a bid bedder... still in Mildro

The snow's gone, my cold is still here sporadically, while Alan managed to catch it after a week of heroic resistance. But not too bad, no fever, decent appetite. he hopes to be well enough tonight to attend quiz. I am well enough, but elect to stay home keeping dad's company, I found those not taking part cannot hear the questions anyway, so for them it is boring, and I cannot chat to the others. We did have the curry last saturday, eleven of us, was very pleasant, only very few grumbles from Alan... No news from Kiskassa, lets hope that's good news. Erika the mayor e-mailed that the free wood arrived and was duly distributed to the families in need. It is snowing there, so it is good that the extra wood arrived in time. We hope to be back to our normal by Friday, we plan to spend the afternoon in Manchester and to meet Szonya at Piccadilly Station in the evening. We are arriving back to Budapest on Monday 4th feb and to Kiskassa on the 6th, picking up Hyppo from the toyota repair place in Pecs, it needed new batteries, I forgot to tell the story about Alan leaving on the fog-lamp... the call-out insurance thing worked well - so far.

see last post...

... which is much more interesting. I could attach a lovely xmas-card foto - there is thick snow here in Milnrow, near Manchester, UK, and bone-biting winds are getting through all cloths if you venture out. Which I refused to do today, letting Alan to face the elements and see friends on his own, as I managed to catch a bit of a cold I shouldn't pass on as an extra with the paprika infused presents. Ah well, can't everything go smoothly all the time. Back to camomile tea, telly with dad and kindle... Watching the snow-scape outside from the warm living room is ok, really.

... and off again...

well, you need a bit of bad news to be able better appreciate the good ones... all the Indian running ducks were killed - the opinions wary about the murderer - Gus was named, but just maybe they were not locked up that fatal night just before xmas... still, whatever, a lot of money and work wasted. We'll try again in the spring - Erzsi still have 3 we promised to have as further breeding stock. Alan is into a scheme to raise money from this global website for good causes - his being communal bio-brick production from waste paper, and tree planting. He made his promotional video today - and is quite happy with the outcome of the very first trial, the very first video he's ever made - not too bad. Have to figure out how to put it here and to youtube. Got it!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIi6P0suiBM Otherwise, Charlie left on Saturday and is flying back to Canada tomorrow; it is quick cleaning, packing, re-packing before our next trip - to Alan's Dad, Milnrow Lancashire, our flight to Manchester is on Friday, 18th, we'll return on the 6th of February, staying a few days at Marta's. Martin had his article published in Science and had interviews with the harvard astro blog as well as the Toronto Star - here is the photo made by the Star photographer.

BÚÉK 2013

what a weird sound to 2013 - too much like sci-fi time-warp... (sorry Lois - this is called lazy blogging) Bit of anti-climaxish here, kids all' flown away yesterday and got the messages that they arrived safely and were too knackered to go out to celebrate. we went to the grand Silvester concert with Marta, and Alan, the birthday boy, who totally disliked it and I won't hear the end of it for a few years. I thought it was quite good and interesting if not memorable... Walking the downtown streets were not as I remembered - quite devoid of what could be called crowds, but a lot of small groups/couples roaming around looking for something of past jollyfications, like us. still, all not bad, and resolution is (mine) to only eat when hungry, food devoid of unhealthiness... hm except the poppyseed beigli that begged to be finished... there lingering here sulkily xmas cake, xmas pudding, beigli - and a decent portion of lentil, which has to be eaten on New Years Day to make one beautiful and rich... The last few days were a pleasantly lovely blur of drinks, food, ambling on the streets and lots of mulled wine. Went to see the new Ken Loach film Angels' Share, that was as good as usually is, enjoyable with -sorry if I mess it up for you - happy end for a change. Went to see the Cezanne exhibition with Sharon (great - except us being not so much interested in the scatches) and discovered on the way back from the Museum of fine arts a great Turkish coffee/tea house. We went to see my sister's on the 25th, having a real family xmas meal, minus any stress, all was just lovely, kids adults all having a good time. Hope to get fotos soon. Sharon was taken to her first cave-visit; went to the Pálvölgyi dripstone cave, that was quite impressive especially being practically in the middle of Buda, though much less dripsones/stalactite/stalagmite than I remembered. So as you can see, it was yet another joyous holiday, especially as kids+extra kids were here, marred with the eventual parting. oh yes! We treated (if they agree to that verb) the non-hungarian contingent (Sharon and Drew) to Fungarian - which is an hour of intensive lesson in Hungarian language and customs in the Katapult pub... we rescued them after a free extra 30 minutes by the very enthusiastic teacher, the students seemed a bit bewildered, but claimed that they enjoyed the experience and who are we to doubt their words. best wishes again for all who bothers peeping through these non=too-exciting and lately non-too farming bloggings. Fotos are again dominated by food as usual - I hope more being sent by Szonya and Sharon in the next few days. You can see tökfőzelék in the Kádár kifőzde, flódni, which is the cake with layers of poppyseed, wallnuts and apple filling, the Széna tér market (also food) and of course, xmas pudding (bought all the way from England)