Ahhhhh, sick again!!

In spite of the title above I will start chronologically where I left the last post off and when I wasn't sick yet. In fact, both the weather and myself felt pretty good on Sunday before last, so I happily went off hashing. There was 6 of us, so we didn't all fit into Hulk's car, which caused me and Rabies to go by bus.  My convivial personality (aka being a chatterbox) gave him the perfect excuse to abuse me in his hash trash (report on the hash run), so that should teach me to keep my gob shut at all future occasions.

My good friend the Incredible Hulk

We started from Normafa and I ended up walking with a new hasher by the name of Karen who kept leaving me behind at times when the climb got too steep. I am getting old and these ghastly colds and flu do take it out of me. It was a usual Baldrick route, long, tedious and steep.  Serves us right letting him hare. The forest was really nice, but in places there were signs of the damage that the recent ice storm caused.  Even quite large branches and whole trees broke and were lying on the ground from the weight of the ice that broke them.

Storm damage

Finally, we got back to Hulk's car, by which time Karen scarpered, so we did fit into the car on the return journey. Unfortunately neither Rabies nor Hulk could come to lunch, but I rang Roy and he said he would joing Baldrick, Titti Tata and myself in the Vigadó half an hour later. We all had a lovely time, good chat and excellent food, as usual. I offered to hare back in the circle on the following Sunday. We were all looking forward to Pussy Willow and Sex Tax's visit and I was going to put out an interesting route.

A pretty church on the hash rounte

Avoidance of visiting the doctor resulted in me ringing her with the results of the X-ray. She agreed that I don't need antibiotics or referral to Ear-Nose-Throat, but suggested that I get a nose spray and inhale camomile vapours if necessary.  On Tuesday we had arranged to see a couple of friends, whom we usually have to travel a long way to see in the South of the country, but who were up in town for a week or so. They chose the cafe, which fortunately was only a few trolleybus stops away from the flat. They both looked well and we had an amazingly fast moving few hours with them.  Reminiscing about the past, coupled with catching up on all our stories (as we haven't seen them for quite a while) was a hoot.  Once we all got hungry we suggested a quick trip to our favourite Thai restaurant and we had a great time feasting on prawns, noodles and nice wine.

Éva, Alan, me and Roy

In the evening I had a clash of an opera performance with a concert. After trying for a while I found a friend who wanted to go to the Opera, so I went to the concert.  As it happens, that was my preference, because you can see an opera later, but one off concert performances are not normally repeated. This particular concert was something slightly out of the ordinary.  János Balázs, whom I am rather fond of, has recently announed that he thinks he has grown up to tackle Bach and Mozart and he put together a program of big hitting pieces to test himself.  Well, he had proved his brilliance yet again, even though I have never heard him performing this many serious pieces of classical music before. He was playing with one of my most favourite chamber orchestras, Anima Musicae. This ensemble consists of mostly young professional musicians and are playing without a conductor on a co-operative basis.  They have the best features of both chamber and full size orchestras, I love them. Before the interval we heard János Balázs play J. S. Bach's piano concerto in b minor, followed by another piano concerto in d minor. The second is the better known piece, but I enjoyed the first one just as much.  After the interval it was another piano concerto in b minor, but this time by Chopin. He was superb and this being only the first of a trio of evenings with him, we have plenty more to look forward to.

János Balázs

The big event of Thursday was a visit by both of us to the dentist. We have got out of the habit of going twice a year, whether we have problems or not and needed to go urgently this time. Our previous dentist was an orienteer who finally decided to go and work abroad, so we had to find someone new anyway.  Somebody recommended a nice lady dentist and we thought, why not, we have never had a lady dentist before, we'll try it.  I had one filling which I knew about as it has been sensitive for a while, plus the recent flu caused that part of my mouth to be really painful. She found another little hole on the other side, so I had two fillings, one with an injection and one without. She was sensitive, communicative, not too expensive and nice.  I'll be back. Roy, poor thing, however, had bad news.  He has to have both his crowns off and redone from almost scratch.  Long treatment, a bit of pain, a lot of discomfort and about £1000 cost are awaiting him. We went to have some X-rays taken and those confirmed all this, so treatment starts for him in about a fortnight.

Thursday was rather busy too. We had a lunch date with our good friends Nata and Colin and they suggested we try a reasonably new, trendy place in a gentrified part of town, which was opened by a successful chef. We don't normally feel comfortable in trendy places, but this wasn't too bad.  Yes, it was expensive, but the food was good. Roy had steak, I had trout and finished with a heavenly sweet course, which I shouldn't have had, but couldn't resist. It was billed as a tart, looked and tasted nothing like it, but it was still delicious. En route to the restaurant we walked along one of the gentrified streets where they calmed the traffic, tarted up the buildings and even put it sculptures for decoration.  This particular little sculpture we really loved, even though we have no idea what it was about.

In the evening it was my turn - again - to go to the theatre. I had a ticket to Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters.  The 4 decades long correspondence of G. B. Shaw and Mrs. Campbell was touching, funny, occasionally hilarious and always fascinating. In the two roles we had two greats of the stage and as the stage was in a cafe, we could feel one with the action. I really enjoyed myself.

Playing Shaw was Tamás Jordán

Playing Mrs. Campbell was Piroska Molnár

And then came Friday, when we were invited to our friends the Nemesházis for the afternoon and I was beginning to feel ill.  Thankfully, I was not too bad, so we could go, but I had a dreadful feeling that this would not last. Roy and Laci were discussing family history research, which Laci had recently started and Roy helped him with.  We had a nice long chat, had a bit to eat and were home by early evening.  That evening I knew that things were not looking good and, unfortunately, I was right.  By Saturday morning I was feeling very rough and as it was raining hard outside we made sure we stayed indoors. Sore throat, coughing, sneezing, runny nose and temperature were the symptoms and I didn't need a doctor to know that I had flu again. How unlucky can you get, to catch the damn thing TWICE in 6 weeks?!! I had to make my apologies to the Hash for not being able to put the route out as I offered the Sunday previously and finally I couldn't even attend the Hash myself or join them for lunch.  By the end of Sunday I felt really unwell, because another symptom joined the others: NAUSEA. I can take bad pain, a great deal of discomfort, temperature etc., etc. but nausea makes me suicidal. Finally we came up with a plan, after I got some advice from the night doctor by phone: I sent Roy to the nearest night pharmacy for anti-nausea suppositories. He was ever so quick and I thankfully responded quickly to treatment. By about 11pm the nausea was gone and I went to sleep. I slept long and deep and the nausea didn't return in the morning. In the meantime Roy started coughing and it looks as if he has gone down with it too, but in spite of his extra years his immune system is so much better than mine, that hopefully he should get through it easier and quicker than myself.

Yesterday we stayed indoors and today we only ventured out to see Ian and Ros, our Scottish friends who are leaving on Wednesday, so today was our last chance.  They treated us to a lovely lunch out and then showed us their new flat. It was really nicely done. It is one of those lovely old flats where every room has one or two doors to the neighbouring room, so you can start clockwise or anti-clockwise and you will arrive back at the same place you started.  The quality of finishes were really good and I can see them being very comfy and happy there once they furnished it fully. My absolute favourite was their bathroom, which I thought was beautifully done, even though it didn't have a shower. Apparently they don't like showers, so that's OK. They still have to have the kitchen installed, but it is a lovely flat.

I have another concert tomorrow night, which I hope to attend.  Hopefully Roy will not go down with it as badly as I had it and we can depart for the village on Thursday, as planned. If he can't travel, then we stay a bit longer, no bother.

Nostalgia, music and food - amongst others

Last Friday I made my way to town on the bus and managed to squeeze in a visit to the doctor as well. She finally coughed up three months worth of my blood pressure meds and when I told her that my nose, cheeks and forehead were hurting she sent me for an X-ray.  Unfortunately I couldn't go that afternoon due to a concert and the following morning I had to do some food shopping and was catching the bus at 1.30pm, so I decided to battle on a bit longer and if not better I was going to go when we are back later on the following week.  As it happened I ran out of time in the morning and had to catch the later bus, but that went partially on the motorway, so at least a lot of stopping and going and pothole dodging was avoided.

Piotr Anderszewski

The concert in the Palace of the Arts in the evening was glorious. A Polish/Hungarian pianist by the name of Piotr Anderszewski treated us to J S Bach, Szymanowski and Schumann with excellent technical proficiency and much emotional insight and verve. I have also discovered a Bach piece I have never heard or even known about. He started with the Overture in the French style in B minor. It was a revelation. I will have to find a YouTube rendering of this on the harpsichord, as I presume it was composed for that back in the 18th century.

After a nice long snooze on the bus I arrived back in the village with a suitcase full of food and in the dark. The weather started going very mild, which since then got cold again, but the weekend was sunny and mild.  However, due to my sinusitis and other facial cavities giving me pain (including my teeth) I had to stay indoors.  Very annoying indeed!

Steak, chips, mushrooms, tomatoes and sprouts for Roy and salmon with the same for me

The process of eating the content of the freezer still continues.  Roy is happily finding all manner of goodies, including sausages and steak.  I manged to drag a small piece of salmon in the suitcase, so our Sunday lunch was at least somewhat special, although we are not normally bothered to keep to bourgeois convention on the topic of when you are supposed to eat what and with what. For once Roy's plate looks much more impressive than mine, but I still enjoyed it. The drink was Buffalo beer, which is really gorgeous.  It is an ale, which is half way between lager and bitter and we both love it.

During the week we spent a lot of time watching TV and on the internet, especially when it got pretty cold again.  No snow this time, just cold.  The little birdies are eating non-stop all day, so the seed is going fast.  We ought to make an effort to get to the agricultural shop in the nearby town to replenish stocks soon.  If nothing else, the fact that the piece of fat I put up 6 weeks ago was all but gone, would have told me that it was really winter.  Last year in that really mild weather I finally had to throw the fat away, as they didn't touch it and it went off.

Yulianna Avdeeva

On Thursday then we caught the 9 o'clock bus and made good time into town. After we locked up and were sitting on the bus we realised that the indoors stop cock has not been turned to locked.  Hopefully it will not matter as the main stop cock in the pit was shut off. Since we have been in we have been busy doing a few things. The first was another concert, this time in the Music Academy with a young and brilliant female Russian pianist, Yulianna Avdeeva.  She won the 2010 Chopin piano competition in Warsaw (only the fourth woman in the 80 year history of the event to do so) and she lived up to her reputation.  Her excellent technique as well as her deep musical and emotional intelligence made the evening a real treat. She treated us to one of Mozart's sonatas, some very passionate and loud Liszt and Chopin's 24 preludes op. 28. I must get one of her records, shame she wasn't selling any of them at the concert.

On Friday late morning I had my X-ray, which doesn't seem to say anthing too drastic, so hopefully the doctor, when I go and see her on Monday, will either do nothing further or give me some anti-biotics or not even that. Referral to ear, nose and throat is not on the cards, but who knows.  In fact, my experience in the X-ray department made me realise that I could have gone last Friday, as I had the most amazing experience I have ever had in that place.  We went in, I got a number out of the machine, before we sat down I was called, they told me to go and wait outside door 5 and by the time I took my coat, hat, scarf and two fleeces off I was taken in and X-rayed. We were in and out of there in less than 20 minutes.  World record!!

The entrance door to our flat: 3rd floor no. 14

It was lunch time by the time we finished there and we decided to go on a small nostalgia trip to the district where I grew up and then go for lunch in a local restaurant. I have recently got involveld with a FB group where people post lovely old photos and felt like doing a bit of personal recminiscing myself. When we got to the block where our flat was the main door was open, due to some building work going on.  That was lucky, because normally it is very difficult to get in if you don't live there. They have just repainted the block, so it looked new and pristine in pretty yellow.  On closer inspection, however, you could see that most of the floor tiles in the staircase were old and none of the window frames have been changed since before the war, if not earlier. The railings were still the same as in my childhood, so were the stone stairs.  The garden looked pretty much the same, overgrown and unkempt, but it all brought back some nice memories and I took lots of pictures with my nice new camera.

The corridor where even Stephen sat about as a baby

The lunch was really nice, Roy had a Gypsy roast and I had some roast vegetables with sesame seeds. We carrried on walking after lunch and came back to the hospital to pick up the results of the X-ray by another route.  Today we stayed indoors all morning, catching up on the computer, and only popped out to the local Tesco Express for a spot of food shopping. Shopping with a suitcase on wheels has become an easy way to carry home heavy loads and today there was two of us to share the load.

The staircase with the entrance door to our corridor

The "Enticer" restaurant where we had lunch

Tomorrow, provided the weather is decent, I am going hashing and hopefully Roy will join us for a post run lunch somewhere. Next week is full of activity, a concert and a theatre visit, plus Roz and Ian are arriving with the van from Lindfield with their furniture to move into their new flat, so I am looking forward to seeing it and them.

The start of winter

The back garden under a bit of snow

Fairly low temperatures and snow arrived in the New Year. As we have been here for for over three weeks, the big stove has been properly heated through and maintaining that lovely, slightly smokey smelling heat that is such a comfort in the winter. We still use the central heating too, so the cold didn't bother us.  Interestingly, inside you can always tell when the temperature is plummeting outside, as you start feeling little draughts. The forecast was for -15 at night and one day it went that low even before it got to night time. Brrrrrrr! The amount of snow wasn't much, at most about 2 inches, but it made the garden look pretty.

The seismograph during one of our eqrthquakes

On New Year's Day we had 8 earthquakes right through the day, starting around 7.45am and finishing in the middle of the night. 4 of them could be felt and the first one was really weird as it felt like somebody kicked my bed. I knew that this region is quite prone to earthquakes, but this is the first time I actually felt any of them.

Most of the first week of the new year was spent partially in bed, because my cough and sinusitis is still with me and partially because it was so perishing outside, we didn't venture out even on the days there was a sparkling sunshine.  That is actually very aggravating, as I love being out in snow, cold and sunshine, but whenever I tried it my face started hurting.  The latest is that all my teeth are hurting, which is probably also caused by this virus, although I do have a couple of upper teeth on the left that have been giving me niggles in the last few months, so we decided to find a new dentist.  The old one has gone abroad to work and thankfully some friends of ours passed us the details of their dentist to us. We both have an appointment in a couple of weeks' time.

Our Lutheran church

On one of those really sunny days I couldn't resist at least a little walk in the village and took my new camera for an outing. I am learning its tricks slowly, mostly by pushing buttons and seeing what happens.  Reading those 60/70 page long instruction booklets is such a fag! As you can see that was still before the snow arrived, but the brilliance of the sunshine made it worth getting out there.

Otherwise, we mostly engaged in indoor pursuits this last week or so.  We made another batch of mince pies and presented Nelly with two of them this time.  Subsequently she told me that they were too fatty and too sweet, which they actually were.  Oh, I said, what's happened to them? I ate them both straight away, she said. That, apparently, was also my fault, as she can't resist anything sweet and eating them all at once is not good for her.  Ahhhhh! I think she'll only get one next time. :-)

Mince pies

Once the holidays were over I started trying to organise some entries to O events and accommodation for them. The Hungária Kupa is held near the Slovakian border in August and while we were considering commuting, we decided not to as that would stop us from taking part in communal activities, dinners together etc. with our O friends. I spent hours combing the net for a nice little guesthouse that would be suitable and picked one which was in a pretty village near the plateau on or near which most of the events will be held and was reasonably priced.  Would you believe it, it was already booked? So I had to start the the search all over again.  Finally, and after talking to our friends we wanted to share with, we booked a small bungalow, which is just about big enough for the 5 of us and which is near the main city of the area, so going out to dinner should not be a problem. Also, the sprint event is in that city, so at least one event is close by. AND, it has a sauna, which should come in handy for our aching joints after our runs.

The Apple Guesthouse

This week we only had a Skype call from Callum and he was not exactly playing ball for my photographic efforts by having his head down into his brand new Christmas present of a tablet. He is however, still heavily into Star Wars and managed to put in a request, via his father, for the rest of the Star Wars stuff. Considering that those are in a couple of boxes in his Uncle Stephen's loft space, those will have to come out anyway as Stephen and Lucy are planning a loft  conversion which is due to be installed in the spring. I know that there is some emotional involvement with those starships, as they were his fathers back in the 1980's, but the cost of posting them to Canada might be a bit steep.  Perhaps we can pay for an extra piece of luggage for Meaghan in the summer and she could take them home then.  We'll see!

Close-up of the fire

The stove still gives us a lot of pleasure.  It is hard, physical labour to carry the logs, set the fire, keep feeding it with logs, clean out the ashes etc.,etc.  But the warmth, scent and comfort it gives is more than enough compensation. The other source of never ending pleasure this time of year comes from the bird feeders. As it is really cold, they feed practically all day and it is quite normal to have a dozen or more on and in the bowl as well as up on the piece of fat at the same time. The latest list of birds seen is: blue, great and coal tits; gold, haw and green finches. I have not seen the woodpeckers for a while, but I can hear them often.

Honeysuckle Weeks and Michael Kitchen in Foyle's War

On the TV front there have been some welcome developments. It being the new year, some old series have returned much to our delight. Foyle's War has been one of our absolute favourites.  Historical accuracy, good scripts, excellent actors and generally such a fascinating atmosphere that both of us love it. Unfortunately, it is only 3 episodes, but they are 2 hours long and the first one didn't disappoint.

Last Tango in Halifax is also very enjoyable, although not all the characters are amongst my favourites. Anne Reid plays one of the leads who reminds me of someone I knew in the past and loathed. Spoilt, obsessional, bossy and the type that would not let go.  Do you know what I mean? Still I enjoyed the first episode.

The principal actors of Last Tango in Halifax

And then, Broadchurch is back. Broody, secretive and full of slow, smouldering passion. I love David Tennant and Olivia Coleman, so whatever is the storyline I will watch it. With the weather being as it is I think we could spend a lot of time in front of the telly this month.

Olivia Coleman and David Tennant in Broadchurch

I am off to a concert and to do some food shopping tomorrow on the morning bus. Should be back on Saturday afternoon. After that we are in the village until next Thursday, when we both will depart in the direction of town.  That would make Roy having spent one day short of an entire month in the village. We might be away for about a fortnight, as we have lots to do, I have some concerts and a theatre night, plus our Scots friends are in town whom we would like to see. Bye for now and talk to you later in the month!

Another week in the village

Winter has finally arrived and while there has not been much snow, temperatures have definitely plummeted recently.  This caused our little wild birds appear in ever increasing numbers, so nowadays we feed them out of 5 different wooden bowls hanging from the rafters all along the corridor. The clever little tits found the new ones quickly, the rest of them are still mostly on the original two front ones looking out to the street.

A goldfinch and a great tit

Last year we had greenfinches and hawfinches as well, but I am yet to see those. Hoopoes and jays are usually around as well, but they do not come to the feeders. When the weather gets a bit milder I'll spend some time in the garden in hope of seeing them.

The last week was spent mostly indoors, except when we had to work in the garden to tidy up some of the overgrown areas and then cover up the roses.  I had a feeling that the seriously cold weather was approaching, so it was especially important to protect the roses.  I have 62 rose bushes now and they all needed little mounds around their bases made of earth and then covered by fresh grass cuttings.  We had to have three goes at them, digging being rather tiring, and have just managed to finish it all when the temperatures dropped.

5 roses put away for winter

As we have put the car away for the winter and lately Roy stayed in the village with only me popping int to town whenever I had a concert, the shopping was limited to small shops and the quantity to whatever we could carry ourselves.  Or, to be more exact, what I could carry myself.  I grabbed a suitcase with wheels and twice now did the shopping in local shops and markets near the flat. We are real life artists, we can manage on little food and make it last until we can go shopping again.

Callum on Christmas morning with his new iPad

With Mummy and my mountain of Christmas presents

In the last week we had several calls from all three grandchildren: Callum called just before Christmas, then we called them in St. Catharine's on Christmas Day, Stephen called that day too, and then again today with Elian and Xander in the bath.  What marvellous invention Skype is. I can keep in contact with all my little monsters via Skype.  Ahhhhhh!

Waving to Grandma from the bath

Bye, bye Grandma!

Two lovely happy faces

On one of the days when we worked out in the garden we cut off all the mint and made it into mint sauce.  On the same day we had a go at making mince pies for the first time and while they could have been better, they still tasted OK.  I think next time I will get the pastry thinner and the filling about twice as much.  The left over mincemeat was put in jars and is awaiting our next go at making mince pies.

Mince pies and a jar of freshly made mint sauce

On Christmas Day we had a lovely quiet time.  I had my usual big chunk of salmon, Roy had a glorious piece of fillet steak, which I must admit was the best quality I managed to find for years.  When I chopped it up into single portions I already knew it was going to be lovely as my knife went into it like butter. Roy chomped away on it with delight and confirmed its quality. I think I will be back to that butcher's, because I don't just like the quality of his meat, but his manner and attitude as well. On Skype we managed to talk to not only the usual suspects, like Alex, Meaghan, Callum, Stephen, Lucy, Elian and Xander, but Sheila and Chris as well. It was a very nice Christmas Day, just as we like it.

That fillet WAS rare!

On Boxing Day we discovered an interesting hole in the Kottage garden, which must have been there for ages and which could have swallowed people whole, but thankfully it didn't. Roy was digging out a particularly stubborn dandelion when the hole appeard right next to the cesspit.  As we looked into it, it turned out that we were looking into the cesspit itself.  Except the cesspit is supposed to have concrete sides and a top as well, so what has happened to that - we wondered? The guy we bought the house from was a real bodger, nothing that he made stood the test of time and we thought we had got rid of all his bits of substandard stuff by now.  How wrong can you get? I suddenly thought of how during Alex's wedding we were all hanging around in the marquee in that part of the garden and it is a miracle nobody fell through the nonexistent top, finding themselves at the bottom of the cesspit.  That would have made it a memorable wedding indeed!!!

The hole is under that row of rooftiles we put there as a reminder

During the week the weather got colder and colder, but thankfully also brighter and brighter.  Sparkling sunshine made me spend some time reading up on my new camera and then on Saturday I went out into the garden and took a few pictures.  Unfortunately, just as I started clicking away the sun went in, but I still took a few good piccies.  I think I will have to learn how to take pictures with manual settings or at least half automatic settings, so that I can produce good photos in any condition.  With the previous camera I never bothered and to this day I just snap away on automatic.  Let's see if I can make this a New Year Resolution and then keep to it!!

The farmhouse with Mike's bench

On Sunday I was thinking of taking the 6.15pm bus into town, as there was a forecast of a lot of snow for the following week and I worried about the transport stopping on Monday due to bad weather and then I would have missed my concert on Monday night.  During the morning Roy spotted my nephew's car outside Nelly's and suggested I might try to cadge a lift from him.  I did and I had a much more comfortable trip in than I would have had on the bus. Had a good chat with my nephew and his son and was in the flat by 3.15pm. It was perishing in town too, so I just went out when I had to and spent the rest of the time indoors.

The concert was sublime. It was the third and last concert in a series called Pure Baroque. We had Vivaldi, Gluck, JS Bach, CPE Bach and, of course, Handel. I loved it.  Bozsa was a bit critical of the young female violinist, who wasn't a patch on Kristof, of course, but you can't expect that kind of genious from everybody, can you?

Finally, today I finished the shopping and then caught the bus for a completely uneventful journey down to the village.  We are here for at least a week. My next concert is in about 10 days, when we will probably go up to town together, unless, of course the roads are impassable. We'll see! (said the blind man!)

Back in the village

All went according to plan and on Tuesday, with a detour to the Orienteering Federation offices, we took the bus.  The detour was for two things: 1. to pick up our calendars that I have already paid for at the last O event of the season, but which only got printed at the beginning of December.  This is the one that is produced by our friends, Arpi and Zita, who are cycling round the world. This is the last one they are publishing as hopefully by October 2015 they should be home.  The pictures in this one are from New Zealand, the US, Mexico and a few from Central America. 2. The other reason was that the Federation had just got some new electronic timing chips in and I bought myself one, as the old one was nicked along with the other stuff in October. Unfortunately my record with my chips is not a very lucky one: this is the third one I had to buy, as the first one flew off my finger and got lost while competing in a sprint O event in the park of the Chateau of Betler in Slovakia many years ago and the second one got nicked just recently.

My new chip

Finally, we arrived back in the village in good time, surrounded by a pack of noisy school kids who were returning from an end of term outing.  Luckily, everything was fine in the house and garden, which is no longer taken for granted by us.  After all we had been away for three weeks and after the disaster nearly 3 years ago when we had a flooded library and hallway due to broken pipes, I always worry after such a long time.  But no disasters and within a short amount of time we were back in the groove. This place has a magic of its own and both of us feel relaxed, happy and totally at home in the place.

The last rose of the year

Due to rather mild weather, there was even a beautiful red rose in the courtyard in full blossom. A wicked little mole made a few more molehills, but Roy set about getting rid of him/her pretty sharpish.

The stove well lit

Although the sun shone brightly and for December it was mild, the songbirds were in clear evidence looking for food and it was cold enough to fire up the big stove.  Amazingly, it took no time to take and in spite of a total lack of wind outside, it pulled like it never did before on the first occasion. Within less than 24 hours it was heated through and giving warmth of the kind only a pottery stove can.

Lesser spotted woodpecker

I was happy to see that the woodpeckers were back and during the day we also saw blue tits, great tits, some finches and a nuthatch.  The latter is not a very common visitor in these parts, so hopefully we are in for a good winter of bird spotting round the feeders.

Most of the week was spent partially with putting together this year's tax return, while trying to feed ourselves out of the sparce amount of food we brought with ourselves on the bus and by raiding the freezer.  It is roughly at this time when we normally set about clearing the feezer, so that it can be freshly stocked again.  Roy put the car away before we left, as he is not very fond of the frozen, potholed roads in these parts and because the public transport is good enough to use for about 3 months until the weather cheers up again.

Robert King

On Sunday, 21st December I went into town, partly because I had a concert and partly because somebody had to do the Christmas food shopping. The concert was a sublime rendering of Handel's Messiah by The King's Consort of Robert King. I knew the Messiah, of course, but I realised early on that I have never seen/heard it on the concert podium in person before.  It was extremely good and very enjoyable indeed.

Then on Monday I did my shopping, preceded by a visit to the insurance company to submit the last document necessary for their settling the claim over the robbery, now nearly two months ago. Most of the Christmas shopping was done in my favourite market where I got a nice big chunk of fillet steak for Roy, a big bit of salmon for myself, all the ingredients for mince pies, fruit, nuts and vegetables and when the suitcase I took for a shopping trolley was full I departed. The bus trip was uneventful and now we are here for nearly a week before returning to town for New Year's Eve. The  plan for tomorrow is to make the mince pies, which should be fun!

A few more comments from the sickbed

Considering that we mostly spent the last week in bed, or at least inside the flat, there is not much I can write about.  By Monday Roy was down with the lurgy too and since then I found that this time he is recovering a lot slower than me.  Perhaps the fact that he only ever catches something once every 10 years, doesn'thelp. His cough is tighter and is much slower to loosen up than mine.  But let's get back to the beginning!

Monday Laci came with the  goat cheese, which is actually quite a saga. An orienteering friend and his wife make gorgeous goat cheese and about a year or so ago I started buying it in chunks of between 1 and 2 kilos.  About a third or a quarter usually goes to Nelly, the rest to us.  It takes me a few months to eat it, (Roy sticks with his Cheddar!), which is due to its denseness and its flavour.  A sliver provides plenty of zing for a sandwich. My friends are excellent at making the stuff, just not so good on the logistics of how to get it to me.  We even had to go and drive all the way to their house in the North once, as they seemed unable to organise something as simple as that.  This time, however, I got really pissed off when having rang especially and asked if they were coming to a particular orienteering event, they answered in the negative, and then he turned up with lots of cheese to sell, except mine. Also, quite by accident I discovered in a nearby market a cheese stall, which was selling hard goat's cheese just as good as theirs and a lot cheaper. So, now there is an alternative, and while I would still carry on buying theirs out of loyalty, but not if they cock up the delivery system every single time.  Anyway, after the last O event where I was watching everybody disappearing with big chunks of cheese with mine not available, I was happy to buy the stuff from the market and ignoring them, when eventually they went to some event where I couldn't, due to a concert and anyway I was sick by then, and took my cheese there. It  was passed to somebody who then brought it to me.  So, this is how Laci turned up with a kilo and a half of goat's cheese on Monday.

The Music Academy

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent indoors, me mostly in bed, Roy on the computer, but by Thursday there was a need to go out for a variety of reasons. Having recovered much more than poor old Roy, I ventured out.  I wrapped myself up in my puffy down jacket, big scarf and new Nepalese owl hat and walked the following round:
1. photocopy shop to take copy of my mammography report for doctor;
2. doctor's surgery which was chock a block full of coughing and spluttering patients, so the epidemic is still raging, obviously. I had to wait about three quarters of an hour, but once I got in she was very smily and efficient. (Makes a pleasant change!!) I gave her the copy of the mammography report with pictures, told her about the lurgy and got prescriptions for both lurgy and the next 3 months worth of  blood pressure and heart meds.
3. pharmacy, where I got the meds prescribed, but forgot to get the vitamin C.
4. Music Academy: picked up the tickets I bought for Bozsa and myself on line for next spring/summer.
5. tried to buy my sourdough bread at the bakery, but they sold out yet again;
6. went to SPA to do some food shopping and
7. to the greengrocers to get fruit, veg and nuts.

This was the first longer trip I had out since the lurgy started and while I managed it quite OK, by the time I got home I was done in, like I did 15 miles on the hills. Methinks this lurgy will be a bugger to shift, just like the one last year!! :-(

Steven Isserlis

And then came Friday, when I tried to rest all day, so that I would be up to going to the Music Academy for a concert, which I was looking forward to for a long time.  I have heard about Steven Isserlis a lot, but never yet had the chance to see him in the flesh. I listened to him playing his glorious Stadivarius chello on YouTube a lot, but sitting a few meters from him I was hoping would enhance the already good impression I had.  Well, it was an absolutely magical performance, living up to all my expectations and more.  It is not only his beautiful instrument and his inspired, insightful and brilliant playing, it was the whole bloke that really had such an effect on me. His smile and enthusiasm is infectious.  You can tell he loves and enjoys playing and that he puts his heart and soul into it.

Dénes Várjon

He was sharing the podium with Dénes Várjon, a brilliant pianist, whom he had actually met way back in the 1980's when Várjon was still a student attending one of his master classes in Cornwall. The program was fascinating, a perfect mixture of traditional (Schumann and Beethoven) and some lesser known and played, but excellent pieces from Bloch, Kurtág and Foure. He unashamedly promotes romantic music, pushing those pieces that had the misfortune to go out of fashion in their own time when they are good and worthwhile pieces to perform.  Bozsa and I stayed for the interview/discussion with them after the concert, when Isserlis had displayed his personality traits even further.  What a lovely man as well as a superb performer!!

On Saturday we decided not to go to Maggie and Jerry's Christmas party as Roy definitely did not feel up to it and while I could have gone just for a couple of hours, I stayed at home out of solidarity and fear of picking up a follow-up infection.

The plans currently are that we will go down to the village on Tuesday, should we both feel up to it. Not Monday because according to Nelly there is a scheduled all day power cut on Tuesday, so there is no point in sitting in th dark without computers. As the bus doesn't get there until 3.45pm, by which time we are promised a return of the service, we chose Tuesday.

Quiet words from the sickbed :-(

History is repeating itself (again)!! It is definitely at least the second time, but could even be third or fourth, that I go down with some nasty lurgy straight after returning from visiting family around the end of November/beginning of December. I did last 2 days OK after our return, but then 2 days ago I started sneezing, coughing, having a temperature and headache and just generally feeling dead. As I had two fantastic concerts I went out for both, but the second one was probably irresponsible.  This morning I was close to writing my will, but Roy made me porridge, I also took a couple of Paracetamols, and now I am a bit more alive!! :-)

I also realised, reading the last two posts, that I didn't go into any detail about a couple of concerts and an opera before we went to Hassocks, so the first part of this post will be a report on those plus the last two concerts and an opera performance from the last couple of weeks.

Dezső Ránki

Back on 24th November I saw Dezső Ránki at the Palace of the Arts playing Haydn, Beethoven and Chopin. The second half was taken up by 24 Chopin preludes, which were magnificent.  He is superb, but not very willing to give encores.  Other than that, I can't fault him.

Tannhauser First Act

The following day I went to the Opera House where Wagner's Tannhauser awaited, but I forgot that it started at 6 instead of 7pm. I should have known, as Wagner's operas take forever and nobody wants to be there at midnight. I had a phonecall from my friend Eszter, asking where I was at about 5.50pm. They were also dishing out free tickets to the likes of us in the gods.  I told her not to wait for me, I'll get there when I get there. I think I arrived sometime between quarter past and half past 6, but couldn't get in at the side door, which is the normal access point to the gods, so I tried the front. I told two young men there my story and one of them disappeared for a minute and then returned with two VIP tickets to one of the first floor boxes.  That was fortunate, because you can go in and out of boxes any time you like, while if it was for anywhere else I would have had to wait until the first interval. Unfortunately somebody took our places, but there was one seat left, so I spent the rest of the first act there.  In the interval I found Eszter, we asked the others to move and we had a very good time, minus my lost 20 minutes at the beginning. As I have written before, I am not an enthusiastic fan of Wagner, but I loved Tannhauser, which must mean that I am mellowing in my old age. Last year it was The Flying Dutchman, this year Tannhauser, bring it on, bring it on!!

Kim Kashkashian

On Wednesday, the night before leaving I had one last concert of the week at the Music Academy.  An Armenian/American viola player, Kim Kashkashian, gave a glorious recital after a bit of a mishap that befell her program.  The other soloist, Hungarian Péter Nagy, a pianist who lives in Germany had fallen down the stairs in his hotel that morning and broke his leg. They only had a few hours to rejig the program, find other artists, rehearse, but did it perfectly well. I even saw my absolute favourite,  Kristóf Baráti, who also played something, and very well he did that too. Her encores were Armenian folk songs, which were beautiful and the whole concert was gorgeous.  I bought one of her Bach CD's at the end, as I really do not possess too many viola CD's.

János Balázs

And now for the last two days: on Friday it was the last concert of a series of piano recitals in the Festetics Palace, where János Balázs, an up and coming young talent treated us to his  brilliance. The program was Beethoven, Robert and Clara Schumann with Liszt involved with the Clara Schumann piece. This guy is only 26, but his virtuoso technique is fully developed.  Also, unlike many virtuoso pianists who play mechanically, he has a soul and much insight with emotion that comes through in all his playing.  We loved it and hope to see him again and again. Especially that he doesn't begrudge us plenty of encores, so we love him even more!! :-)

Kristóf Baráti and Klára Würtz

Finally, last night, when I was already pretty sick, I went to see my beloved Kristóf Baráti. When I got out of bed, Roy enquired where I was going and then realised that the question was superfluous as I would definitely have to be at death's door to miss one of his concerts.  3 Brahms sonatas for violin and piano, C and A major and D minor were on the program and I must admit I did manage to forget my aching head, throat and joints for about a couple of hours. I had a lift home, which was a lifesaver, after which I fel into bed in a heap.

Cutting the cake

The only two other events since we came home were a lovely outing to a pub on Thursday and Callum's Skype call yesterday. The pub is not too far from the flat where some friends have celebrated the birthday of one of them and we went to see them for the occasion. It was a good decision as Weichmann's, the pub is just the type of place we both enjoy and probably will use in future. Not too posh, not too rough with a lively, nice crowd and good atmosphere. Zsuzsa, Cedric and their friends, colleagues and family were also very, very nice: laid back, funny and interesting people and even the beer and the food was lovely too.  I must admit, it is a long time since I have seen Roy as happy as he was that evening.  Mind you, it might be that I picked up my bug there, but then again, you can't shut yourself away just on the off chance of catching something. Not even in the winter. Weichmann's has definitely had the thumbs up and we'll be back.

For a variety of reasons (mostly being away at weekends) we have not talked to Alex and Callum for quite a while, so it was a really pleasant surprise to receive a Skype call from them on Saturday afternoon. The monster was first playing with his stickers and then built a Star Wars gun from Lego. All this wearing only his underpants, but their apartment must be quite well heated. I am really pleased that I now have some Callum pictures to put up, as photography lately seemed to be concentrated on the Hassocks monsters.

Filling the sticker book

What did you say?

Gun manufacture in process

The final product