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.