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. 😢