Putting away the shorts.

I think I’ve gone practically all summer without having worn long trousers for more than a few hours at a time,  but that time has sure passed.  Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a fabulous summer,  and I’m by no means complaining,  but the idea of putting away the “summer clothes” for the next several months is kind of a bummer.  “Summer”  clothes for me is really only the shorts end of things,  since I tend to wear t-shirts just about all year.  If I could compare my body temperature to that of a car engine,  I seem to run a little “warm” just about all the time,  and could never quite get over working with guys who would wear a t-shirt AND a shirt in the middle of the summer.   I would simply wilt, and fall by the wayside.    And forget long sleeved shirts!   Within minutes it seems I find myself rolling up my sleeves,  so it’s always best to just not wear a long sleeved shirt in the first place.
So why am I blathering on about this?  Well,   starting some time Sunday night,  the weather in these parts has kind of sucked, if I must say.  It’s just been drizzly and cloudy and blustery,  and only today has it started to brighten up a bit,  even though it’s still completely overcast.  
Travelling Companion left Monday morning in complete cloud cover (with rain interspersed)  and said her flight was a bit of a bumpy one.  She’s calmed down a whole lot over the last ten years or so of air travel,  but I recall her stories of flying out of Hamilton,  Ontario when I think it was US Airways that had a direct flight to Pittsburgh.   Only thing was,  the plane wasn’t anything bigger than about a 12 seater,    and trust me when I say this,  she’s still not a person who wants to see what’s going on up front,  especially if it’s big red blotches on the radar screen.   I always wished I could go in her place,  since I would have had a grand time,  but that certainly wasn’t possible.  
Funny how that works?  I much prefer flying in a smaller plane rather than a passenger liner,  but that sort of activity scares the bejeepers out of her.   Yet she’s the one who does most of the air travel.

Some time on Monday I guess it was,  I received a note from sister-in-law telling me she had arrived in Ljubljana on schedule and her sister and cousin were there to meet her.   They went to a Gostijlna (Slovenian for restaurant is all)  and ended up having what turned into a five course meal.  Had to take home doggie bags.  She said there was then a picnic in Sava later that day (more eating!)  and then the rain started later in that night.  I think they’ve pretty much had the same crappy weather we’ve had,  if I take a gander at the weather radar for Europe. 
She insists that the two of them are going to take the train back here on Saturday from Ljubljana,  but I have no problem running down to Sava on Saturday to fetch them.   It takes about three and a half hours to get to Sava,  I’ll hang around a bit, and we’ll all motor back here to Wienerland.  No big deal.
Originally Travelling Companion wanted to head out together on Friday some time,  but she figures the work will have piled up to the point that the Friday program is out the window.   Stupid work!
She still might come along if I do a ‘down and back’ on the Saturday and work in the car.  She seems to be able to do that,  right up to the point where motion sickness starts to creep in.  I only find it slightly annoying when it’s during the week and she’s on the phone (using the bluetooth system) and I have the privilege of listening in to some of the conversations.  Her patience with some of the people who report to her shows no bounds.  Other than that,  I have no comment.
It remains to be seen if the issue with Live Writer has been sorted out.  I had some words of wisdom from Rick on joining Google Plus,  which I’ve done.  Don’t know if that will help.  I do recall having the issue with running out of space for pictures,  but that still doesn’t explain how I can just load them up from Blogger in draught.  (no, meant to say "draft",  but writing in Blogger with a "draught"  is probably also a worthwhile pursuit,  except of course that they both actually mean the same,  does that clear things up?  Silly English language.)
Of course,  I don’t completely understand where the heck they end up anyway,  so perhaps the pictures are in two different spots?   Too much info for my pea brain.
So I guess that means I should add some photos to test things out?


Some Enquiring minds need to know I'm sure.

I did leave off with the proximity of the Vienna City Hall (Rathaus) to the circus,  which is also really close to the Austrian Parliament.
Speaking of which,  a couple of the clowns from the Austrian Parliament were in New York last week for some event or other at the United Nations.
just a snippet….
quote:

Austria elected Vice-President of the UN General Assembly

New York, 24 June 2011 – At the 66th UN General Assembly, which will be opened on 13 September 2011, one of the two Vice-Presidents from the group of Western European and other states will come from Austria. This was decided by the UN General Assembly on 22 June by acclamation. After its membership of the UN Security Council in 2009-2010 and its first election as a member of the Human Rights Council in May 2011, Austria is once again assuming a leading role within the United Nations. Austria held the position of Vice-President of the General Assembly for the last time in 2002.
On Wednesday, the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, was elected President of the UN General Assembly. He will replace the former Federal President of Switzerland, Joseph Deiss, in this position.

end quote.

I’m sure you care.  It was in the news here.  Briefly.
They like to think they’re important. 
Anyway,  I think in my original post that I lost on Monday,  I was talking about Saturday’s activities.   I had pictures.
Going for coffee here in Vienna is almost a national pastime,  but since we live here,  and have a coffee maker,  it’s really not that often that we do this kind of thing.   Of course,  the hidden agenda is usually to make use of the washroom facilities,  so that’s always a good ploy. 
We stopped into a “Konditerei”  after wandering around outside the circus with coffee and bathroom in mind.
I failed to get a picture of the cherry strudel type of dessert that I had,  since I ended up scarfing it down before that thought occurred to me.   These things happen.  Bob loses his mind when there’s pastry involved.   Sorry.

I did take a picture of my nearly empty coffee cup.  Nice going.

It was still warm enough to sit outside,  although we were protected by a walkway.

It’s quite common to see really spectacular architecture no matter which way you turn your head.  It’s very easy to start to take it for granted.  After being here for almost two years now,  I have to catch myself once in a while and give myself a little shake.

After coffee,  we then wandered over to take a closer look at the Austrian Parliament building.  Also,  not too shabby.


You’ll no doubt notice the big statue is holding up a little guy?  (well,  “gal” I suppose)


Any guesses who that is?   Should I give a clue?   Do you wear running shoes?
That’s probably already a give away.  You’ll need to really bone up on your Greek mythology and architecture to figure out everything that’s going on with this place.  If you really need to know,  just go on over to Wikipedia.  It’s a good way to fritter away a morning.
OK fine,  the big statue is Athena,  but that’s all I’m saying.

It’s hard to do the place justice with a few pictures,  and there are gobs of them on the web,  so I’m not going to get too carried away here.



Here you can get an idea of just how close you are to the City Hall.  Those other two spires are a mystery to me.  The city is full of them.  My brain would explode if I tried to figure out each and every one.
That was about it for Saturday.  We once again had a nice meal,  complements of Chef Bob.   Easy stuff really.  Corn on the cob.  Steaks and some green things.  (Beans I think)  Only means marinating the steaks when I get them first thing in the morning.   I have the butcher cut them from a filet.   Oh ya, baby!  Melt in your mouth.



Sunday morning was a bit of an early one,  since we took sister-in-law off to the train station.


Note that the train doesn’t leave until 8:02,  and we’re there at 7:15?  Have I ever said how I hate being late?  Sometimes we do get a bit carried away though,  I’ll admit.
So,  that’s a whole lot of pictures,  and now we’ll see how it goes when I hit “publish”.

Fingers crossed.


.*on edit*  I had to just now sign in to Blogger,  but not for the "bad" reason!   It seemed to take a looong time,  (and I was getting nervous and tired of clenching my butt) but the post loaded up to Blogger without a hitch.   Rick!  You da MAN!  

:)

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