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.