Dentist, gardening and fruit-picking, raspberries and cherries, via ferrata and a new water meter

Another very busy week, which was two centred: in the village and in BP. The first major event since I last posted was my first proper dental appointment, which went extremely well. You can see in the attached photo what a delightfully young and lovely person my new dentist is. She is definitely young enough to be my daughter, but only about half-way to being my granddaughter. Both my boys are in their mid-forties and she can't be more than 30, if that. I looked her up on the practice website and she only finished dental school in 2013. Currently she is being a resident studying a new specialism and generally she is a dream dentist.

Dr. Vivien Sebők

Her chair-side manner is relaxed, attentive, friendly and professional all at the same time. She is really human and is generally very welcoming when it comes to silly questions. She is commentating on what she is dong in your mouth while she is doing it and honestly I have never felt so comfortable and unafraid in a dentist's chair like I do now. As this post took longer than a week to appear, I had two appointments with her since I posted last. The first one was just the repair of the broken tooth and a very nice, totally non-painful filling. The second one was a different matter. First of three appointments relating to one tooth which needs root canal work. I was in the chair for 90 minutes. No pain whatsoever and after the anesthetic wore off a couple of Paracetamols have fixed the bit of pain which then disappeared by the following day. She is a gem and I do not mind going, which is just as well, considering I will probably need at least another 6 or so visits before my mouth will be in order. One last comment: the cost is pretty good too. That filling last week cost less than £40 and the three lots of root canal appointments, each lasting upwards to 90 minutes, will be in the region of £250. Not expensive for the quality of the work I am currently receiving.

The renovated omnibus terminus

Just in case you were wondering what this lovely old building is, I have to tell you that this used to be the terminus of the horse-drawn omnibus 100 or so years ago, which then metamorphosed into the electric tram, then into buses, so the tram-line was closed and finally it was totally neglected and ready to fall down, when thankfully it was restored to its present beauty. Also, it is 3 minutes' walk from my new dentist's surgery. We were hoping that there is a cafe in there, but it is an exhibition hall with conference space, without a cafe. Still, it was so nice to see it after I saw it in its derelict state 4 years ago.

A small basketful of our own raspberries

On Wednesday we travelled back to the village and attacked the garden with sheers, secateurs, lawn mowers and shovels. The grass was high, but thankfully manageable, the fruit trees promising and the raspberry bushes laden with fruit. The roses needed deadheading and pruning and generally it was a very gardening-like few days after our return.The Morello cherries have produced some crop, but while it was more than last year, when we had none, it was still nowhere near our bumper crop of 2 years ago. The amount this year was not enough to make jam with, so we ate it between us.

Morello cherries before we gobbled them up

The herb patch is still looking like the Amazon and the whole lot of the parsley had gone to seed. There is/was some dill, chives, thyme, oregano, lovage, lemon balm, mint, marjoram and sage. I will have to make sure that I harvest the seeds and dry all the surplus leaves that I can't use. It is fun being a peasant, always looking at the weather and working in the garden. I think fresh air and a small amount of physical labour is absolutely necessary for one's sanity. I don't think Roy and I are absolutely sane, but I am sure we would be a lot madder without the gardening!

Two-tone rose, one of my favourites

I decided that I want a geocaching birthday cake. So I had drawn one in Paint and ordered it to look like that by telephone from the Zila patisserie/restaurant that produced Roy's 75th birthday cake. I am not telling you what it is going to look like, you'll have to wait until the day. It will have a decoration relating to geocaching, inside it'll be chocolate cake and outside it will have marzipan and no candles.

This is another of my favourites: peach rose

And now we have got to the highlight of the last week, namely my geocaching day with Mariann, her 2 grandsons and Árpi, another caching friend. Mariann organised a private via ferrata session in Csesznek, a rocky and romantic village in the Bakony Mountains. We went early in the morning and did or didn't (as they case may have been) look forward to hanging by a harness, gripping a steel cable and trying to put our feet onto either rock or a pin or even a steel cable, while trying not to fall off a sheer rock face. I have never thought that this would be as much fun as it really was.

At the beginning

10 of us lined up at the bottom of the first route, which was designed for absolute beginners and children. Needless to say quite a few in the group gave up the idea right away. To be quite honest, those rocks looked really frightening looking up at them, but I have some mountaineer friends who told me that one should just get going, because from up there it is no longer frightening. Totally true. I enjoyed every bit of it and the feeling of elation on the top was indescribable. Unfortunately, my strength and stamina is not like in the old days, so both Mariann and me have opted out of carrying on. However, Árpi and the elder of Mariann's grandsons went on the next one as well, which was quite extreme. We all had tremendous fun and I can now tick another thing I have been dreaming about doing all my life.

Muggins on the rockface

Afterwards we went geocaching in the area and found some interesting places, some more than others. The places included a cave, a lovely little village, the top of a hill with large wind turbines on and the castle just above the rocks we were climbing on. All were fascinating and enjoyable, but slowly we all started feeling the strain of the morning. On the way home I managed to get stuck in an incredible traffic jam right in the middle of the city. I must admit the guy who decided to start road works in practically every district of the city all at the same time must be having permanent hiccups, so many people are mentioning him (it had to be a him) in their words and their thoughts. I am too ladylike to tell you what I was thinking about him.

Mariann towards the top of the route

Tuesday was a day that included the dentist (see details at the beginning!), but all in all that day was very successful and productive in having things done. It started with having the water meter exchanged for a new one. The engineer was a nice bloke, it took him and his mate about 15 minutes to do all the work and the paperwork and that was that. We did 3 loads of washing, which was fitted in between all the other things we were doing. I managed to do all my geocaching paperwork, including the photos. I also managed to fill in, scan and send the insurance claim form for my mishap involving my little laptop and a glass of red wine electronically, which caused me endless trouble initially, but I persevered and succeeded. We were even lucky with the underground and trams to and from the dentist, it seemed that the Gods had favoured us that day and everything came just as we got to the stop.

The winning team on the top of the rockface

And then today we came down to the village, but instead of going to Tesco to shop, as we always do, today we tried Lidl. It was a good move, as we bought lots of interesting and new things that we have not yet tried and enjoyed the different environment. Other than the packing area not being big enough, I think it beats Tesco into a cocked hat. Especially the quality of their food and display, the friendliness of their staff and their prices, which are at least 15% less than in Tesco.

On the way down

The weather has turned cold and rainy again. I suppose, after the 2 months long heatwave, a bit of welcome cool is not such a bad thing after all. We are staying until Monday afternoon, when we are off again into town. On Tuesday comes the next instalment of the root canal work and on Wednesday we are off on a little 3-day jaunt South, this time to Gyuri's city where we are going to do some geocaching, meeting up with Gyuri and Eva and perhaps catching a red 1 in the process. (More about this in the next post!)

Csesznek Castle

The castle from the meadow below it

The wind turbine

The view from near the cache at the top of the hill near the turbine

A busy couple of weeks

A couple of days after I last posted we left Bér for town to prepare for our 5 days away. But before we went I saw a new gastroenterologist in Duna Medical, where Roy had his operation. The doctor interpreted for me my diagnosis from the other place, didn't tell me anything I didn't already know and we discussed the possibility of getting another gastroscopy/colonoscopy done in a few months' time at Duna Medical. He seemed quite nice, knowledgeable and approachable.

A sailing board on the Balaton

The day after this visit I was finally contacted by someone from the other clinic, proposing that I went in to discuss the matter in person. I agreed and that appointment was made for Monday, 18th, i.e. today. More about this later.

I also had my hair cut, which makes me look like someone just out of a concentration camp. I lost a fair amount of weight recently, so that just about fits. Oh, and just before we left Bér my Driver's Licence came, which made me very happy.

One of many churches that had caches

On Friday I had an appointment with my new dentist, who is a delightful young woman and the news were not very good. I initially went to have my broken tooth repaired and came out with the prospect of extensive route canal work and the possibility of a bridge. My first proper appointment is tomorrow and I suppose we will start with the broken tooth and follow up with more of the same. She also wanted me to come back on Friday as well, but my cardiologist vetoed that as I can't be without my Eliquis for any longer than 3 days, so that one will have to be cancelled and further discussions to be had about how frequently I have to go. If it is vital that I go at least twice a week, then I will have to start having injections into my abdomen instead of my Eliquis while the dental treatment lasts. Not fun!!

Interesting red rocks by the Balaton

An then on Sunday we left for Hévíz, geocaching on the way, which was getting quite exhausting in the over 30 degrees Celsius high heat.  It was unfortunately very high humidity as well, so we were both flagging quite early on.  Still, we managed to get 10 caches for the day, which wasn't bad.

Lovely old red stone-built lookout tower

Our hotel was quite nice, although some of the staff were not particularly friendly. Things improved later on, especially when we found out that for the price of an ordinary room we had a small apartment with lounge, small kitchen, bedroom and bathroom all in one. The first full day there we spent in and around the town and collected about the same number of caches as on the first day. The following day we were off to another spa town, caching all the way. The weather was still tropical with a lot of humidity, which made me occasionally giddy.

The Blue Church, Hévíz

We also had a dip in the Balaton, which was fun. We went in the late afternoon, which wasn't so hot and sat on a bench under some large trees. We didn't stay for long, but it was very refreshing. We also contemplated getting a cache which can only be reached on the water. We could have hired a pedalo, but Roy thought better of it and I didn't risk going it alone. That one will have to be got some other time, either with someone younger and stronger helping me, or in the dead of winter, when the lake freezes and you can walk on the ice.

An old ferry boat on the Balaton

Once we arrived in Zalakaros, the weather started to change. By the evening we had an enormous super-cell above our heads. It got windy and in the distance we saw lots of lightning, but heard no thunder. Finally the rain arrived and it lashed the pool, garden and buildings practically all night. Thankfully, where we were the damage was not serious, but we saw on the TV some areas that were totally flooded or the damage to roofs that was the result of hailstorms coming from the super-cell.

Zalacsány Lake for fishing

The following day we travelled over to Nagykanizsa, a town about an hour's drive away. We walked about in its centre, looked at trains and other interesting things, which Roy liked. And on the final day we travelled back into BP, caching all the way again. It was a most successful holiday: we saw a lot of places, we even swam in the Balaton and got over 50 caches into the bargain.,

A 700 year old lyme tree

On Friday night I had a concert with Bozsa in the Palace of the Arts. Camilla Nylund, a Finnish opera singer sang lieder from Sibelius, Mahler, Wagner and Richard Strauss. It was delightful. On Saturday we were expected at some friends just out of town to the West. They moved there last year and finally it is fitted out, although the garden is still not sorted. She cooked delicious food: fruit soup, salmon for me and pork for everybody else, finished with a cherry pie. Lots of beer, wine and pálinka was consumed, finally wrapped up with a walk into the nearest village and back in the late afternoon.

The stormy Balaton

On Sunday I was supposed to go on a hike with Zsuzsi, but she called in sick, so I went on my own. It was fun, although a bit hairy in places.  For the first time in my life I had the opposite of the usual trouble, which is path on the ground, but no trail markings. This time round, I had the markings and no path. Some was ploughed up, others obliterated by felling. Total anarchy with no authority to keep order.  They do what they like and they get away with it all the time. Still, I found my spring this time, took lots of pictures and placed a cache, since then wrote the web page and hope that it will go through moderation.  If it doesn't, I am stopping my series of springs at the stage they are at: 7 caches (5 new and 2 adopted).

Józsi, Éva, Nata, Ági and David on our walk

And then this morning I went and saw the doctor lady who rang last week, about my complaint and the result is a total victory for me. I am having the procedure redone by the big chief surgeon of gastroenterology in a proper hospital free of charge. I have to pick a date and they are hoping that with this gesture I will regain my faith in them. She said that they tightened up on procedures as a result of my complaint, including my old doctor not being allowed to liaise with surgeons without supervision and better training for lower staff on what they can or cannot tell patients. I haven't decided if I will take them up on their kind offer, but I probably will, because £500 is a lot of money to pay again.

The chateau at Nézsa on my hike on Sunday

Today was a very productive and positive day on all fronts. The chat with the doctor lady was very successful, then we went to get a new geocache which was by the shoes on the river bank statue. Then we went and fixed up the date of the installation of our new water meter and it is next Tuesday. In the meantime Mariann wrote that the Csesznek via ferrata trip is on and she fixed it for next Monday. Life never stops, does it? We had a lovely lunch in the Jelen and I bought some new panties, which I was running out of.

The shoes on the Danube bank

I have also finished the logs on the geocaching.hu, as 5 days of geocaching produces so much admin that you need another 5 days before that is done. Hopefully we will be able to return to Bér on Wednesday, so my next post should come from there sometime next week.

Hike with Klári, roses, homeopath and a bit of proofreading

The hike with Klári was both great and disappointing. The weather was tropical, although thankfully it was only hot, not humid. We first went to the second of my adopted caches, which made for a lovely hike. All in all it was about 6km, the round trip from the car back to the car. We left it at the edge of the village and walked in past a completely empty reservoir, which looked like it had not s een water for quite a while. Then we passed a few muddy bits, followed by some seriously overgrown stuff.  Finally, we climbed up a steepish valley in glorious deciduous forest and there it was.

En route to the cache

Changed the box, but left the hide the same. Took lots of pictures and even put some extra presents in it. En route down we got back to the car ever so quickly, but it is always the same, a road recently travelled always seems shorter and quicker on the way back..

The rain shelter by the spring

Then we drove over to another village about half an hour away, to take a small hike (about 3km round trip) to try and find a spring. No such luck! I knew it wouldn't be there. Neglect, global warming and therefore hottter summers and drought, put paid to this spring altogether. Shame, as I am fast running out of options for this damned spring series of caches, for which I need 11 of them. I am still at least 3 short, may be 4.  Latter depending on whether my 6th one will go through moderation, which is doubtful as that one was a dried up one as well. Roy cooked us a fantastic curry for dinner and we fell into bed like babies. On Friday morning Klári left on the 9:05 bus and we fell back into household chores, gardening and the computer. A further request came for some proof-reading, so I was busy with Lenin's What is to be done for a while, which was very enjoyable.

On Sunday evening I took the bus into town, as I had an appointment with my homeopath at 9am on Monday morning. She said some interesting things, like an inflammation somewhere in the neck region (probably throat), and parasites. That is all I need. I am definitely going to pieces in all departments. I have a broken filling, my eyes are absolutely giving up on me, I had several ticks in me recently, so who knows, my Lyme's Disease might be back and I still have very bad digestion, so it is about time to see this new doctor I have an appointment with this Thursday.

A lovely butterfly en route back to the car

Talking of doctors, you will not believe it, but the other clinic, whom I am thinking of suing for cocking up my gastroscopy and colonoscopy, have just rang.  They want to talk to me the week after next.  I wonder what they are going to come up with after all this time? If they think they can sweet-talk me out of going for full compensation as an absolute minimum, they don't go who they are dealing with.

One of the blue roses started producing glorious blooms

Zsófi has prescribed several new medicines that I have to take in the next 6 weeks and which, unfortunately, cost a fortune. Still, I am keen to try anything now, as I have been under par for far too long. After I finished with ZsófiI did some shopping and caught the bus home.  I was not on the bus long when I realised why I decided a couple of years ago never to take a bus home in hot weather.  The bad habit of buying clapped out buses always makes me feel ill in hot weather.  You sit in your own juices for over 2 hours, due to the air conditioning not working and no windows that open. At least half way I met up with someone I knew, het sat down next to me and we chatted. That helped the time go faster.

First decent crop of cherries this year

Today I spent the day typing up the cache list for our sojourn in the SW next week. This little 5 days away trip will be a two-centered holiday, both in towns with thermal baths and a lot of lovely countryside around them in which there will be a lot of caches to find. I hope the weather will behave itself and neither the tropics, not the rain-forest will come back. The other most welcome task today was to harvest about a pound of cherries that one of our young trees produced. Very delicious they were too.

Report on out trip next week is due in the next post.

Back in the village

The day after we arrived back in the village we were both looking forward to a long stay, which was much overdue. Both the house and the garden needed a lot of attention and we set about gardening and tidying/cleaning as much as we could. The roses were in full bloom much earlier than usual, so we had to weed and water the roses, as well as do something about the greenfly and the black fly.

My favourite two-tone rose

The weather has gone really weird, heatwave one minute, deluge the next. This, needless to say, made the garden like a jungle, almost impossible to keep on top of the mowing and weeding. I have never seen the herb patch like it is this year.  Almost all of them have gone to seed and those that didn't were larger and more prolific than ever before. They usually look like this at the end of July or beginning of August. Amazing!

Plums, still green

Unfortunately, the fruit crop is not going to be amazing this year either.  But at least it looks as if there will be some. The hothouse atmosphere favours fungal infections, so one rose is already suffering from it and I fear for the fruit too.  And that's assuming there are no more thunderstorms or hailstorms this year. If you think of it, in April last year we lost all our fruit crop at the blossom stage due to a snowstorm.  This year April was like July, with heatwaves and drought. But, of course, there is no such thing as global warming. All a lefty invention indeed.

Mishka hussar and me

Feri, my geocaching friend from Pécs, invited me to cache with him on Saturday, as he was working close to town and wanted some company.  Originally I was supposed to go in on Friday evening, but the weather then turned really cold and rainy, so I thought I would leave the decision to Saturday morning, as I could catch an early bus and still be in town in time to meet Feri, should the weather improve.

Wildlife on a monoument

Thankfully, all the weather forecasts were wrong and there was no rain, but there was a lot of sunshine all day Saturday. In fact, it was back up into the 30's Celsius, so we sweated a lot. However, as it is about 5 or 6 months since I have seen Feri, I forgot how good a company he is.  He is awfully laid back, no ulterior motives, some chatter and a typical WYSIWYG type of fellow.

Millennial Monument

We changed the original caching plan, which had a lot of hiking type caches in it, to one where most of them were quite close to the car, should the skies open.  But they didn't. We ended up with nine caches at the end of the day, including a moving one.

The chateau with the wild park

The places visited included several round a biggish lake, a large metal statue of a hussar, a historical theme park, several walks around the ancient capital of the country, a lovely old chateau and its wild park, the moving cache that travels along the National Blue trail and finally a really weird place where the village bought an old metro carriage, painted it with psychedelic colours and erected it in the middle of the village as if it was coming out of the hill behind it. I love weird things and this looked really funny.

I stayed in the flat overnight and caught a really early bus on Sunday morning to be at home by breakfast. I watched the Monaco GP and felt sorry for Lewis for coming third, but loved every minute of it in spite of it being a boring procession in the first 2/3rd of the race. The last third was fascinating, although Lewis could not get ahead due to tyre worries and a few other problems. I loved that Ricciardo won, he is such a genuinely nice bloke.

The old metro carriage

This week is devoted to some housework, some gardening, but also a couple of days of caching. Not in the sense of looking for them, but actually getting on with my accursed spring series, which now feel that they would never be finished.  Unfortunately, spring after spring turns out to have either disappeared, or to have fallen down and be unusable, dried up and/or have other problems that make it not worthy of a cache.

The new lookout tower above the quarry

On Tuesday I went out with Roy, as not only the spring series was sitting on my conscience, but somebody nicked my cache I placed a couple of years ago just over the border, so I had to go and replace it with a new one. That done, I have then visited one of my adopted ones and improved it a bit, followed by another place which turned out to be neglected, dried up and no use for a cache.

Old fishing lake, now rather overgrown

At this place there was a dodgy looking dirt track which amazingly Roy was prepared to drive down on. I think we ended up with some scratched paint, due to Roy driving in the bushes, rather than falling into deep ruts. Still, while the drive in was exciting, the place was useless for a cache, so I am glad I didn't do miles of walking as well as end up with nothing.

The good news of the visit was that en route home we found a restaurant/pub in a village about half an hour or so from home, which we sort of knew, but never before stopped at.  It was brilliant! Nice ambience, friendly and efficient staff, good food at silly prices and draft beer at 80p a pint. No need to tell you that Roy was extremely happy. I offered to drive the rest of the way, so he had a gypsy roast with cucumber salad and TWO pints. Happy chappie indeed!

A happy Roy after a good lunch

Today was a busy household day: we did some cleaning, 3 lots of washing, I have filled our medicine boxes, popped down to the chemist in the next village for some of my medicines as well as for a quick shop for things that we have forgotten yesterday, and made my friend Klári's bed as she is coming out tomorrow.

The newly found pub

She had an operation some weeks back and while she is on her feet now, she still needs company to be around her. I invited her to come hiking with me, and as long as it is not too demanding, she said she would join me.  Roy is rather happy about this, as he would not have to come to my next geocaching outing. So  Klári and I are off tomorrow to visit the other adopted cache, which is pretty good, so it should not give me too much work, I hope, and then do another little hike from another village to a supposed spring, to see if that might be worthy of a cache.  My suspicion is that it will either not be there at all, or dried up and neglected, like so many others before it. We'll see - said the blind man!

Weather is still like in the palm house at Kew Gardens, but I am praying for some breeze tomorrow. Will report back on that trip in my next post. TTFN!

The long weekend

Last Thursday we returned to town, as we had to see our friends Ros and Ian to hand them something to post for us at home. I then packed and got ready for my trip West with my friend Gyuri to do a spot of geocaching.

Gyuri at the first lake

The plan was originally to have a threesome, but our friend Judith had fallen off a chair and has to wear a strict belt with no bending and very limited movement otherwise, so it was just Gyuri and I. He picked me up at the prearranged place and off we went. Needless to say that he had all sorts of plans that I didn't know about, but he is just like that, one has to get used to it.

Golgotha on top of the hill by the chapel

He bought some stuff for the club at home and we had to deliver it to the Chairman, who thankfully lived not a million miles from our route.  Still, we didn't really start caching until about 10:30, which is a seriously late start. The program was to pick caches up as we progress towards our B&B westwards and that is what we did.

The lake at Tata

Places visited included a lake, a hilltop chapel with stages of the cross around it, a mining museum, a lovely old theatre, another 2 lakes, a steep hill in a town where you could have 360 degree panoramic views from, several lookout towers, an old boats' museum, a ruined castle and finally the world famous horse breeding centre in Bábolna. Good and very busy first day.

The next day we were doing a circular trip out, as we were booked into our B&B for two nights. This region where we were has been a very marshy part of the Danube's ecosystem, which unfortunately got very dry after Slovakia dammed and diverted the main riverbed. Later they managed to come to an agreement that enabled the dried out parts to receive some water, but it is no longer as romantic and biologically diverse as it had been before.

Chapel on top of Tata at the Eagle's top

Still, we saw some lovely places, many oxbow lakes, gravel pits, cut off bits of the river where people can fish or boat or just have a good time. There were embankments built up to prevent flooding everywhere and recently they covered quite a few of them with tarmac, so we could drive along them to see more in a day. We met lovely fisherfolk, gorgeous waterbirds, visited a fantastic and enormous set of locks and lock gates. We nearly saw (the water levels were too high and covered it, so we didn't) a concrete boat, which seems quite like a contradiction in terms.

The Radnóti memorial

We also saw the memorial to one of Hungary's greatest 20th century poets, Miklós Radnóti, at the place he was shot and killed by an SS officer in 1944 on a forced march to a concentration camp. That was a very moving experience, especially that he was, and still is, one of my favourite poets of all time.

The lake at the village of Levél

While we were having all this fun, a certain young couple tied the knot, but we saw nothing of it and felt all the better for it. On Sunday we stayed mostly in the same area, but we also popped over the border, which was amazing as it led us along the dammed river, where there was an enormous lake. I have already been on it more than 10 years ago when travelling by hydrofoil to Vienna, but it looked even more impressive from the bank.

Lock gate on the big dam

Finally the last day was spent in Sopron and its environs and that was much fun as well.  Once at home I had all that paperwork to do: log all my finds, upload little stories and photos, enter those that are on the other site (geocaching.com) as well, plus update my password data base. I also had a concert on the Tuesday night, which was really brilliant. Piotr Anderszewski, a Polish/Hungarian pianist was playing Mozart and Poulenc with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. It was superb and his conducting skills were also amazing.  How he could play large pieces on the piano, while conducting as well, I'll never understand.

The chateau at Fertőd, the Hungarian Versailles

And then finally we left town and have just arrived in Bér a few hours ago.  Since then I have done a load of washing and put it outside in the glorious sunshine to dry and now am indoors in the cool sipping a drink and occasionally typing on the computer.

The plans for the next week/10 days include trying to finish my series of spring caches, which still have a long way to go; travel to replace one of my caches that had disappeared; tend to the garden and the herb patch; pick cherries, should they become ripe and possibly even make jam.

The big church at Fertőszéplak

All the best to you all! Next post probably next week or so.