It’s a Holiday!

Big whoop.

With the exception of the stores being closed,  and having to make sure we had enough grub on hand for today,  my life isn’t that much different.  

There doesn’t seem to be any consistency when it comes to who gets what in the way of holidays in Europe either,  as parts of Germany are off today but, some regions aren’t.    I haven’t even bothered to figure out the rest of the countries.  Not really important. 

It does suck though if you’re a tourist and wander into town,  thinking you might do a little shopping on just any Wednesday,  only to discover that everything is closed.  The cafes are open,  if that’s any consolation.

Travelling Companion knew it was a holiday,  although she managed to briefly forget and plan a conference call for this afternoon.  No biggie,  as that’s something that can be done from home,  even though it’s a pain to use the Crackberry instead of the landline.  

Turns out one of her work associates managed to forget that it was a holiday,  and planned a little trip up to Denmark.  Seems there was some rumblings from the home front.  Been there.  Done that.  Just one of those things.  Something that most spouses don’t really ever get used to though.  They have these things called “calendars”,  you know? 

 

Anyway,  I’ve probably mentioned from time to time that we don’t seem to have a huge amount of bugs here in Wienerland,  although I have heard that there are plenty of mosquitoes out in the nether regions,  we’re reasonably immune here.

 

Then yesterday afternoon I discovered this guy.

 

Right,  no bugs eh?

 

 

Slightly larger version.   Some kind of hopper.  Grass or otherwise.  Hopefully not a sign of things to come.

Kinda cool I suppose,  if you’re into that kind of thing.   Travelling Companion most definitely isn’t,  and she had just called to say she was on her way home.  This is protocol by the way,  which gives me fair warning to start supper.  I had to get rid of my new friend,  but needed a picture first.   Thought it was worth the effort.

So I was struggling to take a decent photo,  and thought I’d haul out my auxiliary flash.   That should work,  right?

Well,  one of the first things they tell you when you’re a young doe-eyed photographer is,  make sure you take out the batteries from your flash if you’re not going to be using it for a while.

 

There’s a reason for this.  

I have no photo evidence,  since it would be too upsetting.  It’s not like there’s even that much corrosion,  but that sucker doesn’t work.

Amazingly,  (or perhaps it’s really not,  since we are living in the internet age)  I found a great “how-to”  on line to help with the disassembly.    Didn’t matter,  since I still couldn’t get to the actual area where the batteries go,  and I had no luck trying to resurrect the thing.   Sad and painful.   Or painfully sad.   Slightly mad,  with myself. 

It was a perfectly good working flash too.   

If you’re remotely interested,  you can see the guts of the how-to article here:  Very cool and almost helpful tutorial that I wish I didn't need.

 

So that was the “highlight”  of my day.  Hopefully yours was better.

 

Sure would be nice to wear things out before breaking them.  Just saying.

 

Thanks for stopping by.    Oh,  and thanks for the Anniversary wishes.   Duly noted and much appreciated.

 

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Speaking of priorities…

 

It seems as though there’s always beer on sale in these parts.

I’m OK with that.

One week from Saturday we’ll be getting more company, so I’ve been slowly stocking up.  I might have to round out the wine assortment as well,  but the rack and the cupboard are both quite full,  so we’ll see.   Depends on what goes on sale.  I’ll be back to making my own wine once we’re back home I suspect.  I just won’t be able to justify paying some of the scandalous prices for wine back in Canada.  I might even try making some home made beer.

 

 

Merkur did have some brands on sale this morning when I was in,  but only if you were willing to schlep off a case of 24.   I have no huge desire to cart 24 cans of beer down the street.   That’s 12 litres,  since each can is a half litre.  I have no clue how much that weighs,  even though I could probably find out on the net and report back to you.  Suffice to say,  that’s just a wee bit too heavy for any distance more than the local corner store.   Merkur is half way to the Ring from here. 

 

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Wienerland,  and Travelling Companion had every intention of staying home and chilling out for the day.   That is,  until she realised she had set up a conference call.  Nobody else to blame.  I’m guessing it’s not with any Austrians, unless they too will be calling in from home.   At least she won’t have to face the traffic in the morning and then at night,  although it’s been pretty light in the last little while,  since half of Vienna seems to be on holidays.   I went by the cafe downstairs just before lunch time,  and it was kinda empty.  Like,  when the owner and one waitress outnumber the customers kind of empty?  They’ll do better in a week or so,  since the kids go back to school before the end of the month and everyone will be back from the mountains or wherever the heck they go.

 

I think that’s about it for the big report.  I don’t even have to make dinner,  since we’ll be having left overs from yesterday.   I did some sort of pineapple/meatball/veggie thing over rice.  Not bad actually. 

The thing about rice of course is,  it’s good for a couple days,  since it can be fried, heated, whatever.   Having “fried rice”  is a good fall back type of dish if you have a good handle on just how lazy you’re going to be the next day,  or find yourself ‘cooking for one’.  Cooking for one pretty much sucks,  which usually means I won’t bother.  Probably not the healthiest choice.

I’m trying to contain my excitement.

Try to contain yours.

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

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Not just any weekend.

This makes me think of that old riddle, “Brothers and sisters I have none,  but that man’s father is my father’s son.  Who am I?” 

If you figure it out, fine.  If not, it’s no big deal.

Here’s my version.  I’ve been married twice,  both times on August 11th,  but to how many women?

 

Just one.

Long story.  Not really blog fodder.

Couldn’t have really planned on getting married twice on the same date, it just worked out that way.  We count the Anniversaries from the first one,  which makes it 22 years. Travelling Companion and I actually met in 1978,  and there were a few extra years in there,  but Anniversaries are only counted from the date of a wedding.   We probably would have got hitched sooner,  but we had to scrape together enough dough for the whole thing first.  Times ‘was a wee bit lean’, if you know what I mean?   We’ve all had them.

 

So Saturday night was going to be a “night out”.  Only dinner,  no movie.   Why is “dinner and a movie”  considered a “night out”?   Where did that come from?

The original plan was to go to Zur Alten Kaisermühle,  which was the place where T.C. went on Thursday night with the big group,  but I was having some issues.  I figured Friday would be early enough for reservations,  if we needed them,  but nobody was answering their phone,  and then all the reviews I read weren’t really all that glowing.  Most of them were in German too,  so it wasn’t like they were only treating the tourists shabbily.  My thoughts were that,  the “big group” had received decent service and food since it was a big company after all.   Not only that, but someone “signed for”  the bill on Thursday night,  since it turns out they don’t take credit cards.  

This is 2012 right?  What restaurant doesn’t take credit cards?  I mean,  we tend to pay cash anyway,  since credit card charges in any foreign currency are pretty much highway robbery,  so we’d sooner get nicked a bit on the bank charges when we withdraw from the ATM.   But who is going to want to pony up that much cash for a group of 20-25?   No wonder there had been an account set up.  Funny business.

We might stop by there one day for a coffee,  since the place is situated right on the Danube,  but as it was bit cool and raining off and on Saturday evening as it was,  I had no huge desire to sit outside for a couple hours.

As it turned out,  I ended up make a reservation at Frank's.

Seems to me the full name is “Frank’s American Bar and Restaurant” although,  there’s not much in Vienna that’s truly “American”,  with the possible exception of TGI Fridays.   Well,  there’s McDonalds and their ilk,  but really?

We’ve been to Franks a couple times before,  and I knew I wanted a burger.  They do make a decent burger.  And the beer is cold.  Curiously enough too,  they served “Löwenbräu”,  which is brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev.    Different pronunciation,  and hugely different taste from the stuff that got stepped on a little by the Miller Brewing Company back in the 1970s

 

If you’d like a brief (like,  12 seconds long) tutorial on the pronunciation of Löwenbräu,  I’ve included a handy little YouTube video.   Get practising.

 

 

It’s very accurate.  Trust me.

 

 

I took this picture on the way back,  since it was the way we should have gone to get there.   One section of the subway that I needed for our journey is closed for the summer,  as Wiener Linien is doing some revamping,  so we had to make our way through the rabbit warren that is the centre of Vienna on foot.   I took ONE WRONG TURN.    It’s a rabbit warren I tell you!   I hadn’t been there in a while,  and I got confused.   It meant T.C. and I had to walk an extra couple hundred metres,  and we made it to the restaurant at the prescribed reservation time,  but with T.C.’s knees as they are,  an extra couple hundred metres after not very much walking at all is just a little too much to bear. 

I think a couple glasses of wine helped deaden the pain,  but still…

Talk about ‘leading someone astray’.

 

This was the way we were supposed to go.  Even Google Maps had it right.

I probably should have taken a minute or two on Saturday afternoon and prepared this little helpful map to get us from the Subway stop to the restaurant.  *sigh*

Bonehead.

Lucky for me Travelling Companion doesn’t hold a grudge when it comes to these minor “brain farts” that I have once in a while.  I think she’d have quite a list.  

Hm,  maybe there is a list?  Gah! Let’s hope not.

 

Sunday?  Meh,  Sunday was more or less the “Movie” part of the “Dinner and a Movie” scenario.   Didn’t do too much else but gaze at the tube.  No ambition whatsoever.   My idea of having a “Celebration”.    Maybe when we hit 25 years,  we’ll have some big splashy thing, but it’ll be catered methinks.

 

Keep those sticks on the ice.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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