Back in town

Richard Goode

On Saturday we pootled in to town in the afternoon, well in time for me to go to my concert at the Music Academy.  Richard Goode was brilliant and his approach to Bach amazed me, as I have never heard any pianist play Bach this softly and almost like you would play a romantic piece. The jury is still out whether I liked it or not played like this, but overall the concert was very good.

On Sunday I was thinking of going to the Hash, but decided that I don't feel good enough yet to risk it. So, most of it was spent at home watching the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, at which Lewis won, but Rosberg managed to secure his World Championship win by coming second. I know Lewis had more bad luck and mechanical failures this year than Rosberg, but ultimately he lost his title on that serious drop in form that he exhibited after the summer break and basically deserved losing this year.  Never mind! He'll bounce back, although getting well into his thirties now he is no longer the young titan we all love. Moreover, there is more competition he has to overcome, like young Max Verstappen, than before.  We'll see how it goes next year!

Scene from Lucia Lammermoor

In the evening I went to see Lucia Lammermoor in the Erkel Theatre all on my own.  This is the third time that something clashed with my subscription ticket to the Erkel Theatre, so I had to go and see it later. The production was great, the singers very good and all in all I had a good evening even though I was alone. If only this excessive tiredness left me, I could enjoy evening programs even more!

Monday ended up very productive, in that we have started sorting ailing equipment, something  that had been planned for months.  In the morning I rang Szabolcs to see if he has time to fix some of my computers, as they needed attention.  He said yes, so we went and delivered three of them to his office. One of the old and one of the not so old (2 years) laptops needed to be cleared and have both the operating system and all software reinstalled.  The third one is brand new, I just wanted Office on it which they can do for me. Let's hope that Szabolcs does a good job, as this is the first time he is doing this, not Dylan.  Talking of him, he was actually in the office and Roy had a good chat with him. He looks a lot older than when we saw him last, which must have been at least 2, if not more, years ago. Hopefully the laptops will be done quickly, as I am currently suffering the non existent speed of my oldest laptop, which is miraculously still working (touch wood, I hope I haven't spoken too soon!!) after nearly 10 years.

After dropping off the laptops we journeyed to the other end of the city with my old Lumix camera, which had lots of problems in the last few months, including a couple of spots in every photo and trouble with the monitor losing its picture. A very nice guy said it would cost about £60 to have it cleaned and fixed, so we went for it. Szabolcs was not particularly forthcoming about how much his work will cost, but hopefully that shouldn't be more than about £50.

Julia Pusker

Then yesterday I was back to spending as much time in bed as I could, trying to shake this dreadful fatigue, so I only ventured outside for a much awaited violin concert with Bozsa and Arpi. The young violinist Julia Pusker was praised a lot online and by several of my friends, so expectations were high.  Unfortunately, she did not produce anything at all outstanding, although it was a solid performance. I always say that we have got the bar far too high, ever since we have become the fans of Kristof Barati.  It is nigh on impossible to impress us any more since we've known and loved him.

In search of a locust swarm (Planet Earth II)

Today I was trying to watch TV on the one remaining laptop, but due to its great age, that proved impossible.  This poor thing is so slow that in every one minute watchable broadcast there was at least 5 minutes of spooling.  I gave up.  Earlier on in the week, before my current laptop went to Szabolcs however, due to my incapacity, I have spent a lot of time sitting up in bed and watching TV. My two recent favourites are Great Canal Adventures with Prunella Scales and Timothy West on Channel 4 and the BBC's Planet Earth II with David Attenborough. I love the slow, relaxed pace of canal travel, even though that this year Pru and Tim have ventured as far afield as Venice. The photography and historical sidelines are very enjoyable and I am even prepared to put up with Tim's slightly patronising attitude towards poor Pru. I know he means well, but I bet she would be outraged if she wasn't so far down in her condition as she is.

Found the locust swarm

Planet Earth II is a magical, superb program and even 90 year old David Attenborough is a sheer delight. He is now physically not up to too much travel, but he is so all there, that I could not imagine this program without his dulcet tones, putting forward wise observations and brilliant popular science at the same time. Crying shame that there are only 2 episodes left, having seen Islands, Mountains, Jungle and Desert, I am looking forward to Grasslands and Cities still to come. Brilliant innovation since the first series all those years ago, is the last 10 minutes, in which they show the trials and tribulations of the film crew in bringing in those amazing images that will stay with me forever. It is all so superb, that should you ask me for my favourite shot, I couldn't choose. Honest!

Danny Dyer

Another program back is Who Do You Think You Are and the first episode was a tour de force.  I know there are lots of people out there who are not fans of Danny Dyer, but I so much loved his genuine Cockney self, interacting with professors, posh geneaologists and true artistocrats, that I think this is one of the best one I have ever seen, and I have seen all of them over the years. The sneaky smiles of others' faces, trying to stay serious listening to Dyer's observations and emotional outbursts, all the way to his wife's: "I always knew I was a princess!!" were a delight. I am looking forward to the rest of this series already.

I must go now as we are going to the baths, trying to extend my pass and then to the people where I can book my massages. I decided that I will have to get back to the baths regularly and follow every visit up with a trip to the masseur, as my joints and muscles are in a really bad way.  Currently I am fairly sure that this lurgy has attacked them, as well as all my other bits, but the old, tried remedy of natural healing methods usually fix me up, albeit quite slowly.

Next post before we get back to the village next Wednesday.

Back in Ber

I know I have only posted a couple of days ago, but we are only here for 5 days and this afternoon I have a bit of time, so I felt like posting again.

St. Mary's Well in Viragospuszta

On Tuesday we got going about 9.30am from town, first to the DIY place to buy a new circular saw. Roy found a reasonably priced one and along with some screwdrivers and other titbits we queued up at the checkout.  Much to our surprise there was a present awaiting us. Why? - no idea. It was a combined pincers, various other tools etc., etc. gadget. Very useful and Roy proudly pocketed it.

St. Mary statue by the well

Tesco was the next stop, and the shortage of retail staff was palpable. Hardly any checkouts open, several sections totally unattended, like the poor chap who was commuting between the meat and the fish counters. Dreadful, but totally understandable. Who wants to work for pittance in a miserable, downtrodden country heading for fascism?  Retail sales staff is much sought after in lots of countries and most of those that could, had already left. Rats and sinking ships come to mind, don't they?

The weather was gorgeous and we were home by 1pm, so we unpacked quickly, I had a couple of rolls with some salad and took off to place the two moving caches that I have had for a week. I started with the one that has to be placed at wells and/or springs. I drove up to Viragos and walked 600 metres to the recently built St. Mary's Well in the forest. I knew that it had been there for about 2 years, but not being of the religious persuasion, didn't bother to hike to it before.  It is in a lovely bit of the forest and placing the cache was not too difficult.  This one has a clever hide in that it is surrounded by a little structure that looks like a bird box. You fix it to a tree with a pressure belt and it really is invisible, it fits its environment so well.

The Lutheran church in Ber

The next one was the cache that travels to medieaval churches or church ruins. I found out that our Lutheran village church, which looks like it was built in the 18th century, is actually a 14th century church.  Obviously, with renovations, alterations and rebuilds, it doesn't look like it must have 700 years ago, but it is archeologically and historically proven that it originates from the 14th century.  I hid the box under a rooftile on the ground at the NE corner of the church.

The XIV. century tower, enlarged in XVIII. century

While up at Viragos, I went and checked the third part of my 3 parter multicache, because someone told me it has been missing for a while.  Unfortunately I couldn't find it either, so it looks as if that particular hillside is far too vulnerable to thieves and/or vandals. I changed the status of the cache to "sick" on the website and promised to deal with it later in the week.

On Wednesday we had the planned, and expensive, visit from the chimney sweeps. Do not imagine a jovial little fellow with brushes on his back! No way Jose!! These guys (there were 2 of them) come at irregular intervals to check your chimneys on behalf of our benevolent government.  As long as you are at home when they come, it is free, (although who knows for how long?), but if you happen to be away, as we were twice in the last couple of months (once to Toronto and then to Hassocks) and missed both their visits, you have to pay for it, even though it is compulsory, because that counts as a special trip out. Do you get my feeling that the country is sinking towards totalitarianism, even in the smallest particulars of one's everyday life?

The forest above Viragos

A week or so ago I had some debates on the phone with them about how much it would cost and every time there was someone different at the end of the phone it was a different sum. Some guy said its about £13 a chimney (we have 6), then a little woman said, don't be silly it is about £1 a chimney and so it went.  Well, these guys stayed 75 minutes, they had some up-to-date equipment to check for carbon monoxide with and talked a lot too. At the end of it, we were about £26-£27 lighter, which is reasonable, I suppose. They were flabbergasted when after their amazement on how clean our chimneys were, I told them that Roy cleans them himself with his own brushes. The one bit that annoyed me excessively (apart from the incessant prattle of one of them), was the fact that the chimney that they could not check in any way whatsoever (the turbo boyler's one) was the most expensive. But then again, you're an idiot if you expect logic in these parts, aren't you?

Once the chimney guys were gone I set about putting together Roy's and my tax returns for the year 2015/16. Normally this takes me about a week, first getting all the paperwork together, then entering everything into my master spreadsheet and then filling in the forms on line, first mine and then Roy's. This year it took me an afternoon, in spite of the fact that in my old age I am getting so scatterbrained that half the paperwork was missing.  Thankfully, I can always resurrect the figures from the net.

The panorama from near the cache

The main reason for the short time is basically the fact, that we no longer have any form of income that is not taxed at source. No rent, as we sold the house, no dividends, as we are no longer directors of Stephen's company, and while we still have some savings in the bank and the building society, that is also taxed at source. Except, of course, in their bloody wisdom, the Tories have introduced an allowance for savings interest being tax free up to £5000.  This has started just this April, so thankfully I will only come across what that actually means while doing next's year's returns. But, in spite of obviously saving a bit of money, this is also bloody annoying on several levels:

1. The bloody government just brought this measure out without having given any thought to how exactly they will administer it, so no amount of spending hours on the net, including on their own bloody website and/or anybody else's brought me any illumination on what exactly is going to happen next year. The actual how, as a question, has obviously never occurred to them, so how they are going to collect it is anybody's guess still.

2. I was hoping to be taken out of the necessity of doing tax returns in future, as there is no point just entering figures into a bloody form on line which tells them nothing that they do not already know.  And anyway, they usually brag about taking up to 40,000 tax payers out of having to do a return yearly, so I was thinking of writing to them and asking to be taken out.  Now, they have a perfect excuse why I will have to carry on and for how much? A few quid here and there, although having found that the automatic, computer driven calculation for this year came up with rebates, rather than us paying anything, perhaps that might be the case from now on and then HMRC will definitely take us out of doing a return, I should think.

The lovely Nograd countryside

Sheep at Viragos

Rant over, I can now just let you know that the damned cold, I have been suffering from for ages now, is still with me. I do feel slightly better than last week, but only slightly. I feel week and out of breath a lot, but I am sleeping better, so hopefully I am slowly pulling out of it. As the sun shone again today and Roy kindly built me another false birdbox, in which to hide part 3 of my multicache, we drove up to Viragos today and had a little walk to another part of the forest where we hope there are fewer thieves and vandals.  As the box is no longer hidden under fallen trees or inside treetrunks, but sitting well hidden inside a phoney birdbox high up on a tree, let us hope that its life will be a bit longer there than it has been recently. In the glorious sunshine I took some lovely photos up there, some of which are reproduced here.

We are off to town on Saturday and I will post again (hopefully) next week.

More sickness, Cats and lots of culture

This is going to be a short post prior to departing for the village.  I will have a lot to do while there and thought of getting this out of the way now. Starting with the Bogányi concert last Thursday, one needs to admit that the guy is pretty good. He, unfortunately, is too close to the current regime, and that detracts from his talent, but this time he didn't bring his fancy new piano the regime had paid for, so I was happy.

Bogányi Gergely

Friday brought the highlight of the week when we went to see the touring company of Cats which sat up home in an ugly, enormous sportshall, which was not exactly suitable accoustically. We sat way up and a very long way away from the stage, which wouldn't have mattered, had not the staging included hardly any lighting.  Admittedly, cats catterwaul in badly lit alleyways overnight on the whole, but most of us, Roy especially, came for the costumes and makeup, which was pretty invisible thus.  The sound was a bit suspect as well, but in spite of all this, the musical brought back so many memories, that we both enjoyed ourselves.

Victoria/The White Cat

As if it was not over 30 years ago, all tunes and words came back to me at once and I was singing along with the artists. I especially liked the tapdance sequence, which I don't recall from the past and the Rum Tum Tugger depicted as a rasta who came out rapping. That was hilarious and very well done.

One other aspect of the night was somewhat irritating, namely the fact that we could have bought tickets for less than half price, had we left purchasing them to the last minute, but who was to know that all those months ago? I think the prices were a bit rich for folks around here, that's why they were desperate flogging them with large discounts jus days before the shows went on.

Saturday was spent in bed, trying to get rid of the cold that had returned with a vengence.  It was definitely a bad idea going geocaching on Tuesday, I am sure that was the beginning of the relapse. Going out most days in the damp, cold evening since didn't help either.

The Belgrade Philharmonic on tour

The Hash on Sunday was totally out of the question, partly because there was a guest hare and I didn't want to risk a long run, plus I had to preserve my energies for the concert in the evening. This concert was not to be missed, so off I went to the Palace of the Arts to hear the Belgrade Philharmonic with Ian, who got Bozsa's ticket, as she managed to talk Árpi into coming, so they sat together and away from us, with Ian sitting next to me in Bozsa's original seat. The soloist was Kristóf Baráti, who was superb, as usual and we all had a very good time.

Upon arriving back home after 10pm, I had a quick last look at e-mails before going to bed and guess what did I discover? My DNA profile had arrived from ancestry.com. It didn't contain any great surprises, as the run down was more or less as expected, with 55% European Jewish being the most dominant. However, 7% British DNA was a bit puzzling, but it also thrown up Renee, as a likely second cousin, which proved that the whole thing is genuine, not a hoax.

The DNA profile

Yesterday was spent in bed yet again, even though it seems not to make any difference to how I feel. My nose is still blocked and no amount of blowing does any good. I seem to live in a haze, with a headache and on Sunday morning I also had a horrendous vertigo attack, which frightened me. I have not had the walls going round at this speed since I got very drunk on port and Bombay mix about 25 years ago. Thankfully the dizziness eventually settled down, but it left me very weak and wobbly. I am convinced that full blown post-viral fatique is setting in, which is not good news.  That, usually, lays me low for weeks, if not months.  Not a pleasant prospect.

Anyway, so I spent Monday in bed again and then went to the Music Academy in the evening for yet another concert with Bozsa and Árpi. We were sitting where normally the choir stands, right behind the orchestra, and it was Bozsa's first experience of it.  I love sitting there, you get such a close, intimate insight into the orchestra from there and the view of the whole concert hall from there is magnificent.

Gergely Dubóczky, the young conductor

It was an event definitely worth going to. The Budapest Festival Orchestra had started a series of introducing new, young conductors and this one was the first one. Gergely Dubóczky was brilliant, which was not surprising, as Iván Fischer alwyas finds the best ones. Berlioz, Hindemith and Beethoven was on the program and while Hindemith is definitely not my cup of tea, this was a very special evening yet again. I will keep an eye on this young man, he is destined for great things, I think.

Today, we are off to the village via the supermarket and the DIY store. I feel faint and weak, but the peace and quiet in Bér should do me good.  Unfortunately I have to go out to place the moving caches, but hopefully both should be hidden in or close to Bér, so that should no exhaust me.  On top of that I need to do the annual tax return this week as well, so I'd better get on with that, as we are back in town in 5 days.

Colds, tummybugs, flu and a few other events

Starting where I left off last week: the concert in the evening was brilliant. Evgeni Korolyov started a series of 4 Bach performances over the next 12 months with Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, which was absolutely superb.

Evgeny Korolyov

On Friday morning we decided to spurn the train, after the histrionics last time, and go all the way by two buses.  It went without a hitch and we were at home by quarter to 9. The house was pretty cold, and talking of colds, mine was getting worse and worse. I started coughing and sneezing again and additionally I had horrendous backache and tummy troubles. I reckoned that this lurgy was originally got from the kids in Hassocks, but obviously with additional and further infections from public transport in the capital since.

There was no time to fire up the stove, as we were only spending 3 days in the village, so we made do with just the central heating, and we probably felt the cold more for having colds ourselves. One of our neighbours has delivered a registered letter which she accepted on our behalf, and Roy started panicking about speeding fines again. As it happens it was a letter telling us that we have overpaid 50p on our road tax.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but as I tried one or the other I was taken over by a coughing fit.

En route to my first cache I came across this!?

Further acrimonious dealings with the Chimney Authority ensued when I rang them, letting them know that I want an appointment for the yearly compulsory chimney check, due to the unfortunate fact that on both occasions when they came out to the village in numbers we were away. (First in Canada and then in Hassocks). I was unfortunate to get a guy first who told me that it will cost me about 70 quid, which is ludicrous.  Especially that the previous two occasions were free. Thankfully, when I rang again (having put the phone down on that idiot) I got a really nice, knowledgeable woman who told me that at the most the whole thing will cost about a pound per chimney.  We do have 6 of the buggers, but even with a tip that should not be more than a tenner.

On my way back to the car

Saturday and Sunday was spent in ever worsening physical condition for both of us as the colds and the tummy troubles took hold.  This time (unlike in September) Roy went down with it too, although not as badly as I did. We were trying to stay indoors and get better, as we had to go back into town, via the Dacia garage, as the car was due for its first service. Roy managed to pick up and burn about 20% of the fallen walnut leaves, but the weather and his afflictions stopped him doing more.

The cache was just behind this church in this village

On Monday we both felt a little bit better, so we got going nice and early to the garage to be first in the queue for service. Only to have to come back from about 5km out for Roy's reading glasses. We got to the garage only about 10 minutes after opening, but ended up last in the queue. Still, they have done it in about an hour and a half, which wasn't bad.  However, once the car was back Roy noticed that the rather expensive (about £40 for 4) little hubcaps that cover up the ugly middle of the wheels were missing. I thought nothing of it, just mentioned it that they should not forget to put those back on the winter wheels, which they were storing over the summer and now put on the car. After this ensued a most unpleasant fight against the attitude of practically everbody there who insisted that those things they never store, they always give them back and thus implying that WE lost them.  Roy insisted that they were not given back nor were they placed in the car somewhere (as one of them suggested) and the reason why he didn't query this at the time, was that he had no idea they wouldn't store them. They were part of the wheel after all, but one of them really got my dander up when suggesting that those bits are for decoration only and have nothing to do with the wheel. This was the moment when I lost my rag and created a scene. The permanent attack, the total lack of any sign of acknowledgeing that they might be at fault and the accompanying refusal to even consider this fact, really got me angry.  So much so that one mechanic said, OK, he would have a look.  He came back after about 30 seconds, saying that there is no sign of them anywhere. He couldn't possibly have looked properly in such a short time, but I must admit at that point I was considering giving up as even the salesman who sold us the car, and we have become good friends with, was just as obnoxious as the rest of them. So I told them what I thought of them and the fact that we will never again come anywhere near them, either for service or repairs and definitely never again for purchasing a vehicle.

Glorious view from the church

Now interestingly, at that point the mechanic went back out into the workshop without saying anything and after about 5 minutes came back telling us that he found them.  Not that he admitted to have been at fault at all, putting the blame on an apprentice who didn't look inside the box that was with the wheels. I was very relieved, but told him again that they have definitely blotted their copy book and we will consider our position after this affair with view to our relationship with their business.

I managed to snap this unsuspecting hind

To be honest, this is still one of the best places we have had both for sales and service over the last 10 years, so we will probaby forget the thing, but be much more suspicious about our bits in future. On the other hand, I was very pleased with myself that I didn't give up, although I was quote close to it at one point.  Being a hariden sometimes comes in useful.

Ralph Fiennes

On Monday evening I went to see the Almeida Theatre production of Shakespeare's Richard III with Ralph Fiennes, which was superb. I was feeling very faint, but managed to stay awake and enjoy it all the way through.

On Tuesday morning, after the first good night's sleep I had for ages, I felt good enough to consider going geocaching. The sun shone beautifully, there was no wind, so I went. I was really after a couple of moving caches: one that visits medieaval churches or church ruins and the other one that travels from spring to spring all round the country. I found both, plus another two, took lots of nice photos and had a good day out. Unfotunately, even as early as half way round I started realising that I should have stayed at home, preferably in bed and then I would have felt better at the end of the day. I had a relapse and am still pretty weak and my nose is totally blocked again with coughs and sneezes having returned.

The Geology Research Institute and Museum

Unfortunately Wednesday had two appointments in it which I could not postpone, so I had to go out, which put my recovery even further into the future, but I must admit I still don't regret having done so.  The first one was to the Geological Museum to joing a group of people to look around the building otherwise closed to visitors.  There was also a geocache there, so that was an added bonus. The visit was really lovely, the guide was an enthusiastic, knowleadgable chap and I found the cache too.

Part of the glorious Art Nouveau interior

The second appointment was to go out to lunch with Ian and then go back to his place and see if we can fix his boyler. The lunch was absolutely gorgeous in the Belgian Beer pub, near his flat. I had some lovely vegetarian stuff and the men had meat and other things, plus a lot of beer. It is a bit expensive compared with others, but the quality of the food, service and atmosphere warranted it.  I am also glad to report that Roy and I make a good couple of plumbers as we fixed Ian's boyler by ringing the service people and have them instruct me on the mobile what to do. Ian insists that he had never had the user guide and what he managed to look up on the net didn't tell him anything useful. Never mind, he can always call on us for all sorts of repair and maintenance problems. I also managed to fix up a date for the boyler to be serviced in January when they will be back again.

The globe on top of the roof

Today so far has been spent in bed. I am desperately trying to get better, but it is slow. Roy got me some medicine, but I am just too old to get better fast nowadays. I have to go out again this evening, as I have a concert in the Palace of the Arts. Let us hope the weather is not too cold!

Hassocks, the last 4 days

On Friday, 4th November we travelled into Brighton on the bus.  There was a rail strike, so we didn't know how many trains would be running and when, so tried the bus again.  The last time we used the bus was the summer before last, when we took Alex, Meaghan and Callum on it, much to the latter's enjoyment.

Looks like an oil platform

We got off at Churchill Square and decided to walk to Hove, where we were due to meet Ian and Ros at Ramsbottom's, our favourite Fish and Chips shop. But before we popped into the bank to get some money, and amazingly got through very quickly without any queueing. It is definitely the total luck of the draw how much you have to hang about in banks nowadays. In fact, just after we joined a very short and quick queue of about 2 people, suddenly we looked behind us and found about 8 or 10 people.  Just 2 or 3 minutes later and the wait would have been considerable.

One of the old pubs on Western Road

En route to Ramsbottom's, we pootled slowly, popped into a variety of shops and ended up buying a small ASUS laptop, which is better than a tablet, but does not weight 5kg, like the full sized laptop I was schlepping about Europe this time. I like impromptu shopping and tend to buy good things on the spur of the moment. It has Windows 10 on it, which I must admit is very easy to master.

The half built wind farm

Once we crossed into Hove I started noticing something weird out at sea. Apparently, they are building a wind farm miles from the beach, but many people are not very happy about it. I photographed a few old pub fronts, which looked great. Unfortunately, about 2/3rd of the way it started raining. That was not very comfortable, but we didn't get too wet, even though Roy had no hood or brolly. I wore my little waterproof jacket I bought in Canada and it worked a treat.  It not only had a hood, but a shield on the hood, which came in handy so near the sea.

Large structures out at sea

We got to Ramsbottom's only about 5 or so minutes before Ian and Ros, had a good chinwag and a lovely medium size cod (except Ros who had a small one) with chips and in Ian and Ros's case mushy peas as well. En route back, due to the rain, we hopped on a bus back to the centre of Brighton, followed by the one that went all the way back to Hassocks after a very short wait. The only hiccup of the day was that I got a bit confused about something that we picked up earlier and in my utter panic jumped off the bus to go back. When I calmed down a bit, I realised that I had it all the time, but now a full half hour's hanging around  awaited us due to that bus only going twice an hour.  And this is when my belief in the balance of the universe comes in. Roy went to look at the timetables at the bus stop and spotted another one that also went to Hassocks.  We jumped on that and hardly wasted 10 minutes by the whole affair. This one was a double decker, so we could sit on top at the front, although the enjoyment was somewhat spoiled by the furred up windows.

Another one of the old pubs, this time in Hove

Saturday we spent mostly at home, but in the afternoon we managed to abscond to the local garden centre again for a cream tea, but this time we had the whole family to come. The kids loved their babycinos and we enjoyed yet another cream tea.

Montpelier Square where my osteopath lived a very long time ago

Sunday had the family lunch in the pub with a twist.  We all forgot that the first Sunday is still Veteran Car run in Sussex and the pub was jam packed full with old crock fans, so finding a parking place and a table was not easy.  Still, we did it and had probably the best lunch we have ever had at the Friars Oak on the Hassocks to Burgess Hill road. I even managed to snap a few of the lovely old cars, which was an added bonus.

Sunday evening was a private firework show organised by Stephen in his own garden.  I watched and listened from my bedroom window and those rockets were definitely very loud.  On Monday we didn't do much, other than pack and babysit in the evening, so Stephen and Lucy could go out to a Thai restaurant in Burgess Hill with their friends Esther and Ben.

Tuesday went past really uneventfully.  We just made one of the early trains with Stephen giving us a lift to the station, our plane was on time, the flight was fine and even the minibus that we caught in from the airport took us along some streets we never trod before. Since then we have been catching up, doing loads of washing, and I have sat through 5 hours of Die Walküre in the Opera last night.  Tonight I am seeing my good friend Bozsa at the Music Academy for a concert and then Roy and I are off to Bér tomorrow morning.

The church at the beginning of Church Road, Hove

You may have noticed that probably the most momentous event of this week has been missing from my post.  That was not an oversight, I was saving it until the end. Rather than going on about it, I am going to copy two links here at the end of this post for your interest and/or edification.  One leads to a video on which Alan Woods spends nearly 24 minutes giving you his version of what happened, while the second one is a long(ish) article by John Petersen on the same topic.  Listen, read, enjoy and learn!

http://www.marxist.com/video-trump-victory-americas-brexit.htm

http://www.marxist.com/americas-brexit-to-fight-trump-fight-capitalism.htm

Breakfast on Saturday morning

Xander easily solving a logic puzzle at the Garden Centre Cafe

Hassocks - the first ten days

We were pretty laid back about packing and travelling last week and had very good luck with it too.  We got going rather early, and as it is usually the case, because we had plenty of time and were not in a hurry, everything came just as we got there: trolley bus, tram, metro and bus all came at once or only after a few minutes' wait and we had well over 2 hours to kill at the airport.

Playing in Elian's room

Xander on the slide

Our good luck carried on at the other end too, as in spite of strike action, we only had to wait 15 minutes for our train, after a pretty quick arrival of luggage and getting out to the railway station.  We were about an hour early against estimated time of arrival at Stephen's and he even managed to give us a lift about half way to his house.

Grandma and Xander on the see saw

On Wednesday, our first full day I had a phonecall about my optician's appointment being cancelled. That was it, never again will we go to ASDA for glasses.  Their glasses are cheap, but less and less cheerful and their service stinks. I asked Stephen if he could recommend someone in Hassocks and he sent us to his own optician just down the road.  They had one appointment left later on that day, we went, met up with a delightful young woman optician and her technician and in about 90 minutes they relieved us of £500 for my new glasses.  That is at least 50-60% more expensive than ASDA, but it scores high on service and if the glasses are as good as everybody says they are, it would have been well worth it.  We have an appointment for having them fitted on Saturday and I hope that'll be that.

Daddy's Daddy provides the lift on the swing

On Thursday we took Xander to the nearby park to run around a bit and play in the playground. He threw up sitting on the swing, but otherwise it was a happy occasion. I also ordered a nice print of Elian's school photo online, I hope it arrives soon. They seem to have offered the option of postal delivery, but at the end it became clear that the only option was delivery to the school. Hopefully Stephen or Lucy will send it on.

Cyril the squirrel before we cleared the garden

The next three days were quite hard, as Lucy was still pretty immobile and Stephen was working away. We still managed though and learnt a lot in the process.  I can now program the television and know where most of the children's programs are.  We bathed them a few times and ended up soaked in the process.  I know the story of The Gruffalo by heart and have also learnt how to grab a fast asleep child out of his bed, put him on his potty and back into his bed without waking him. The quantities of wee on these occasions amaze me, how they can do it fast asleep, I will never know?! :-)

Xander in the tractor outside Tesco

On Saturday I went to Tesco's with Stephen to do some shopping before he went off and on Sunday Roy and the boys did a bit of garden clearance collecting up the fallen leaves. In the afternoon, after Amber arrived we managed to get away and have a Cream Tea at the nearby garden centre, which was delicious.

Elian clearing the garden of fallen leaves

One and a half of scones with tea and hot chocolate

The following Monday was the first time Roy and I managed to get away for an entire day.  We had to go to Brighton to see the bank, followed by a visit to The Basketmakers Arms in the North Laines. Every time I return there, I worry that it might have had a change of management or something equally drastic and we would not find our beloved Basketmakers.  And then, we just celebrate that not one thing has changed, the beer and the food is as superb as ever and the atmosphere too.

The remains of the West Pier

We also did a bit of shopping in Boots and at Currys. The former was for soap and Paracetamol, the latter for a new camera chip and a small travelling laptop. Carrying 5kg+ of monster laptop, like I am doing on this trip, is not fun!  After our shopping and bank visit, we walked along the seafront, which was beautiful in the low sun and offered many photo opportunities. On Monday Stephen finally appeared with Roy's Birthday present (after I reminded him), and Roy looked pleased with a DNA kit from ancestry.com.  He filled the little tube with spit and after wrapping and posting it, we now await a list of weird and wonderful parts of the world where his DNA suggests his ancestors come from.  I got rather jealous at this, so ordered one for me too, which I am glad to say has already arrived at Haywards Heath (£20 for postage and packing should give you courier delivery!!) and Ian should bring it with him to the Fish and Chips shop on Friday.

On Tuesday Lynne arrived to clean and have a clandestine natter with us, as she always does. I also enjoyed taking Elian and Harrison to school with Stephen, although Harrison's heartrending sobs at having to go to school were very hard to take.   He did cheer up now and again, but got all teary again when we got near the school. Stephen and I had a cup of coffee on the way back and the weather was good too. Once back home, Roy, me and Xander had another go at the garden, sweeping up the remaining fallen leaves and then bagging all of them in 6 enormous black bags.

i360 on the seafront

At 3pm I fetched Elian from school and we pootled back home together, jumping on paving stones, walking on low walls and sniffing flowers. There were very large machines, tractors and rollers in the lane en route home and Elian got talking to a very nice young man on one of the tractors. They are filling the holes and redoing the entire surface, so the lane should be a bit nicer to drive on in future.

An interesting and suggestive board in The Basketmakers

Gorgeous horsebrasses in The Greyhound

It's truly autumn in Hassocks

Wednesday was a bit easier, as the boys were at school/nursery, so Roy and I managed to get away again, this time to The Greyhound in Keymer.  The weather was superb, although it started getting colder. I had scampi, Roy had liver and bacon, the beer was good (I had a funny one called Hobgoblin, which was dark red and delicious!!), then we walked back through the park and picked up Elian from school again.  The main event this time was that the lane was blocked by those big machines and they had no sign at the start of the lane, so we had to turn back and go round on the main road.  Elian was a bit whingey to start with, but then accepted it with good grace.

Harrison, Stephen and Elian en route to school

Roy with a pint of Harveys in The Greyhound

Last night Stephen and Lucy had guests, two couples, one with a baby and had a good time chatting, eating a Thai takeaway and drinking. Due to most mornings waking up around 4 or 5 o'clock, I seem to collapse very early in the evening, but last night I managed a nap between 6-7.30pm and that revitalised me for the rest of the evening.

This morning I was left out of the school run as Elian and Harrison were taken by Stephen in the chariot. And they used the newly laid surface along the lane with much enjoyment. Even Harrison was a happy chappie, totally forgetting that he was actually going to school, which he hates with a vengence. The only little chap that was not very happy, was Xander, as he was not going to nursery today and saw that both his brother and his friend were having fun getting to school.

Stephen with Harrison and Elian in the chariot

The rest of our time before next Tuesday is going to rush past very quickly, I'm sure. Tomorrow we're off again into Brighton and later to Hove. Initially we have to see the bank again and then we are seeing Ian and Ros at Ramsbottoms, our favourite Fish and Chips place in Hove. Saturday should see me getting my new glasses and Sunday we are planning an outing with all 6 of us to a pub for lunch.  Monday is still clear, just in case we have a last minute chore, but if not and the weather's good, we should walk out  to somewhere or other to say good bye to Hassocks.  A place I am quite fond of, as it's near the South Downs.