Kata's 35th elementary school reunion was held in her hometown of Dombovár last weekend. On the way, we stopped in Budapest and had a nice French toast with maple syrup breakfast with Chris and Nora. I was a little nervous before meeting all her old schoolmates, especially when she told me that karaoke was planned! The one and only time I ever did karaoke was on a ferry in the middle of the Sea of Japan as part of the Climate Train in 1997, and that was only because there were just 3-4 of us out of 50 not suffering from sea sickness and we were in desperate need of something to do. At that time, I found a song by my friend Ray's sister, Minnie Riperton. I was not about to repeat the performance. What I had forgotten was that Kata's school was a music school. So, when everyone started breaking out into song, in both Hungarian and Russian (their head teacher/Russian teacher Aranka-néni was there), I was stunned. How many months had they been practicing? They had not met in 5 years, and it had been 35 years since they had practiced together, but everyone remembered most of the words to a number of songs and sang in beautiful harmony.

Everyone walked over to Mici-néni's house, their former music teacher now 85, and serenaded her. While her memory is not what it was, and god knows how many hundreds of students she has had over the years, she still had enough wits about her to ask who the hell I was and if Kata and I had any children. All I could answer was that I got a complete family along with Kata and did not even have to work for it. The food and drink was good and ample. We came prepared with all sorts of warm clothes, but the wine cellar was surprisingly warm and I found myself going out frequently for fresh air. Everyone brought wine and homebaked goods, while the food was ordered in from a local restaurant.

We stayed with Csilla and Bela in Dombovár, who fed us non-stop, and with Akos and Nora in their beautiful new home on the way back. Three nights in a row up until 2am - I am just not up to that schedule anymore. In Budapest we indulged in some shopping, purchasing some new water filters, and some warm shoes for Kata. We had meant to pick up Kata's leather working and other handicraft tools and materials but we ran out of time. We have to be back in Budapest again sometime anyway for the Christmas decorations.

In the meantime, one of my former students at LBS, Attila sent me a wonderful full-colour mushrooming book by Ewald Gerhardt with 1300 descriptions as a surprise gift. One of his sons just happened to be coming on one of our Baradla Cave tours with his class and was able to deliver it in person. Sanyi dropped off a few coral mushrooms the other day. Of the 15-odd types, half seem to be poisonous, and to my eye look more-or-less the same. They are recommended particularly for soup, but I suppose they would also be nice in a tempura batter. However, of the 10 expert webpages and 3 people I consulted, none agree on whether they have to be be boiled first. I think we will just go with a good sauteing, as I believe they will probably fall apart or just get all floppy if pre-boiled.

A couple interesting finds: a right-wing Hungarian iron stove (with a map of former-Hungary backlit by flames), and a cutting board made out of the cut-out middle of a wooden toilet seat from the old toilet seat factory in Dombovár.