The ninetysecond week of the pandemic

The last few days have not been the best on the whole. It is like the world is out to get me. My VPN fowled up again, so no TV, the internet in Bér has slowed down to such an extent, that it is unusable at times, the weather is either pouring or freezing rain, or so cold that it would be insane to go out, so there is absolutely no chance of achieveing my target of 2500 caches total by 31st, my arthritis is absolutely doing me in, it has not been this painful ever, and then some b....y race director robs Lewis of his championship, shall I carry on?

Mickey in 2021

So, as part of a campaign to try and forget all the things, events and people who have contributed to my stress levels being kept high, I am trying to concentrate on those people, animals, happenings and events, but most of all people who have cheered me up, who kept me going and helped me to appreciate the good side of life. Mickey, through his One O'clock photos has always been a source of delight. He is one hell of a bundle of fur and purr, even though he is half way round the world in Toronto. Merry Christmas to you Mickey with lots of love!       

Dont't worry Lewis, 2022'll be better!

Now, from the sublime to the ridiculous. The final race of the 2021 F1 season. I will copy here my post on FB that went with a share of an excellent Guardian article, as mentioned in the post: "Manipulation of the rules by race director Michael Masi leads to Max Verstappen victory which felt more bungled than buoyant." The first sentence of an excellent article by Giles Richards in the Guardian confirmed for me exactly what I guessed had happened, even though I did not watch the race. I admit, I am enraged precisely because I love Lewis Hamilton and I wanted him to win. Yes, nobody is 100% unbiased when it comes to something like the 2021 F1 season. But, I can assure you that I would have been almost as much enraged had this happened the other way round. But what is even more important, I fully believe that Lewis himself would not have wanted to win like this. It is a shame that someone as brilliant, talented and with a great future ahead of him as Max, would have to win his first World Championship under these shady, questionable and unacceptable circumstances. As for the motivation of Michael Masi, I am not considering accusations of corruption or racism, as I have no reason to believe him to be either corrupt or racist. What, however, I am not only suspecting, but am convinced of, is that Masi was proven to have a weak backbone and a personality of buckling under pressure. Pressure from the need to put the spectacle first, as against sporting fairness, as expressed by the rules. He has a tremendous amount of discretion, which, I believe, he abused on this occasion. Shame!!

The infamous Michael Masi

Another thing that annoys me at the moment (sorry about all this whingeing!), is that we are awaiting three things which I was hoping that would arrive before Christmas. As it happens, I am beginning to give up on all three for that. First of all I was told that I would get the results of my coronary CT in three weeks. It is nearly four now and the days before Christmas are usually useless for anything important. I suppose I will have to ring my cardiologist and ask.

Not Roy, but typical cone-beam CT image

Second item is related to another CT, this time Roy's dental CT, which we were given on a CD, but I am not a dental surgeon, so I need his opinion to advise me when to make an appointment for further works with him. If Roy's jaw is not completely healed, there is no point in going for work he cannot yet do. When I rang the surgery, I was only able to speak to the receptionist, who promised to look up if the information on the CT had arrived at the surgery and also have a word with the dentist about it. That was a week ago, but no contact since. This new guy I am beginning to dislike intensely, especially, when I compare him to our absolute darling of a dentist, Vivienn, who left a few months ago. I don't think there is any point staying at that surgery, even though they are very good, because Dr. Németh is not user friendly and his hands are much more brutal than Vivenn's were. The trouble is that we are stuck there until Roy's lower bridge is done, as the work is in progress and it is also very difficult to find a good, gentle dentist anywhere in BP. The other advantage with this lot, is that they are one of very few dental surgeries where they do implants and they do them well, so I'm told. We will know once Roy had two of them, as that is the next stage of the current works on his teeth.

ID card, although foreigners have a different one

The third item is Roy's ID card, which we were told by the ladies in Pásztó should be with us by post, in a week. Well, we are nearing two weeks, so that will also be arriving, if ever, well after Christmas now, I suppose. As it happens, I am not that bothered, as that card is not essential currently to our operations, but the two CT's are, so those will have to be chased.

 

I mentioned that my VPN is not working again, but I suspect that the trouble is not with the VPN itself, but with the various television channels and/or with our internet provider. UK is fine, but US isn't. Also, the whole internet is extremely slow, which, I suppose is because the usage is ever increasing, while the service isn't. Digi, our internet provider, has only bought out the previous provider about 3 years ago. There were supposed to be grandiose developments, fibre optics installed etc., etc., and then the pandemic hit. Nothing has been done ever since, and if anything, it is getting worse. I have a friend who works for them and she tells me, that if there a choice, I should choose the other one. Regrettabley there is no choice in the village, which is precisely the reason why they have not done anything. No competition causes prices to rise and the service to deteriorate. Right through my life of by now quite considerable length, I have seen this happen many times. Nothing's changed, except for the worse.

The delicious "doctored" pizza

Now for pleasanter topics: After we got back from geocaching last week we had thrown together a pizza, which was delicious. I forgot to let you have its photo, so here it is. This was basically a frozen Quattro Fromaggi pizza, which we "doctored" with extra Dutch cheese, red onions, mushrooms and garlic. So, we made a Cinque Fromaggi delicacy, which will stay in the repertoire for the foreseeable future. 

Hyacinths in a row

In Lidl we bought some hyacinths the last time we shopped, and which are now on the windowsill in the bathroom. They are pink and blue ones, one's rather large, two are medium and one a little runt, which refused to grow up. However, whatever their size, their scent is sublime. Perfect air freshener for the bathroom/toilet, as Roy remarked, and he should know.

Father Christmas in Pásztó

The snow mentioned in the last post, unfortunately, disappeared. On the other hand, Christmas decorations have appeared everywhere, including Pásztó, so here are a couple of photos from there. Christmas is also dominating television and its programs. I have never watched more Xmas kitsch in my life than I did on Netflix in the last week. Sheer frustration from the VPN not working, you see?

Santa's sleigh in Pásztó

The weather, although currently without snow, has been going colder and colder. This morning it was -6 Celsius, but at least it wasn't windy, although that was not useful for lighting the fire. We finally fired up the big pottery stove, which was amazingly easy, compared to previous years. I think the reason is due to how late we left it. As long as you have a considerable temperature difference between indoors and outodoors, the chimney will pull, although a bit of wind is also useful. We are using the newly bought chopped firewood from Bercel, which burns well, leaves very little ash, but is lethal to pick up with bare hands. I had more splinters in my hands this last week, than in the last 10 years previously. Will have to start wearing gloves I'm afraid.

Our big pottery stove

 

My little birds are still eating the sunflower seeds like there was no tomorrow. The cold and lack of alternative food must be the reason behind it, but it does mean that when we go to Pásztó next, we'll have to buy another 40kg sack of seed.

One little lonely great tit on the feeding bowl

The pálinka mash is still in the courtyard, I will have to ring Pali to ask what is the situation. It is getting very late, I'm afraid that it will lose its alcohol content if it is not distilled soon. I think Pali deliberately left it late, to make sure that his mash has matured fully, and then found that the distillers are fully booked until after Christmas. I am only guessing, but I bet that is what has happened.

Talking of booze, I have another problem. My beloved port - Cockburn's Special Reserve - is almost finished and it would be a miserable Christmas without it. So, Roy came up with a solution. He was tidying up the booze cupboard and found another bottle of port, which we totally forgot about. It's a W. & J. Graham's and the vintage is 2012, so it might have been a present from long ago, from someone, that we no longer remember, but bless him, he or she is going to help me over a crisis. While I have never before heard of this brand, I am currently drinking it, so that I can have my favourite at Christmas. To be honest, it is almost as good as the Cockburns, perhaps a bit weaker and sweeter, but it is great all the same.

Another food related naughtiness you might be interested in, is about biscuits. Roy and I have two absolutely favourite English biscuits, one of which we can occasionally buy here, McVitie's Dark Chocolate Digestives, but the other one has never been available. Both were brought as presents by Elian and Xander, when they came over for Half Term. We put them aside for Christmas, to be enjoyed in the festive season. And then, Roy could not help himself and opened a packet of the other one, McVitie's Fruit Shortcake biscuits. He loves to eat that with Cheddar. He swears by the contrast between the savoury cheese and the sweet biscuit. Sounds a bit strange, but I guarantee you would love it, so try it by all means, with Roy's recommendations!

Must go now, as it is well past morning coffee time and his master's voice form above is demanding his special treat, which consists of a medium sized cup of Ristretto coffee from Nespresso with a couple of chocolate wafers, as usual. His biscuits have now been hidden, so that they are still around at Christmas. :)