Who knew?
After a couple mutual wishes of "Happy Anniversary" this morning, it took a couple minutes to come up with the amount. Twenty years. I never thought she'd put up with me that long, but I'm still kicking around*.
Now, before any of you mushy types say, "Oh how wonderful that you're in Vienna for your Twentieth Anniversary", you might just want to hold that thought there, Kemo Sabe.
While I typically don't have any issues with hanging around the homestead toiling over a slightly warm computer, while my Travelling Companion goes off to try and lead the lost out of the wilderness, today's particular manifestation of work for her consisted of flying off to, wait for it......
Romania.
Such good planning. Never mind that she had a conference call within minutes of hitting the tarmac and had to get the driver to stop the car for a time so as not to drop the call. Took her two tries just to get through to me just a little while ago. That was around four p.m. Wienerland Time. She is being driven through Transylvania at this very moment.
Yes Virginia, there really is a Transylvania.
Birthdays and anniversaries alone are part of the deal I guess. We'll celebrate later maybe.
Or next year.
Now, it so happens that the 10th of August (yesterday for those of you who lost track) was also somewhat of a milestone. See, so happens that I was supposed to return to work on that day, or I was done fer....as in, out of a job.
Oops.
I didn't quite make it.
Months ago when we were trying to figure out just how we would solve this thing called work when it came to my end of the bargain, I figured I'd just have to pack it in, or go home at some point and put on the blue shirt and safety boots.
Fun times.
Extending the leave of absence past the two year mark wasn't a possibility, since our employee group just so happens to have a collective agreement, and somewhere along the way, some very wise contributor (quite likely the employer) covered off that issue.
I can only get two years.
No amount of threatening letters from some lawyer or other (I've had offers) would change a damned thing. Well, except perhaps the amount of money in our bank account.
The notion of going back and hanging around with my employer for a time, and then trying my luck at asking for another leave of absence didn't seem to make a whole heap of sense, since they could have very well turned around and quite simply said...."no".
That would have been a fine pickle, since it would have meant first of all, having to get myself back to Canader, then having to buy a set of wheels of some sort to get back and forth to work, since I could have ended up in any of the 80 elementary or 17 high schools within the district, since I lost my own school at the end of the first year that we were away.
Note previous comment about "bank account".
(So how long would I have to work to break even on that part of the deal?)
I'm sure they wouldn't have made me drive 40 kilometres to work every morning, but you never know. Either way, I wouldn't have been taking the bike back with me on the plane.
And....public transit? In Burlington, Ontario? You must be joking.
So there would be a certain financial disincentive, and then the more we chewed away at the problem, the more my Travelling Companion realised that I simply couldn't leave.
Her exact words were, "You can't leave me".
OK then.
I guess that's reassuring, and does tend to tie in with that whole "Twenty Years" theme.
It's one thing to be a few hours away by car in a place like Horseheads, N.Y.
or even in Puerto Rico for that matter. But Wienerland is not just a few hours away from central Canada.
For her to be left to her own devices in a land where she can't speak the lingo, so far from kin and country would really, really suck.
I sure hope I don't now have to change the name of the blog, since I'm currently "between commitments"?
Not only that, I'll have to figure out what to do with all those blue shirts.
........
* Or as my sister so aptly mentioned to our sister-in-law on her fortieth anniversary, "Just think, you'd be out by now!"
I'll let you figure that one out....but suffice to say, we no longer have capital punishment in the Great White North. It's OK though, my sister-in-law didn't get it either.
.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
And now we wait.
Seems like this is getting to be a "weekly blog", since there's bugger all to talk about most of the time. Hey, life goes on. There's enough crap on the internet, you don't need me to add to it.
I haven't really made mention of this yet, but we basically have guests stacked up in a holding pattern.
A sister-in-law and her troupe are coming in from Slovenia on Thursday night. Oldest daughter and her troupe are coming in on the 20th, and an old friend and her sister are coming in some time in September. Don't remember the date for that one, and I'd have to rummage through some emails to find it.
Maybe later.
So, this morning's activities have consisted of lining up hotel rooms and picking up concert tickets.
I don't want to make this more convoluted than necessary, but these tickets and hotel rooms have nothing to do with the first group. Those arrangements have been sorted out. We're working on the second group, who will first come here for a couple days and then head off to Slovenia. We're going to meet them in Bled for some pastry. (OK, there might be a glass of Union in there too)
The first group are already in Slovenia. But you knew that.
Just on a side note, one of the group made reservations for them at a place in Ljublana, and was all excited that they knew how to spell her name! (it's a Slovenian name)
Kind of nice once in a while when you don't have to laboriously spell out your name every single time, like I always have to here in Wienerland.
Thanks to a very nice young chap on the phone at Vienna Concert Tickets, I had my little story all ready in case they gave me a hard time at the ticket office, since they would prefer to have you pick up the tickets just before the performance.
Now, we've been to the State Opera, which is where this gig is happening, and that place confuses the hell outta me, so I really wanted to have our tickets in my hot little hands ahead of time. Plus I just told the guy that I really didn't want to line up with all the tourists.
He understood completely.
Sorry if that sounds snobbish, but you have no idea just how mobbed some of these places can be.
It's not like I'm coming in from out of town, but that was the little story I eluded to, by way of getting around the 'lining up on the night of' routine.
The slight consideration was, it's the summer time, and all of these places are overrun with summer students. Thankfully there was an "adult" passing by, who pretty much took over and got the situation sorted out. I now know how their system works, since all the tickets are sitting in these large folder type things inside a credenza. They simply take them across the street to Opera house on the day of the performance. (or to the Musikverein, or where ever).
There's no mystery, so all he had to do (the student) was go to the folder, bring it back to his desk, look at what I paid for the tickets, and ask which ones in that section I wanted. That was too complicated for him.
Now that I think on it, I'm not really sure what he and his other young associate were doing. Keeping their seats warm I guess.
The other part of today's agenda was to pick up a watch that belongs to my travelling companion that was in need of a battery.
I guess it's kind of like when you want to do a tune up on certain car brands. Not everyone wants to touch them. The watch happens to be a Gucci. Now before you get all "la-dee-da" on me and start rolling your eyes, it was a Christmas present a number of years ago for my travelling companion, and it's quite nice. It wasn't crazy expensive but, perhaps in the range of what I paid for my first used car, but has up to this point, lasted considerably longer.
So fine, there's a Gucci location in Vienna on their website, it's just too bad that the phone number is wrong.
*sigh*
I'm willing to go to a train station for some "recon", but I wasn't quite willing to jump on the subway and head down to the first district to try and find some mysterious Gucci store. I just figured I'd go out here on Mariahilfer and go into the first jeweller store I came across and ask them if there was in fact a Gucci outlet on Kohlmarkt.
Turns out there is.
Very nice people. Even the door man. (um...ya, places like Louis Vuitton and Gucci have door men) Only thing was, they would have to send it to German to get a battery put in.
Hm....welcome to "Absurdistan".
Instead, the very kind young lady told me to simply go down the street towards Michaelerplatz to a place called Shullin
where they would probably be able to change it that day. I decided to leave it over night.
This time around though I thought I'd take the bike, just to try and keep my arteries from hardening. It just makes it heaps easier to make multiple stops. Once again, the slight consideration is....wait for it....it's summer time, and the number of tourists in that area is truly amazing. Oh.. my.. goodness.
I probably should have just taken a picture of all the tourists, but you'll have to use your imagination.
I think if we get any more activities lined up, I'll need a bigger notice board.
Have you noticed that Mozart is kind of a prominent theme in Vienna?
.
I haven't really made mention of this yet, but we basically have guests stacked up in a holding pattern.
A sister-in-law and her troupe are coming in from Slovenia on Thursday night. Oldest daughter and her troupe are coming in on the 20th, and an old friend and her sister are coming in some time in September. Don't remember the date for that one, and I'd have to rummage through some emails to find it.
Maybe later.
So, this morning's activities have consisted of lining up hotel rooms and picking up concert tickets.
I don't want to make this more convoluted than necessary, but these tickets and hotel rooms have nothing to do with the first group. Those arrangements have been sorted out. We're working on the second group, who will first come here for a couple days and then head off to Slovenia. We're going to meet them in Bled for some pastry. (OK, there might be a glass of Union in there too)
The first group are already in Slovenia. But you knew that.
Just on a side note, one of the group made reservations for them at a place in Ljublana, and was all excited that they knew how to spell her name! (it's a Slovenian name)
Kind of nice once in a while when you don't have to laboriously spell out your name every single time, like I always have to here in Wienerland.
Thanks to a very nice young chap on the phone at Vienna Concert Tickets, I had my little story all ready in case they gave me a hard time at the ticket office, since they would prefer to have you pick up the tickets just before the performance.
Now, we've been to the State Opera, which is where this gig is happening, and that place confuses the hell outta me, so I really wanted to have our tickets in my hot little hands ahead of time. Plus I just told the guy that I really didn't want to line up with all the tourists.
He understood completely.
Sorry if that sounds snobbish, but you have no idea just how mobbed some of these places can be.
It's not like I'm coming in from out of town, but that was the little story I eluded to, by way of getting around the 'lining up on the night of' routine.
The slight consideration was, it's the summer time, and all of these places are overrun with summer students. Thankfully there was an "adult" passing by, who pretty much took over and got the situation sorted out. I now know how their system works, since all the tickets are sitting in these large folder type things inside a credenza. They simply take them across the street to Opera house on the day of the performance. (or to the Musikverein, or where ever).
There's no mystery, so all he had to do (the student) was go to the folder, bring it back to his desk, look at what I paid for the tickets, and ask which ones in that section I wanted. That was too complicated for him.
Now that I think on it, I'm not really sure what he and his other young associate were doing. Keeping their seats warm I guess.
The other part of today's agenda was to pick up a watch that belongs to my travelling companion that was in need of a battery.
I guess it's kind of like when you want to do a tune up on certain car brands. Not everyone wants to touch them. The watch happens to be a Gucci. Now before you get all "la-dee-da" on me and start rolling your eyes, it was a Christmas present a number of years ago for my travelling companion, and it's quite nice. It wasn't crazy expensive but, perhaps in the range of what I paid for my first used car, but has up to this point, lasted considerably longer.
So fine, there's a Gucci location in Vienna on their website, it's just too bad that the phone number is wrong.
*sigh*
I'm willing to go to a train station for some "recon", but I wasn't quite willing to jump on the subway and head down to the first district to try and find some mysterious Gucci store. I just figured I'd go out here on Mariahilfer and go into the first jeweller store I came across and ask them if there was in fact a Gucci outlet on Kohlmarkt.
Turns out there is.
Very nice people. Even the door man. (um...ya, places like Louis Vuitton and Gucci have door men) Only thing was, they would have to send it to German to get a battery put in.
Hm....welcome to "Absurdistan".
Instead, the very kind young lady told me to simply go down the street towards Michaelerplatz to a place called Shullin
where they would probably be able to change it that day. I decided to leave it over night.
This time around though I thought I'd take the bike, just to try and keep my arteries from hardening. It just makes it heaps easier to make multiple stops. Once again, the slight consideration is....wait for it....it's summer time, and the number of tourists in that area is truly amazing. Oh.. my.. goodness.
I probably should have just taken a picture of all the tourists, but you'll have to use your imagination.
I think if we get any more activities lined up, I'll need a bigger notice board.
Have you noticed that Mozart is kind of a prominent theme in Vienna?
.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Something to do with Manchester.
OK, this isn't some slimy way of getting unsolicited hits, it's just that there was another Manchester in the news on the very day that our recent guests left Wienerland on their way to Manchester, UK.
Not as much gun play up there, thankfully.
Considerably worse in the weather department though.
We were very fortunate to have pretty good weather for the whole six days they were here. It did rain one night, and threatened on a couple of occasions, but it can rain all it wants at night as far as I'm concerned.
On a somewhat unpleasant note, we may have lost one of our stars and been dropped from four stars to three, due to a miscue on the air-conditioning in the one guest room, as the remote was somehow on the wrong setting. Didn't work worth a damn.
Since there is a certain amount of city noise, once in a while it can be pleasant to close up and put on the air, but it didn't work on Sunday night.
Oh dear.
I don't know how it happened, but once I actually put my glasses on the next morning and consulted the manual, it was painfully obvious that it was set to "heat", and not "air condition". Gah!
I'm thinking if it had been set to "do sweet bugger all" instead of "heat", that would have at least been some consolation.
Oh well.
Won't be falling for that one again.
All in all it was a very pleasant visit, with days spent either seeing sights or shopping, with evenings spent yakking by candle light on the terrace. Like I said, the weather was just about perfect.
Don't get the wrong idea though. I'm not really all that enthusiastic when it comes to hours of shopping, so on more than one occasion I gave them a set of keys and sent them on their way.
We're close enough to everything that there really isn't any need to take public transit if one is willing to meander far enough, and they went all the way down to the first district on Monday unsupervised!
I know!
The expression that I like to use in reminding my lovely travelling companion when I'm about to set visitors off on their own is, "They're not TWELVE".
I mean really, if a person has somehow figured out how to get here from another continent, they surely don't need me to help them get back to the apartment.
At least I hope not.
What you're seeing above, is the inside of the Musik Verrein, which is pretty much in keeping with the insides of most buildings in Vienna. There's always a lot of either gold leaf or marble involved.
Since everyone coming to Vienna really should have a dose of Mozart, I ordered tickets a while back and we went on Friday night.
I had been putting off going to one of these Mozart concerts mostly out of protest, since they are rather touristy in nature, but the orchestra did a fine job, in spite of the goofy costumes.
Yes, the musicians dress up in period costumes. I guess that's OK, and it seems to be something they're truly proud of, since there was some boasting in the program that they had recently acquired some "genuine" period outfits at auction not long ago.
Whatever floats yer boat.
And for the picky purists out there, no they did not play a complete Mozart program. There was after all, The Danube Waltz by that Strauss guy, as well as the Radetzky March at the end.
I try not to roll my eyes, but there is no way any concert anywhere in Vienna is going to end without playing the Radetzky March it seems.
I'm not overly big on audience participation is all.
If you're desperate for a Strauss fix, you can have a listen to the March here.
It's just a slightly bigger orchestra.
(Vienna Phil under Georges Prêtre)
I'm not going to bore you with all the details of the visit, but I'll throw in a couple photos and you should be able to fill in some blanks.
One last thing.
This seems to happen just about every time we have visitors. It's also one of the nice little side effects of having visitors. Each and every time someone comes here, they discover something or other that up until that point we had no clue about. New stores get discovered. Products get found that I had given up on.
Magda found a hardware store on Mariahilfer Strasse that I didn't know was there. These folks found the brand new Merkur underground by the subway station at Neubaugasse. I might have found these places eventually, but the Merkur had just opened up at a site that is still undergoing some renovations, and I had figured I wouldn't be going back there again for a while, having frittered away an afternoon looking for something or other a couple months back.
Kind of handy having someone out and about poking around I suppose.
.
Not as much gun play up there, thankfully.
Considerably worse in the weather department though.
We were very fortunate to have pretty good weather for the whole six days they were here. It did rain one night, and threatened on a couple of occasions, but it can rain all it wants at night as far as I'm concerned.
On a somewhat unpleasant note, we may have lost one of our stars and been dropped from four stars to three, due to a miscue on the air-conditioning in the one guest room, as the remote was somehow on the wrong setting. Didn't work worth a damn.
Since there is a certain amount of city noise, once in a while it can be pleasant to close up and put on the air, but it didn't work on Sunday night.
Oh dear.
I don't know how it happened, but once I actually put my glasses on the next morning and consulted the manual, it was painfully obvious that it was set to "heat", and not "air condition". Gah!
I'm thinking if it had been set to "do sweet bugger all" instead of "heat", that would have at least been some consolation.
Oh well.
Won't be falling for that one again.
All in all it was a very pleasant visit, with days spent either seeing sights or shopping, with evenings spent yakking by candle light on the terrace. Like I said, the weather was just about perfect.
Don't get the wrong idea though. I'm not really all that enthusiastic when it comes to hours of shopping, so on more than one occasion I gave them a set of keys and sent them on their way.
We're close enough to everything that there really isn't any need to take public transit if one is willing to meander far enough, and they went all the way down to the first district on Monday unsupervised!
I know!
The expression that I like to use in reminding my lovely travelling companion when I'm about to set visitors off on their own is, "They're not TWELVE".
I mean really, if a person has somehow figured out how to get here from another continent, they surely don't need me to help them get back to the apartment.
At least I hope not.
What you're seeing above, is the inside of the Musik Verrein, which is pretty much in keeping with the insides of most buildings in Vienna. There's always a lot of either gold leaf or marble involved.
Since everyone coming to Vienna really should have a dose of Mozart, I ordered tickets a while back and we went on Friday night.
I had been putting off going to one of these Mozart concerts mostly out of protest, since they are rather touristy in nature, but the orchestra did a fine job, in spite of the goofy costumes.
Yes, the musicians dress up in period costumes. I guess that's OK, and it seems to be something they're truly proud of, since there was some boasting in the program that they had recently acquired some "genuine" period outfits at auction not long ago.
Whatever floats yer boat.
And for the picky purists out there, no they did not play a complete Mozart program. There was after all, The Danube Waltz by that Strauss guy, as well as the Radetzky March at the end.
I try not to roll my eyes, but there is no way any concert anywhere in Vienna is going to end without playing the Radetzky March it seems.
I'm not overly big on audience participation is all.
If you're desperate for a Strauss fix, you can have a listen to the March here.
It's just a slightly bigger orchestra.
(Vienna Phil under Georges Prêtre)
I'm not going to bore you with all the details of the visit, but I'll throw in a couple photos and you should be able to fill in some blanks.
One last thing.
This seems to happen just about every time we have visitors. It's also one of the nice little side effects of having visitors. Each and every time someone comes here, they discover something or other that up until that point we had no clue about. New stores get discovered. Products get found that I had given up on.
Magda found a hardware store on Mariahilfer Strasse that I didn't know was there. These folks found the brand new Merkur underground by the subway station at Neubaugasse. I might have found these places eventually, but the Merkur had just opened up at a site that is still undergoing some renovations, and I had figured I wouldn't be going back there again for a while, having frittered away an afternoon looking for something or other a couple months back.
Kind of handy having someone out and about poking around I suppose.
.
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