Category: What Was Said on The Verandah!

7 of many things that started a discussion today….

Our morning verandah chats turn up some very interesting topics.

‘BELARUS‘

This is Belarus…our next door neighbour’s tractor!

We got chatting about this ancient piece of farm machinery because she tends to leave a lingering smell of fuel in the air whenever she passes! This morning we could smell her from the verandah as she ambled past. She is also very noisy, a sign of an elderly but generally dependable tractor. This picture was taken when we first arrived in Hungary 3 years ago…. we were having our land flattened. The excited young lady in the tractor was our English friend from back home, she was holidaying with us and could not resist a pose! Eric and I decided Belarus was a female!

Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein

I have just finished watching the shocking Jeffrey Epstein documentary and felt it merited discussion.

Our conclusions: The man was despicable! His money protected him until the end. His victims will never be free of him. Following Michael Jackson and Jimmy Saville all just SICK! I watched this on Netflix.

Something Calming…

Hungarian Chamomile is known as Matricaria Chamomilla and is very pretty with fields full of this daisy-like flower.

Mentioning chamomile brought back many happy memories of Eric’s grandmother in Lebanon. He learned, when he was young, many things from this wise knowledgeable woman. She taught him how to make healing potions to treat various illnesses just using plants and herbs. I have learned a lot too, it’s fascinating. One of grandmothers’ potions was to steep crushed chamomile flowers in boiling water. Then add honey for cold/flu sufferers or butter for a bad chest/cough. I have never drank chamomile but I do know you can buy commercially made chamomile tea in supermarkets.

Sunflower Patch

A sunflower patch filled with 1.5 m tall flowers.

It will be positioned in a corner of the garden that needs disguising. This is my plan. We already have an abundance of sunflowers growing around the garden, but they do tend to park themselves wherever they want! This photo from last year settled in the marigold plot and was a whopper. I have diligently cleared a good area for the sunflowers and will plant our current batch when they are ready. We talked about making the area “Haley Proof” (our dog) always a consideration when planning the garden.

Shopping during the virus

We have dealt with the lockdown restrictions pretty well in our little part of Hungary. The main difference from before is that we have to be far more organised to only leave the house once a fortnight. Our plans were to go on Monday (tomorrow) but it is a bank holiday, and everywhere is closed. I started a notebook leaving it out during the week to add items to. It filled up pretty quickly, especially when our son spotted it!! I will take it with me shopping on Tuesday, so helpful for me as my memory is not great. It’s a long way to go back to the shop if you have forgotten something. We mainly shop at Lidl but occasionally Tesco. Aldi is also in Hungary but we have not tried it yet! Hungary has many bank holidays dotted throughout the year, there aren’t the mad food shopping sprees that usually precede bank holidays in the UK.

Poker People

We are both “poker people”, meaning we enjoy a good competitive game of poker. We are both gamblers, and consider ourselves as competent, tactical players and of course, enjoy the thrill of winning.

Now over here in Hungary we have had to leave all our ‘live’ poker friends in England so as an alternative we have started playing online poker. The big advantage is it costs nothing and you play with points.

However, online poker is a totally different concept from playing face to face. Online, you are unable to read body language, which is a definite advantage when playing poker. Reading faces, body movements, general atmosphere…it’s all part of the game. Eric and I talked a lot about body language, it’s an interesting subject.

Music Today

We like a wide variety of music and just on impulse I put my phone on Youtube and played a song, it was the song Eric had been singing earlier, by The Wanted, we laughed a lot!! Music lifts our mood it also gets my imagination going. I had a vision of our verandah artistically covered in twinkling fairy lights all the way around, the music playing, dance floor perhaps??”I think it would look stunning?” alas….no reply from the main man! ….as an afterthought we have been playing music all day today.🎶

Are you a retired expat? What do you talk about with your nearest and dearest? 💞

Just a bit of fun and an insight into what these retired expats talk about whilst living in Hungary. There will be more “Verandah Conversations” very soon.

7 of many things that started a discussion today….

Our morning verandah chats turn up some very interesting topics.

Eric and I are a ‘young’ retired couple living in Hungary enjoying each other’s company and chatting together for many hours. We are so relaxed here and really appreciate being able to take our time and not always be conscious of the time!

Taking time to talk to each other is an excellent tool to strengthen our marriage.

We’ve run out of onions!!

We eat a lot of onions and usually I have no problem keeping our kitchen well stocked. Unfortunately, we had run clean out so I had to go searching in the veggie plot for any stray last year’s onions. I found a few and cleared the ground. On the verandah lack of onions got us talking about growing our own in a more productive way, so now we have decided to grow them in pots. Eric had seen a youtube video about growing masses of them all together in a huge tub. This would be great for us and I would love to hang a string in our kitchen, always to hand. We talked about hanging techniques and plaiting. I even watched this video on the technique of onion plaiting!

Good News..

These last few days have seen Hungary have some bans lifted, due to the Covid19 virus. You can now go for a meal in an ‘indoor’ restaurant and some holiday attractions are opening, the summer season is nearly here. Some neighbouring country borders are opening, I guess most of the others will follow very soon. Social distancing is still compulsory. We shall never forget this pandemic, it will be in future history books.

Blowing and Haley Husky

Haley is shedding her fur. Most huskies blow their undercoat twice a year. Our time is now. we are prepared for hair everywhere, that’s part of owning a husky. If you want to read more about huskies and all you need to know before considering buying one go here: https://makinghungaryhome.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/siberian-huskies-what-you-need-to-know-before-buying-adopting-one/

We talked a lot on the verandah about Haley today… the naughty girl! I have been nurturing a strawberry, the first this year, from our strawberry patch. I’m busy picking strawberries and thinking about the juicy one I’m going to photograph. I stop to photo it and return my camera to the table then resume my strawberry picking. Haley comes galloping up behind me and quick as a flash grabs my precious strawberry in her teeth and pulls it off! I was stunned and shouted loudly but with no effect! How could she take my strawberry, and she had the cheek to take the best one! Fortunately when she had lost interest she left it in the grass for me to retrieve and scrub well. She had not eaten it! I have never heard of a dog pinching strawberries before! This is going to be a problem.

Congratulations on your birth…

Flattered…I’m not sure. Eric had family news. My son’s name is Raphael, not a common name in the UK but in the Middle East it is. Eric’s nephew’s wife has given birth to a baby boy in Lebanon and called him Raphael. I am happy they like our choice of name so much, really I am. Our Raphael is mighty chuffed, having a relative named after him. But… their surnames are the same too! I can see confusion in the future!

Mr Cummings was mentioned.

Chief Adviser to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings drove 270 miles from London to his parent’s farm in late March, while most Britons were following the government’s rule to “stay home”. Seems a touch unfair to all the people following the rules, and to top it off the police said they were not going to prosecute him, this has angered the British public, understandably. We are thankful to be living in a different country with different rules but I still worry about the UK situation, I have my family there.

What was that movie called?

Today on our verandah… both of us were feeling nostalgic. Quoting lines from children’s movies, watched years ago with our then young son….singing the songs….laughing a lot, shocked that our memories were so good. I think the new birth in the family made us start pleasantly reminiscing. The conclusion:

Our top 3 movies:

Do you remember these movies?

Antz

Shrek

Cars

Wacky Hungarian Weather

It was nearly the end of May, Eric and I had mentioned a few times that it seemed cooler than this time last year. It’s very similar at the moment to England’s April Showers – only in May! Today we have had rain, sun, wind, thunder and clouds, several times and in different orders! The English are obsessed with the weather, it’s a topic of easy conversation, and it’s a ‘get you talking’ topic. I have to admit to looking at the weather forecast twice a day for the gardening outlook and personal purposes. I always want the sun to shine during the day and to rain at night to feed the hungry plants. Hungary is very green because of its abundance of rain. After the rains the air smells so clean and fresh, it’s always nice to sit on the verandah if it is raining.

Are you a retired expat? What do you talk about with your nearest and dearest? 💞

Just a bit of fun and an insight into what these retired expats talk about while living in Hungary. There will be more “Verandah Conversations” very soon.