Christmas at St. Catherine's

This was probably the best Christmas we have ever had. Admittedly I had a few decent ones before my Dad died and when the kids were little was also good, but I have never experienced such a lovely atmosphere at Christmas in a truly loving family setting. I have not so far dared go anywhere near a set of scales as the major feature of all three days we spent with Meaghan's family was eating and drinking. I have discovered Ice Wine, which is uniquely delicious. It is likened to Tokaji Aszu, but is much tastier in my view. And less sweet. Got lots of lovely presents, which in and of themselves make this a special Christmas for me. I think I last had this many presents when I was young or possibly not even then.

Apart from the lovely bottle of Ice Wine I also had a beautiful leather bag from Heather and a soft and warm hand knitted scarf from Meaghan. Of course we have already had presents in the form of the Queen musical tickets and Roy's big down filled coat, but on the day bits and pieces were really lovely. We started with the stockings out of which I had lots of little things, the one that comes to mind is the glow stick. My old one doesn't glow any more, so I treasure that one. Stephen got Roy and me an external hard drive, which will come in handy and we both had some lovely items of clothing with a Canadian flavour as they were soft, warm and very comfy. Heather's friend Daphne presented us with a thick book on the Niagara region's wines and cuisine with a map of all the wineries and lots of lovely recipes. It is always a surprise to outsiders how nice the local wines are around Niagara and now the cuisine as well.

The piece de resistence, however, was the big mysterious box which we knew was from Stephen, Meaghan and Alex, so it was going to be something electronic and expensive. It turned out to be a digital picture frame. It is absolutely amazing, as it is either table or wall mounted and it plays all your digital pictures. I am yet to work out how to turn the vertical pictures round the right way and Alex assures me that the adapter works with 220 Volts as well as it does with Canada's 110 Volts, so all we have to do now is get it home without breaking it or ending up paying a lot of duty on it.

Weather has been nice, not much snow and quite mild. It snowed again today, but it didn't settle. I was too lazy to go out all the time we were at Lyle and Heather's, being probably the only one spending the whole time indoors. The Turners will make lovely relatives if this Christmas is anything to go by. We have already started planning the wedding in May and are looking forward to seeing them again then.

First week in Toronto

Life has been hectic since we arrived. After the initial shock of a hell of a lot of snow and very cold temperatures we settled down to wearing either big coats, or later just jackets with less layers underneath, as it started warming up. The highlight of the week was Thursday when the kids took us to see We Will Rock You, the Queen musical. It was mindblowing!! An enormous theatre (over 3000 seats) full of devotees of Queen highly extatic at the music. Both the production and the actors were fantastic, I had probably the best time I ever had due to a Christmas present.

While the weather was good we took some pictures, like the display of shellfish and sushi in the big oriental supermarket, although I got told off for that, so there are no more piccies from there. Prior to that Alex and Meaghan took us to a Chinese restaurant for a dim sum breakfast (well brunch really) where I snapped the two of them.

En route to the theatre on Thursday, while waiting for the streetcar, I managed to get a really good panoramic shot of the centre of Toronto with the CN Tower across the Don Valley. Amazing how all the names (except the native ones) are from Britain. Those of you from Sheffield will be familiar with the River Don, but you can find any British place name in Toronto if you look long enough.Today it started raining, so we are off to the cinema to see the Golden Compass, after a very Canadian breakfast of French toast, maple syrup and blackberries. Yum, yum!!

Speak to you all soon and have a lovely Christmas in the meantime!!

Old Blighty, Toronto and the snowstorm

First post from Canada. We are here, finally!! First we spent three days in England. Stephen came and fetched us off the plane, although he didn't know that you cannot pick up at the top level in Gatwick South Terminal any more. Finally we met up and we drove down to his flat. He had to tear off to work and we walked round until we found a fish and chip shop. It was very nice indeed. First item crossed off the : "What to do, eat and/or buy in England!" list.

Friday was spent visiting, shopping and having my usual pint and snack in the Basketmakers (another item crossed off!!) and other pleasurable pursuits. On Saturday Stephen went off to do his radio show (see picture) and we met him in the last few minutes to go off to lunch together. He gave us a lift up to the B&B at Horley where we spent the last night prior to catching the plane to Toronto. Worryingly, though, before we left we did get an e-mail from Alex saying that there is an almighty great storm heading for Toronto and we might not be able to land. Oh dear!

The B&B was great, the owner took us to Gatwick and the plane left after a mere 1 hour delay. On board there was the usual howling little brat, so sleeping was out of the question. I read my F1 Racing, ate two good meals and watched the film on and off. Storm got mentioned when we landed in Belfast to pick up some more passengers, but not in any stressful manner. En route I watched the Southern tip of Greenland, breathtaking!! Later we flew over endless, bleak ice fields with lots of lakes and inlets. Somebody said it was Northern Quebec. Finally we neared Toronto which didn't look too bad and although the landing was rather bumpy we were down. There was not too much snow on the ground, or at least I thought not. Once inside the terminal it turned out that it was the biggest snowfall for 60 years and the town was almost at a standstill. You would think Canadians should be able to handle a bit of the white stuff, wouldn't you? Anyway, Meaghan could not dig her car out of its parking place, so they came to the airport by public transport and we were lucky to get a taxi later when it was not snowing any more. It is a long time since I have sat in a taxi driven at no more than 30-35 miles an hour. Still we got home and hit our bed at 10pm, which our bodies unfortunately still thought was at 3am the following day.

Then today we went walkies in bright sunshine to ward off the jet lag, but only after Roy cleared the path.(see picture) Then we had a look at the lovely neighbourhood Alex and Meaghan live in. (see picture). After a delicious lunch at a local Greek patisserie we came across a lovely nativity scene (see picture) where I could barely control myself not to break out singing: "Away in a snowdrift no crib for a bed ...."

Next post later on the week or early next week.

Trail-O, the Bukk and packing

The Trail-O Clinic that I have organised for last Saturday went off very well. (See picture) Finally more than 20 people came, although there was a bit of tension between the novice wheelchair using crowd and the long standing orienteers, especially due to one that dominated proceedings with stuff that was way above the heads of the disabled athletes. Still, we had a good time out in the park practicing the skills we have discussed and a very lively debate over the correctness or otherwise of the planner's intentions and/or control placing and map drawing skills.

Yesterday I went to Miskolc and inspected the proposed competition terrain in the Bukk Mountains for the 2009 Trail-O World Championships. The weather was foul, occasionally we couldn't see a thing, but it lifted long enough to get an idea of the extent of the map we need. I am positive that we will organise an excellent WTOC in 2009 and that we will be proud of our achievements on the planning and organising side. Whether we will have an even half decent Trail-O team by then, is another matter.

Now we are in BP, doing some packing and trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot, as usual. The new EU regulations about liquids on board are an absolute pain as everything breakable, and therefore capable of ruining one's clothing when it breaks, has to be put in the hold luggage. I don't even like to think about it. Roy has just gone out to do some shopping, good luck to him, I try to avoid the shops any time in December, if possible.

Next post will be from Canada, assuming Alex lets me near his computer.

The Kottage, Roy's pride and joy

I couldn't wait to take some pictures of the Kottage to post them, so everybody can see the progress made. Last week we had perfect weather, so I left the camera in BP. This week I had the camera, but the weather produced a veritable true British pea souper, so visibility was down to a few metres. However, this morning the sun came out, so I dashed out to take a few piccies of it. Roy was cross that I didn't let him tidy up, but I might post a few more before we leave Ber on Friday, so that you can all see the great strides he had made.

Last weekend was quite interesting. It was the in-house club championship of Postas on the same terrain as the National Championships in October. We were based in he middle of the forest this time, so I got to see bits of it I didn't last time. Attendance at these events gets less and less every year, I think the British idea of attaching club champs to an existing event and calculating it from that is much more practical. I won the short course, which was the appropriate one for my age, beating even my good friend Zsuzsika, who is at least 15 years younger than me. We ran in about an inch or two of snow in places, so the atmosphere was positiviely wintery, but the low turnout is reflecting the crisis Postas is in and I fear for the future.

We have managed to part pack before we came back to Ber on Sunday and we will be leaving the car behind on Friday and travelling by bus. Roy wants to lock the car up in the garage, thinking it will be safer in the village than in BP, which is probably true. On Friday there will be a potentially hassled meeting about the future of Postas, which I am not looking forward to, but need to get through, I suppose.

Saturday is the Trail-O Clinic, report of that in next post. Must go and have breakfast now, as I have been on this machine for too long.

The Aggtelek Karst terrain

I tried to post this map earlier, but it wouldn't go. On this second try, however, it went. This is the route of one of the Hungarian young guns for my O Today article. He is still a junior for a few more weeks and as he won both days and overall in the Bukk, methinks he has promise.

Sorry for the print quality, but it was scanned on my machine, which never produces anything worth publishing. Still, those of you who might be coming over for the 2009 World Champs at least can get an idea of the terrain you can expect.

Winter's arrived! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Last winter was so mild that I have forgotten how cold it can be in rural Hungary. It was minus 6 last night, but at least the snow of Western Hungary has not got this far (yet)! It is bright glorious sunshine everywhere in Ber and I have been working in the garden this morning.
I am also trying to finish indoor work, like translating, writing articles, preparing for various orienteering/Trail-O commitments and, of course, keep up with my e-mails. The pottery stove is working at full blast, which is lovely, as well as saves on gas, which is now costing the same in Hungary as in England and will soon be more. Due to Hungary's gas almost completely coming from Russia, they can charge us what they like. Mind you, the fact that the government has taken all subsidies off gas did not help either.
I am in the middle of writing an article for Orienteering Today about an event in the Bukk in October, which is fun. I am transferring the routes of the two Elite winners onto OCAD, which is fiddly, but very interesting. I hope that as it has been taken over by Norwegians OToday will carry on publishing. I don't get paid for it, but I enjoy writing anyway and at least I get the magazine free.
Must go now. I hope to post once more before we leave for Canada and if any of you are reading this out there, do please leave me a message!! It can be just a few words, so that I know somebody is reading this. I have no other feedback.