The Blessings of a Right Hand Drive Car without Heating in Hungary

So, as agreed with my aunt and cousins, we were going to pick them up and drive them over to our house for dinner today.
P woke me up around 6, so that we could get ourselves ready, and generally tidy the house around. I also prepared the marinade for the pork. So far so good.

However! P stuck his head out, and noted, it's blumin' cold out there. Minus 4 centigrade to be precise. Maybe we should call off this venture today, purely thinking about my cousin's 3 months old baby? Especially with 5 adults constantly breathing steam onto the windows, and not having heating in the car, and it'd take roughly 40 minutes drive each way... Surely not very comfortable for all.
So I phoned them up, explaining what the situ was, but they insisted it'd be fine! After all they were travelling on the bus yesterday, and everything was ok!

Off we went after about 10 o'clock. The usual scraping ice off the inside of the windscreen soon followed numb toes and noses turning red, internal shaking. Being silent and thinking only to ourselves. Not very nice.

We only got about 2 miles from home, when P started worrying about the temperature gauge, as it was rapidly reaching towards the 100 mark. We were so confused, because we assumed that the sensor was faulty; it did odd things in the past, i.e. moving from one side to the other very quickly, then settled around 80. This time it looked different. It went over 100, then 110 and stayed there. We wisely pulled over, popped the bonnet, carefully unscrewed the cap and water was pouring out in all directions. Despite living with an obsessed car enthusiast, I didn't have a clue as to what was going on, so I just watched him, and prayed that this is just a temporary glitch, and will fix itself. But P had other ideas, we were on the road again in five minutes, but only doing 40 mph. On the way to the local petrol station I had to think what the Hungarian word was for "anti-freeze". It was one of those moments again, all of my efforts turned into fear of being taken for a fool. Wasn't far off either. I asked the woman if they kept water for cars that doesn't freeze. I thought this would give her/me a clue. She handed me a bottle of distilled water. 100 forint she said. By this time P was standing next to me. I explained what she just gave me. P being P; no, this is not what we need. It's called anti-freeze. I know what it's called in English, but I cannot explain it to the woman in English, can I? Then I said, it's a blue liquid, and prevents freezing in the radiator. She still didn't get, and I could see on her face what she was thinking. What's up with these idiots? or along those lines... Then she reached for something else, is this what you want? Called "fagyallo". Yes! Great! 600 forints. Not so great. But necessary. And not enough. So off we went again, towards the next town, and eagerly awaited what will happen. Nothing major, the temperature stayed around 90, and the engine was still running, so we just carried on going. Bought another litre of the stuff at the next fuel station, which, being more upmarket, cost twice as much.

This seem to have solved the over heating problem, but the heater still doesn't work! "If I only asked at the time - does the heater work?" Shouted P, with all his hatred towards this poor French creation. "I see now why the wife kept interrupting him all the time while showing us the car" and such remarks followed. And who would have thought of asking that question anyway in the height of the "summer" of 2008?

Eventually we arrived at my cousins, who were slightly disappointed to say the least, as they were so looking forward to coming over to us for the first time. I felt quite guilty about this, and that we left the food behind too.
But hey, we loughed! P was playing the clown again, not knowing much Hungarian, that is how he entertains/communicates.

It was still light when we left their house, and very cold in the car. I surely wouldn't have wanted to do this journey 4 times in one day. The pork was very nice though, baked with parsnips and pears...

Finally a Good Day(ish)

I woke up this morning with A Plan! And I devised an almost minute-by-minute schedule for the day. It kind of worked too.

First I started with a 20 minute yoga, with the help of Barbara Curry's DVD, which I haven't got out for over a year. The truth is, my knees were very stiff when I woke up, and I thought I cannot continue doing this to my precious body. Hardly any exercise for about 3 months, takes its toll for sure. It makes me puke just thinking about how fit I was in September! That could be another reason why I'm becoming so depressed lately! No adrenalin to lift me up...

Going back to the plan, I did all sorts, i.e. it was my turn for the ever boring nutella toast and tea making (using inferior tea bags), then read a few pages of Emotional Intelligence (cracking book), then jumped out of bed again, and hit the bedroom with a vengeance. I still have a way to go to tidy it all up, or at least organise it in some sort of fashion. As our books, videos and cooking items are still in boxes, just thrown in there from 4 weeks ago. It's a big task, but if I just do an hour every day, it will get done in a few weeks. By which time we'll really have to have a good go at renovating this shack of a mud house!

Then I washed up, about 3 times! One would think I love doing it. But without running water, ordinary tasks get trickier, and I so don't have time for people who complain about the British system of not having mixer taps! I'd be happy even just to have cold water inside the house!

So anyway, amidst washing up I called up mum, and my cousin. Good job too, cos I found out that there is no market on tomorrow (P wanted a Calor gas heater for that freezing icebox of a bedroom), and that my cousins and aunt are coming to see us on Monday. Or rather, we are going to pick them up. I thought it was going to be more like towards the end of the week, but they will have visitors too...

So Sunday will be hectic again. Then I started thinking up, what we will feed them with? Turned to Jamie Oliver's cook book, should do the trick as always!!!

Also asked P to bring in the shelf and the table from the store room, at least I could put the plates and mugs somewhere, and our guests will have a place to eat off of. Thanks Laczko Family! Really nice of them to leave all this great furniture behind! Could've done with all those trees as well that they chopped off around the house before we bought it, but I guess, more the fools we are.

Today I still miss England. Even though when I gaze out our back window towards the Tisza, I see deers munching on something in the partially snow covered ground, and there is not a human or a house in sight, and it is so peaceful and unspoilt, I still have a voice in the back of my head saying that this is not my home. Or am I just kidding myself?

P reads more horror stories today about the global economy on the blogs, and the general predictions are not looking good for next year. But I will go into more details about these later on.

That's it for now, hopefully I'll return sooner than my usual yearly or less update...