The last week

A year ago Roy had taken delivery of his palinka

The visit to the private clinic where Roy had an X-ray and some blood taken went with very little hassle. The place seemed very posh, the staff polite and efficient and I hoped that this would reassure Roy, who has never liked anything medical whether it was he who was ill or anyone else.

Last year's blossom, before the snow storm in April took it

In the afternoon I went to the annual general meeting of my orienteering club, which gave me chance to meet some of my friends whom I have not seen for ages. I got a lift, which was useful as my cold was still with me and going by public transport would have been too tiring.

On Saturday we went to do a bit of shopping and managed to find three really useful pound shops for the little presents that have to go in the cache boxes. I have since put together two boxes that we should place tomorrow, should the rain stop a bit.

Roy on his tractor

Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly indoors, trying to shake my cold, watching TV, surfing the net and reading books. I spent some time dreaming about going geocaching with friends once I am better.  Finally, on Wednesday we went back to the clinic to see the anesthetist, who turned out to be an absolute darling. Friendly, professional, very kind and patient, so I am fairly sure that Roy was quite reassured. It turns out he has some antigens in his blood which has to be allowed for when they get the usual 2 units of blood for the operation. So, we have to go back a day prior to the operating next Thursday to give another sample, so the Blood Bank knows which antigens are OK and which aren't.

Finally, we came back down to the village yesterday on the bus, which left at 7.20am and with it being a national holiday, transport was very few and far between. We got up really early and allowed a lot of extra time to get to the bus station, which was just as well, because the route of our trolley bus was changed and we nearly missed it at the other stop. I have checked just before on the internet all the changes and that one was not there. I suppose some moron either forgot it or they changed something at the last minute and they didn't have the time to change the information online. Good job they put a small notice at the stop, but it took us a quarter of an hour to twig what they meant.

In the French Alps with Alex

The trip itself, however was totally uneventful, the house was fine, there were no broken pipes and since then we have been busy with stuff. First of all we had to move two beds back from the Farmhouse to the Bunkhouse, as we have come to a decision regarding Anna's guests. We feel too old to do any more work, but we still want to help Anna when she has a surplus of guests she cannot accommodate. So, we said to her that we no longer want any guests in the Farmhouse and the Kottage will only take them in the summer, as we usually drain the water pipes there to be safe in the winter. The main property, therefore, that takes guests will have to be the Bunkhouse with 10 beds.

Red is still my favourite colour

We are going to give her a key to that building and to the garden gate and therefore she can have it even if we are not here. We will charge a flat fee of £30 per night, regardless how many people she puts in there and all work: cleaning, bed making etc. will have to be done by her staff. I think this is an ideal arrangement and I think we will both benefit from it.

Must go now as it is tea time and I am feeling rather tired and dizzy, so I'll have an early night, as tomorrow we should go out if the weather is not too bad to place the boxes for the two spring caches up near the Slovakian border and go eat out somewhere en route home. Currently there is a 4 day holiday here, so hopefully we will find somewhere nice open.  If not, we'll come home and have dinner at The Mill.

About 60 people came to my geocaching hike in November

As there was nothing worthy of photographing this week, the pictures you see in this post are a selection of my favourite photos of the last year.  Enjoy!

Back home and sick again

After another night of babysitting, for another outing to celebrate Lucy's birthday, we were looking forward to the weekend when one hopes we could be together with the family more than during the week. Unfortunately, when your son is a working comic, the weekends are even busier than the weekdays, so that was not to be. Also, we agreed beforehand to babysitting the monsters right through Saturday, as Stephen and Lucy were due to go to a wedding in Kent.

Elian playing Lego

As it happens the little monsters were jolly good, spent a lot of time on their iPads, watched some TV and played with us and each other when the mood took them. Unfortunately we couldn't take them out, as the pavements were lethal with black ice and we couldn't take the responsibility for them or for ourselves in those conditions. Elian did some Lego and Xander did some silly running around through the open doors between the kitchen, dining room, lounge and hall.  That is his speciality, he is jolly good at guessing when you stopped running and are waiting for him round the corner. He changes directions so fast, there is no chance of catching him.

Note the Diana look!

Going to bed was an easy affair, they are definitely better than last time about that. However, there was a small amount of overexcitement due to being stuck indoors on Xander's part, but knowing his insatiable need for physical activity, I think he bore it pretty well. Later I thought I might have chucked him out into the garden in some boots and a coat and hat, but never thought of it at the time.

iPads, aka electronic babysitters

On Sunday morning we have discovered that Stephen and Lucy have actually driven home in the night, so they were about in the morning. We never heard them coming in. Still, they could not have slept much, as they both looked a bit freyed at the edges.

The little charmer

Elian went for a party in the morning and later on we all went to The Greyhound for Sunday lunch. I love that pub, there is a pleasant, not too rough, but neither too posh environment and atmosphere there, with the food pretty good in quality, quantity and price. Both the boys have amazing appetites, I couldn't believe the amount they were tucking into and putting away. Roy and I could not fit into the car due to the size of the boys' safety seats, so we walked.  It was lovely. It looked like spring had arrived, although 48 hours before the temperature was well below zero.

My lunch on Saturday

Monday was unfortunately spent indoors again, as Stephen had departed for a 3 day engagement, the kids were in school until 6pm, Lucy was working and doing her other stuff, like sports and Roy and I (mostly I) were going down with yet another lurgy again. I think this one I brought with me from home, as I do recall feeling a draught at the airport on the way out, which would not have happened unless I was sickening for something. Finally it got me on our last day and I was seriously worried about not being able to travel the following day.

Roy monstersitting

Thankfully, after yet another evening of babysitting (the fourth in five days) I felt a bit better on Tuesday morning, so we got going to the airport by train.  The weather was positively springlike by then and transport had no holdups whatsoever. Consequently we were far too early at the airport, but that is still a better scenario than missing your flight.

En route to the pub on Sunday

Daffodils in close-up

Snow drops in close-up

We went through the airport at the other end like a dose of salts again and were indoors barely over an hour after we landed on the tarmac. Since then, however, the cold that has been toying with me all the time we were in Hassocks has finally attacked full force. I am weak and miserable in bed again, hoping that if I rest enough I can finally kick it. However, today was the first step towards putting into effect my plan for next winter, by not buying any subscription concert tickets in The Palace of the Arts for the next season. Bozsa, my good friend who has a discount card sent me the list of choices and I had to decline them with a very much aching heart, but prompted by how miserable I feel. I must try, if I can, stay away from the city in the flu season next year, to see whether that will make any difference.  If it doesn't, I might get back to my concerts the season after next, but I hope it will make a difference and I could be a bit healthier next winter.

Xander in the pub with Mummy

The men round the table in the pub

Tomorrow Roy and I are off to the private hospital for tests, in readiness for his operation later on in the month.  Wish us luck!!

First couple of days in Hassocks

The two musical events, I mentioned at the end of my last post, were part great, part missed. The first, a glorious concert in the Palace of the Arts, given by the Pannon Philharmonic was very good. The main attraction was that the soloist was the now world famous favourite of mine, Kristóf Baráti, whom I used to see regularly, but since he's got very famous, not so often.  Nowadays he doesn't give nearly as many concerts at home as he used to, and when he does the ticket prices are usually astronomic. He was brilliant, as usual and we enjoyed his play on his glorious Stradivarius tremendously.

Kristóf Baráti

Unfortunately, soon after this concert my cold returned, this time with joint aches and extreme tiredness. I decided that I wouldn't attend the opera performance I wrote about in the last post, which then turned out fortunate, as my friend, Kati, whom I usually go with had just lost her mother and wasn't going either.

Tom Burke

I kept to my bed most days, including the weekend, as I wanted to be well for the trip to Hassocks. I watched a fair amount of TV again and read my book, although my eyes were affected by the cold, so I had to have breaks after every 20 or so pages. On TV I discovered that Strike was back and as I loved it last year, got to watch it with much enthusiasm again. I love Tom Burke and the stories, the characters, the acting are all first class. I hope they have more episodes this year than last. Also, I was just about to cancel my hike with my friend Zsuzsi when she rang to tell me that she couldn't come because she had to go in to work over the weekend. So that was off too.

Roy on the lane by Stephen's house

The weather started getting very cold, apparently the air coming from Siberia was going to give us a freezing start to spring, only round the corner. Since then I read on the net, that the end of February/beginning of March has never been this cold ever before.  Or at least not since records have been kept.

One of Brighton's ancient lanes

We packed on Tuesday and departed on Wednesday. They were talking about disruption to travel by the severe weather, but we got to the airport quite easily. Once there, we were told that our plane got stuck in Glasgow, due to the bad weather and we had a delay of about 2 hours until they rustled up another aircraft. This they duly did and after that our day unfolded with not even a tiny hiccup.

Beautiful variegated hollly in a garden

The flight was uneventful, the landing soft and quiet, the airport OK and even though there was a bit of a chaos in the railway station due to cancellations, we managed to catch a late train with only 2 minutes to go. Even with the late departure of the plane we were indoors at Stephen's by 9pm.

Elian doing a puzzle on his iPad

Unfortunately the little monsters couldn't stay up, so they were in bed by the time we got there, but we were safely installed in our usual bedroom and fell into bed half asleep.  On the morning of the following day, we met our little vagabonds. They were off to school and we were off to Brighton to see the bank, Vodafone, have a lunch in the Basketmakers and do a bit of odds and ends type of shopping. The weather was bitter, even colder than in BP or Canada or the US. I think the difference was the strong wind, which added quite a bit of windchill and even though I had a wolly hat and a hood on, my ears were cold.

The power of concentration

Roy, thankfully listened to me and brought his Canadian big coat, boots and lumberjack's hat, so he was warm as toast most of the time. On Thursday we managed to get to all the places we planned, with the highlight being the Basketmakers, as usual.  I had a bit of a shock, as they didn't do my humus dish any more, but I had fish and chips instead, and that was so delicious and enormous, that I didn't mind at all.

The Basketmakers' bar with my favourite barman

In the evening we babysat as Lucy went out with Stephen and some friends to some game to celebrate her birthday. The kids have matured quite a lot since we last saw them and seemed to go to bed without undue hassle. This morning we had to return to Brighton for an appointment and, needless to say, went back to the Basketmakers, this time for a hamburger for Roy and a seefood platter for me.  Latter was equally enormous and delicious as the fish and chips the day before.

My seafood platter

We got back about 2pm and have been veging out ever since.  Half way through the afternoon, just 10 minutes after Roy woke from his afternoon nap, Xander appeared and joined us in our room. It is really nice when a kid chooses to come in and play with you, it is so much more natural and enjoyable when the initiative is from them.  I would never have thought that there is this much entertainment value to a duvet. He crawled under it, over it, did exercises and big jumps on it, we giggled, tickled and mucked about for about an hour, until we got totally exhausted.  4 year olds have so much more energy than old things like Roy and me. Still, this was definitely the highlight of the visit so far.

The Basketmakers

Now I have to go downstairs to see what's for dinner. I can hear the laughing from here, so I am off and should be back sometime next week, probably from home.

Xander and Roy in the bed playing silly buggers

Springs, moderators, concerts and moving caches

I left my last post at the stage when I was rushing off doing the recce for some of my springs for this series of caches I am putting together. There have been series like this in four other mountain ranges, and while our "moutains" are more like overgrown hills, I thought I might have a go at this lark.

The winter wonderland

Thursday was bright, sunny and not too cold, so off I went. Needless to say, that while the weather was great, the previous weeks' snowfall was still lying on the ground and got quite deep in places. The first one was in a deep valley, access to which was a very steep and rocky hillside straight down. Just after I started I met a guy coming up the path with his dog and I could tell his eyes showed concern about an old woman in the deep snow risking the wilds on her own. To be honest I had some concerns too, but I am an intrepid outdoors enthusiast and besides, I have been on that path many times before (even if not in deep snow on my own), so I trudged on regardless. It was physically quite exhausting, as after the initial 100 yards there were no more footsteps to put my feet in, but it was fun.

The first spring

The cache is going into a pretend bird box, commissioned by me from Roy, up a tree near the spring and its three cute little ponds surrounded by gorgeous forest, tables and benches.  A pretend bird box is a marvellous hide for a cache box, as hopefully the muggles will ignore it and it should have a long life up a tree without interference from vandals. The route back was straight up the hillside, but at least by then I had footprints to follow.

The second and third springs were on the other side of the village where I left the car, so I extricated my beloved Duster from a steep, slippery car park next to the castle covered in nearly a foot of snow, drove very gingerly down the steep road to the big car park in the middle of the village and made my way on foot from there.

The ponds

The walk to the second spring was in even deeper snow, but at least there the climb was minimal. First I arrived at a sylvan little spring, that was named after the great love of an aristocratic poet from the 16th century, whose family had extensive estates in the area, incuding the castle. The poet, Bálint Balassi was the first significant poet who wrote in Hungarian (not German or Latin) and published his poetry in anthologies. He was also a real cad with a womanising and hell raising bent. I loved doing the research on him while writing the cache page later.

The route between this spring and the next one went on a nice, albeit snow covered, but level path which once upon a time had the narrow gauge railway running on it transporting stone from the quarry to the railway yard. The third and last little spring was in a very sorry state, but I am assured by my contact at the Geopark that there are plans to restore it soon.  I hope so, as there was absolutely no sign of the housing or the pipe that directs the water out of the hill, and the only signs of it were the small indentation in the hillside and a trickle seeping through the grass.

The castle through the trees

The view, however, was very pretty. The previous spring was in a deep valley, while this one was on a hillside with gorgeous views towards some lovely mountains and the village I left the car in. This spring was named after a later poet, Sándor Petőfi, whose life story needed no research as he is reputedly the most famous poet that one learns about in school and remembers on every anniversary of the 1848 revolution and independence war, due to his involvement and patriotic poetry. The connection with him comes from his hiking tour in the area back in the 1840's when he was most impressed and wrote about his trip extensively in his journals.

The basalt outcrop under the castle

The following days were spent with researching and writing the cache pages for these three springs and having a hell of a lot of hassle doing so.  Correction: writing the stuff was very much enjoyable and I loved doing it.  The hassle came from the moderators (who else?) who didn't like them. I won't bore you with the correspondence I had with them, but the final upshot was that having told me that I can't have these springs in the series, because they are not in the Cserhát (they were about 2 miles outside!) and then when trying to submit them as stand-alones, telling me that they didn't look pretty enough, I lost my temper and threw my toys out of the pram, which eventualy got them to see sense. They agreed to the first one going through on its own and the other two together as a multi-cache.

In the meantime I had a brilliant idea all of a sudden, once these caches were out of the way, of organising a geocaching hike in the summer to celebrate my 70th birthday. The plan is to have this hike not too far from Bér, invite all our friends and the geocaching community to it and build a weekend party round the hike, but that for only selected, close friends. I first wrote an FB event page and invited all those of my friends who are also FB friends. They numbered exactly 60, a good few of which have already confirmed that they are coming.

The main tower of a snowücovered castle

Then the next step was to write an event page on the geocaching website too, advertising it as a hike with a good few caches along and inviting them as well. I had the idea of where the hike should be from one that happened while I was ill with the flu and therefore couldn't take part in. That was a massive 20km hike, I just copied the first half, so ours is 10km, but goes to most of the caches en route. The highest pont is at a privately built lookout-tower, which looks magnificent and I assume the guy who had it built is a multi-billionaire. As it is on top of a mountain to which you need to climb 1200 feet from the nearest road suitable for trucks, he must have had all the building materials delivered by helicopter. Apparently he keeps the tower open all the time, (not necessarily typical nowadays in Hungary), so that people can use it as a refuge and I am planning to have that place as the lunch spot.

The second spring's outlet

Another bit of geocaching related happening came in the form of an e-mail from my new-found friends Zergi and ésKata. These are their geocaching names, otherwise they are called Gábor and Katalin. These were one of the couples I waited for when I found the Mill cache last week and they were very grateful. We chatted and became friends very quickly.  Still, I didn't think that they would later offer me to put out another moving cache with them, the one about the famous people, which I was really hoping to catch one day. They let me choose where it goes and in about a couple of hours I am going with them to place it opposite the birth place of Jenő Rejtő, which is only just round the corner from the flat.

Jenő Rejtő was a very funny thriller writer whose books are still very popular, even though he's been dead for over 70 years. He died on the Russian front as a forced labourer in the Second World War, which was a shame, but his funny gags, his hilarious characters and witty stories will live forever I think.

Shaun Evans

I also started watching Endeavour, as I have just noticed that it was on.  I really like these stories and am absolutely convinced that even though the original writer is long gone, so is the star playing Morse, if they were alive both would approve.  The music, the stories, the acting, the general feel and atmosphere of the times, is absolutely spot on, making the young Morse totally credible.  Well at least to me.

En route to the third spring on the old railway line

And then on Wednesday (yesterday) we came into town on the bus, having filled all the bird-feeders to the brim, covered up all my books and computer with a tarpaulin, turned the water off, set the heating for 12 degrees Celsius and locked the car up in the garage. We are not likely to be back for 3, possibly 4 weeks, so we hope we secured the house accordingly.  I even phoned the post lady to give instructions what to do with my post, so hopefully we will not be coming home to any disasters.

The ghost of the Great Plumbing Disaster of 2012 still hangs over me gravely. I spent weeks drying out my books due to broken pipes and this time there is another Siberian cold spell forecast. Apparently it will be 16/17 degrees Celsius below the very day we are off to Hassocks next week. Why does such weather always come when we are not home? I suppose, because we have the bad habit of travelling in February.  Brrrr!!

The view from the third spring

Last night I had another concert in the Palace of the Arts, this time with Arcadi Volodos, whom I have never even heard of, never mind heard in the person. I can't understand how I missed this guy, as he was brilliant. The program consisted of Schuman, Brahms and Schubert and he was every bit as good as his PR led you on to expect.

Arcadi Volodos

Currently we are dealing with a few things in BP, like visiting my hairdresser, picking up an ordered book from the bookshop, buying the next three months supply of my medicines and Roy's at the chemist, renewing my bath card, and other such delights. And, of course, the putting out of this cache with friends just round the corner. We have corresponded in the last few days over what to put on the website about Jenő Rejtő after we placed the cache and while it ended up a bit long, I think our communal effort is pretty good. The write-up included some biographical detail, followed by some extracts from one of his books. Very funny, indeed!!

The rest of the week includes two more outings into the world of classical music: first another concert in the Palace of the Arts and an opera performance of Offenbach's 1864 opera about fairies, war and other matters on the Rhine.  Never heard of this one and it has apparently been forgotten for 140 years before they have rediscovered it in the year 2000 and I'm going to its premiere on Saturday.

A parting shot of the castle

Will hopefully post before we disappear to Hassocks next week, but if I don't manage it, I'll talk to you from there. Taraaaa!

Earache and geocaching

Or possibly geocaching and earache in that order. This latter can be used in both senses: figuratively and practically. You may recall that I was in the post-viral fatigue stage with my flu last week, but it then developed into throat and earache. It kept coming and going, so I decided not to cancel my geocaching day yet again and then it developed into a serious bout of real earache. The only remedy I could think was to wear a light but soft and warm hat all the time and that helped. I looked very funny with a purple hat in bed, but the heat is always beneficial for earache, so I'm still wearing it.

My friend Gyuri en route to the troublesome cache

The figurative earache came in yesterday, or to be precise, this morning, when I discovered that a cacher who annoyed the hell out of me while looking for our last cache yesterday and whom I admonished very politely on the net, took exception to this with spurious arguments, untruths and accusing me of accusing him of various things that only exist in his furtive imagination. What is it with these touchy, oversensitive males in geocaching, that they can't take a small amount of very justified and politely put criticism without throwing their toys out of the pram? Ahhhhh!!

Winter wonderland in the Pilis Mountains

Rant over, let's examine what we've been up to since posting last! We spent another 3 days in Bér before returning to BP. My main achievements for those days consisted of:
1. Starting the process of sorting out Roy's operation.
2. Writing the cache page for the first of my 11 spring/well series of caches and having it pass.
3. Writing the POI page for the Tihany geocaching hike in May.

Virgin Mary shrine by my first spring

The first included trying to pin down the urologist whose mobile phone number was finally given to me. It looks as if we should be able to have it fixed for March, to take place soon after we have returned from Hassocks.

The Manor House at Virágospuszta

The writing of the cache page was quite exciting. I have never done one of these without visiting the actual place just before I wrote the page, but this was the case this time. The weather turned horrendous and I still didn't feel like stirring outdoors, so I used my own photos from some time ago and my local knowledge - augmented by some internet searches - to put it together.  It went through pretty easily, although some of the awkward squad from among the moderators was picking holes all the same. I think it is nothing personal, it's just their bad habit.

The hiking/geocaching route in May on the Tihany Penninsula

Writing the POI page was fun. I finally had the co-operation of all but one of the people whose multis were the wrong way round, although due to the one that stayed totally intransigent, we had to make the walk clockwise, instead of the original plan of anti-clockwise. I have already had two takers immediately it went live, so hopefully this should be a success again. I couldn't check this morning the state of affairs on the POI page, as the geocaching website is down again.  Oh, it is about time to move over to the new server, as this is ridiculously frustrating, especially that the early morning hours are the ones when I am at my best and most websites usually the fastest, as everybody is still in bed.

The derelict mill where I got the moving mill cache

Then we came into town on the Sunday. En route we picked up a moving cache that has been in an outer suburb of BP since Saturday morning and nobody took it. I was very lucky. I found it in its little hide and about 5 minutes later several other cachers turned up to take it as well.  As I was there first, I could take it on, but I waited for both sets of people to log in the book and we had a lovely impromptu cachers' meeting as well.

Zergi and ésKata whom I met there

I also had a concert in the Palace of the Arts, which turned out to be an absolute delight. It was the last one in a series of concerts, called "Discoveries". The orchestra was the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and the two soloists were two very young, but superbly talented guys. Remember the names of Krisztián Kocsis and Ádám Balogh, because your will hear of them later. Both aged 20, they showed such verve, technical brilliance and insight, that you could not believe their age.  Except, of course, that they both looked about 15, very thin and shy. The program was totally Mozart, which made me even happier.

Adam Balogh

On Monday I kept ringing Dr. Bécsi but he didn't pick up. Finally he did and we agreed that he would ask around and if I rang him the following day, he would have the details for me about who to ring to get the ball rolling.

Krisztian Kocsis

At 10am I went and saw Zsófi, my homeopath and we had a delightful 45 minutes, going  through my diet etc. I am now taking double the usual dose of my probiotics for two weeks, have to eat more animal fat and protein and less fruit for a while, take some interesting teas and 400mg of magnesium/day for a month. She could see that I was pretty tired, but after the weeks of illness that was only to be expected.

Stages of the cross in Dorog

After this both Roy and I went to the Electricity Board offices to make a complaint. Long and boring story you don't want to know. I personally felt that the service in that office is still as efficient and courteous as it was about 8 or 10 years ago when we were there last. Hopefully, the problem will be sorted, if not, I'll pay up what I owe (or so they say I owe) and cancel the contract.

Gyuri with the hiking stamp book

After this we took the car out to Szentendre to place the mill moving cache we picked up the day before. I found a really good place outside an art gallery, that once upon a time used to be a sawmill.

Panoramic photo of the monastery ruins

Tuesday was the day Gyuri and I went geocaching in and around the Pilis mountains. That was the plan and as I didn't want to cancel for the second time we got going. Gyuri came up from Békéscsaba and we braved the elements. We spent most of the day in a whiteout, it was snowing heavily, but at least the woods and hills looked magical under the carpet of snow. Good job I can switch my car to 4-wheel drive. For the first time I had it, that feature was most appreciated.  The tally of caches for the day was 8 and we both came home rather exhausted.

Snow laden branches

I also managed to get hold of Dr. Bécsi again and he gave me the name and telephone number of the lady who is in charge of arranging for surgeons to do operations.  I haven't yet called, as I wanted to talk it over with Roy first, but hopefully that should be done by tomorrow.

My beautiful bouquet on Valentine's Day

Today we left BP by 8.30am and did some shopping en route. We are now in the village for a week and I hope to recce another couple of springs one day this week. Hopefully we will also succeed in lighting the fire. Today we were singularly unsuccessful, but if it is windy tomorrow, we'll be laughing. Update: the fire is lit, I got some lovely flowers for Valentine's Day and I am off to recce 2 or 3 springs in about an hour.