October & November 2015 - Getting it Together.

October 2015

October turned a little chilly, and I began marking off the calendar counting down the days to Christmas.
It landed up being a very quiet month, which suited us, aside from the rugby world cup which finally saw the Springboks beaten by the Aussies.
For many reasons, not the least is that we would like to be able to defend ourselves should there been an invasion, one of the first things we did in October, was buy these two beauties.

Beautifully crafted recurve bows, we are having such fun with them.
I spent a lot of time this month practising, our target stayed a virgin for a few weeks before we got the hang of it.

During the first week, we spent two days again at Mariska and Les's house making vension and pork sausage.
Les, being a hunter had mounds of vension, which we minced along with pork, smoked fat and spices, and a two day team effort produced double this picture.

Our share of the sausagefest weekend.

On the 10th the guys who promised to come and lay the kitchen floor, actually pitched up on time and did the job.
The floor has been the hold up, so we were very chuffed to finally get that out of the way.
We then spent another week trying solve the kitchen cupboard issue, and finally settled on a company to come out and fit the righthand corner cupboards for us, but they could only do this in November, doh!

I spent hours and hours building up very hard questions for the Balatonbrits quiz night, as last years heralded three winners, and I wasn't going to let that happen again!

I also tried to spoil my chickens giving them more free ranging time in the garden, as I knew their days were numbered!

After a very successful quiz day on the 28th October, I resigned from running the ex-pat club due to some very stupid critical people who have nothing better to do then, pick holes in everything I did.
Steve and I celabrated this at the usual place, catching the bus into Marcali and having a lovely evening out.

Still the best burgers in Hungary!

NOVEMBER 2015

Starting to light fires in the evening, nights are drawing in, the leaves are making a mess everywhere, but the autumn colours are still an amazing array of golds, oranges and browns.

On the 5th November the kitchen fitters arrived, and two hours later, the left hand corner was done!

Steve then cracked on with the tiling on the walls, and we are both very very happy with the result.

On the 7th we had Mariska and Les around for an evening, along with the beautious Maddie.
We decided to bus it to Marcali so that we could all have a drink. Steve and I have done this many times we know how the buses worked, or so we thought!
This being a Saturday, when we went to the bus stop to catch our 7.30pm bus home, there was no bus! They only run Monday to Fridays, oops!
So we went back into our local bar run by a lovely lady called Judit, who speaks no English, explained in our broken Hungarian that there was no bus, next minute her, and at least three other people around the bar, were hauling out their mobile phones trying to organise us a lift home!
Which they did in short order. The chap, half heartedly refused the 5000huf   (Twelve quid) we waved at him but we left it for him, very grateful to be back in our village!
Another testament to Hungarian generosity of spirit!

Do we look worried?

We had a great laugh, and invited them back on the 21st to help us finish the food in our freezer, before our journey South.

Putting the chickens to bed one night, I discovered a sweet little hedgehog, making himself a bed in one of the chicken houses, I put some straw over his little sleeping body, and he snuffled, sighed and snuggled in further without even opening his eyes. Here's hoping for a Happy Hedgehog family! Sleep well Harry Hedgehog.

What dampened everyone's spirits were the crazy goat shaggers blowing people up and shooting them in Paris on Friday 13th, 130 people in various locations were killed in one stupid wasteful way or another by some idiotic radicals all in the name of ......
I am not going to make this Blog about politics, but I think you all know our views on this subject and the non-stop invasion we are having in Europe.

We hosted our final dinner party of the year, with Sue and Klaus and Mariska and Les. The kitchen was very crowded with the six of us plus Maddie. It was a great evening, everyone had a good laugh!

My chickens were uncermoniously bagged up in a sack yesterday and shipped over to our Hungarian friend Istvan's place, and dumped in with his chickens, where they all began fighting! They are now in a tiny (smelly) concrete hock dreaming of the paradise they had here.
My poor girls!

We are now closing down and counting down to Christmas, yay!

My next blog may well be from much sunnier climes where we will be enjoying another summer! We were so bored last winter, we are heading South like the smart birds do!

August & September 2015

So, with the party safely out of the way, Steve began the mammoth task of renovating the kitchen!
Immediately the house went from cleanliness and order, into utter chaos again! Firstly we removed everything from the kitchen that we possibly could, into the lounge, we have set up a mini "summer kitchen" in the entrance hall, with the stove, butchers block, table and a couple of cupboards for the bare necessities. The microwave is now in the bathroom and the fridge in the boot room, its all functional for us, but we won't be having any dinner parties any time soon!
The first job was getting the new water pipe inside, this meant digging up the floor through the pantry and into the kitchen, what a mess!

Pantry! Water pipe coming in from outside.

Digging up the kitchen floor.

Then the new electrics went in, this without a hitch, amazingly enough for Hungary, we found a reliable and efficient electrician who re-wired the house and kitchen in a weekend of endless dust, angle grinding and hammering. Fourteen plug sockets went into the kitchen at strategic points.

My 55th birthday  was spent with some good friends at Mesters having a meal out. The evening was sweltering! Ditto our anniversary on the 7th September came and went, 19 years together we treated ourselves to a slap up meal, which was just as well as there was no further progress on the kitchen.

Aside from our kitchen renovations, September was the month when the migrant crisis became international news. Our Prime Minister Vikto Orban, erected a fence to protect our borders from a mass invasion, much to the vilification of the media and the world, personally we gave ourselves a private pat on the back for choosing Hungary as our retirement spot, with a Government that refuses to bow down to Political Correctness, and puts the Nation and its people first.
That crazy cow who runs Germany, opened her arms wide, issuing a welcome to the refugees, who came in droves, thwarted by Hungarys fences they were forced to find other ways to get to Germany and UK, and this caused some tension between the neighbouring countries, Croatia and Slovenia, but since then, many more fences and border controls have been put into place, which only reinforces our high opinion of Mr Orban as a forward thinker.

We had another visitor in mid September when Max the pooch came to stay. A lovely chap, with crazy idiocyncries but no trouble at all. He was on hunger strike for two days, until I cooked him some pork mince, which he decided was excellent grub!

Other September notable notes, was that the Rugby World Cup started, and Series Five of Downton Abbey, two of my most favorite Television occupations!
Since we do not own a television, we were welcomed into the lovely home of our good friends Mariska and Les, everytime the Springboks were playing rugby, we spent some lovely evenings staying overnight and there, we fell in love with their precious Maddie, a darling happy hunting Spaniel. I gifted her with a pink bunny, as she chews nothing (being a well trained hunting dog) and she in turn fell in love with the wabbit.

And then on the 25th September we packed our kit and went off on a beautiful easy drive to Slovenia for a spot of "Glamping"!
It was situated in the gorgeous setting of Lake Bled, we had booked an "A" frame hut, complete with outside hot tub. Friends Carol & Alan, pulled their caravan to the same site, and we had a marellous couple of days, chilling, drinking eating, laughing and to end the days events,soaking in the hot tub.

Steve cooking breakfast. Hottub on the right.

The hot tub was this crazy bath, behind those
wooden slats was a stainless steel fire box
submerged into the water. Two logs, and the water
was steaming.

We absolutely loved it!!! Every evening after saying goodbye to our caravan buddies we would pour a drink and have a soak in the tub. Steve has promised to build us one, hopefully next year!

More pictures of Slovenia and Lake Bled follow.

The Happy Couple!

The only other significant thing that happenned in September, and in Slovenia, was that I got the archery bug.
This chap (see below) dressed in traditional garb, was selling ten arrows for five Euro's and I had a go, and absolutely loved it.

And so, my closing words are that this invasion of Muslims is on everyones lips and minds, the EU leaders simply do not have a clue what to do.
We are just very glad that we are middle aged and safe in the arms of Hungary!

All Happenning in June & July 2015

It has been a really busy month. The calendar was chock full of dinners, lunches, days out and general socializing.
In the main, the weather has been utterly gorgeous as well, with a thunder storm or two to cool down the heat of the day, June started off with 32 degree heat, and actually too hot for us to do anything meaningful.
The garden started to bloom in amazing fashion.

One of the few shrubs that were actually here when we bought the place, we have no idea what it is??





The utterly glorious hanging baskets we bought for a fiver each, they look like they have been switched on, the colours are so vivid.

The bad, sad news is that our attempt at giving up smoking failed!
We got very bad tempered, hot and bothered about the whole thing, so we decided not to bother!

On the 8th June our new additions to the family finally arrived, on a small enclosed trailer, our forester friend Lazlo and his helper, literally got them by the horns and herded the two girls into our bottom paddock, where he himself had planted our 550 odd trees.
They were very bewildered, having come from a large flock. Strange looking sheep, they are an Hungarian breed called Racka, reknown for being easy to keep, and timid, with these spiral horns going straight up from their head.

The general idea is that these two girls would save us the HUGE task of mowing and weed eating the field where our future fire wood is in its infancy.

After their first bewildering night, where we could not get them into their home, and eventually herded them in with the chickens, they setlled into their purpose built hut.
A week later I watched for for a good thirty minutes and low and behold, the stupid buggers are eating the very trees they were put on this earth to protect!!

Lots of re-organising ensued and they are now living in peaceful harmony with the chickens.




I organised a picnic for the members of the Balaton Britons club on the 24th June. Another excellent event, lots of food for the tables, a beautiful day, and fun was had by all at the lake.











On the 27th June, we went up into the woods behind our house in the little green Fiat, with a few bottles of wine to watch the sunset, to cut a very long story short, a few dodgy looking gipsies spoilt the ambience, and appeared to be chasing us, in a page out of the movie "Deliverance" so Steve tried to put some miles between them and us, and the car stopped almost dead having hit a rock in the dirt road, the oil light immediately came on, and we knew then that the Fiat was "Dead Fred!"


JULY 2015

We finally finished the patio. A labour of love for the last two years. Scrubbing and laying the bricks, putting up the roof, sealing the bricks with patio sealer "three times!"
Steve "Mr Perfectionist" Bailey was determined to make it perfect, and it is!

BEFORE!

AFTER!

 It is truly like being on holiday.

We then held the BIG party!!! Steves 60th birthday.....
This has been seven months in the planning and everything we have been doing in the house and garden ans been towards this day.
And what a great day it was.
36 people attended. The weather was just perfect, the company was wonderful and the whole day went off without a hitch.

b

Thanks to everyone who came. A special thanks to Sue for making the cake, and Von for the curry.

We had a mega mega heatwave! Mid July was in the mid thirties, and work ceased.
Luckily the ladies found a shady spot at the Thermal baths and we had a joyous warm day out.

I love these days out with the ladies, they are very special!

The heatwave lasted until the 26th July and then the weather broke with an awesome display of thunder lightening and yay rain rain rain!
The temperature then HALVED to a very chilly 19 degrees, a huge swing from the 35-38 degrees, crazy weather but we love it!

At the end of July we had our Balaton boat cruise with the ex-pat club. This was a fabulous evening out with some good friends. Dinner served on the boat and then a wine festival at the harbour when we docked.

This is the old tug we went on. A 90 minute cruise up the lake.

Great people! Great place and awesome times!

I'll post this now and try and get on with August................... busy busy busy!

The Busy Month of May 2015.

After a heartbreaking April, May brightened up considerably, as time is always the big healer.
We console ourselves with the fact that we were good parents to our Roly,  we may have often spoilt him a little, but as a consequence, he turned out to be a great, fairly well balanced, content and happy dog and he had a wonderful life with us.

It also helped us to have sweet Max around. He is a friends dog, and whilst she was having a holiday in Rome, we cared for Max a very timid and gentle old chap, it was nice to have a pooch around, although he is nothing like Roly - well he's still a dog and he filled a little gap in our hearts.

.

Then, when the weather finally brightened up, we began the patio roof. After months in the planning, and many man hours spent by Steve, thinking and drawing, it began to take shape. The trusses went up without a hitch.

Then the plastic got slapped on, and only a little bit of trapeze work by Steve was required, in order to get to some elusive screws.
 

And finally, job done!

It makes such a difference to our house!
It seems to have created another room entirely.
We are able to sit out there in the rain, and it has made our bedroom cooler and somehow cosier.
I love it! Clever clever husband!!!

We also managed to rotavate the bottom patch, and have half-heartedly thrown some grass seed down. Last year we were a little ambitious and tried to grow some corn and sunflowers, this year we are just going to grass it out.

I lost two of my English Sussex hens in May! That was horrible, one by one, they went on a hunger strike and refused to eat or drink, and gave up. Papa got me some vitamin/antibiotic, but it did not seem to help at all and by the time I recognised the second one was on hunger strike, I began force feeding her. She lasted an extra day, but it didn't help, she still died.
Belatedly, we discovered that the bees from the huge hives next door are being attracted to my hens water, the hen eats the bee, and kazaam, she's a goner!
So I have a dish of sugared water in the sheep pen to attract the bees, and hope I don't lose any more.

Another highlight was meeting this lovely dude. May I present my Mojita drinking Irish buddy Dave!

There are sure to be more of these pictures in the future! Hurry back darling!

Pips also came to stay in May,  as his Mum and Dad had to go to the UK. He was in a bit of a sorry state on arrival, but Auntie Sharon soon fixed hm up!

An hour in the beauty parlor and a very sweet and loving old chap emerged! Smelling a lot better as well.

Finally!

On Friday 29th May 2015............................

Steve and Sharon............

Gave up smoking!

It has been five days now, and we are well into it, so here's crossing fingers that we stick to it!
May is gone, June is here, and some glorious weather stacked up, so, sorry gotta go!
xxxxx