Hassocks, grandsons, hospital and lots of fun!

Hassocks High Street

November 29th was the date when the Christmas lights went on in Hassocks. We actually missed the moment when they went on, but still had lots of fun looking at the stalls, having pizza, playing with light sticks, stroking Shetland ponies, having a go in the teacup merry-go-round and generally enjoying the Christmas cheer. Some of us even had mulled wine, but not me. En route home we bought some fish and chips and gorged on it for tea at home.

The cheeky chappie

The little happy chappie, who was in a good mood even before we left for the fair, has such a joyful, sunny disposition that it is sheer joy having a chuckle with him

Elian with windmill

The little star (two of them)

Elian admiring his windmill light stick. It amazingly survived the trip and when we left, it was still in working order.  And that in spite of several battles between him and his little brother for possession.

Daddy, Elian and Xander

One of the Shetland ponies

One of the Shetland ponies that were loved to near exhaustion by the hundreds of children stroking them.

On the merry-go-round

Mummy with the two little monsters in the teacup.











On Saturday we went to the park, where we met Rosalie with her Dad Ben, while her Mum, Esther was at the hairdressers having highlights put in. It was a bit muddy, but we all had a really good time on the swing, climber and other equipment.

 Elian climbing up the slide with Daddy's help.

Xander on the rope bridge with Mummy's help.

Out of the way Xander! I am coming through!!

Like Father like Son!

On Sunday Mummy and Daddy had a well deserved half day out on their own, while Daddy's Daddy (aka Grandad) and Grandma had the joy of playing with their little monsters all afternoon and evening. Xander is fond of computers, but usually only deals with TV remotes and the iPad.  However, this time he discovered Daddy's work computer, which also turned out to be lots of fun.

In the Basketmakers

Monday was Grandad's and Granma's day off, when they went to the Basketmakers (one of their much loved haunts) to have lunch and some warm, delicious beer. That pub is an absolute delight.  It had not changed one iota in decades, it still has the same publican, the food is locally sourced and delicious and the beers are varied, beautifully kept and tasty. Roy had a steak and I had my usual: humous with a feta salad and pitta bread.  All washed down with Gale's HSB. Yum, yum!!

We also did some shopping in our usual express fashion, which is the only way we both prefer.  No trying on, thinking about it and changing our minds x number of times.  If you see something you like, go in, buy it and that's it.  The only place where this system broke down was in Argos, where I saw the camera I wanted at a good price, so in we went. The queue was short, we paid for it and then joined the other queue for receiving it. The announcement was loud and clear, but still no sign of camera.  They never admitted, but I suspect they had a computer breakdown in the sparsely staffed stock room and chaos ensued. Eventually it did turn up, so that was OK finally too. The total haul of goodies we carted off to Hassocks was: a Panasonic camera with 32gig HD chip, some Imperial Leather soap, special flexible, but sticky ankle bandage, some paracetamol, 4 jars of crunchy nut butters, a Nepalese funny owl wolly hat and a couple of carrier bagfuls of Sainsbury's Cheddar, sausages and other goodies.

My new camera

And then we came to Tuesday, which was the one day there was plenty of stress, but also great joy.  Xander have been having continuous and very painful middle ear infections, which kept him in discomfort for months. Finally, it was decided that he needed gromets in both ears, but everybody was concerned about inserting them at such an early age.  He is only 13 months old, although you wouldn't believe it, he is so bright and capable.  Stephen had to work in Scotland, so I went with Lucy and Xander to the Children's Hospital, which was lovely.  Modern, fairly new building, lovely, friendly and kind nurses and - as it turned out - excellent surgeons too. We were told that it would take 5 minutes to insert the gromets and 20 or 30 minutes for him to wake up and be brought back from recovery.  When nearly an hour went and no sign of the little one, we were understandably anxious. The trouble with consultants is that communication is not their forte. Nobody told us anything and - as it happens in situations like this - we were imagining the worst. After nearly an hour and a half he was brought out, howling his little head off, but alive and in one piece. Apparently his right ear was such a mess, it took a long time to clean it out. He was in pain, a bit shocked at waking up in a strange place without Mummy and also starving hungry. After the fast gulping down of an entire bottle he calmed down and went to sleep. He looked so cute on that large, full size hospital bed.

The brave little trooper

After about an hour he woke up and within a very short time was back to his old self. Went discovering toys and other interesting things. He didn't seem big enough for most of the vehicles, but that didn't stop him.  Ahhhhh!

And finally on Wednesday our little visit ended. We departed with heavy hearts that we will not see them now for a while, but with lots of lovely memories. The last present we treated ourselves to was a litre bottle of Talisker, which almost needs a bank loan to purchase, but what the heck?! You can't take it into the hole with you, so we decided to splash out.  The trip home was uneventful and now we are in the middle of doing the washing, reorganising the flat from the set up for visitors, reading the user's manuals of our new acquisitions, etc. etc.

First day in Hassocks

I know I only posted a few days ago, but a lot happened since. The three days before leaving for Hassocks was rather hectic.  First of all I had to find a way to change my API on the boarding card, otherwise they wouldn't let me on board. Website had no facility for it and no sign of a phone number either. Finally we had to go out to the airport to find a helpful little chap to give me la contact number for EasyJet. (I only realised later that I did have a number, but forgot this fact.) So having sorted that, I visited my hairdresser to tidy me up and then did some washing.

I had a performance every evening and that was actually fun, if somewhat tiring. On Monday it was a piano recital by Dezso Ranki in the Palace of the Arts, on Tuesday, Tannhauser in the Opera and finally on Wednesday a viola and piano recital in the Music Academy. They were all superb, including Wagner, of whom I am not exactly a fan.

On Wednesday, while I was  at my concert,  Michelle and Carmella have arrived. They are spending a few days in town and staying at the flat until Sunday. I hope the weather is good for them, although the temperatures had dropped drastically in the last few days.

And then came the trip to Hassocks. All connections were instant, the plane left on time and we were indoors by 11 pm.  The little monsters were in bed, but they got up early this morning.

I started to get acquainted with my tablet and took this selfie of Roy and me (our first!).

This afternoon they are turning on the Christmas lights in Hassocks High Street, so further reports are due after that.

A busy, if somewhat lonely week (for both of us)

On Monday we saw that the cefre barrels were gone, so Roy was expecting his moonshine to turn up any day. The other major event of Monday was having to ring Nationwide again as nothing arrived in the post as promised.  Another helpful little fellow had to own up that nothing was sent.  At least according to his computer. So he faithfully assured me that this time he personally had a word with the department responsible and they promised to expedite the matter at once. Is this human or computer negligence and inefficiency?

Fenyő László

On Tuesday I was off back to town due to yet another concert.  My favourite chellist did us proud again. His concert had been hit by a serious mishap, just on the morning of the day of the performance. One of the foreign soloists called in sick and he had only a few hours to find others to take his place. He managed it and even the program only had to be changed in one respect. Kristóf was one of the fill-ins, and superb he was too.

The other big event of Tuesday was the arrival of Roy's pálinka. He suspected that there would be quite a lot of it, due to the size and plumpness of the bought plums, but even he didn't imagine that 56 litres of the heavenly brew would arrive in 12 five litre containers.  Considering he only sent 10, good job the distiller had some spare. He spent the following days cleaning, drying and then filling a large number of glass bottles, as pálinka is not very happy in plastic for any length of time.  Even my friend Klári has got involved by supplying some of the bottles. As the excise duty is going back on homegrown booze from 1st January 2015, good job this got done now.  However, the sum, which is rumoured to be a full £4.50 per litre, is a bit of a blow. Not so much as an extra expense, although that is not welcome either, but the fact that this is so steep that the vast majority of the citizens will most probably go back to distilling it illegally at home, thus endangering the survival of the legal stills.  The one we use now is such a good, reliable and skillful distillery, that I would be heartbroken to lose him.

About half of this year's pálinka

On Wednesday I was back in the baths. I was going down with a cold, so I went inside a lot sooner than normal, where I still couldn't find Imre (still staying at home on doctor's orders after his accident), but Annie was there and we had a good chinwag. Afterwards I went and paid Roy's speeding fine, met up with Cedrick to hand over the T-shirts and paid a visit to a ticket office to try and get one of my stolen concert tickets reprinted.  Needless to say they couldn't. When I got home I rang the office of the orchestra performing and they promised to do something about it. As the concert is in next May, the matter is not urgent.  While there I bought a ticket to one of their plays.

One of the lovely building in the Castle District

On Thursday I went geocaching with Klári. We spent most of our time, prior to getting dark up in the Castle District. The sun shone and it was a very pleasant and easy multi. Unfortunately I couldn't say the same about the next cache. The clues were pathetic, the GPS reception minimal, and with the sun setting the air was getting totally freezing. So we gave up, had a cup of tea in a cafe and went home.

Mathias Church in the Castle District

On Friday I was supposed to go to the baths again, but really didn't feel like it. I felt full of cold and spent most of the morning in bed watching TV. Later I pootled off to the West End shopping mall to buy a mouse and keyboard to go with my laptop.  As it often happens I ended up buying myself a Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet too. It is very sweet, fits in my pocket and having just started to acqaint myself with it I can already tell that it will be a lot of fun having it. I had to go back to the concert ticket office as I realised that the theatre ticket I bought two days before clashed with a concert.  She was very helpful and changed it to the following week. I also popped along to my favourite cheese shop in a local market. I bought half a kilo this time of my favourite hard goat cheese. And then for the sensation of the day: about 15 minutes after I got home a DHL man rang my doorbell and delivered my new passport.  Yipppeeee!

Leaving the village en route to the forest

Botond and Ancsa hanging on for dear life

A steep descent on a wooded hillside

Posing for a group picture below the stages of the cross

 And then we come to Saturday, when I had to get up at 6am, catch a lift at 7.15am and then go on a 12.5km hike with friends on an overcast, pretty cold day when the sun wouldn't show itself, whatever we did. At the end my knees were in agony, and not just me, some of our party was hobbling just as much as I was.

Within the stages of the cross

The plan was that we first go to the Eagle's Top and then come back down to Buják to see the stages of the cross there. Needless to say that we got involved with a very steep ravine, wasted a lot of time and then ran out of daylight to get up the mountain as far as where the lookout tower was. We did, however have a fun hike, even I saw some glorious bits of the forest I have never been to. We discovered a spring with a little building next to it and that was pretty close to Virágos. After a short pálinka stop at Virágos we got home by 3pm.

After a quick rest we were all off to the Sandos Restaurant, which was pretty good again. The food was quite quickly prepared, due to my efficient organisation of sending in our orders in advance.  Unfortunately there was only 9 of us at dinner and 11 of us on the hike.  The numbers were originally higher, but the current flu epidemic and a few family commitments put paid to many people's plans for the weekend.

Lewis winning his second F1 world championship title

And finally on the Sunday we watched the final, double points decider in the 2014 F1 season.  And what an event that was. First fantastic joy for both of us happened in the first few seconds of the race when Lewis Hamilton sped past Nico Rosberg to get into the lead, a lead he never relinquished for the rest of the race, other than being second or third when those ahead had less pit stops than him. About half way through the race Rosberg discovered that he lost ERS which made him really slow and finally quite a lot of electric problems, but he still finished the race. This took out the main opposition, but Massa's Williams was also after Lewis in the final stages, as he also suffered from a slow down, plus he nursed his engine, fearing a Rosberg style failure, which thankfully never happened. At the end Lewis held his lead and poor old Rosberg finished out of the points.  This way (and due to the double points) Lewis won by nearly 70 points. A well deserved victory for him in 2014.  He had just as many (if not more) mechanical failures as Rosberg, 11 wins, but less poles than his rival. 

Lewis doing doughnuts to celebrate his win

A couple of hours after the Grand Prix we came back into town, where we have quite a few jobs to do before we depart for Hassocks on Thursday.

The mundane and the brilliant

Last week was spent in town, still struggling with the aftermath of the robbery, but hopefully these are now the last knockings of it. Other than those jobs, we also had some fun, so all in all it was OK. Finally the weekend was brilliant, so I am happy, if somewhat done in physically at the moment.

Starting with the early part of the week, I paid two visits to my mobile network providers, where I met a delightful young woman who was really, really sweet and helpful. Events like this cheer you up no end, so I had quite a lot done. First I went to cancel my contract on my mobile dongle for the netbook as both were stolen and she talked me into upgrading, rather than cancelling.  The new one is a bit dearer (by about £3 a month), but provides a free WiFi dongle, so more than one device can use it at the same time.  Great! Then she sorted my biggest pain relating to my mobile, i.e.: the short and quiet rings. Unfortunately the loudness of the rings could not be bettered, but she solved the problem of me getting to my calls just as they go to the message box: she got rid of the message box.  Yippeeeee! Those that are important will ring again and those that are not, who cares about? She also mentioned that I could get a better contract as mine is over 2 years old. So a couple of days later I went back and we did that as well, so I now have 3gig data a month and 90 minutes of free calls for -again - only for a fraction more a month.

Then I went to sort my phone at the Nokia Service Centre, as it would not download photos and they suggested a complete upgrade. UPGRADE is one word I detest with a vengence, as whenever I tried to upgrade anything in my life before (electronically spleaking, of course!) nothing but grief and stress followed.  Still, I suppose I had to take the plunge if I wanted to carry on using it as a camera as well as a phone.  Amazingly it came out OK. At the Service Centre it didn't work after the upgrade, so they didn't charge me anything.  Once I was at home, it did work, so that's sorted and for free! Since then I found that it doesn't quite work on all my computers, so perhaps it depends on the age of them, but as long as there is one that the phone is willing to dowload the pictures to, I'm happy.

On Tuesday I went to the baths, where I had a very good time until I discovered that my favourite friend slipped and fell and was just about carted off by the ambulance men as I got to the part of the baths where he usually hangs out.  I do hope he is OK, but as I was too busy to go again this week, I will not find out until next week or even later.

On Thursday I had my mammography appointment, and it looks as if it is OK. I have not been back to my GP yet with the report, but the specialist told me that other than a few calcified cysts - which are supposed to be normal for women of my age - all looks fine.  Have to go back once a year, so that's not too drastic.

One of the protesting cars

On Thursday the loss adjuster came, I got all the forms to fill out and it looks that we might still get some money back on the stolen goods. I didn't realise, but we were covered for up to 5% of the value of the contents in our house insurance. Mind you, I don't trust insurance companies, so I am not celebrating yet. On my way back from the insurance company, where I deposited the filled out forms, I saw a demonstration by motorcar, which I thought was a crazy idea.  The very purpose of a demonstration - apart from expression of discontent - is to talk to people about it.  See if they agree and join you.  Not very easy from a car, is it? I was just thinking that when a Russian girl asked me what the demo was about, and I had a really good discussion with her about not just the demo, but the world in general and Russia and Hungary in particular.  I got her number, I will follow that discussion up, you never know, I might make a new friend!

The hole with the 100 year old broken sewer below

Old Victorian sewer pipe in pieces

Also on Thursday we had a lovely lunch with our friends Nata and Colin, who are always good company, and they didn't disappoint this time either. Roy and Colin always disappear into the dim and distant past with their childhood memories, Nata and I just listen and imagine what they could have been like as boys. En route to the restaurant we came across a rather large hole in one of the roads near the flat. The guys "looking into it" told us that a XIXth century sewer broke and we managed to take a photo before they put those massive vertical walls in to stop it collapsing.

One of several guys "looking into it"

Finally, the guy turned up with the electronic door chips too, so less and less things are outstanding, which gets us ever closer to the time when we can start really forgetting about the robbery.

A folk dance group at the pig fest

And then came the weekend: Juniper Cup in the South, which is amongst my favourite events. The big pigfest was on again, but this time without too many of those weird home-made gadgets that amused Roy so much last year. I had a very pleasant surprise upon arrival, namely the most welcome fact that I didn't have to pay for my orienteering. Nobody told me about it, but apparently the organisers wanted to express their thanks to me this way, over my efforts of bringing foreign orienteers to their events over the last few years.  How kind! I didn't do it for the money, that's for sure! It is a quality event in those aspects that I value and think important: good terrain, good maps and good courses. So, I was only thinking of the enjoyment those orienteers, nothing else.

Day 2 Juniper Cup W654 course

Day 1 was a shortened course and I felt that

Day 1 Juniper Cup W65 course

it didn't really take us into the hardest juniper jungle. I was very slow, but reasonably accurate. My great rival, Ildi beat me by 47 seconds, so I was really fired up to beat her on Sunday to get the overall first place. Everything went absolutely swimmingly until the penultimate control.  Honestly, I was going so well, like I was on rails.  Then I committed the number 1 cardinal error: deviated from original plan. I thought to go along a very clear vegetation boundary to the corner of a patch of white forest, take a bearing there and go in slowly and carefully.  But en route I spotted a nice reentrant which basically should have led me to the control, but for some unknown reason (probably oxygen debt) I turned right when within 20 yards of the control. I spent a good few mintues before I relocated off the original attack point (the corner of the white forest) and got it in one. I suppose I can be proud of relocating so calmly and efficiently, without any help from anyone, as I was totally on my own at that stage. From there I also wandered about a bit, (including going off the map) now due definitely to tiredness and finished at bang on 50 minutes.  As Ildi started a full half hour after me, I had to wait to find out how she did.  Amazingly, I beat her by 6 minutes, because she made more mistakes and definitely bigger ones.  A lovely little certificate, a plaster ornament and a bottle of dry red was the sum total of my winnings.  Hooray! That was a brilliant weekend!

Basket maker's stall at the pigfest

Potter's stall at the pigfest

The choice of goodies at the pigfest: roast pigmeat, crackling, sausage, brains and all the salad and pickles you can eat

Tomorrow we are off to the village, where the cefre is going to the still and I will come back before Roy due to concerts.

A brilliant bit of luck and an excellent weekend

On Thursday we came into town as I had a concert and while the weekend's orienteering would have been accessible from the village, as we promised to give a lift to two of our friends to the weekend's orienteering events, we had to start from town anyway. The day started with something really brilliant still back at the village, though.  We were getting ready to depart into town and the first job was to visit our car dealership where we were planning to pay a fortune for a new set of keys. While packing up I spotted the old rucksack I used as a regular bag before some months ago I moved my stuff into the one that got nicked recently.  I looked inside and discovered with great delight the bunch of car keys that we thought was stolen with the rucksack. Apparently, totally unbeknown to us, we have been travelling around without a spare car key for up to a year.  This time, however, this bit of fantastic luck had saved us from unneccesary hassle and expense! Imagine the frustration if we did find this just after we paid for the keys!

After arriving in town we went to see some friends, one of which offered to countersign my passport application and had a lovely time with them.  Such lovely people and their newly redecorated and refurbished house looked really posh.  The lunch was delicious too, so our stay in town this time had a fantastic start.

Várjon Dénes

In the evening I went to the Music Academy for my concert and Várjon Dénes was excellent. Haydn and Chopin was on his program and we had the usual encores at the end. I was lucky that the organiser of that series of concerts was kind enough to spend a lot of time identifying and then printing every stolen ticket for me, for the remainder of this year and the whole of next year and I could pick them up that night. I will be in Mr. Jakobi's debt for the rest of eternity!!

Friday was a walking about day when we personally went to a lot of places until we were both totally exhausted.  Mind you, that is not very difficult nowadays, as we get tired ever so easily, presumably due to lack of sleep and the other after effects of the last couple of weeks.  Anyway, we started  with the post office where the passport application got posted. Then the key cutters to see if they can help us with some of the other keys that were stolen, and they could.  Hopefully they should be done by next week. Then we went to the Panasonic shop where they phoned from earlier that the camera battery charger and the spare battery had arrived and picked those up. We also looked about amongst the new cameras and probably will buy a new one after Christmas. The visit to another concert hall was less successful than the night before as they could not replace my ticket, but there might still be luck with the agency through which I bought it. The rest of the time, before we went for a meal, was spent with "normal" shopping (paprika shakers for Stephen, light bulbs, batteries, a telephone charger and two pairs of shoes for me). Then had a very late lunch at one of our favourite restaurants and then home.  Good job there was nothing planned for the evening as we collapsed into bed quite early, even without doing the packing for the weekend, which had to be done the following morning.

Ács Kúria, Bodony - the gorgeous B&B where we stayed

We left at 7am, picked our friends up at 7.15am and were on our way to the Matra by 7.30am. Roy and I felt that we were due some good luck soon, and I am happy to report that this weekend was therapeutic in a way we didn't dare hope.  The trip was straighforward, the O events excellent, the accommodation perfect, the restaurant where we had dinner superb and I actually won my class and came home with a medal.  Just what the doctor ordered!!

It was one of those events that tried to squeeze a lot into a short day and a half. There were three runs in barely over 24 hours, plus a maze between runs 1 and 2.  Saturday had two sprint runs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning run was totally in parkland around a hotel and an old sanatorium. Unusually, it had a fair amount of climb, which you don't normally get in a park.  The afternoon run was like a downhill slalom, as they marched us up to the top of the wooded hill opposite the hotel for the start and then we came all the way down to the same finish area as in the morning. I have always said that sprint orienteering is not necessarily for those that run  fast, but for those that think fast.  I managed to beat my main opposition in both runs, although not by much.  She did have a bit of a brain fade at the end of her second run, so I went into Sunday with a 2 and half minute buffer.

Eger Grand Prix, Day 1 am

Eger Grand Prix, Day 1 pm

Parádi Kisvendéglő, the little rustic inn where we had lunch

In the evening we had a brilliant dinner in a restaurant that we remembered from 9 years ago when the Hungária Kupa was in this area and thankfully it was still open. We had local dishes and I couldn't finish mine, so I had half of it packed up and ate it cold for lunch on Sunday. Yum, yum!!

Eger Grand Prix, Day 2

Sunday was a real forest event with steep gradients, glorious beech and oak woods with a small amount of pines, lots of stones and rocks underfoot and even a run through the finish area, even for old girls like me.  It was both technically and physically hard, but I loved it. Both myself and my main rival had brain fades, but hers was bigger than mine, so while she did beat me by 4 seconds on the day, I won overall.  No presents in the organisers' budget, but a lovely, heavy medal for my collection. I also collected my replacement maps from two weeks ago, which a couple of kind people brought for me.  All in all a billiant weekend and at the end of it we even got back in time for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Lewis locks up at Interlagos

Lewis didn't win this time, but second place will do.  Hopefully he can either win or be second next time too and that should be enough for the overall championship.  All crossable things are crossed for the next two weeks, until the Abu Dhabi finish.  Let us see what, if any, extra excitement is brought on by the double points at the end!

The aftermath

We all know about delayed stress in theory, but I can tell you, it is not nice to live with it in reality. Ever since the robbery I have mostly been dealing with the fallout and even though I have kept busy and cheerful, it must be eating away at me inside, because my health is deteriorating. I still can't sleep more than 4/5 hours a night, and now seem to be down with something like gastric flu, which might even be something a lot worse.  Still, I would say the dealing with officialdom and replacing things are mostly done now, although quite a few things are in the process of being sent, so I can't say it has all finished.  The longest will be the passport, which is 8 weeks from when they get all the papers in the post.  Not exactly 21st century method of paperwork, but who am I to complain?

Last Monday's good news was an excellent concert with Isabelle Faust, although the orchestra was rather mediocre. An early piece of Bartok was brilliant and I loved the tones of her Strad, which is only a single year younger than Kristof's.

On Tuesday we had lunch with a family history friend of Roy's who was really nice. The restaurant had changed hands since we have been there last, but it was still very pleasant with good food.

The star event last week was a 60th birthday party for a hiking friend, where I could reconnect with him and his entire group of friends whom I have lost contact with in the last couple of years. We had a good time and one of them came up with the idea of bringing the group out to the village for a hike later on in the month. It should be really good, as they are a nice bunch who enjoy exercise, food and drink in about equal measure.

Now we are in the village where we have done some gardening and resting.  Amazingly some of the roses are still producing blooms in November.  I couldn't finish the pruning as I didn't have the heart to chop them off. I did prune the raspberries, although I had no idea how much I should cut them back, so they are about 18 inches from the ground in height.




The kitchen garden is also still producing stuff, including a plump strawberry, which I spotted from the corner of my eye. Initially I thought it was a leaf that got red through frost, but it was a really nice surprise to find the strawberry. The Brussels sprouts are also growing well, I am wondering if they will have some sprouts on for Christmas?

You may have spotted the other two, yet unripe strawberries on this plant.  I think that would be close on a miracle if those got ripe, now that the frost is coming.

And this is the last white pepper crop, which since got sauteed in olive oil and bottled. We have never done anything like this before, we'll see whether they keep or not.