The hundred and seventeenth week of the pandemic

The earlier part of this last week was dominated by my sister Nelly, who is not only chatty and friendly, but having invited herself for coffee last Wednesday, ended up staying for lunch as well. Inviting her to lunch was Roy's idea and as I had some dill for my marrow, and knowing that Nelly loves it, I joined in the invitation.

My sister Nelly 14 years ago

The day went past fine, we chatted, ate and drank and all was very merry. On Wednesday, I knew that she was going to BP, first to the baths, then to the market to do some shopping. Suddenly, around 10am the phone went. She was just catching her bus in BP and wondered if I could go and fetch her by car from Hatvan. I said yes and Roy suggested that once I drove that far, I might as well pop into Tesco  for a few things only they keep. 

Red rose

I left very soon, filled the car up en route to the bus station and her bus arrived within 10 minutes of me getting there. The filling station amazingly asked for no proof of Hungarian nationality, so I managed to get my petrol at the subsidised price of 400Ft a litre. Otherwise it would have been around 700Ft, which is appr. £1.60. She wasn't too pleased with me for leaving her in the car while I shopped at Tesco, but with me being in and out in 20 minutes, she didn't dare complain.

Pink rose

 

En route home I missed one turning, so we went slightly the long way round and I hope I wasn't caught by the fuzz with the speed gun, as they have been lurking in several of the villages with long, straight high streets, where it is easy to forget about them. I normally drive quite in a relaxed manner, not to mention my dear sister, who is quick to order me to slow down, so I hope no nasty letters arrive in the post in the next few weeks.

Salmon rose

Once we got home she produced a kilo of strawberries, which we were supposed to eat all together between the three of us. She managed to buy some very misshapen strawberries, but they tasted so gorgeous, I didn't care what they looked like. She also bought a spray cream which, unlike most, was real dairy cream, and that was pretty good too.

Rose inspection

A day or two before all this socialising with my sister and eating strawberries, I managed to find the old USB Wi-Fi stick that Roy used to use with his old desktop computer. It is pretty old, I had no idea if it still worked and how safe it is putting it into the computer, while another network card, albeit not working, was still in it. So, on the day of the strawberry eating I also rang the Pásztó computer chap on his first day back from his holiday, and asked him. He confirmed it that it was OK to connect the stick to the computer, and it should work fine. If it doesn't work, he said, I can go and buy a new one of those from him, as he stocks it in his shop.

The old Wi-Fi USB stick

 

So, still with some trepidation, I pushed it into one of the new USB ports and it worked like a dream. It was really PUSH and PLAY. No finding a driver, or at least installing it, no passwords, codewords or anything. It just worked. Miracles still happen, I acknowledged, and was very, very happy. Although not as much as Roy, who had really missed his own machine.

White rose

The rest of the week was spent with admiring my roses, which finally started blooming, binge watching Designated Survivor, painting birdboxes, and yesterday, watching all 3 and a quarter hours of Titanic on  Netflix, which absolutely fascinated me. I have no idea why there was so little that impressed me sufficiently 25 years ago to still remember it, but this time round, I was mightily impressed by all aspects of the film: acting, photography, CGI, music etc., etc.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the bow wave

While in Pásztó last, I bought a small tin of a rubbery paint, which I was told that it covers practically anything with a thick, smooth and totally weather proof rubbery layer. Yesterday and today I applied a double layer of the paint on the two bird boxes Roy made earlier in the week and they look a million dollars. Soon, we will be resuming our geocaching maintenance trips, and I might just need one or even both of them.

The nicely painted birdboxes

Tomorrow we are off to BP. On Thursday I, or possibly even both of us, will be off to recce the parking place for the Saturday hike, and if the weather is good, we might even check out Sunday's car park too, although that should be fine by the cemetery, as most people go visiting graves by car. Should the weather be really good and all other jobs having been done, I might even pick up a few caches in the vicinity of the weekend's hikes.

The red climber in the front of the yard

 

Next post again either early or late, as Wednesday I will be either playing taxi driver for Stephen or awaiting his call.