Going downhill #3?

Happy New Year (yes I know it's nearly spring, don't start!).

It seems somehow fitting that the first post I post after my previous incredulous age post should be a post about the age of my blog post-blogiversary (how many times can you get a way with writing "post" in a single sentence?).

It came as a bit of a shock last weekend, with sinuses bunged up with mucous and phlegm that I should realise that it was exactly twelve months since we went to Vienna, and this little adventure began.

I'm really sorry it has been so dull since my return! I will endeavour to try harder in the future, even if that only means posting posts about nice pictures and odd songs that happen across my path.

Going downhill #2

Forty bloody one!

how did that happen?

I did have a very nice birthday though :)

Going downhill #1

On the bus on the way to work the other day, I was sat in front of a couple of young professionals (yp).

Not that I was ear-wigging or anything... but, they were graduates recently moved here who were musing about acceptable areas to live in.

YP #1 was saying: "Apparently, Jesmond used to be really quite a smart area. You can understand why the people who have bought houses here are irritated by the increase in student accommodation"

YP #2 agreed "Yes, I think if I was looking to buy somewhere I certainly wouldn't want to live in Jesmond".

Things that are no more #1

My waterlily in my pond on the allotment, stolen (sob) earlier in the summer.

This frog now has no pad to call its own :(

I just don't know what to do with myself

Ok, ok!

It's not dead, only resting!

I have been back since the beginning of August and I have only posted one lousy blog entry. I could say that nothing report worthy had happened, but that would be a big fib. I have actually been rather busy.

Since our return I have:

• supervised our double glazing installation
• visited Eigg
• been to Wales
• started a new job
• bought a new vacuum cleaner (not a hoover)
• had a burglary (on the allotment)
• planted some garlic and onions
• had another burglary (on the allotment)
• embraced the new council supplied big blue recycling bin
• took my first half day holiday from my new job to do some decorating at home
• grown a beard
• been to Manchester to help with some of my mum's decorating
• bought a beard trimmer
• bought some Purple Vienna Kohl Rabi seeds
• done some more decorating at home
• had a bonfire
  

I just don't know where to start! Perhaps I should do a(nother) lazy blog entry and post some pictures instead...

Oh it's all gone quiet over there...

Well, strictly speaking, it's all gone quiet over here, as, over there (in Austria), I was rather chatty!

This was quite unintentional as just before we left Vienna at the end of July I had intended to post my own travel guide, complete with links, to some of our favourite places there and about. Unfortunately for me, the landlady decided to kill the internet connection a day early, so I couldn't, and now, I can't find my file to make up for my lackadaisical attitude. I will try to find it later. Since I got back, although lots has happened, I have found it quite difficult to get back into the swing of blogging.

I have also toyed with what to call the blog, since now I am now longer in Vienna, and any greeting will be more likely to come from the UK than not, but I think I will live with Gruss aus Wien for a little while longer, out of badness as much as anything else!

Otherness

People often comment that the shopping areas of Vienna (including the rather smart Mariahilferstrasse and even the Kärntner Strasse) look somewhat old-fashioned.

Not having succumbed to 1970s brutish city centre redevelopment as is the case of most British cities, Vienna remains largely untouched. Its smart shop fronts gleam as brightly as the things on sale inside (be they expensive artifacts or glorious bits of golden plasticy tat).

One thing I have noticed since we arrived in February is how few global retail outlets are present here. The ubiquity of some of these shops make any city somehow interchangeable with any other. Not that I have been searching for something "essential" to Vienna since we have been here (I could look in the direction of the Fiaker rides around the city centre or the Spanish Riding School displays for that), it was rather just something that struck me immediately as "different" or even "foreign" about Vienna which took me a long time to work out why.

Some of the usual (and other, not so usual) suspects are present here, including:

• Body Shop
• Crabtree & Evelyn
• Esprit
• Foot Locker
• H&M
• KFC
• Macdonalds
• Starbucks
  
• Zara

The presence of multiple Starbucks shops in the alleged coffee capital of Europe, seems particularly provocative. They seem ever popular though.

Sounds of summer

I have been really busy and a tad distracted recently and the hot weather has been sapping the energy from my weary body to the point where posting a blog entry has almost made me swoon at the thought of the expended energy (that's my excuse for my laziness anyway).

Today I have been sat working by the noisy open window (possibly more of that later) of our lounge with the swallows wheeling and darting above the rooves outside. They shrieked as they fly by like excited children and reminded me of the (pleasant) din created by the kids in the street where I live in the UK as they run and squeal and laugh and run some more up and down and up and down. It made me feel a little homesick.

I noticed there was a lot of fast feathered activity around one particular area across the street and realised the there must be a nest under the flashing of one of the buildings immediately opposite. I decided to see if I could capture any of the aerial aerobatic antics with my camera.

Needless to say, I think I took about thirty photos and this is the only one that captured anything other than brick, slate, tin and sky.

I fear the people who live opposite may now think I am a peeping tom!

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 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)!

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.

one two three. one two three.. one two three...

No, I'm not going to astound you with my dancing skills. I merely thought I'd share this with you.

Now I think this is an interesting mix of old and new culture here. The sign (above) is directly in front of the Strauss Monument (details below) in the Stadtpark. So after you have regarded the statue respectfully from a distance, or, as in my case, clambered about all over it, you are informed in a bit of a "gotcha" kind of way, that you have been projected across the globe courtesy of the Internet and the City of Vienna website. I think it might have been a good idea to have put the weblink on the placard, but hey, no one likes a know it all!
It's also a bit of a devious way of reminding you that you're being watched, if not by the disapproving Viennese themselves (I didn't trample anything, what is your problem?), then by all the world who are glued to the webcam on the Stadt Wien homepage collectively tut tutting at the likes of me and my disrespectful behaviour!

I suppose I should put the link in now shouldn't I?

Oh, by the way...

Have i mentioned that I inadvertently had all my hair cut off?

After we put Bridget on the CAT express train for the airport at the Landstrasse station on Saturday, we decided to have a look around the area around the station.

The weather was glorious and as Tim used to live around that area when he was a student we thought it would be interesting to see what, if anything had changed.

Now, we have been in Vienna for six weeks (counting the one week we were actually in America) and time and hair growth wait for no man, and by this time our barnets were getting a bit out of hand. Before we went away at the start of March we had been casting around trying to find somewhere to get a haircut, but to no avail. While we were in Chicago, we kept our eyes (sort of) peeled for a suitable hair cutting establishment, and again, our (minor) efforts came to naught.

As we were ambling along the Ungargasse back to the Ringstrasse to catch the train to the market, we happened upon Hair Factory, a place that looked funky enough to warrant further investigation without looking too forbidding and was also open (on Saturday afternoon, that can be a task in itself).

We did investigate further and found that we didn't need an appointment either, so sat down and waited to be shawn.

I say inadvertently, as I kind of explained to the young woman with the scissors in my faltering German how long it had been since I had had a haircut, that I wanted it clippered at the back and explained that when long, my hair goes curly and that I didn't really like curly hair. Now she took this last statement rather more literally than I had intended and my hair on the top got shorter and shorter and shorter!

Both cuts are excellent by the way in case you were wondering, and I think we would go back if necessary. It just shocks me each time i look in the mirror!

I'm sure it'll grow on me though(groan)!

Repetitive strain

I remember, years ago, when doing some work for the Tyne and Wear Museum Services that the technicians would listen to GNR and would often comment as the same song came on time after time after time, that GNR must actually stand for "Got No Records"*!

This "limited playlist" approach to brainwashing appears to have been adopted by all the radio stations here. "We play what you want" is the slogan of one of the stations. Well, if you would like to introduce me to this "you" who you are dedicating your airtime to, I might like to give them a record token for their birthday to broaden their musical spectrum a tad, in whatever direction, I don't really mind.

I seem to have ceased to battle with Austrian airwaves. No longer do I stop mid-keystroke to spit and rail at the radio and the (on the whole) dreadful pap/dad-rock/power-ballads/novelty-songs it subjects me to. I calmly rise from my seat and turn it off, and make another cup of chamomile tea.

It has been pointed out to me that my "songs that saved your life" and "tune too far" posts have reflected a particularly narrow musical time frame. While I accept that this is partly true, the tunes that have initiated this new (and some may think harsh) response to personal entertainment have almost exclusively been "new songs".

So far songs that have made me turn off the radio have included:

• James Blunt - Same Mistake
• Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
• Joan Osborne - What if God was one of us
  

Sometimes the noise of the roadworks is preferable to such bland yelping.

*GNR stands for Great North Radio

Can you keep your noise down please?

There are some roadworks just up the road from us.

Now you all (in the UK anyway) know how irritating roadworks can be when in close proximity to where you live, particularly the early morning starts, with diggers and pneumatic drills... Well, here roadworkers seem to work to a very different timetable!

There don't seem to be any early starts, and during the day the only noticeable activity seems to be during the lunchtime break when all the local businesses (with the exception of the supermarkets) close for an hour, or two, or a bit longer.

They really get into the swing of things however after about 9pm... Sometimes carrying on until after 12.30am!!!

I don't know what the Jesmond Residents Association would have to say about that!

How perceptive...

I stumbled across this the other day while walking around the Gurtel (ring road I suppose).

Something tells me that Club Dracula might be a goth club. What do you think?

First fruits

I noticed this morning whilst reading the Bezirk's Magazin (a locale mag for locale people) that the "first fruits" of this years local harvest are already in. They are being promoted by the local media and local supermarkets in a way I can't imagine happening in the UK.

These "first fruits" aren't fruits at all but are actually root vegetables; radishes to be precise.

Their health virtues are extolled (a key part of your "5 a day") alongside their green credentials (being locally grown they have traveled only a short distance and therefore only have a small carbon footprint etc etc).

I think there is something quite comforting that something as unassuming as the humble radish can enjoy such adulation.

North, South, East and West

To conclude our walk, and allow us a little time inside to thaw out we, decided to visit the observation platform at the top of the Sear's Tower. The day was a little murky but the views were still amazing!

Views to the north:
to the east:
to the south:
and to the west:
We needed a drink after that. It's a shame there wasn't a bar up there!