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. 💝