emiGrants: The hundred and thirtysixth week of the pandemic

This week was mixed. It contained some activity, some days of complete rest, some sleep, although that is still all over the place. Lots of work and catch up on the computer, some TV, a few doctors, and tomorrow the dentist. Not exactly fun, but it also had an incredibly fortunate meeting with some people who turned out fantastic.

The Holter

On Friday morning I went to the Duna Medical Centre for a blood test and have a Holter ECG device fitted, which I had to wear for 24 hours. Since I last had one, that was a tiny piece of the equipment, compared to the one years ago. I barely knew it was there and even had good sleep that night. The weekend was spent resting, trying to get over both the jet lag and Covid. Roy is still coughing, but otherwise he is fine. I am a bit weak, dizzy at times and having interrupted sleep, but on the whole not too bad.

My favourite sourdough bread with the holes

As we didn't have much food in the fridge, we had to go shopping for food, which we did together. Initially, we wanted to have lunch in our favourite local restaurant, but they have now got so popular, that we didn't get in without a reservation. We moved on to Dr & Baker, where they make the best sourdough bread on the planet. Then we were heading for Hunyadi market, hoping to catch the lángos place open, to have some in lieu of lunch. As we arrived there was a group of tourists waiting for their food. I thought we would never get any, considering that there was 10 of them and the guy behind the counter apologised for running out. He offered us that if we wait 10 minutes, he would make us a couple. Later on we realised that he was closing up and it was extremely kind of him to hang on to make us another two.

Lángos with garlic, sour cream and cheese

As we were finally eating our lángos, some of the tourists were still munching theirs and started a conversation with us. They were from Israel and in a typically Jewish manner were both interesting and interested. Nicky, especially, was a great talker. The upshot was that I offered to take them to the old Jewish cemetery in the Salgótarjáni út on Monday, after the return of my Holter gadget.

Max Thieriot, star of Fire Country

My main activity during resting days at the weekend was to catch up with outstanding e-mails, FB content etc. The other, also time consuming activity was to catch up with my US serials that took me several days. Thankfully, I am now up to date, so do not have to binge watch like mad. I added two new serials to my existing ones: Fire Country and East New York. The first one had a guy I already watched in another series, and it seems to be quite an interesting set up, peppered with impressive forest fires and other disasters. The second one is a cop show with trendy leftie content, where a black woman is the chief of police, in and of itself an unlikely scenario. However, I quite like that as well.

Amanda Warren, the Chief in East NY

On Monday I managed to take the Holter back quite early and we met the Israelis outside the big Synagogue. Our time together had started badly, as due to a Jewish holiday, the cemetery was closed. Bummer, I thought, but Nicky came up with an idea of going to Margaret Island. To be honest, I went along with it, but having been there a thousand times, I didn't expect anything too riveting. Well, I was wrong. They have built and improved the island greatly since we have been there. New bars and restaurants (one of which was still open) were built, the excavations of the old ruins have been finished and the weather was also very mild and sunny.

Nicky by the monastery ruins on Margaret Island

Shmuel has back problems, so he had to sit down on a bench, but the rest of us have gone round. Once everybody was tired, hungry and thirsty, we returned to the one open bar and had some food and drink. I had a spritzer and a plain lángos. Roy had a pint and a burger. All of it was delicious, not to mention the fact, that the Israelis treated us. We got so friendly with them, that a lively correspondence on Messenger and by e-mail is already in action and I have a feeling that we will see them again sometime.

Golan and Jenny, also by the ruins

Yesterday I was paying bills and discovered that I have seriously over-payed one of them. No wonder, the idiots are sending me the same bill three times: once in the post on paper, once by e-mail and third time via SMS. I am so forgetful nowadays, that it took me months to realise that I was paying them twice, or almost three times. I rang their customer service and got a really lovely, efficient, patient and very helpful young woman, who now sorted it out for me and hopefully I will not have to deal with this again for a while.

Covid memorial on the island

I also rang Bolsover Cruise Club and spoke to yet another lovely young lady, but unfortunately, Leigh, whom we had dealt with in 2020 was not in. I told Debbie what we are planning and she promised that Leigh will ring us back tomorrow afternoon. I fancy doing a cruise in March to the Norwegian fjords but I reckon that Roy has different ideas or will not want to go at all. We'll see!

Shmuel, Jenny and Golan at lunch

And then today I went to see my cardiologist, who looked at my blood works, and the results of the Holter, plus she looked at my heart with ultrasound, I also had another ECG and they took my blood pressure. After all that, she declared that I am fine and I shouldn't grumble, as many other 74 year olds would like to be in my condition. I told her that I am still within the first month of after-Covid aches and pains, but at least now I know that it doesn't look like it affected my heart.

Roy and Jenny at lunch

On Friday this week I am off to Veszprém to visit my good friend Edit and have a few trips out with her to hike and geocache while there. This is the dress rehearsal for next weekend, when I am supposed to lead a long and arduous hike in the Mátra mountains, and which is still a dodgy proposition, considering my condition. I hope I'll survive this weekend reasonably well, and then should start to prepare for next weekend.