The start of the orienteering season

Every year the proper O season starts with the Spring Juniper Cup. It is usually in March, but this year the first day was on 28th February. Being quite under the weather, about 5kg overweight and generally stricken with bad arthritis, I didn't think I was going to produce some great results. As it happens I foolishly entered W50, which meant running up by more than 10 years, but what the heck, I thought, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Well, I ended up 3rd overall, which is not that bad, but only because everybody was making enormous mistakes, not just me. After the winter break one's technique is a bit rusty and the juniper jungle is definitely the O version of being thrown in the deep end, indeed.

As you may gather from the maps, this bit of terrain on the Great Hungarian Plain is rather intricate. Juniper jungle, to be precise. I managed a time of over 70 minutes for just 3.3km on the first day, but at least that run counted as excellent practice of relocation technique. We had trouble with control 6. I say, "we", as by then there was the entire W50 field hunting control 6. Why on earth did we have 2 minute start intervals, when there was only 5 of us, God only knows!! Anyway, the really aggravating feature of this great control hunt was, that after about 20 minutes in the pack I realised that I have been within 1-2 metres of it on my first individual approach. The problem being not with my navigation, but with my eyesight: I didn't see the flag through the jungle at the bottom of the pit.

Day 2 was a lot colder, but I soon got warm and had a goodish run, except for control 6 again (my nemesis for the weekend) where I mistook the forest corner I arrived at for another one way to the SE. Oxygen debt by then, I suppose. Sunday's run also included a bit of coaching, as I caught my great friend Edit en route to control 2 and managed to drag her along with me, offering her the occasional coaching advice en route.

Unfortunately the hotel we found last time we were down there was not nearly as comfortable this time, plus both of us started going down with the current lurgy, so we are now feeling a bit rough, but happily back in the village.

I need to have a rest and get rid of this cold as the rest of this week is shaping up to be a corker. Thursday has a dentist appointment in it, followed by a potentially acrimonous meeting. Friday another meeting followed by the Trail-O Clinic on Saturday. On Sunday I am meeting a nice lady who wants to interview me about Stephen for Time Out, so I'd better get well soon!

Good news - for once!!

Roy and I will be grandparents in August, if all goes well. Those of a nervous disposition or allergic to all things medical should skip perusing the pictures on the left, but having had my children without the assistance of too much technology in 1973 and 1974 I am fascinated by all the paraphanelia of machinery involved in having kids today.

It is said that as it has a large, bald head, it must be Alex's. They have christened poor thing Wiggly, on account of its wiggly behaviour during the scan. Considering it was nowhere near the end of the first trimester at the time, it must be a lively little thing for wriggling that much.

I wonder if they will want to know its sex? I wouldn't, if I were them, as it must take away from the lovely surprise at the end. Mind you, we could stop calling it an it if we could use he or she. Still, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Alex and Meaghan all the happiness in the world while awaiting its arrival and afterward for having him or her.

Love from us all to you both!!!
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Great Weekend

I spent the last 4 days away from home. On Thursday I spent practically the whole day travelling, first by bus to Bp, then by train to Debrecen to attend a film showing and a meeting, finally back to Bp on the train. I was on the go from 7am to 11pm - a knackering day.

Friday I spent in Bp, mostly having a rest, reading my book and getting ready for the weekend. The highlight of the week was definitely the weekend. I spent it in the Bükk inspecting the terrain fo the Postas Kupa Trail-O and starting the planning. This weekend there was about 18 of us, mostly from the Postas club, inspecting the Start and Finish, checking the map and generally getting ready for the event in April. I got dragged along to confirm (or not) my willingness to plan it. As it happens, I did say yes, as the forest was gorgeous, especially covered in a foot of snow and it did turn out to be very technical, even though it did not look like it from the map.

We have done a great deal of good work. I worked with Laci and Koxi, but Jutka helped on Sunday as well. Both days were bright and sunny with no wind, but even like that we were pretty cold in 4-5C below zero. The pictures show 1) our accommodation, which was in a youth camp with very primitive conditions, but still OK; 2) and 3) the Finish field - with or without people in it and 4) Jutka coming off the mountain with some flags. I finished my Bryson book of Shakespeare, which was great and generally had a somewhat exhausting, but brilliant weekend.

Great Tits

We have done the clever trick of getting back to Bér just as the snow started falling. It hasn't stopped since, so we are snowed in again. As I am supposed to be going to Debrecen tomorrow and the Bükk over the weekend, it isn't looking very promising at the moment.

Roy likes to keep busy, so a few weeks ago he fixed 4 of the old wooden bowls up with the chains left over from my lockable orienteering controls in readiness for the time when the pelargonia come out again. The plastic hanging baskets are not particularly pretty, so I agreed to wooden ones in future. So, yesterday morning he came in and said: There are lots of little birds on the bowls looking quite aggrieved at not finding any food. As we have just bought a 20kg bag of bird seed for Nelly on Monday we asked for a little back and since then have dozens of the little twittering things happily stuffing themselves until it's all gone. Why didn't I think of this sooner? It is delightful watching them, especially that they must have passed the word round, resulting in mobs of them clearing out the seed very fast.

By the way, I originally thought they were coal tits, but it turned out they are all great tits. A friend looked it up in his bird book which had all the English names as well as the Hungarian ones. In England blue tits are the commonest tit, but they are very rare here. Watching the birds I did think that they looked a little bit too large to be coal tits and I was right. By the way, the Hungarian name for the lovely birdies we have been feeding translates literally as "coal tit", but they are great tits. Their yellow tummies and the black line down the middle proves it.

Nelly said that it is not fair getting them used to being fed and then when we are away the bowls are empty, so I have also hung up a piece of fat and will buy some seed balls, which are stuck together with fat, so they last.

Enjoy the pictures!

Winter hike in the Pilis

Gun and Janne have gone home yesterday. Afterwards I had a few friends over for food and drinks prior to a theatre visit just round the corner. Füst Milán is not exactly my cup of tea, I have discovered last night. This 1920's-30's comedy of manners was tedious after a while, even though it took the mickey out of a ridiculous society mercilessly, which was spot on.

This Sunday, however, the morning dawned bright and Jutka and I departed to Dobogókõ in the Pilis Mountains for a hike and possible cross country ski trip. Unfortunately I left my my skis in Bér, so we just hiked instead. As you can see from the pictures it was a glorious winter wonderland, even though Budapest was without a snifter of the white stuff. Unfortunately, by the time we got up there the sun went as well, only to come out just before we got back.

Jutka allowed me to try her skis and I was rather wobbly on my pins. Fell over twice, so it was not a very promising beginning. I only spent 5 or 10 minutes on the skis, but I am determined that as soon as I can get myself a set of poles, I will try it again and this time on my own skis.

We are off to Bér tomorrow - we have not been away for this long for quite a while.

Gun & Janne

Another busy week. Stephen and Katy got home after a 2 and half hour delay at about 1.30am in the morning. Thursday and Friday we relaxed at home having a rest. The weather wasn't too good either.

Saturday we went to the Vertes where the gradients were steep, the controls well hidden and the course quite long. Something happened to my ankle, so I was quite badly hobbling by the end and consequently didn't go running with Andor on the Sunday.

Monday we made an excellent discovery at the offices of Magyar Grafika, where a nice lady photocopied the article about Daniel Czettel for us. This development, coupled with the discovery of some Czettel and Posner death notices on the Internet kept Roy busy and happy for days.

The bad news of the week concerned the electrical inspection of 41, which is likely to cost us thousands of pounds in having to rewire, but we are living in denial at the moment. Once we have seen the details we can decide what to do.

Finally Gun and Janne have arrived last night so we spent a really enjoyable, if somewhat freezing, day today walking about in the Castle District, across the Chain Bridge, followed by Vaci utca and the Big Indoor Market, rounding it up at the Gerbeaud for cake. Now I am going to bed with a good book to please myself.

Busy week

Last week we couldn't go outside much (yet again) due to bad weather, but managed to keep the house warm and get on with other work. We were both getting excited about going to BP for over two weeks for Stephen's and Gun's visits.

We came in on Friday, spent most of Saturday morning cleaning the flat. It is such a lovely, ergonomic space, it takes no time. Made the bed and put the heating up, so that Stephen should not suffer from the cold. Got an e-mail from Sheila saying she wanted to come over in May, so fixed that up as well. I went to an organ concert in the afternoon in an unusual church. The performance was in aid of the restoration fund of an ancient church somewhere near the Balaton. I am used to free concerts which usually cost more than the paying ones, but I do not mind contributing to a good cause like this. I can even put up with a little religion, which you usually can't avoid when the concert is in a church. This particular organ was enormous and very modern. The guy playing was not the best performer I have ever heard, but the pieces included famous works by Bach and Vivaldi, so I was happy. What made me a bit concerned, however, was the obvious connections between this particular church and the extreme right wing. The little church needing restoration was associated with St. Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary and this was a perfect excuse for ultra nationalist, irredentist, extreme right wing sentiment expressed in some of the speeches I heard, the text on all the plaques on the walls and the dozens of right wing flags everywhere. If it wasn't for my two friends with me I would have scarpered right at the beginning.

Sunday was very busy, yet again. I went hashing in Erd, followed by a barbecue party in the house of one of the hashers. This time Roy came as well and confirmed his feelings that this hashing crowd is not exactly his cup of tea. I find some of them really nice to talk to, but I think Roy is right that on the whole the atmosphere is not to our liking. The people are too expat, too right wing and too public school. I can stomach a small amount of any of those three, but not all three together. Still, this hash will go down in the annals of epic survival efforts, as slap bang in the middle of it came a whiteout snowstorm and we got totally lost. The fact that the trail was marked in flour somehow did not help. Once there was an inch or so of the white stuff everywhere (including sticking to my glasses) the trail markings have petered out and no wonder we had no idea where the checks were or which way we should turn. Finally, we asked someone in the neighbouring village and found our way back looking like drowned rats. Thankfully I took some spare clothing, so I was quite comfortable, but I can't see me joining the hash too often in the future. As it happens, the orienteering season starts soon and then I couldn't go anyway as it clashes with events on Sundays.

In the evening we fetched Stephen and Katy, they were extremely lucky to get out of Gatwick, considering it was closed soon after they left. Since then we have been sightseeing, shopping and generally having a good time, (see above!) even though the weather is still wet and cold. Both gigs went extremely well: Monday had a better crowd, so it flowed better and Stephen enjoyed himself more. Tuesday had a large group of punters who possibly could not follow Stephen fully and therefore there was less interaction. Still, both nights were full and it was very successful all round.

The coming weekend will also be somewhat busy: HOV executive meeting on Friday, orienteering on Saturday, running and possibly even hashing on Sunday with another concert in the evening. Gun is due on Tuesday, so it's all go here.