Post-viral week

We have finally come back down to the village yesterday, after a reasonably eventful few days, after the inactivity of a fortnight while trying to get better.

A bit of the Medieval wall

After I last posted we were pretty much indoors for about 5 days without leaving the flat. I think I popped out for a short while to do some shopping again, but otherwise it was resting time to completely recover.

A little park and the big church

The first time we moved outdoors together was on Saturday. We went to do a little geocaching in town, en route to visiting an internet family history friend of Roy's. We only picked up two caches, but they were quite interesting, especially the first one. It was a 3-parter along the line of Pest's medieval town wall, remnants of which still survive in patches.

Another, this time much more complete, part of the wall

The other one was near the river, in a lovely park designated to the achievements of Hungary in the Olympic Games. We even met a young couple just logging at the cache when we got there, so it wasn't particularly difficult to find it.

The Olympic rings

Just as we left the park the skies have opened, so we darted into a cafe, which while rather touristy and very expensive, was still a nice place. Roy had a large hot chocolate and I had some herbal tea. It saved us from getting soaked, as by the time we left, the rain had stopped.

Finally we arrived at Roy's new friend's place which was right by the river. Our host's name was Agnes and she was delightful. She is a retired dentist from Sweden, who was born in Hungary, but left when reasonably young. Since inheriting her parents' flat in Budapest, she spent summers and after retirement 4 or 5 times a year a few weeks in the country.  We had lovely food and drink and above all, excellent conversation. We discussed family history mainly, and had a lovely time.

The Elysee Cafe

On Sunday I had 4 tickets for the Bernstein Marathon in the Palace of the Arts and had two different companions. The first two concerts I was accompanied by my friend Vera, and both the Music Academy students and then the Budapest Strings were excellent.

View from Agnes's balcony

In the afternoon my companion was Ian and the performances equally fantastic. We had Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony first and then Three Meditations from MASS, which was totally new to me and fascinating to boot. The last concert was given by Amadinda, a percussion group of 4 fantastic guys. We sat behind them, just below the organ and had an interesting view of all the activities below us. All in all the day was fantastic, although I was pretty much done in by the end.

Otto and Roy in the cafe

In the meantime we had a bit of luck at home with the builders, who were doing some heavy renovations next door.  When they appeared in the little inside courtyard behind my kitchen I struck up a conversation with them and ended up having the back wall fixed, replastered and insulated.  We did have some serious ingress of water from that direction and I was so pleased to discover these guys. It cost £300, took them 2 and half days and hopefully the musty smell will finally disappear after drying out completely.

Before...

During the inactivity in the earlier part of the week, I started binge watching The Crown on Netflix. Fascinating, well written, well acted and directed, I enjoyed it a lot.  Whether the historical accuracy was as good as they wanted you to think, is questionable, but for entertainment I felt it was more than adquate. I am looking for other series to binge watch, now that we have Netflix, courtesy of Alex and Meaghan.

...and after

You may recall that I was rather concerned whether we would get back to the village in time for the delivery of my books.  Well, we didn't, but I sorted it by ringing my good friend Anna, who kindly took them in, paid the bill and when we arrived yesterday, we picked them up from her. I haven't had time yet to start reading them, but at least that is something to look forward to.

I made several purchases online this last week. First of all I bought our plane tickets for August, which are no longer as cheap as they used to be, but were still a reasonable buy. As Sheila's birthday was approaching, I also managed to buy her some fancy chocolates and a few book tokens for her 85th birthday. Unfortunately, the holiday dates for us this summer will prevent us seeing Peter and Lois, but hopefully we might see them in London later on in the autumn.

On Monday we met yet another online family history friend of Roy's, this time in a cafe opposite the Synagogue. His name is Otto and he was really lovely too. Fast talking, enthusiastic, very bright and friendly. He treated us to several cups of hot chocolate, tea and croissants and we parted good friends. He visits quite often, so we hope to see him again.

A bush going for a ride

Finally on Tuesday we went to see the urologist, who this time was very adamant that Roy will not be able to avoid having a prostate operation. He has been a bit glum since, but it's better sooner than later, as neglected prostate problems can become acute and dangerous. I am now looking in my diary for a likely date, so it will not interfere with our travels and other programs.

Another view from Agnes's balcony

We are not in the village long, as I have a concert on Sunday and a homeopath's appointment on Monday. There is also a day's geocaching on the cards for Tuesday, unless the weather is dreadful. We should be back in the village after that and I will post again then.

Sickness

It is yet another 12 days between posts, but the title should give you a hint as to why. But before that let's see what I got up to before I retired to my bed.

Twilight shot of the Farmhoue and the Bunkhouse

After I posted last time (and strictly speaking this should have been in the last post), Roy and I went to dinner at our good friends' Feri and Anna's house. They are the owners of the Mill Court complex and it is at least 3 years since we have seen them socially outside of the restaurant. It was a lovely evening where we were fed some incredibly delicious Asian fusion food and discussed the problems of the village, the country and the world between us. I really think we should have closer association with these two in many aspects and that we should never leave it this long between dinners. Consequently, they are due to come over to us next time for a curry.

On Wednesday I left Roy in Bér again and travelled by bus into town for a Mitsuko Uchida concert in the Music Academy. She was playing Schubert and she was magnificent, as usual. She is now getting quite elderly and very frail looking, but she is nothing of the kind. The power, the sensitivity and brilliance that she brings to all her performances didn't fail to fascinate again.

Mitsuko Uchida

On Thursday I travelled back home in the afternoon as God knows why but the bus company discontinued my favourite bus from Aszód to Bér, or to be correct it now leaves a full 35 minutes earlier then before and therefore no connection is available to it. On Monday I went to Hatvan and used the bus from there, but it was freezing cold and very uncomfortable, so I decided to use the direct one in the afternoon on Thursday, so at least I could have a lie-in and have heating in the bus. It was OK, but I think it was unwise to travel in the middle of a flu epidemic twice within 4 days on public transport where all and sundry cough and splutter all over you.

I suppose you can see where I am going with this. We came in on Friday by car and while I was feeling quite OK when I got in the car in Bér, by the time I got out of it in town I felt dreadful.  The dreaded Aussie flu hit me and I have been practically in bed ever since.

H3N2 aka Aussie flu

I suppose I shouldn't whinge, but it is precisely because of my busy schedule, that many reckon is a bit too demanding for someone in her 70th year, that I had to cancel an inordinate amount of events that were planned and am still not sure when I can get back into action.

I am usually good with pain and am not exceptionally miserable in my sickbed. Thankfully I can occupy myself with my laptop and books. However, when you see what went by the board because of this bloody lurgy, you will appreciate my frustration, still ongoing. Out went: 1 opera and 2 concert performances, 1 entire long planned day with Gyuri geocaching, another half day with Zsuzsi hiking and caching and an entire weekend celebrating my old friend Laci's 70th birthday down by the  Balaton. Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!

Snow in the courtyard

The window through which I watch the tits

Hanging on

I cancelled the latter back on Wednesday, which some thought was a bit hasty, but I must have cybillic foresight as just as I started slightly improving Roy went down with it.  Yesterday I had to go out shoppping, and while I was OK (I took my little flight bag on wheels as a shopping trolley) after about 20 minutes the sweat was pouring off me in buckets.  Obviously, post viral fatigue will be with me for a good while, but this time I have decided that I will stay in bed for as long as I can, because I remember how getting up too soon and trying to do too much too soon made me ill for months in the last few winters. I am playing to my age and infirmity and am determined to get properly well by the end of February at the latest, as that is when we are off to Hassocks to be with Elian and Xander.

Anf what's over there?

So there! Not much else had happened, other than coughing, spluttering and lying in bed in misery. Poor Roy is in the worst phase now, when the cough is both tight and flegmy, but mostly the former. That feels like somebody is choking you to death.  Once it starts loosening, he should start feeling better. I bought him some homeopathic cough medicine, I hope it'll loosen it up soon.

Back, a week and a bit ago, on last Saturday, Ros and Ian turned up.  I stayed upstairs as I didn't want to reinfect them, which is entirely possible even though they had it around Christmas, as the virus mutates all the time and you can catch it more than once. They finally brought my Barclaycard (long story, don't ask!) and the big tin of BOLT's HOT Curry Powder that got lost and replaced. That, in fact, was the case with the Barclaycard too, but finally both turned up and I was happy.

Where have all the seeds gone?

While Roy was OK, he did a lot of magical cooking, ie.: magicking lovely meals out of not much. Curry was one of them, which I think is a marvellous dish for sickness, as I frequently feel that the heat of the sauce disinfects my innards.  And, of course, I love the stuff.

More cute tits

The day before yesterday I bought some books on the net, which I asked to be delivered to Bér, but now I am worried will we be there when they arrive? You never know how long it'll be before they deliver it, and in town there is a bigger chance of it going missing, which is why I always put the Bér address on it.  Let us hope that they are a bit tardy then we might get there sometime next week.

Who's up there?

Mind you, I wouldn't be too sure as Roy is not improving at all and I always worry about him, although I felt exactly the same this time last week. We also had to shift his urinary check-up by one week, but if he is not much better than this, we might have to do the same again. That's on Tuesday, let us hop he'll cheer up a bit by then.

I'm hanging on

I must go now as my books await. My eyes were so bad last week that I could hardly read or look into the computer screen. Should post again when there will be anything to post about. In the meantime enjoy some great tits on the feeders, as reminders of a time when we were still OK.

Angst essen Seele auf

Fear Eats the Soul

The title of this, rather tardy, post refers to a fantastic play I have just seen a couple of days ago in the theatre. It is based on a 1974 film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, but which has an amazingly relevant topic for today. The love between an old German woman and a young Moroccan man in 1970's West Germany brings up the question of migration, refugees, racism, discrimination and a lot else besides, issues that still plague us today. I never saw the film at the time, but the play was riveting. Definitely something that was worth going to see.

Miklós Perényi

Apologies for the lateness of this post, but the last nearly two weeks were rather full of stuff, as well as illness. On Saturday, 6th we departed for town as I had a couple of concerts that weekend. Saturday's was a last minute affair, as my friends, Eszter and Gábor had two tickets for sale due to illness of their friends. I bought one of them and they brought Marci, their son with the other, so we sat together up in the balcony at the Music Academy. I always liked Miklós Perényi and he didn't disappoint this time either.

Sunday night's, however, was a scheduled concert on one of my subscription tickets with Bozsa, but the pianist was new, at least to me. He is Andrei Korobeinikov and he has great promise.  Apparently he was a wunderkind, winning lots of awards while extremely young, and we could understand why. Should any of you come across him anywhere, he is to be recommended!

By the river where we couldn't reach the cache

Earlier on the Sunday, Roy and I went to the Buda hills to place a moving cache that was picked up back at the beginning of the month. Unfortunately, the park of the chateau we were hoping to find an ancient tree in could not be reached due to the building being renovated and everything else behind a high fence. While returning to town we called on our friends Nata and Colin to deliver the leftover lanyards, badges and the money I took back at the beginning of July from the visiting hashers for their purchases.  Nata didn't seem to worry about them sitting in a box in my sideboard, but as they live very close to the place we went to, this was a good opportunity to deliver them. Nata was out, but Colin was in and we had a lovely chat with our tea and coffee. They have done wonders with the house, it is very stylish and comfortable for the two of them.

In the quarry by the face rock

We stayed in town for a couple of days after the concerts, partly because we needed a rest, but also because I was going geocaching with Gyuri on Wednesday.  On Tuesday we had a visit from a fellow geocacher who delivered his own moving cache which travels along the routes of hiking competitions. I always try to promote the County of Nógrád and having made a suggestion to him about a route in that county, he agreed and brought the box which we then planned to place en route home on Thursday. It was nice to meet him for the first time, as most of my fellow geocachers I have not yet met. I like this guy in particular as he seems well educated, sensible, friendly and helpful. He assisted me on many occasions when I got stuck with caches in the last few years.

Gyuri photographing the quarry

On Wednesday I fetched Gyuri from the station and off we went to a few places South of Buda, none of them too far. He assured me that the forecast was for sun and no rain. Needless to say that was most certainly not the case, although the morning, while overcast, was at least dry. We started with a cache that we seemed to have overlooked the last time we went to Csepel Island and that was pretty easy. There was a multi nearby, but we didn't feel like it, so that was scrapped. Then we left the island, crossed the river to the Buda side and tried to reach a cache that is difficult to get to when the river is high.  However, when I looked up the river authority's website, they were advising that the level is reasonably low, so that should be OK.

A long straight stream before it started raining

Oh no, it wasn't!!! The alternatives were between swinging from trees like Tarzan, due to the very thick jungle below, or getting our feet wet on the bank. We scrapped this one too, although later Gyuri managed to get the password for logging it from somebody else, so that was OK. After this episode came one of the best caches of the day. It was hidden behind a very thorny bush in a crevice of the crag that went quite a few feet up to the top of the quarry all around us.  It was a bit hairy to teeter on several precipices, but it was fun and we both managed it. Unfortunately by then it was very misty, so the panorama, which otherwise would have been spectacular, was shrouded in mist.

The Ravine

The next one was by an interesting looking ravine but first we approached from the wrong direction, so we had to get back into the car, drive round the bottom end the ravine and try again.  We were also chased by loose dogs, which is not one of my favourite activities, but thankfully we ran faster than them and they lost the urge to have us for lunch.

Believe it or not, this is a church

After these first few caches we drove across to another town and started on their caches. First there was one by an outdoor skanzen type place, which unfortunately was closed, but we still peered in and the cache was outside anyway. Then we had one just outside the museum, which looked nice, followed by a couple of 5-parter multis, which were not much fun. First of all it has started raining quite hard by then, and some of the locations were pretty iffy which I wouldn't hang  around, not even in good weather. We scrapped those too as well as abandoning the rest of the day, due to getting soaked.

St. Stephen aka Batman

All in all, as far as caching was concerned, this day was not very good, but the company was excellent, so I am not complaining.  Needless to say, Gyuri with his secret contacts (I reckon he is hacking into the geocaching.hu database), he sent me the passwords of both multis, so the total logged wasn't too shabby.

A giant Rubik cube in the centre of Batta

The following morning we departed in the direction of the village, making a detour to where the hiking cache was supposed to start. I had to climb a big hill, because I wasn't sure if I was on the right path, but looking around at the top confirmed that I was, so I placed it there and hightailed it back to Roy in the car at the bottom of the hill. It was awfully misty again, so the photographs were nothing to write home about.

In the Nógrád hills on a dull day

The main event of the week since we arrived in the village has to be the firing up of the pottery stove. You may recall me moaning about it not wanting to light and I was terribly worried that there might have been a blockage in the chimney or a collapse inside the stove.  Roy got his brushes out and swept the chimney, reporting that he had found no blockage, so the day after we arrived back we decided to have another go at lighting a fire in the stove. The day was pretty cold and windy, so I thought if it doesn't light again or goes out after lighting, we'll have no option but call the guy who built it.

The stove back in commission

Well, I am happy to report that it lit up like a bonfire and is still going, so hopefully the problem, whatever it was, has gone. Unfortunately, when we go back to town on Saturday, we'll be away for nearly a fortnight, so the lighting up palaver will have to be repeated again. Let's hope it'll be easier this time.

James Norton

A sprinkling of snow thia week

This week so far has been spent on the computer, Roy doing family history research, me watching TV, carrying on with the password database and transcribing registers. One of my favourites currently on the box is McMafia, which I gather is having a lot of bad comments for the subtitles being too  small and disappearing too quickly and the plot being too complicated, slow and boring.  Well, I think these comments are a reflection of the quality of British television viewers, not of the series. The only one I would allow in a small way, is the complicated story-line, which you really have to concentrate on if you want to understand where the whole thing is going, but otherwise I think in its own genre it is very good and I especially love James Norton.

This is where we watch the birds

I am glad that a good few of my favourites are back or coming back soon, including Vera, Silent Witness and Doctor Who. Unfortunately my eyes are beginning to complain when I sit in front of the computer monitor for too long, but just watching programs is not so hard on one's eyes, as reading and typing.

Two of our little darlings who eat all day not to freeze

I will have to dart into town again tomorrow, as the Music Academy has a Mitsuko Uchida concert, which cannot be missed. I'll be back home the following morning, although my favourite bus from Aszód now leaves a half hour earlier than before, so I will have to work out another route to it, possibly by train. If not, I might have to catch an earlier bus, which I think leaves before 6am. Brrrrr, not in this winter I think, so the most likely outcome will be that I'll stick to the afternoon bus, which hopefully still goes at 13:35 and goes directly to Bér.

I promise not to leave it this long again, but who knows, I might be too busy again right through January.

New Year's Eve et al

Last Friday the bed linen arrived from the Mill and we spent all of Saturday and some of Sunday cleaning the Bunkhouse and part of the Farmhouse + making 11 beds. I must admit, every time Anna asks us to have guests I agree and then bitterly regret it. I am too old for all this housework, I got totally shattered in about 3 hours. Still, finally it was done and we were pleased to see the guests arrive on Sunday afternoon.

The Atlantic Cedar

For once they were extremely nice, clean, quiet, pleasant folks, who came home in the early hours of New Year's Day so quietly we had no idea that they snuck in. They damaged nothing, were very polite and complimentary about everything and I said to Anna that I would have them back any day.  When Anna came to settle the account she stayed for a lovely chat, upshot of which was an invitation to them the week after next.

The bottom of the Atlantic Cedar

My cold is still with me and fluctuates daily. Recently I had an attack of dizziness and vertigo as well, but I think that was because the lurgy affected my ears. I spent a lot of time in bed as a result, reading or watching TV on the laptop. I watched the regeneration of the doctor into Jody Whittaker and I really look forward to the new series starting sometime. I am a lapsed Doctor Who watcher, but now that we have a female doctor I might return. Call the Midwife is still lovely. I know it is a bit too much 1950's, but I still think it is well done.

The bridge leading to the gate of the arboretum

The weather got a bit cold, rainy and foggy, although it has not snowed at all. The pottery stove has got some problems, we are wondering why it wouldn't light. Roy seems to think there is a blockage somewhere although having swept the chimney he is worried that there may have been collapse inside the stove.  That could be very expensive to put right, so let us hope it's not that. After filling the lounge with thick smoke more than once, we gave up and hope to get hold of the guy who built it to see what it is.

The Youth Hostel and Forestry Study Centre in the forest

The main event of the New Year so far was a little outing yesterday to the Mátra mountains. I have adopted a cache whose owner had given up geocaching and did not look after it. It has three parts and you have a walk of about 5km up (or down) a valley to get to their locations in order to mend or replace them.  I didn't fancy a walk of 10km, so worked out how to get by car to the highest point, when Roy went back down on the road and I walked down the valley I was supposed to go up in. This saved a lot of climb and 5km.

Csevice stream whose valley I walked down in

At the top where we managed to drive in to, there is a lovely old, slightly neglected arboretum with fascinating and rare conifers and some broad leaved trees as well. We saw their rare Atlantic Cedar, which is truly enormous. The countryside is really wild up there.

Dry oak leaves add colour to the greys and browns

It was really weird having the whole mountain with all its forests to myself for 2 and half hours on the way down. There was some mud, the sunshine went about 20 minutes after we arrived and at the end it rained and was very cold.  In spite of all this I enjoyed myself, saw a deer from a distance, a pretty little ravine, a large abandoned quarry and photographed a lot of it and by the end of it I mended all three parts of the cache.

Snow melt had undermined the roots of this  tree

We did a bit of shopping in Pásztó, mostly for fire bricks and bird seed, en route home and ended up in the Santos for a late lunch. We eat so little nowadays that the food we buy normally lasts twice as long as we think. Then if we eat out at least once, that makes it last even longer.

Low rock wall in the forest

Once home I had to set about updating the cache page on the website, which was also extremely neglected, being full of totally out of date information. I uploaded some new photos as well and it now looks pretty good to me I must admit. Mind you, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so I will have to wait for somebody climbing up to the Mátra to see if everything is where it should be and easy to find.

A small ravine

Today I started preparing for our trip into BP on Saturday. I have two concerts, one of Saturday and one on Sunday, we will have to place a moving cache I picked up in the Mátra and later, sometime in the beginning of next week I might have a geocaching day with Gyuri.

The markings I followed

Today my cold has returned with a vengeance and I can hardly breathe. That cold and windy day in the Mátra obviously didn't do it any good, but I still think it was worth going. I'll post again next week, I hope, until then a Happy New Year to all of you, may it be successful, full of adventure, good health and lots of happiness!!

The massive quarry walls

Remnants of the old quarry buildings