Makó, geocaching, hiking and a new phone

Our three days in Makó were delightful, albeit a bit crap vis-a-vis geocaching. On the first day, when I planned a good few caches to be found en route South, we made the mistake of taking a detour to Gyöngyös to do some food shopping at Tesco. This had taken about an hour and a half out of the day, which, of course, caused us later to be benighted too soon for finishing all the caches on the list.

Gyöngyöspata church

That was a shame, but those that we could find were very interesting and enjoyable. They included: a lovely tall-spired church that we have passed in the car a thousand times before, but never stopped to look at, an old ruinous country estate with an enormous poplar tree, a centre for the preservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle, another big white church in another village, an interesting detached little village on the puszta and the ruin of a medieval church in yet another village. The rest on the list was left to another trip, which we will no doubt make some time in the future.

Makó Town Hall

The B&B was lovely, friendly staff, spotlessly clean and furnished with nice old furniture. The beds were very comfortable too and we had a tiny kitchenette where we could cook. Breakfast and all other meals were extra, but we prefer to bring our own anyway, so that didn't bother us. Unfortunately, the recommended Italian restaurant, Rocco's, was full to the brim, so we made a booking for the following evening and went to eat elsewhere.  That restaurant was fine, too, albeit a tiny bit empty.

Our bedroom in the B&B

The following morning we went out very early, even before breakfast, to walk around Makó and get its geocache. It is not a very large town, but has some lovely old buildings and lots of places associated with the one thing that makes Makó famous: onions. Don't laugh, Makó onions are definitely the best on the planet.  Large, hard, flavourful and last right through the winter provided they are stored properly. Even the thermal baths are called after onions, which I thought was sweet.

Downtown Makó

The rest of the day was spent travelling around the area, picking up caches as we went. I knew that being in the Great Plain, it will be flat, but was never prepared for the endless views that you get in the plains where there is nothing in your way to see all the way to the horizon. The caches visited included: a brand new arboreal walkway, which really took you up into the treetops and where the views of the forest and the river were really pretty. We saw an interesting old church, which had a bit at the back with was circular, dereliction was also on the menu, as there is one cache owner in the South, who loves showing you decaying buildings. This time he took us to a cemetery where the former landowner's family was buried and his crypt still stood.  Only just, I must admit, but it was interesting.

The tower on the aerial walkway

We also saw the memorial to the heroic defenders of the town, who in 1970 saved it from inundation by the river, then went to see remains of an old railway bridge, which was demolished after the Trianon Peace Treaty as it led into a foreign country, followed by an interesting 17th century old carved stone cross in the middle of nowhere. The next one was a cache looked after by my good friend Gyuri, and I loved it. A really sweet old chapel, unfortunately right next to a modern dual carriageway's roundabout, so the serene environment that the chapel must have existed in the middle of the puszta for hundreds of years was no longer there.  Still, its proportions were so charming that we managed to forget about the roundabout.

Little chapel in the middle of the puszta

The next cache took us to the middle of the puszta where for centuries people lived and worked in isolated small hamlets, eking out a living from the poor land and perhaps animals if they could. Most of these hamlets are now abandoned, although some of them are still lived in, but there are no longer enough people to warrant the schools, churches and other amenities to survive. One place, where we had to look for the cache had a church and a school, but the latter was totally derelict.

The near derelict crypt in the cemetery

The last two caches of the day were an old bridge and yet another old church. The day ended happily at the Italian restaurant, with Roy having calamari with his pasta and me just having garlic, olive oil and chilies on mine

The river Maros

Our third and final day started with two multis: one having 3 the other having 7 parts. Both showed us the town of Hódmezővásárhely. The three-parter took us to several brick buildings, as brick is the usual building material in the puszta due to the total lack of stone in the area. The 7-parter included lots of places in the town, including a museum dedicated to communism. Strange, I admit, but it was great.

After an enjoyable beginning, the rest of the caching was less successful. Two of them we couldn't even find the road to, the first one because they built a fast dual carriageway and blocked off the road to it, the other one because there were extensive building works in the area and all roads closed because of it. We, sort of, gave up after this, as Roy didn't want to have to drive in the pitch dark, as he had to on Day 1.

The ancient carved stone cross

Beforehand, however, we still managed a few, including another no longer existing railway bridge and a 3-parter multi that seemed to have escaped us last time we were in that town, and which didn't give itself up easily this time either. Part one was a small tablet stuck to the back of a road sign, containing the coordinates of the next part. Roy and I looked for it for ages before he spotted it up side down really hidden by other parts of the structure. After that one we took to the motorway and managed to get home just before it got dark. The total caches were 24, quite low for a  three-day trip, but we still enjoyed it and will have one more of these in a couple of weeks, that time going East again.

Lenin hanging around outside the Museum

The day after we got back I had a concert with Bozsa again and it was superb, as usual. Boris Berezovsky played Russian composers exclusively and brilliantly. Balakirev, Stravinsky, and a few others were played with such virtuosity and vehemence only a large Russian bear of a pianist, like Berezovsky, can. I was very tired, but managed to stay awake amidst all that noise.

Boris Berezovsky

Saturday brought my long planned trip up the steep and rocky mountain Naszály, with Mariann and Gabi. The weather, which was warm, sunny and brilliant over the previous weeks, suddenly turned cold and misty. The former is fine, but mist is the enemy of photographers, and unfortunately, the photos from Saturday proved that.  Still the hike itself was a great success, although not without its cock-ups. Most of which were Mariann's, but I am to blame too, as I left all the navigation to her and didn't even turn my GPS on.  That was a grave mistake, but finally everything turned out OK, so I am not complaining. However, this was a salutary lesson that when you have two GPS's on a trip they should both be on and the participants should check each other's directions frequently.

Gabi and Mariann, my companions on the hike

There were only 4 caches on the list on Saturday, and the distance of the hike was a measly 5 miles. Still, it was an exhausting trip due to the prevalence of rock and the steepness of the terrain. We climbed 500 metres in the course of those 5 miles, which add up to more that 6% climb, which is gruelling, especially for 3 old girls of our vintage. Having said that, we all trudged on, albeit slowly, and finished it all rather triumphantly.

Miner'á memorial

The first cache was at a memorial to miners who died in a mining disaster 48 years ago. This cache was close to our starting point, but the next one was a different kettle of fish. It had 4 parts, showing us 4 different lookout points on the mountain, but only the first point's coordinates were given.  At the first three points we had to look for old plastic bottles hidden with the coordinates of the next point in them. I usually hate these type of caches, because inevitably, not all little bottles are in place and once you can't find one, you are stuck.

All paths were thickly covered by fallen leaves

To prevent us running into such problems, Mariann got a caching friend give her all the coordinates in advance, in exchange for a promise of looking up all the bottles to confirm they are still in place. As it happens, her cock-up was of major proportions, because at one point when she should have looked at the coordinates and carried on in a Northerly direction, she assumed that the last two parts are on our return trip South and failed to correct the direction. She didn't realise this until we were more than a kilometre in the wrong direction, but more about this later.

Gabi and Mariann on the top

After part 1 of the multi, we carried on to the top of the mountain, where another cache awaited us. That climb was pretty gruelling, but the top looked quite fascinating.  An old concrete tower was there, probably as a lookout point, but it wasn't open. It could have also been a geodesic point for mapping, but these are no longer in use due to satellite mapping having taken over. It was after this one that we turned the wrong way, looking for not only the next points on the multi, but the second point of another multi, our 4th cache.

The Danube in the distance

Once it was clear what we had done, Mariann rang the guy who gave her the coordinates, pleaded senile decay for the mistake and the nice man at the other end of the phone gave her the password. Phew, we all went, as Gabi and I insisted that we refuse to climb back up and I am sure we would have been adamant, even if our helpful friend refused to hand over the password. The last two places we went to were a couple of abandoned quarries, which were lovely. Nature had taken over since quarrying stopped, but the stone was still visible to photograph.

Moss and dead leaves

After this we descended on steep and rocky paths, which was painful on the knees and in a small sylvan detour, we also ended up pretending to be on a roller coaster as the path crossed several deep gullies. Once back at the car I managed to get Mariann and Gabi to their train and got home in time for a lovely jacket potato dinner.

One of the many disused quarries on the mountain

Sunday contained further drama. We got up at 5am, so that we could leave at 6.30am to visit our friends by the Balaton nice and early, when the phone rang and he told us that he fell down the stairs in the night and they are packing up and coming back to town to take him to Accident and Emergency pronto. I feel terribly for him as it sounded as if he did some serious damage to one of his shoulders, but on the other hand, neither Roy nor I were too upset at having a rest at home instead of driving hundreds of kilometres in one day. Obviously, this place, where we would have gone, is cursed.  This is the second time we are missing it, the first one having been in January when we couldn't go due to my going down with the dreaded Aussie flu. Third time lucky, says a Hungarian proverb, I hope it is right!

High temperatures in November confused nature all round

Today I have several chores in town, most of which are seriously overdue.  The first and most important is to get a new telephone. I found a very good deal advertised on the net, but there appear no dual SIM phones included in the offer, so I might have to keep going until I find one. I will also have to buy my 2019 diary, as there are already several things I should have put into one in the last month or so. This should be followed by a visit to my organic health food shop, where I usually get my vitamins, as I have been out of B Max for nearly a week. No peace for the wicked, as you can see, but I'll post again, hopefully, in about a week or so.

Picturesque large tree by the path

PS: I have got a new phone for nothing. Let me tell you how I came by this good fortune! I looked up the current packages that were available on the three major networks: Telenor, T-com and Vodafone. They were much of a muchness both in terms of conditions, facilities and price.  Except for one thing: T-com had dual SIM phones, but Telenor didn't. I didn't want to believe that, as nowadays very few manufacturers, if any, make anything but dual phones as far as I knew.  So I went into the Telenor shop and enquired. Apparently they did have dual SIM phones, but the guy behind the counter assured me that it would be no use to me as both SIM slots only worked with Telenor SIM cards. That sounded stupid, but I sort of accepted it and resigned to carrying two phones again, as all my old phones still worked, so one could be for the other SIM card. Then he looked at my contract and suggested that if I was prepared to go one up to the next level of contract (£6 a month extra) I could have 4 times the data and he would give me a free phone. It's no wonder that I went for that immediately. Even if the other SIM card didn't work in the second slot, it was still a very good deal. However, as I was finally leaving, the guy ran after us and whispered: Do try the other SIM card in the second slot, as it MIGHT work with the other SIM card!

My lovely new Samsung Galaxy J6

After coming home to lunch and hanging up the washing, I then went to that lovely chap who has so far been so fantastic and helpful to me all through my telephone troubles and who, unfortunately, only repairs and sells second hand phones, so I couldn't put my business with him. This time I asked him to put in the two SIM cards and activate the phone for me, just in case I do something stupid in the process. He was great, very helpful, as usual and I nearly gave him a kiss, I was so happy. I controlled myself and just blew him a kiss and he smiled sweetly. All things come to a happy end if you persevere and have a positive attitude!!! :)

A seriously busy week (again)

On Tuesday I drove the car in to town, parked it up by the trolley bus terminus and caught the bus to the flat. I dumped my stuff and quickly went to the phone shop to see if my young man could fix my errant phone. He couldn't, but having spotted that there was an update available, he suggested we go for it.  Considering that it was an update that fried it last time in Cornwall, that was a brave move, but miraculously, the problem was solved. Well, one of them.  I could now make phone calls, but still had no data traffic. I have decided to get rid of the phone, but, of course, in order to buy a new one, one needs time, which I didn't have. I had to carry on using it until I could replace it.  As it happens, that whole thing is now a lot more urgent than last Tuesday, because the update has done damage again, this time it doesn't charge properly (again), so it is definitely going in the bin as soon as I will have 5 minutes to go and buy another one.

Dezső Ránki

I also had a dental appointment, where Vivien was great, as usual. She put in a pin and took depressions of my two back teeth, which will have a Procera double crown on for the princely figure of £850. Next time, hopefully they should be properly evaluated and then some clever clog can do the drawing of it on the computer, send it to the States and a few days later voila the crowns arrive back for fitting. Once you consider the high quality of ceramic crowns with no metal in them and the fuss they take to prepare, make and fit, that £850 immediately does not seem so horribly expensive. The current total bill for my teeth, in the last 6 months or so, stands somewhere around £2000 and the works have still not finished. Still, I love Vivien and hope to have a properly looked after set of chompers soon.

Tarmac road at the start

In the evening I went to the Palace of the Arts with Bozsa to hear Dezső Ránki on the piano. It was lovely to see Bozsa after a fairly long hiatus, we had a good chat and enjoyed the concert. She gave me a lift home, which was, as always is, much appreciated.

Bright blue sky above the forest

Wednesday was the day of my hike in the Visegrádi Mountains, which finally was taken just by Jutka and me.  Zsuzsi couldn't get a day off and thus missed it all.  That is a great shame, because a combination of gorgeous, warm and sunny weather and the magnificence of autumnal colours, made it special.

Priest's Meadow

We drove in Jutka's car to Szentendre and took the bus from there to the top of the mountain range. From there the hike was mostly, although not entirely, downhill. We were looking for 6 caches, three of which were multis and not all of which were there. Some points of some of the multis I have already got on previous hikes and one of the multis we couldn't find. The rest of them were fine, exciting and requiring a fair amount of searching in undergrowth, especially under a thick layer of dead leaves.

It won't move

Occasionally we took tarmac roads, which didn't have any traffic on, but were easier to make progress on. Once off the road, the paths were totally covered in fallen leaves and especially where we had to follow unmarked paths, you had to really have your wits about you not to lose them. The foliage was breathtaking. The reds, browns, yellows and oranges created such a brilliant hue that even towards the end when we were getting tired, we never stopped loving it. We also saw some magnificent large and old trees, mostly oaks, but occasionally beech or sycamore.

One of the large trees we saw

We had our sandwiches outside a lovely little sylvan cottage, where there were a couple of tables with benches in brilliant sunshine. The spring nearby had a cache so easy to find that it made up for the half an hour digging and scrambling where we couldn't find the previous cache further up the mountain. Thankfully, after lunch all the trudging was downhill, although the aching backs and knees slowed us right down.

Roots

Once out of the forest, we had a couple of cakes in a cake shop in the village where we had to catch the bus back to the car, so we were in good spirits. There was a lot of traffic on the roads and the bus was about 10 minutes late, followed by the unpleasant surprise of no seats left, it was so full. I was suspecting that it was not a very good idea to catch public transport on the eve of a 4-day holiday, but the worst was just to come.

The  cottage where we had our lunch

As we got back to Jutka's car, it became obvious that she left the lights on and the battery was dead. We desperately tried to get somebody in the car park to help us, as we had some jump leads. The first guy chickened out when Jutka's car wouldn't start, not even when attached to his battery, but finally another guy was willing to charge the car for 3 minutes before turning the key in the ignition.  We got going, but then we were worried about running out of petrol as Jutka forgot to fill it up in the morning and now we were worried that if we stop for petrol, the car will not start again.  So we travelled the minimum 10km required to charge the battery sufficiently to risk turning it off. It worked!!

Foliage

However, by the time we have finally sorted all our car miseries, the traffic on the roads got so bad that it took another hour and half to get home from a place the trip should have just taken 20 minutes. This misery carried on the following morning when having got up, packed and sorted the flat, I obviously got going far too late for a day when everybody was on the roads going away for 4 days. It took me nearly 3 hours to get home to Bér, instead of the usual 75 minutes. Serves me right travelling on and around long holiday weekends and also for not getting going earlier.

Top canopy

Tree + Jutka

Having been away on Nelly's birthday, I had to make something for her to make up for my missing it. I had an idea and made some truffle mix and put it into a glass with almonds and walnuts on the top.  Apparently she liked it, but complained profusely at the damage chocolate did to her digestion. Friday was mostly spent typing up the geocache lists for the various trips coming up and sorting out a few domestic chores.

The oldies are gathering

The three graces

Saturday came up with the old people's dinner and entertainment, which we attended for the first time. It was considerably less painful than we both thought but still not something we would like to do too often. The dinner was quite edible, we sat near some lovely old ladies whose company was pleasant, Roy had several beers and I enjoyed the guy who sang folk songs.  The final act, however, was positively painful to listen to. A lady doctor was singing and assured us that she now has her own television program doing the same. (This tells you all you need to know about the quality of Hungarian TV shows!)  All the sounds coming out of her mouth were shrill and unpleasant and the songs stupid. We took Nelly in the car, so we talked her into leaving early, thus giving us an excuse to having to leave early too. Even with this ruse we were there for two and half hours, which is plenty for the next 2 or 3 years.

Mihály Zsuzsa, born in Bér, singing folk songs

The lady doctor - brrrrr!

Today we went to have lunch at the mill, which was delightful. We both had prawn curry, which was delicious and made up for the privations of the old people's do. Prior to going we had a few domestic chores sorted:
1. Pali came and we agreed that he would take the cefre to the still on 16th November.
2. Csaba came and climbed up on the Bunkhouse roof, replacing about 20 of our perishing and broken tiles. He also agreed to turn up tomorrow to do some more jobs that the two of us cannot any longer do around the house and garden.
3. I pruned my roses for the winter.
4. I varnished the two bird boxes Roy had made recently to repair my lost or broken caches with.

The lovely ladies who cooked and served our lunch

The lovely ladies who cooked and served our lunch (2)

Tomorrow we will have to pack and depart for yet another 3 days/2 nights outing, this time to Makó and as we will return to BP for a while afterwards, the house will have to be decommissioned and properly locked up. We will not be back here again for a while, but at least, even if we are not here, Roy's pálinka will be attended to, which is an important event in the calendar.

In town, after our return from Makó, I will have some more concerts, and will have to do some shopping too. The following weekend I'll have another hike, this time with Mariann and Gabi on the Saturday, followed by Roy and I having a quick trip down to the Balaton to spend a day with some friends there. This is the place where we were invited in January for somebody's 70th birthday and missed it due to going down with the flu, so I am really looking forward to it.

Arboretum, buckthorn and Lewis

On Wednesday we finally got home after 4 weeks away. The house still stood whole, but otherwise a fair amount of hassle awaited. The Bunkhouse alarm was doing a low hum, which we still haven't fixed.  I rang the technician who said that the loudspeaker has its own battery, so while the main battery has already been removed, that one might still be functioning. As it is placed really high up on the building and it is difficult to get to, we are currently hoping it will run out and shut up. The weather is not that good for hanging around outside for too long, so it doesn't matter.

A pink beauty still in full bloom at the end of October

I had some other hassles in the electrics/electronic field too. My desktop computer didn't want to power up, but thankfully fiddling with it a bit has fixed the problem (whatever it was). Then my phone went on the blink, which is still ongoing and after Wileyfox has just gone bust, I don't think I will bother with it ever again. That is a shame, as I loved and still love it.  It is sleek and does a lot of lovely things when it is behaving itself.  However, currently it doesn't allow me to make phone calls out, saying that the number is in the wrong format (which I know it isn't), so I'll take it to my little man who fixes phones and if he can do it, fine, if not it is going in the bin and I am buying a new one. Thankfully, incoming calls and the net still work on it, so I have to message or e-mail people, rather than call them at the moment.

Walnuts drying on the floor

The first crop in the bags

Roy sat about cutting the grass and gathering/burning the remaining walnut leaves. As it happens, there are still loads of walnuts on the ground, so we carried on picking them up, realising that the walnut crop this year is pretty good.  Mind you, when I will have time cracking and freezing them, is anybody's guess. The roses are still in bloom, even though it is now quite cold in the night. I still have the job of pruning them back in readiness for winter, but I haven't yet got round to that chore either.

As I have lots of activities planned and Roy would prefer to stay in the village, we agreed that he stays and I go on my own for a day or two at a time. This seems to work quite well and we tried it for the first time this week. On Friday morning I left at 6.30am to drive to town and pick up Gyuri from the station. In fact, the traffic was so good, that I even had time to pop home, dump stuff and get to the station well in time before he arrived.

Mariann and Gyuri in the arboretum

We were off to Budakeszi to pick up Mariann, so that the three of us could go and visit a nearby arboretum and pick up the new cache that was placed there recently. However, Mariann didn't want us to arrive too early, so I took Gyuri to a couple of town caches I already found, but he hasn't got yet and that put him in a marvellous frame of mind for the day.

We saw dozens of these all over the arboretum

The arboretum was really lovely. It is owned by the state forestry, but is leased by a young couple who have opened it up on weekends in season (between March and October), and that is why the cache could be put there. It doesn't cost much to enter and we were all thinking that they cannot make a living out of it with such limited income coming in. As usual in this country, conspiracy theories always abound when one is faced with something that is untenable, this case being no exception. Gyuri and I seem to think that the whole thing is cover for some corrupt deals, most likely aimed at nicking as much of EU funds as possible, via project money for which the arboretum is the cover.  Very likely, methinks, but way beyond my control or anybody else's without friends in high places.

My latest love: pyramid oak

Stunning autumn colours everywhere

The weather was overcast, but it didn't rain much, so we walked around the whole arboretum.  There were no significant trees or species there, but the whole atmosphere of the place was peaceful and the environment extremely pretty. I fell in love with a tree with large red leaves that resembled oak leaves, but were much larger.  Gyuri explained that it is an oak, namely a "pyramid oak" and I managed to take lots of lovely photos of it.  The autumn colours were still out, and while not as impressive as they are on the Eastern seaboard of the US and Canada, they were still pretty enough for me.

The cache turned up quite easily and while it was a very good hide, we all objected to the box being fixed to the tree. Two wooden screws went quite deep into the tree well beyond the bark, which is definitely not environmentally acceptable, but such is life. I am going to tell the guy who did that to think of some other method of fixing it in future when I see him next.

Gyuri under a not so old, but beautiful oak tree

After the arboretum we went to pick up a couple of nearby caches, Mariann with Gyuri went to one of them and I went on my own to the other one. Needless to say that I got lost on my way back, due to losing the path and ending up in the next valley. Finally, I arose out of the undergrowth about half an hour after expected, with Mariann frantic about her husband starving at home. I apologised and hope he wasn't too cross.

They went in for lunch and I took off for some more caching of my own. There were five caches on my list, locations included a pretty village with a medieval chapel, yet another abandoned military camp, a memorial to the victims of an air disaster, a pretty sylvan chapel up a steep hillside and a forest memorial for departed hikers, remembered by their club mates.  I didn't get home until after 6pm, due to it being Friday and bad weather, which caused gridlock all over town.

One of many gorgeous sylvan tunnels

On Saturday there was another geocaching-related event. There is an area of outstanding natural beauty with a "Site of Special Scientific Interest" designation on the Northern outskirts of town where the buckthorn grows well and which is under constant threat by non-indigenous plants. As this is one of very few areas where it grows well, the geocaching club, in conjunction with the Ornithological Institute, organised a scrub clearing session, followed by bird ringing to delight kids and adults alike.

Timber cottage in the woods

We worked really hard, and as the numbers were near 100, the work went really fast. I gave up after about an hour and a quarter as my back and hands were hurting, but younger people kept at it for about 3 hours and the areas we cleared looked a million dollars at the end. The cute little birds that they were putting the rings on were: coal tits, great tits, blue tits, a nuthatch and a jay. We could also log two geocaches: one for the clearance work and one at a cache which was removed last year as the permissions to enter the area were not obtained, but which was revived just for this day to attract many cachers.  The plan worked and we had a lovely day.

Four geocachers are carrying the cuttings to the roadside

Afterwards I went just North of town to a village where there were two new caches in the company of a lovely couple, their kid, their dog and Mariann to get the caches. One was by an old fishing lake which really had the atmosphere of the times when I used to spend my summers by the Danube in my childhood, the other one was down by the river just above an old spring. Both enjoyable, quite easy and the company was good too.

The goulash in preparation

Finally, they went on towards some more caches in other places, while I turned North and homewards. Roy was awaiting me with a lovey curry, which was most welcome and delicious. Sunday was spent with some paperwork and garden work. We picked up some more walnuts, Roy finished the mowing with the tractor and, of course, the clocks went back. The Grand Prix was in Mexico, so I couldn't stay up to watch it at 11pm, but woke up quite early this morning to watch the highlights.

The nuthatch before being ringed

LEWIS HAS HIS 5TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WIN!!! That definitely started my week off on a pleasant note. The high altitude, as well as other factors played havoc with most people's tyres, with the possible exception of Raikonnen this time round. Lewis finally had to stop three times, but still managed 4th place which was only 2 behind Vettel, so the championship was in the bag. Vettel was really gracious, congratulated him in a way that looked and sounded genuine. Well, if it wasn't, he is due for an Oscar.

The 2018 champion

Now I am preparing again for another couple of days in town on my own. Tomorrow I need to see the phone repairer guy and hope that he can fix this errant bit of equipment I have, then I have a dentist's appointment and in the evening a concert.  This is the first one of this season and I am looking forward to it tremendously.  Last year I have not renewed most of my concert subscription tickets, so I will be attending a lot fewer concerts than before. This makes the few I will go to special and I am looking forward to seeing Bozsa too.

On Wednesday I am off on another hike with Zsuzsi and Jutka, although the weather forecast is not particularly good, so I will see what happens. I will return to the village on Thursday morning and stay long enough to be here for All Souls' Day to light candles for my parents on their grave, and for the Old Folks' dinner in the village, which we have never attended before. Wish us luck!! :-)

PS: As I write this, Roy has just gone off to the workshop to make himself a zimmer frame.