The kinky pepper

This was probably the least smutty angle. Isn't nature wonderful?

Autumn Spartacus Cup

On Saturday we had the most amazing day for November. The temperature was well over 20 degrees Celsius and in the sun it was over 25. I ran in a flimsy T-shirt and O suit bottoms and was hot all the way round. Afterwards we sat in the sun, chatted, ate our sandwiches and our friends drank beer. I shouldn't have alcohol and Roy couldn't because of driving. He also had a nice snooze and looked quite happy.

If you peruse the Day 1 course you can see that it was appalling. The planners were two young men who obviously had no idea about how to plan for veterans. I felt that this course would have been an insult for an intelligent 12 year old. Still, I was out in the fresh air, in the sunshine and had some exercise. Considering the year I had so far, this should in and of itself be an achievement. As for results: I came 4th, behind three Swedish ladies who were quite a lot faster than me. Considering that out of 8 people in my class 6 were Swedish that result is not that bad.

By Sunday the weather turned; it was overcast and considerably colder. Thankfully the part of the forest Sunday's course took me to was a lot more technical and even our youthful, gung-ho planners couldn't completely wreck my course. I really enjoyed the fact that the grey matter had to be engaged and that slowed the Swedish ladies sufficiently for me to come 2nd on the day by only about a minute and a half. Overall I remained 4th which gave us a chance to scarper pretty sharpish.

We got back to Ber by 3pm, unpacked, had lunch and watched the Brazilian Grand Prix. Unfortunately there is going to be no British World Champion this year, but of the remaining contenders I hope Webber manages it next week. Vettel is good too, but he is so young, he has plenty of time to get there yet, while Webber is getting a bit long in the tooth. The only person I do NOT want to win is Alonso, but it looks that he might still do it too. Boooooo!

We're off back to BP on Thursday for theatre and a concert on Friday. The last Grand Prix (Abu Dhabi) is on Sunday, followed by an Opera visit next Tuesday. After that it is the Juniper weekend with an international group, so we should be busy for a while yet.

Old Jewish Cemetery (again)

As the weather was gorgeous, sunny and mild today - Andor, Roy and I went to the old Jewish cemetery again to take some pictures. It looked really different from last winter as most of it was really jungle like. I took some piccies of some of the really high memorials and in one place photographed several gravestones which toppled on to each other. The place is really atmospheric, although it might look a bit better if they cut back some of the jungle.

En route home we managed to get on a totally empty tram, so I took a picture of it 100% devoid of passangers. Spooky!!

All Souls Day

Well, it is still only All Hallows Day (1st Nov), but most people prepare for visiting the graves of their dear departed the following day. Thankfully, since we brought my parents' ashes home in the summer we don't have to go too far. I managed to get some nice looking (they are Dutch!!) chrisanthemums and some night-light holders - some in red - to decorate the memorial. Tonight we will light the candles and think of them together. My Dad has been gone for over 50 years, my Mum for 30.

We're off to town tomorrow: Spamalot in the evening and a few days in the city for a change. Last week I was quite ill with the current coughing lurgy, but am beginning to get a bit better. Unfortunately now Roy is going down with it, but in close proximity of his favourite restaurants I am sure he will get over it quicker than I did.

A weekend in Verõce and in the Börzsöny

28 of us went on a lovely hike in the Börzsöny last Saturday. It is a long time since I have been in the Börzsöny and forgot how steep it was. We only did about 12.5km, but the climb, which was in the region of 500-600 metres, was the killer. We had some sunshine, but not as much as the previous few days had. We also managed to celebrate the 60th birthday of one of the hikers with cake and champagne in the middle of the forest. Once back at base Andor's gulyas soup was a success again, not to mention the myriad of cakes and beer and wine which we polished off after dinner.

There is a budding artist in the family

From these masterpieces you might have guessed the budding artist is Callum. I am amazed at the bravery of the staff at his nursery (aka daycare) getting the paints out. They must have a reasonable child adult ratio, or all the walls would be blue, yellow and red by now. Or perhaps they are but the paints are washable. Who knows?

Hungarian Orienteering Championship weekend and other news

Amazingly I ended up with a bronze medal yet again, this time in the long distance in a technical and physically really hard forest. My course was only 2.8km with 70m climb, but it was plenty enough. En route to control 2 I was huffing and puffing like an asthmatic goat up that steep mountainside. Still, I didn't mind, as this type of terrain slows the fast runners down and works in my favour. I knew that I was in no condition to get anywhere near Agika and Aletta, but I was hoping that I would still be the best of the rest and my target was achieved!! Perusing the map will reveal that I had a bit of a brain fade before control 7, but corrected soon enough. About 2 and half minutes went on that, but it would not have made any difference to my 3rd place. I think the course was good: I was lucky not to have too many of the roller coaster ride type controls many others complained of. I must admit there is not much joy in having to climb down into the depth of a steep valley only to have to climb straight back up the other side, often to a control that was visible from the last one.

As this event was about 3 hours' driving away we went down on the Saturday and stayed in the hostel with the others. The usual situation of no tables booked and all restaurants being full ensued, but Roy and I were crafty. We opted out of the forced frogmarch into downtown Veszprem and returned to the first restaurant near the accommodation which turned us away when there were 9 of us. We were lucky, two people could be accommodated and we had one of the loveliest Italian meals in ages. I had spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chillies, Roy had a King Prawn risotto and we shared a large mixed salad. It was gorgeous.

Now we are back in the village where we are likely to stay for quite a while as we have two consecutive weekends near here. First we are off to some friends of friends who have been our guests a few times now for hiking weekends and this time decided to return the compliment; followed by an orienteering event in the Southern foothills of the Bukk East of here the weekend after.

Next week I have an Opera ticket for the Tuesday and a theatre visit on the Wednesday, so I will be popping into BP on my own, while Roy is staying behind minding the 'estate'.

Oh, and amongst several lovely things that happened last week was one theatre visit to see the Graduate which was very good and another one to a marvellous organ concert where we were treated to transcriptions of orchestral pieces (several movements from several Beethoven Symphonies amongst others) played on a 5 manual glorious organ expertly by the guy who did the transcriptions.

Finally, one last item of interesting news: I found, while browsing in a bookshop a few weeks ago, a funny sounding book published in Hungary but in English called 'A Country Full of Aliens' by Colin Swatridge. It turned out to be a hilarious if occasionally forthright account of the manifold frustrations you suffer when trying to travel by public transport or have anything to do with officialdom in Hungary. The writer is an extremely perceptive guy, who while very fond of the country, was not always pulling his punches in exposing its peculiarities. I was so delighted with my read that I was desperate to write to him to thank him for hours of pleasure he gave me with his book. Unfortunately, to find an e-mail address for him required a certain measure of detective work. Most web sites selling his books do not give any contact detail, not even of his publisher, never mind for him. Finally we found an e-mail address quoted on a University website which was incorrect as the mail came back. It was then that I applied a bit of guesswork to why it came back: I thought it could be the same address, just not with the .com, but with the .co.uk ending. I was right and today I had a lovely reply from him. Unfortunately he is close to going home, so we will have to wait to see him until his visit next March.

Must go now as my stomach thinks my throat has been cut. I am hungry!!!!