The hundred and fiftyninth week of the pandemic

The last seven days were pretty hectic, but absolutely brilliant. The last two days in BP were spent with slow packing and buying last minute stuff. The two new suitcases filled very nicely, and even totally full were only about 13 to 15 kg in weight. On Saturday we got going in good time, caught the airport bus 100E with ease and arrived in the airport quite early. We twiddled our thumbs for a while, and finally joined the queue. Easyjet had a queue for two of its flights, Geneva and Gatwick all in one. It still moved quite fast and we were off through security.

Both of us had some interesting experiences through security. My cabin luggage got separated and searched. Apparently, somebody watching the monitor thought that my thermometer was a gun. Well, it has a gun like appearence, but the lady was quick, sweet and we were both through quite quickly. The stress started when we realised that the queues at emigration were very long and slow. Most of it was caused by lots of stupid people who have joined the wrong queue. I suppose I shouldn't complain as we got quite quickly to the front of the queue, just by the twits being fished out and told they were in the wrong place.

Once we were at the gate, it turned out the inbound flight has not yet arrived, so there was no point in getting worked up about missing the flight. Roy and I enjoyed the closeness of the cabin staff and the flight went past jolly quickly. Another bunch of stress was awaiting us at Gatwick. First of all we had to walk miles to get to the passport check again, and the queues were equally and frustratingly slow and long. Once we got to the railway station in South Terminal, the horror of "engineering works on the line" came to us. Replacement buses were waiting for us at Three Bridges, which wasn't fun. Vicious, very cold winter winds made us freeze while waiting for a stopping bus to Brighton. 3 or 4 direct ones went past, until we had one 

After all this, the bus trip itself was lovely. Sussex is very pretty, especially in daffodil season. We went past several school buildings where did teach in the past. Finally, we got out of the bus at Hassocks Station, and lugged our luggage uphill to Stephen's house. We found the keys between the dustbins and got in. Later the children and the rest of the family had turned up and we fell into bed exhausted.

Sunday beckoned with quite bright sunshine, although it was windy. Still, from inside the house it was very difficult the gauge how windy and consequently how cold the weather was. I nearly froze to death on the touchline while Xander and his team were not having much success against another team from Hollingbury. After two miserable quarters, the team woke up and with a wizard of a turnaround, finished winning the match 5:3. 

Next was the lovely visit  to Malmaison for afternoon tea, which was a belated Christmas present from Hannah to all of us. It was a beautiful place, with gorgeous views out to the Marina with all its sailing and power board in their moorings and beyond it to sea. The tea had savoury and sweet items, my favourite was the Asian wrap and the cream tea. After that some of us went home, others to see a climbing competition at the other end of the city. I fell over like a felled tree and had a jolly good night's sleep.

Monday dawned quite nice and sunny after the miserable cold and rainy weather on Sun day and we caught the 273 bus just after 10 o'clock. We tried to buy some of our favourite soap - Imperial Leather - without luck. The lunch, drink and chat with Linda and Phil at the Basketmakers was absolutely brilliant. They are the type of people with whom you can fall back into close friendship very easily, even after long years or even decades. We ate, we drank and especially chatted. It was a great pleasure to spend a couple of hours with Linda and Phil.

After lunch we hopped on the 49 bus and travelled out to Boundary Road, trying the Boots there for the soap. We were very lucky to have found the last three packs of Imperial Leather (original) and happily took it home. When we got back to Stephen's we found that all that travelling and drinking made us rather tired. However, when Tuesday came along, we realised what real tiredness means.

Tuesday was the day we went back to the Basketmakers, but this time with 7 other people. This lovely get-together was the result of Roy posting on Facebook a small news item. He let it be known and on that day around midday we will be in the Basketmakers, and if any old friends wanted to see us, we'd love to see them. Amazingly, 7 people turned up, some from Roy's past, there were old school friends, some from other friendship situations and even our old solicitor turned up with his wife.

The noise was deafening, the old school friends were that delighted with all their old school stories, including some fairly risque escapades by the boys. Wyn, Roy's first girl friend was there with her daughter, who was also an absolute hoot. I have not been this happy and laughed this much for a very long time, if ever. Roy was also very, very happy, so much so that I started worrying about him getting hiccups. All in all, it was a lovely gathering, which is ought to be repeated. We invited all of them to Ber any time they fancy coming, and in return we had an invite from John, to come and stay with him in Eastbourne. Although we are not planning to come back to England for some time, we might consider to take him up on his invitation.

And then we got to today, which was mostly spent packing and cooking. Stephen, on the other hand, went to the Hungarian Consulate, where finally he managed to submit his application for verification of his and his sons' Hungarian citizenship. The staff were quite helpful, although they forgot two more forms, but they could fill them in then and there. He was a bit shocked by being told that it will take a year, but I am hopeful, that that was a bit of an exaggeration, as even Roy's was only 9 months. We'lll see, said the blind man!

Roy and I cooked a chicken paprikash today, which we ate for lunch and Hannah ate for dinner in the evening. She seemed to enjoy it, we definitely did. The children were taken by their mother today, so this evening you can actually hear yourself think in the lounge. We have nearly finished the packing and set the alarm on the phone for 4 am. Let us hope that the taxi does turn up at 5 am and we will make it in time to Heathrow tomorrow morning.

Next post is uncertain. It depends on where, if at all, I can get online on the ship, or possibly in Athens or any other places where we will dock. 

The hundred and fiftyeighth week of the pandemic

The end of last week was mostly concerned with packing. Obviously, not the final packing, just putting into two old suitcases what we definitely had to take in to BP, and then pack the new suitcases there. Talking of new suitcases, we discovered a problem. These being cheap Chinese copies of the expensive makes, the locks are not to be trusted and the translation of how to use them is unintelligible. I suppose "cheap" is a relative term, but personally, I thought that £120 for 2 was enough money to be spent. The proper, expensive good brands started at £150 each, so we were not enthusiastic to go posh, not this time.

Smart, aren't they?

It took us several days to work out the "how to set the numbered locks" problem on the new suitcases and finally we came to the conclusion, that we are probably right in how to try to do it, but even if we were, we would not bother with setting them, just in case the flimsy stupid things go wrong and we can't get into the suitcases. So, we left the number on 000 and bought a little, (also Chinese and cheap), padlock, which hopefully works. Again, the suitcase shop wanted to sell us a padlock for £10, which was definitely out of the question. A small Chinese shop had some for £1.50 each.

Glorious deep purple

Before we left Bér for BP on Sunday, I had a few other chores aside from the packing, first of which was to go over the Nelly's and give her the orchid I had for my nameday back in February. To be honest, it was probably the best thing I did for the poor plant, as I am well known as a dependable murderer of orchids. There has not been one ever that survived under my tender care in the past. This time, we will be away from Bér for 5 weeks, and the poor thing needs watering weekly.

Marietta aged 17-18

While there, Nelly said something absolutely flabberghasting. She wanted a photo of Marietta, her cousin, in her middle years. She said she could remember her from their youth together and didn't want a particularly old one, as she was very ill by then. The reason why this really shocked me was, that at any time in the past when I mentioned our family she refused to even discuss it, never mind wanting photos of it. I suppose old age has finally caught up with her, (about time at the age of 91), and she got nostalgic, like most of us about the past. I dutifully wrote an e-mail to Andrew, Marietta's son, asking for one, if possible.

Stephen, handsome as ever

I also had another go at proofreading Stephen's citizenship application forms, (all 11 of them) and found one mistake, which apparently was spotted by the consular lady the last time, just Stephen's description of the problem was a bit puzzling. Why on earth would he write "étlap" instead of "elvált" only he knows. Perhaps he misheard it. Hopefully, these are now all in one folder and would satisfy the consulate, so when he goes up to London on the 29th of this month the process might start. Roy's lasted 9 months, hopefully Stephen's would be shorter, as he is not applying to become Hungarian, only for a piece of paper that says that he already is by right of birth. If there was an Olympic event in bureaucracy, no doubt Hungary would gain another gold medal extremely easy.

My new haircut

After we caught and travelled by bus all the way to BP on Sunday, we have been very busy endeed. On Monday I had a 9 o'clock appointment with Timi, my hairdresser, and she managed to sheer me after 6 months. Then we went to have a set of keys cut for Stephen, which turned out better keys than the ones they copied. Obviously, these things are done by computers nowadays, and therefore they are very accurate.

My favourite pharmacy

Then we went to the pharmacy, where I had to pick up enough meds for the cruise and a bit beyond, which wasn't simple, on account of Eszter, our nurse, while very sweet and helpful, is extremely scatty, and you never know which meds will be up in the cloud and which will be missing. Nowadays, the system of writing prescriptions is so simple, it is really saving time and effort. You don't have to go and see the doctor or the nurse, you just ring up and the nurse will look on the computer for the list of your meds and upload them into the cloud. That enables you to go and get them at any pharmacy in the country, as long as you have your NHS card with you. The only risk in my case is that due to Eszter's scattiness, you will have to ring her again for the missing ones and go back to the pharmacy the following day.

My lovely best friend, Bozsa

The delightful part of Monday was meeting Bozsa and having a coffee with her at one of the cafes opposite the Synagogue by the terminus of the 74 trolleybus. It turns out Roy left his hat at their place when we visited them a few weeks ago and as she had to come into town to sort something out at a bank, she also arranged this meet. She is such a lovely person, you know, the type that even if you haven't seen each other for years, would just pick up from where you left off years before. I love her dearly, and we are planning to go out to stay with them again after our return.

I haven't flown with EZY for a while

 

I also had a slight surprise the other day, which finally made me realise that I am getting so scatty, it is frightening. Mind you, at least I have the excuse of being in my middle 70's, unlike Eszter, but that's another story. So, I received an e-mail reminding me that I am flying EasyJet on Saturday, and must check in before that. I didn't realise, but apparently the option of checking in at the airport is no longer available, which I am sure is an empty threat, as there is no way that you can be refused boarding just for that. Anyway, I always check in online, but for one reason or another, (probably due to the interminable hassles with the cruise admin), I completely forgotten this bit of flying. I could have checked in nearly a month ago, as EasyJet is one of those airlines that provides you with a full month of checking in before your flight. So, I did, and surprisingly got seats in the first row. I suppose they give those out last, while hoping for someone to pay for them, which obviously didn't happen. Needless to say, this process was also a 100 times more complicated, contradictory and full of hassle, compared with the past, but as my dear Alex said, the UK is fracturing into little pieces. Very true, and while Hungary is not an absolute delight either, at least over here it has always been like that. Unlike in the UK, which used to be a predictable, well organised country, so the decline is that much more upsetting.

EVO Taxi, hopefully reliable

Another very stressful issue this week was organising how we are going to get to Heathrow on 30th? Railway is out as they are on strike that day, buses are awfully confusing, but finally I found out that two tickets would be £78 and they do not stop at Terminal 4. So, we decided to take a taxi, which will be around £100, but at least no dragging of luggage between stations and walkways etc, which in our current physical state is one of the main considerations anyway. Stephen recommended one taxi firm from Crawley, so I rang today and it is booked for Thursday 30th, 5 am, cost: £95.

Must go now as Roy is missing his coffe and biscuits and so am I.

The hundred and fifityseventh week of the pandemic

Apologies for lateness, but this last week (and a bit) was pretty crap. I have some sort of a cold again and sleeping patterns are disjointed at best and barely regular. Joints and digestion are up the creek too, so I have not been too much of a happy bunny for the last 8-9 days.

The online page of the hike I missed

The result of above was that eventually I couldn't go to the caching hike which I organised for myself so well. I found two fellow cachers who would have taken me, but it wasn't to be. I went into BP by car, parked it up in the usual place and caught the trolleybus to the flat. And then, in the evening I had a funny turn. Severe tummy ache, dizzyness, high blood pressure and a very interrupted night. I rang Attila at 5am and told him that even if I felt better than I do, I would not risk a hike after a disturbed night of only a few hours.

The forest school

 

I stayed in BP until Monday, to have a rest and then came home. A few days of rest helped me feel stronger, but it is transitory and I have severe joint pains on and off. So, I was watching TV on my laptop, reading my book and spent a few hours a day on the internet. Most of this was done from bed, so I started feeling better after a while.

The pavilion for activities at the forest school

 

I made an arrangement with the caretaker of a forest school by a lovely Arboretum up in the hills and where one of my own geocaches has been missing for months. Going to see her gave me a good opportunity to drive up there, instead of hiking and climbing a lot. Roy came with me, which was great as he is a great help with the logistics and practical jobs.

The last two bird boxes

 

The first one was where we could get up by car. We left early and didn't even look for the old box, there was no point. Once a good few months ago, Roy felt enthusiastic about making me bird box hides for my geocaches and still had two left. We put the first one out on a pine tree, about 100 yards from the entrance to the Arboretum and got back into car to move on.

En route to the forest on a cycle lane

 

The second place included a 3km hike, so Roy stayed in the car and I went with the second bird box up into the hills and forests. I have to admit that I am very slow now, so climbing about 160 metres over 1km took me over an hour. Still, I made it, and the sun shone beautifully, so it was a good experience. I put the box out and started downhill, back to the car. Unfortunately, I was inattentive and somewhere along left the path without noticing. The terrain was a bit rough, but finally I turned up, which cheered up a worrying Roy.

Late winter forest in bright sunshine

After this we went to have a late lunch in the Been Soup Inn, which is a real remnant of the old days. Roy had a Wiener Schnitzel and I had chicken breasts in breadcrumbs. The cabbage salad was heavenly and considering that we haven't been back to this restaurant since long before the pandemic, we were both very happy. The staff was rather young, so  Roy thought it might be under new management, but I think these guys were the next generation of the owners, and they were great.

Bean Soup Inn - the interor

 

I finished The Road to Little Dribbling and started on Down Under. I am having a really good time with Bryson, so I wrote a letter to him telling him that he made me giggle so much that Roy thought I went barmy. It is good for both body and soul to laugh, and that was the gist of my letter, telling him that he made me feel better after a miserable week.

Roy with his Wiener Schnitzel

 

I caught up with my US procedurals and currently trying to catch up with several hundred e-mails. There were a few phone calls and bit of admin with the coming cruise. We both are very disappointed with Bolsover Cruise Club, our travel agency, so should we ever go on another cruise, (currently considered unlikely), we will book it direct with the cruise company and not bother with any travel agent. To be quite honest, had I suspected that the bureacracy has grown since we last cruised, I might not have booked it. Thankfully, the people on the other end of the phone were still mostly helpful and kind, so I think we sorted most concerns, although Roy is still panicking about missing the flight and therefore the boat, but hopefully, it should be OK.

I posted on FB that Roy and I would be in the Basketmaker pub on Tuesday 28th March and any old friends who wanted to see us were welcome to join us. Amazingly, we already have 4 takers, Roy's first girlfriend from about 65 years ago, another schoolfriend who was a very good mate when they were teenagers and another one from another school, who is also his contemporary and the widow of one of his old mates whom neither of us had ever met and we only know from FB. That should be a good gathering, I think.

The Basketmakers in Brighton

Now I have to get back to my many chores. Roy is pottering outside, which is good and bad at the same time. Good, because the sun is shining and no matter what he's doing, the fresh air and exercise is good for him. On the other side, he often does things that are dangerous, as he is reluctant to stop doing stuff he did all his life. Growing old is a serious pain, not only in your lungs, heart, muscles and joints, but in your head too. Now, on that happy note I love you and leave you. Hopefully, I will manage to squeeze in another post before we depart.

The hundred and fiftysixth week of the pandemic

Good day to you all out there. I need to touch on the topic of my titles I usually give my posts. Some of you might think I should abandon counting the weeks of the pandemic, but I have to state what my criteria are for doing that. Roughly speaking, I need a few months without a single news item telling me anything about Covid 19 and where the latest infections are. I did read an article a few days ago that the latest analysis of sewage, which is a regular procedure the Water and Sewage companies undertake, had shown that the indicator of Covid 19 in Budapest's sewers was predicting an increase in infections in about 2 weeks. Now, you may think, and you would be right, that the virus as such will never totally disappear, but while it produces material that can suggest a rise in infections, I would argue that the pandemic is still with us. That's all.

The actual Renault dealer in Budakalász

The day after I last posted we left for Csobánka, to spend a couple of days with our good friends, Bozsa and Árpi. The sun shone and we both felt really happy, when suddenly the engine started to cut out, cough a bit and then rolled to a close. Thanks to Roy's quick thinking, he just managed to turn off the road, into a small bit where we could park, by the time it really stopped. He got out, let the pressure out of the radiator, fiddled with this and that and just was on his way to try to turn the key in the ignition, when I stopped him. I remembered that we had an occasion like this before and the advice was to rest it for a quarter of an hour and try then. Which is what we did and we arrived at Bozsa's perfectly OK. We even filled up with a bit of petrol in Pomáz, and the car went perfectly well.

The new shape Duster in red

Once we mentioned to them the trouble, Árpi insisted of taking us to the nearest Dacia garage in Budakalász, where the guys were very glad to take the job on and promised to ring as soon as they knew something. We went back to Csobánka in Árpi's car and hoped that by the following day it would be done. The last time our own garage said that it was a computer glitch, which is really annoying, as fixing it doesn't take too long, but it is always expensive.

The windy dust road en route to the Holy Well

 

Soon after our arrival, our hosts suggested a short walk, mostly round parts of Csobánka which we haven't yet been in. I was very glad when Roy suggested that he was coming too, so about 11am we got going. Bozsa assured us that lunch is already prepared, so as soon as we get back we wiould be able to eat. The views were very nice towards the East, but after a while we actually could see the hills to the West as well. About 2/3rd of the way round Roy started flagging, so we turned back and were truly hungry and a bit tired on arrival

Oh look! - points Árpi

Bozsa cooked a Polish dish, which was pork fillet, beaten, spiced and then coated in flour, and finally braised on onions and garlic for about an hour and a half. I have never had such tasty and tender pork melt in my mouth as this was. Afters was one of our presents, mainly my Somlói Galuska that I prepared the day before, with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Roy had duly gone to sleep after lunch, so did Árpi, and Bozsa and I managed to get a very good girly natter in, which I missed terribly and enjoyed tremendously that afternoon.

The big hills on the horizon

 

The following day we went on another hike in the morning, but this time Roy stayed behind. I have been on that side of the village before, but it was still very nice to walk up to the Holy Well, high up in the forest above the village. I found the cache up there 7 years ago and since then it became virtual with no box. I took lots of photos, but did not bother to look up the virtual hide. On our return we had a lovely Polish dish again, this time with chicken, had the same dessert as the day before and were rung up in time to go and pick up the car. £110 later, we drove back to Bozsa's. It was the same problem as before, hopefully the internal computer will now behave itself until we have time and money to look around and change Dusty for something else. Or perhaps another Duster, who knows?

A Virgin Mary shrine en route to the Holy Well

In the middle of the hike in the morning, I had a phone call from Feri, my friend from Csepel Island with bad news. His mum had a fall, broken her shoulder badly and had to go to hospital. She is home now, but can't really look after herself, so Feri and his sister are taking turns to shop, cook and do all those things she can't do. I feel for him, but such is life and his mum should feel very happy to have such lovely children.

Roy perusing the sights

In the evening, our other friends from Csobánka, Márti and Laci, came over for a drink and a chat. It was really nice to see all six of us together. Normalcy is coming back, after years of isolation of various degrees on and off. On Saturday we took off quite early, as we had two lots of shopping to do and wanted to be home for lunch. The Prima in Kartal was awful, so we won't be going there again. Cheap and not at all cheerful food of the most obnoxious nature and none, or very few, of what we normally eat. The only plus we can consider as its saving grace, was my kind of cornflakes, which are not easy to get.

Bozsa approaching the well

Unfortunately, this meant that we had to turn back to Aszód and do the rest of the shopping in Lidl. Thankfully, due to a not particularly large shop, we didn't get lynched, like last time, when the whole shop, customers and staff alike, took exception to our slow packing. We swore we would never go back there ever again, but we had to this time. As I was sure that we had only a few things to get,  we toughed it out.

Combined name day and wedding anniversary bouquet

 

Saturday was also our 53rd wedding anniversary, so Roy bought me a large bunch of deep red roses, which upon our arrival home, I mixed up with the pink roses I got for my name day a fortnight earlier. They were still going strong while we were away in BP and Csobánka. When I posted a photo of them on FB, we got dozens of Like's and congratulations.

Shaun Evans, aka Endeavour

The days since Saturday have been very busy, I was mostly catching up my US procedurals that I got rather behind with, also watching Endeavour, which is absolute sheer enjoyment, I have to admit. Great shame it is coming to an end, but we always knew it won't go on forever. I also had a lot of admin stuff to catch up with, sorting nearly 200 e-mails which arrived while we were away, responding to some of them and writing to others. I had about a dozen different phone calls to make, some official, some personal, so I wasn't bored at all.

The new top banister

Roy, on the other hand, started putting his hand to DIY again. The banisters, that he made, needed some adjustment and now sport a beautiful handrail at the top on the left. The left side has not yet been painted, so once we are back from the cruise that will be a chore we will have to do. You may recall that way back last summer we had the two fridges swapped between the Farmhouse and the Bunkhouse. There was a job associated with that as well, namely that the door on the one now in the Bunkhouse had to be changed to open towards the kitchen, not away from it. Roy is such a clever chap, that he fixed it in no time at all.

13.5 km, 400 m climb hike

And finally, I have taken a decision about this coming weekend, which I might or might not regret. A fellow cacher has announced, with very little notice, that he is organizing a geocaching hike in the Mecsek hills in the South of the country this coming weekend. The route seems quite delightful, in gorgeous broad leaved forests and there are 8 caches that I can find while having a nice hike with good friends. Those hills are at least 4.5 hours away by car and would be a lot more by train, so I was dithering a bit, but even Roy agreed that I shouldn't miss it.

The mediaeval church in Mánfa, start and finish of the hike

So I am going and I will not even have to drive, which is good news. I rang Pete, a fellow cacher, who put a notice on the hike's web page that he needed a lift. He said that on Saturday he met Attila, another cacher, who wanted to go too and if I wanted to join them, that would be fine. So, Attila is driving, we are sharing the petrol costs and are sleeping in a forest hostel on Sunday night. As Attila couldn't do Saturday, they both took a day off work and after the hike on Sunday, we'll do a bit more caching on the Monday, before returning home.

Peter, one of my friends on the hike

My health, as you may know, is jolly unpredictable, and has been for a while. One minute I am absolutely fine and full of the joys of spring, and the next I can't breathe in high humidity, or have severe pack pain. So, it is risky, but I decided to risk it. Those guys are really lovely and will look after me pretty well. Roy decided not to come, which is wise, as he should not be driving too much and has plenty to do at home. The current plan is that I drive to BP on Saturday, leave the car at our usual parking place in the XVth district, sleep that night in the flat, so that I can be picked up sometime around 5 am by the guys on Sunday, so that we can make the 9 am start of the hike. Attila insisted that he can get us there by then, provided we leave on time.

Attila, my other caching friend with some boy statues

On Monday evening, on his way home to Gödöllő, he can drop me at or very near the car, which is parked very close to the M3. Think of me on Sunday, 12th March, hiking, caching and hopefully having a good time. Next post hopefully on Wednesday, all things being equal.