by Mum and Dad arrived on Tuesday afternoon, pretty damn tired, and also shocked that there were no passport checks at the airport. (Because Romania had recently joined Schengen and they’d flown from Munich, they could go straight through.) Their trip wasn’t bad as these things go, but when you’re 75 that kind of journey is an ordeal whichever way you slice and dice it, particularly that 13-hour leg from Singapore to Munich. They said that next time – if there’s a next time – they’ll stop off in Singapore on the way. (They will spend a couple of nights there on the way back.) Unsurprisingly they’ve been sleeping a fair bit during the day.
Yesterday was a beautiful day. While I was working in Dumbrăvița, Mum and Dad walked into town. They remarked on how much the city centre had smartened up since they were last here; there have been yet more building renovations. Today I took them to Buziaș which they found just as fascinating as I do. That park with the ornate walkway and the extremely tall trees but also the abandoned buildings and that somewhat dilapidated theme park restaurant with the soviet planes. In the park we saw a woodpecker – well, Dad was the one who spotted it; he has an eagle eye, honed from half a century of finding things to paint. On the way back we stopped at Decathlon (so I could get two new inner tubes for my bike – yesterday I got a flat tyre because the valve broke) and Dedeman (so Dad could get some DIY bits and pieces).
Tonight we ate at the beer factory that is so close to me that when anyone asks where in Timișoara I live, I say “near the beer factory”. Dad and I both had bulz which meant a heck of a good meal but an extraordinary amount of meat, while Mum had a pasta dish. For dessert we had papanași (which isn’t far off a rum baba) and a tiramisu between the three of us. I’d lost eight pounds since early March but I could almost feel that weight coming back on after such a rich meal.
After a full day of lessons for me tomorrow, we plan to travel to Brașov – a place none of us have been to yet – on Tuesday where we’ll spend two nights, then go somewhere else (Cluj? We haven’t decided yet) before coming back on Saturday or Sunday. No lessons for me while we’re away.
It’s been great having Mum and Dad here. Even more so because I’d almost given up hope of seeing them at one point. We’ve had a lot of good chat about Ernest Shackleton, the new pope, and Mum’s old colleague from her school in St Ives who died of mad cow disease. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well my parents have got on with Kitty. They’ve come at a good time in that regard. In the last few weeks she’s gone from being skittish at best and a pain in the arse at worse to a much more placid, friendly little thing. Tomorrow I’ll take Kitty to Dorothy’s – she kindly agreed to look after her while we went away.
