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!!