Well, what I suspected about our Santa Claus cache, unfortunately proved to be true by ours registering no finds at all. For some unfathomable reason the County of Nógrád is not particularly popular with geocachers. To be correct, the mountains of the Mátra and Börzsöny are partially in Nógrád, that skews the statistics and hides the fact that all the rest have miserable levels of finds, including most of mine. So, I have already told Marcsi, the organiser, that I am not going to do an Easter Bunny cache, or next year's Santa Claus cache. She was very understanding and wished us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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| Austin Stowell - the young Gibbs |
The rest of the week until Sunday, when we came into BP, was spent with the usual household chores, Roy finishing the kitchen tops, me firing up the stove every day and occasionally watching my US procedurals online. I also have finally put in my application for moderator, the job I have been doing in geocaching.hu for the last 6 years. I am always 50/50 about it, as I definitely would like to carry on, but if others get more votes, that's also OK with me. One of my young friend, Soma, has also thrown his hat into the arena, and as I really like the guy, I hope he gets in. Nominations close this weekend and results are announced the following weekend.
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| Red sky over the M3, while heading for BP |
We travelled in to BP on the Sunday, as Roy didn't fancy the rushed travel one can expect on a Monday morning, especially when there is a deadline pressing on you. The funeral was very touching and I felt quite sad and teary. I didn't know the old man we were saying good bye to, but I know and love my friend Ági, and supporting her I was prepared to go through this bit of discomfort. In fact, the double agony was caused by: 1. a freezing basement where the service was; 2. the tedious religious service that I am getting more and more allergic of in my old age. The place has just changed the rules and no longer can anyone have a non-religious service. Ági said how good it was that her father didn't know about this, or he would have been livid. He was a communist and hated priests.
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| Ági's Dad and the flowers at the funeral |
To cheer ourselves up, we went to have lunch at Gaby's, which is a lovely place. The owner, Brian, is a Yank, the chef is Argentinian and the chatty and delightful waitress Chilean. Roy had an enormous, beautifully rare burger and I had a couple of prawn pitas. For afters we had one chocolate brownie between us, and all of it was superb. We are going back with Ági and David, so that I can thank them for being such lovely and good friends. After lunch we went to put out a new virtual PW tablet at one of my caches in BP and all of it was done in beautiful sunshine.
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| Roy and his giant burger |
Tuesday's main event was going to see my doctor, Eva Dános. I was told, while trying to book an appointment on the phone, that she had left the hospital where I have seen her for several years now. Funnily enough, I had a feeling that would happen and it did about 2 months ago. The place had changed owners about 18 months ago, and when I saw her 10 months ago I had a feeling that she didn't like the new management. I Googled her, and found her in another clinic near the Parliament.
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| The glorious brownie with ice cream |
She and I had a good chinwag and decided on some course of action in terms of booking some specialist appointments and full blood works. All of it is only due to happen next year, as the holidays are pretty close now and everything closes down for those. She was very nice, as usual, and told me that she is only temporarily at this clinic and will contact me when she moved to her permanent place in January.
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| Grana Padano, my favourite cheese |
En route home I did some shopping, first at our stationers, who unbeknown to me were closing down until 2nd January the day I went. I managed to get everything I wanted, like wrapping paper, cards, cellophane and a few other things. I also visited SPAR and id a bit of food shopping, after which Roy awaited me at home with my favourite pasta dish: spaghetti with pesto, garlic, chopped olives, olive oil and grated Grana Padano cheese. I put away a large plateful and put my feet up after that much effort.
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| Old drawing of Don Pasquale in London |
In the evening I went to see Donizetti's Don Pasquale with my friend Klári whom I have not seen for nearly 5 years. We have kept in touch via Messenger, but this was the first in person meeting since before the pandemic. These were free tickets, the getting of which Klári is a first class expert. I think she got the tickets from one of the singers she knows well. The performance was pretty good and I enjoyed it.
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| A bowl of gorgeous chocolate truffles |
And finally, today I started the day with making the Christmas present for Ági and David. I had an idea, that we need to make up a basket, filled with stuff that we ourselves made. So when we came into town, we brought the basket in with a large bottle of apple compote, a smaller bottle of cherry jam, a medium jar of peach jam and a small bottle of Roy's precious pálinka. This morning, however, I made truffles, some plain and a few rolled in chopped almonds, put them into a nice box with a lid and will decorate the basket on Saturday morning, before we are having lunch with them, with cellophane and ribbons.
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| Remember the living monument |
After lunch we went to get the last geocache in BP that I still haven't got, so once I did, I would have a 100% status in my BP finds. This cache was a three-parter in Pesterzsébet in South Pest, commemorating the heroes of the 1956 revolution who fought the Russians valiantly, before became overrun by them. I always do those caches that have anything to do with the Revolution of 1956. Their heroism has never had the recognition it deserved. Roy came with me and enjoyed it too. The afternoon was rounded out by a trip to our favourite pub when we were served by Roy's favourite barmaid, Vivi.
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| 1956 memorial |
Next Wednesday, Christmas Day, we will be back in Bér, awaiting the arrival of Stephen and Valéria. Next post sometime after that.
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