We are still in the village, making up for all that time we have been away recently. Also, to have a good rest to get over our flu and in my case, the right knee problem. As for the latter, it seems quite good now, but there is still a certain amount of weakness present. The flu has left, at least me, with all sorts of niggles, like bunged noses, occasional sneezes and aching joints. To be honest, I think I am back to the time when winter is a time to be ill, so I decided that I must go and see dr. Dános and see what she thinks. When trying to make an appointment I discovered that she has left the Duna Medical Center 2 months ago. A quick search on Google, revealed her new place, so I am going to see her there in a couple of weeks.
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Roaring fire in the stove
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The two outstanding tasks from last week's post have been done. The washing was no probs, and neither was the firing up of the stove. This was the time when we packed the stove pretty full, to see how much heat it can produce. Well, it got so hot, that you would burn your fingers if you touched the tiles, but it doesn't keep it as long as the other one used to. Still, we have so much wood that we are not complaining. We still have some old stuff and then our 2 cubic metres of acacia, which we bought 3 years ago to burn. As it has been going for over a week now it has got the walls hot and no matter how early we stop putting wood into it in the evening, it is still warm in the morning, so lighting it up again is ever easier. The feel of the scent of the wood and the warmth has bought back the old comfy feeling into the lounge.
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Kristóf Baráti my favourite violinist
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Júlia Pusker an up and coming violin talent
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One of the most exciting development this week was buying lots of concert tickets, all for January and February. Bozsa, my best friend, who has very kindly included me in her subscription ticket, where we have three or more concerts during the season and where her husband comes as well, is unfortunately nowadays so busy with the family at weekends, that can only come midweek, if we want to go just the two of us.
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Gáspár Kelemen, young star of the violin
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István Várdai, one of Hungary's best cellists
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On the other hand, my very good friends Ági and David, are also into classical music, and I spotted an advert for a 3-day festival of the violin at the Music Academy and jumped on it. Lately we have been starved of he violin, with most concerts just having piano music. Bozsa and I are going on Friday evening, and over the whole weekend Ági and David, plus a few other mutual friends will attend 2, 3 or in some cases more concerts per day. I have got tickets to 3 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday and my favourite violinist, Kristóf Baráti, is playing or conducting on both days.
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Kristóf Baráti, handsome as ever in this old photo
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After all that Ági rang to ask if I saw the ad for a Händel Marathon in the Palace of the Arts and if I wanted tickets she could get them. I said yes and as that is on 2nd February, I now have tickets to 11 concerts within the next two months. Marathons have been going for years in BP, but never before with the music of a baroque composer. I love baroque music, so I am happy. Needless to say, that when the system is like a marathon or a festival, the concerts are only an hour long, so you can include several a day.
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Some blurred tits on the feeder
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I wonder what he has seen over there?
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Another lovely aspect of the winter is the return of our wild birds to the feeders. When we bought the house all those years ago, we discovered some old wooden bowls, hoppers, basins, and other rustic implements, and after a while we decided that all the wooden bowls would become bird feeders and hung them up on chains all along the corridor. Over the years we had coal tits, blue tits, great tits, gold finches, haw finches, green finches, woodpeckers, tree creepers, hoopoes, jays and a few others on the feeders, but nowadays I think all we have is great tits and the occasional finch. It is delightful to see them and I usually take some good photos of them through the window, but the fact that there is bright sky behind them make those photos a bit dark.
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The writers' coffee places
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The writers' eating places
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Being in the country, we can do some outside activities when the sun shines, but most of the time I am engaged indoors with a variety of typically winter activities: getting ready for St. Nicholas' Day, making Christmas food shopping lists, buying present online, watching TV on my laptop, lighting the fire every morning and reading. Talking of reading, I bought two books from a Hungarian writer who likes combining interesting pastimes/activities of famous people with their habits. Like the love life of 19th century painters, or the coffee drinking habits of 20th century writers and a few other combinations. These last two books are about the eating habits and cafe visiting habits of writers, which is actually quite interesting. It tells you stuff about the people and about the places, both being quite historically interesting.
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2024's family photos
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2024's geocaching photos
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Another fun activity for me to pass the time this week, was the putting together of collages from 2024 photos. I went for four themes: geocaching, family, friends and the village. Having to scroll through all my photos of 2024 four times, made me relive the year so far. It was fun and I hope I haven't left anyone out I should have included. I suppose, I was led by the photos that were there, but scrolling fast occasionally make you miss some.
Another interesting event was spotting that Pam, Roy's sister, who is 90 next year, actually clicked Like on one of my photos on FB. It reminded me that finally she managed to master her iPad and we should have contacted each other on Messenger this year. I looked it up and she last wrote in March, so I have sent her a copy of our Christmas Newsletter via Messenger, let us hope that she responds. Talking of responses, they are getting less and less every year. This year's newsletter went out over a week ago, and I had 3 messages back.
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2024's friends' photos
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2024's Bér photos
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I must go now, as the very last touches need to be done to Father Christmas's sack that will go out in the form of a geocache onto our front porch, where we hope lots of cachers, including their children, will come between 6th and 16th December to log the cache and take the sweets and little presents from within.
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Lili and Dani, our best friends in the village
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We wish you a happy St. Nicholas/Father Christmas Day with lots of chocolates and other presents!
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Happy St. Nicholas' Day
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