Runup to my birthday

I think, we squeezed at least a month's worth of activities into the last 10 days. The frantic tidying, cleaning etc. that followed our moving back upstairs to sleep in our bedroom again finally came to a close. The Farmhouse, the Bunkhouse and the garden all looked spic an span. Now it was the turn of the BP flat to get titivated.

Our bedroom with the air conditioner

On Wednesday, the 5th July we had to go into town anyway, as I was due at a Fáklya branch meeting. It was pretty good and informative. We went to a pub called "Zsír", which means: fat. Why, don't ask! I am getting quite involved with my young comrades, which is really enjoyable.

Marxist literature stall

 

On Thursday the heat got quite unbearable, but we still went to fetch the GCJaro bucket from Fazék's office. The rest of our time was spent with cleaning the flat and watching Netflix. My latest find was The Lincoln Lawyer. I am really enjoying it, bingewatching it whenever I can.

The Lincoln Lawyer

Another recent discovery was the BBC's Gentleman Jack. Sureanne Jones is superb and the whole Wainwright setup fascinating. She does many interesting, historically accurate feminist stories, and this one didn't disappoint either.

Gentleman Jack with her lady love

On Monday I had a busy schedule. We left Bér after lunch and got to town in about an hour and a half. It was perishingly hot, but I had to go and meet my young comrades, who were sewing and painting a flag for the Pride demo on Saturday. I also went to learn some more Discord, which is actually not as difficult as I was expecting it to be. I had about three hours with them, which was a pleasure.

Then I took off and went to the airport to welcome Alex. Amazingly, especially for a late evening/night flight, Ryanair was on time. We took a taxi, as Alex was very tired after a trip of over 24 hours. We had various appointments in the following 2 days, so we were planning to get down to Bér on Thursday.

Caving group photo at the end in the dark

The star event of Tuesday was my attempt at caving. I have already managed to find  two caches which were in caves, but those were a good few years ago, and this time it was a lot harder. Partly because I was a lot older, but mostly because this 5-part multicache did indeed have boxes in proper caves, where you had to go on all fours, or on your tummy, and in one place you had to climb a rock wall with very few holes or ledges for your feet and hands.

Coming down from the high cave

I loved it, however, no matter how hard it was. I had lots of lovely people who helped and especially Zoli, our caving expert, was a delightful chap. The other cachers's group consisted of a family of 5, my friends Feri, Karesz, Attila and Gyuri. I had plenty of compliments about bravery, which, of course, I have alwys had in plentiful supply, but the problem, as always when you get old, is that you are getting weaker which can cause problems for others.

Looking rather tatty after one of the caves

Still, I had a lovely time. Sustained a few injuries, like scrapes, bumps and some strained intercostal muscles on the right of my ribs, but the pain will go and the gorgeous memories will remain.

Birthday lunch in the Zila

 

Wednesday was the day of our birthday lunch at the Zila Restaurant, where the Golden Wedding do was 3+ years ago. I also ordered a cake from them, which we picked up. The lunch was exceedingly delicious, but unfortunately, the prices were more than sky high. I suppose we do not do this too often, so a special occasion like a 75th birthday, probably qualified to eat there. I had duck liver, Alex had duck legs and Roy had a steak. For afters, we all had icecream, although that delicious vegan chocolate icecream they had last time was not available this time. 

Roy with his icecream in the Zila

On Wednesday I also had a discussion group about Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed, followed by a picnic. That was fantastic as well. There were lots of new faces, the discussion, while a tad off the topic quite often, was interesting and I got to know a few new people. I took a white sheet, from which they started to make a banner for the Pride demo on Saturday as well.

The Fáklya graphic on the banner

While I was at this event, Roy and Alex went to the pub, followed by Alex going for a long walk round BP. We all went to bed quite late, which was starting to become the hallmark of the week. And then on Thursday we left for Bér. We shopped for food at Tesco in Gödöllő. We got in by 12:45 pm, which was good going. 

Muggins the tractor star

We were away less than a week, but the garden needed mowing again. In spite of my bruised ribs I did the tractor work, Alex did a bit of ordinary mowing, and Roy did the most of that after Alex stopped. I was inundated with birthday good wishes, by e-mail, Messenger message, SMS and Facebook message. Some people rang, some had written, and a few did both. Just answering my nearly 60 written messages took me half the night, thus going to bed well after midnight.

 

Alex on the cache check trip

And this takes us to today. The main event today was a cache checking trip out with Alex around Bér. The first one by the mill stream was OK. I was worried that the cloud burst 6 weeks ago, while the mill stream ended up looking like Niagara Falls, took it away. Luckily, all was well. The second one by the well further up the hill was also OK, except that there were thousands of ants all over it. We tried to clean them up, but I'm sure they will be back by tomorrow.

 

Alex trying to frighten the ants

The final cache was a slightly more dodgy affair. This weekend is, unfortunately, is when the annual Mud Fextival takes place at Virágos and one of the caches was surrounded by lethal, fast moving quad bikes, as well as lots of campers. We checked that one too and found it OK, but I'm worried that somebody saw what we did and might rob the box. We'll see, as the blind man said.

Now I am going to have a nap, I think I deserve it after that much activity all day, every day this week. Next post is next week, where you'll get a report of the birthday Saturday and any other matter that have happened in the meantime.