Friends, comrades and countrymen

Since our return from the Bükk our feet had not touched the ground. It has been seriously hectic, so much so that both Roy and I are on the verge of exhaustion.

7 friends from all over Northern and Eastern Europe arrived for a few days of discussions, which was great. The pictures show the concentration which followed the reports on the state of the various countries they were from and we all learnt a great deal about each other's lands and problems.

When this was over we all went to Budapest to have a little bit of sight seeing and then travel home. Roy and I expected Steph, a good friend from Brussels, who had a conference on a boat moored not too far from the flat and in her free time we showed her a bit of Budapest. Unfortunately, Friday was not the best weather, but we still managed the usual haunts: Castle District, Big Market, the Danube. Unfortunately Roy has failed to mention to Tom where to change on the Metro en route to the airport, so we hope he got his flight in time. We have not heard to the contrary, so let us hope he improvised. :)

Roy left us early due to his gout still bothering him, but Jonathan, Steph and me managed to do some shopping in the big market, which was nice. It never fails to please, that's my experience. On Sunday we took Steph on a boat trip on the Danube, which was great, the weather now having improved. Finally on Monday we caught the local electric railway to the town of Szentendre where we walked about and then had lunch at the restaurantwith the peculiar bird in the courtyard. None of us tried the ostrich meat, but I am assured it is delicious. Considering that Roy has to stay away from red meat for his gout and Steph and I are vegetarians, no wonder!

As soon as we got back to Bér we had two more visitors in Andor and his cousin Ági, but they were absolutely delightful and helped us unwind a bit. It was also very nice to discover that all our tulips are in glorious bloom and I enclosed a piccie of some of them. Andor and Ági have just gone this afternoon but the rest of the week is not particularly restful unfortunately.

Tomorrow I will have to see the Notary as I think they have overcharged me on my car tax, on Friday I will have to catch a bus into BP as I am going to the theatre in the evening. Roy is not coming, because I will be back on Saturday morning for Attila's wedding at 12pm. All go, isn't it? That reminds me, I haven't wrapped his present yet. We bought it in IKEA on our way out on Tuesday.

I think I will finish my beer and watch some TV now.

Tata to you all!

A week in the Bükk, Postás Kupa and other delights

The last week was one of the most exhausting times ever in my life. First we fetched Dick off his plane and headed to Miskolc. The small hotel booked for us was OK, although a bit more run down than 8 years ago when we last stayed there. First two days were spent on Nagymezõ, checking control sites and designing the course. Sudden showers have spoilt some of it, but otherwise it was great. The lovely blue flowers (their name escapes me at the moment) photographed well, so did the toad below. Such distractions and showers notwithstanding, we made good progress on my course. We finished about half of it, including 4 timed controls.

Third day was spent in Csanyik with Laci and Dick and we nearly killed off Dick with it. Laci's 22 control sites took until 6 in the evening by which time he gave up. The map is still nowhere near finished and its quality leaves a great deal to be desired, but we still made good progress. As a big chunk of the course is in the ZOO, Dick hopes that some of the easier controls will become hard due to distractions from the animals. I loved the ring tailed lemurs, they looked seriously cute with their striped tails.

Unfortunately Roy developed gout while there and was in a lot of pain. I did manage to get him to a doctor, but he didn't give him any medication, so he hobbled on valiantly while it throbbed painfully.

Friday saw us popping down to Eger for the sprint, which I won, albeit by 7 seconds only. Saturday was the big day with the first day of the Postás Kupa and the Trail-O. The latter's organisation a la Laci was its usual chaotic self, but we managed to get about 70 people to compete. Apart from a few grumblings, my course was reasonably well received and Fehér Feri won as usual. However, everybody acknowledged that it was very difficult and even Feri's winning score was only 17 out of 22. I didn't get round to making a solution map, so we couldn't discuss anything, but I promised the competitors that I will start a blog where I will post one by one all the controls with map section, description, photo and solution map with position of the other flags. Plus my thoughts on how I thought the right answer could be achieved.

On Day 2 of the Postás Kupa I managed to get the better of Fey Klári, but overall still she took the win. In spite of nearly double the climb on Sunday, that felt the better course. I got the obligatory T shirt, of which there are at least 100 in the wardrobe already.

We returned home on the Monday, which meant that we couldn't do any shopping as all shops were shut. On Tuesday we had another busy day, which started with a visit to the doctor. He was really nice and helpful, result of which was three prescriptions - one anti inflammatory and two against the gout. Immediately after that we went to Hatvan: bought some paint, then got Roy's medicines. We managed to find a garage where they fitted the summer tyres and the visit was topped off by 120 quid food shopping for the week. Admittedly that was for 9 people, as some of my comrades are arriving tonight for a two day meeting starting tomorrow. And on this happy note I must finish as it has gone midnight. Still, they will not be here for at least another 90 minutes, so I will attempt to watch TV. Good night!

Julianna Grant W60 Hungarian Long Distance Orienteering Champion

Well, one lady had beaten me by two and a half minutes, but she is foreign and Champion's titles only go to Hungarians over here. My usual opposition was well and truly beaten, that's for sure. In fact, much to my surprise I caught the main opposition, who started 4 minutes ahead of me en route to control 3. After that I did not let her out of my sight. The foreign lady is in fact an ethnic Hungarian from Romania and she does have a habit of beating me by somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes whenever she turns up in Hungary. She did it twice last year and she is very consistent at it. :-)

Other than running, the visit to this event included a lovely trip up to the castle (see above!) on the border of the village where assembly was. Until about 2002 you couldn't have done that, because the village is right on the border with Slovakia and the idiots who drew up borders at Versailles at the end of WW1 put the castle into Slovakia for some weird reason. Even in the communist days, when cross border traffic between fellow members of the Warsaw Pact was not that difficult, people from the village couldn't just pop up to the castle, they had to travel 5 miles into Slovakia and then back out again, as the village didn't have a crossing point. Finally, it was agreed to open a crossing in 2002 and since 2004 they even demolished the fence as both Slovakia and Hungary are in the EU. We had a great time climbing on the walls (don't tell anyone!) and the view was breathtaking.

In the meantime back at the event there was some excitement. A young woman competitor was attacked by a boar. Luckily her cries were heard by some hikers and she was rescued, an ambulance called and she was carted off to hospital. These attacks are rare, but occasionally you are reminded the woods in Hungary are not always very safe.

Can't write much more now as Andor and I are off for a hike to another ruined castle. More later!

LATER:

Our hike to Csõvár castle was fantastic. It was only about 5 miles, but in glorious, unseasonable sunshine with over 25 degrees Celsius and with views to kill for, it was a treat. See pictures of:

1. Andor on the edge of a precipice taking pictures (what else?)

2. A beautifully painted peasant abode en route to the castle.

3. The ruins of the castle on the top of the hill.

Steep mountains and the arrival of spring

The last week has been rather hectic, but enjoyable.

After only three days in Ber I returned to BP on Thursday. I had my hair cut then had a HOV executive meeting, which went better than expected, followed by a theatre visit to a Stephen King play which was superb. Well written and full of excellent performances.

On Friday morning Andor and I departed to the Bukk. We first did the Postas Kupa Trail-O, then started on the WTOC course on the plateau. There was still some snow, but it was disappearing fast. At the end it was really spring-like and not at all cold. Unfortunately one day it was thick fog, so much so that all we managed all day was 4 controls. It is somewhat worrying what we could do if the same happens in August? I don't even want to think about it. Thankfully the odds on that are pretty long, so let us hope nothing will sabotage my big day. The terrain is fantastic, very technical, even though it doesn't look it. The map (a far as it is done) is the most accurate, perfect representation of a piece of ground I have ever seen. With the possible exception of Slovenian karst, perhaps!

Now I am back in BP and I have spent all day clearing hundreds of e-mails. I must try to get mobile Internet, or this will get even worse as WTOC gets closer and I spend more and more time in the mountains. Mind you, mobile reception is not too brilliant, either, so perhaps I won't bother.

Tonight I have been to the theatre again: this time to the play I forgot last time and it was good. Kern Andras is an outstanding actor. Tomorrow I am returning to Ber, the weekend has the Long Distance Champs, then off to the airport to fetch Dick and back to the Bukk again. Postas Kupa next weekend, then EECC meeting in Ber, then Steph coming, so I might not blog again for a while. Oh to be retired. I thought I would have a rest then!! Ha-ha!!

Must go to bed! TTFN!!

Orienteering and then some more orienteering

This weekend we were down in the South in the Mecsek Hills. This is typical karst terrain with lots of sinkholes or dolinas, as they are called hereabouts. The Mecsek karst is not as fiendish as bits of Croatia and Slovenia I have been to, but technical enough for my little brain. My physical state still not being too brilliant I was not expecting great results yet again, but it seems the others are even more decrepit and they make more mistakes too. So I won W60 again and this time I will even get some ranking points for it as there was 6 of us in the class. My biggest mistake of the weekend was on day 2 en route to control 6. I have a feeling that the map was not particularly good there, as most of my friends have made mistakes in that area. Mine was only worth about a minute, but some made a complete hash of it, irrespective of which direction they were coming from. Just one question: is there a deep valley just to the East of that control running North-Southish? It didn't look to me as if there was, but there was an almighty great big one on the ground. By the way I am surrounded by guys only on the rostrum because the M60 and W60 presentation is usually together, but by the time the ceremony came about the rest of them have gone home. :-(

This third map belongs to an altogether different, but no less enjoyable, type of orienteering. It is called Mobile-O, which some of you might have already heard of. However, this one was a global version where the navigators could be anywhere on the planet, while the runners were doing their bit in a park, woods and on some streets of Seattle, WA. My partner was an adolescent who has never done Mobile-O before and only orienteers with his school. He was really great, as after an initial little wobble right at the beginning, he was listening well and did the run in just over 52 minutes for 3.5km inlcuding quite a lot of climb. We came in the midfield and we even beat his mother. If you want to have a look at their web site it is on

http://sites.google.com/site/mobogoglobo/Home

Other than all this orienteering on Friday I saw The Phantom of the Opera just round the corner from our flat in a brilliant production. Apparently this is the only one in the world where Andrew Lloyd Webber gave permission for a different production of the musical, which did not copy the setup in London. I had a great night.

Today we have done some shopping for wood as Roy is doing some DIY (what's new?) He is fixing the ladder that is going up into the loft of the Kottage to the wall to make it safe and has also broken through the wall by the end of the corridor of the Farmhouse so that he can build a set of steps down into the Kottage garden. When we had that wall built we have not yet owned the Kottage and this way we will have a route through to it in the front as well as in the back.

I am off to the Bukk on Friday to do some Trail-O planning and Roy is staying behind to play with sand, cement, decking, bits of wood and other interesting materials to his heart's content.

The flu lingers on, otherwise a good week

Spring like weather appeared occasionally this week. The pile of wood is getting quite low, but we are still loving the pottery stove and the heat it gives. Thursday we went to Bp for the postponed meeting from the previous week. It was not nearly as acrimonious as it could have been, so that was good news. The slightly worse news of that day was a phonecall from Pam, which Roy was not prepared to return. In fact, he refused to talk to her, so I think there is definitely a family rift developing there. In spite the fact that I like peace, I think he is right. She was very unreasonable about not turning up for Alex's wedding celebrations in Toronto last August and Roy was trying to make a point.

Friday was mixed: first we had no luck with the National Library with reference to the printing industry. They were not particularly helpful either, so that was a wasted trip. However, we did have a nice Chinese lunch at a restaurant somebody recommended to me some time ago, so that was a plus. All last week I had a big typing job on for friends in London, so I went home and did some more on Friday as well. As a result I forgot that I had a theatre ticket for that night. I am definitely going senile!! Mind you, I fixed it since. As the others, who didn't forget, said that I missed something quite brilliant, I talked Andor into coming with me to see it so we have tickets for 1st April. I hope I will not be an April Fool to forget again. I think Andor will not let me this time!

Saturday and Sunday was spent in the Vertes Mountains at the traditional season's opener the Spartacus Cup. I know that the season, as such, has started a couple of weeks ago, but this is the big one, so it was quite well attended. I have never been in this part of the Vertes and it was quite nice. Unfortunately, my physical shape was atrocious, overweight, untrained, with the lingering aftereffects of the flu and excrutiating arthritis, but amazingly the others were either in even worse shape or made mistakes or both, but I managed to win W60 with quite a commanding margin. (see my route above!)

We are back now in Ber and the typing job still has about 8 pages to go. Better get back to it.

Dentist, meeting(s), Trail-O Clinic, an interview & no TV, all made more bearable by Bryson

Busy week again punctuated by illness. This time Roy got the lurgie real bad, so I had to leave him behind when I went to the dentist. Lovely guy, Feri, filled a big hole without even drilling, which was most welcome. Further works pending when I feel like them (which is never!!)
I was supposed to have a meeting after the dentist, but that got cancelled due to one of the participants going down with the same lurgie. Or so he said!
Upon arrival at the flat the TV wouldn't work. Oh marvellous! We only had the set top box a few months and it is bust already. After the usual: Have you tried this? Yes dear. Have you tried that? Yes dear. on the phone I got a promise of an engineer the following morning. Thankfully, my order of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island in Hungarian arrived before I left, so I had some fun while waiting for the engineer. He turned out to be an absolute gem. Very rare in the cable television trade, especially in Hungary. He not only fixed it in a few minutes, but even tuned my TV, which the original guy who installed the set top box failed to do. So now we can receive not just the digital channels, but all except a few of them on the analogue cable as well, so if and when the digital set top box goes belly up again, we should still be able to watch TV. Amazingly he would not take any money either. Wonders will never cease!
The rest of Friday until 5pm was spent reading Bryson and I firmly believe that he should be prescribed as an anti-depressant! I was really interested how well the Hungarian translator would give back his unique, droll, partly American/partly British humour. It is excellent, although there are some misunderstandings, which are understandable, because unless you lived in Britain you wouldn't know that a planning authority deals with building permits etc. Still, he managed to give back the atmosphere of the book perfectly, which is quite an achievement.
Friday evening I had a discussion about the Trail-O World Championships with my Event Director and got dinner at their place as well. Thankfully things are beginning to move, but still too slowly and in a haphazard way for my liking. If all goes well, apparently I am supposed to be having a map by the end of April. That leaves me with 3 months to plan, which is entirely possible, but wouldn't it have been better if I could have done this 6 months ago and therefore be able to concentrate on refining and perfecting it now, so that it should be as good as it could be? Well, such is life. Laci is promised his map by the end of this month, which on the face of it seems more promising, but as we all know how much the promises of the guy that made this one are worth, I wouldn't celebrate yet.
Saturday was the Trail-O Clinic where I was the main speaker. The day was both great and very sad. Great, because all those there showed a tremendous interest in what was said and shown to them, and very bad, because only 6 or 7 people came. Many more promised, but forgive my cynicism, promises are not worth a lot nowadays. The picture above is one of those who didn't come, but at least she didn't promise either. The picture is from Orienteering World, the IOF magazine and it accompanied an interview which I made with her. She was one of our WTOC competitors last year and a very nice person as well.
Finally, on Sunday I met up with Lyn Drummond a lovely Australian lady who interviewed me about Stephen and what it was like bringing up a future stand-up comic. She might use the information for an article in the Budapest Time Out, but as Stephen is not likely to be back for another year, perhaps not. After a lovely lunch at the Paprika, a quick shop at Tesco's for just enough food that I could carry I was back home by 8pm on the bus.