December - Hibernation Time!

12th December 2013

Winter creeps upon us with stealth and relentless vigour! Its still early December and so far it has been suprisingly mild, the temperature reached 10 degrees on a day or two last week, but the night time has also dipped to -4. We have only had one light flurry of snow so far, and mostly the days have been bright, sunny, and crispy, with averages at between 7 and 10 degrees. Our local friends warned of fog, but so far that too has stayed away.
I love watching Roly when I let him out in the early morning, remember he is almost completely deaf, and his eye sight is also beginning to fail him a little, but "The Dog Whisperer" said that we should not feel sorry for dogs as they don't feel sorry for themselves and just adapt, which he does! But he does not hear the sounds around him, the chickens to the left and right of us, the dogs, also both sides of us, he is locked in his own little world, mostly of smells, and there are some stray wild cats around, that come onto the property whilst he is lying in front of the fire, trussed up in his blankie, and it annoys him intensely to smell their tracks. If he gets an especially strong whiff, he plants his back legs wide apart, and gives a few resounding barks in the air, all the while looking back to the house to see if we are watching what a "very good watch dog" he is, then he comes screeching inside and his little fat body feels ice cold!!

Indoors, well, it is just darn right cosy! We have our kitchen log burner going during the day, as we spend most of our time in there, and late afternoon, early evening we light both of them. They are absolutely awesome! The fire in the bedroom was a secondhand buy, through the expat club, and we got an absolute bargain! We have priced them new at around two hundred and fifty to three hundred quid, and thats without the pipes etc, we paid around one hundred and fifteen quid, inclusive of delivery and all the pipes! Our walls are about two foot thick, so its pretty well insulated and very very warm and cosy, with the added bonus of being able to watch a fire as they both have nice big glass doors, this, we have told Lotsi is our television! But there is nothing quite like settling down in bed at night and having the ambient flicking orange glow of warming flames to put you to sleep..........mmmmm its the little things that make life worthwhile!

We have no television, and even though we may miss it for a show or two, in general, we feel we are better off without it, as it used increase Steves blood pressure no end, and thats was just watching the news!
And we are not complaining, it is a time, according to those around us, to mend, fix, make and above all relax. It feels a little weird not having ANY family at all around us for Christmas, no sons, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts or uncles, you get the picture! Nada! Its just going to be the three of us!

However, we did have our "Bailey Builders" Xmas office party last week! That was a wonderful day out, Roly, poor boy wasn't invited.

We caught the bus into Marcali, and small town about 5kms away.

Waiting for the bus - Office Party.

As you can see, it was a glorious day!
We had a gorgeous steak, stopped off at at few very nice lounges and bars, and drank a few of these nasty shooters they call Unicum, urgh!

Me chatting up the boss!

I made "Employee of the Year!" and got promted to "Chief Brick Scrubber" from next Spring thats why I look so happy!!

Some pictures of our clean cute and very quaint village!




















Saturday 21st December 2013

Well, its now officially mid-winter, although my friend Pam says that this is the start of winter! But we feel a little better knowing that from tomorrow we will get a litte more daylight. And according to the locals, its been very mild and there has normally been much more snow.

Our window has been fitted (finally!) to our patio, so the whole thing is now enclosed, this has done an amazing face lift to the house, its has made the whole place seem bigger, the sun streams into the patio in the mornings warming up the whole area.

Since last entry, we have been to the ex-pat Xmas party, which was good fun. Its nice to socialise with the English, they are a lovely bunch of people.
We have also had a night out with Pam and Glynn and had a drink at my Dad's Pub.

So, to sum up the last ten months here in Hungary, we have to say, we are not sorry, we have not regretted the move not for a second, we are both so very happy here, our life has changed immeasurably for the better, we have a better quality of life and we are both so much more relaxed.

We love our home, we love each other and we love our life!
Merry Xmas all, and a very happy 2014.....

Last Of the Work For 2013

The weather is finally closing in on us, temperatures are now dropping and apparantly next week we will see the first of the minus figures, so we are having to pack up everything and put it all away until next spring.
Its such a shame really we are so close to finishing our patio, but it will just have to wait now!

We are very proud of it, it has taken some hard slog from both of us! The bricks look absolutely fantastic, each one is unique!

We probably have only about six or seven more rows to do and they are getting shorter and shorter, damn winter!!! I will post more pictures of the details next year when we have completed it.....

But this has been our main objective during the last month!

This is our central heating for the next four months! 

We have absolutely no idea if it is enough, too much or if we will run out???? 

We have spent around GBP300, plus some wood we inherited with the property, which we reckon had been in this wood store for around 20 years, as it was so dry and hard it feels and sounds like white bone! The main type of wood used for internal woodburners in this country we have discovered is a strain of Acacia, and the stuff you see in the middle and to the left of the picture is mostly that, Steve and I have split most of what we had a month ago, it has given us a huge sense of satisfaction as we will have no horrible central heating bills, its paid for! The long logs to the right of the picture were delivered on the day the picture was taken, two days ago, and another load yesterday, its our kind of insurance policy, just in case!!! We will take stock, in mid winter 21st December and compare pictures we have taken to what is left, and decide whether we should shut our bedroom down and move into the spare room near where the kitchen fire is to conserve wood, but lets hold thumbs!

Life is still absolutely marvellous though! We have people coming and going every day, I am presently helping a 56 year old chap to learn English, he goes to night school and brings me his homework in the afternoons, in turn he tries to teach us a little Hungarian.

Lotsi our Hungarian buddy is always in and out, and we had a lovely visit from Atilla and his wife Rita, the house was owned by Atilla's grandmother whom we bought it from, they were pretty impressed with the work we had done.

But, as I said, winter is coming and we will have to go into hibernation for a couple of months now!

Here are a few pictures of our village.

Our nice peaceful street! Standing on the main road, the yellow building on the right is the council offices.

Good old rural country, these horse and carts come past our house all the time!

And lastly, Lake Balaton in all its autumnal glory!

Stay warm dry and safe everyone!!!

Busy! Busy! Busy!!

Since last posting we have had a wonderful visit from my Granddaughter Tullulah and her mother Vikki. The weather could have been better, but Lu and I had a lovely eight days spending some quality time together.

Day of arrival, having fun loving and squeezing the gorgeous girl!

We went swimming in Lake Balaton which was freezing but they braved the water. We played dollies and ate out lots, also went to the warm thermal baths and had a goof there.

Last night out to dinner.

Vikki sampled our local and very cheap wine, and gave it her seal of approval, especially when we told her that it was only 85 pence a bottle, she mentioned that for the same "glass" of wine it would have cost her four quid at her local pub!! She is a great Mum to Lu who is pretty advanced for her age, chats non-stop!

Last night at Cotties! Our local resturant.

I loved having them here and hope they come back again next year, maybe in season and when it is a little warmer.

PATIO!

There has been some delays to the patio, we had to wait a week for delivery of some chippings to back fill, the Hungarians are an unreliable lot!!
Palfi our local builders merchant promised them on the Monday evening, 2 weeks before Lu and Vikki's arrival, we sat outside from 6pm, poured a drink and waited and waited and waited! By 11pm we were rolicking drunk and no Palfi!
On Wednesday we went to see his wife to tell her to remind him, (via sign language and gestures as she speaks no English!) she again promised delivery that evening, again we sat outside exercising immense patience but  - no Palfi!!!
On Friday we went to his yard where he keeps the chippings and Steve (again) shook hands with him, to us this means its a deal, but very obviously not in Hungary,  he again said "eshte", evening, and guess what, no delivery!!! Uurghh!!! Its so incredibly frustrating, Steve was ready to punch him, but of course we have to stay calm, stay calm..................
 On Sunday we spotted him at a small local fair and for the millionth time shook his  hand on Monday evening delivery (a week now!). As insurance we also rallied our local friend Lotsi, he got onto the phone with Palfi, and rattled off in Hungarian our urgent need for this stuff and yay!!!! A week late it arrived!!!
But it did set us back some what.
We spread the chippings and then the rain came...................

After chippings! Slow progress!

The first few rows.

We have also been a little bit torn between doing the patio, and now that autumn is here, we also need to get organised for winter. That means cleaving and splitting our wood. So again the patio took second place and Steve and I cleaved and split every log in the barn, which took some doing! He bought a small hydraulic splitter which makes short work of even the biggest logs, but it takes two people and a lot of time and patience, but also a great sense of satisfaction, knowing that we will not freeze this winter. The best part about it though is that our central heating is now paid for and no scary bills will arrive!!!

So to date, wood is chopped and its back to trying to do as much of the patio as we can before winter arrives, so I had better go, as the patio is calling!!

Sharon

Rates & Taxes

Today we had to pay our six monthly local council tax. We had been told that it would be reduced if we registered as Hungarian residents, so we spent a day last week in Koposvar jumping through the silly beaurocratic hoops  (Forms, forms and more forms!) and got our residents cards issued there and then for the princely sum of GBP3.00 each!

The six monthly bill stood at approx. GBP132.00, thats about what we paid monthly in the UK! We wondered down to our local council which is at the end of our street, and the nice lady there introduced us to a young chap who spoke English in the council, we produced our residents cards, and were told by him, that yes we would get a reduction, wait for it.........................

Its now GBP31.00 PER YEAR!

5,400 florints every six months, and at an approximate exchange rate of 340 florints to the pound, its just ridiculously cheap!
The council do not collect the rubbish, that has been privatised and is run by a very efficient German company who collect our bins once a week for the princely sum of GBP3.00 per month, so we pay GBP6.00 per month council tax and rubbish!
How is it that this country has clean well kept streets, no litter, decent roads, sewerage, street lighting etc for that amount, and Britian charges more than 200 percent more, and gives so little back??

Makes you wonder doesn't it????

Patio Progress

We are getting moving with our patio, this is essential before winter, as we need the verandah to be enclosed and we cannot do that until the patio is done.

Yesterday Lotsi our local Hungary friend (Borat) told us he had dismantled an old outbuilding and had plenty of old bricks, and Steve got the brain wave to surface the patio with these bricks, so today it has been a frantic offloading of bricks, as Lotsi wants them off the property as a tractor is arriving tomorrow to rotavate and the bricks will be churned to dust.

New!

So, I now have my new Hungarian teeth, (see pic's) and Steve and I went and had new hair styles as well! We are both slimming down due to more physical excercise, and are also getting nicely tanned, when we are able to get out in the sun, luckily it has rained a little and cooled down to a reasonable 28-30 degrees, we are also acclimatising more so the heat is not hitting us nearly as badly.

Today, we decided to walk up the hill, and dragged Roly along, his nails are getting long as he is not getting as many walks as the UK as the property here is so big, he is puffed just doing a lap.

Our local friend Lotsi told Steve an interesting local fact, and Steve wanted to show it to me. I videoed it see the video.

Carol and Mark the Aussies visit in baking 38 degree heat!

Lake Balaton cruises

Pleasure boat on Lake Balaton

Sunflowers and Kethely church in the background

Heat Wave!

The hottest day of the year in Hungary today at 40.2 degrees, and the second hottest day since 1902!
Steve Roly and I have spent the last week in the kitchen in front of an ancient old fan, glugging back gallons of water and doing as little as possible! Thank goodness for the internet.

My God its hot!!! 

At 8.00p.m its still 28-30 degrees, and my rolling lawn is getting browner and browner, I go outside at around six o clock and start watering, we have had no rain for at least a month now, and everything is dry as a bone in this heat. Because I am watering from the well with a pump that does not have good pressure, a sprinkler is useless, so I have taken to watering with my sprayer sitting in a garden chair, with vodka and a book and moving around as it takes me about two or three hours, and this is "just" keeping everything alive.

We are expecting visitors this weekend, luckily we finished the spare bedroom two weeks ago, it looks amazing! Steve did a fabulous job completing the window, plastering, doing the edging and putting in a window sill and some new blinds. We painted, changed electrical fittngs, and polished the parquet flooring which came up a beautiful honey colour, the room looks really good we are both really pleased with it.
(Pictures to follow).

I am on the down hill run with my teeth! The two implants have apparantly bedded into the bone nicely, they were "liberated" from my gum last week, and I have two strange metal plugs there now. Tomorrow, I will have the actual screws fitted, and then impressions will be taken of the top teeth for the final bridge! Yay!!
(Pictures to follow)

"A GRAND DAY OUT!"

We decided to have the day off on Friday! Why stress?? We were just a little bit hung over from the night before, as we had gone to the wine farm behind our house, and stocked up on 15 litres of merlot, and naturally it has to be taste tested doesn't it???

So the discussion over breakfast was, what to do with our precious day off?

Then we hit on the idea of trying out the buses.These run from the bottom of our street about 200metres away on the main Lake Balaton/Marcali road with some frequency. I wondered down to the bus stop, took a picture of the timetable on my phone and came home to mull over the bus times to Balatonmariafurdo, by the lake.
I asked an Hungarian friend of my to double check on the internet that I had the times right, and we caught the 1326hrs bus, it was a minute late!
The bus driver was freindly, and the journey cost us 250 florints each way, which is about 75 pence to go about 5 miles. Its well used by young and old, everyone getting on the bus greets everyone, there are no blaring ipods/phones, no hoodies, no bad, smelly dodgy people, no Indians, blacks, Pakistani's, bhurkas etc. Everyone is polite, well mannered and respectful.

It was a joy!

Steve and I wondered around the shops, had a great lunch, where we were both able to have some beers and vodka's, (no driver required!) we also managed to keep down a Palinka (Rocket fuel!) and caught the bus home again.

On the way home, the bus stopped at a designated stop in Balatonjulak, a female dashed over to the bus from her driveway with a bucket of peaches, these were loaded onto the bus, a chap got off, loaded another large tray of peaches onto the bus, there was much jabbering and chatting, then the bus driver, left the bus idling, got out the bus and went into this womans garden returning with another bucket of peaches, everyone, smiling laughing and joking all the while! No stress by anyone.....................

My son has always called the bus, "The Loser Cruiser!" referring to the service in the UK, but here its deffinately a winner!!!

June 2013 Phone Pictures!

Some Phone Pictures during June 2013.

This rose bush has been hack, ripped, cut, neglected and treated like a rubbish dump,
and look how beautiful it is! Like beauty and the beast....

Oregbaglas! Wine, delicious, for pennies!!! Its like being in paradise....

 Our bedroom fire! Winter isn't looking nearly as bleak!

A rainbow over the outside shitter! I ain't looking for the pot of gold there!

Those roses with my happy husband!

Pictures of the area we live in...

Here's a few pictures around where we live, enjoy...

View down our backyard

Rainbow over our back yard.

Pleasure ferry in Keszthely, few miles from us.

Town centre of  Keszthely, simply gorgeous!.

A farmhouse up the hill behind us, viewed from the wine farm, Oregbaglas ( see it on google

Enjoying a Giro in Pita with friends Greg and Monika...

Another Before and after in the Garden!

BEFORE! With all fences and posts still up.....

AFTER! Fences down and grass seed sown...........

Before and After!

Main bedroom when it was still a hairdressing salon!

Now! Roly thinks its okay....

It does not look like there was much work involved, however, it took Steve and Lotsi a week just to sort the floor out, after fifty odd years of hair washing the floor had so much damp that they had to rip up the very manky floorboards and dig up smelly sand, then throw a hard core and then concrete, the plaster began leaping off the walls when you so much as glanced at it, and ten bags of cement had to be added to the walls to keep them standing. What a job! What a mess!!!

Steve is not happy with the end result (perfectionist!) but Roly and I love our new huge bedroom....

Three Months

We have now been here for three months, its hard to believe as the time has flown. Remembering that for the first month we were basically snowed in and incommunicado as we had no internet or phone.

But once the sun came out, the work began.
Steve and a local lad Lotsi pulled out fences and posts, which chopped the property into small sections, a tractor came in and ploughed up the earth and we now have much more garden, I then started raking and sewing grass seed, I think our neighbours are convinced of our madness, as they have prolific vegetable patches and watch us growing useless and inedible grass, but the fruit and veg shop down the road sells the freshest produce around for a pitance so we are putting off the self-sufficency thing until next year, there is just too much to do in the house.

We are finally in the main bedroom, this was a huge undertaking as the floor had some damp, and had to be dug up and a new floor of concrete thrown.This was all done by my amazingly versatile husband and Lotsi. The walls were also a bit suspect, and 10 bags of cement went into keeping them upright.
Steve is not happy with the final product, but I love it, its bright and big and ours and who cares about the imperfections, its an old farmhouse and has character!!!

I had my final fitting of my bottom teeth on Monday, they look amazing, I finally have a full set of bottom pearly whites. I will have to wait until July for the top row to be fitted as the implants need 3 months to bed in, but hey I have patience, and told the dentist I wanted them all complete by my birthday on 1st September, so everyone is working towards that date.

Renovations have come to a bit of a halt! I think we can probably blame the weather which has turned a little chilly after the 25-30 degree days of the last month, there is a lot of rain in around, which is brilliant for the grass.
I notice my husband is doing a lot of thinking and a lot of research on the web.
The bathroom is the next big job, and by the sounds of it, its a big big bloody job, what with the water pipes, sewerage, floor and electrics and not forgetting that we are actually living here and can only go without washing for.....??? a day or two.
Plus we just are not able to get any professional help from any tradesmen here, they are all working in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Austria and anyone left behind is pretty useless and wants to charge a fortune.
But watch this space.................

Our socail life is pretty good.
We have joined the ex-pat community of Brits, they are a nice bunch (if a little older than us), they are all very sociable, plus we have an English couple living in the same village as us, and they are really nice decent people, and we found a pub run by an Englishman Stan not far from us, he is good fun and includes us in all his gatherings, so all in all actaully a better social life then we ever had in England, possibly because we could not afford to go out there as the price of a pint there can practically buy as both a meal here!!!

So after the three month milestone, I can say that both Steve and I are happier than we have been for a long time, we still love Hungary, as does Roly, the weather has been awesome, and we just love love our home!

We feel good and comfortable and safe in it and and have absolutely no regrets!!!

Sharon

A Dog Blog!

This is me Roly the family pet.I am a little older and greyer then this pic, but still the same lovable adorable me!

I love this new place we have moved to, I was a little frightened in the beginning, as its such a big wide open space, and I am a little hard of hearing, and the folks have yet to buy me some contacts so my eyes are not as sharp as they used to be either.

But once thar horrible cold white stuff melted, and I could begin the long walk of marking my teritory, I discovered the most delightful smells,there are umpteen bushes and trees  to mark and joy of joys, the two silly sheep are frightened to death of me!

It takes me a good rwenty minutes to walk around my new back yard, and on either side of me , are fellow dogs, we touch noses and trade news every day!

The weather is lovely and warm and my parents are around most of the time to cater to my every need, so life is coming up daisies!!!!

Roly

Finally connected!!!

It has taken us over 2 months to get an internet connection at home, we perserved and refused to take Nem (No) for an answer and it paid off!!!!
The last 2 months have gone in a bit of a blur, the first was the coldest weather the Hungarians have experienced in a 100 years, snow fell with alarming regularity, and Steve and I camped on two sofas pushed together in the lounge in front of the ceramic wood burner which saved our and little dog Roly's lives!!!
By the second week of April it was like chalk and cheese the the temperature gauge rose and rose and has not stopped, its 31 degrees now, but the house is lovely and cool.

The Hungarians are by and large a friendly lot, once they see that an attempt is being made to converse with them in their very strange and difficult tongue they don't seem to mind us, the Ungool (English) in their very sweet village, out British vehicle and odd number plate causes a lot of drivers to tailgate and get a better look and all the locals know our car.

We are still camping, my dishwasher is still wrapped in plastic, and my hands are chapped and red from washing bloody dishes???!!!! Its slow going trying to get any tradesmen to come and do any work for us, as the Germans, Austrians and the UK are snapping up all tradesmen with any talent, and they are all going where the money is!!!!
So we have resorted to DIY home impovements, with the help of a local neighbour, whom we have put on the payroll at 600florints per hour (GBP1.70) and worth every penny! He does not speak any English, but is young enough and smart enough to understand what we want, and we all manage to have a laugh, get things done in the universal language of charades!

So, Life in Hungary is just wonderful! We have no television, and have had no internet, and we did not really miss either one very much at all, the days are long, the wine is good and red and cheap! What more could anyone ask for?

Arrived!!!

Well, we arrived safely, after a gruelling 24 hour journey through UK, France, Holland Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and into Hungary. Steve drove like a star for 19 bloody hours without a single moan (Amazing!) Roly slept most of the way, such a good boy........ but then blew it all by hurting his leg on our first morning by jumping from a sofa onto the slippery parquet flooring and tearing ligaments or something making him a cripple and in pain.

Our wonderful Hungarian neighbours had lit fires and switched the boiler on for us on our arrival, so all was well.
Will try to post more later but we are battling for internet at moment.................

Packing and funerals...
Well, this is my first post on the blog...looks like our lorry is going via Belgium to drop off my friends stuff over there and then he should arrive sometime Friday for the big trek to Hungary.
It is with sadness that we must attend the funeral on Monday of the dear old lady that lived in our house in Hungary before us, we will have been over there for two days so no pressure really, will be a very sad affair, as she was much loved.
Our house in blighty is now almost packed and the garage is full with boxes etc, where did a this crap come from?...still it's going to be like xmas when we start unpacking...
Great adventure starts shortly, watch this space.
Steve

Exterior Pictures

Two Weeks to Go!

Everyone has mentioned that the easiest way to communicate our progress would be to create a blog! Be patient as I am new to this blogging stuff.

We have two weeks left to go, I have eight shifts left to work..............................
The house is in a kind of organised turmoil at the moment, we have managed to crowbar the youngest son and all of his goods out, and not before time. I'll say no more on this subject.

Steve and I have moved into the spare room, and Steve is trying to dismantle our King size bed, without tools, which are all, already in Hungary!!!!

Roly, the old pooch, looks increasingly more concerned as boxes and suitcases get filled, he doesn't like suitcases, its always bad news for dogs!
BUT NOT THIS TIME!!!!

I keep telling him that he is comin' wiff!!!! But he lies down, generally right underfoot, eyebrows twitching in concern, watching the progress with much trepidation.
His EU passport is up-to-date, he is been jabbed, swabbed, squeezed, prodded and scanned, and deemed fit for the road trip across Europe, I spent £20 on a variety of different squeaky toys, which he is only allowed to have in the HH (Hungarian Home).

It seems as if the van is all organised, and should arrive at some point on Friday 22nd Feb 2013, we have faith..................................

We are running out of days to say good bye to people, and have had a very boozy two weeks, having drinks with neighbours, and work buddies, with no end in sight at the moment, we may need to leave the country in order to save our livers!!!!