Saturday 28 November 2015

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!