My last GCWALK hike as organiser, guests in the Bunkhouse, the pálinka mash going to the still and a fantastic sunny hike with 30 friends

This last week was dominated by a big geocaching hike, which made us very busy preparing for it, putting the heating on in both buildings, doing some cleaning and tidying and then being hit by other activities that also had to be organised. Therefore, the week ended up one of the busiest manic weeks we have had in a long while.

Pálinka being transferred to big barrels for transport

It was back in August that I published an invitation to all geocachers to come and walk round the Medves Plateau to finish off my GCWALK planning career. Slowly and surely the list of participants got longer and longer and finally 30+ people turned up for my last GCWALK hike. Before I write about that, I would like to let you into one of the busiest and manic weekends of my life. Sod’s law would make sure that once you have a busy time, half a dozen other stuff turns up as well, so it does become almost unmanageable and totally manic. 

On top of the hike we also had a few guests to stay overnight before the hike, plus the distiller of Roy’s hooch had chosen that particular weekend to be available, so we had to organise transport for the pálinka mash as well. So, on Saturday I was minding my own business when the phone went. A friend let me know that they placed the moving cache that goes from medieval churches and ruins to other medieval churches and runs all round the country. 

Early gothic church is Egyházasdengeleg

Egyházasdengeleg, a nearby little village, is famous for its cute little, nearly thousand years old church, so he could not have found a better place. I dropped everything I was doing and rushed off to pick it up, so that I can put it out in Bér and enable our guests to find it. Once that was done, I tried to grab a bite for lunch and then the mash transport turned up. Roy and the guy managed to manhandle large barrels, and fairly soon all of our mash was in his barrels on the back of his truck and departed in the direction of the still. 

Ber church where I placed the cache

Unlike last year, this year I opted out from following the truck all the way to the still, citing extreme pressure from a million things to do. The distiller guy is not a chatty one, so we still don’t know whether the mash got there, but live in hope that it did. Then around 4 pm the guests started arriving. Tibor, a nice geocacher turned up first and told us that the car lights are still on. We rushed down, and while the lights were still visible, no longer was there enough juice in the battery to get the engine started. Thankfully, we have a jump lead, so Roy got the car started off Tibor’s battery and then went off for a trip round the village to charge it up a bit. Grateful thanks are due to Tibor, as without him we would have never known about the flat battery until Sunday morning and unable to go to the hike in time. 

Geocachers having a party on Saturday night

On Saturday evening there was a sort of party in the Bunkhouse across the yard, where most of the guests were staying. There was some eating and considerably more drinking. Roy had difficulty climbing the stairs at the end, so I had to hang about his rear end to catch him, should he go to sleep en route. He had a fantastic and deep sleep for about 7 hours under the influence of alcohol, while I, possibly due to the excitement as well as some anxiety, hardly slept. I planned this hike as a really long and hard one to say goodbye with, and while the plan worked out very well, I must have had some worry about how it was going to turn out. 

The traditional group photo at the start of the hike

Well, I need not have worried. It was a superb, enjoyable, perfect event, probably the best I ever planned. Firstly, there were 30+ participants, which for a really freezing cold November Sunday wasn’t bad. Secondly, the usual appearance of moving caches had outdone itself, with 9 turning up at or in the vicinity of the hike. En route to it we actually managed to either place or pick up 3 of them, the rest were found during the hike. One slight hiccup affected poor Tibor, when in the morning he found that the car somehow locked itself, and while his phone and car keys were inside a locked car, he could not move or do anything else. Finally, he managed to ring his brother on somebody else’s phone, who then jumped into his own car and brought him a spare key. 

Roadside cross where one of the moving caches were placed

As it happens, he then started caching within Nógrád County and eventually caught up with us on the plateau. The Gods have favoured us too, as the weather was fantastic. Bright sunshine, no wind and definitely no rain. Obviously, my constant prayers during the week before for no rain worked. The hike itself was very enjoyable, once we were out on the actual plateau the sunshine warmed us up, lots of chatting and catching up was happening, as geocaching is a lonely hobby, where you only get the chance to catch up with others at events. As the day went on, we broke into several smaller groups. Some people did extra distances, some stuck to the plan and others have shortened the distance. I belonged to the latter group and I was very lucky to have Anikó with me, so I didn’t have to do it on my own. 

Anita, my good friend in the lead

Once I got back to the car park I could have gone home, but I didn’t for two main reasons: 1. I wanted to stay and say good-bye to as many people as possible; 2. Pisti, whom I gave a lift to, was in one of the groups that went round the long way, so I had to wait for him. While I hung around, I had a good chinwag with Anikó, and some time later I also had a job of picking up some friends from a point on the hike where they decided that they had enough, but there was no other way of getting back to their car, except by somebody fetching them from there. It added 30 km to my day, but I was happy to help. 

Jankó, one of my best friends on the plateau

Pisti turned up around 4 pm and we were home by half past 5. Roy made us a small fried tea of egg, bacon, tomato and fried bread, which we put away quickly. I fell into bed around 7-7:30 pm, while Pisti did the same, so that he can get up at 4 am the following morning to drive home, which he did. Needless to say, that I also slept like a felled log and am now trying to recover. Amazingly, I do not have too many pains and having slept about 6 hours I feel very well. Thankfully, never again will I be responsible for a big hike like this one was, but I am tremendously looking forward to attending hikes planned and organised by others in future.

The magnificent Medves plateau

Salgó Castle from the Witches' Rock

 

Back to the village, gardening, getting ready for the hike, dealing with some annoying paperwork, visiting Johan and the US midterms

Hello all my friends, relatives, fellow hashers, geocachers and hikers! Another week went past and now we are in Bér and busy as ever.

A pretty rose bud at the end of October

 

Last Wednesday I felt well enough to travel, so with some delay, but we got back to the village. We did a 10-12 day food shopping at Aszód Lidl and arrived in reasonably good weather. Talking of the weather, it is still quite nice and sunny most days, but now we are having some rain too, so the grass is beginning to change to green again. At night we are having low temperatures, and it will not be too long before there will be sub zero temperatures at night. Amazingly, our roses are still producing blooms and some of them are really pretty. 

One of the lovely white roses

Thankfully, the houses were fine, no leaks or any other structural problems and we also had a go at turning on the central heating, which started working perfectly. We usually have the boiler serviced in the spring, so that should be fine. Plumbers are like gold dust in these parts, although I did managed to talk one guy into coming over to us by offering to pay him extra for travel time and for his petrol. He turned out to be a fantastic, very skilful and fastidious plumber, so whatever he costs, he can come again. Keep your fingers crossed that I can talk him into it next spring as well!

A slow burning pile of walnut leaves

Roy started burning the dead leaves and other garden rubbish on Tuesdays and Saturdays, which are the only two days we can do burning outside. The garden is looking reasonably tidy, although I must do something about the herb garden next spring. It got so overgrown, that I do not think any of them are still going under the weeds. It needs digging over, top soil removed, new soil put down and then replanting. Will do next spring.

View to the hills from the patio

Both of us still coughing and sneezing on occasions and need a lot of cat naps, as we still don't sleep well at night. I think this lurgy that got both of us this autumn will be an absolute bugger to get totally rid of. Still, we are getting better and I try to rest as much as I can, so that I will be able to do most of the big hike coming up this weekend. We got the Bunkhouse into order, so people who want to come a day early to do some more caching and then sleep there can do so. It looks like we will have about 25-30 hikers and about 10-12 staying overnight on Saturday.

Scott Caan and LL Cool J in NCIS NY

I am also enjoying watching my 10 US procedurals, which are quite easy to follow this time, as they turn up every week. Later on, especially in the new year, there will be lots of gaps in the stories, when not every week has an episode and I will struggle to remember what happened weeks before. Most of my serials that I watch are either thrillers, police  procedurals, marshals' stories, FBI and CIA chases, some fire fighters putting out fires, a sheriff in the same town as the fire fighters and one guy doing a lot of searches for missing people. NCIS this year has three different versions, one is the old one into its 23rd or 24th season, then there is the new one in New York and, of course, the one from 30 odd years ago when Gibbs was young. Interestingly, they managed to include Mark Harmon as old Gibbs in that one, and I must admit it works very well.

The dining room in the Bunkhouse

Roy is having another go at commenting on things that we are having on our "estate" in Ber, which includes things we have found in the attic or anywhere else in the houses on the garden, as well as the look of the interior of the houses. We started with a bayonet and old bibles and ended with the downstairs of the Bunkhouse. He also put those photos up on I💓Bér group on FB, and started an interesting chat with others in the village.

The Bunkhouse kitchen from the washroom

 

Admin this week included a funny stuff with my Hungarian bank, the need to get in touch with the distiller for the pálinka and getting ready for the hike. Additionally, I also had some hassle with HMRC, which usually comes out of hiding around this time of year. Thankfully, they no longer hassle me for doing a tax return since the introduction of the Simplified system, where for those people who have no significant untaxed income get taxed by them on the basis of already knowing the sources of our income, therefore they do not need me telling them. 

An ox yoke from the old days

Needless to say, that this time last year having had a problem I had to ring them up, and I told them what it was. Suggested that they change their system a bit to eradicate the cock up. You will not be surprised to hear that they did not, so this year I will not attempt to pay immediately after getting their e-mail, but leave them to change our tax code and take it that way. Personally, I much prefer paying at once in one sum, because that way I know exactly what I paid. When they deduct it monthly, God only knows what goes out, but thankfully, it is usually such a small sum, well under £1000 for the year, so I do not bother to check it. 

The antique pottery stove

 

By the way, the cock-up both last year and this year was and is, that you cannot pay online without quoting the code that came with the letter about your Simplified taxation. They have forgotten that not everybody gets a postal letter, because many of us opted for e-mails instead. No e-mail contains said code, so you get stuck, which is why I didn't even try it this year, and I did not ring them up, because that takes hours to get through. 

The route of the hike on Sunday

Preparing  for the hike includes gathering the passwords for all the caches en route, so should there be any problems with the boxes I can tell the group what they are. Also I had to print out the password to go with the event cache and now I also have to work with and help those guys who are bringing moving caches. We need to find places for those boxes somewhere on the hike or fairly near it. I am so grateful to people when they bring those, because for me there will be no caching without them. I am taking them on a route where I have already found all available caches, so I can only log the event cache and any moving ones brought by others. The weather forecast is not brilliant, but not too bad either. It is getting quite cold, but mostly sunny, although Sunday will be overcast at times. No rain is forecast, so I am really praying that it is correct. 

Some rustic plates on the wall

The funny stuff with my Hungarian bank was that they declined paying one of my yearly payments, because they issued me with a new type of card and that was not registered with the payment. I forgot to do that and was quite puzzled about it. Thankfully, I got a very nice, knowledgable little woman at the other end of the phone who explained it and it all went thorough fine.

Johan and is lady in their kitchen

November is also the month of the pálinka mash going to the still and getting hold of either the guy who does the distilling or the guy with the small truck that does the transport of the mash is not one of life's enjoyable activities. Added to that were some confusing telephone numbers and an ill tempered guy who answered the phone, so I will not bore you with this any further, just to stay that hopefully the stuff should be organised either this week, or at the end of the month. The reason behind the long time in between, is that the still only works at weekends and this year every single weekend in November is taken up with some activity, so unless he can do it quickly at this weekend, it will be postponed until the first weekend of December. 

Roy in Johan's living room

In the meantime, we also had a get together with Johan, our Dutch neighbour. He came over and brought his lady with him, whom we were very pleased to meet. I put away half a ton of gorgeous cinnamon biscuits while drinking tea and chatting at their place yesterday. They were supposed to come over for lunch today, but their plans have changed, so that was put off until they come again. Johan has a really lovely old apple tree, which has the cutest little deep red apples on it, and he brought over a whole carrier bag's full which I started  eating. I am absolutely sure that the old type of apples, like all old types of fruit were and are much more sturdy in resisting pests than the modern versions. I don't think Johan had time to look after his fruit trees and in spite of that this particular one produces perfect apples, tasting gorgeous and with no disease or worms or anything, just lovely apples.

Projections for the US Senate result

And now I have to finish on the most sensational news of the week, namely the US midterms. An absolute whitewash of the Republicans, which I have hoped for, but not expected to be this successful watching interviews, listening to analysts and just reading all Trump's crap, of which there are tons of every day. Mind you, I have no illusions in the Democrats either, but it was still very enjoyable watching the orange man not looking very happy.

Somoskő Castle on the banner for Sunday's hike

Our guests for the hike will arrive this Saturday and then we will all go the the Medves-plateau for nice 22km hike. I hasten to add, that there are short cuts all over the place, so it is very likely that I will only do a shortened version, but still I am tremendously looking forward to it and hope that the weather will be friendly.

Next post on Wednesday again, if all goes well. 

Flu, Covid or both, a Japanese meal plus cake, hacked phone, Opera last week, Alex's birthday, Callum passed his driving test and I might get a new phone

It's Tuesday and we are still in BP. I have got something really weird that is wrong with me and we decided to stay until I am a bit better. There are lots of funny bugs around, some say it is the flu, other say it is the latest version of Covid and, of course, I have other things that are not OK with me, like my dodgy digestion and my rheumatism. It feels like they all teamed up to stop me getting out of bed. Yesterday I even had a shaking and sweating episode, like I did a few years ago when the ambulance guys took me to hospital, although this time I knew what it was and didn't panic. I felt like that en route to the Japanese restaurant where we went for lunch and knew that food will fix it. And it did. So, obviously I had a crash of my blood sugar from not eating enough. 

The boxes in the Opera House

On top of all this, I think my telephone has been invaded by some virus, which makes it difficult to use. Normally, I would have gone to my usual chap who fixes these things, but not feeling well, I have no strength to get outside. Thankfully, whatever it is, it did not affect my normal apps, and I can use them, but not until I spent several minutes getting out of the nuisance apps, which - by the way - are impossible to uninstall. Correction: they do not appear in my list of apps, so they have not been installed, therefore, obviously, they cannot be uninstalled. It is at times like this that I feel one of the few negative effects of being miles away from family, as most of my old girlfriends have children and grandchildren who can fix their phones in 2 minutes.

My Bento and soup

That Japanese meal was really lovely yesterday. I had a Bento and Roy had some lovely prawns. The only downside of that place is that it does not have any cakes for afters. So we hopped on the tram and went to a cake shop near the river that we know from the old days. I had a Sacher torte with a cup of coffee. I was still feeling fine then, but by the time I got back started feeling unwell. It was worst in the night, but I hope that this time was the worst of it and I will start to recover soon.

János Háry and the rest of the cast

Other events of last week was a delightful visit to the Opera House with Bozsa, who has returned from Poland where she went for a family funeral. Árpi apparently wouldn't stay overnight, so it is just as well that the funeral was in a place in the South of Poland, which is the closest to Hungary. I can imagine how exhausting it must have been to leave in the early hours of the morning, attend the funeral and the wake and then immediately drive home. 

Bozsa by the grand staircase in the Opera House

 

The opera we saw was János Háry, a Hungarian one by Zoltán Kodály. I think the last I saw it was somewhere between 60 and 70 years ago. The music was based on folk songs, the dances were Hungarian folk dances and it took place about 200 years ago. Lots of humour made it quite enjoyable, but it is not a performance that I would go and see too often.

Alex, Meaghan, me and Callum on board Armonia

On Thursday we had Alex's 52nd birthday, which they celebrated by going out to a really lovely restaurant in the evening. Alex rang me up, so I could wish him happy birthday personally. Later I saw the photos from their dinner, they seemed very happy there. We are beginning to plan next summer's trip to Canada and the flight prices are surprisingly cheap. Later I found out, that nowadays even transatlantic flights  charge for luggage separately, so perhaps they are not nearly as cheap as I thought.  

Montage over several years and places

That was the last anything has happened, I was in bed and Roy, whose coughing is still with him, but he is slowly getting better, looked after me really very kindly. We are so lucky that several shops, food, fruit and veg, bakery etc. are within a few minutes of walk from our building, or some are even in the building, so I am not alone for too long.

Callum, the proud new driver

If I feel up to it, we will travel down to Bér tomorrow. If it is not too tiring, we'll also go to the telephone company to see if they can help me with the virus or, possibly get a new phone. I vaguely recall that a few weeks ago I got a message from them to let me know that I do not have to wait until the two years have passed before changing phones and contract. We'll see what happens. One thing is sure: if I get a new phone, I am going to buy a high quality security software to avoid all this chaos in future.

Plumbing and banking problems, a large water bill, The Diplomat, family birthdays and a 3-day trip NE

I think we are moving into a cooler, but still warm and extremely busy period this October. The last week was a bit traumatic on several levels, but we coped quite well. The first frustrating fight with the security bureaucracy I think I lost, but am working on ways round it. One of my credit cards, which is definitely  the best on security, had seemingly gone a bit barmy. It may just be that the cyber attacks are getting so frequent and sophisticated, that their security department is finding fault with everyone, but I was hoping that someone who had their card for the best part of the last 50 years, might not be picked on.

Lookout tower above Sajóbábony

Without boring everybody with the details, the upshot finally was that having deleted the well used and absolutely perfect website I used for at least 30 years, and forcing everybody into the all purpose, one size fits all, new website, I couldn't access it. It let me register, but I cannot use it. Well, the result is that I no longer use the card until perhaps I might try again and get through, but if this is not possible, I will have to visit a branch in future, should I feel like it. This means loss of business for them and a slight inconvenience for me, but such is life.

The views down to Sajóbábony

The other annoying event last Wednesday was the non appearance of the plumber, who we expected to arrive at 2 pm and he didn't. Apparently, he had a traffic accident, when somebody T-boned him, and he promised that as soon as he is better he will ring. So, our slowly, but surely, disintegrating kitchen tap is still dreadful, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that the plumber will eventually turn up.

The way markers on a study trail

A rather high water bill arrived, but after the initial panic, I managed to remember that it is this high due to having to pay for our new water meter and the labour costs of having had it fitted last month. The next news is a pleasant one, though, namely the reappearance of The Diplomat on Netflix, which I actually binged on Thursday all in one go. Loved it, although, some of its story lines are getting a bit carried away with disasters upon disasters, but it is still fun.

The lookout tower above Háromhuta

As the autumn is quite busy with family birthdays, after Roy's in September and Xander's in mid-October, it was Alex's turn to be asked what he would like for his birthday, which is in 2 days. Apparently, with his new job in the world of selling, he needs a new suit and some other elegant clothing, so I sent him $400 for said items, and am awaiting the photo that he promised of himself wearing it. By the way, the photo of the new bike with its owner, that we have contributed to for Xander's birthday is still to arrive. The last time I asked, Stephen mentioned that they are still waiting for the helmet.

The views from the top of the lookout tower

After all this excitement, both good and bad, Friday, 16th came and in pursuit of further caches in the Ancient Trees series, we departed to spend another three days away, this time in the Zemplén Mountains, including attending the 51^st Festival and Competition in that region. I booked a couple of nights in a place we haven’t yet stayed in, hoping that it would be nice. It turned out to be a perfect choice, as we were in the middle of a lovely old park, around an old château that has been beautifully restored in the last 15 years.

The Château Hotel in Újhuta

Day one was travelling down to the accommodation, starting with a lookout tower and following up with a wide variety of pretty villages, castles and other interesting places in the mountains. We stopped in one of the villages to eat our sandwiches in a park, using their tables and benches in an idyllic setting.

 

Giant conifers meet at 50 metres high

After the mountain villages, we also saw some more interesting hills, one with some cellars and a Calvary, others around ancient churches. Unfortunately, we arrived in the dark and after reception had closed, but the overnight security staff was delightfully welcoming and helpful, including one of them leading us to our little apartment in the park. The accommodation had been upgraded and renovated to a very high standard, with high end finishes, comfortable beds, a little kitchen and faultless WiFi. 

The Château at Füzérradvány 

We asked the security guy about restaurants, and he mentioned three of them in the nearby village of Pálháza, so we went and had dinner in the one that we knew from two years ago when we last geocached in the area. The Megálló was OK, but we thought that the food could have been better and decided that on the following day we will try and eat in one of the other ones mentioned.

The Lower Gate of the Castle of Füzér

The following morning we started with a cache that we missed the day before, followed by the star attraction of Füzér Castle, which is one of the earliest stone castles built in Hungary in the 13th century. It is situated  on top of a volcanic cone, and is quite impressive from a distance. Roy opted out of the steep climb, so I went on my own. I discovered that the way to the cache was barred by a padlocked, but low  gate, which I managed to climb over quite easily. The cache was hidden on a forested rock face, which was very exciting, but I got it with no problems. 

Glorious autumn colours in the park

Next was to the Festival/Competition, which was not very well attended, compared with previous years. I suppose the several hundred kilometres travelling one had to do to get to the NE corner of the country didn’t help. We stayed at the central base of the event for about 2 and half hours, chatting, eating, drinking and having a good time. We were waiting for some friends who are always late, and eventually gave up. As it always happens, we met them on their way in, as we were going out. Never mind, we can meet at other times, and I was happy to go as Roy was getting a bit cold.

Roy with his favourite Gypsy roast

We managed to find one of the other restaurants for a mid-afternoon meal, which was definitely better than the one the night before. It was so nice to arrive back at the château in the daylight, this way we had a chance to look at the park, which was quite impressive. I also realised that I have been in this park before, albeit  very many years ago, when during one Hungária Cup, which is the one big multi-day orienteering event in the country, one of the days' competition was there. I even remembered getting the geocache in the middle of the park all those years ago.

A 4500 year old barrow on the Flatlands

Finally, the last day was spent motoring home, this time taking a large detour towards the South, taking in Nyíregyháza, which is one of the bigger towns in the East and a few villages travelling West back to BP. This trip was very nice, it was successful in every respect: the accommodation was superb, the weather was great, I managed to find and log 15 new caches, we saw a good few geocaching friends, some of whom we have not seen for quite a while and enjoyed ourselves in spite of the distance and lot of driving that Roy had to do. Next trip is probably next month, still in pursuit of ancient trees. We will go either West or South, as we still have a few of them missing in those two regions.

A large herd of sheep near the barrow

Next post, all being well, is due on next Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wood chopping, gardening, DIY, winter tyres, car to garage, Xander's birthday and lunch with Bozsa

I can very happily report that the last 7 days in our lives were considerably less eventful than the previous 7. Not that we had sat at home and twiddled our thumbs, but it was a bit less crazy and easier than our usual weeks. We spent about half of it still in the village and the other half in town. Roy managed to bring down quite a lot of fire wood and neatly stored it along the corridor fencing. In fact, he had a good few days of doing all sorts of DIY and gardening, which kept him busy, therefore very happy. He put together a new shelf, which is due to be put up above the coat rack in BP, to store boots, as we are running out of space for all our footwear in the hall. Unfortunately, one upshot of these activities was that his old bench saw gave up the ghost, so that is yet another expense fairly soon. 

The boot shelf in the hall

I did the outstanding accounting work for Alex, which turned out that I have last done in late June. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard, as it consisted of only thirty transactions, mostly buying gas, entertaining clients and paying business subscriptions. Alex bought a few bits of equipment and a couple of new kayaks as well, but none of that is too unusual. I finally managed to get hold of the assistant in the Szirák surgery, and asked for the prescriptions for the next three months to go up into the cloud. I must admit, in this respect, the Hungarian health service is way ahead of most other countries. You don't have to go and see the doctor or even visit the surgery for your regular meds, but if you are of the sceptical type, you might suggest that rather than something the previous regime having done for people, it was all in the  methodology of an authoritarian regime, wanting to know everything centrally about all its citizens. Either way, I hate to visit that surgery so much, that I am grateful for this.

Poppy Montgomery in Unforgettable

For the first time in ages, I also had some time to watch some Netflix and started the watch a series called "Unforgettable", which I enjoyed like a bit of light entertainment. The other series I re-watched, considering the next one is due to start tomorrow, was "The Diplomat". This is under the heading of light entertainment too, but with slightly more up to date political content, which I enjoy a lot. Talking of television series, my US procedurals have also re-started this week, and apart from my usual ones that escaped cancellation, I still have Marshals, Tracker, FBI, CIA, NCIS, NCIS Origins, Sheriff's Country, Fire Country and Boston Blue, Of the new ones I started watching NCIS New York, which seems OK, but I ignored all the other ones, as they all seemed quite trivial and not my cup of tea.

LL Cool J and Scott Caan in NCIS New York

After my slight faux pas with the car, when totally absent mindedly I managed to drive straight into one of the ditches in the High Street, we finally found Tomi in and he changed our summer tyres to winter ones. The nights are getting quite cold, but we decided not to start heating until we return from town next week. That event in the ditch was frightening to start with, but ended quite interestingly. One of the ladies in the High Street came out to see what happened and called the mayor for me, who keeps the village's tractor. He turned up at once, but didn't need to pull me out as with the help of a few bits of wood that formed a bridge between my tyres and the tarmac of the road, I drove out carefully, and on my own. Obviously, Dusty's 4-wheel drive helped.

The banner for the Festival/Competition

I also managed to get up to date with my e-mails and FB photo albums. And finally, I made a decision about the geocaching Festival and Competition in the Zemplén Mountains, which I vacillated about for weeks. The Zemplén is a long way from BP and even from the village. It is an area where most drive-in caches I have already found, and going with Roy, I can't do too many hiking ones. Finally, I decided to go, but taking it easy on the caching front, so Roy doesn't get too tired from all that driving. I wrote the cache list and I think I only have 15 or 16 caches listed for a trip of 3 days. Day 1 and day 3 will have about 5 or 6 and the Festival day just  one or two. I also found an interesting accommodation, which I will let you know whether it worked out or not. We are staying in a small apartment, which is a conversion from old outbuildings of a famous château in the village of Füzérradvány.  Apparently, the beautifully renovated château is now a museum and gallery space, but it is surrounded by an ancient park, which is where our apartment will be situated. Let us hope the weather is good too. We'll be away from Friday to Sunday at the end of this week.

My favourite guy at Baumgartner's

After catching up with most outstanding jobs we finally departed to BP on Sunday, trying to dodge the traffic chaos that was caused by shut sections of the city due to the Budapest Marathon weekend. Once in the flat, we found our missing boots, which was good news, but Roy forgot to take the holdall out of the car after we parked it, so later had to go back for it. I reckoned that he put it in the boot, but he was adamant that it was left on the back seat, which is not safe, as it is visible from the outside. He was right, so I am glad he went back for it. 

Baumgartner's garage in BP Kőbánya

The first three days of the week had one, or in one case two, important items in each: Monday had the early drive to Baumgartner's for Dusty's annual service, as well as Xander's birthday. The latter finally got fixed with Stephen and we are contributing to a new bike for Xander for his 13th birthday. The car service has highlighted some important anomalies in the car, one of them relating to my mishap in the ditch. Thankfully, that was not too bad, so that got put off until later. The most expensive bit was a complete replacement for all break shoes and pads, which put us back about £350. The service was about the same, but as a special treat, they actually cleaned the car inside and out to a fantastic standard, neither of us had seen since it was new 11 years ago. And the cleaning was gratis, which is very nice of them. 

Roy and Bozsa at the Regős restaurant

To be honest, Baumgartner's are the only garage in all the years with all our cars that is the epitome of the perfect business They are excellent in the workshop, with knowledgable engineers, thorough in their inspections, they do not treat, even me, as an idiot and their attention to detail and perfect manners are superb. It was such a lucky day, when having thought of jettisoning the garage in Gödöllő, after years of bad manners, negligence and useless systems, he spotted this lot. We took a chance on them, and for once, they turned out great. 

My chicken paprikash with noodles. Yum, yum!!!

The bad news in the garage, however, was that the suspension is getting dodgy and will have to be fixed within the next 12 months, or it will not go through the MOT, due next autumn. That is likely to be in the region of £900 to £950, which seriously raises the question of changing the car. We are both so fond of our dear Dusty, that served us faithfully for the last 11 years, that we have rejected that idea repeatedly over the last few years. But it seems that we might have now arrived at a point when it is time. We have a whole year to decide, so we'll have to think about it seriously in that time.

One half of my birthday present from Bozsa

Tuesday had a very enjoyable event in it, namely the first lunch together with Bozsa for 4 months. I have seen Bozsa recently at the Music Academy concert a few weeks ago, but Roy hadn't seen her for over 4 months. They are very fond of each other, so they looked very happy in the Regős restaurant, one of our age old haunts. We had the lunch menu, which is a good deal cheaper than the main dishes, but nowadays all three of us are unable to do justice to a large portion, that normally arrives for the full price, so it is ideal to choose from the fixed lunch menu. It was not only delicious, but none of us left a morsel of anything. Roy had pork in breadcrumbs with chips, Bozsa had mushrooms in breadcrumbs and I had a chicken paprikash with noodles.

Roy's birthday present from Bozsa

Bozsa appeared with presents for both of us, as since she had not seen us, we both had our birthdays. Roy got a large bottle of Talisker, my favourite malt whisky, and I got two boxes of chocolates, one of Raffaello and one of Merci. The latter must have been responsible for my dreadfully bad sleep last night, as I have eaten far too many of them before going to bed. Still, they are so delicious, that that is a price I am happy to pay for the joy of them. 

The other half of my birthday present from Bozsa

In the last few days I have also tried to buy all my meds, which I have managed to have put up into the cloud, but it seems that due to supply line difficulties, or possibly even manufacturing problems, some of them are now not available anywhere in the country. Until now, when a pharmacy did not have anything in stock, they used to order it from the wholesaler and it got delivered within 24 hours. They still have some like that, but a new category joined this silly game: the "sorry, these are not available at the moment" one. I do hope they will turn up soon, as I do need the citrocalcium tablets to keep my bones in good condition.

This post ended up a lot longer than I thought it might. Even on leisurely weeks, we have a lot to do, which is great, as the quote from Clint Eastwood: "Don't let the old man in!" is definitely our motto. I am only hoping that our health will last to maintain this level of activity for a while yet. I have just read about the "American Covid" having reached the UK. That means that it'll be here in a week or less. Brrrrr!!!! This is not funny in a country where they do not supply vaccines any more and the private clinics are prevented to purchase any. Mind you, with the new government, that might have changed, we'll see. Hoping that we survive the trip this weekend and will have our capacity to write, you can expect the next post on Wednesday as usual.