Futball

It has been brought to my attention, that there is some football thing or other going on here at the moment.

I did know really, just kidding. Y viva España!

A tune too far #13

Though I had decided to be slightly less dogmatic since my return about my relationship with the Austrian broadcasting media, I do feel it necessary to inform you that I have just had to turn the radio off as they were trying to make me listen to Mariah Carey butcher the tragic classic that is Without You.

To be honest, I never really like this song in the first place, but Ms Carey's vocal gymnastics are always a good enough excuse for imposed silence in my opinion!

You're the one for me fatty!

When I was here in the cold, cold, coldness on February and March, I would punctuate each day with a bowl of home made soup for my lunch.

As I work from home, I felt it was important to move away from my desk for slightly longer than it took to make a sandwich each lunchtime to prevent me going a bit cross-eyed and so standing in the kitchen, peeling and chopping, onions, celeriac, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers (... you get the idea) seemed preferable to wandering outside in the windy chill of the Obkirchergasse.

This slightly ritualistic, or obsessive behaviour, depending on how kind your worldview is, resulted in me losing quite a lot of weight. Quite a feat in the land of dumplings, believe me!

Now, when I returned, I was eager to give the soup regime another go (cheaper than Champney's anyway) to shed the pounds I had regained upon returning to the land of the pasty. But alas, it is too hot to even contemplate boiling the kettle during the day because of the extra degrees it adds to the ambient temperature!

I have been further thwarted by the discovery of Ruccola Frischkase and Rote Ruben Frischkase at Radatz, the deli round the corner. This is basically cream cheese (probably 100% fat judging by its general deliciousness) mixed with rocket and beetroot respectively (the latter having the marvellous addition of horseradish too and being the most glorious colour of pink as to make you question all the declarations of the lady behind the counter insisting that it is "100% bio" (German for organic)) and it has become a regular occurrence at breakfast (and other indulgent snacky) times, replacing light cottage cheese and curd cheese as the breakfast bread spread of choice. Yum yum!

My trousers certainly don't feel quite as loose as they did when I arrived but I think I am retaining water in the heat.

A pain in the neck

I mentioned earlier that i had pulled my shoulder attempting to rid the room of flies. Well, last night, it was quite painful and I didn't get a particularly good night's sleep.

Tim went out to the chemist down the road this morning while foraging for bread rolls for breakfast, looking for some potent unguent to apply that would remove the pain without frying my skin in the already searing temperatures.

What he came back with was Dolorex Spray which you spary on and leave to be absorbed. There aren't many ingredients but the only ones I recognise (the main one is Diathylaminsalicylat, which I have no idea what it is or does when it's at home, or abroad!) are menthol, camphor, glycerine and water.This stuff is fantastic though, it was cooling and a little numbing on the skin and the only slightly disconcerting side effect was that it made me smell of mothballs and old wardrobes. After a couple of applications during the day my shoulder feel almost normal again. I need some of this in my bathroom cabinet at home!!! Although after doing a quick "google" on it, it appears to only be available in the UK as an animal medicine!

Not a word!

A walk by the river

It was so hot yesterday that we were barely capable of doing anything!

We had intended to go for a swim again but as I have been suffering a little from a pulled shoulder after trying vigorously to swat flies which were pestering me, plus the imminence of the pool closing, we decided to go for a walk along the Danube.

W got the train to Friedensbrucke and walked into town as far as Schwedenplatz and then turned around and walked back on the other side, this time as far as Spitelau and the Hundertwasser Fernwärme (power station/heating works designed by Austrian artist and bonkers architect, Freidensreich Hundertwasser).

The walls by the river walk are filled with graffiti, some of it banal, some of it really interesting. Have a look and see what you think:



Even Amy Winehouse made an appearance!
This is the Fernwärme I mentioned:

A refreshing plunge

Well, I think summer has finally arrived. As the days have passed this week, the weather has got progressively hotter and yesterday, we decided to go swimming.

When we were here earlier in the year I had purchased an 18 Euro Monatskarte (monthly pass) for unlimited use in any of the swimming baths in Vienna. The closest pool to where we live is the Döbliger Bad which boasts both indoor and outdoor pools and yesterday was teeming with people in the pools and on the lush grassy banks or in the shade of the trees. We decided to walk there rather than take public transport as it was so gloriously warm and probably just as quick, oddly.

It seems to be far more socially orientated than a visit to the pool is in the UK and families and groups seemed set up for the whole day rather than a quick plunge and then a toddle round the shops. There is a cafe and a terrace, set up with real food and real drink (even beer) and no vending machines in sight, a variety of "fun" pools with slides and water plumes and fountains and spurts for youthful cavorting and teenage frolics, there was even a "normal" one too with lanes (taken up by over-excited kids, bombing and belly-flopping from the little diving board).

The water was sparklingly clear and the chill was a blessing after the searing heat of the sun on my body after the brief walk from the main building through to the pool at the bottom of the park. My body is generally so pale that i often think that during sunny weather i actually reflect the sunlight to the benefit of others around me (it hasn't actually been seen outside since 1997 on a day trip to Sitges during a trip to Barcelona with friends). Naturally, we weren't as well set up as the rest of the visitors with their creams and lotions and cold drinks flasks and insulated picnic baskets (we had intended just the quick refreshing plunge and then a toddle around the shops!) so it was only after a very short period that we retired to the (rather warmer and quieter) indoor poor in fear of over exposure of our overly pinky pale skin.

It was too warm for hot chocolate afterwards though and we couldn't even find a vending machine to buy crisps from.

A vegetable epiphany

I can't believe that I have got through, ahem, mumble mumble, years of my life having never eaten kohl rabi.

I feel I have missed out somehow and will need to make up for this immediately (fyi: I am munching a piece as i type)!

Green or white?

The Austrians, like the Germans, have a penchant for asparagus, especially forced asparagus, the thick, pale almost translucent spears which are kept white by depriving it of light are a common sight at the moment in the supermarkets, market stalls, and local greengrocers.
We bought some, to try as an experiment last night. Now, it turns out, we found out part way through preparation and cooking it, that preparation and cooking white asparagus differs quite a lot from that of green asparagus.

While green asparagus can be steamed to a tender delicacy in a couple of minutes, white apsaragus needs about 15 minutes steaming or boiling to stop it becoming stringy. It also needs peeling, which came as an even greater surprise!

Thank goodness at times like this for the omnipresence of the Internet. A lesson to take from this is that seemingly inconsequential blog ramblings can actually be very useful. So think on!

We had it served with serrano ham and a sauce made from mayonnaise, yoghurt and fresh dill (a Tim creation), and it was delicious!

NB after effects of white asparagus are just as pungent as green.

The things you find...

Before I came back to Vienna again I visited my mum. One of the reasons for the visit, was to clear out my old desk as she's having a clearout.

The desk was full of a variety of objects from my late teens which had been stored when I left home in 1988 to go to college. There were letters and postcards and photographs and books and magazines concert programs and knick knacks (not "nik-naks" apparently!) galore. And naturally, the immediate response for me when faced with a slab of personal ephemera from bygone days like this is to sit and sift, and sit a bit longer sift a bit more until I have worked through it all piece by piece, reminiscing and marveling at the naiveties of my youthful concerns until the day had gone and it was time to return home.

This time however I was ruthless! Letters, photographs, postcards, programs, and books awarded at junior school were swiftly dispatched to a plastic bag, unread, unlooked at and probably feeling a tad unloved. Do not fear however, I wasn't going to bin them, no no no, I merely transferred them to the boot of the car to transport back to Newcastle to peruse at my leisure(sic) when I return home later in the summer. No doubt I will probably "lose" a day or two once I start rifling through them, but hey, that's nostalgia for you.

Another task I had to undertake was to review the contents of an old biscuit tin containing my rather embarrassing keyring collection from the late '70s and early '80s. It contained hilarious manky bits of plastic/leather/metal/ that seemed so important to me as a kid but now seemed a little bizarre. I did rescue a few including a skull and crossbones which I think came from the front of Smash Hits (or some other pop music mag) when Adam Ant was at the height of his fame and this little treasure:
This is actually an Edelweiss bought for me by my sister, and it seemed fitting to post here on my Vienna blog (even though I think it was bought in Salzburg but I won't tell if you don't). I did toy with the idea of bringing it with me to carry my Austrian flat keys on but as the Edelweiss is a symbol of Austrian patriotism, I decided against it.

I am returned

Well, I have arrived safe and sound, after a particularly uneventful journey, all efficiency and smooth-running on-timedness can lead to a very dull blog entry. The only minor trauma was getting slightly disorientated in Schipol Airport (easily done, I'm sure you'll agree). Terminal 2 is very big, but it took me a bloody long time to find it!!!

The bags were off the plane by the time the passengers had reached the baggage hall and mine was one of the first which meant that I left the airport about half an hour before I expected too. No stress, no trauma, no rudeness, I was almost shocked.

On the way back to the flat in the CAT taxi there were loads of people on the streets being silly, waving flags and honking horns with painted faces like flags. Apparently there is some football thing going on at the moment in Vienna...

get the duster out!

It's time to spring(sic)-clean the blog, I'm wending my way back to Wien in a couple of days until the end of July.

I apologise to you for not getting round to posting the pictures of the snow in Simmering, perhaps the heat of the summer will be a suitably perverse time to post them :)

More (ahem) jollity/brevity to follow shortly.