The hundred and fortyseventh week of the pandemic

So, here we are, into the 4th year of the pandemic, with no sight of it ever ending. I don't blame the virus, that is a living organism, which wants to live. I blame the politicians, most of which are in the pockets of the multinationals, international capital and the ruling class. Where profit rules, human life is cheap. Most recent murderous action is a classic example of the above. China, where communist bureaucrats run a capitalist country, has just made a 360 degree switch between totalitarian and equally murderous lock downs all the way to no control of anything, you do what you like, go where you like, with whom you like. After all, the bureaucratically controlled, cruel and soulless terror of being locked into a tower block overnight, leaving you to die in a fire, is no different from dying from a revived and ferociously attacking virus, is there?

Public enemy no.1

OK, rant over, let's look what we did since I last posted! last Thursday we went to fetch Roy's Christmas and New Year present from the 7th district of Budapest. You may remember me mentioning Roy receiving a 30,000 Ft birthday present for his 80th birthday last year from the 7th district, which has made him a devoted voter for the left opposition parties in Hungary ever since. Well, that outfit has endeared itself to Roy even further, as this time they sent him 10,000 Ft Lidl card, to be spent on what he wanted over the holidays. We walked over to the nearest place, which was about 10 minutes from the flat, queued a bit and he walked off very happy, considering that en route home on Monday we were going to call at Lidl for food anyway. A 50,000 Ft food shop ended up only 40,000 Ft, courtesy of Roy's present.

The happy chappie in the pub

We went to the pub to celebrate and as the photo shows, he never looked happier, than with a pint in one hand and 10,000 Ft in the other. And then on Friday we journeyed to the hills above Szentendre, to join nearly a 100 geocachers for the end of year gathering, eating, drinking, receiving trophies for the year's achievements and doing a bit of caching on the side.

 

New Year's Eve geocaching party

I was going to go on my own, but amazingly, Roy decided to join me. The narrow, long, windy and potholed road into the forest ruffled his feathers a bit, but finally we arrived and parked. The event was only about a 100 yards from the car park, and it wasn't very cold, but extremely damp and miserable. Wasn't raining, thankfully, and the crowd was happy, chatting and spotting moving caches everywhere.

 

Doggies go geocaching too

My friend Mariann pointed one out, which was fantastic, as I have never had that one before. I am not a great devotee of moving caches, unless they are new to me. Once I had them just once, I am not particularly keen to chase them and will only bother with them if they happen to be near where I am caching anyway. This particular one has strict rules about having to move it on within 24 hours, so I have not yet been able to catch up with it, but for this gathering, the owner relaxed that rule, so many of us could log it and leave it where it was at the edge of our meadow, under an electricity pylon.

Nice picnic place with tables and benches

 

There were other moving caches about too, but I didn't bother going for them, mostly because I had them before, and didn't want to leave Roy for ages waiting for me while I went to get them. Also, because one of them was not put out until after we left, anyway. Still, that was quite a nice outing and we were at home for a timely lunch in the early afternoon.

The cups and prizes

Saturday and Sunday were spent mostly at home, with one exception. On New Year's Eve we went out to the pub again, and had a quick drink, before doing a last minute shoppping at the SPAR on the Körút. In the evening, we opened a bottle of champagne, sipped it happily, listened to the President of Hungary at our first midnight, and regretted it. She is a government puppet, which is definitely a violation of the democratic principle of total independence of the Prestident from government and/or any other political, financial or any other type of pressure.

This woman when instructed to put her signature to laws, usually doesn't even ask "Where do I sign?" just does as expected. She is quite young and pretty, which made me even sicker listening to the pious, hypocritical hogwash, with which she asked everybody to hold together and help the sick and the elderly. Mind you, what else could Hungarians do, when her government has recently disavowed all responsibility for social care of the sick and disabled, expecting their families to look after them once they chucked them out of hospital?

London New Year fireworks

 

After this vomit inducing experience, we were hoping that our second midnight, the one in the UK, would cheer us up. Fat chance, you might think, considering that the state of capitalism is decidedly sickly, wherever you look in the world. However, at least the fireworks were impressive, although many of my friends in London were disgusted at the profligate waste of money on it, where thousands are cold and hungry, even in such a rich country as the UK. Because we usually have tea quite early, my tummy was absolutely empty by the time I put two large glasses full of champagne in it, and therefore I went to bed about 2am rather tipsy. So what, even I am allowed to get a bit merry now and again, aren't I?

 

After all this, we journeyed back to Bér on Monday, via Gödöllő Lidl. As we had to leave before 8am, which is when the free parking for the holidays finished, the roads were practically empty, so were the shops, and we were at home by 10:30am. Like well-honed clockwork, we put everything away very quickly, had our coffee with biscuits and didn't bother with lighting the stove, as the weather got spring-like and the radiators were enough.

Bozsa and Árpi when we last saw them

 

Lots of mundane housework type stuff was awaiting my attention, as well as some admin and paperwork. I did 2 loads of washing, I had to ring up several friends, and some called me, finally the account for the Family History Group's yearly fees arrived, so I paid it, then talked to my friend Bozsa about our visit and perhaps that we could go to a concert sometime together, commiserated with her about her cough, which was so loud and so frequent, that I couldn't fail to notice. She reckoned it was not Covid, but it sounded pretty bad to me, and, of course, I watched some Netflix, that is somehow unavoidable over the holidays.

Richard Burton in Where Eagles Dare

 

Where Eagles Dare is about 55 years old this year. It was great fun to watch it again, even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. Another enjoyable film was totally new to me, even to the extent that I have not only not seen it, but have never heard of it either. Ocean's 8 was a feminist rethink over the series of films with men only, lead by Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney. It was fun, well written and acted and just right for light entertainment when you have nothing better to do.

The 8 from Ocean's 8

 

Paperwork and admin was a tad more boring and aggravating. The latter adjective perfectly describes my futile efforts so far, of remedying one of Roy's major upsets with our television provider. His Hungarian is very limited, so he does need his programs in English. And one channel in particular is his favourite. It's called Viasat History and most of its broadcasts are either automatically in English or switchable to English. Then one day a few weeks ago it went all Hungarian, with no chance to switch it back. I tried to find out what happened and got various opinions from various sources. The most exotic, but still quite feasible one, was that the government has acquired a controlling stake in it and through its well known xenophobia, deliberately switched the foreign languages off. 

The dreaded TV channel

I don't know what, but finally I found a really nice little woman on the help desk, who suggested I wrote to Viasat to see what they have to say. I am not holding my breath, but who knows. I do remember that I did something similar a good few years ago about a wall that was built between the car park of Tesco and a DIY supermarket in the 14th district of BP and which was a pain without a way through between the two. You had to travel over a kilometre to get from one to the other, when if they demolished just 8 or 10 foot of the wall at a convenient place, you could get there in about 30 seconds. The management at either store was not very friendly, so I wrote to Tesco in the UK, complaining and hoping that something could be done about it. They didn't answer my e-mail, but in about a couple of months, low and behold a gap was opened in the wall at exactly the place I suggested it. So, who knows, we might get the English back on Viasat History in good time.

Coffee and biscuits

Must go now as it is getting close to coffe and biscuit time. If I haven't mentioned it, we wish a very happy 2023 to all of you out there and my next post should be next week. :)