Just keep on walking.

Yesterday was such a boring day that the only thing I could possibly come up with was some newspaper clipping again, and I just figured that was worse than talking about lumber.  And I have been known to go on about lumber. 
Well,  logs and firewood at least.
I’ve even been known to comment on the odd tractor now and again.

That's a nice one.

But there were actually a couple things:  And this was again one of these situations where I really and truly need to grab the camera on the way out the door,  since these opportunities present themselves,  never again to be repeated.
I knew that Travelling Companion had a dinner with colleges on her agenda for last night,  and I had offered to drop her off,  and she had declined. 
I just waited.
See,  where they were going to go for dinner,  the parking is a bit of a challenge,  and you need to know your way around the rabbit warren that is otherwise known as the first district of Vienna.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say I have it down pat or anything, but I’ve been lost down there enough times to now at least be able to figure out how to get out of the labyrinth.  All without the help of any string, I might add.
So she came by the front door,  we did the switcheroo,  since whenever I’m in the vehicle,  I’m usually the driver by default,  and off we went.  It was on my way back home when I actually saw the “Green Hornet Mobile”!   I think that’s what it’s called.  And dammit!  I didn’t have my camera!   You’ll just have to take my word for it.   It was sitting at the side of Mariahilfer being used for some promotional thing,  and was well,  really good for a laugh.  I mean,  they had the guns sticking out and all that,  but it was an old Lincoln.  I always thought that is was supposed to be a Chrysler?  This may take further research.  But I’m not too sure I really care.
Here’s a couple images I’ve pinched off the net.



 


See?  They be Chryslers.

To make it even slightly more amusing,  the car I saw on Mariahilfer had a German license plate.  Yet when Travelling Companion and I came by on our way home last night,  it was sitting on a trailer.
I’m confused.
I guess they didn’t want to drive it all the way back to Germany.

So here it is mid afternoon and this is the first chance I’ve had to be stationary all day.  I haven’t even read the paper!   What, you say?
I took Travelling Companion to work this morning,  since I noticed that the fuel gauge was calling out to me.  So after dropping her off, getting the car washed and filled with diesel, I’ve been hitting all the stores that are only possible to reach by car.  Partly due to my quest to find the ever elusive whet stone, but there was also a request for some loose spinach.
I know,  who the hell eats loose spinach,  you ask?  Well,  there’s this one particular salad that Travelling Companion makes that’s really rather good.  Only thing is,  to find loose spinach means I have to go to the Naschmarkt.  I’ve made that trip in the past by bike,  but it’s one heck of a sight easier with the car.  The car doesn’t seem to mind the hills so much?
I’ve looked high and low for loose spinach in all the usual places recently, and then I finally asked one of the produce chicks at Merkur,  and she pointed out to me that,  in a round about way,  it has something to do with being Turkish.  It seems it can only be had at any of the Turkish produce stores over on the other side of the Gürtel,  or at the Naschmarkt where,  it just so happens the proprietors are….wait for it…..Turkish.   Again.  I’m confused. 
Is there a special “spinach licence”?

OK, whatever.
Now, once again in the “shoulda had my camera” department,  I just came back from hoofing it down to Neubaugasse,  (since there’s absolutely no point at all taking the car most places right around here,  and I need the exercise)  and it was on my way there that I saw something that made me think, “Just keep walking”. 
This is hard to explain,  and now that I think of it,  I’m not even sure I would have wanted a picture.   I think it was a young lady.   I’m kind of hopeful it was a young lady, since there were some butt cheeks exposed,  and before I realised it,  I looked. 
She/he/it was standing at the street corner,  waiting for the light to change,  and was heading away from me*,  and I only caught a glimpse of this somewhat broad shouldered person standing there in a rather skimpy two piece lime green bathing suit.   Possibly OK at the beach,  since there are beaches not far from here where one is perfectly welcome to wear considerably less, but you’re going to get at least a couple looks if you’re standing at the side of Mariahilfer Strasse right around noon time. 
Plus,  lime green? 
Really.
Maybe that was the issue?

What was even more amusing was seeing the looks on people’s faces as they were looking past me,  all the while nudging each other and mouthing indiscernible little mutterings in German.
My German lip reading is a little weak, but I saw at least one lady say , “Meine Güte!”
I’m sure you can figure that one out.

I’ll try to keep the camera with me more often.  I promise.

*and yes,  for this I am also thankful.


.

Shopping with glasses.

And I’m not talking about taking along a couple shot glasses so you can have a little snort half way through your outing,  although that would be entirely possible due the amount of wine and spirits sold in the grocery stores here.
I’m resisting the temptation here to go off on a rant about how we seem to be the “chosen ones” in nine out of ten provinces in Canada to be blessed with the privilege of having to go some place special to pick up our booze. It’s no more absurd than having a “dry county” I suppose,  which is one of those silly little things one encounters in the States.  What is it with us and our booze rules??
Anyway,  I have no intention of doing the booze rant.   What I’m talking about is something a little more pragmatic. 

Now,  I see folks wandering around with their reading glasses either hanging off the tips of their noses,  or GOD FORBID hanging off one of those “idiot straps”  from around their neck.   There’s something about the whole “librarian look” that doesn’t quite work for me.  The thing too is,  these people look old.   Turns out they’re all probably my age,  but still.  They just look old.  
Sometimes you just have to resist.

I have no problems with the practise of clipping my hat to my collar when out racing sail boats,  but for now at least,  that’s as far as I’m willing to go when it comes to attaching things to my person.
OK fine,  I do have this thing about clipping my house keys onto a belt loop,  but that falls under the same paranoia as losing a hat off the back of a boat.  Even then,  the hat is replaceable,  whereas without those keys,  I’m really screwed.
Turns out,  I just may need to do more than simply carry a pair of glasses around in a pocket,  at the ready in case I think I might try to wade through some instructions in nine different languages,  none of which are ever English,  or maybe puzzle over a chicken thigh or a brisket.
See,  the other day I thought I’d try my hand at making bean salad,  and was delighted to see that I had finally found yellow beans!  Wow!  Happy Shopper! 
Well,  maybe “Happy”  is a stretch. 
More like,  “slightly less miserable”.

But this is what I saw yesterday when I popped open the tin.



What the hell are those things??
I thought I was buying yellow beans??

Better put on my glasses.  
Turns out, I don’t even know what this is in ENGLISH!  These pale things are something called “Salsify” in English.   “Also known as Goat’s Beard”,  according to Wikipedia.  What??
So then the next question is,  “should I try it??”   Not in the bean salad mind you,  ‘cause we know for sure now,  them ain’t beans.
But then I go on to read a little more about this plant,  and come to find out when cooked,  it tastes like oysters? 
Again, what?? 
I don’t even like oysters,  since they taste like oysters.  Why would I shove some stringy plant in my mouth that then is going to taste like oysters? 
 Bleah!
 So that was that.  Drained off the liquid and dumped those suckers.
I had enough tins of beans left to make a decent bean salad which apparently was,  “Good,  but missing something.”  Not sure how that works,  since the taster was the one who gave me the instructions,  including the use of this rather unique vinegar that we bought in Slovenia.
Certainly not unique to the Slovenians,  but I’ve never seen it around here, or maybe I have but I don’t know what the heck I’m looking at.



I guess it’s just wine vinegar?  Not sure. 
This is probably one of those occasions where we buy something unique,  and we’ll come to miss it later on when we finally move away.
I’m sure we’ll get over it.

 I mean, I miss being able to touch my toes without bending my knees,  but I got over that a long time ago.

 Now,  I don’t want to leave you with the wrong impression or anything,  so just to demonstrate that there are times when I can be “less than miserable”,  here is a picture of a fluffy cloud.

There you go.



.

The “Last” of the Habsburgs

This is certainly not the kind of news that you’re going to see being covered to any great extent by the media in the west,  although there are a couple stories that were repeated in a few on line newspapers. It did come up after a search in google, 
I put last in quotation marks,  since I know there are many more descendants of the Habsburg family here and there,  so it’s not like the “Last of the Mohicans”,  or anything,  but this chap, Archduke Otto von Habsburg, was the last to be in direct line to the Austrian throne.

Even though the entire royal family was punted out of Austria in 1919,  he was none the less an ardent opponent of Hilter,  and later was a vocal proponent of the ultimate unification of Europe throughout his long political career. 
Anyway,  thought I’d mention it in passing.  For the history buffs,  there’s more reading here,  and here.

And for those not inclined to move your eyes back and forth (it’s called reading)  I’ll throw in a picture.

Of course,  I managed to cut off the right side of the scan,  so I did another…

Just a warning though,  if you start reading too much about the Habsburgs,  your head is going to hurt big time.  I’m not even sure about the following,  since I can’t quite figure it out without starting to paste copious amounts of post-it notes on the wall,  but I believe it would have been his first cousin, Archduke Ferdinand who was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28th,  1914,  which as we all know started the first world war.
Trying to keep it all straight can turn into a bit of a slippery slope,  and there’s an exceedingly good chance that I’m dead wrong. I’ll certainly never know.

There’s not a whole heck of a lot else going on today.  Travelling Companion was on the road early this morning,  as she and one of her associates had to head up to another office to do some sniffing around in the books.  She was just pleased that she didn’t have to do the driving. 

For my part,  I’ve been wishing I had packed along one of the several whet stones I have in my possession,  since the edges on a couple of our bigger knives are starting to look a little ragged.  Sad to say, but that’s mostly due to the way they are stored in the drawer,  since we have a rod for sharpening,  and I’m reasonably proficient at using it,  but I’m not getting the edge I’d like.  

I’ve been looking “on the line”, but thought I’d hoof it down Mariahilfer and take a gander in a small hardware store that my sister-in-law discovered last year some time.   To be honest I rarely walk that far,  and it’s one of these “hole in the wall” type places.   Well,  he had a stone,  (note…I said,  “a stone”)  and it was a nice looking Arkansas whet stone,  worth about 15 bucks, give or take.   He had a price on it of something like €33.  

Wasn’t much bigger than this example either.



Depending on the current rate of exchange,  that’s something like 50 bucks.


Right.

I’ve seen cheaper and better on-line.  So that one will stay in storage for a while.
I realise there are those who think the Arkansas whet stone is the best thing going for sharpening and I certainly have no qualms with their use.  I have a couple of my own,  but I’ve also had very good results with Japanese water stones for the last 25 years or so,  so I’ll stick with what I know.  The knives will have to wait a couple days I guess,  since it’ll probably take that long to get delivery.

This example comes in at around €16, and is a combination stone of 1000/3000 grit.




Just thought you’d want to know.



.