Last week
was still spent trying to recover from our recent lurgy. Roy is pretty much
recovered, but has a persistent cough which, I think, will need to be looked at
sometime in a chest clinic. Not yet, as he insists that it is getting better.
To me it seems like it’s about the same most days, but I hope he is right. I have had
some weird problems, which I am sure are also leftovers of the viral infection
from weeks ago. Dodgy digestion, slight cough, sneezing, bunged nose, joint
pain, even some tummy ache and head ache. My sleeping pattern is totally gone
bonkers, so I spend half the night reading or watching videos. I am doing the
waiting game, too, hoping that it’ll go away.
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| The dreaded flu virus |
The
interesting thing, however, is that in spite of not being 100% and spending
most days in bed, I had a crazy busy week. All things, that could be done from
bed, with a laptop on my lap, were done. Also, some maintenance jobs on the
computer, like sorting e-mails etc. were at least half done this last week.
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| Our little house in Venice next April |
First
achievement is that I managed to book that lovely little house in Venice that I
have had my eyes on for ages for the night before the ship sails. For 180 Euros
a night for 5 people, really close to the station, airport transport and the
port, that is a good find.
I heard from
Alex, that they are coming with Air Canada and Lufthansa, via Frankfurt and it
cost him 880 Canadian dollars per head. Now that is a good price too, as I do
remember that in the past their tickets were always well over 1000 dollars or
more. In fact, he told me that after he paid it, he discovered another route
via Schiphol that was 30 dollars per head less.
Having paid
the deposit on the cruise last week, I have now finished with the paperwork
that is currently necessary for the cruise. I had to submit the full names (as
in passports) and dates of birth for everyone, which, as usual, caused some
dilemmas for me. My names are different in my two passports, but as we will be
travelling strictly within the EU, I will use my Hungarian passport, so I had
to put in my name in Hungarian.
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| UK passport |
I always
take both passports when I am travelling anywhere in the world, but I did have
some problems already in a variety of situations when people could not
understand at passport control what was what. This spring we had a slight panic
when some Hungarian passport control people at a Hungarian airport would not
let me get through for thinking that I am using my husband’s passport, who has
gone though ahead of me. It is really ridiculous that it was the Hungarian law
all 55+ years ago that forced my married name being Grant Roy Christopherné and
that has stayed like that ever since. The „né” at the end is the equivalent of
the Mrs, in other words, I am Mrs Roy Christopher Grant in Hungarian. While my
UK passport is Julianna
Zsuzsanna Grant, which is my two Christian names plus my married surname. Both
are traditional ways in their language, but look completely, or at least
mostly, different to an outsider. |
| Hungarian passport |
It was this
fact that caused some problems somewhere abroad a good few years ago, when some
border guard in a country I no longer recall which, refused to believe that my
two passports with names that to him looked completely different were of the
same person in both. I finally managed to convince him, but it wasn’t fun and
the last thing you need when travelling, which can be long, tiring and
frustrating. An additional task was also performed, namely signing the cruise
contract with the travel agency, which was also a new experience for me.
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| Our insurance company for the cruise |
I also
managed to get hold of our insurance agent on the phone and we filled out the
form for travel insurance, which is now horribly expensive, partly because we
are both over 75 and because in this country you have to take out cancellation
insurance separately, and that practically doubles the cost. Still, I shouldn’t
complain, let’s be grateful that we can still travel.
Last
Thursday I had another online get together of our reading group with Levi and Márkó, which helped us over another 4
sections of Alan’s Bolshevism: the road to revolution book. It is so
enjoyable, time always flies fast. The other good news is that Levi finally
circulated the RCI Manifesto in Hungarian that has been sitting in his computer
for nearly 2 years, for the three of us to look it over, and once that is done
I can send it to Jack. The bad news is, that this is the time in my life when
there is so much going on that it will be a while before I can look at it.
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| Imre, who took our barrels to the still |
The only
physical activity in the last week related to Roy’s pálinka which definitely
forced my out of bed for 4 hours of hard labour. Or it just felt like hard
labour as I am not yet 100%, but I was very pleased with myself at the end of
it. You may recall I might have mentioned the problems we were having finding
transport for our 4 barrels of pálinka mash, but finally the distiller
recommended a guy, who turned out an absolute gem.
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| Imre and Csaba balancing the pouring mash |
After
several telephone calls, he finally turned up around quarter to one on Monday
afternoon with a pretty large truck. However, the hardest physical work that
both Roy and I had to do, is to help him transferring the mash to his giant
blue barrels that take 200 litres each.
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| Pálinka mash in close up |
We first
took a half barrel (a mistake) down on the little trolley that I had from 40
odd years ago when I had a book stall on campus and I used for moving the books
from my car to the stall. The first barrel was OK, but the second one, which
was full was a different ball game. At 100 kg, the little trolley’s small
wheels started playing silly buggers. We managed to get it down, but after that
Imre started playing around with the mash, so the remaining barrels were never
full.
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| The distilling vats at the distillery |
All this was
quite a lot of hard work, and it took just over an hour to get it together. I
got into the car and followed Imre’s truck, and we got to the still in half an
hour. There they transferred the mash from Imre’s barrels into those that
belonged to the distillery. I only managed to take some photographs there, as I
was working so hard back home that I forgot to take pictures.
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| Csaba and Imre with lots of barrels at the distillery |
I did the
initial paperwork with the distiller, and he asked how strong I want the pálinka. Now that was a first, I was
never asked before. I said 50% will do and he laughed. It should be done next
week, which suits us, as we are away for the rest of the week as of tomorrow.
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| Where I finally got a 2026 diary |
After that I
journeyed on to Pásztó, where I found my favourite stationery shop and managed,
finally, to buy a 2026 diary. I also bought some more pens, some cellotape, a
rubber and a highlighter pen. After that I visited SPAR, where I did a small
amount of food shopping and then got home. I was away for 3 hours and a full 4
hours out of bed, so I collapsed like a felled tree, but tea was great with the
rolls I bought in Pásztó.
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| My concert ticket in Zalaegerszeg |
The reason
why we are going into BP tomorrow is that some time ago I bought a concert
ticket to see Kristóf Baráti in the town of Zalaegerszeg in the South of the
country. I planned to combine it with a bit of geocaching too and I managed
eventually to find some reasonably priced accommodation there. So, we’ll sleep
in town on Wednesday night, after Stephen has gone, and then get going on
Thursday morning.
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| Caches in the Balaton Uplands |
We are off
on Thursday going South and I have written the cache list to start along the
Balaton, mostly caches that are new and I haven’t found yet. The B&B is
near where the concert is, so we don’t have to go too far. The only downside,
as I found out recently, is that the weather forecast in dismal. The only three
days when the entire country will be under a cold front and torrential rain,
are the ones we’ll be on this trip.
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| The forecast |
One can only
hope that the forecast is wrong, as I can do nothing about the trip with all
the B&B’s booked and the concert ticket bought. Another nice aspect cheered
me up until I read the forecast, namely that my good friend Edit in Veszprém is
now back from her contract work in Austria and happened to be free on Saturday,
our last day. So I
arranged a B&B close to both her and the outstanding caches, and unless the
weather is intolerable and the caching has to be cancelled, I hope to spend a
nice morning in the Balaton Uplands with her, looking for pesky little boxes
all over the hills.
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| Stephen, Valéria and the kids last year |
And the last
event this week was Stephen’s arrival in the BP flat, so that he can spend a
few days there with Valéria, before he has to fly home very early on Wednesday
morning. We were supposed to meet sometime during his stay there, but with the
mash mucking up the schedule, now we will have to wait until he comes again in
December.
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| The pálinka mash barrels |
Must go now
as Roy is cleaning the mash barrels and I want to have a look if he is OK in
the damp and cold courtyard. Next post is more than likely next Wednesday, by
which time we should be back in Bér, where with any luck, having fetched the
booze, we’ll be putting it into bottles.
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