emiGrants: Roy's cough, cruise planning, Alex's birthday, the e-bike and lots of admin

Roy is getting better, but very slowly. He seems to have more energy now, and he even went to the pub yesterday. In fact, he is planning to go to have lunch with the boys today, as it is Wednesday. He is still coughing, but less and less, but I am still not very happy listening to it, especially at night. The cruise planning is grumbling on. Alex raised some objections to the boat I chose, some of his objections were quite relevant, so I re-planned. The choice is now between another old ship MSC Armonia and a much more expensive Royal Caribbean one. I am awaiting the written offer for a date in late April or early May and then we can decide. I know that there is a lot of bad reviews about the old MSC ships, but they are the only ones that do the itinerary that we want. So, we'll see.

Itinerary of the latest version of our cruise

I heard from Alex and Meaghan that Lyle and Heather were not very happy with their river cruise. I really feel for them, as paying out a ton of money and then not having fun is really not nice. I suppose not all the reasons were due to the inadequacy of the boat, as Lyle's accident prior to the cruise had stopped him cycling, which is really what he wanted to do on the cruise. With Heather, she was a bit unlucky that towards the end of it she seemed to have caught Covid, so neither of them was too happy.

Vivienne on the Danube by the Royal Palace in Bp

The reading group on Wednesday was good again, as the Bolshevism book is now getting into really interesting stuff. I also came up with an idea, which I was not sure how well it would go down with Levi. I found on the marxist.com site that the RCI Manifesto was available in practically all European languages except in Hungarian. I remembered that we did that translation with a group of us 18 months ago and asked Levi if he still has it? He said he did, but he wasn't sure if it was good enough. Since then he suggested that we have to ask Fáklya about it, which is, I suppose, his way of trying to get out of it. It's a shame, as Jack was very happy when I mentioned it to him, but that is how things are: Levi is still petrified of Zsófi, and there is nothing we can do about that.

I also had another annoying communication from HMRC this week. You may recall that about 6 or 7 months ago I went through a process, which was a bit of a hassle, but I thought was a good development. Namely, that they introduced a "Simplified Tax Return" which meant that you didn't have to fill out a long form, as they knew already all your sources of income, so they worked it out for you and you had to either pay it online, or, if you disagreed, argue about it. Last spring I worked it out that it was pretty accurate and paid it. The trouble came when they had a cock-up with the admin while paying online. The form included a reference number that only those that received a paper letter in the post had. As I have opted for e-mail communications about 15 years ago, I didn't have the number. I vaguely recall that I had to phone them up and they dictated the number to me on the phone.

In other words, that number existed, just they didn't tell me about it in their e-mail communication. Once that was sorted, I was hoping that they would advise whoever writes the online page and/or the e-mails to remedy the problem. Needless to say, no bloody chance, as soon as I tried to pay I came across the same problem. Roy and I discussed this and we decided that we will wait until his arrives, so that we do not have to ring them twice. Interestingly, last time his came after mine, but only by two days, while this time we have been waiting a week now, and no sign of it. I'll leave it another week, and then I will have to ring them.

No doubt, you'd make a good wilderness guide

Last Wednesday was Alex's 51st birthday. We had a chat, we previously sent him the money for a winter tent, but he didn't mention whether he bought it yet. Presumably, this will be a tent that has a hole in the roof for placing the stove and if he goes on winter hikes in the great Canadian countryside, he will definitely need it. Other close family issues include the very happy thing to report, namely that I sent Callum a friend's request on FB. He is now 16, so he can have a FB account, and having decided that from now on I will make every effort to communicate with my grandsons directly, rather than through their parents, that was a good development. Mind you, he hasn't accepted me yet, but I am sure he soon will.

A stunning Xander in 2021

Talking about grandsons: I am already friends with both Elian and Xander on FB. They are 13 and 12 respectively, so old enough to have a FB account. In my opinion, and that is no criticism of Stephen, just an observation, I don't think that the kids actually get everything that I tell Stephen to tell them. He is very busy and he is getting into the typical Grant habit of being very forgetful. So, I hope that I can now pick up a regular contact with Elian and Xander as well, so that I can communicate with both directly. It may be that they don't really use FB and don't look at it too often, but it is still better than via a third party.

The cast of Romeo and Juliet at the final curtain

On Sunday we returned to town, as I mentioned last time that we would. I had another visit to the Opera with Bozsa and this time it was a ballet. I have never seen Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet as a ballet and it was fantastic. The cast had a fair number of foreigners in it, mostly Russians, Italians and some Asians, but Romeo was a Hungarian lad with a stature about a foot taller and generally more robust than all the rest. Still, the tiny petite Russian ballerina playing Juliet was also breath taking.

The train upstairs

And then on Monday we had a little train safari, as Adrian would say, to Dunakeszi. I had a hankering after an e-bike for a long time and I noticed that a fellow geocacher was selling one for quite a reasonable price, so we decided to go and inspect it at his place in Dunakeszi. We chose a trip by public transport and it was fun. Roy had never been on this train route before and loved looking out of the windows en route. Also, it was a fairly new double-decker wagon, where we went upstairs and that enhanced the view outside.

The stairs back down to the lower deck

I liked the bike, so we decided to buy it. He bought it for his girlfriend, who then decided that she was too afraid in traffic and didn't want it. She only sat on it twice, so it was pretty much new. He asked a price that was 20% off the new price last year when he bought it. That was fair, I have already sent him the money by bank transfer yesterday. Now we have 2 or possibly 3 more things to buy: a helmet for safety and a pump, plus if needed, a gadget that would allow it to be carried at the back of the car. That hangs on the tow ball and costs anywhere between £360 and £550. The bike itself cost £650, so this would have all cost us over £1000, which is now declared to be my combined birthday and Christmas present for 2025.

The ferry is coming

After seeing the bike, we had a lift down to the Danube where we were thinking of having lunch. As it happens, the restaurant was closed, but we had a lovely walk along the river, taking photos and videos of the ferry boat crossing pretty much all the time. It was not a proper ferry boat, but a combination of a tug boat and a flat barge for the cars. It was fascinating to watch how it did the docking, especially as the strength of the Danube was pushing it down river all the time. The motorists must have been regular customers, as they all knew that you have to drive on fast and at once the last car came off, otherwise the ferry might leave them behind.

The Dunakeszi-Horány ferry on the Danube

All day yesterday was an admin day, as my diary was so full of things to do that I was running out of space in it. I paid this month's credit cards' bills, then photographed the water meter and uploaded the reading to the Water Board. From now on I am going to do this every other month, to avoid being so grossly overcharged as we have been the last few years. Good job finally I noticed the overcharging and am happy to report that not only I didn't pay the last exorbitant bill, but they have a few weeks ago reimbursed us to the tune of £70. Still, considering how long they were overcharging us with unrealistically high estimates, we were also the victims of unscrupulous procedures on the part of the Water Board. On our bills it was printed that the meter was read. It wasn't, and the lovely lady in the customer service centre said, that it wasn't the meter reader who was pretending to read it and didn't, (which was my guess), but it was just simply estimated, but marked as "meter read". Crooked, more like, not unscrupulous, I'd say.

We used 4 cubic metres in the last two months

I also booked an appointment with my gastroenterologist, this time in his own private surgery, where I haven't yet been. Mind you, it is barely cheaper this way, than seeing him in the private hospital, but at least I got an appointment very quickly. It is for tomorrow afternoon, which is good going. His fee is £70 which is average for private health care in these parts. I have been planning to have my gastroscopy/colonoscopy which I have last had nearly 3 years ago, but on Monday I had a very funny set of pains and nausea, so I thought it was about time to go and see him anyway.

Sheila, Roy's elder sister

One day I decided to work out who is in my mid-distance family now. Not immediate and not fully extended either. It turned out that Canada had the largest list with 20, then came the UK with 12, Hungary 7 and US 2. I managed to find a photo of almost everyone and put it up on FB. That was an interesting exercise, which I much enjoyed and put some photos of ourselves with it too.

Alex and Pam

While looking for photos I realised that I have not included here those that Alex sent me last week about his visit to Pam in Nova Scotia. Since then Pam told me on Messenger that it was the first time in years that he had someone visit her that gave him a lot of love, cuddles and happiness. Well, I know that Alex is a sweet darling, but it was so nice to hear it from someone else too. They went out for breakfast with Virgil and all three of them had a lovely time. Since then Alex told me that he felt she must be lonely, as her sons and their families hardly ever visit her. He thinks he might go that way once or twice a year and will surely drop in to see her. Considering that it is an 18 hour drive, that also proves that he is a lovely person.

Pam, Alex and Virgil having breakfast together

My US procedurals are still rambling on. I love Tracker, as the stories are quite interesting and the main lead is handsome and talented. FBI, now down to just one, the original one, is still OK, but is now in danger of being a bit samey, but I still like to watch it. Finally, I will put up here one or two of my late autumn roses, which suddenly started blossoming again, much to my surprise and delight.