Tax returns, roses, opera, concert, the stove and All Souls' Day

Last Thursday I managed to do our tax returns, which were hanging over my head. Generally, I am quite happy to do it, but over the last couple of years I felt increasingly pissed off at having to do it at all. Since we sold the house in Brighton and paid the capital gains tax on it, there is absolutely no need to fill one in. All our income is taxed at source. Actually, the government had boasted at taking 40,000 people a year out of having to do a tax return, so I was hoping we would be one of those. No chance! Especially that one of their recent changes now provides for no deduction at source for savings, so it looks like I will be doing this for the rest of my life, in spite of the fact that with current interest rates dwelling under the frog's bum, we will never have enough to get beyond the tax free amount. Considering that we paid nothing last year, in fact had a load back and it looks very similar this year too. What is the bloody point?

Salmon pink

Obviously, the year's substantial changes at HMRC with reduction of staffing levels, resulted in such a chaos that there might never be a chance of us coming off that list. Added to this is the current frustration that I decided to transfer 10% of my allowances to Roy, (as the form informed me that I could and as I thought that might be beneficial to us), and when I realised that it was no such thing, the damn form didn't let me change the page. The only way to get out of it would have been a complete deletion of the entire form and I really didn't feel like starting from the beginning, so I left it. Upshot of all that is that I have to pay £183 and Roy will get back £14. And that without the extra allowance appearing on his return.  The classic case of the taking off happening straight away, the adding on at some indeterminate future time, if at all. And even if and when he gets it, all it will be that his return of tax will be about the same that I would have to pay, what a stupid, chaotic bloody nonsense this whole thing is!!

Deep red

I tried to ring them, but after hanging on for 5 whole minutes on my mobile, I gave up. Admittedly, I rang on the actual deadline for paper returns, so it was a bit beyond hope to get through. I will try later, but it is nothing like it used to be in the past, when I could get through to my own tax office with no hassle and have a nice, friendly, knowledgeable and helpful person on the other end quickly answer my questions and sort my problems for me.  Obviously, they have "improved" the service since then, like everywhere else. I have read an article in the Telegraph some weeks back outlining the total chaos at HMRC, but when they change the goalposts frequently, reduce staff and provide them with  no training, what do you expect?

Two of the principals in Les Huguenots

Rant over, let's see what else has happened this past week! On Saturday morning I journeyed into town on the 10 o'clock bus for an opera that evening and a concert on Sunday afternoon.  Both were great, although the opera was not exactly in a style I am too fond of. It was Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, which is supposed to be one of the, if not the, best grand opera(s) in the French repertoire. Well, it didn't impress me a hell of a lot, I felt no passion and towards the end felt it got pretty monotonous. The actual production was good, the cast excellent, costumes impressive, so I can't really fault it, just the music didn't entertain me as much as I like to be entertained.

Apor Szüts

The concert on Sunday on the other hand, was absolutely enjoyable and turned out to be a right choice of a subscription ticket, as we have three more in the same vein later on in the season. The series is called 'Discoveries', and introduces a lesser known orchestra with young, beginner soloists. This time we had a 24 year old Hungarian, Apor Szüts, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, op. 15. I will commit myself to a prediction here and now: this young man is a star of the future, there is no doubt about that. His technical brilliance and his emotional maturity and insight belied his years. The only chance of him not making it as an internationally renowned concert pianist is that he is already composing and is apparently favouring that as against performing.

Ke Ma

After the interval we had a young Chinese educated South Korean young woman, Ke Ma, this time only 23 years old, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, op. 58. Both youngsters were superb, but my vote is on the guy. Not only because he was just sensational, but because that piano concerto is so much more fun than hers was. I know this is an extremely subjective judgement, but isn't what even professional critics do? Music, like all art, speaks to your soul or not - there is no half way.

Miskolc Symphony Orchestra

On Monday I got the early bus back to the village and was indoors for breakfast before 9am. We had a visitor in the evening, an orienteering friend, Edit, who was doing a survey for her employer on the telephone network, cables and poles all over area 32, which we belong to. We offered her a bed for the night with dinner and breakfast and she was good company. She also invited us to stay with her in Veszprém and I might go over there for a bit of geocaching sometime, as I don't really have too many from her town and its environs yet.

The stove tonight

Tuesday was mostly taken up by mowing and leaf burning, followed by a visit from the guy who built our pottery stove over a dozen years ago.  He came to clean the stove, do a few minor repairs and bits of maintenance on it.  He also warned us since he last saw the stove about 4 or 5 years ago, the inside got very badly eroded by soot and acid from turkey oak.  He advised us that we should change to acacia, as that has no acid in it and could even clean the inside of both the stove and the chimney up by burning the soot off.

My parents' memorial

I started ringing round and found one place where they were just expecting a delivery of acacia firewood, so hopefully soon we could get some. Mind you, deliveries are notoriously unreliable in these parts, and it will have to be cut up first, but hopefully we should lay our hands on some next week. In the meantime my sister Nelly also needs some, so it will now be a big delivery, should we manage to secure some.

The other lot of turkey oak, of which we have only recently bought a truckload of, will have to be taken out of the barn and put outside for 4 years, as apparently 4 years of rain, snow, sunshine and wind takes the acid out of it and after that it should be OK. We'll see!

Add caption

And finally, today was a very busy day again, but it is nice to know that at least some of the outstanding chores have got done. On the computer I finally managed to find on the HMRC website that they really take 72 hours to find their feet and correct their balls-ups. Although I am never 100% sure, I am fairly certain that the current sums they came up with are more or less correct. So I paid what I owed and claimed what is owed to Roy. Let us hope that I will manage to convince them later on in the winter to take us out of having to do returns, but even if I can't, at least this is it for another year (hopefully!)

There were jobs outside too. Roy carried on with a bit more mowing and collecting/burning walnut leaves. We also cleaned up my parents memorial at the top of the garden and lit the memorial candles for tomorrow's All Souls' Day. I also cut down a big bunch of parsley and chives, which might not be there by the time we get back as the nights are getting colder and colder. My last lot of roses got photographed as well, they will have to be pruned and covered up when we get back sometime next week.

A variegated white with pink

The last of 3 weeks in town

The last short week had two major events in it: one was my visit back to Békéscsaba on Sunday and the other Roy's visit to the consultant on Tuesday. The rest of the time we either rested at home or did bits of shopping, plus I went to a concert with Bozsa, more about that later.

Tomi and I at the foot of the tree

The visit to Békéscsaba was my third one in a month, and this was just as enjoyable as the previous ones. Surprise surprise, it was connected to geocaching, but also to attending an event organised by Gyuri, my newfound caching friend.

I've got it!

There is a cache in a Békéscsaba park called Easter Bunny. I know it is not Easter yet and to be quite honest I have no idea why it is called that, but what is really unusual about this cache, is that it is 30 feet up in a tree.  It is a lovely old horse chestnut and without help it would be very dangerous and/or pretty impossible to climb it. However, Gyuri started organising events for people who are interested in the climb, by enlisting the help of a fellow cacher, who happens to be a professional industrial alpinist. His name is Tomi and he is an absolute pussycat of a man.

Tarsolyos, Gyuri's friend

I caught the train at 7:10 in the morning and Gyuri picked me up from the railway station at 9:45am. The park was only about 10-15 minutes away and all was set up by the time I got there. A young man has already done his climb before we got there, but I decided to go next. I had to put on some harness and Tomi promised that he would help with the rope if I find it hard.

Tarsolyos and Gyuri, the good friends

Well, amazingly, I hardly had to climb, he simply pulled me up all the way to the cache. I got the box out, put my name in the logbook, posed for some photographs and came down again.  It was really fun and I am ever so grateful to him for the opportunity to get this cache, which would have been way out of my reach (in more ways than one) without him.

Tomi going up to dismantle the ropes

Three more caches were also bagged on Sunday, the permanent one in the park, a moving one that Gyuri brought for everyone to log and the actual event cache, which travels from event to event and which I have never had before. I was at home just after 6pm and while pretty shattered, I was very, very happy indeed.

A spectator

On Tuesday Roy and I went to his urologist who was pleased with his progress, his test was negative and he was told to carry on taking the medicine he prescribed for at least 6 months. He has an appointment in three months time, when his further progress should be checked on. He did mention that after 6 months he will evaluate his progress and if it is not as successful as he expects we might have to consider an operation. Let's hope that will not happen.

Another inhabitant of the park

That evening I had a concert in the Palace of the Arts, which was brilliant, as usual. János Balázs is a superb pianist and he was playing Chopin and Mendelssohn. György Cziffra, who was a virtuoso in the same vein, and who suffered discrimination and prejudice for being Roma, is  János Balázs's favourite pianist and whose playing style he is very close to. Full of feeling and technical virtuosity, he is sometimes a bit too turbulent for my liking, but still very enjoyable. It is a tribute to his fame and drawing power that he managed to fill the entire Béla Bartók Concert Hall of the Palace of the Arts, which is enormous. There were very few empty seats, and that's quite a feat.

János Balázs

And then yesterday morning we came down to Bér after buying some medicines en route plus a large Tesco food shop. As we were coming through the gate we spotted one large and glorious red rose bush in full flower.  It is late October, but some of my roses are still flowering strongly.

A red beauty

We are hoping to stay in  Bér for close on a fortnight, as quite a lot of garden work needs doing and the guy who built the large pottery stove is coming to do some maintenance on it. This coming weekend I will have to pop into town for an opera performance and a concert, but I'll be back immediately afterwards and Roy will stay in Bér.

A salmon beauty

The next time we both leave here will be for the first weekend of November, when we're due to spend Friday to Sunday with Pityu down by the Balaton. I hope the weather will be good and I can climb a few big hills in good company, not to forget the good food and bridge that is also a compulsory part of the festivities when in Monoszló.

Still in town

After I concluded the previous post with a prospect of going back to Bér on Tuesday, we decided that having to be back in town by Thursday evening makes it totally silly to go down to the village just for two days.  So we stayed.

Yevgeny Koroliov

On Tuesday I had a concert in the Music Academy, which was Yevgeny Koroliov's 3rd  Bach recital out of 4. It was superb again, that guy is so proficient, but also insightful into the world of Bach. There were partitas, counterpoints, inventions and the English Suite on the program, and magnificent he definitely was.

The river mill

After a rest on the weekend we were refreshed to get on with chores in town that needed doing. In the meantime Gyuri, my new friend, wrote to me about coming up to town to do some geocaching and would I go with him? Gladly, I answered, so we went on the Wednesday to Csepel Island where neither of us has found too many of them so far. We have just parked the car up at Eva's, so we had to go and fetch it, but no bother. On Wednesday I went to pick him up from the station and off we went. The day started with a bit of a cockup, as he wanted to start from the South and I didn't work out a sensible route to get there. It took about 2 and half hours, when if we thought about it, we could have done it in 1 and half.

The Serbian Church

Finally we got there and the first cache was a disaster.  In a really scrappy, useless forest, the cache was nowhere to be seen. Still, he rang the owner, who registered the fact that it is gone and gave him the password. From then on the day improved. The next three was in and around Ráckeve, a small town on the island that was established by Serbian refugees centuries ago. Even today a large number of their descendants live there.

Muggins at the board about the forest at the first cache

First we went to a river mill, which is one of very few survivors of this form of mill, very popular in the past. There was a market around it, so it was difficult to get to, but we managed. Then we visited the Serbian church, which was unfortunately closed, so we could only see it from the outside. Finally, we went and saw a lovely old chateau which is a research institute, but that was closed too for refurbishment, so only an outside peek again.

The chateau that is now a research institute

Having finished with Ráckeve, we moved onto further North to Szigetszentmárton, which is in the heart of the island. We saw its lovely big church and went down to the Danube bank where the views were very pretty indeed.

Szigetszentmárton church

The next stop was by a sweet little chapel, rather too close to the big, nasty looking prison that is one of the largest facilities on the island. This was a bit of a detour, as we had to turn South a bit for it, so we had to pass the prison twice. Our route carried on Northwards, through the town of Tököl, where three more caches awaited.

The Danube at Szigetszentmárton

The first one of these took us round to the most important sites of the town, the second to a nearby little forest and its pretty picnic site, while the last one commemorated its once very important airfield, which is nowadays used for small, sporting planes only. It was at this airfield that the Russians arrested Pál Maléter, one of the heroes of the 1956 Revolution.

Little chapel South of Tököl

Having found and logged all those caches, we journeyed on to the nearby town of Halásztelek for another multi-cache, which took us round the town.  Just North of this place stands the largest radio antenna of the country at Lakihegy, with a cache at its foot. Standing just under it makes you feel very small. The diameter of the stabilizing cables keeping it upright exceeds the thickness of my arms. Amazing!

Cute little antique fire tender in the centre of Tököl

This having been our last cache I took Gyuri to a Metro station, so he could get to the railway station quicker than in the rush hour traffic jams, that would have been on offer in the car and I gather he got there in time to catch the 5:10 back to Békéscsaba safely. I was home by 5pm, which was at least a full hour before Roy was expecting me. A very good, relaxing day, with a tally of 13 caches and a means of getting to know my new friend better.  He seems an ideal caching partner, so we are planning to go caching together again fairly soon.

An enormous paper boat slowly rusting somewhere on Csepel Island

Thursday was quite busy too. I started with taking Roy's sample to the lab, followed by a visit to my hairdresser, which was seriously overdue.  I was starting to look like a haystack as she is difficult to catch. In the evening I had an Opera visit, which this season means the Erkel Theatre, as the Opera House is being renovated (again). A superb performance of Nabucco delighted Bozsa and me, so we were very happy indeed.

The forester's house near the picnic site

A church in Halásztelek looking like a yurt

An old water wheel

The radio aerial

Another pretty view of the river from the island

Today I have nothing specific on, so another relaxing day beckons. I think I should just take it easy and do nothing. This weekend is a 3-day one, due to the national holiday for the anniversary of the 1956 Revolution falling on a Monday. Not that I intend to attend any of the celebrations, as the jingoistic, chauvinistic and hypocritical nature of them puts me right off. I can remember the heroes of 1956 quietly at home, appreciating their sacrifice and working towards a better world that would honestly honour them as they deserve.  On Tuesday Roy has an appointment with the urologist again, after which - if all goes well - we are back in Bér.

A geocaching mid-week in the South

The last nearly fortnight was insanely busy again, so I had no time to blog on time. After I last posted we went back to Bér and awaited the arrival of Ian and David on Thusday morning, who were on the bus as arranged. I took them for a smallish hike around the village and surrounding hills, while the rest of the day was spent chatting, eating and drinking. Then on the following day I took them in the car to Vác and we caught the ferry across the Danube to Visegrád.

Ian and David

Once there, we were going to do some geocaching in the hills, but had some trouble finding them, (the caches, not the hills), so just went for another little hike instead. It is gloriously beautiful up there and the views were breathtaking. Unfortunately, most of us (especially me, as I forgot my coat and hat) were a bit cold in the suddenly strengthened wind, so we cut the whole thing short and travelled on to BP.

View of the Danube from the top

Roy followed on the next day and we spent the weekend and Monday in town doing jobs that needed doing. After Ian and David returned to town on Friday with me, they welcomed Ros, who arrived by air on Saturday.  She called on Monday with the post and other goodies (including Roy's Vick Vapour Rub) and we discussed going to a gallery together later on in the week after our return from the South. I also handed her my new WileyFox phone, ready wrapped to go back to be mended. As it happens, it could just be the cable and/or the adapter that has gone wonky, but as they were about, I took the opportunity for them to post it once home and see what happens.

Uszod port, now a picnic site

On Monday the UPC technician also came and, as I suspected, chucked out the old cable box and gave us a brand spanking new one.  In about 5 minutes he chucked that one out as well, as it was faulty and we got finally one that works.  Or so far has worked, I should say. The picture is definitely better, as it was surely time to get an upgrade on that old thing that we had for years.

The picnic tables and benches

The rest of the time in town was spent with packing for our next trip, which was to take us to Mórahalom, Gyula and Békéscsaba, all in the South. I have been recently to some of these places geocaching with a friend, but for Roy it was all new. The first cache was right by the river, near the site of an old dock which used to see lots of paddle steamers and barges in the past. Now it is just a picnic site, but very pretty all the same.

The chateau at Hajós

After the first cache we turned East, towards our first B&B in Mórahalom and the general theme of our  caches was wine cellars, chateaux, look-out towers and churches. By the time we arrived, it was dark, but the B&B was really nice and comfortable, plus it had a lovely restaurant attached.

An old Schwabian cellar at Hajós

The second day we turned slightly NE and proceeded to catch another 14 caches, some about lakes, chapels or windmills, others in towns en route with lovely town walls, old venacular buildings and churches (again). We also saw a buffalo reservation with lots and lots of these lovey, docile and enormous creatures, right next to a big lake, which due to the drought all summer had very little water in it. Despite this, there were plenty of waterbirds about, including some herons.

A row of old Schwabian cellars at Nemesnádudvar

Finally we arrived in Gyula, our main destination for this trip.  It is almost on the Serbian/Croatian/Romanian border and it is very pretty with oldie worldie charm.  It also has a massive big chateau, a medieaval castle and a spa. Ideal holiday town and we stayed at one of dozens and dozens of apartment houses that Gyula is full of. This "apartment" was really a large hotel room with attached bathroom and tiny kitchen. It was comfortable and very reasonably priced at £26 a night for two.

The old flour mill in Felső-bácska

That, our third, day was spent walking about Gyula sightseeing and picking up a few caches. This was a day full of multi-caches.  These are those when you have several parts to one cache, mostly in order to show you something that is in more than one place.  This is ideally suited to towns, as you walk from sites to site, thus getting to know the place. We were simultaneously doing 3 of them: one about the town's bridges, one about Ferenc Erkel, the composer who was born and lived there and one about a long lost Franciscan church and its garden of ruins. All of it absolutely fascinating and enjoyable, in spite of the fact that I don't normally like multi-caches.

The herd of buffalo

The total distance for our Gyula walk that day was 8.5km, during which at one point I felt so tired, I had to sit down. It turned out later that my blood sugar must have dropped, as when we got to a cafe/cake shop later and took some sustenance there, I got a lot better. This cafe was over a hundred years old, with old decoration and furniture, gorgeous cakes, coffee and tea and very friendly, lovely staff.  That was one of the highlights of the day.

Old windmill without its sails

Later we moved onto to the chateau and the castle and arrived back at the apartment very tired indeed. Fortunately, and even though it was an exhausting day, we managed to finish around 3pm, so we could have a shower, change and even a nap before we went out for dinner with our good friends Gyuri and Éva who live in Békéscsaba. We only walked about 20 metres to the restaurant across the road, but the food and drink was great and what was even greater, it was Gyuri's treat, which was kind. I did tell him that this is the last time I am allowing him to treat me, before he and his lady turn up at our place, so I can return the compliment. Unfortunately, Éva is having an operation mid-November, so that'll probably not be until the New Year.

Old gravel extraction site - now pretty lake

After dinner we went for a walk round town and it was really an experience to have the view of Gyula at night. I have no idea how many kilometres we walked then, but the daily total has probably gone up to over 10km, so we both slept soundly.

Another lake with lookout tower

Finally, the last day doomed and we started with two more caches in Gyula, which have got squeezed out the previous day. One was in the cholera cemetery, the other up another set of stages of the cross. Both were difficult to find, as they are not among the ordinary sights of Gyula, but it was worth seeing them.  I was also carrying a moving cache from the first day and I placed it at the stages of the cross, so that I don't have to bother with it later.

The Empress Elisabeth of Austro-Hungary

The day was pretty long again, as it was dark before we got home, but it was well worth persevering with all of them. After those two in Gyula, we journeyed to Békéscsaba to do a good few town ones, among them several multi-caches (again). Walking about in Békéscsaba was thankfully a bit less exhausting, as we did quite a lot of it by car, and Roy was staying in the car while I did the ones that were in the traffic-free zone. The multis here had the following themes: sightseeing walk round town, the Slovak minority of Békéscsaba and the 101 infantry regiment of Békéscsaba. Interspersed with these we also visited sites connected with the live water channel flowing through the town, a skanzen and the main shopping centre of the town, where you had to take a selfie to prove you have been there.

Gyuri, Éva and Roy in Békéscsaba at night

The castle at Gyula

En route home we picked up one more cache and this one was very special.  It was a moving cache again, this time with the theme of mills. I had this one before, but this time it was miles away from anywhere, right next to an old derelict mill built in the 1850's. It makes you think how well they built them then, that it worked milling corn until 1947 and nobody did any preservation on it ever since 1947.  And in spite of all that it is still standing.  The sails and the milling equipment are long gone and the brickwork and roof would need some remedial work, but it is still there, a mile from the nearest tarmac road, surrounded by fields in the middle of the puszta, all lonely, but magnificent.  I enjoyed this one, even though I got caught in a patch of some really nasty plants (possibly weeds, although I wouldn't bet on it) which had spikes and hurt a bit.

Autumn colours in a Gyula park

After this we had about an hour's driving absolutely bang on straight into a very low sun, which was seriously uncomfortable.  Finally the sun set and we were home by nightfall. Today and tomorrow we are resting up and then on Monday we have a few more commissions, followed by a return to Bér on Tuesday.