Tough to decide.

This was part of the brief conversation this morning in the car as we headed out to the airport at 5:00 a.m. or so.   Which is less onerous?  Getting up at 4:30 for a 6:30 flight,  or take a flight the night before?    You're probably wondering too about that time frame in the morning,  but it's entirely doable.  Wouldn't be most anywhere else,  certainly not in Toronto.   It's about a half hour to the airport,  with the most tedious part being the last five minutes or so trying to get past the pedestrian crossings to actually drop off my passenger.  I think I've sputtered on quite enough about the piss poor design of Vienna's airport.
No need to go there again.
But after that it's pretty breezy through security and on to the gate.   See,  unlike Toronto,  or several other large inept airports where the motto usually is, "We're not happy until you're not happy",  here in Wienerland at least,  security doesn't happen until you actually get to the gate. 
What a concept!
Think about this,  you don't need to line up with thousands of other passengers who may or may not be leaving right away.   You only need to get through security with those people who will be on your flight.  So if there's only 19 people on the plane,  which may very well be the case if you're flying to Република Србија (Republika Srbija).
OK fine, .....Serbia,  then it's easy peasy. 

I mean really,  how many people are flying to Belgrade on the 6:30 a.m. flight??
I promise I won't mess with your heads by including any more Cyrillic  script.

Today at least.





I can get up at 4:30.  That's not the issue.  The issue is,  neither of us really get any sleep if we know we need to be up at that time.  I think I did OK for the first couple hours, but then woke up around two something,  and then precisely at three and then again at four.  I thought that was a bit unusual,  since normally any time I look at a digital clock,  it's always some weird assed number,  and I have to round up or down to actually know what time it is.
On the other hand,  the problem with afternoon or evening flights is well,  sometimes they just don't happen.   The way these things go,  by that time in the day,  most any airline's schedule is so buggered up that quite often the last flight of the day is hours behind,  or has been held up by some other snag like the flight crew having flown their limit,  and everybody has to go back home,  or to a hotel.
So in spite of being pretty much exhausted for the rest of the day,  it is in fact a better plan to go with the early flight program.
It's heaps better if it's the corporate jet,  but that's a whole other discussion.
Of course,  I get to stay home.   As a matter of fact,  I was back in the door this morning at some time just shortly after six.  
Travelling Companion on the other hand has to first do some sort of financial hocus pokus,  and then the inevitable conclusion to the day is being taken out to dinner by her hosts.   By that point in time she's been around them quite long enough,  but there's no way around it.
It's just part of the deal.






You no doubt recall that I mentioned that last weekend we happened to notice an Outlet mall when we took our little drive to Neusiedl am See?

Actually....to use the word "notice"  is very misleading.   It was more along the lines of what a desert traveller exhibits when seeing a watering hole at an oasis,  after going about a week without a drink. I am referring of course to Travelling Companion.
I'm just the camel in this little scenario.
That might be a bit of an exaggeration,  but I don't think too much of a one.  There was a request at the time to actually drive slowly through the place so as to make a mental note of all the stores since of course,  we would just HAVE to go back.


And so of course, Saturday.... we went back.

Do you notice all the empty parking spaces?  

Me neither.

That was the first challenge of course.  Since I do so love trying to find a parking spot at a shopping mall that has been poorly designed.  Probably one of the reasons I do a lot of on-line ordering at Christmas.   Mercifully we only stuck around for a couple hours.  I don't think I could have handled much more.   Really,  the only major difference between the screaming children and me,  I just manage to keep my utter frustration and discomfort to myself.
Barely.
You'll notice at this point I've said, "of course" three times.  I noticed it too.  Thanks for pointing it out.

There were places to sit outside of the shops,  so that was a bonus.  The closest I could possibly come to any sort of tolerable version of shopping for me was in the kitchen gadget department.
Really though,  that's pretty damned lame.
I think I was just trying to make Travelling Companion feel better by feigning some sort of interest in different ways of straining tea.
If there had only been a decent tool store,  I swear my entire tone would be different.
Honestly.
It can all be just utter crap,  and I'll still look.  It doesn't matter.

All the men that I saw there looked like they had just come in off a thousand mile march through the Sahara.   Poor bastards.

*Note the 'thirsty traveller in the desert' motif.



Of course,  in today's "global economy"  or whatever other malarkey you want to use,  all the stores are pretty much the same as what you could find most anywhere else....on the planet.   Don't even get me started on where some of the children's clothes came from that Travelling Companion bought.   After reading off the first label that had something to do with Montreal,  (what???) and then another that had something to do with China,  she didn't want to read to me any more.

And I didn't want to know.


 We didn't actually go into this place,  (below) since I had no desire to shop there in Elmira,  N.Y.  so I certainly didn't feel the urge to first move half way around the planet,  only to then reaffirm just how much I dislike shopping there all over again.

Because I need to be in here.

Please.

Just one tool store.

That's all I ask.







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Rough couple days.

Remember the other day when I said I felt like a Spaniard?   Well,  even they would have been getting a bit impatient and hungry,  although if I know ahead of time that the evening is going to be one of sitting and waiting,  it's not such a big deal.   Turns out Travelling Companion was so late we basically went to bed.   She had to be back in the salt mine early again this morning,  and asked if I'd be willing to chauffeur,  and I don't mind.
She's not overly keen on city driving as it is,  but it sucks even worse when somewhat preoccupied and bone tired to boot.
Turns out,  I was back in the city (from "Strebersdork") before eight,  so you can get a pretty good idea of just how early we headed out.  The good news is the traffic was OK at that time of the morning.

Always nice to have some good news, isn't it?

 For my part,  I had this grand idea yesterday that I'd jump on the bike and head down to the first district and visit Julius Meinl, since I have it on good authority that they carry French's  mustard.
The weather was just absolutely fabulous,  and even though I entertained the idea of taking the subway,  sitting in a tube when it was so nice out didn't seem all that appealing.
I was able to get French's mustard briefly at Merkur,  but the second time I went back to get some,  it was explained to me (in a crazy assed Viennese accent)  that that was a one time shot,  and a decision had been made to no longer carry it.  Not enough ex-pats hanging around I guess.
I'm not sure which was more surprising,  that they had pulled the product,  or that I actually understood the guy.
 So that was the plan,  but unfortunately as is the case from time to time,  I undergo these spells of "uncertainty",  shall we say ?  in the area of where I might find the next facility.   I'm really being obtuse here,  and I apologise,  but I'd rather not get into the mysterious workings of my innards. 
Suffice to say....I stayed home.
I'm better today.  Thanks for asking.   
I really haven't been able to pin point a cause and effect relationship between what I eat or drink when it comes to these issues,  but later in the day I just started to drink copious amounts of water,  and that did seem to help.   I've also learned to stay away from,  or at least curtail the ingestion of raw bananas.

Huh?

No really,  that much I have figured out.   Those things will just put me into contortions.
I think it has something to do with the potassium,  but man them suckers give me such pain.  Gah!
It's that whole "spastic"  you know what thing.


Now,  I just realised that really and truly,  we need to keep all these trivialities in perspective.   We are living in Vienna after all.  We have a nice little car to drive.   I don't need to go out and actually hunt down something,  kill it,  skin it etc.
It's only that,  when some aspects of life can get in the way of the whole experience,  like being at work from seven in the morning until after 10:00 at night,  or not daring to be out of sight of the nearest crapper,  then the novelty does tend to wear off.

Let me just present to you however,  a "what if".

I'm going to include a link to a brief Youtube clip. 
We know these people.   Travelling Companion used to baby sit the woman being taken away on the stretcher.  She and her husband are now in their forties.
They were driving home from a cottage on New Year's day and were hit head on.   Her husband,  who was driving,  may never walk again.  The young lady will eventually get out of her wheel chair,  but will need a whole bunch more surgeries to sort out the mess that used to be her lower skeleton.
There was an off duty fire fighter who happened to discover them and called in the emergency personnel.  We're fairly sure his is the black truck with the flashing lights.
It's only a short clip,  and not over graphic.  Thankfully.
But somewhat sobering in a quiet intense sort of way.


So there you go.  Nothing to see here.   Move along.

 German Teacher Dude will be here for three,  so I'm hopeful that I'll be following him out the door at five to go and fetch Travelling Companion.

 I'm not overly confident.



Have a fine weekend.



 .

I feel like a Spaniard.

Well,  not really.   It was just something I said to Travelling Companion last night as we started to eat dinner at 10:00 p.m.,  or thereabouts. 
See,  the Spaniards eat late,  which is something we discovered the first time we went to Spain,  and ended up in Bilbao at some point in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday,  only to discover that a lot of places were closed.   We didn't exactly want to venture too far from the hotel at that point,  but when they told us the restaurant didn't open until NINE P.M.,  we figured we'd need some sort of intervention.    We found a nearby bar that had some sandwiches.  Given adequate beer,  I was fine.
My little excursion last night was fine and dandy,  with a couple minor exceptions.  The subway and train rides were fine.  As a matter of fact,  the train ride is downright comfortable, since all the trains are electric as well,  so there's no loud smelly diesel locomotives or even clacking rails or that matter.   Only thing is,  at some point when the train is on it's way to Hollebrun,  they no longer announce the stops, so a certain amount of vigilance is in order.   No biggie.
From that point I could have hoofed it,  since it's about a kilometre,  but the last time I did that the bus went flying by,  and I figure since my ticket gets me on the bus anyway,  I'd just as soon ride.   Of course,  the bus does sit there for a good five or more minutes (didn't wear a watch)  which seemed like a painful amount of time no matter how long it was,  and then since it was starting to get dark out,  and the lights are on inside the bus,  I managed to miss my freakin' stop.
Groan.
 Again no biggie,  since it was a beautiful night,  and a little exercise wasn't about to kill me. 
  It didn't really matter that it took a little longer getting there than I would have liked,  since Travelling Companion and another one of the number crunching wizards were still occupied for quite some time figuring out some higher math,  since there was going to be some "splainin'" to do today.   (It's that whole month end thing.)
Not sure how that went,  and it won't be a topic for discussion here anyway.


That's about it for today. 


Keep those sticks on the ice.






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