A Funny Thing Happened On ...

Yeah, well....

I guess there is many a slip twixt the bus and the trip!

Arrived at the travel agency in Belgrade at 12 m'day on Wednesday to check in for the 6pm departure to Greece that evening, only to be told it had left at 7am that morning...

...without me!

Shock, horror, how dare they?

It seems they tried to contact my friend re the sudden time change, but she was at work and I was in transit and she can not use a private phone at work! So...

Got my money back and proceeded to have a nice 3 day stay in Belgrade instead, even though it sleeted, snowed and then poured with rain for 2 days!

One of the 2 types of breakfasts served at the Astoria Hotel in Belgrade! I preferred this one as the English Breakfast has a bowl of chips, 8 pieces of French toast, an amazing type of sausage as variance to the  vegies, cheese and "vegetable stuff" in the left hand dish.

Went touring on the one sunny day, shopping for some Xmas things for my grand daughters, bought a navy dress jacket, new PJ's etc and tried on lots of coats and shoes, but nothing fitted as I wanted it to. I only shop while away, so it was fun to look at things.

A 500 billion Dinar note from 1993 in the hyper inflation days in Serbia. Worth about 3 euros...less than  5 Aussie dollars.

Found lots of great building ideas for the new big room, like vanity basin and cupboards etc. Found awesome tiles like I have never seen in Hungary, probably due to the Greek and Turkish influences from down that way.
Found a super flooring shop too that has all the decking, parquetry etc I simply can not find in  Budapest. All the people in the shops spoke great English, so I was able to accomplish a lot.

Some of the older buildings have been preserved like this one, in the streets, has bullet holes in it from the street fighting in the recent Serbian battles for freedom. So much stuff we from OZ take for granted.

Also discovered a marble heating system that simply plugs in. No piping needed, no plumbing, no gas etc etc.
Jelena has 3 different sized panels installed in her apartment and they certainly did the job in the sudden drop from 20C to zero temps.
Very classy marble panels of any finish...bronze look, rough marble, polished and so on.

The oldest traditional building in Belgrade. Built by the Turks hundreds of years ago in the Turkish occupation.

All up it would cost me one fifth of the price of traditional heating I was going to do, to set my place up for next winter. The company is in Nis, a city out of Belgrade, so am hoping they can transport to my place here!
Installation takes about 20 mins a panel to fit, test, and as they drill the screw holes the guys vacuum the falling dust so nothing hits the floor or air around! Amazing.

And she said Serbian was really easy to read...it is pronounced just as you read it! Really?

I also ate out every meal, something I really don't do a lot and have never eaten 3 meals a day in restaurants or cafes or fast food outlets, even whilst traveling.
I like to make most of my own meals or buy fruit, nuts or yoghurt because I don't like artificial things in my food, that's why I always chose accom with kitchens.

My fave hang out in Belgrade...The Cigar and Champagne rooms at the Astoria...Love the lights!

Took my friend to the Astoria for a "lamenting no Greece trip" massive English breakfast/brunch and bubbly and it came to 18 dollars OZ for us both, not each, even with a picallo of bubbles each!

Ahhhh, right where I belong!

The Astoria Hotel has superb food and strangely enough it is half the price, or less, than the sidewalk cafes. I had all my meals, except the steak dish on the first day, at the Astoria, which is over the road and down a 100 mtrs from my accom, my dentist, the train station and only 200 mtrs from the centre of Belgrade.

Now, THAT'S a mug...My 2 most fave people in Belgrade...Zorena on the left and  Jelena on the right. Zorena is the manager of Home Sweet Home, so the owner told me.

So a bloated 3 days later, I arrived home unexpectedly to find the dogs had destroyed their bedding... which unfortunately included a few old feather and foam pillows!

'Nuff said!

You can imagine a windy morning, millions of feathers and bits of foam, blowing in whirly-winds around the inside garden fence...

Amazing...NOT!

Pansy wall. In Summer this wall is covered with petunias...

Entering the famous Bohemian centre...

A lovely day fior touring...Free 3 hour walking tours are a great way to orientate in all cities when traveling.

The big stones on the street, used as cobble stones, are not suitable for any type of shoe with a heel!

Entering the old city buildings area...

It pays to look up on occasion!

Entering the wonderful park to visit the massive fortress..

You can not imagine how really Yuuuggge this thing is!

Peeping through one of the gun slits in one of the outer bastion walls.

4 levels of bricked terraces...An enemy would not stand a chance with this set up!

Gateway into another part of the bastion. It was a city within walls and had a milatary set up in there too.

A very hot day when the sun was out, thankfully for taking pics. Next day it hit zero and sleeted, snowed a little then poured for the next 2 days.

Renos underway...

It is big! These are some of the old dungeons... Note how tiny the person on the bridge is.

Aiming high for great views.

Now, that's how you do it! The Sava and Danube meet here..

Lovely views...

Looking down you can see some of the old remains of homes within the massive complex.

Some more crumbling remains...

Jelena works in that big black building sky scraper...

Inside one of the old dungeon cells...no windows and taken thru the grate in the door, with a flash as it was pitch black inside.

The tour only went a certain way, without steps mostly, due to the age group range. So many oldies walk this tour, so lots of steps are mostly out for large groups like this.

Some of our group of over 50 people taking a break in the shade.

A display pic on the promenade of troops leaving for battle. This is from the other side of the complex.

My little castle still stands!

My sister calls these white flowers/weeds, living snow!

From the park you walk across the street into my fave strip in Belgrade...the fabulous cafe culture. Love it, but don't drink coffee in Europe. I make my own in the mornings and that's it for the day. So many people drink cocktails or juices/soft drinks. It's clouding over and getting colder by the minute, now the tour has finished!

Was walking past and noticed this unusual meal, so I ordered one, even though it was in an edible pastry top hat! hahaha...

Steak, capsicum, lettuce! 3ingredients and it was simply delicious with the mustard drizzle.

Waiting inside to pay for the meal and experimented taking a pic in the mirror without me being in it.

So many nice looking edibles, but Ican't ever remember being tempted. I just love looking at them.

Then it started to sleet on the way back to Home Sweet Home!

A nice warm place out of the cold and wet outside...

Went home on the Thursday 10 pm night train and arrived at my place at 10 am from Belgrade and Budapest...all 3 trains and the bus were fast connections this time.

So ends my Big Fat Greek trip!

Have a workaway guy coming for a few weeks next week so am madly rushing around to sort out the rooms.
Imre was to paint the front room windows and door trims while I was away, but it will still be done on the same days...just with me here now.

So, all the best and I hope you enjoyed the little trip into lovely Belgrade instead of Greece.

Cheers,
Mary

Blossoms Come and Blossoms Go!

Wow, I can not believe how quickly the trees come into bloom and how short a time they are in full bloom.
Then suddenly the blossoms are all gone, the ground below each tree is a carpet of pastel colours and within 2-3 days the trees have turned from full of blossoms to full of green leaves.

The turbo boosting components in the atmosphere here are stunning in their veracity!

Bought lots of plants for the garden...These are the extras I had to buy to fill in gaps!

So, with the lovely weather coming straight of from the sub zeros of winter, one would think there would be a gradual temperature increase...but not so here...

Winter's over, spring is here, so straight up to 36C in the shade this past week it goes!
Hahaha, one has to laugh as this weather is nothing to get bored about.

I planted over 30 pansies, purple and yellow...Plus about 40 gladiola behind the iris which self grew.

The spa deck paving is completed and this week I complete the water metre readers path, as I had to wait for Imre to trim a lot of the half bricks I'm paving it with.

Running short of full bricks, but found a lot of pretty good half bricks so Imre trimmed them up for me and they should look great when completed by Sunday arvo.

The garden will look nice in a month or so...

Using the old metal from the wine casks to stabilize the bottom of the drums, plus wooden struts.

A table made from an old wine vat bottom. and an old drum, plus a stool for the spa deck.!

Then on Monday Imre will finish the rails around the little spa deck and that will be a nice job out of the way and will improve the look of the front of the house a lot.

Imre has also cut seat tops for all the drum seats/stools and now all I have to do is make some round foam and cushion cover things, like the old milk jug covers, with the elastic around the edges to pop over the wooden seat and foam cushioning.

I need the girls from OZ to come back and paint 2 more seats I had Imre make out of another old drum I found laying around!

Front room ready for flooring...Will empty it after I get back from Greece and Imre will lay, glue, sand and seal the floor.

The front room is now ready to use, but I'll wait and get Imre to lay the timber flooring when I come back from Greece, now at the end of April, as the tour was put back a week, but all is good.

Yeahy...the tool shed has a locking door! Render has to be completed on the exterior too, but no probs! Washed some curtains I picked up at the markets to test drive. They look nice.

The tool shed has a lockable door at long last even with amber coloured glass in it. I bought a few old doors and a very nice sideboard from a neighbour last year for a few dollars and the 2 doors have come in handy...one for the tool shed and one for the bathroom.

Imre wanted to paint the tool shed door, but I'll keep it looking "antique" until next year as it is under a fairly big overhang and should be ok until then. We'll cement the path outside the tool shed when it's all been rendered outside, put on some gutters and a drain pipe, dig a dry well and fill it with old cement and bits of brick rubble, then another task will be completed.

So all Imre has to do in April to complete the tool shed is to tidy up the footings cement inside so he can line the brick walls neatly, line the ceiling, paint it all inside and put in 2 little windows, which we forgot to do when building the back wall of the 3 door/tool shed last year! Dohhh.

Will use the old, but in pretty good condition, lino from the front room for the tool shed floor and that will be another big job done. Can't wait to set up the tool shed bench, using my present kitchen set up and put away all the tools and stuff laying around everywhere outside together with a lot of small electric tools still in the house.

While I'm away in Vienna/Salzburg/Eagles' Nest next month, he'll paint all the window frames, doors and trims inside and out and the place will be ready for me to move into at least one really completed room. Then all the girlie stuff begins, like hanging curtains and finding or moving the light fitting.

Then we only have to  do the middle room, which is fairly OK, as I had a lot of the flaky plaster removed about 18 months ago, so it will be a quick job. Then into the end room, build the wall/rail around the stairs to the cellar, put in some power switches and do the wooden flooring, heave a massive sigh of relief...and start on the Summer Kitchen in June!
Can't wait.

So, with all of that flurry of work and growth happening outside, there is extra work now as, the lawns need to be mowed every week and then next month, every 4 days!

It grows so fast, so long and so thick these first 3 months...April, May and June and thankfully, in July when it's high summer and very hot, it slows down a bit.

Anyways, am off to mow now as it's past 2 pm on Sunday, so will race out and do it while the urge hits!

See you next week before I leave for Belgrade, via Budapest, on the way to Greece!

Cheers,
Mary

Spring is in The Air....

Yahoo!

The core and hardest part of the renovation of the front room is finally completed!

It was probably not necessary to strip things back to the first application of whitewash applied just on 100 years ago, but once I saw how lovely a job Imre does on the original plastered walls, I was hooked!

It was an on and off again, painstaking process for me, as my friends all began wanting to use this super tradesman inside their homes too.

So Imre has had a full agenda this past month as everyone prepares for spring after the hibernation of 4 or more months of winter.

So strange, I still can not get used to it!

However I'm going to have to put my foot down and protect my days, now I see how things are going!

He has other small odd jobs from a few longtime clientele in the village from years past too.

So after meeting another long standing odd job client yesterday, I realise there are only so many days in a week that he can work and for the foreseeable future, I need 3 a week of those days!

Imre will not work on the weekends as his 2 kids, aged about 7yrs and 9yrs, have sports, karate, soccer etc and of course, no Sunday work at all.

But, after all the 1 day here and 2 days there over this past month, the final top coats of white wash are being applied as I speak!...(heaving big sighs of relief…).

It will be completed long before I get this blog up this afternoon, hopefully, so the final pics will be coming to-day.

   

Another perfect ending to another perfect day...

Sunrise as I set out on my jogging trip.

The first blooms of the season...It is a cherry tree I think!

My little fruit trees in blossom!

Starting the paving for the spa deck...an impulse idea that only took 2 more days to complete too!

Being wind blown in front of the Parliament buildings...

A statue in honour of a famous philosopher...

The Margurite Bridge...

Very sad sight...Where the Nazi's shot the Jews and dumped them in the Danube...These shoes are metal reminders. The white things are candles that people light in remembrance.

Our orange drink stop...

Having fun...

Must go for a ride on this next visit too...

A lovely day for sight seeing...

Everything is just beautiful here in Europe...

Lots of tourists and the season hasn't started yet...

Beautiful tablecloths for sale.

People lined up in the street waiting to get their special ice cream...

Delicious Gelati ice creams...

Pick your flavour ice cream and design a flower!

Amazing art work...

A Cathedral in Budapest...

Lovely Maria...

Got a bit of work to do here now...

Now back into the paving job again!

Bear enjoying his bones!

All the storks flew in at the same time...on the 24th March, all on the one day. Amazing!

Just found out you can make a hedge from this lovely yellow bush.

It is almost completed! A few coats of whitewash go on after this application dries, while the beams get wood filler applied then they get their final rub back and a few coats of whitewash too.

Imre fixing the bigger door hole as the other one did not let the cement mixer in!

**********

I went to my friend in town the other day and she called the internet people to work out what could my internet, or lack thereof, problem be.

I do have unlimited internet...check!

Computer and mouse OK now on other wifi connections...check!

Lights all working on both modem thingies only half the time...check!

So, they are coming out to check everything works ok.

Can hardly wait as the past year of supposed data supply has been terrible.

But I suppose for just on $30 a month for unlimited, one should not complain.

It was great for the first 2 years ...I had a 2 yr contract but since May of last year it has been playing up dreadfully.

It probably is the modem things to be honest, as they both are probably full of mud brick and whitewash dust and if they took in a bit of humidity at all, they probably both have a cement like glug set inside of them by now!

******

Spring is such a lovely time here and it's time to get planting again.

Have to have all the trees, spring plants and veggies in by the weekend, so that will be another job out of the way.

Have half of the plants in and will get the last gardens ready for the almighty growth spurt that happens here in  such a short time!

I'm sure when God made the weather here, He forgot to add these words...disciplined restraint or gradual growth!

Everything is extreme.

• When it's hot, it's cooking hot outside
• When it's cold, it freezes your water pipes and smashes the glass on the metre itself, requiring a new metre

• When Spring comes, it literally bursts forth and goes at an exhausting pace, like it is turbo boosted for 4-5 months
• When it stops about late August, it turns russet, gold and the glorious colours of autumn so quickly, you must look every day to take in the beauty as it all falls to the ground in about 2-4 weeks
• Then it's all bare trees and shrubs and a black and white landscape for about 5 months, unless you have conifers!
• When the snow falls, at various times between November and February, it is deliciously indescribably beautiful...for a week to a month or so until it melts into slush and is gone...
• Then it starts all over again.

It is really harsh on the people's life, in more ways than one.

I admire the people here, living like this their entire lives, never knowing of the difference of a more stable and even type of temperature, one allowing a year round lifestyle.

Simply amazing indeed.

Am really blessed to have had the privilege of living here to experience something people north of Victoria, in OZ, have virtually no idea about.

Am thinking it probably takes a Queenslander about 4-5 years to really acclimatise to the opposite pole of weather where the sun rises in the “west and sets in the east”, you can't find north by just standing still and checking where the sun is headed and having Xmas in a foot of snow and not melting in a heatwave!

Yeah, about 5 years to sort all that out in your mind!

I still automatically can't find North!

Anyways, as Stage 1 of 3 of the little Lodge repairs and renos draw to a close, it brings with it a new adventure as we head forth into the building mode Stage 2 of 3 of this project which has been an exciting adventure for sure.

Went to Budapest with friends on Thursday and had a great day touring around. 

Next time we go we are touring the Parliament building and taking a cruise down the Danube. 

These were the pics from the past month of not much, if any power to upload, so there are lots!

I will only post half and do the rest next blog.

Bye now,
Cheers,
M
xxxx

Lovely spring sunsets and sunrises...

Cutting The Last Logs for This Winter...

As the days become warmer and longer, the mornings are lighter earlier, so Spring is really in the air!

My jogging track is all nice and dry again and am back to the normal 5-6 mornings a week of 3klm each day.
I really miss getting out of routine and it will be lovely to stay virtually in one place for a year.

Apart from many little weekly jaunts off into the neighbouring countries without having to do a 38,000 klm journey each time, it will be a week in Greece, a week in Slovakia and Austria, a week in Germany, a week in UK and Wales and so on.
 Can't wait to don the old back pack again. Itchy feet need scratching  soon!

Meanwhile,back on the farm...Just cutting the last of the wood for the fire for this winter and then it will be back to cooking on the electric hotplates or barbie!

The last few logs being cut up for this winter. Snow all gone, temps around 15C in the day now, sun very hot, grass getting longer and all is in readiness for spring to burst forth.

As soon as Imre completes the insides of both the house and tool shed, hopefully by the end of April, he is to start on the outside and will get the house front repaired and painted. He'll paint all the windows and doors too...more decisions-what colours?- and the place will look awesome this season.

I really like having the wood stove going in the background and being able to cook my meals, cook the dog's food and boil the kettle throughout the day. I gave my big wood heater away last year as it was a monster that ate so much wood, but this little one a friend loaned me has been an eye opener.

With limited wood supplies and then not readily available or cheap, it was an easy decision last year to give the heater away. But now I'm learning how things work over here in the countryside in the amazingly busy 6 months of activity and 6 months of virtual hibernation, I'll just buy a lot more wood in June/July and store it, let it dry out better and buy a smaller heater plus a wood stove for the kitchen.

This is where being on my son's property in OZ would really be handy with all the dead trees on his 260 acres!

Anyways, now I comprehend the seasons a lot better, I'll get 2 wood burning heaters for next winter!
There is a very noticeable difference in the heat from the wood stove compared to all other heating available.

Will still get the gas connected...(going in to apply in April for that), which will heat the washing, bathing water and water radiators which will be connected throughout later in the year.

The place will then have wood fires, gas heating, both town and bottled gas, plus electric heaters for a fast fan forced heating burst, plus the water heated radiators!.

These types of cooking stoves with side ovens are readily available...about $300Ausd.

A smaller cooker stove. I like the bigger, longer version with more cooking space on top. I like the big top so you can make gravy properly in the big baking dish after cooking a roast meal.

 Imre just completed the mesh and goop layers in the front room, now he has to rub it all down and smooth it off on Monday, apply a few coats of gyps/plaster finish and finally rub it down again and create his lovely baby bottom finish.

Can hardly wait as it has dragged on for too long.
Not his fault, but mine as I tell my friends how great he is and they borrow him a couple of days a week now to get their projects moving along!

I have him 3 days this coming week and next, so the front room will be completed for sure.
Then we dismantle the kitchen "benches" in the middle room which has the dining table and chairs and it even has my bed poked away in a corner- while he's been doing the front room!

That room should be relatively fast to complete as it will be empty and did not have water or melted snow coming in to cause any flood problems!

The neighbour does not want a dog now, so I'll keep Bear and Dog for the timebeing and get Dog to the vet for her desexing op before I go to Greece in April.
Then, depending on how Imre handles looking after both animals, I'll review keeping them both.

Having Bear reminds me of the eating machines I experienced with my 3 boys!
They'd stand in the fridge door after school and you'd see bags flying into the sink, bones going all over the place, food scraps flying everywhere!!!
It was really amazing how much they could eat after school...then they'd turn up for tea an hour or so later...hungry as bears!

Bear is just like that and I laugh a lot at him as he reminds me so much of how the boys were as teenagers!

It was ladies day the other day and Imre bought me a gift of some bubbly and a pot of flowers from him and his family! How sweet hey? It's for all ladies in your world. A lovely thought.

Finally made it back to Budapest with my friends on Thursday afternoon. Too busy running around to get any more pics as Maria was running late for a 4pm hair appointment!

Very clever. An electrical shop that specalises in bulbs!  How about this...brilliant, pardon the pun!

Made some stuffed mushrooms and stuffed capsicums. Mushroom and red capsicum stuffed with minced steak, onion, garlic and finely cut capsicum leftovers. Green capsicums stuffed with mashed potato, topped with grated cheese and tomato. It looks like a couple of eggs, but isn't! Red capsicum has some grated cheese on top of the mince for variety. The green capsicums were really nice with the mashed potato. Try it when you have some left over mash. Great tastes.

So happy to have finally found some steaming hot gluewein in Budapest while Maria was getting her hair done and Eniko was having her muscle therapy! Then, not so happy when my fave shoes came apart! The waiter eventually brought me the entire roll of gaff tape to repair my poor shoe, which did a very ugly looking job, but got me home in one piece, amazingly!

There's Imre on the last of the front room goop applications. Once that dries over the weekend, he comes in and sands it all back on Monday, then applies his baby bottom top coat on Tuesday, which is thankfully white...allows it to dry, then sands it back and paints it on Friday! Maria has him on Wednesday and Thursday this week!

This is bulb man from the street. We decided to see if his man parts were all lit up too...cheeky little thing Maria is!You can barely see her standing next to him inside the shop! She's gorgeous...is a tad taller than me, is a real blonde, has a wicked sense of humour, ( just like my sister), is a school teacher and retires in a couple of years. Eniko is her daughter. Maria wants me to go in and teach English at her school in their English lesson sessions. I'll get organised and do it after the summer 3 month break here, coming up soon.

Just starting the chop of the final block of wood for this winter.

Trying to grow my hair long so my "Downton Abbey" hair dresser lady can do my hair up in the mornings when it's down past my shoulders. I don't know if I'll be patient enough to grow it much longer though. It is such a burden!

My computer was playing up all week so I took it in to the repair shop and it was my mouse again!

The mouse was a new Cannon, a medium brand over here and while it wasn't the cheapest in the shop, it was possibly the worst one I could have bought for my lifestyle apparently.

The repair guy put a "Ferrari", a MARS gaming mouse in and tested it and everything resolved itself! Amazing.
Only 2,500 ft...a taxi fare home or $12.50...so that was a relief for sure.

He said this mouse is a gaming one, one that gets a lot of action, has 6 knobs on it, is ergonomically designed, completely rubber coated, has Teflon legs and has lights and holes all over it. So with all the traveling I do, it should last a while and take a lot of crashing, banging and dropping!

The old one I had for just on 4 years, I bought in Ireland in 2012 in Killarney.
It did a marvelous job, then it started its death spiral in OZ over Xmas 2016 and I bought a new Cannon in mid Feb this year.

It lasted about 3 weeks as I dropped it on the floor here, badly apparently.
The Irish one took many a drop, a crash, being squashed and so on over 4 years, but the Cannon at the first obstacle...crashed and died!
This time the sensor on it was shattered and that's why it jumped all over the place the past week or so.
So, am back in the writing business again.

Will just get this off now as it's Monday already and it's dusty and messy here again with Imre sandpapering the front room.
So, I'm closing off now.
Bye and see you all next week.
Cheers,
M
xxxx