End of Week 8...25 Nov 2015...

Wow, this is amazing to live in this type weather, even if it only ends up being for a year, a season.

If it's too harsh for me and if I can't heat the place sufficiently, I'll close it up and go to Prague or some hostel somewhere for winter. Then over the following 9 months, I'll get those nice water heaters in and connect them to the electricity...and I may even have to learn how to use gas too.

The fire is great, but every time you open the door to load wood in, some smoke escapes, gradually building up on the walls and ceiling. Plus it is too dangerous if anyone else is here when I'm not. So, next winter it will all be centrally heated.

I always wanted to be where the water froze over at night, to have the fires going and snuggle up, watching the umpteenth replay of Hogan's Heroes!

Actually, Hogan's Heroes is set in Germany, a "few hundred" klms from here, but filmed in Hollywood. The weather conditions in the series is like this here. They even have the sun positioned at the correct angles if you watch it carefully.

I can't seem to get the temperature inside the house up any more than 24C this afternoon, whereas every other time I light it, it heats the place to 27C in less than an hour.

I let the fire die off over night as it is so cozy by bedtime and I only need to sleep with a summer cover and a light throw, as it's lovely and warm. Even in the mornings it's still just under 20C every morning when I get up, so it seems to be OK so far.

But...to-day...Wow...it is different!

1/4 inch thick ice on the tubs of water this morning, the sun shone brightly, got the washing out and dry by lunchtime, had a cuppa and lunch on the verandah in the sun and then it clouded over and must have been zero by about 2pmish.

I never noticed this while travelling for the past 4 winters over here, as I was on the go all the time. This winter is going to be an exciting experience for sure.

I originally said I'd not do too much to the place until I'd tested the weather to see if I could handle it here, as I might have to leave if it was too adverse for me, even though I love the colder weather.

Now this will be the first full winter here in this house,(if my visa comes through, that is) so I'm getting a bit excited, wondering how it's going to turn out. Last winter I was on the coast, in Split, Croatia, the one before in Ireland and Australia, the one before in Prague, the one before in  Australia, Vienna, and EU in general.

So this will be the first one in 5 years, not on the move!

OK...Just changed the wood in the fire and it's up to 27C inside again. Weird, I forgot some wood burns hotter than others!

Out jogging this morning I came across this witch who was texting while driving her broomstick! On the farm up the road from me.

A great sense of humour these people have over here. 

Sunrise at 7.30am on my icy jogging track!

The poor little Minions, out in the cold all night, but still smiling!

This is for Jelena who has a scene like this from Belgrade...The back road of my jogging track...

Looks like snow to-day...but just a thick frost.

Back in time for breakfast...7.40 am.

The village fountain has been wrapped in plastic for winter...to stop pieces breaking off it... 

Curling smoke from Zoltan's Chimney is a wistful sight at sunset...

Will it be a clear day tomorrow or not? What does this sky tell us?

A big week this week...Bathroom floor being prepped and pipes laid down, ready for concreting...But no one is game to move the shower so we can concrete under it.

Double mesh over the cellar beneath Zoltan's feet...

Yeahy, the floor has finally been cemented...

Zoltan doing one of the 2 final waterproofing layers on the floor

2nd waterproofing layer being applied...a bit of smoothing out when it sets a bit and it will be as smooth as a baby bottom.

A nice pot of ice this morning...

Amazing...this ice was over 1/4 inch thick, it supported this log of firewood.....

OK...that's it until next week when all the floors will be smooth as, the end room walls all completed, the new doorway fixed up, the 2 new rooms all painted and I'll be grinning from ear to ear!

Wait for the next set of pics...

A Bathroom Floor!

Wow, getting this final piece of the jigsaw completed has been a lesson in patience!

One bathroom floor coming up...one day.

I just found out one must protect these flowers from the frost...

We have a break thru, from other room to kitchen for waste water pipes and  Hot n' cold water!

The other side...from under the new bedroom floor, going into the kitchen. This little wall is only a foot thick...

There it is...for the next lot of workers to fix hot and cold water, plus waste water pipes in the kitchen...

Now for the other end of those pipes...which will connect to the hot water and cold to go to the kitchen...

Digging the trench for the floor waste...in case the washing machine, loo or vanity overflows...

All done...waiting for my sons to rescue the situation. No one is game enough to move the hi-tech shower. hahaha...So I just have to wait until under the shower gets concreted...one day! But, if I put some matting etc over the concrete in the new bathroom until that day...who ever will know? I'm not worried, as the shower, basin and loo will be working OK...so no dramas!

A cupboard will go in the corner behind the door above, the door will be removed and a wall from where the door is now hung will go across to the wall I'm standing at to separate the bathroom from the other new bedroom to be. 
Then a cupboard will enclose the water heater, using the nice paneled doors from the old fireplaces. Was painting the walls, but decided to stop, as the patterns on the wall are so old, I decided to keep them as is...so when you open the cupboard, the patterns will be there for historical purposes. Of course it will all be tidied up...

A candle-light and champers party for the girls is next on the agenda before the wall goes in!

The first barrow load of base concrete...

The mesh is in place...This double strength is over the cellar below Zoltan's feet

Then it started raining, so the guys went home as they can't obviously work with electricity in the wet!

So, now I wait and see if Zoltan has munka (work) in Budapest tomorrow, if not I'll have the floor done by tomorrow (Monday) night!

Talk about the land of anti-climax!

OK...that's it for now...on a rainy, but delicious Sunday afternoon!

Fire going, just cooked a roast in the pan on top of the stove, am very full, but happy!
Lots of roast pumpkin, and the leanest of lean beef.
Not a skerik of fat in that meat...which probably accounts for it being a but dry, but delicious anyways.

I had the "baa-baah" butcher make me a few kgs of beef mince and wow, that meat has no...but no...fat at all in it!

OK...see you all next week.
Cheers
M

Well, it's all Done and Just Waiting Now...

Yeeehaaawwwh!

Big day to-day....

Applied for the staying visa up in Debrecen today and all went seemingly well.
They give you one year now and you just go up next year and re-apply, but with less initial stuff, like house stamped papers etc
.
Simple, now I know what to do!

Just love this ritual to hop on the trains...I feel like I'm in a continual cartoon over here.

And, you can still pop your head out the carriage windows. It was very warm today.

Arrived Debrecen at 1pm and the visa office opens from 3-5.30 pm for aliens of my ilk , so it was a nice relaxing stroll, the few klms to the bus stop, after a few getting lost episodes!

Such a pretty colour...

Really ornate this one!

Just so artistic...

Nearly got run over as I was backing back to get the entire building in this shot!

Just a nice day for a stroll...

Then out of the bus window, I saw block, after block of these units. A block of units. hahaha...dohhh, but there are 4 to each block. I thought it was funny anyways!

Then, to my own amazement, I actually found the correct building and in I went! It's a very long building, but I took a shot front on and it looks small.

This made me giggle...read it out loud.

It was busy as it's a huge University city, with students everywhere, applying for visas...and then there was moi! A nice lady took all my paperwork, etc etc.. When I say All, the paperwork...it was only 5 pages in total. 1 page for the house title, 2 for the application, a pile of withdrawal slips from the bank over the past months, my Passport and another 2 pieces that seemed like copies of the application and then she got me to write a 4 line statement of why I want to live here.

After processing all the info into the computer, she sent me to her colleague for a photo and fingerprinting.
My finger prints wouldn't print!

Apparently I hardly have any markings left as they are all worn off. She tried a few times, even had me rub my fingers over my forehead for some reason...but the prints were almost bald. So don't anyone say I never worked my fingers to the bone!

Then as I went in to the booth for the picture, I jokingly said...oh...I'd better do my hair...and she said..."there is the mirror" and on the wall behind me was a mirror!
Then she took my picture, showed it to me for approval and was ready to do another one if I didn't like it!
Don't you just love these guys? Imagine anyone offering you that where you are!

Anyways, now I have to wait 2-3 weeks for it all to go through the system and I'll be notified by mail if I'm approved.

Now I'm nervous.

So, back at the railway station at 6pm, train leaving at 6.50pm, I thought I'd celebrate my  long awaited accomplishment by having my first beer since leaving Australia. ...and a coffee. That mug thing was so heavy, I almost needed 2 hands to lift it! Amazing. Things are pricey at the station. This coffee and beer cost me $2,20 for the lot.

Anyways, the day was nice and I met the most beautiful girls, one from Egypt, one from Turkey. They started chatting whilst waiting at the visa office and such lovely kids too, one studying medicine and the other computer science.. So beautiful, especially the little Egyptian one. OMGoodness, never have I seen such beauty....and hair!!! Wow, almost black and wavy, curly and lots of it...not afro type, but stunning. It wasn't straightened, like the cookie cutter girls do and I commented about it and she said she had her personality and was not going to straighten it to look like all the stereo type girls.

Then I met an Egyptian boy, Michael...looked like an Aussie and spoke like a non accented pommie or American. Nice boy and we both walked out together at 5pm and it was pitch dark!
So I suggested we walk to the bus stop...as I knew where that was....well, I thought I did!

45 mins later, we came upon a bus stop, caught the bus into the city and had a great chat about refugees etc etc on the way. He was excited as I was the first Australian he'd ever met.. He is studying medicine too and thought my accent was lyrical!

Headed home after a big day...a bit of an anti-climax, as I thought I'd get my visa today.

Then, as I was feeling both chuffed and a bit fragile, having to wait for 2-3 weeks to see if they granted my visa, I entered the train and was greeted with the most beautiful red velvet seats! So, I took that as a signal from above, that indeed, all would be OK.

Beautiful. Real velvet too.

Life is so funny over here, honestly. It feels like I'm continually watching myself in an old newsreel movie.

This morning before leaving for Debrecen, I nearly fell head first into the dunny!

I had my high heeled boots on and tripped on the step into the dunny, tripped, fell forwards, head first, into the wooden seat hole ....yeah, yeah, yeah...I had visions of my head being stuck in the seat hole too, just like you did then....I couldn't stop laughing!

Then after riding home in the beautiful red velvet train seats, feeling like a queen, I got off the train at 8.30 pm in Tiszafured and went to get my normal cab ride home...but no cab to-night!
From Queen to beggar in an instant!

Checked the bus...last one left 30 mins earlier...ooowahhh, what to do?

The lady at the station couldn't use the govt phone for a call, so she showed me the public phone which worked, but the cab wasn't answering.

So I thought I'd walk the klm into the town centre, plenty of street lights...about 20 mins later, I found an open shop and went in, asked them to call the cab...still no answer...so no-one knew what to do.

I said I'd walk home...it was only another 8 klms...and off I set.

Next door was the police station, I found, so I went in there and they tried calling a cab...still no answer, so one Policeman went next door to the shop I'd just come from, chatted to a girl in there and, next thing her boyfriend lobs up in his car...ready to take me home.

Turns out he was an off duty policeman, so I said I'd pay my normal 2,500 ft ($12.50) to be taken home. Problem solved. Only when we got home he wouldn't take all the money...we tussled a while, but I said to him to buy some food for a hungry person with the 1000ft he was trying to give me back...and he nodded and accepted it. He spoke a good bit of English.

So, here I am, safe and sound after another day on the go.

Feeling happy, that finally the visa application is in and all the paper work is done, but am a bit nervous about if they will approve me or not...

Week 7...11-18th November...Off to Apply for Staying Visa on Thursday 19th!

Well, I finally got everything sorted and am headed for Debrecen on Thursday next to apply for my 2 year staying visa.

It is really very easy in hindsight but when it's a chicken or egg thing, you end up going round and round in circles wondering the "what ifs" if you do or don't do it this or that way!

Anyways, chatting with neighbours last Thursday, I finally understood the process and am off as fast as I can with all my accumulated 5 pieces of "papir" and we'll see what the next step is!

I only have to pay 18,000ft (about $90 Ausd)and hopefully, that's it!

Never thought of putting a picket fence around the summer kitchen when finished, but it sure looks cute!

Plotted out where the fruit tree holes go to-day too, (Thurs)as it was very sunny and quite warm outside.
The guys will also be here for the weekend doing the rest of the work, so I'll get them to dig the 8 holes with their superior digging powers!

I was really crook for a few days too...Terry gave me some pork on Sunday and I rarely eat it as I it really does not agree with me, but did so and boy was I ill!
No gall bladder, but I have a very productive liver delivering bile somewhere it seems, as 6 years supply must have been recycled over that 2 days. Never vomited so badly in all my life.

So, am taking things easy this week and eating plain ole' boiled vegies and small amounts of chicken breasts...hahaha, Son  Peter will understand that joke...hahaha.

My ribs and back are still bruised!
So no oink-oinkers for me from now on, only moo-moos, cluck-cluck-cluckers and baaa-baaas... if I can find them!

Yup, still have to do all those charades to ask what the meat is I'm looking at. Chicken is OK, but the others...well, it's a full Hollywood production just to find some beef!

They mix pork with everything over here...so looks like I'll have to go to town every week to get fresh beef from one guy I know who supplies it and will also mince it right in front of your eyes for you. No fat and rubbish pieces in his beef mince.

Forget tender steak cuts and all that...they only seem to use a little beef in Goulash and that's about it. Beef in this area, comes in entirely different cuts to the cuts you and I are used to. Just one big chunk of it, weighing maybe 5-8 kgs and they chop pieces of it into cubes about 2 inches big. That's beef, Hungarian style.

20 bags of cement, extra sewer pipes and hot water pipes arriving for the last stages of work before winter sets in....Under the blue tarp is a big pile of wood waiting to be chopped too. Any volunteers?

Very exciting, the bath/bedroom floor being dug deeper before the concrete pour. Have to do the pour next week now as the shop didn't have enough pipes to lay under the concrete to do it to-day...

You can see how deep they have dug here from the pic above. I'm actually standing over the cellar area taking this shot. 

From the doorway looking in. A bit of a mess at the moment, but this time next week...whooowoooo!

Next job after the floor was all dug out was to locate the septic pipes we put in last year but never used. You can see behind them, over at the fence, they have already covered the septic tank lid with dirt, so now grass can grow on it. Amazing huh?

Where the shovel is on the ground is where the old pipes are, but Zoltan is going to intercept it and connect the new pipes to the new pit.

Almost done...only we don't have the correct angled connector pipes and the shops are shut for the weekend. So, another job for next weekend.

So, with nothing else to do for the afternoon, they started work on the gates. Finally, getting the gates Peter made last year, put on properly. Note my unique and one-off pipe letterbox tied to the top of the gate? It's done a great job...now I can finally get a real mail box.

Sunday, to-morrow, they come back, finish off the gates, dig the holes for the fruit trees, put up the back fence and cement under it. The posts were cemented in, in May this year.

That will be all the odd jobs done, leaving only the bathroom/bedroom floor and yard pipes to do next weekend.

Then the following weekend they will come and put the waterproofing or whatever, on the end room and the bath/bed room floors,  finish off the end room interior walls, tidy up the new doorway and fix the ceiling in the end room.

Then I'll temporarily seal off the end room again for winter with a big rug nailed into the walls...just love these mud brick walls. Bang in a nail...pull it out and whitewash over it! Amazing.

That will keep the 3 main rooms warm for winter and then I'll start painting all the internal doors, windows and architrave timbers probably after Xmas.

Gosh, I never thought this day would finally come, as so many unforseen things needed doing along the way.
Everything has to stop until we get the pieces needed to fix the job so the main job can continue... Point noted about both the bathroom floor and the trench pipe connectors to-day...but it is almost done now.

It's not so much work that's the challenge, it's getting Zoltan here, as he has been very busy working away lately.

Now, do you want to hear a really funny story?
What makes this so funny to me, is that I wrote the bolded text in the first section on top of the blog, near my bruised ribs story above, days before I went to town yesterday...not knowing the Hollywood production would be played out in front of my eyes...in reverse...amazingly.

I went to town yesterday to buy the meat for the week ahead.
Went into the markets where the butcher is, who actually sells a small amount of beef.
He knows me now, so smiles and heads straight to the beef section when he sees me, which is only a 1mtr x 1 mtr square display counter, by the way.

I pointed to some diced up meat and said 1kg...but he shook his head and I thought he said ..."bad" ...and he took the tray of meat away and put it behind him.

So then I pointed to the big chunks of beef, about 3kg or so and said 1kg...no problems and he put the tray of cubed meat back in the display area again.

So after he'd cut off a big chunk of beef weighing 1.2kg,  I pointed to the diced tray of meat again and thought it must be OK if he put it back- and said 1KG ...and he said...nem, nem... baaaahhh, baaaahhh...,

I looked at him puzzeled and he said...baaahhh-baaahhh again and his assistant said baaahhh-baaahhh too.

I suddenly understood what I thought he meant and repeated baaaahhh-baaahhhhhh???

He nodded and I roared with laughter, more at seeing in my head that flashing image of the icon that people use, that lays on the floor, rolling around with laughter. I saw it as me rolling all over the floor, laughing outrageously...hahaha, was so funny! That's exactly how I felt...

The butchers, both saying Baaahhh-baaaahhh...too funny!

It was lamb meat and I never knew.
Was so excited, so after everyone had stopped laughing a lot, I asked for 2kg while my luck was in!

Oh, it was soooo good last night and to-night, to taste lamb again. So delicious and satisfying. It was all sort of diced, sort of, bones and all, but it was lamb. I have no idea how they cook it here with those big diced chunks, full of chopped bones still on the meat.

Will have to get some recipes now I know it's lamb.

I've seen that tray there for over a year and he'd never sell it to me when I asked, as he thought I only ate beef. hahaha...

Still ROFLMAO!!!

Will post this now.
Cheers,
M