Chat with Jack, lots of bureaucracy and paperwork, geocaching outing and jam making

This last week was quite an interesting one from many points of view, There were disappointments, there were exciting developments and on the other hand some old frustrations were released. One of the latter was a farcical performance, which I couldn't make up my mind whether to laugh or cry at. I have two telephones. One is my normal one on a contract, and another one, which is the spare should anything happen to the first one. This one is a Pay As You Go, which I hardly ever use. It costs about £7 a year in call costs, whether you are using it or not, and I am quite happy. However, there is this insane legal requirement that those clients with PAYGo phones have to confirm their personal data once a year, or their SIM card will be switched off. Until now I have never managed to do this online, even though it is supposed to be very simple. Well, it had never worked for me, so I usually went in person, and it was OK.

This year, however, two things happened, which created a difficulty: 1. they forgot to send my reminder for this nonsense until 3 days before it was due; 2: Due to my freedom from Fáklya, we were in the country and were not prepared to go into BP just for this. So, I had another run at it online, and it was still probably the most primitive, badly programmed and useless bit of website I have ever had the misfortune  having to use. Just as I thought I filled everything in, it would just cut out and go back to the beginning. No mention of why, no suggestion what was wrong or missing, it just abandoned you and that was that.

Me trying to sort Yettel

So, in my sheer desperation, I tried to ring their telephone helpline and after various runs at it, finally I managed to get through. You will not believe what was the trouble. Something that with one line of helpful warning could be sorted in 5 seconds. The system was expecting you to fill in your details directly from your ID card. When it asked where I was born, I just put Budapest. Not Budapest 07 Magyarország. Which is how it is on my ID card, but how was I to know, with no mention of having to put it in exactly as it is on my ID card, plus no help suggestion that after the city, I have to mention which district, write it in a particular way (07) and put the name of the country too.

Phewwww!

The young woman on the phone was an absolute sweetie, probably the only compensation for hours of frustration, and finally this bloody Damocles sword was removed from over my head. I should not have been celebrating for too long, as very soon after this a phone call came from Laci that they can't come for the weekend, as Márti's father is very ill and they have to go and visit him in Debrecen. Family comes first, no questions asked, but I was beginning to feel that this get together is cursed and we should give up the idea. As the rest of our summer is practically full, I can't see how we can meet them before the autumn.

Márti and Laci

While all this was going on, Stephen arrived in the flat in BP for a couple of nights with Valéria and found no internet. I had no idea what could have happened, but as the heat wave was raging, I thought it probably had something to do with the heat. The following day I received no more messages from Stephen, so obviously the problem was solved.

The ubiquitous Adriam

 

The first really sensational event happened on Friday, when finally Jack rang and I was told what had happened at the World School in Italy. I thought nothing would shock me any more, but I was wrong. Apparently Adriam has not only disgraced himself, but the name of the entire Hungarian organisation. He was sick all over his room, which he shared with 3 others and didn't clean up after himself. Then he called housekeeping and made a scene over them not cleaning it up for him. The whole thing started on the beach, even before the school started, with a panic attack and Zsófi wanting to call an ambulance. The Italian comrades had told her not to do that, as psychiatric services in Italy are medieval and they would probably lock him up. Jack had offered to Adriam that the organisation will pay for a taxi to the airport and the cost of a new airfare, so that he can go home and receive treatment there. He refused that and said he would pay for another hotel room for himself and stay, so he can travel home with Zsófi.

The Marina di Massa event logo

A few days later he asked if he could attend a session somewhere else, that was also part of the school and Jack promised him to arrange it. There was a delay and Adriam lost his cool, complained and accused the organisation to have banned him. Then he started doing factional work with other Eastern European groups, who supposedly supported him and at this point he was inevitably laid into by Jack and told to cease and desist from these type of factional activities. Apparently after this he became calm and teary and apologetic, so the whole International leadership now knows exactly what is going on in Hungary.

The Fáklya logo in a dark version

Not only there is a group that takes no instructions, suggestions or any help to put them in the right direction, but is lead by two sick people, and it is in the state of disintegration. All I could think of was that how lucky I was to get out when I did. I don't miss it, precisely because of people like him having inordinate amount of power and misusing it all the time. It is a shame, because with some normal, sensible and serious leadership, the group could go places. There is plenty of potential there being lost, as the resignations and total fall away of comrades in ever increasing numbers is proceeding at speed. Márkó is still in touch, asking my opinion on things, or for advice, which I happily give him. But I won't be able to do this forever. I told him he should leave too and take those that make some sense with him. I don't think he has the courage or confidence to do that, so they are doomed.

Muggins up a ladder picking Morello cherries

The total harvest of 2 kilos of Morello cherries

Back in Bér the wast majority of our time has been spent working in the garden, doing some Morello cherry harvesting, followed by some jam making. I personally, having finished organising two 4-day outings in July, doing some geocaching, had to start writing up the cache lists. The first outing, which starts next Wednesday, has been done, the other one, in the middle of July is in progress.

10 little jars of Morello cherry jam

 

Roy with his trusty mower

One day, when there was a bit of wind and lots of sunshine we did some mowing: Roy on the push you pull me machine, me on the tractor. I finished in less that an hour, this is how much difference a little bit of a breeze makes in drying the grass.

The renovated mining machinery in the park

And then we arrive at the best bit of the last week: a day out doing some geocaching and a few other chores besides. I know the title is about geocaching, but we had more than one reason to go out. One, of course, was geocaching, as in the last six weeks four new caches have appeared within an hour’s drive from Bér. However, we needed to go out to get my medications, as well as to get some food, plus some DIY bits and bobs, as Roy decided that he would fix the exit pipe from the mobile AC unit. With all the mowing we had done lately, we had to fill the large jerry can as well, so this sounded like it would be a good, useful and active outing. As the weather is still tropical in these parts, the AC is somewhat urgent, and a nice meal out was also put in there by me as an incentive for Roy. 

The front end of the mining machine

We got up at 6 am and left just after 7 am. The first cache was in an ex-mining village, which I have actually visited, also for a cache, some years back, but I am happy to report that the place has definitely had a makeover. It seemed less drab, more colourful, with clean streets and happier looking people. The cache was by an old mining machine, that someone had in his collection, renovated and donated to the town. They made up a nice little park to surround it and it was all very lovely. 

A strange looking tree on my hike

 

The next two caches were in the Mátra and the GPS sent us through the hills, which was a nice route that was new to us. We found the parking space and I left Roy to have his morning nap, while I went on a two-mile little hike to two separate caches. The first one was by a spring, the second was a Virgin Mary shrine. To be honest, I have been to more springs since I started geocaching than I had hot dinners and as for the Virgin Mary, being an atheist, you can work out what my attitude to her must be. 

The signature plant, a wild carnation, of the Mátra

However, having written that, the main enjoyment in that small hike was the actual environment I was walking in. The Mátra is a beautiful mountain, with some nice trails, views, villages, lakes and some gorgeous forests. The topography tends to be quite steep, but this walk only had a small amount of climb and the rest was either on a level path, that used to be a narrow-gauge railway line, or downhill. I got back to Roy by 11 am, as promised and we took off by car to the next and last cache a bit further up the mountain. 

The Virgin Mary shrine

 

This is a place I have been many times before. It has a large and unfortunately paying car park, but as on steep mountains which are full of hairpin bends car parks are few and far between, we always paid. This time, however, having discovered a very nearby, completely free car park, we went there. The cache had four parts and it went along a really lovely study trail, which taught you about the forest, the plants, the trees, the animals, the springs and streams that you saw on your way. 

This time round even Roy was prepared to do some of the study trail with me, which was great. We met a cute little group of two adults and eight little boys and girls, who looked like a kindergarten group, had a chat with them and went all the way to the end of the study route to the well. By this time, it was well past our lunch time, so on our return from the study route we jumped in the car and went for lunch in Mátrafüred. 

Some time ago, when attending an orienteering event we did the same, and we thought we’ll try the same place again. Well, it was a good decision. The food was hot, plentiful, service was great and quick, and we both loved sitting out in the garden in the shade. Roy had a gypsy roast, I had liver in breadcrumbs and we also shared each others’ cucumber and cabbage salad with it. After this feast, the first thing we thought of was a nap, but as there were still lots of task to fulfill, we had to carry on. First visit was to OBI, which is a DIY superstore. I was a bit ailing from the high heat, so I spent most of that sitting on a garden chair which we had no plans to buy, while Roy was discovering all the pipes and stuff he needed. 

Next stop was to Tesco, for some foodstuffs and, thankfully, the inbuilt pharmacy for my meds. Finally, we filled the can up at the Tesco petrol station, followed by a pleasant drive home. The air conditioning in the car is a godsend, I am sure I couldn’t travel without it. En route home, quite unexpectedly I had a phone call from a delivery driver, who was trying to deliver a parcel we have been waiting for for a month or so. Classic, we do not go out too much in this heat, but the one day we’re not in, is when he comes. 

The fencing we chose in OBI and will be back for

I asked him to wait about 15 minutes, as we were getting quite close to home, but he said he couldn’t. Then, I can’t remember whose idea it was, but we ended up agreeing to meet up on the road leading into and out of our village, so that he can deliver the parcel. So, there we were, practically blocking the road, while he shoved the parcel through my window. Surreal!! 

The handsome birthday boy

Once home, we unpacked, Roy had a nice long sleep and I caught up with my paperwork. As yesterday was also Elian’s 12th birthday, I’m afraid I missed my little chat with him, because by the time Stephen rang it was 10 o’clock, and by then Grandma has been in the land of nod for an hour. It was an eventful, exhausting, but fun day, with every task we set ourselves satisfied. You can’t ask for more than that.

Latest news from Fáklya, planning caching trips, insurance for Portugal, Bridgerton, Top Gun Maverick and lots of cleaning

This last week has been spent resting as well as doing a lot of work. I was also entertained with some amazing news from my sources in Fáklya. When I left, I didn't look at any news, channels or social media, relating to Fáklya for weeks, so that I can calm down and get over the shock. This happened quite quickly and I was just about to look at those channels again, when one of my comrades rang. He was trying to get some advice and in return, I started getting up to date information on how things are going.

Group photo from the RCI inaugural conference

Well, I must admit I was getting more and more flabbergasted. I knew that there was a serious danger of disintegration within the organisation, knowing who are leading it and how. However, even I didn't imagine that it will start happening this quickly. There is a wave of resignations, some due to the fascist attack, but even more of them happening because of the nature of the current leadership. I am still waiting for Jack to ring me, so that I can find out what happened at Marina del Massa, but I can imagine roughly what it must have been, so I can work out what is happening now.

Balázs with lecsó ingredients

Other than the above, there have also been some other exciting developments. You may recall that Balázs, the son of an old friend of ours rang up to ask if my old offer of a weekend in Bér is still valid. Of course, I said, so he and his girlfriend, plus another couple came to stay in the Bunkhouse last weekend, which was great fun. 

Roy having a drink in the pavilion with our guests

They arrived on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. They brought with them enough booze to start an off licence, but there was a fair amount of food too. They did a good lecsó in the outdoor cauldron and generally had fun. We spent two evenings with them, but opted out of the last one, as we both suffered a bit from  eating and going to bed too late. I found out an interesting bit of gossip about his father. After I took him to Scotland last autumn, he suddenly vanished. Didn't ring or contact us at all ever since. I was wondering what's the matter, until Balázs told me. 

Laci's 75th birthday do in Bér last year

Apparently, I was unfriendly on the phone soon after we arrived back. I have no memory of a phone call from Laci, but his hyper sensitivity is irritating. If he did call me, it must have been still in the first week after Scotland, when I still had Covid. The degree of insensitivity is overwhelming. He is a real user and he gets upset at the slightest chance he gets. I told Balázs that he will have to ring me, or I am not talking to him any more. I have enough hassle in my life without deliberately adding to it.

A rail cart in action in the Bugac puszta

I have also planned a geocaching event for my birthday, with narrow gauge railway trip and a walk in the puszta to a multi cache. Further logistics were organised, mostly the negotiation with the train enthusiasts who run the rail carts, as well as organising B&B accommodation for ourselves. I can't remember now whether I have told you this, but my birthday will be celebrated on two days this year. As the capacity of the little rail carts was only up to 14 people I decided to reprise it on the Sunday, but without me.

An old cantilever well in the puszta

Well, I will be there at the beginning, to take the money for the private train that I have booked. While the limit on Saturday is 14, our own train can carry up to 26-28 on the Sunday, but I have to collect the money, and then we can take our leave to carry on caching elsewhere. I do hope the weather will be kind and no rain or 40 degree Celsius will bother us. The latter is more of a problem for me than the former. But we'll see.

Szalajka Valley narrow gauge railway

Once I planned that one, I realised that there was a small gap in our busy schedule earlier in July, so I managed to talk Roy into taking a trip for hunting little trains. If we manage it, during that trip we will be able to grab 4 of them. Starting from Bér, we'll first go to Szilvásvárad, then to Pálháza, followed by Baktalórántháza. First and second overnight will be spent in BB's, the last one on a horse farm. We'll see how it goes. That will be very weather dependent, but hope it will be fun too. 2 out of the 4 choo choo trains are long gone, so we will only go for the cache, no ride. The other two are still active. The first we will have to travel on as the walk to the cache is too long. The second one I hope will have a road to drive in on, as that one is pretty expensive, but if not, we'll spend the money.

Kőkapu narrow gauge railway from Pálháza

I managed to buy the insurance for our trip to Portugal next spring with the Canadian mob. It was less expensive than I thought, and after some hassle online, it was done with the help of Attila, my trusty long time insurance agent. I am being superstitious about buying the cancellation extension on my travel insurance. Back in the UK, that was always included, not here. It is expensive, but my attitude is, that once I bought it, I will not need it. Let us hope it works like that again.

Colin and Penelope's wedding in S3

In a dreadfully boring summer scheduling, where I could not find any watchable TV programs on any of my favourite channels, I suddenly discovered a few films I fancied and the last 4 episodes of Bridgerton. I think I have written about the latter before, that initially I hated it, and now, for some unknown reason, I grew fond of it. It is valueless kitsch, with some soft porn thrown in, but I am addicted now.

Tom Cruise 30+ years on, with his hair still on fire

One film that had so far avoided me, has appeared on Netflix, and due to the warning that it will cease to be available on 30th June, I quickly watched it. That was Top Gun: Maverick. I never thought that it was possible, but I think it was even better than the original 30 years ago. I hate Tom Cruise as a person, but for this sort of crap, he is brilliant. The photography and flying were impressive, and somehow I felt that the script gave him more chances to act, than the old one.

The guestroom after the major clean

And finally, the main reason this post is late and will not be too long, as I am already late, is our extremely belated spring cleaning season. We looked around, and realised that we must have a good go at most of the Farmhouse, as we obviously missed the usual spring cleaning week. So we are in the middle of it, which means that my lower back is screaming every day, but the results are quite nice. 

My soft toys in the guestroom

We started upstairs with our bedroom, the guestroom, the upper lounge and the bathroom. Today we are downstairs: the study and the kitchen, plus the downstairs bathroom is also done. I personally hoovered the stairs as well. Remaining work will be the hall and the main lounge, which is probably not worth spring cleaning, as in a few weeks the stove guy is due to come, and demolish/rebuild the pottery stove. That will produce a fair amount of dirt and chaos, but it will have to be done, as we have now spent 2 winters without a usable stove.

Must go now, take care and I should be back, I hope, next week.

Cherries, the Witches, mowing (again), torrential rain, council and EU elections, martens eating the car, lovely lunch with Bozsa and a fascist attack on Fáklya

A lot had happened this week, yet again. Most of it was good, some not so good, but we are surviving, as usual. One brilliant happening relates to the two Germersdorfer cherry trees, which have come into producing some gorgeous fruit for the first time ever. The birds like them too, so before we came into BP for three days, we harvested about 2 kg, half of which we are still eating fresh, and the other half was made into jam. Germersdorfer cherries are probably the best in the world. They are large, crisp, have a subtle acidic taste to counteract the sweetness and even on a small tree there are still loads. Mind you, being away for three days, God knows how many are left by the birds by the time we get home later on today.

The latest Germersdorfer crop

Last Thursday we had 9 women arrive to stay in the Bunkhouse for 4 days. They were attending a summer camp at Lili and Dani's Teahouse in the village. They turned out a fantastic bunch of lovely people who worked hard at collecting, drying, bottling and infusing lots of wild herbs that grow all round our village. They were clean, quiet and loved the garden. Used the pavilion for sitting, drinking and chatting, and one morning I have even seen two of them half way up the garden, sitting on a blanket in the grass relaxing.

The Witches

Brigi, one of them, told us that they would like to come back in about a month's time to stay again, and we told them that they are welcome. We are getting very busy this summer, but thanks to our good fortune, we are meeting up with new and lovely people, which is always a welcome development.

The Witches picking wild herbs

The weather is getting madder and madder. What is strange that there is this pattern developing with intermittent downpours, with hot, humid and totally windless days in between. One night the noise of the rain was such that I was convinced that it hailed. As it happens, it did hail in other places in Europe, but this time we just had like 6 inches of rain in one night. Flooding has avoided us, thankfully, but the Danube in still in spate, necessitating the closure of parts of Budapest that are right next to the river. And as for hailstones, I have just read an article about an airplane landing in Vienna, with half of its nose cone missing and the two forward facing cockpit windows damaged and the visibility through them having been reduced to zero. And all this done by a hail storm. But, of course, there is no such thing as global warming.

Plane minus nosecone

Consequently, mowing is now becoming a weekly necessity, so we did another couple of hours the other day, Roy on the push and pull mower, me on the tractor. The roses have finished with their first wave of flowers, so I had to cut them back, but lots of new buds are on them again, so they should look good again soon. As last year's pálinka mash is still in the barrels and this year's plum trees are going to produce at least a couple of barrels again, we are really concerned at what is going to happen to us, should the still never reopen. Pali is trying to get news, but every time we ask him, he still has no news. It would be a tragedy if it didn't open again, as this guy is the only one that we know that distills it twice and thus produces a gorgeous product, not available anywhere else.

The published results online

We also had the local council and EU parliamentary elections last Sunday. Most years when there are elections, one of us cannot vote as I am registered in the village and Roy in BP. The last few years we always found ourselves in town, so Roy went voting and I didn't. This time, however, it was the other way round, so I had a chance to vote and he didn't. The results in Bér were sensational. Maczó, the guy everybody loves to hate lost the mayoralship by ONE vote. Examining the actual count form online, I found that originally the count produced a tie and only after a recount did the other guy win. I looked him up, he is from another Nógrád village and I have never heard of him before. 

The Baumgartner garage we like

After the girls have left on Sunday, we started shutting windows and shutters, packing and then left around 9 am on the Monday. First stop was at the garage in BP, as Dusty needed a bit of attention. While away on our last geocaching trip I noticed a funny smell coming from the engine. After opening up the bonnet we realised that the baffle attached to the underside of the bonnet has fallen onto the engine and was probably the source of the smell. It was in pieces and we also discovered that one of the little pipes from the screenwash tank taking the water up to the windscreen was also cut. Or at least it looked like it was. So we had to go in and show it to them, so that they can order the correct parts.

A cute little marten, a menace to cars

The mechanic took one look and said: martens!! And the penny dropped with us too. A few years ago it cost us a fortune when martens chewed a large pipe that was the part of the turbo system and you had to buy the entire gadget, not just the pipe. So, the little pesky critters were back and this time chewed the noise and heat baffle and the screenwash pipes. It is going to cost about £90, but that is not so much the problem as the waiting for the parts to arrive. Stephen arrives on 28th July and will need the car, first to take the kids and Valéria to the Balaton, then just Valéria to the Adriatic coast. Let us hope that the appallingly lax and unreliable parts service in Hungary provides us with the necessary parts by then.

My good comrade, Márkó

At the moment we are still in BP, but hoping to get home this afternoon. The reasons behind our stay in BP this time are manifold. First of all the main job was to get the car repairs on the move for reasons I outlined in the previous paragraph. We also agreed with Bozsa, my best friend, that we would take her to the Snail, a lovely cafe/restaurant for lunch this week and finally, I had to get my book back from Adriam, which apparently he did give to Márkó, whom I needed to have a chat with. He was supposed to come over to the flat last night, but something dreadful happened, so we put it off to this morning.

State of the hall, after the fascists left

The dreadful things that happened last night was a fascist attack on the public meeting/watchparty organised by Fáklya in a community centre to watch the first session of the inaugural conference of the new Revolutionary Communist International. Needless to say, that before I left I did advise to make the watchparty internal, mostly using it for contact work and education, but since then they obviously decided to make it public and advertise it by posters all over the place. When you do something like this, anywhere in the world, never mind in Hungary at the present time, number one consideration is to secure the meeting by a fair numbers of stewards, making sure that anybody getting through the entrance door is not a fascist provocateur. Thankfully, nobody was hurt too much and the staff at the centre also came to support the comrades, so the attackers scarpered. The police and an ambulance was called, David was taken to hospital for a short while, but all are well this morning.

Roy and Bozsa in the Snail

Thankfully, the lunch with Bozsa went off brilliantly a few hours before last night's attack. We found the Snail rather full and noisy, but it was a lovely lunch all the same. The food was good: Roy had a lasagne and Bozsa and I had a peanut butter Pad Thai, which was really delicious. We had a lovely chinwag and spent about a couple of hours there. Afterwards Roy and I went to the Bank to find out what Stephen has to do to open a Hungarian bank account, and I was told, exactly what I thought was the case, that a Hungarian ID card and address card is all the officialdom demands for this. 

Online ad for one of Stephen's 4 gigs from March

 

Stephen has had a bad financial deal out of his tour of 4 gigs 3 months ago, due to high taxes and commissions. The latter is his agent's fault, as he outsourced the organisation to the venues and they demanded high commission, but the tax situation is even worse. Altogether, Stephen has received only 20% of the ticket income, which is appalling. I suppose Stephen had to experience the legal robbery, aka taxation in this country, to believe me. I have also done some research for him online, to see if I can find a taxation and/or startup lawyer to advise him and sent him my findings on Messenger. We'll see what happens to him in the long run. If I had to guess, I reckon he will try to have a go at it and then realise that it is not worth gigging in Hungary legally. Still, it is his decision, I am just assisting a bit and most certainly do not wish to get involved in any big way.

 

Open Air gig in Brighton, a lot more profitable

Now, on that happy note I have to finish. Roy is making noises in the kitchen downstairs, so hopefully my breakfast is arriving soon. I am told we still have some of our own cherries to have with breakfast, so I am getting out of bed too. Next post, hopefully on time, next Wednesday. 💖

A lazy and relaxed week with a crazy finish

Until yesterday, I could describe this week as really laid back, not doing a hell of a lot and having a glorious rest, which we both needed. Then, yesterday the day exploded into insane amounts of activity, but more about that later.

Idyllic view of the garden in Bér, taken from the barn

The weather has been crazy. Thankfully we managed to do the mowing soon after arriving home and before the monsoon started. Roy did a lot of work with the push me pull you mower and I was on the tractor. And then the crazy downpours started. I am sure we have had wet summers before in the past, but nothing as zany as what has been going on lately. Normally, there is wind with rain. This time round there was none. You get it go dark, then it dumps with tremendous force, drowns everything and then stops and it is 100% still. Not a drop of wind. Then you get a few hours of respite, and then it starts again, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.

The Cottage, taken from the back patio

We had about 4 or 5 days of this, interspersed with glorious sunshine and then started again. Obviously, we will end up having to mow the garden weekly, as lots of rain and then furious sunshine is what high grass is made of. Unfortunately, we couldn't always enjoy the sunny periods fully, as we both had a lot to catch up on our computers and in general paperwork, phone calls, etc., etc. I am happy to report that we both caught up almost completely, which is actually a good feeling. I sorted my e-mails, finding a few I totally forgot, but they have now all been dealt with. I finished adding photos to my geocaching logs, as well as extend the logs' text in all of them. I deadheaded and pruned my roses, posted lots of photos on FB and dealt with Alex's crazy week too, offering him lots of encouragement for the start of his kayaking courses.

The Temu pillbox, it was only £2.50

I also discovered that I left my pill boxes behind in BP, so I have to twice a day get my pills together, which is a bit of a bind, but not as bad as I thought it might be. Also, I had a look online and found that Temu is selling them pretty cheap, so ordered one, we'll see when, if at all, does it arrive. I have heard a lot of conflicting views of Temu, even if nothing ever arrived, I would not have lost too much and that will put paid to Temu as far as we are concerned. If it turns up and is OK, I might use them again. You may recall that I have been putting off writing to Adriam, as I knew that the guy is totally unpredictable and upsetting, but there was no more time to put it off any more, so on Friday I have written to him, announcing my departure and asking for my book back. That made me feel a lot better, as putting distressing things off just make them even worse and hoped that there will not be too much hassle coming my way as a result. The laid back and happy me that was obvious right through last week was a proof that my decision was the correct one.

Alex looking confident

The weekend arrived and we were awaiting news of how Alex's courses were going. On Sunday I spotted the first photos on FB and everybody looked really happy. Later, Alex posted some more photos and one of his tutees shared it on another kayaking club's FB page, putting praising comments with it. Things were going well, obviously and I was hoping he would ring me about how it went. Monday was still laid back with me busying myself with some organisational matters vis a vis geocaching. You may recall, I wrote before that I have seven more narrow gauge railway caches to find and I decided that one of them, which has only restarted last year, would lend itself to be an organised event for other cachers also. Within 24 hours I put together an outing on my birthday in July to Bugac in the Hungarian puszta, so that we can have a short trip on the choo choo train in the puszta, plus find three caches. One is going to be the event cache, one the cache that goes with the train and one, which is in three parts, and is showing off the beauties of the puszta itself.

The banner to advertise the train outing

I got agreement from the club to use the moving event cache on this outing, then did a lot of reading on the website of the train line, finally writing the event page on geocaching.hu advertising it. I have already had some takers, so all is in order. The last thing I am now awaiting for is the chairman of the club, who has 100% access to all parts of the website, to put up my banner, that I had also made yesterday, up on the main page for advertising purposes. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the weather is OK on July 13th, for my 76th birthday, by not raining or going over 40 degrees!

A typical cantilever well in the puszta

And now, let me tell you about yesterday! The day everything went crazy. First, I had to ring the garage, as we had a few mishaps with the car on our recent trip away, and Roy is anxious to have the repairs done before Stephen takes the car to Croatia and Slovenia for a little holiday with his girlfriend in August. They didn't know what I was talking about, so sent me some pictures of the parts they would have to order, which then made no sense to either of us. So we decided, that to be safe, we need to actually go into town and show the problems to them, so when they subsequently order the wrong parts, it'll be their fault, not ours.

The diagram we couldn't fathom

 

This then connected to other problems, which actually got solved by later. First of all, I rang my best friend, Bozsa, asking how her trip went and when she could come to have lunch with us at the Snail? We thought that we can go to town for three days next week, and deal with all things that are outstanding, like the lunch with her, showing the problem with the car to the garage and perhaps see Adriam for my book. And this became a bit fraught in the process.

The last friendly message from Adriam

 

Adriam reacted to my message about my resignation straight away last week, with a very pleasant, calm and friendly comment, not reacting to my request about the book, but showing understanding and asking if he could pass my comments onto the comrades. I responded with a yes, thinking that would save me another message to the membership, if he passes the news on. Also, because I do understand what democratic centralism is, the proper procedure should be that when a leading comrade leaves, to prevent too much speculation and tittle tattle, he or she should discuss the matter with the remaining leadership and then it is their job to circulate the news in a manner that settles it, so everybody can move on. Both the person that has left and the others who will have to carry on.

The Conference I am not at, but could watch online

Needless to say this is never this easy with this bunch of people and especially with someone like Adriam. As soon as I knew that we are likely to go into BP next Monday, I wrote to him and suggested that we meet up and he returns my book. He immediately answered that he will be in Italy for the RCI founding conference, but he can give the book to somebody else to give to me if it is urgent. I responded straight away, that it was not urgent and if he wants he can have it longer, as long as he makes sure that when he read it he returns it.

Volume 1 - Will I ever see you again?

I thought I have settled the matter when the total insanity started. He carried on writing to me, attacking me on several accounts, until I had to cut him off again. He was outraged that why I was asking for the book now when I said he could have it until August. He also attacked me for mistreating him and that I should apologise to the membership for disappearing, but the real insane nonsense arrived at the end, when he stated that apparently I have been impossible for months, that I had done nothing for the working class, for revolution and communism, all that I have ever done was for myself. It was a perfect tirade of a madman. It was so ridiculous, that I didn't know whether to cry or laugh. I was told that Zsófi is the bipolar and Adriam is just a depressive. I am no psychiatrist, but I reckon he is worse than Zsófi, he is so unbalanced, that you never know what he is going to come up with next. Roy and I agreed that it was an absolute godsend that I decided to leave, and did it before the whole outfit went totally barmy, like Adriam did, and dangerous with it. Obviously, something happened since he wrote that nice response to my original message, and this was the result.

Márkó, the Treasurer

In the meantime, Roy and I were contemplating whether to remove my membership dues from Fáklya back to the International in London, or leave it with them. To make this decision, I decided to contact the  treasurer, Márkó, and mentioned this to Adriam, in the context that as I am seeing Márkó too next week, perhaps he can pass my book to him. That produced another tirade, that I do not need to see anyone, I can write to them and he does not want to talk to me at all, unless I want to talk politics. He was incomprehensible again, accused me not understanding what he means, which, by the way, was spot on, as I have lost the plot several sentences before. Anyway, so we have arrived at the following: he will pass the book to Márkó on Wednesday, before he goes to Italy and I have sent a message to Márkó, asking for a meeting, which he gladly agreed to and is coming to the flat next Tuesday evening. While all this nonsense had been going on, I had a couple of phone calls from my sons. One completely delightful, the other a bit more stressful. Let us start with Alex, who rang me to tell me how his courses went. He was really pleased, but mentioned that he didn't realise how hard work absolute beginners were.

Group photo of Alex with the first course participants

He ran three days' of courses, Saturday and Sunday were days 1 and 2 of a Paddle Canada Level 1 course and Monday was a Basic course, in part for complete beginners who have never been in a kayak before. A guy of 6ft 4in had difficulty to fit even into the biggest kayak and kept permanently capsising, others were braver and more coordinated, but still hard work. Since then I checked out further photos, videos and comments, and even the beginners had a lot of nice things to say about Alex, with the Level 1 guys all being very appreciative and praising him all round.

Xander, Lucy, Victor, Elian, Coby and Emily in Canada

Stephen's call was a bit less happy and consequently stressful, but that is something I have learnt to live with ever since he was 13 years old, so it was no great shakes. Apparently, there was some family discord in Canada with Lucy, Emily and the boys visiting, but all in all it was a success. Also, I have just heard that Stephen hardly made any money out of his exhausting tour of gigs in Hungary in early March, after he lost 80% of the ticket income to tax and agents' commission. Poor chap, he is learning the hard way the disadvantages of wanting work in a mafia state where all the gangsters at the top steal millions as a right, and the hard working plebs at the bottom get robbed many times over. As he is a very clever lad, I am sure he will find a way round this, like he normally does, or if not, perhaps give up gigging in Hungary.

Stephen's latest profile photo from FB

So, apologies for the length of all this above, but I thought I might get it off my chest and give you a fair account why I wrote that Tuesday has gone totally barmy and stressful, but that I survived it mostly unscathed. Now I am off on my regular cherry inspection. This will definitely be the first year when all three of our ordinary cheery trees, not to be mixed up with the old little Morello cherries, would have produced a reasonable crop for the first time. We are having 10 women come for four days to stay in the bunkhouse tomorrow and I would hate any of them pinching my beloved cherries, so any and all that look ripe will be picked and eaten by Roy and I today.

Germersdorfer cherries - Yum!!

Next post is probably going to be a day late next week, as we will be busy in BP in the first half of the week. However, it might be OK and should I be lucky with all the stuff that is planned for next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I might even make time on Wednesday, before we return to Bér, to do the post. Taraa for now!!