The eightyninth week of the pandemic

This was a weird week. There was staying in, going out, feeling ill, feeling great and anything else in between in it. 

I have given up watching F1, due to poor Lewis's dreadful year and hoping that if I don't watch, he might start winning. Finally, after several months of disaster upon disaster, he started winning. The Sao Apolo GP was won by Lewis in great style and I have even seen statements from greats, like Damon Hill, that his drive at this GP was the best he had ever seen anywhere and from anone. Praise indeed!!

The main chore that has been hanging over my head for ages was our Tax Returns. Unfortunately, on the same day that I scheduled this task, we also had the news that both Stephen and Hannah had caught Covid and have been quite ill for nearly a week. And that in spite of both of them having had two vaccinations. This new Delta+ is evil, and, of course, comedy clubs are very closed-in places. Thankfully, neither of them has needed hospitalisation and are slowly, but surely on the mend.

The sign outside the Seafairers' Museum

After I managed to control my shock, I set about writing up the Tax Return data from my spreadsheet. That was slow work, as practically nobody sends P60's any more and as it only comes up once a year, I never remember from the year before how to find them online. I have decided that from now on, whenever I receive anything, either by snailmail or e-mail, telling me that it has been posted online, I will immediately enter the figures into the spreadsheet, so next November I just have a copying job. Well, that's the theory, let's see how the practice will work out!!

A lovely vineyard on our travels

Feri, Karesz and myself have been planning to travel by train to Szeged, to do a bit of geocaching, but I had to cancel, due to having another plan, this time with Anna to do a Medves Plateau hike on Saturday. As it happens, neither of them happened, due to the chaos that exists in the Hungarian Health Service, but what's new?

A coronary CT machine, similar to mine

On Thursday mid-afternoon I got a telephone call from the BP Cardiac Centre, a lady asking if I have an immunity certificate? Yes, I do, was the answer, but I had to ask, why? Because of tomorrow's coronary CT you are having. What coronary CT, I ask in amazement? To cut a long and vexatious story short, apparently, Dr. Bartha, the cardiologist I have seen at the Duna Medical Centre, a private clinic/hospital about 2 and half months ago, has fixed up for this CT to take place on Friday, 19th November at 4pm at the hospital in BP she works at. Nobody bothered to let me know about it, so good job that this lady enquired about my vaccination status, or I would have missed it. Phewww!

Wine cellars

The upshot was that we had to make an unscheduled visit to BP, good job the appointment was in the afternoon, or we would have had to drop everything we were doing on Thursday afternoon and tear in to town. As it happens, we pootled in on Friday morning, I had the CT, which was a bit frightening, but went OK and having spent a night in the flat, we travelled home on Saturday, via Lidl for food. The results will be sent in about 3 weeks and will also be up on the state health service's online portal, where I can see them, provided I register there.

 

I made an appointment with Dr. Bartha straight away, to see her and hear her evaluation of the results. She is an exceedingly popular consultant, so I had to be quick. As it is, the earliest appointment I could get was 4th January, but at least I know, well hope, that the results will be through by then.

A cold, but not as violent as mine was

The weekend went quite quietly, but on Monday morning I woke up with an explosive and very unpleasant head cold. It felt like there were fireworks exploding in my nose, I had to blow my nose regularly, later it started running like a waterfall, I had a headache, felt very tired and lethargic. I suppose, if you read this far, you must know where I'm going with this. Some, but not all, symptoms pointed towards Covid, but I decided not to panic. Spent the day in bed and hoped that I would be better in the morning. I was much better the following morning, but now had to decide whether to go out or stay in.

The name of the valley in pansies

The reason behind that dilemma lay in the decisions of the local electricity board, that announced the week before, that on Tuesday, 23rd November 2021, we will not have any electricity between the hours of 8am and 4pm. In a 100 year old, Palóc longhouse, with a covered corridor shading the building, the walls are so thick that not too much light would enter the house in the month of November, so one would have to have the lights on. We did not fancy sitting, or in my case lying about in the dark all day. So we decided to go out and do some geocaching. Roy's eye having recovered quite well by now, he took on the driving and miraculously, I was feeling perfectly OK all day.

 

Vineyard, hills, forests and solar panels

We travelled an hour and a half East, where we haven't been for a while. All the caches within the town of Eger I have already got, but the ones just outside I haven't, so we aimed for those. The day was very long, as we left at 8am and didn't get home until 5:30pm, so we were both exhausted, but we did have a fascinating and enjoyable day.

The de la Motte chateau in Noszvaj

 

We visited an interesting, private museum of seafairing, a couple of small sporting airfields, an old geological phenomenon, connected to thermal waters, a couple of memorials, a lookout tower, an adventure park, a lovely 19th century chateau and its park, some cave dwellings and a valley West of Eger, full of wine cellars, bars and restaurants.

Large windows at the other end of the park

 

The final count of geocaches found was ten, I have spent hours reporting back on my experiences and uploading photographs, which in Bér, with its snail paced internet, is not always fun. Today, it got extremely cold, according to the Weather Channel, it got to 10 below zero last night in Bér, but we are as warm as toast, at least presently. If the Russian turn the gas off, we still have 2 cubic metres of acacia in the wood shed, so we will not freeze.

Mysterious room under the terrace

With this inexplicably fast recovery from a cold I thought I will have for a week, I am really pleased, but completely flummoxed. Was it perhaps an allergy attack? But to what? I suppose I should be pleased and not bother with trying to second guess it, but I wouldn't want it coming back, as it wasn't pleasant.

The Chateau's Park

 

Oh, and guess what? Lewis won the Quatar GP as well, last Sunday, so my trick of not watching it has been working. Obviously, I have to watch it retrospectively, but with too much to do today, I haven't yet got time for it. He is still 14 or 15 points behind Max Verstappen, so what is going to happen to the overall championship, is still anybody's guess. There are two races left, Saudi Arabia, (another new one) and Abu Dhabi, the season closer. Do keep your fingers crossed for me, obviously only if you don't

Bars and restaurants in the valley

have someone else you yourself are rooting for. 

Today, due to the severe drop in temperatures, Roy and I made sure that we put  the hanging bowls full of sunflower seeds out for the birds. Still at the back of last season we bought a 40 kg bag of seeds, hopefully that should do the entire season, if not two. I will have to remember to get some fat as well, next time we are shopping for food, as they like to peck at that too.

Another vista of the park

When I get a minute, I'm still following my US cop shows, Stephen Colbert on CBS and Netflix. I have discovered that a serial that I watched about 2 years ago, called Virgin River, is back with its 3rd season. I might go an relax with that now that I have typed too much. My RSI is back, so I should rest it.

Next post next week, all being well. 😉