KesterTester62 - A macabre, even ghoulish Tester for Christmas, perhaps, but then, for this man Christmas some years previously had been a gruesome, life & death experience.
Photo: This man, now retired, was a veterinary surgeon by profession - but in this picture, taken in 2015, he is standing in a building - a former military centre - redesigned and repurposed in a project which he inspired and led. The question for this KesterTester is not the man's name (that's a bonus two pints if you nail that as well), but what is the building, and why is it unique? (Or at least he claimed it was when we spoke, and I believe him.) But because I suspect this is a real toughie for most readers, I'll post another photo or two over Christmas in this thread to help out the sleuths in here, who've been having a bit of a bad time of it lately.
Update 1
Photo: Here is our former veterinary surgeon a few years earlier (and in another building at the time). I happened upon his institution as I was walking by and only had a short time to talk and photograph him here.
Does this photo help? I'll post another tomorrow if you still need it.
Photo: Here is our friend, the former vet, again, sitting outside (on what, you may well ask?) his life's work in 2015. This, surely, is enough for the master sleuth readers to nail this one?
Meanwhile, back to the original text (to help you with KT60).
Indeed, nobody has so far identified KT60 - not even the council housed in the very building pictured! Believe it or not, I emailed the municipality at their official address about 10 days ago asking for more information on these figures - and they failed to answer!
Yes, we have a genuine Eastern Europe Bureaucrats in Failure to Communicate Shock! story here - or maybe they took offence at my mention of their local somewhat dodgy main industry, I don't know.
I also checked the local tourism website, and there too I found no mention of photo of these statues. However, the lady in charge did have the decency to write back and tell me about them. Of course, all this means I could claim my first ever win in over a year's worth of Testers, buy myself a crate of beers and get sozzled with a perfectly free conscience. (Actually, make that a case of wines, because that would be more fitting to the Tester in question.)
But as I'm such a soft-heart, I've decided to offer yet more help in solving this one, and give you yet one more clue to help someone on his or her way to fame and global celebrity status.
Well, OK, it's more like exposing an anti-clue.
Yes, I'll 'fess up to laying a mine in the clues that I've given so far. Now what I wrote is all true, but I knew one clue might easily send you looking in the wrong direction. For while truly the Mayor of this municipality when I visited did speak Hungarian - that was only because he grew up in another border town with a significant ethnic Hungarian population.
Later in life he moved away, so the town in question in KT60 does not have an indigenous Magyar population - it's in a totally different area - and the border issue in this location does not involve Hungary (for once!).
OK, so now you have plenty to think about while you fill your stockings and pack your gifts - KT60/61/62 all up and tantalisingly running together.
Answers please, as usual, via email or the website messaging system! Merry Christmas!
UPDATE: Results of KT61 – A House of Worship Amid a Surfeit of Masts Apologies for such late answers to this one. I didn't feel well yesterday, and spent chunks of the day in bed. KT61 produced surprisingly few entries, and with mixed results. Perhaps people thought it was too easy. Alex Faludy, the first to proffer an answer, was certainly of that mind. “Tihany Abbey, Lake Balaton. If you are going to waste the opportunity of having this blog then at least make it minimally challenging.” Oooch, Alex. Please remember there are readers from countries roundabout who are not experts on Hungary, and for whom this photo may have been difficult to identify. Linda Vadasz and Hannah Sugichi also came up with Tihany/Benedictine Abbey as the answer. Well, this tester was obviously more than minimally challenging for some, because though the building in the photo is indeed the Benedictine Abbey, if you read just a little more carefully, that is not the answer to the question :) One regular contestant who paid more attention to the text was Hubert “Poirot” Warsmann: “Tihany apatsag likely from the Tihany Marina. There are good views from the Tihany Szantod ferry but I don't think one gets that particular angle from the ferry.” As did Sanyi Nemeth: “From Zamárdi, perhaps.” Tom Chilton wrote: “This KT is Tihany Abbey photographed from Balatonfüred,” while Steve Soley answered: “Hello Kester, Tihany, Lake Balaton. Yacht Club.” Steve, that puts me in a difficult position: which yacht club? Well, a) because Balatonfüred is, as far as I know, generally considered the premier yacht club on the lake, and b) if I don't allow your answer there is only one clear winner, and we need to have a draw if possible, I'll allow your answer this once. So, only two numbers go into the EU-Accredited Black Woolly Draw Hat with the chance to win global celebrity status and the right to buy me two beers – and the winner is … number 2 – step forward Mr Steven Soley!
I only hope you can cope with the fame and adulation. Thanks and congratulations to all who entered the fray! I will aim to undertake the draw for KesterTester62 (the Ghosts of Christmas Past, above) this week and finally catch up with the backlog. So you still have time to ponder and enter KT62. Have a good week!