Yet another very busy week, surprisingly in BP, not Bér (more about that later)

After mentioning going home to Bér on Friday last week, the Town Council meeting was moved to Monday, so there was no point in going home just for a couple of days, so we stayed. I had some long outstanding paperwork to do, so I did it. Unfortunately, my flu is back with a vengeance, so I ended up basically spending this extra time in BP in bed. Roy has been great, doing shopping and other stuff.

Geoff Burke's kayaking in the Shetlands

Alex sent me a link to a kayaking video, which I watched on my phone. A Scottish guy took himself and 4 friends to the Northern tip of the UK, into wild seawater, waves, tides, rocks, caves, tunnels and other delights. Alex suggested that I set up for seeing it on the big TV screen and amazingly I managed to find all the settings to change etc. It was superb on the big screen, and I will do some more of that in the future.

Muckle Flugga lighthouse, the Northern tip of UK

 

There were a few problems with a variety of comrades in the branch, but hopefully it is being addressed as I write this. Levi got back from Jordan and Adriam, Zsófi and I had a word with him. I was definitely expecting him to react like a 2 year old, but he did surprise us all, ate plenty of humble pie and promised to mend his ways. Let’s hope he keeps his promise!

 

Hanna and Noor cooking in Bér

Recently Hanna has also gone funny on me. She was/is sick, so not attending branch, and is very miserly on the communication front. Apparently, she handed in her notice, which was a good move methinks, but not letting me know of everything behind her lack of attendance is not good. I have written to her and am expecting the response. I hope she will not pick up on where Levi didn’t and throw a tantrum.

Call the Midwife cast

I am still watching Call the Midwife and Silent Witness on BBC, but ITV’s Vera has finished for this year. I actually managed to finish watching all 30 available episodes of Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes, and they were all fantastic.

Emilia Fox in Silent Witness

Monday night I went to Zsófi’s flat for the inaugural Town Council meeting. It went OK, although there were a few awkward moments when Levi was his usual impatient self. Apparently he is going to hand her notice in soon, as he cannot cope with the political work with working those horrible hours. The crisis of capitalism gets to everyone, even young people. Yesterday we had an executive meeting, where I didn’t go and just took part online. This flu is horrible and I cannot see how I can function with its extremely slow improvement. My good friend Viktor has just written that both he and his wife have got it now, but the government is still insisting that there is no epidemic.

Rob and Alan's Lenin biography

 

My two major jobs in the organisation currently are: 1. The Organisational Document and 2. Some translation work for the next issue of Fáklya. The latter was dumped on me, which just shows how few of us there are who can do most things and while the membership is growing, the competences of those new ones are as yet fairly minimal. Never mind, I like translating work, especially since using DeepL makes it a thousand times faster than it used to be. 

 

Márkó sitting on the middle of the fallen tree

I started on the translation first, even though the Congress document is more important. The main reason being, that Jack has postponed our chat by two weeks and I would prefer to start writing it after I know what he wants. Also, other than Márkó, I never got too much data about the months before I joined. I’ll have to make it up as I go along, methinks. I hope that all things will sort themselves out in the next week and I will be happily scribbling the next post in Bér, having fed my poor starving song birds from the new sack of seed.

Fluctuating flu, more TV and crazy busy with meetings

Last Wednesday I attended the branch meeting remotely, as my influenza is playing silly buggers with me again. One minute I feel fine, the next minute I feel really ill and in pain. I have been prone to this type of flu on and off for all my life, but not having had it for a while, I am now reminded what a horrible thing it is. Being online is better than nothing, but attending in person is the real thing. It was held in Zsófi's flat, which is even smaller than ours.

The Palestine national flag

One controversial topic was our attendance or not of the Palestine solidarity march, which is currently illegal and is not supposed to have any flags, banners, papers or leaflets. I was, and still am, against attending, but the youthful fervour of the comrades usually wins the vote. As the decision on this was postponed to this week, we discussed it yesterday, and a sort of compromise was reached in that the vote was for attending, but everybody who is in threat of some injury to them physically, mentally or in relation to their employer, is free to decide for themselves.

Lily produces these lovely teas

Lily finally turned up for the bedlinen, which festered under the stairs for weeks. They want to rent the Bunkhouse at least 3 times in 2024, which we said OK to, but as this year is already shaping up for being a busy one, I'll probably won't accept more requests from them. 

The printer

 

Things are looking up with our colour laser printer, which we have offered to Fáklya, after a long hiatus in our use of it. Marci started fiddling with it before this week's branch meeting and it looks like it might be possible to update it and use it for colour printing of leaflets, posters etc. This will save anything up to £1000 in buying one, which would be great.

Levi, my comrade

 

This week has been very busy, even though I felt ill on and off right through, because Levi has vanished off the face of the Earth, and is apparently in Jordan on holiday. It looks as if he is going through some rough days, his behaviour is getting erratic and unpleasant and his attention is definitely not on Fáklya. According to Zsófi he has a new girlfriend, which might have something to do with it, or perhaps his drug use is getting out of control. Zsófi has suggested that we have a word with him, but I don't think that is the best way. He reacts like a 2 year old to any criticism, doesn't listen and gets hostile. I think he needs professional help, but how we can talk him into taking it, is another matter.

The Hungarian title of the Marx article

Anyway, I worked like a Trojan on stuff relating to the branch, and got a few things sorted. Firstly, we brought the printer in and Marci has now taken it to his house and hopefully it should start printing soon. Then it turned out that Hanna was ill, so I had to not only chair the meeting, but take the minutes too. Additionally, as it was Hanna's turn to do the leadoff, so I had to fill in by reading an old article about the Indian rebellion in the 1850's which Marx had written an article about in 1857.

The title of my branch meeting minutes

After the meeting, obviously I had to do the minutes, as well as carry on organising the speakers in my branch after the split into two branches at the beginning of February. Without Levi the branch meeting yesterday was a doddle. Everybody was listening, contributing and we could discuss anything and everything for as long as it was necessary and still didn't go over the permitted 2 hours. In fact, we finished a good 20 minutes early and enjoyed the meeting without interruptions and interference. We are all getting prepared for the split of the branch into two, although I think my branch is a bit more ahead than Levi's. He never plans ahead, but disappearing without saying anything at a time like this, was probably not a good move.

We should be extremely busy for the next 3 months or so. In that time we have to set up the Town Council, which is a committee that will oversee and coordinate the work of the two branches. In the meantime, we are producing the next edition of the paper, and getting ready with writing the Congress documents as well as organising the logistics of the Congress itself.

The change from Fightback to Communist Revolution

Alex had been in correspondence with me on an interesting matter. We had chatted about the obvious decline of Fightback since he is no longer there, but more and more inefficiencies and steps backwards had come to light. There is practically nobody left there now who can write a well researched and well presented, theoretically correct article at any level. Marco had written one about the recent rise in anti-immigrant feeling, stirred up by the press and the right wing media in general, blaming immigrants for the housing shortage. Alex stated, and I am sure he was right, that unlike in the article, where Marco argued that it has a lot to do with the drop of productivity in Canada, we both think that the main reason is simply the profiteering attitude of the construction companies, who are cutting back on building new housing blocks in order to keep the price of flats up.

Look at those statistics!

Interestingly, the day after that article appeared, there was one in The Toronto Sun, which was written by activists of the movement fighting for adequate and affordable housing for people, and it was a 100% better that the article in Communist Revolution, which is the new name of their paper. A paper, that showed the regression the organisation is suffering from, by moving back to a monthly paper, instead of a fortnightly one. In many way, we are all beginning to think that Alex is well off being out of and away from that crowd. It has already started moving towards this retrenchment long before last year, and is now heading to a UK-style Taaffite/Stalinist degeneration, which even Alex could not have foretold and/or prevented.

My forever happy chappie

He is so happy with his kayaking and the new friends he had acquired in the sport, that even Meaghan had apparently mentioned that it was such a delight to see his smile upon returning from a paddling day, compared to the down and grim look he carried towards his last days and weeks in Fightback.

On Sunday, I managed to feel well enough to watch the live podcast via YouTube of the launch of a year of remembering Lenin on the centenary of his death. The speakers were Rob, Alan and Ben. I enjoyed the whole thing, but the real revelation was Ben. He had grown into his current role of leader very smoothly. His manner, his content and his entire delivery was to my liking. The two volume of Alan and Rob's Lenin biography has already appeared and was launched at the rally. 

Two hefty volumes

On Monday Katika has appeared with the outstanding boxes of my medications, so for the next three months, hopefully, I should be well supplied and not having to chase after missing pills all over the place. The beginning of this week was full of lots more Fáklya paperwork and meetings. First of all, Márkó and I had an online meeting, discussing what work we would give to the members in our new branch after the split. I also had to prepare an agenda for yesterday meeting, which was a tad difficult, but all went well. I also had to dig out that Marx article which became the leadoff, instead of Hanna's.

Zsófi, my comrade and friend

Another unexpected, but very good thing was a 2 1/2 hour chat on the telephone with Zsófi. She is bipolar, therefore you n ever know which phase she is in, but this chat was brilliant. It was about the work and the plan in the branch, about Levi and his problems and a few other, mainly girly things which made us get closer to each other. She is a good friend, but now that I am aware of her condition, I can also make sure that I take that into consideration when discussing with her.

My two copies of Engels's masterpiece

Tuesday was the reading group day, and this time there were more people attending online than in person. There is definitely a flu epidemic in Hungary now, so it is not surprising that the vast majority is actually not well. We were discussing the 4th and 5th chapters of Engels's The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State. Bence was running the show, as Dani couldn't attend, but to be honest, I prefer Bence, even though that he can be a bit conservative and contrary, that usually just livens up the proceedings.

And then Wednesday came around again and the branch meeting was back at our flat. Kristóf, who is my contact arrived for his second branch meeting and this time we voted on his membership and he has been accepted into the organisation. He is a lovely, very young (14) member, who I am sure has a great future with us. Bright, keen, conscientious and reliable. What else do you need to help him develop into a solid cadre?

Bér winter wonderland

You may have gathered from the above, that this, in spite of ailments, was a very busy week, but thankfully, before we came in to BP, I had some downtime, where I could watch TV and photograph the newly fallen snow around the garden, which was magical. Vera is definitely coming to an end, and it finished after 3 episodes, but with no mention of it being the last program. The internet is full of gossip, we'll find out next year, I suppose.

Picnic by Buttermere (Robson)

 

Robson Green is still going strong with his weekends away, and I must admit, he gives me a great deal of pleasure in these half hour episodes, of which I still have a few to watch. Feri helped me with the password admin, as I got my knickers in the twist with my photos, which were not complete. In the meantime he sent an absolutely gorgeous photo of Mira, which I have to copy here. Enjoy!! 

Mira, the canine beauty

We are going home to Bér tomorrow, in the meantime there might be another meeting, but the final date of that has not yet arrived. In the meantime we are catching up on paperwork and doing a little bit of shopping in BP. I had a message that my new friend in Bér, called Gyuri, has bought the required amount of bird seed, so that will have to be picked up and paid for tomorrow as well. Next post sometime next week.

Flu, watching TV online, and some more flu

My prophecy last week of not likely to go to the demo was unfortunately proved right. The ulcer on my tongue has burst, probably due to my eating some walnuts and one of their sharp edges tearing the thing up. I was spitting blood for a while, which was quite frightening, and eating was rather painful for a good few days. Currently, it is healing, but very slowly, so I am still not with it completely.

Dávid, Levi, Márkó and Zsófi selling Fáklya

Another sign of this being quite a heavy bout of flu was manifested on Sunday, when we decided that due to my condition, the moving cache I brought with me last Wednesday, will have to be put out somewhere near the house. We chose the back gate, which is uphill from the house and managed to find a good hide for it on the ground, just on the outside of the gatepost. So, that meant 100 metres uphill, a bit of fuffing around with the box and another 100 metres downhill to the house. I was warmly dressed and the weather, while quite cold, was sunny and lovely.

Our back gate, the box is on the right

 

Well, after feeling quite up to it in the morning, the last 20 metres on our return, before the house I started getting giddy, shaking and generally being quite weak. After about an hour's rest I perked up, but all that proved, that I am nowhere near strong enough to do anything for at least 5 days, probably a whole week. This, of course, means that the comrades will have to find another venue for the branch on Wednesday and I will have to attend online.

The lovely countryside behind our garden

 

So, in order to recover as fast as I can, I decided to rest, spend most of the day either in bed or staying indoors without any physical activity, and that, if you know me, does not make me happy. On top of it, the weather was, and still is, absolutely gorgeous: sunny, chilly, but not too cold and with the exception of one day, not at all windy. Brrrrrr!!!!!

Toby Jones as Alan Bates

Well, to make any use of this inactivity, I started catching up on my hundreds of e-mails, doing some other type of paperwork and translation and whatever time was left, I spent in front of a screen watching TV online. For once, it came useful that due to the 6 months' strike action by US screenwriters and actors, my favourite serials are still not back. I could try to find something to watch from UK scheduling and I did indeed find some gems.

Must start with Mr Bates v The Post Office. That was a masterpiece of both journalistic research and movie making. The entire scandal is still just unfolding, and I do hope several nasty heads at the PO as well as at Fujitsu will roll, and as soon as possible. Then I watched some Vera, Call the Midwife and today I immersed myself in Robson Green's Weekend Escapes. Silent Witness is still as brilliant as ever, and even Agatha Christie is watchable, (Murder is Easy), albeit the hero is a black man. The very handsome and talented David Jonsson made it doubly enjoyable, but I have to look it up, whether the casting of a black character was Mrs. Christie's or the current production team's idea. With the exception of Vera, these are all BBC programs which surprises me, as I have long ago given up on Auntie, due to sharply the falling quality of their programming. Perhaps they have realised that they will lose everybody to the hundreds of other channels, Netflix etc., and improved.

David Jonsson

 

Returning to my political activities, this staying in bed lark has also produced the time, if not the brain power yet, for doing some contact work by telephone, with a nice young man called Kristóf, which reminds me to ring him again, as soon as I know where the branch will meet on Wednesday. I have also received a response from Jack, the IMT liaison comrade re: the Organisation Document. So, I can read the stuff he sent and then start putting the structure of the document together. Nothing else to report. Keep your fingers crossed that this ghastly lurgy leaves me soon and I can get back to activity. Next post on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Fáklya, geocaching and another lurgy

Apologies for the tardiness, but life is equally hectic at home, if not more so, than in Bratislava. Plus, it has been made even more complicated by waves of illness, this time both Roy and I. I think that all those lurgies that were overpowered by Covid for the last 3-4 years have now returned with a  vengeance. This is some sort of really bad cold or flu, but I don't care what it's called, it is just bloody miserable never being well nowadays. My latest bad luck includes getting what feels like a large, very painful ulcer on my tongue. It is clearing, but very slowly, and to be honest I don't feel like going to the doctors, only to catch some more lurgies.

The homelessness demo last year

So, after that miserable opening, let me tell you a few things which are a lot less miserable. They include my main hobbies nowadays: 1. politics; 2. geocaching. Starting with politics, things are really speeding up in Fáklya in many respects. Between now and April we have three main tasks as well as sorting the split of the branch, which is now far too large, into two.

The leaflet at the homelessness demo

The split seemed a not particularly good idea when I first heard about it, but like most things in Fáklya, organising it took so long, that in the meantime I not only got used to it, but started liking it. I am going to be the chair of one of the branches, and that, I realised, will give me a marvellous opportunity to do things my way, or at least try. Not that I have anything against the way things are done now, but there is ample chance for improving on it, and I will try.

The leaflet for tomorrow

The first two actual campaigns or urgent tasks will include putting together our next edition of our paper and starting with the "Are you a communist?" campaign. The latter I will not be too closely involved with as postering, stickering and running from police when they try to stop you is not exactly work for a 75 year old. I will leave that mostly to the youngsters and will put the effort into communicating with and consolidating those people that want to join us as a result.

First issue of our paper

The next edition of our paper I will take part in, mostly doing translations from the foreign press to appear in our paper and/or writing something myself. We'll see what Levi, the editor, wants me to do. And finally the big task between now and April will be organising and preparing for our inaugural congress. Here I have already volunteered for a big job, namely writing the organisational doocument, which together with the perspectives document is one of the main discussions and votes at the congress. I presume I will be asked to lead off on it at the congress as well, but at this moment I am just concentrating on writing the document.

Happy partygoers at our Marxmas party

Interestingly, the liaison chap in London has not responded to my request for a discussion about it, but at least Alex gave me some pointers how to start. I will have to chase the London contact, as I need, if nothing else, a recent similar document, if possible from a small beginner section, to see what is expected. So, you can see I am not idle, but while it is quite exhausting, it gives me such pleasure and provides me with intellectual stimulation, that I am very happy to be this busy, albeit doing things a tad slower than I did the last time I was this active in politics.

Oldl church in the middle of the puszta

 

The other thing that also, most likely, gave me the recent lurgy, was sitting in a car all day with two guys, while geocaching on the Great Plain. Feri, whom I last cached with about 2 years ago, finally came up with a plan where we should go. Needless to say, that he and Karesz ended up with about 15 finds, while mine was down to about 8. Still, it was a good day, with sparkling sunshine, which made it a lot warmer than we expected it to be, but pretty exhausting as well. I was an hour late for the branch meeting, but still managed to chair the second half of the meeting.

A water channel in the puszta

I am doing a lot of political and theoretical reading lately. We are still reading Engels's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in the reading group and the last gathering was absolutely delightful. The reading group has a dual purpose: 1. assist the comrades to improve their theoretical knowledge and 2. introduce the contacts and friends of the group to Marxist theory. Lately, we didn't have too many contacts at these gatherings, but we did have one last Tuesday, who was really good. His contributions and questions livened up the meeting. Also, it seems that the comrades present have all read and understood the topic under discussion, and therefore the atmosphere was brilliant and most people learnt something as a result.

A medieaval church ruin in the puszta

This week Stephen comes to BP, leaves, returns and then leaves again, but we are back in the village again, so we will not see him. His life is still fast moving, this time he landed last night, spends a couple of days in BP, then flies out to Dubai for work, then comes back next week, stays a day or two and then goes home. He is past 50 now, I wonder if he will ever slow down?

The farewell photo in Bratislava

Tomorrow there is a  protest march against the government's intransigent attitude to teachers and pupils on several grounds. Salaries for the teachers are pitiful, but the students protest also about their curriculum and the appalling conditions in most schools. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I will not be able to go, as I am not feeling well enough to travel by public transport and then walk and talk and sell papers in temperatures well below zero. Shame, as I really wanted to go, but such is life. I'm sure there will be plenty marches in the future, but it's still annoying.

The best for 2024 from me!!!

Must finish now as the washing is finished and I have to feed the wild birds due to the greedy little things having eaten everything I put out for them before we went in to BP. It is very cold and they would suffer if not fed regularly. Hopefully, next week I'll be posting on my usual Wednesday and the blog will get back to its normal schedule.

2024-01-02 Bratislava Christmas Part 2.

Last Tuesday the weather forecast promised no rain, so we went hiking. Under "we" I mean Alex, Elian and me. The first half was all uphill, according to Google 195 metres of it. Altogether we walked 5km+ and had a good time.

Alex and Elian looking down on me

Elian climbing down

Later on the main event was eating out. This was Alex's idea, as he discovered the JennyV restaurant and bar when walking about in the district we were in. I wasn't sure it was sensible to eat out, when we have so much food back at the villa, but the whole thing turned out brilliantly. The place had a buzz, it had a good atmosphere, the food was excellent, the service efficient and.with a 20 Euro  tip included, cost 136 Euros for 8 people. I can recommend it to everyone when in Bratislava. It is a bit out of the centre, but the food is great and the prices about half of what you have to pay in the centre.

The entire clan in the JennyV

Watching the sunrise from my bed

On Wednesday after some food shopping in the morning, followed by a lángos lunch, we all departed to do some sightseeing in downtown Bratislava. Half went by car, the others by tram. Public transport seemed rather efficient in the city as we arrived at the same time. Headed for the historical centre we passed the old railway station, then walked straight to the central square with the Christmas Market. Lots of frightening and extremely unhealthy food was offered there, along gluwine and pretty souvenirs.

Bratislava Xmas Market

Xmas tree in the Market

From there we went to St Martins, where ten kings and one queen of Hungary were crowned between the 16th and 19th centuries. The kids found both the Hungarian and .com geocache by the cathedral, which was fun. Last, but not least the family hoofed it up to the Castle, although Roy and I chickened out halfway up. It got dark by the time we got back to the Market for some more food, drink and souvenirs. 

St. Martin's on the inside

St. Martin's on the outside

Dinner was fillet steak with gorgeous waxy potatoes and peas. Roy and I have fallen into bed by 10 pm, while the rest of the tribe watched TV, played games and looked for Xander's phone. The phone was not found until the following day, after we all crawled on all fours, under and behind furniture etc. Elian, the image of calm and laidbackness, just happened to mention in a low tone and with not an ounce of excitement in his voice that he found it. We were all relieved. I suppose the size of the villa would have made it totally overpowering having to look everywhere for it.

Roy by the castle gate in Bratislava

The Market Xmas tree at night

Thursday was the first day when only 5 of us was left, as Stephen, Elian and Xander went back to Budapest on the train, so that they could fly home to the UK from there. We really missed them, but at least, this way we fitted into the car and didn't have to use the bus. Devin Castle has a Hungarian name, which is Dévény and it was owned by Hungarian aristocrats until the 1930's. 

Roy before climbing up Devin Castle

The top end of Devin Castle

Needless to say that Hungarians were not particularly popular, and in some parts of Slovakia still aren't, due to their role of colonising Slovakia and ruling in the interest of a foreign power, which no country feels too good about to this day. Walking about in the castle I read that in the 1920's they erected a memorial for the arrival of the Hungarian tribes in the Carpathian basis right at the top of the castle, which was really upsetting for the Slovakians all round Bratislava. Needless to say, that after the First World War in the 1920's Slovakian patriots blew it up, which nobody was investigating, considering that by then Slovakia was a part of Czechoslovakia. 

Alex, Callum, me and Roy in Devin Castle

 

A bend in the Danube below Devin Castle

The visit to the castle was fantastic. I have never seen a castle this enormous and varied. Presumably the different periods in the life of the castle left their buildings or their ruins and it was really built in an amazingly strategic point at the confluence of the rivers Danube and Morava. Also, at this point, even in the historical past, two important trade routes converged and that made it important. Even Roy climbed to the top, which he doesn't normally do and admired the gorgeous views in all directions. The one especially down to the Danube was spectacular. We even found a geocache underneath the castle, near the river. It was a fantastic day out from all aspects. We finished our visit by having lunch in a hostelry at the foot of the castle, which cooked lovely and dirt cheap food.

Looking down from the geocache below Devin Castle

Meaghan, Callum and Alex having lunch by Devin Castle

Friday was a relaxing day, when the Canadian contingent, mostly Alex, was using the sauna and swam a few lengths in the pool. He did this repeatedly until he got fed up and then we just carried on being relaxed, watching TV, mostly Time Team, and playing games until we all went to bed early. Well, at least Roy and I did, the rest of them were up until a lot later.

The 25 m pool in the villa

The sauna in the villa

Saturday somehow did not have too much activity, but we all voted for having our farewell dinner back in the JennyV. We ironically had a bigger table than we had for 8 of us a few days before, but the food and the service was still pretty good.

Callum, Alex and Meaghan at the farewell dinner

 

Callum's Schnietzel

Sunday was the day we all departed home. Meaghan, Alex and Callum were picked up by a taxi at 7 am and headed to Vienna Airport for their flight home to Canada. Roy and I managed to finish our packing, wash up, tidy up, check all rooms for left behind stuff, which included some underwear by Stephen, lock all doors and windows and drive off into the the blue yonder. The trip home was absolutely eventless, I drove and Roy enjoyed being a passenger. The only slight bother was putting up with pea soup fog towards the end of the trip, but all in all we got home in 2 hours 20 minutes which wasn't bad. 

Aerial photo of our Bratislava villa

To sum up, this holiday was fantastic on many levels. First of all for the main aim, which was achieved, that the entire Grant clan got together for the first time since 2017, when we spent some time canal boating in the Midlands, followed by a visit to Sheila in Cornwall. The second point was the enjoyment of a fantastic enormous villa half way up a mountain, with amazing facilities and spectacular views towards Bratislava and the flat lands South of it.

With one of my Xmas present on my head

And finally, the third achievement was to get to know each other a bit better, as we have never spent a whole week, or almost a whole week in the case of Stephen and his kids, which gave some insights into everybody living together. Callum is a young man now, Elian and Xander are also growing up, doing some special things, which was interesting to get to know. I hope we can do it again sometime, although this might have been the first and last time of this type of togetherness, but we all agreed that it was worth doing it and that we will remember it forever.