One hundred and second week of the pandemic

I am trying to put the schedule back to where it should be: Wednesday. Funnily enough, it's not that difficult as not a lot has happened last week. Most days we went out to do a few gardening type things, but we get tired fairly quickly, and it rained on some days, so not a lot got done. Still, most days the weather is definitely spring like, so we did a bit of chainsawing or burning wood that is no good for firewood, or pruning.

Indoors there was the usual cooking, reading, TV watching, (on the telly or online), chatting on Messenger, writing e-mails and messages, chatting on the phone etc., etc. Having finished The Two of Us by Sheila Hancock, I went onto her next book called Just Me. Both are fascinating and quite by accident I also discovered that she has taken over from Timothy West and Prunella Scales and is now presenting Great Canal Journeys on Channel 4 with Gyles Brandreth. I started watching them and have so far seen 4 episodes.

Sheila and Gyles going under an open Tower Bridge

Looking around on Netflix, I have also discovered the first 15 series of NCIS. I am pretty sure that I have never seen the first series, so watched 9 episodes, until one day they have all disappeared. I could have watched 300+ episodes over several months, obviously, but I can't now, as they are not there. Strange!!!

A very young Mark Harmon

Over the weekend I attended the Montreal Marxist Winter School online. It was fantastic. I have been following the development of Fightback, the Marxist magazine and its organisation, since its inception. The recent development is breathtaking. Not only in numbers, but in the quality of the comrades. I enjoyed Alex's presentation on a difficult subject and learnt a lot. The Marxist theory of rent is not an easy study, but I am sure I understand it much better now.

I am one of those tiny faces in this photo

Having missed my usual chat with Alex on a Saturday, due to the weekend school, he rang on Tuesday. I colngratulated him on his lead off, and he seemed very pleased with that. He was telling me that he was off to the trailer, as he took Tuesday off. Considering he worked all weekend, that was reasonable, methinks. Since then I saw a couple of photos he posted, one of them from the usual perch, this time with snow and ice over the forest and lake. I think all I need now is a spring photo from the same spot and I will have a full set.

Looking down to the lake from the trailer

Geocaching has been ignored a bit again, mostly because we are both a bit sneezy and coughy still, so I decided that no exertions should be attempted. On the other hand, things are getting going on the planning front. Wilka agreed to take me caching with him sometime in the next couple of months. I have drawn up the list of caches and I hope that he will live up to his promise.

Most of these are on my list

The spring Festival and Competition is in the Bükk Mountains mid-May. I'm not sure if I am going to go, but hopefully Roy and I could make a couple of days' outing out of it. First day travelling down, caching en route, then a nice little hotel or B&B to stay in, following morning visit the event base and then pootle home caching en route again. The other version could be that after the visit to the Festival, we would go on towards the East, where I still have lots of caches to get, but that'll have to depend on our health and strength, as well as whether we can find suitable accommodation.

The terrain for the Festival/Competition in May

Marianne also come up with her latest scheme, this time to revisit the Tisza-lake for the moving cache again, as well as the new look-out tower multi on the water. It will be on 24th April and if all goes well, I'll be in a 6 person boat with János, Júlia, Ásványvadász and his family. If all goes well, caching can also take place in conjunction with this trip, but, again, it will depend on whether we are up to it or not.

The Tisza-lake with my three I haven't yet got

A nice surprise today was a Messenger call from Linda and Phil. They are such lovely people, I wish they called more often. Finally, the main event of this week is that Heino and Manet are coming over for lunch tomorrow. We have been doing a bit of frantic tidying and cleaning, as in our old age we fell into slovenly ways, which need remedying once we start having visitors. Roy is planning to do a roast with all the trimmings, and he has already baked the crumble for afters. Must go now, my book is waiting for me, after which I'll go to sleep. Taraa!!