The hundred and fortysixth week of the pandemic

The last week has been good in parts and not so good in others. Let's not bother with the crappy bits, so let me tell you about all the good stuff. I have last been to geocache with Viktor more than 3 weeks ago. I really missed it, but sometimes the weather wasn't good, at other times we had other things to do, and finally, being in the village there are no caches left within 1 hour of travel in any direction, which seems Roy's limit nowadays.

Our Christmas decoration

But!! The festive season was approaching and I got him agree to accompany me to the Geochristmas tree nearest to Bér. This year, it was in Abasár, which was about an hour's drive from the village. On Saturday 24th, off we went in weather not particularly bright, but reasonably mild and rain-free. Much to my surprise, when we got there, there was not a soul to be seen. The reason was mostly two-fold: 1. We were far too early, both in terms of the time since the cache was put out, as well as in terms of within the day. 2. This area does not organise any communal get-together associated with the tree, so it is pot luck, like 2 years ago, when the tree was not a million miles from Abasár, and without any organisation, I met at least a dozen people by and near the cache.

Roy by the Geochristmas tree

Never mind, Roy and I found the cache, logged it and drove home. Needless to say, the weather got even milder and there was sparkling bright sunshine all over the place on Sunday. We could have waited a day, but at least it was dry. At home we are not normally festive: no tree, no sparkles and definitely no cards. However, we had good food, even better drink and as a token homage to the event, we hung up two Father Christmas booties and an electrically lit up tiny christmas tree, which Linda sent us last year.

Our Christmas selfie by the tree

I also spent some time filling out the three missing forms that Stephen and I had forgotten to fill out originally. Initially, I had to wait for some dates, but with the exception of Lucy's parents' wedding dates, we are now all good. I updated the forms and if Helen can't remember her own wedding date, what can we do? Talking of the family, Stephen had finally got round to getting some really good Christmas presents for himself, Hannah and the kids from the £500 I sent them for the purpose. I even received some photos, which I am publishing here.

Hannah in her new leggings

 

Xander with his Hungary football top

Xander with his Xmas present

Elian with his Xmas present

 

Daniel Craigin Knives Out

I spent some time also on Netflix, and watched Knives Out and its follow-up The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Initially I found Daniel Craig's ludicrous accent aggravating, but after a while I got used to it, and while I am still at a loss, what sort of accent that was, and moreover what on earth was its point, the actual movies were enjoyable.

Christmas breakfast

Last week I ordered some of my homeopathic food supplements and vitamins from two different outfits online, and amazingly, they both came on the same GLS van just as we returned from town. Now I am set up for 3 months with all my medications, potions, drops, vitamins and probiotics, which will of course, be running out just before we are off on the cruise, so I will have to make sure I'm up to speed with ordering them then.

Óhegy park in the sunshine

And then today, Wednesday, 28th December 2022, we journeyed in to town to spend New Year's Eve amongst a bit more life, than is available in the village. We spent a few hours geocaching en route, taking in three new(ish) caches in various bits of Budapest. The first was absolutely lovely. A cute little park in one of the Southern suburbs, beautifully renovated, rebuilt and kept immaculate ever since. It had space for runners, space for children, dogs, chess players, table tennis players, playgrounds etc., etc. Roy stayed in the car and I went to find the cache and take some photos. The sun still shone and all was well.

Big tree with bird nesting box

The next cache had three parts and I had a lot more bother with that one. Still, it took me to interesting places, while I was scratching my head and it had beaten even Roy at one point, which is rare. Still, the theme of it was the history of Ferencváros, one of the oldest and most famous Hungarian football teams and its most famous and successful player, Florián Albert. We went to the housing estate where he lived, to the brand new fancy football stadium that is now home to Fradi and to a nicely restored 19th century/early 20th century square, with a lovely church and nice majestic buildings, one of which housed the inaugural meeting of the team when it was founded.

Flórián Albert's memorial plaque

The third one we didnt have time for, so the exhibition will have to be visited later, perhaps when Stephen is visiting next month. I only found the alternative cache, just for the password. I am really interested in the exhibition of memorabilia from the communist era, which runs under the name of Retro Adventure Centre.

The current Fradi stadium

Now we are back at the flat, Roy threw together a late lunch of eggs, chips, beans and a salad, which was lovely, He had a little nap and I have been catching up on the computer. If the weather is good, we are going caching again tomorrow, this time out of the city in a SW direction. If the weather is bad, we'll stay at home and perhaps visit Roy's pub once it is not raining.

Bakáts Square church

On Friday, I am off to Lajosforrás, a hiking spot North of the city, where the geocachers are having a party celebrating the end of the year and looking forward to the next. There is an event cache there, plus lots of friends to chat with and some food and drink, if I'm lucky. Roy is not coming, especially if the weather is bad. No bother, I have wellies, raincoats and a big brolly. Next post is now going to be next year, so have a good New Year's Eve, and I'll talk to you in 2023 next.

Budapest Retro Adventure Centre

The hundred and fortyfifth week of the pandemic

I am glad to report that the pálinka has eventually arrived on Thursday. It was 32 litres, which is not the best, but not the worst either. Roy managed to gather all bottles that already had pálinka in them before, which meant they didn't have to be washed. The bottling was pretty straightforward and the three boxes are now stored in the storeroom in the Bunkhouse, waiting to settle down and mature. In about 4 months' time Roy can start drinking it.

A third of the bottles

Friday was filled with the last knockings of the tidying and cleaning campaign plus a fair amount of cooking. Roy did the curry and I did the Somlói Galuska. The custard turned out sort of greyish brown, which was definitely not the same as last time, when it had the traditional yellow, but ultimately the taste was just as good.

Márti and Laci at the Kőhíd Restaurant

 

Saturday morning was quite relaxed, as Laci and Márti didn't arrive until nearly midday. They were very kind and brought us not just the few things we asked for, but a shopping bag full of goodies. None of us was too energetic to do anything physical, so most of the weekend was spent eating, drinking, chatting plus one small amble round the village on Saturday evening.

MOT

Roy's curry went down extremely well, so did my Somlói Galuska.  We put away a fair amount of pálinka, champagne, port and wine as well. Sunday started with the inspection of the trailer that Roy was giving to Laci. We haven't used it in a while, but it seemed in quite good nick. The electrics worked and the coupling up to Laci's Suzuki S-cross was also OK.

Bye, bye trailer

Once the trailer was assembled and coupled to the car, we travelled together to the Kőhíd restaurant in Héhalom and had lunch there. For once I wasn't that impressed with either the service or my food. I always thought that it is rather difficult to spoil a sztrapacska, but they managed. After finishing our lunches we all went our separate ways, Laci and Márti back home to Csobánka, Roy and I back to Bér.

Roy at the Kőhíd Restaurant

We decided to travel into BP on Monday late morning, which turned out to be painless. We did not feel like doing any shopping, so we rested at home all day, and around 2 pm waited for Stephen to ring us, should he need our help while applying for verification of his Hungarian citizenship. We had some nice photos of Elian having fun in the Hungarian Consulate and eventually his interview was postponed for a variety of reasons.

Elian with the Hungarian flag

First reason being that we forgot three forms, which was really stupid, but such is life. 2 out of the 3 were the application forms for verification for both children plus the marriage to his first wife, aka the Wicked Witch of the West. I think that oversight was caused by 1. she was so awful that we both managed to erase her memory from our heads; 2. it was a bit of a hassle to get that marriage certificate from the GRO, and by the time it came we were so happy that neither of us thought of filling in any more forms. On Monday, we spent a solid 3 hours filling in the missing bits and proof reading them, so who could blame us. We didn't.

Elian at the London Consulate

Ultimately, the missing forms were not the only reason why Stephen couldn't be seen on Monday and will have to come back some other time. The other two deal brakers were the non-arrival of the OFFI translations, due to delayed posting date and UK postal strikes, plus the absence of Lucy, the children's mother and Stephen's ex-wife. She had an important meeting and couldn't make it, so Stephen will have to make an appointment probably for the end of March. Unfortunately, they only hold them one or two days a month, usually at the end of the month, and Stephen being abroad in January on the right dates, and then the Consulate apparently not holding them at the end of February, March is the earliest he can go again. Mind you, they told him they are not doing them in December either, and then 3 free appointments appeared in less than a week before the date, so I think he will keep an eye on the Consulate's website, just in case suddenly and miraculously free appointments appear for February.

Klári and Tibi at home

 On Tuesday I started the day with a visit to my doctor in the Duna Medical Centre. She was great as usual and we agreed on a few checkups that I'll have to have in January. Then I went home and soon we departed to see our friends Klári and Tibi, who live in the absolute centre of Budapest. The views from their windows were spectacular, as the Christmas lights around the Christmas Fair looked very pretty. Not that I would buy anything there, as I read many horrified reports online about the prices this year. 

Vörösmarty Square from Tibi and Klári's 5th floor window

 

We have known Tibi and Klári for at least 30 years, probably more. They were our temporary lodgers when Klári spent a term at the University of Sussex many, many moons ago. When Alex spent 8 months in BP in the 90’s, he stayed with them until he found himself an apartment near the stadium. Their children are grown up now and we haven’t seen them for a while. Lunch was a gorgeous paprikash with dumplings and cucumber salad. Just the most favourite Hungarian meal you can cook for Roy, that’s for sure. I couldn’t decide whether this was a fluke, or Tibi remembered?

Lunch at Tibi and Klári's

We tried all sorts of delicious pálinkas, like Morello cherry and medlar. They were great, although I must admit my firm favourite is still definitely Roy’s plum pálinka, aroma, taste and strength of which is very difficult to top. To help digest all the food and drink, we walked about in the beautifully illuminated centre of the city in weather quite cold, but pleasant. Tibi and Klári walked us to our trolley bus and we said fond farewell, hopefully for not another two years.

The Big Wheel on Elizabeth Square

 

After a quick turnaround at home, when I could quickly look up where exactly we are going next, we departed in the direction of our friend Robert's flat somewhere in the 6th district of BP, half way between Oktogon and the Western Railway Station. We have been there before, but not for a fair while. He also invited Peter, a neighbour in the street where he lives in the summer by Lake Balaton. 

This was yet another lovely time we had. They were excellent company, Peter was very understated, but wise and fun to chat to. He teaches physiology at the Semmelweis Medical School. I look forward to meeting him again when we go and see Robert next in his summer abode in Révfülöp. As I am a vegetarian (of sorts), we all had a glorious nut roast with sweet and ordinary potatoes, cauliflower, onions and kohlrabi. Pudding was an amazing raspberry concoction, yum, yum!!

Mysterious lighting for Xmas

Both Roy and I were 150% exhausted by the end of the day. It was an absolutely fun day, with lovely people, food, drink and great chats. However, we must begin to adjust to not trying to do three things in a day. We are just too old now, or perhaps I could quote my favourite movie cop, Danny Glover, from Lethal Weapon: "I'm too old for this shit!" 

A Mercedes made entirely from lights

We returned to Bér yesterday and both yesterday and today we were playing catch-up. Most of our tasks included beauracracy, but not all. This list is not necessarily in chronological order, but I am proud to say, that after I finished typing this I will only have one item left on my to-do list and that is filling out Stephen's missing three forms. Not tonight, though. So, here it goes:

 

1. Paid the balance on the cruise. 

2. Lit the stove again.

3. E-mailed a thank you letter to Robert.

4. Messengered the same to Tibi and Klári.

5. Posted the photos of Tuesday on FB.

6. Voted in the Moderator election on geocaching.hu.

7. Rang Vodafone UK to activate my last Europe Extra package.

8. Paid my credit cards.

9. Rang Dawn.

10. Rang Linda.

11. Rang Sheila.

12. Watched out for the GLS delivery guy to receive two parcels I ordered online.

13. Occasionally played cards, read a book and watched some TV online.

Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel in Youth

The list reads quite straightforward, but it most certainly wasn't. I had to get online and sign into my Vodafone account and then bully the chatbot to get me a person, rather than a stupid computer to chat with. Then I didn't get anyone too quick on the uptake, so that I can activate my package. The latter was necessary, becaue Bolsover Cruise Club, my cruising agency, insisted on having to phone them, should I wish to pay by credit card. As I did, I needed that package, so that my UK phone should work. 

Robert De Niro and Rachel Weisz

 

This is yet another blessing of Brexit, but you can't actually use your phone abroad at all, unless you buy one of these packages, which last only 8 days. As for paying my credit card statements, one of them was very clever to flummox me completely. Until now, when you got into it after logging in, the first page gave you everything you wanted to know: balance figure, last statement figure, items still pending and all your spending in the last month. Possession of these bits of information has so far always enabled me to pay.

Vaguely pink Xmas tree

Today, there was only the total owed and the list of pending items on the first page. I couldn't find the other items listed, so I thought I know how to get up a PDF copy of the last statement and there I can check the items, as I do not like to pay a credit card statement without checking it over first. And here came the real surprise. At the top of the list of the PDF statements, there was no sign of my December statement, which was a bit surprising, as on the opening page it told me I owed a few pence short of £1000, which looked a bit high, but since has been verified. There was even a line that announced this £999.62 as the total of the last statement. Of which not only there was no sign of, but a statement there announced that this is an inactive account, and therefore, it is not possible to produce a statement.

The nicely relit stove

That now really flummoxed both of us. Mostly because we happily used both copies of that card, (Roy's and mine) all through last month with no bother. Eventually, and thankfully, I was good enough to apply the famous 5 year old's method of clicking on anything I could find on the screen, in case something informative comes up. AND IT DID. I clicked (in sheer frustration and desperation I might add) on the "earlier" button, and lo and behold, there was every single item of expenditure from the last 30 days, and which expenditure presumably made up the non existent statement. We added it up from the list and it sort of added up to about £1000.  This took hours, while normally it takes me 10 minutes to pay my credit card statement. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Merry Christmas from geocaching.hu

So, all I have now to do is the 3 missing forms, but that'll have to happen tomorrow. I am awaiting the publication of the 2022 Christmas geocache, which hopefully should happen either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and then Roy and I can have a little outing to Abasár, where the nearest one to here is. Hopefully, the weather will be kind to us and we'll find a hostelry that is to Roy's liking en route home.

The hundred and fortyfourth week of the pandemic

The main event of the last week was a fantastic birthday party, which celebrated two of my friends' birthdays: Ros was 70 and David 80. Their spouses have conspired to organise a secret do on the veteran paddle steamer, moored near the Chain Bridge on the Danube. It is actually a museum, but we just attended the restaurant where all the food and drink, and the chatting, dancing and any other activities were available to all.

Roy and David (not the birthday boy)

We managed to get there by public transport, but it started at 5:30 pm, so we were pretty much done in by 11 pm, when we left to make sure that we can catch the last no. 2 tram to the all night no.4 or no.6, which would take us home. I think Ros was pretty much aware that something was being planned, but Ian still managed to surprise her with one thing: the presence of her sister, which she had no idea of. This lovely lady is the sister she never knew she had until fairly recently and whose family history Roy helped her to research.

The Birthday balloons

Ian and I agreed that all these types of parties are only as good as the people attending, and that made this one fantastic. The atmosphere was gorgeous, the food brilliant, the free bar definitely superb and then came the Scottish dancing, plus the toasts. I had a lovely time and amazingly lasted until well after midnight when I fell into bed like a felled tree. Mind you, I paid the price for all this food, drink and staying out late, by feeling like I was run over by a train for the following week.

Ros, David and the cakes

As we were expecting the pálinka arriving any time from the still, we didn't want to stay in town for long, thus we returned on Sunday, via Tesco and the Kőhíd restaurant in Héhalom. We are planning to take Laci and Márti there on Sunday after their visit to us, so we thought to stop and see what it is like indoors. So far we have only ever been there to eat on the terrace. Well, I have to tell you that it is delightful inside as well, the decor very elegant, the food and the service just as good as it has ever been. Once we got home, we put the shopping away, spent some time on the computer and watched a bit of TV, followed by falling into bed like a couple of exhausted, but very happy children.

Roy and his duck leg in Kőhíd Resto

Over the weekend winter has arrived in Bér and we decided to celebrate by lighting the pottery stove. It was quite quick, although there was a fair amount of smoke to start with. In about 24 hours the entire stove was piping hot, and the trick of putting a very large log on just before going to bed, worked again. So, we don't have to relight it in the morning, you can carry on and the remaining embers will light it up for you. I love my kalyha, as it is called in Hungarian, and it also makes Roy's nights a bit warmer in the coldest room in the house. It has three outside walls, so now he is warm as a bug in a rug. We are both hoping, that our gas bill will drop from the extra heat in the stove.

The stove with a roaring fire

The main event of Monday was Stephen ringing. We spent three hours together unravelling his Hungarian citizenship application, looking at all the documents and then filling out all the forms, which I have filled out for him as far as I could. Obviously, there were things that only he could do, plus we were proofreading it, to make sure it was as correct as it could be. Stephen spotted quite a few mistakes I made, so now we hope that this is OK. Originally there were no more appointments for this month, and he was still waiting for the translation from Hungary, but suddenly, there was a slot and now he is going next Monday and I will be ready with my phone in hand, should he get stuck at any stage. Obviously, if the translation don't arrive from Hungary, that might cause problems, but hopefully, everything will be fine and he sails through the appointment.

A solitary great tit

Winter having arrived we had to start up our feeding of the wild birds around our garden. In the past we had all sorts of tits, finches, woodpeckers, and the occasional blackbird, hopoe or jay feeding from our bowls. We bought a large sack of seed near the end of last winter, so thankfully we didn't have to rush off to Pásztó for more sunflower seeds. I was wondering how long it will take them to realise that the bowls are now being filled daily, and the answer was visible on the edge of the bowl in about 10 minutes. I think they have an advance guard that keeps an eye on all the places they found food in previous winters, and as soon as just one sees you come out and fill them, they pass the word around.

Tuesday was equally busy, although I couldn't start on the planned house cleaning, because I had a really nasty flare up of my arthritis in practically every joint I have. My crooked fingers (I have 3), that looked funny for a while now, but never hurt, started to be very painful indeed. My shoulders and neck, lower back, knees etc. I had to spend the day in bed, but I still did some work. There was one of the forms Stephen and I mucked up and neither of us knew how to delete the incorrect bits and fill it in with the correct data, so I offered that I would redo that one from scratch, and I did so. I have never worked in detail with PDF documents, mostly because I was told that they can be a nightmare. Well, Stephen explained how to do it, but I couldn't take notes, so I had to do it from memory, which is not my strength nowadays. Still, I did figure it out and did it and even upload it into the Google document that Stephen and I share, and which is full of all the documents he has got and now the filled out forms too.

A couple of rebellious royals

As I had to be in bed, I tried to catch up on CBS procedurals, but the previous week there were none, so I thought they have stopped for Christmas. Well, quite by accident I discovered that there were three of them that were available, so watched those with pleasure. I also watched the first three instalments of Harry & Meghan, which was quite interesting. I am an anti-royalist, but I am interested in what is an important aspect of how the UK is at the moment. The racism and xenophobia, not to mention the misogyny in the royal household is mind blowing. Apparently, the other 3 episodes this Thursday will be much more anti The Firm, so I must see that too.

My floor scrubber and polisher

And finally today we started on the cleaning that was planned for yesterday. We had a scrubbing machine for ages, but for some reason we never had a go at using it. Well, it turned out fantastic. I do hope that we can buy spare parts for it, as our kitchen is covered in concrete tiles, and those are pretty rough and wear out equipment very quickly. Well, we will see, but I must admit, it was well worth buying it, or at least currently it seems so. 

Albinoni in Venice

 

At the moment I am listening to Albinoni's oboe concertos on my phone. I love baroque music, but didn't realise that my phone is full of classical music videos. I have quite a lot of jobs on the computer to do today, but didn't want to start on them until the pálinka had arrived. Pali rang yesterday, telling us that he is going over to Buják to fetch it. Hopefully, we'll have at least 30 litres or more. Roy is running out of last year's brew and this year's will have to be rested for at least 2 months, preferably 3 or 4. 

What didn't arrive today 😢

Other than the rest of the cleaning, we will have the job of putting the pálinka into glass bottles, and once all that is done, plus the cleaning, making of beds, etc., will come the cooking. We have Laci and Márti visiting for the weekend and Roy is making a curry, while I am in charge of the dessert. I am planning to make my Somlói Galuska, which I tried a couple of weeks ago on Roy and he loved it.

Next week we are off to BP, as I have a doctor's appointment, coupled with two visits to friends. I might be late with posting, but I promise to try to be on time. 😊

PS: Pali never turned up with the pálinka, so we will have to find out what had happened. 😢

The hundred and fortythird week of the pandemic

Last Thursday I had my first ever online consultation with a doctor. This was with my gastroenterologist, who now works only in the private sector and prefers all his patients to see him privately. We had some technical problems, but solved it by speaking on the phone and I have an appointment for my gastroscopy/colonoscopy for 18th January at the Buda Health Centre. It costs nearly 200,000 forints nowadays, which is a 30% increase since two years ago, but why should medical costs stay behind the cost of food, petrol, gas, electricity etc., which all have increased by at least that much, and in some cases a lot more.

The first cache was under this tree

The first main event of the last seven days happened last Saturday, when I went for a full day's geocaching with my new friend Viktor. I drove to Jászberény, where he lives, early in the morning and we went from there. The main target was a moving cache, which neither of us had yet, and which was on a dirt road, about a mile from where we left the car. It was a tad muddy, but we got there easily, picked it up and took it about 1300 metres, almost to the car and the nearest village. That was easy.

A pumping station by the flood barrier

Unfortunately, the next one wasn't. Viktor bought a permit to drive on certain flood barriers, along the river Berettyó, but when we got there, it was padlocked and not a soul in the gatehouse to open it for us. I was really cross, because the cache was a very long way away from there, and we had to abandon getting it, or we might have had to spend most of the day walking there and back, and that was not worth it.

The memorial to the anniversary of the barrier

However, on the other side of the river, where we had no permit for, but could have driven along the barrier, we didn't dare risking a big fine, so we walked in. There, the cache was also about a mile away, and the walk was very nice in the puszta. It was quiet, a low breeze. some bird song, amazingly for December, and you could see as long as your eyes could carry you. I didn't realise, but flood barriers on the lowlands were built as early as the 18th century, and the one we were walking on was about 250 years old. The cache was commemorating its anniversary and it was placed by a simple chunk of rock, by the side of the flood barrier.

A bronze bustard

Our next visit was to a bustard reservation, although we couldn't see any, as they were hiding in the cold and the buildings were not open. The lovely new and/or renovated buildings looked great, we saw an old cantilever well and had a nice walk as far as the cache. The next stop was a t Füzesgyarmat, which is a typical lowland town, but the actual box was way out of town in the puszta in a very thorny bush. I didn't like that one much.

 

Two old oak trees in twilight

Next was a renovated country house, with a lovely old park round it, with some old oak trees over 200 years old. We had to hurry up after all these, as time was rushing past us, and it was getting dark rather soon. The sun was out most of the day, but it still started getting dark before 4pm. We also had to find a lake, to place a moving cache that Viktor found and brought along for placing it again with me, so I could log it too. Many old gravel pits became fishing lakes, after water filled them. In the old days, these were either free, or at an affordable fee, but nowadays, in the age of privatisation, they were all fenced off with locked gates everywhere. We did find one, which while also locked off, at least had a chance for people to see the lake from where we placed the cache, just outisde the locked gates.

Füzesgyarmat

 By the time we got home to Viktor's house, I must have looked totally worn out, because his wife insisted that I stay the night and drive home on Sunday morning. I gratefully accepted her offer and had a really good night's sleep in her daughter's room. On Sunday I went to Tesco's to do a bit of food shopping, but could not find any petrol in any of the petrol stations I passed. Since then, I found out why. Under pressure from his own party, Orbán was forced to discontinue the 160Ft/litre state subsidy on petrol, and the idiots managed to announce it ahead of time. 

Pali and his friends with the barrels in the trailer

 

Surprise, suprise, the entire population of Hungary went to fill up, whether they needed to or not, to beat the deadline for the higher price of petrol. I only found that out from my sister today, but thank goodness we still have some fuel in the tank, and once that is gone, I do hope we'll be able to fill it up again, albeit at 640 Ft/litre. This is still only £1.35/litre, which I am sure is still considerably cheaper than in most European countries.

Strapping down the 2 x 200 litre barrels

The other main event of the last seven days was the departure of the pálinka mash to the still. Pali and his friends came with the fancy Mazda pickup, decanted the mash into two enormous metal containers and drove off to Buják. In the meantime, Roy managed to put together one of our trailers, which we are giving to Laci, who is coming to stay the weekend, together with Márti, the weekend after next. I asked the guys if they could bring it down the andesite steps for us, and they did. Roy stashed it inside the garage, to keep it safe. The rest of my time during the week was spent, as usually it is, reading and on the computer. One program gave me such pleasure that I was absolutely glued to it. 

The pálinka will return in these

I have always been interested in mountaineering, having done a little bit of it myself in my younger years. Once, I even went to Nepal on a trekking holiday, which increased my interest in all things Himalayan. In the 1980's and 90's I knew the names, treks and adventures of all famous mountaineers, but since then somehow I lost interest. And then, I found an amazing program on Netflix, which proved it to me that the interest in mountains and mountaineers has only lain dormant in me, it has not disappeared. The program was entitled 14 peaks: Nothing is Impossible. It's the story of an amazing ex-gurkha/ex-SBS soldier, Nims Purja, who climbed all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8000 metres high in 6 months and 6 days. Even if you are not interested in mountaineering,if you have Netflix, it's worth watching it for the photography. It was stunning, exhilerating and humbling.

Roy watching the fellas work

FB is still coming up with memories from years ago, and this week I got sight of Callum 13 years ago, in his pumpkin suit, which was heartwarming. The FB algorythm had cottoned on that I love animals, so endless doggie and pussy videos, not to mention wild creatures, like elephants, cheetahs etc. appear most days. I also got onto Jamie Oliver cooking videos, which are entertaining, as well as useful on occasions. Must go now, as I am getting stiff as a board, sitting here and typing. Need some exercise, so I love you and leave you all. Speak to you again next Wednesday, if I'm lucky. 💝