Last Wednesday, when I posted I never mentioned that it was Elian's birthday that day. He is 14 years old now and is growing up fast. He is happy at school and his reports are always brilliant. What then occurred to me, that for one reason or another, none of us thought of a present for him. Even more, as Elian's and Stephen's birthdays are only 8 days apart, I have never thought of Stephen's present either. I sent Stephen a Messenger message to suggest that he has a discussion with Elian about what he would like, let me know and then we'll arrange it. While discussing this, he happened to mention that both boys use SMS and WhatsApp, rather than FB, e-mail or Messenger. So, the upshot is now that I have got my WhatsApp sorted, now I can communicate with all three of them, (Stephen included) and hope that something will expire soon.
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| Roy with one of the support poles |
On Thursday, we tried to get up really early, so we could do some urgent gardening. The high pressure dome over Western Europe has moved and was now over us. The lowest high points are around 35 degree Celsius and recently the highest went up to nearly 42. It is unbearable to be outside between 8 am and 8 pm every day. So, we got up nice and early, Roy did a bit of DIY on the pavilion table, which was warping in all directions, so now the edge of it is screwed to the next bit and we hope it'll stop opening up. The other job we both had, was to get out as many sticks that we could and find the weakest points on our fruit trees to support them from below. We really do not want to lose several branches that are drying up in the drought, and in some cases will be heavy with fruit too. These two almost always cause quite a few branches to break, like they did last year.
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| The well where my geocache is |
Having sorted most tasks in the village, we departed for town early on Saturday. I managed to find a geocache en route to BP and I had a really nice adventure around it. It was one of my own caches, which needed a bit of maintenance, so I went to do that, as well as get the chance to log it. After I did that, I have only one more of my own caches that has not been logged yet, but I am sure there will be some reason why I have to go there sometime and I can log it then. Roy stayed under a nice shady tree and I walked about 400 yards to the cache. It was rather surrounded by fallen trees, so it was a bit exciting climbing over those. The hide was OK, albeit a bit less than straight, but I didn't bring any wire, so I tightened it up the best I could. I replaced the missing alternative password and took some photos both ways.
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| The countryside near my geocache |
As we arrived in BP the temperature was already in the mid-30's, so we fell through the front door and put on the aircon. Correction: wanted to put on the aircon, but couldn't find the remote. This ended up with a large scale project of tidying up the total chaos near my bed on the gallery, which I wasn't planning, but I am now quite happy that I had to do. I did find the remote under a lot of junk, so we could cool down. The AC in BP is a great deal better than in Bér, so that cooled us down very quickly.
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| The air conditioning unit in BP |
The first job I had was to photograph the water meter and send it to the waterboard. This is such a good system, no need to wait in for anyone to read it, just log on to their website, enter the number and attach the photo. That's it, and I only have to do this 6 times a year. This reading was actually the yearly balancing one, and they are still quite happy letting us do it ourselves. Some people think it's cheeky, but I prefer anything to hanging around all day waiting for the meter reader.
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| 162 cubic metres of water used since it was new |
The rest of the week was spent mostly hiding indoors, as my heart reacts most weirdly to such high heat, so I though better of leaving the flat. Roy was quite brave and went to the pub a few afternoons, but I stayed indoors. I had plenty things to do, so I wasn't bored. I have to write the cache list for our 4-day outing to the East, South East and South of the country in less than 3 weeks now, as well as I had a thought about my farewell GCWALK and did some planning for that as well.
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| My last GCWALK at planning stage |
It'll be 9 years in November, since I started organising geocaching walks for the club, most of which were fantastic and very enjoyable. Unfortunately, with my heart, arthritis and other elderly deteriorations, I can no longer cope with being the organiser. I can still climb mountains, but very slowly and carefully, and while I might join some walking groups in future, I can no longer take on the role of organiser. An organiser cannot cut short or turn back, as she has to be with the group from beginning to end. So, I cooked up a plan, which I think will be great. We'll be going back to the same terrain where my first GCWALK was, and which is where I have a cycling multi-cache for the 25th anniversary of geocaching.hu. I love that area and it has the lucky topography, which gives me a chance to cut short in several places. I will advertise it as my farewell tour, so they might forgive me for not going through right to the end. The base of the hike will be the route of the cycling multi, with some variations to extra caches. This also gives me a chance to have little rests, as these variations will be there and back, and while others are doing them I can rest.
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| Roy's new pub on the Körút |
After being indoors for 48 hours, I decided that I might take a risk and accompany Roy to the pub yesterday afternoon. It was great, except for one silly mistake, which I will try to avoid in future, should I go out again in this heat. I went, within 10 seconds from 22 degrees indoors to 38 degrees outside. That was a grave mistake, I felt a weight on my chest, which was rather worrying. The trolley bus was not due for about 10 minutes, so we walked 400-500 yards to the pub. I was in a bad way arriving there, but a glass of beer, followed by a glass of water cheered me up, so on the way home, which we always have to walk, as the trolley bus goes in another street, I was perfectly OK. We tried a couple of new beers: one was an ordinary Pilsner lager, the other another IPA, but from the Western coast of the US. Roy tried both, I only tried one. We agreed that they were both OK, but we will still stick to our beloved Rasputin, from the Eastern coast of the US, which is the best.
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| No. 74 trolley bus, that stops in front of our block |
Today we were very brave and risked a little jaunt out into the desert-like weather in BP. When we left home it was about 36 or 37 deg C, when we came home it was definitely 38 deg C. First we went to one of our favourite places, called Snail, which is a care/bar/restaurant, not too far from us and right next to a large Market Hall. The main attraction of that market hall is that they are the only people who almost always have a particular type of durum pasta we like. It is tagliatelle sold in little nests. So, we left just in time to catch the trolley bus outside our block. It wasn't guessing, it was with using a brilliant public financed bit of software that tell you exactly where all the buses are on a particular line. I noticed that the 74 was at the corner of the City Park, so we probably had 5 or 6 minutes to catch it. The air conditioning was great and it was also quite pleasant on the no. 6 tram which we caught after the bus.
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| No. 6 tram on the Körút |
The first considerable walking was done between getting off the tram and getting inside the cafe. That was about 200 yards and we found the shady side of the square. Our assumption that the Snail does not have air conditioning was proved correct. Still, we stayed, as both of us was actually coping with the high heat surprisingly well. Roy had sheep's cheese with a lovely African salad, while I had chicken liver in breadcrumbs with rice and peas. The drinks were a pint for Roy and a large glass of lemonade for me. After lunch we went to the market, bought everything we wanted and picked up some talcum powder in a pharmacy en route to the tram stop. After getting home we both fell into the shower and now Roy is having a nap and I am finishing this blog.
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| Roy in the Snail |
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