tad hairy. As Roy can't drive, and my experience of towing a trailer is sketchy at best, add to this the state of Hungary's country roads, it was a miracle we made it home in one piece. My tour de force, which I will be proud of forever, was the uphill and at speed 90 degree turn into our courtyard, without hitting anything. I actually judged the distance between the two gate posts and the edge of the rose beds perfectly. Phew!

The  chief whizzer

Since then Roy is busy whizzing his pálinka mash, which will have a hard job to ferment, as the weather has now turned very cold. That is always the problem with late harvests, that the sun has no strength any more, and that is when it is shining, which is not very often now. Roy is thinking of putting them into the workshop, where there is no heating, but it is still warmer than outside, especially at night.

Second harvest of the one producing apple tree

 

We have also discovered that our poor apple trees are still producing apples, albeit quite damaged and small. The tree that I thought would never produce ripe apples, suddenly did. They are still very small and blemished, but perfect inside and absolutely ripe and delicious. We also picked some from another two trees, so a rather full basket of apples was gathered this morning.

While we were away, Irenke across the road had signed for and took in our Nespresso capsules from the delivery driver. I was very grateful, as we were coming to the end of our stock of capsules and Nespesso had a special offer of a variety of things if we ordered 250 in one go. It is amazing how nice coffee can be had out of capsules, especially that I can only have decaf. Ristretto, which is dark, strong and very bitter, is Roy's favourite, so I have the same as well, just in a decaf form.

Roy's three birthday cards

 

On Monday we also had a very good delivery, which was another birthday card for Roy. You might note that it was a full fortnight late, but it had a special reason for that. To explain, I have to let you into a really aggravating result of Brexit, which is insane completely, not only because the whole lot is insane, but because it has been aggravated further by Hungarian bureaucracy. Apparently, starting with July 1st, all post from a so called "third country", (the UK is one of these now), is subject to customs, VAT and a handling charge. Theoretically this should only apply to commercial items, but I have been reading on my FB expat groups that people had been charged for birthday cards, old family photos and a replacement UK credit card from the bank.

Linda with her mum

So, as we were awaiting 2 of those this month, I told Linda, who deals with our post, to take it out of the envelope and put it into another one. And the darling, clever girl that Linda is, put it into a birthday card. And, she also put a Customs Declaration Form on it, marking it as a birthday card to the value of £3.50. It came through with flying colours in 6 days, 2 of which were the weekend.

Heino's little chainsaw

One of the funniest stories of this week concerns Heino, our Dutch friend, who ordered a handsaw without telling us, so I wasn't sure whether it would be safe while we were away. I have done my damnest to secure delivery, by having a word with the post lady, but it turned out that no enquiry could discover where, if anywhere, it has been delivered to. So, I wrote to Heino and by return of post he told me that the message on his tracker online said that it had been delivered.

 

The climber still has some blooms

Oh dear, I thought. Somebody nicked it, obviously. Then one day, when Roy was outside in the courtyard whizzing up his mash, he looked at me and suddenly departed towards the front of the Bunkhouse corridor, where we store our third, and currently unused, dustbin. And on top of it, large as life, was a parcel. Inside it sat Heino's little saw, which I have since ascertained was delivered a few days after we left and right on Roy's 80th birthday. It sat there for over two weeks, in rain, wind and shine, unharmed, which is a miracle. If that was in BP, it would have been gone in about 5 minutes. In the village people are better, although the good cover afforded by thick trees in front of the house must have helped.

The planned hike with Ros and Ian

On Sunday Ros and Ian arrived, but due to their busy social life, combined with the fact that we have come down to the village roughly at the same time as they arrived, we have so far not been able to meet up with them. We communicated by e-mail and now we have fixed a hike with dinner afterwards for the national holiday of 23rd October, which is a Saturday. I think the plan now is that we will go to the Börzsöny, with Roy coming with us and finding something to do in the village where we start the hike from. Thankfully, there is a railway line, which is reasonably frequent along the Danube, so once we finished the hike, we can catch one and rejoin Roy, and have something to eat somewhere along the line.

The planned Vértes hike with Mariann and Gabi

 

Other plans are currently in place include the geocaching hike we have postponed for the last 18+ months with Mariann and Gabi, plus another hike with Anna, my new friend from Vác, but I have a feeling that one will have to be postponed, due to the family descending on us on 25th. You know the 3 bus syndrome? You wait for hours and nothing and then 3 come at once. Our life is normally not that hectic, but three hikes within 3 days is way beyond my poor joints and heart. The caching hike with the girls will be on Friday 22nd to the Vértes, I hope I am up to it. 

The Immigration and Nationality Office

And finally, the biggest sensation of the last week was yet another phone call from Anna, our neighbour in BP. Having had the approval letter on Friday, she then took possession of another letter yesterday, which, once I asked her to open, produced the card itself. Only 4 days between the letter and the actual card seems to be a record, but all in all, from application to the receipt of the physical card it took 10 weeks, which isn't bad. It is definitely longer than some had it, but even more definitely shorter than many, that are still waiting for it. Unfortunately, I can't enclose a photo of said card, because we will only actually receive it next Wednesday, when we are due to return to BP.

A recent footie photo of Xander

 

Yesterday was Xander's 8th birthday, but I haven't talked to him yet to wish him happy birthday. I didn't dare phoning him too early, and when I did he had just that second went offline. I presumed he went to school. Then in the afternoon and evening I couldn't get through, and the Messenger message Stephen sent me was an hour after I went to bed. I will try again today, but as he is with his mother, I am not hopeful. Lucy can be very nice and friendly, and she sends me their school reports and rings on Messenger now and again, but the fact that she never thought that I might want to talk to him on his birthday shows that she is also quite scatterbrained.

David Caves, Emilia Fox and Genesis Lynea

 

Since my VPN decided to work again, after a fashion, with lots of breaks and spooling, but working, I was looking for something not too taxing to watch and this week ended up with Silent Witness. I didn't realise that the 24th series was back at the beginning of September, but now I had the pleasure to watch 10 episodes in one go. It took me two days, but I really enjoyed it. Grantchester is still going, I think the last episode is later this week. I am still reading Sense and Sensibility, which also gives me great pleasure, especially that having watched the 1995 film recently, I can compare the storylines and list the characters left out of the film script. Not that I would disagree with Emma Thompson's lovely script, but it is still interesting all the same.

The terrible trio - we'll see them soon :)

Must finish now, the upcoming things to look forward to include the geocaching festival, which is at the end of the month, the postponed hike with Anna from Vác and, of course, the visit from Stephen, Elian and Xander. Next post sometime next week, although it might be late due to a myriad of activities. 😀

The eightysecond week of the pandemic

I realised that at the end of last week's post I forgot to include some photos from our walk with Roy across Liberty Square. Here are some of them, showing the sights there.

The Russian memorial

George Bush the elder in bronze

Fountain in Liberty Square

The Basilica

Thursday was spent preparing for our trip to Monoszló for harvest and meeting up with old friends we haven't seen for 18 months to 2 years. On the way down we did some geocaching and I must admit it was probably one of the most pleasurable caching days for a very long while. It did start with a bit of a cock-up, as our museum piece, aged Tom Tom took us yet again to the wrong place. However, we managed to correct it by going to the another place we could approach the cache equally easily. Unfortunately there was a thick fog on by the lake, so photography was out of the question.

The old military tower, now renovated

Who's waving to me from down there?

Tower and aerial on Kab-hegy

This was once a tank training ground

The next one, however, was really brilliant. An old military watch tower has been renovated to serve as a look out tower. It was built during the war by the Germans, then used by the Russians for decades and now you can walk up and have a look at the 360 degree view from the top. I did go up and it was fantastic.

The three dishes pointing in different directions

The massive satellite dish

The church ruin in Taljándörögd

The church ruin in Taljándörögd

 

The next one was near a set of 3 enormous satellite dishes, then a medieval church ruin, followed by a lovely old ethnic German village called Pula. After that I walked to the top of a big hill where there were some nice views and a couple of old cemeteries. Eventually we visited an old abandoned quarry where I had to climb up only 50 metres, but the terrain was a scree of near vertical quarry side. All fours were the best method up and on your bum on the way down.

Pula church

An old pump in Pula

Old bridge over the stream in Pula

Cross in the cemetery

We arrived at our friends by 5pm and were welcomed with lots of smiles, kisses and cuddles. These have been in very short supply for the last 19 months, so we both enjoyed them. The main event of Friday night was celebrating, albeit a tad late, Roy's 80th birthday. Ági brought the cake, David managed to get a bottle of Navy rum, (not easy to find in these parts) and Pityu presented Roy with a large bottle of mulberry pálinka.

The birthday boy cutting the cake

Pusser's rum and mulberry pálinka

Saturday was the main harvesting day and I managed about 2 hours worth before my lower back gave up. We only had to do one side of the vineyard, as the upper bit had been done 3 weeks before.

Here's a Hungarian breakfast for you

Roy, David and Ági giving a toast

Dinner on the patio

Pityu, our host

There were many people round the table the night before, I think we numbered 16. Not all of those came over the following day for the harvest, but the numbers were adequate for the task at hand. I was paired up with Pálma and her daughter, and we had lots of lovely chats while picking. The guys did the harder work, which was carrying the grapes to the press and, of course, doing the pressing. Pityu has a manual press, which is quite hard work, but all got done on the day.

Pálma hard at work

Richard with his hopper

Pityu's press house

Big plump bunches

Sunday we did go over for a bit of fig picking, which resulted in some delicious green figs on my breakfast cornflakes the morning after. The bunch of people that gathers at Pityu's house and vineyard are really the salt of the earth. They are great company, really nice to be with. On Sunday afternoon our trip home was a bit hectic, several traffic jams, one of a whole hour to do a few kilometres, tired us out.

The hills around Monoszló

The views over the vineyard

David is having a rest

Figs

This week has now been dedicated to doctors and the dentist. My ultrasound results seem OK and Roy has now got the proper temporary bridge in, which he will have to use for the next roughly 6 months, while his jaw heals, the implants are put in and finally, once everything is in and has healed, the permanent bridge will go in approximately March or April next year. Still no sign of the eye op, but he has adjusted to the level of sight he does have quite well. I do all the driving and he has now given up wearing his long distance glasses, as they wouldn't help much. He still wears his reading/computer glasses, and manages to spend quite a time online.

Sense and Sensibility, my 40 year old book

Sense and Sensibility, the 1995 film

I finished my book mentioned last week and now re-reading Sense and Sensibility, which I have first read about 40 years ago and also watched the film recently, so now I am not only enjoying it, but permanently comparing the script of the film with the book. Great fun, I love Jane Austen so much, it gives me endless pleasure.

Stefanie Martini in Prime Suspect 1973

I have picked up a few series on TV that have started again, plus one, that has been on about 4 years ago, but I have never seen it. This one is Prime Suspect 1973, about a young Tennison and as there is a book from Lynda La Plante called the same, I'll have to get it soon. Bloody Brexit now causes heavy charges, even on books: customs, VAT and handling charge, but I will do it all the same.

Robson Green and Tom Brittney in Grantchester

I am also watching Grantchester again, which I still enjoy due to its interesting story lines, good script and excellent acting. Another one I discovered was Hollington Drive, on which the jury is still out, but hopefully I'll be able to decide one way or another after the second episode this week. The guy from whom we buy our plums had phoned, asking us to go and fetch them, but we couldn't, due to the dentist's appointment. Unfortunately it is raining now, so it'll have to be next week, once the lane has dried a bit.

I heard a cough from downstairs, so the master of the house is awake. I have to go now. Next post, hopefully, next Wednesday.