The Bódva River behind our house should experience an outstanding flood every 80 years or so. When we got hit badly in 2010, when we had 1 meter of water in the basement and the back wall of the house settled, we thought we would be through with this crap for awhile. Unfortunately, the Bódva flooded big time again last week. It did not seem like so much rain, and it hardly snowed this year, but even so, the river rose by over a meter last weekend. The entire meadow behind the house was not only under water, it was flowing like the river. The mayor, national park rangers and the emergency services came out a couple times to look and promised sandbags but they never appeared. They would wait and see...Meanwhile, a berm was under construction on the far side of the river by the bridge, which was good for the houses there but resulted in sending all that water in the other direction across the meadows towards us. I spent a nervous night checking on the rising water every half hour, but finally had to go to bed and hope someone would let me know if I had to flee. When I went out in the morning, I surprised 3 ducks swimming in the back yard, and the water had reached the potato patch. It was predicted that the water would rise another 50cm (which would have put it at 2010 flood level) by Tuesday and we might have to be evacuated, but luckily the second wave did not materialise. We are now considering if it might be worth it to build a 50cm berm on one side of the house, and top it off with another 50cm of soil for double-use as raised beds. After all this stress, I needed a break.

Singer-songwriter Niall Connolly was in Budapest for a one-night show as part of his annual European tour. Many will remember Niall from his shows at Treehugger Dan's with poets Neil McCarthy and Stephen Murray, David Rynhart, and others as part of their Voice and the Verse tours. While Niall was able to hook up with Neil in Vienna, he was on his own Friday night at Ellátóház. I decided to treat myself and go up to Budapest for the show.  It has been ages since I have been to a live concert. I have been to Ellátó Kert several times to see Mookie Brando and the Second Cousins, but had never heard of Ellátóház on Dob u. In fact, Tito Slack and Chris Parsons from the Second Cousins were on hand.

I met Niall's wife Clair for the first time, as well as musician Tim Nugent-Head, an interesting guy that helped book the gig for Niall. Niall only played for about an hour, but it was enough to bring me a good dose of joy. He played a couple of my old favourites and even dedicated a song to me, but the majority of the songs were off his new album All We Have Become which I had not heard yet. "If you buy only one album this year, I can heartily recommend Niall's All We Have Become" - Paddy Murray, The Sunday World

If anything disturbed an otherwise wonderful experience it was the smoke. Yes, people were smoking inside the pub - something unheard of for the last few years since Hungary banned the practice. No smoking! signs were posted, but none of the staff stepped in to stop the indoor smoking. I will not be returning to Ellátóház.