The ninetyeighth week of the pandemic

We have spent the last week in blissful peace in the village, although we have still been busy with stuff. I am happy to report that by Sunday I managed to catch up with all my US TV programs and am now spending less time watching TV online. Mind you, I have discovered a few UK programs in the meantime, so those are now taking up some of my time.

This year's bunch

Call the Midwife is still going, so I watch that, plus there are some fascinating, if in some cases harrowing series on both BBC and ITV. Talking of ITV, people are up in arms for the channel playing silly buggers with Vera. It is currently the 11th series that is running, but they can't get their act together for having all 6 episodes in one go. Initially I thought it must be the disruption from the pandemic that is causing it, but now I am not sure. Episodes 1 and 2 happened last August/September, while 3 and 4 happened the last two weeks. And now, we have no idea when, if ever, we'll have 5 and 6, so it's a mess. I do hope they are not planning to cancel it, that would cause ructions the world over.

 

On the other hand, ITV came up with Trigger Point, which is exciting, if somewhat predictable. Vicky McClure and Adrian Lester are brilliant and the production company and director are the same as for Line of Duty, so good entertainment and suspense are assured. Unfortunately, they are not making the entire series available right at the beginning, like most other channels, so no binge watching, we'll have to have all the excitement in weekly instalments.

Vicky McClure and Adrian Lester in Trigger Point

Call the Midwife was dealing with cancer and a scabies outbreak, so nothing unusual happening there, and BBC offered up The Responder, with Martin Freeman in the title role, which I haven't watched yet, but as its 5 episodes are available at once, I will put aside an entire morning or afternoon to watch that later on in the week. Apparently, it is quite harrowing, so I will need to feel strong to enjoy it. I adore Martin Freeman, but I'm not always in the right mind for stressful things.

Martin Freeman in The Responder

Readingwise, I have now started re-reading all my Maureen Lipman books, which cheer me up no end. I only have 5, so I might have to stock up on a few more that she had written since I have not been buying her books, but thanks to Brexit, it is now a bit more complicated than it used to be. Customs duty, VAT and a handling charge make it absolutely not worth ordering anything from the UK. I might ask Ros and Ian, when they come next, to bring them. Obviously, if they are flying, I can't, but hopefully, they might be able to drive over in the summer of 2022.

Monday was full of busy stuff online and on the phone. I thought I sorted Heino and Manet's problem about the registration card, as yet another very helpful guy on the phone from the Headquarters of the Alien's Police Department enlightened me how to book appointments. But suddenly, they decided that they will not bother. I think it was the article Heino read in some Dutch magazine that put him right off it. In that one, there was a list, as long as my arm, about the documents some Dutch people had to produce to get a registration card. I don't blame him. Even though he has a sunny, laidback disposition with a lovely sense of humour, this was now becoming a real chore and, as he wrote to me in one of his e-mails, in a few years' time, they might by then go for a resident permit, which would be hardly more hassle and mean a lot more. They will both be pensioners by then and it is thankfully a bit simpler for pensioners to get through officialdom in Hungary.

 

Mind you, I didn't want to worry them, but should this quasi-fascist govewrnment stay in power in April, by gerrymandering the elections sufficiently enough to get yet another illegitimate 2/3rd majority, things will only get worse in the next two years. Especially for foreigners. Let's hope we manage to get rid of the Orbán maffia at the ballot box, but I am not sure that we can overcome their criminal practices. Let's hope I'm wrong!

Lovesick Lake, Ontario, Canada

I started looking at airfares to Canada in the autumn. It is not looking too promising. Just round the time we are planning to go there are already some flights almost full. I am still worried about the course of the pandemic and other health concerns for Roy and myself, so am hesitant to book this early. The prices are OK, although they have gone up since last year considerably and there is no sign of the generous Covid insurance that they were offering last year. I added it up, and with at least one piece of hold luggage between us, airfares plus insurance with all heavy surcharges for us oldies, it would come to at least £3000. We'll see.

Two Nespresso mugs

The two parcels I ordered online, (a new lot of Nespresso capsules and my vitamins, nuts, dried fruits etc.) have thankfully arrived safely. Unfortunately, the present in the Nespresso box, 2 lovely glass mugs, do not fit under the spout of the coffee machine, but no bother, we can use them for something else.

Laci 16 months ago

Another decision that had to be made is somewhat sad, but it couldn't be helped. My good friend, Laci, is celebrating his 74th birthday this weekend and invited us both. We would be spending the whole weekend in the country with him and all our friends by the Balaton. A couple of weeks ago I gladly agreed to go, but now we are both coughing and sneezing, and in the absence of a Covid test, God knows what's wrong with us. So I had to cancel, with a heavy heart, but I think this is sensible. Hopefully, we will still be alive and kicking next year, when I offered the Bunkhouse for the whole bunch to come and celebrate his 75th with us in Bér in January 2023.

Sunday breakfast

The weather is still perishing, so we have not been outside too much in the last week or so. We are not bored, as we always have various ways of occupying ourselves, but I really await the arrival of the more clement weather with great anticipation. First of all, I worry that we both are putting on too much weight. I haven't been anywhere near scales, as I dread what they would show. Food is a marvellous source of comfort in stress, but we must control our intake, if for nothing else, for the sake of our health. Having said that, we do occasionally have a blowout, which is at least soothing for mental health. A genuine English breakfast last Sunday was such an indulgence. Fried bread, fried eggs, fried bacon, fried tomatoes and mushrooms went down a treat. I didn't have any bacon, but the rest was gorgeous. We washed it down with a couple of large glasses full of pomegranate juice, yum, yum!

Bird seed shop

Must go now as it is past my breakfast time this morning. Only cornlakes with fruit, nuts and oat milk, so do not worry about me! Plans for later on this week and next week include a Zoom chat with some new online friends from somewhere around the Balaton tomorrow and next week we'll have to have a trip into Pásztó to the market, look around for a new cooker, visiting the Government Window to gain advice on Roy's citizenship application and, most importantly, buying food for both us and our wild birds on the feeders. Our food will come from SPAR, theirs from the agricultural shop, where a 40kg large sack of sunflower seed only costs about £8.

Next post hopefully on Wednesday again. 😉 

The ninetyseventh week of the pandemic

Our life in the village since the installation of the new cable internet, TV and landline had been spent watching TV either on the second TV set on the new network, or on the computer using our VPN. The bandwidth and speed of the internet is really good, as I have mentioned before, but I now have the heavy task of catching up 11 US serials and a few UK ones as well. 

The two leading characters in FBI International

One of the US cop shows is filmed primarily in Budapest, which is fun. This one is called FBI International. The base of the team is in BP, but they travel a lot within Europe to various cases. Their Headquarters is in a ruinous building, which is quite vogue in these parts, after some university students invented the "ruin pub" movement some 10 to 15 years ago. BP still has plenty of derelict apartment blocks in the centre, and those students started their own illegal pubs in a few of those. The authorities had been harrassing them for a while, but by the time they admitted that it was impossible to suppress the movement, they decided to accept them and from then tax them etc.

One of the famous "ruin" pubs in Budapest

It is sort of de rigeur to have no plaster on the walls, tatty old furniture, etc., etc. Well, it is in one of these buildings that the FBI has its BP base, which I bet puzzles the yanks at home. I usually have fun trying to work out where things were filmed, and I caught them at something naughty the other day. The street was supposed to be Prague, but I can assure you it was in Budapest. Still, the styles are similar, both cities were great centres in the Hapsburg Empire in the late XIXth and early XXth centuries, when most of these streets and buildings were built.

Duster in meteor grey

Monday was the crucial day in relation to the car. Neither Roy nor myself thought that there was anything really wrong with it, but we took it to Tomi, the local car mechanic in the village, just to be sure. He confirmed it and we were over the moon that we didn't have to get involved with the insurance company and having it repaired etc., etc.

Invitel in Gödöllő

Then came Tuesday, when we had to go in to BP for Roy having his sutures out at the dental surgery, and en route we decided to get a few things done. We started in the town of Gödöllő, where we had to take the old modem and power unit back, as we cancelled the contract. That piece of junk should have hit the bin years ago, but they wanted it back. The weather was pretty cold, so I told Roy to stay in the car and I went to the Invitel shop to hand it back. The phone line, upon which the whole service was based was in Roy's name. The fact that I took it back didn't please the lady behind the desk and she said that either Roy appeared in person, or he had to write a power of attorney, signed by two witnesses, that I, his wife, can return it. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at such utter nonsense, so had to go back and fetch Roy out of the car to be present. Thankfully, it took only about 10 minutes after that and we got going.

OBI in Budakalász

We had quite a few hours to kill, so Roy suggested that we take the M0, Budapest's M25, to its current end and visit a DIY superstore for some stuff he needs to hide the various cables that are dangling all over the place in the library, after the guy who installed the Vodafone network left. So we went to OBI, an Austrian chain, which he knows well, having shopped there for the last 20-odd years while building stuff. There was no problem with the electrical stuff, we bought it and there were still many hours left to kill, so having spotted a Euronics store, we thought we'll walk about in it, looking at various household machines that we need, just in case something catches our eye.

The actual Euronics shop where the TV comes from

Well, it most certainly did. The choice of television sets was mind blowing in that store. But what was even more amazing, is the courtesy, tact, product knowledge and general air of niceness of the sales staff. You know the thing that he wasn't pushy, but he was invisibly hovering, and when he heard questions or uncertainty he interjected in a polite and quiet manner, but giving answers to everything. We walked the entire section and on our way back Roy spotted a telly that looked a thousand times better than any of the others.

Needless to say it was an LG OLED 4K smart TV, which undoubtedly had the sharpest and brightest picture in the entire place. My friend Feri urged me to buy one of those, but he kept talking about a 55" one, which would have been ridiculously large for the tiny apartment in BP, as well as horribly expensive at anywhere between £1900 and £2500. But this one was only 48" and was on offer at £725. So we bought it.

Roy's burger

Once we put it into the car and still having too much time to kill, we decided to have a hamburger and chips at MacDonalds, which was delicious. I only had chips, but enjoyed them thoroughly. We don't eat fried food too often, so when we do, it's always a treat. Finally, we pootled off to the dentist and this time Roy was in and out in no time at all. The sutures were out, his temporary bridge back in his mouth and we were anxious to get home and unpack the new gadget.

Our lovely new telly in BP

I must admit, it wasn't easy, as an OLED TV screen is seriously vulnerable. We finally prised it from its box and then found that we have to screw on the legs. You will not believe this, but two grown up people, who are pretty good at DIY, took over an hour to fix two poxy, plastic bits of TV legs. The problem was that the two holes, where the legs had to be fixed to the set, were deeply inside the structure and the screws were too short to hit the holes cleanly. A magnetic screwdriver would have been the solution, but Roy didn't have any and neither of us felt like going out to get one. And then, the final punchline was that after all that struggle with the legs, once they were fixed and we could have started using the TV, we realised that we didn't have an HDMI cable to connect it to the digibox.

Those infamous HDMI cables

Never mind, I think by then we were so exhausted that after a very light tea we both hit the deck and went to sleep. Today we got up early, drove to Lidl in Aszód, did a bit of food shopping, came home and I was planning a rest. Not his majesty who started pruning the bushes in the front, with the excuse of them being untidy and as it was sunny, today was the day he had to do it. Men move in mysterious ways, so I didn't argue.

This is what Roy drinks

In the meantime, I tried the landline and it didn't work. Thankfully the helpline at Vodafone was yet again manned by a helpful, attentive and knowledgeable guy, who finally explained that the telephone was put through something that does not work with Vodafone, so that was sorted too. I think the splitter in the middle, so that we could have two telephones downstairs, was the culprit, but as we have something similar on the system in BP and it works, I have a feeling Roy will come up with a solution tomorrow.

And this is what I drink

Today I also had another bit of success. Last week I wanted to reorder our Nespresso capsules, but found nowhere on the website a chance of updating the details of my credit card. Yet another helpful and kind helpline was answered by a girl this time and she explained in about 15 seconds where to look for it. I updated my credit card details and then spent over an hour getting frustrated trying to use said same credit card to buy some Nespresso capsules. Turns out they have not yet complied with the EU directive on strong authentification during online purchases, and this caused the hiccup. Wouldn't it have been useful to actually warn the customers of this fact, or temporarily remove the 'paying by credit card online' option from the website? No, that would have been sensible and helpful, not a particular trait of even the best websites in these parts. So finally I went for paying on delivery and hopefully they will arrive tomorrow.

En route home I managed to buy my outstanding Rytmonorm at the Szirák pharmacy, so I won't have to bother the village social worker with this chore in future. There is a system that your doctor puts the prescription up into the cloud and using your National Health Number, the pharmacy can look it up and you don't need to bother with queueing at the doctor's surgery for paper prescriptions. I have decided that from now on I will ring the doctor's assistant in the surgery, get her to put three months up into the cloud and buy it anywhere, wherever and whenever it is convenient for me. Win, win situation all round.

Returning to the topic of the television sets, new and old alike: we realised something today, which explains some stuff we so far didn't understand, as well as giving useful info about the HDMI cable. Apparently, there are three different types of HDMI cable, of which no. 3 is the most recent and most sophisticated. The fact that the old BP TV set works a thousand times better in the village than it did in BP, even though that the supplier and the package we bought is identical in the two places, puzzled us intensely. However, what if the second TV in the village has a no. 3 HDMI cable, which the technician recently brought, and that enhanced its performance? If that is true, then we shouldn't use the old cable with the fancy big new TV in BP, as we planned, but definitely should buy a new one.

Must go now as it's teatime and my tummy is rumbling. Hopefully, we will not have to go into BP for a good while now, and I will have a chance to be on time with the blog again. :)

The ninetysixth week of the pandemic

Last weekend was eventless, which really did make a change. It was getting really cold and we kept indoors most of the time. Then Monday came and we were waiting for the technician to install our new internet, TV and landline phone. He was supposed to come between 8 am and midday and arrived around 11 am. Apparently, he has already been to Buják, a village half an hour away, and started working on our system.

The sun is just rising in the flatlands

He looked a bit startled by the task, but with suggestions from us and using his own initiative, he soon grasped what the job entailed. He had to crawl along a tight bit of the attic in the eves to get about 30 metres of cable from the electricity post outside to the far back of the house. He was not a fast worker, but very precise, fastidious and careful, which we appreciated lots. It took him 4 and half hours, but by about 3:30 pm he was finished. He took care to explain everything, he wouldn't leave until everything worked perfectly, unlike some bugger I had also from Vodafone in BP a few months ago. I did get his name and telephone number, as I might need him in the future.

Karesz heading for the shelter

Now we have some upload speeds that are mind blowing. The television set, which was the one we brought out from BP, has a picture far superior to the one it had when connected to the system in the flat in BP. This makes me think that the bugger that was rushing, rude and totally negligent when installing that system last autumn is responsible. I used to think that as the TV is quite old, it was perhaps that, but it couldn't be. I might complain, especially if we spend a fortune on an all singing, all dancing new smart TV and the picture does not improve. The actual Vodafone package we are having in the village is exactly the same as the one in town: 500 megabits speed internet, 115 digital channels, a third of which are HD, on the TV and a landline, which I haven't used yet, but I'll try it today.

 

So, all in all we are set to enjoy this new system and currently it only costs £20 a month. It'll probably go up after 6 months, as it must be an introductory price, but still, it is very much a good move we made with this, and I'm only annoyed that I didn't discover its availability for over a year.

The boys

Then on Tuesday we went into BP for Roy's implants. He looked a bit worried, but was the usual brave soldier he always is. He was in with the dental surgeon for about 90-100 minutes. He didn't look too bad when he surfaced, Daniel, the dentist, explained to me what to do or not to do in the next week, and we will have to go back for taking out the sutures next Tuesday. He was prescribed amoxycillin against infection, Kataflam, which is diclofenac, for the pain and quite a strong mouthwash to use while he can't clean his teeth.

Not exactly a wam morning

 

He had a reasonable night's sleep, although about a quarter of an hour after I went to sleep he had to get up to take a Kataflam just to be on the safe side for the night. He always tries to be the hero, but thankfully he was sensible this time. He hasn't taken another one since, so he is doing OK. I keep an eye on him to make sure that he only eats soft things and hope that all will be well by next Tuesday, when the sutures are coming out. The dentist said that he will then have to wait about 2 and half months, and then if all is well, he can have the bridge fitted. In the meantime he has to exist with a temporary one again. £1000 was the first instalment for just the implants, there's another one to pay next week, and then the final cost of the bridge itself will have to be settled in March. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!

A way through the junipers

And then Wednesday was the long-awaited geocaching day with Feri and Karesz. I chose this day as the forecast was for bright sunshine for all day, but I failed to notice that the temperatures were going to plummet. Karesz came over in the morning and by 6:30 we were on our way. We first had to go to Feri's house on Csepel Island to pick him up and then we were off.

The first ruined church

The caches we visited, all 13 of them went under two categories: 1. ones none of us had found before; 2. ones that some of us had found before. The end count was: Karesz 7, me 8 and Feri 10. We were having a very good time, even though we were freezing their bums off to start with. The coldest temperature I saw on the car's display was -14 Celsius. I managed to photograph it at -13 Celsius, when we stopped at one of the caches. 

A picnic and camping ground in the forest

 

The terrain was pretty flat, but occasionally we had some steep, although not too high forested sand dunes. Pretty much like I used to run in on orienteering events. The objects we have been looking for included old church ruins, several study routes, electricity pylons looking like clowns, a private zoo, a small motor racing circuit, a juniper forest and a few others.

One of the electric clowns

The clown in close-up

 

It was a lovely, if somewhat long day, but the punchline came at the very end, where some idiot hit the car behind us at speed and pushed it into us. Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt, the only physical injury was a bump on the forehead of the driver in the middle of the three car pileup. The real punishment was having to hang around for nearly three hours, partly waiting for the police, and then after they got to us for the massive amount of paperwork to be filled out and signed off. We all nearly froze rock solid in the waiting around, even though occasionally we got in the car to warm up.

The centre point of Hungary

Yesterday I was like a zombie. I went through the motions of packing up in the flat, travelling down and doing some food shopping en route. But once I was home, unpacked, put everything away and ate some lunch, nothing worked any more. Not my brain, nor my fingers. As for my eyes, they were definitely on strike. Today, however, I was a bit more productive. I had a long sleep overnight and as I did have a great deal to do today, I got on with it.

An old military camp

I started with my old friends in the health food business. I order my vitamins, probiotics, nuts and dried fruit from them about 4 times a year. They cocked up my loyalty points again, but I managed to get them correct it. Good job I noticed them, so I could contact them before they ran out. I have no idea when they are going to deliver it, but it got ordered yesterday, the last thye the loyalty points were valid.

They taught the hussars to ride horses here

Then I had to deal with the fall-out from the accident. I rang my insurance agent, who explained the amount of paperwork involved, which is horrendous. Then he said that I might take it to a major dealer, who would deal with all the paperwork and while they would probably be quite expensive, but I wouldn't have to do anything. I found that reasoning quite attractive, but we can't yet know exctly whether the card had suffered any damage.

One of the study route's boards

So, on Monday morning I will take it to Tomi in the village, just to see if there is anything wrong. If not, we'll forget about the whole thing. If yes, then we'll have to decide whether we get Tomi to fix it or the dealer. I hope Tomi will say there is nothing to repair and that'll be the end of it.

Karesz in the juniper forest

I also did my usual extension of the geocaching logs and upload of photos this morning. The new internet is amazing. It is so fast, it beats Budapest. It was a joy have those upload speeds, why didn't I do this sooner, I will never understand.

Feri in the juniper forest

I had lots of phonecalls about several issues as a moderator, and for some other matters, but most had been sorted. I still can't send off my Nespresso order, as my  credit card details have changed since I last ordered capsules and I can't find any place on their web site that would allow me to amend the card details. How stupid!!! And they have no phone numbers anywhere, so I can't even ring them.

Remnants of a medieaval church

I also managed to cancel my previous internet provider, which was pretty painless once I discovered that while a firm called DIGI taken them over, they have kept their own name and website, so I had to ring their service department number, not that of DIGI. The guy was pretty good, and it was done in no time. I also cancelled the direct debit, so hopefully everything is OK in that department.

Entrance gates of the small private zoo

 

I rang my sister Nelly, who is spending the winter in BP, so that her son could assist her in day to day living. Her eyesight is now almost nil, so she does need a lot of help. We chatted for a while, and I think we can keep this up. Reasonable diplomatic relations are never a bad thing with one's sister.

Another old church ruin

Must finish now as I am flagging. Next post hopefully next week, provided there are no more accidents on the road.

The middle car after the bang

Test

 

Yes, this is a test. Of our new internet service in the village. I was an absolute idiot not to find out sooner that you can have really good cable TV, internet and landline for about £20 a month. I struggled with our old service provider that was awful and expensive. The test consisted of two aspects. One was me trying to watch a US television program with my VPN. Normally that is so slow due to not enough bandwidth and other problems, that it either stops or its totally unenjoyable. This time, it was perfect.

The other part of the test was here. Normally, when I do my weekly blog post, I write the text in 20 minutes, and then spend about 3 hours uploading the photos. Upload speeds were especially pathetic, about one tenth of the speed of download, which wasn't too fast either. Now, the photos above are half a meg, one meg and two and half meg. They all took about 3 to 5 seconds. So, I think I love Vodafone. 💓💖💘

The ninetyfifth week of the pandemic

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       This was quite a busy week. Last Thursday Heino and  Manet came over and told us that they still couldn't get a pre-paid SIM card. I suggested that they should get a Registration Card, which all EU citizens can get easily. I even offered to help them with finding out the ins and outs and going with them for the first time to translate etc.

The cake at Heino and Manet's

A very happy Roy at lunch

Fool me. I didn't realise that what was a 10 minute visit to Immigration Control 12 years ago for Roy, is now a heavy handed application process, with Declaration of Intent written by the applicant, and various documents submitted, like financial status, health insurance status and accommodation status. Finally, he decided that he will deal with this next time they come over, by which time he should have written proof of his income from his bank, a copy of the purchasing contract of his house,  and his EHIC card for health insurance. The latter I think is insufficient, but we'll see.

Specimen registration card

Specimen address card

We were invited to their house on Monday for lunch and while we didn't go anywhere, the lunch was still on. I like them ever so much, they are fun to be with and I hope they'll come back soon. I think they are leaving for home in a week's time, so we hope to see them at least once again before they go.

The champagne

And the aftereffects

 

New Year's Eve was fun. Amazingly, we both managed to stay up until about quarter to 2 am on New Year's Day, although we felt a bit woozy the following day. We drank an entire bottle of champagne between us and watched the fireworks in both Budapest and London. On New Year's Day I rang Nelly in Budapest to find out how she is getting on. She sounded very chirpy. We chattered for a good while, which is not particularly typical of her. 

The details of the translation office

Monday was the planned visit to the Immigration Office with Heino and Manet, but we didn't go as I managed to find out on the telephone how many things are needed to get a registration card. We still had lunch with them, which we much enjoyed. I also managed to phone the official translating agency, which we will need to deal with during the process of getting Hungarian nationality for Roy. It turns out that their rates are exhorbitant, but I suppose, if you are keen, you'll have to put up with paying it.

The Dacia Duster warning light

Then we left for BP on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, only about 2 kilometres out of the village, the car started coughing and eventually the engine stopped. Roy noticed that there is an electronic alarm showing on the instrument panel, which neither of us knew what it was. I rang the garage and they said all sorts of daft stuff, which I didn't believe, but offered to have a look at it today at 3pm. The funny thing was, that once we turned the engine on again, all was well, and has been ever since. Spooky!

Tritace

 

En route to BP on Tuesday we stopped at a pharmacy and got my medicines, prescription of which was in the cloud to facilitate buying it anywhere. Good system, I think I will thank Kati for getting my prescriptions until now, but with the cloud, I can ring the nurse, had the prescription put up into the could and then buy it in BP, or anywhere else. As I was on the very last few Tritace tablets, that was the really important, but now I have a month's worth of all of them.

Dr. Bartha, my cardiologist, was very nice. They did an ECG, which seemed to worry the assistant, but the doctor was OK with it. I thanked her for my coronaria CT and the recommendation for the subsidised price for my Eliquis. Patients come first! - she told me, and I love and admire her for that. We need more Dr.; Barthas in this world. Unless I have some concerns, I won't have to go back to see her for a year.

We'll buy one of these next week, I hope

And then on Wednesday we were supposed to go to the West End Centre to buy a new TV, but we didn't. Roy came up with a marvellous idea of taking the old TV from the flat in BP to Bér and buy a new one for the flat. This way there is no urgency to get a TV this week, prior to the engineer coming to install the new cable TV/Internet and landline next Monday. We can do our research into which is the best TV to get. My good friend, Feri, has already told me to buy an LG 55" 4K OLED smart TV, as they are on special offer for £750 instead of a £1000. I will have a mountain to climb with the effort to convince Roy to spend that much on a TV. On the other hand, the space is just right for one in the flat, so we'll see.

The new Duster

En route home today, we went shopping in Tesco and Lidl in Gödöllő, followed by the car being looked at also in Gödöllő, costing about £35 to be told that there was a sensor that went funny yesterday morning, but now everything was fine. On the other hand, should it happen again, we will have to have the sensor replaced. 

Nibble half "doctored" pizza

Dinner was a lovely pizza, which we have doctored as we usually do. It ended up a Cinque Fromaggi (mozzarella, Edam, blue, Ementhaler and Cheddar), con pomodoro, cipolla i funghi. I didn't know I know Italian, but obviously all my knowledge comes from eating pizza.

Lovesick Laka

And finally today, (Thursday), we had a busy day, mostly with phonecalls and plans for later on in the year. Boysa phoned with news of concerts. I might join her now and again, but not necessarily for every one. We had a lovely chinwag, I much enjoyed it. Then Stephen phoned and we fixed up the details, (as far as one can this far in advance), for their visit in August. At the end he booked their tickets, so they will be with us between 8th and 17th August. Start and finish couple of days all of us, in the middle Stephen and hopefully Hannah too, staying in the flat in BP, while the kids and us will have fun in Ber. Let us hope the bloody pandemic doesn't scupper it!

The blue on the left is Alex's

I also spoke to Alex and now it looks as if Roy and I will spend two weeks between Roy's birthday, (27th September), and Thanksgiving, (10th October), in Canada. We will spend some time in Toronto, some at Lovesick Lake at their trailer and at the end we'll probably spend Thanksgiving at St. Catharines with Heather and Lyle. Stephen is also planning to spend Half Term with the boys in Canada, but we'll unfortunately miss that. I bet the boys are over the Moon over both trip, although they do not know yet. 

Soul Dental

Next week we will have to get back to town, as Roy is having 2 dental implants in his mouth and I will have to catch up my UK and American series on television as the internet here is still terribly slow. I do hope that as of next week Vodafone will give us a better service.