The usual, and then the not so.

Is it already Friday?   Not sure where that week went.  Possibly something to do with Travelling Companion working late hours.   It certainly didn’t drag on.

Had some minor issues with the gas card the other day,  so I was happy to hear that T.C. had given it to whomever to get sorted out.  The danged thing had been acting up,  and by that I mean not working on the first swipe on the last few occasions, (or even the second or third)  so I was a little nervous when I fuelled up the car on Tuesday.   The attendant was kind enough to punch all the numbers into the register and have me sign for the fuel,  since the darned thing just wasn’t going to work at all.   I had the cash on me just in case,  but I didn’t want to use it if at all possible.  Normally I have to remember my “Geheimzahl”  which we’d probably call a Pin Code,  and then it’ll ask for the number of kilometres on the vehicle. 

 

Too many numbers to remember,  so just having to sign the receipt was OK with me.  Sometimes I look at the “mileage”,  and proceed to forget it within the next five seconds!   I think Leaseplan (these are the people who actually own the vehicle) want to keep track of the number of kilometres on their vehicles,   since they don’t like them to go over a certain amount for one thing,  but other than that,  I really have no clue.    Hey, as long as someone else is paying,  I’ll play along.  Part of the “deal” man.

I was going to say though,  there’s a good chance I may have “de-magnetised”  the card.   Happened to me in a hotel once upon a time,  and I’ve since tried to be careful with those sorts of things.   Apparently a person’s cell phone is not good company with credit cards.  In my case,  I have a beat up old glasses case that has a magnetic closure.   That’s how I managed to find myself locked out of my hotel room.  I had put the card in the same pocket as the case and it would no longer work.  Back to the front desk!

 

Now for the “Usual”:

 

These things pop up from time to time.

 

Heehee!

No idea what he’s looking at,  or even if he can see anything.

 

Then of course there was the “Man on the street” interview which I just missed.

You may have to study that one,  but the hairless dude on the right there had just been talking to the film crew.

Just pretend I got there five seconds earlier.

 

And then,  it seems that “crane season”  is in full tilt.

 

So now I have to stop here for a minute.   I THOUGHT I had a couple pictures of them putting this thing up the other day.  (The one to the right has been there for a couple weeks,  but you knew that)  

Apparently though,  if you have your Nikon set to “M”,  which stands for “Manual”,  since you were taking     trying to take pictures of the Moon and Mars,  and then forget that it’s on that setting,  anything that’s taken in broad daylight tends to be just a tad over exposed.   Take a blank piece of white paper,  hold it up in front of your face and stare at it for a few minutes.  Kind of like that. 

*crap*

There are a few things at play here:   1)  I’m getting old and stupid.  2) I’ve been using cameras on the “auto” setting for far too many years,  and 3)  I need to put on my glasses and actually look at what I’ve taken,  rather than think everything is just hunky dory.  *sigh*

But whatever,  it was just the usual guys up there putting together yet another crane.  There will be others I’m sure, not that you really care. 

 

So, *ahem* back to the usual.

 

Yesterday I took another little jaunt up to the Westbahnhof (west train station),   the evidence of which I would like to present here:

I do think the building is pretty awesome,  which was the reason for the photo.   The little canon was on “auto”….by the way.

 

I did have a plan in mind,  since I was headed for the new Merkur that is now open in the shopping area of the station.   I usually go to the one in the other direction way,  way down on Mariahilfer Straße, but thought it was time for a change.   Change is good.

 

Of course,  as usual,  what do I see?

Can’t walk 100 metres without seeing a beggar.

Pretty sure I’ve seen this chick before,  but this time she was up a little closer to the train station,  but on Mariahilfer Straße.  Gotta go where the action is I suppose!  Or where there are more fresh tourists.   She has a little sign down there in front of her that says something about having multiple children,  she’s on the street (yup)  and could you spare some dough?  That’s a lose translation.

I think you know my opinion when it comes to this sort of thing.  We won’t go there again.  I just want to know though.  Who’s looking after the kids?

 

 

Now for the “unusual”.   And I have to say,  I’ve never seen this so far,  and that’s going some,  considering where we’ve been living and what kind of crazy sh*t we’ve seen in the last few years.

 

Don’t worry,  you won’t have to avert your eyes,  it’s actually kind of awesome.

 

So there you go.   She’s out on the edge of the street,  doing a little painting there.   I think that’s kinda cool.

I haven’t gone down to check on her this afternoon since, 1) I don’t care,  and 2) That street down there right about now (Friday afternoon,  Mariahilfer Straße on a sunny day?)  is just NUTS.   I don’t go down there unless I have to.  Too many elbows.

 

I suppose that’s about it for today’s offering.  

Oh,  and the good news is,  I don’t have to take back the grinder.  It “will do”.   OK,  I don’t think T.C. actually said that,  but I did have to do another demonstration just so we were sure it would be OK. 

Had to grind up some of me nuts. 

I really and truly don’t want to call it a “Nut Grinder” though.   Something about the sound of that that just doesn’t work for me. 

OK then.

 

Keep it between the ditches!

 

Thanks for stopping in.

 

 

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Huntin’ down them “deals”.

As catchy as that is,  it has nothing to do with today.  I just had to figure out a way of putting in this picture:

 

I just hate taking perfectly good pictures that I can’t use somehow.

If you’ve never seen these things,  let me explain.  They’re basically these little hockey puck containers of coffee that get inserted into a certain type of coffee maker.  Do I have to explain what a hockey puck is?  What planet are you on?

They have these in Canada I see.  Probably elsewhere too.

Our “children”  have one at home.  I have to say,  it is pretty cool,  especially since the machine reads the barcode on each and every hockey puck,  and then brews the coffee according to what ever type you’ve put in there.  It’s crazy!  Who thinks up this stuff?

 

Anyway,  Travelling Companion doesn’t have many vices. Well,  apart from some slight issues with buying really expensive fabric,  but every morning she has one single cup of coffee at work,  so she goes through these things at the rate of one a day.  Pretty excessive,  I know!

 

It seems she inherited a machine in her office,  and way back in the beginning of our stay here,  she discovered that one of the admin assistants was buying the coffee.   This would never do.  T.C.  isn’t all that pleased with the way some of the admin assistants are used and abused as it is,  so there was no way that this person was going to be taken advantage of like that.  It wasn’t an item that could be “expensed”  either,  not if T.C. had anything to do with it.  (It’s that “Controller”  thing?)  Mind you,  I do get the impression that the admin assistant don’t do too badly when it comes to being compensated,  but still.

This is why it now falls to me to pick these things up from time to time.   Oh goodie.

 

I think I’ve mentioned this before,  but with some of the store chains here,  if you sign up for a “member card”,  they will send you info from time to time offering a discount on certain products.  I suppose that,  since everyone’s shopping habits are tracked (quel suprise!)  and that I’ve purchased these things in the past,  it stands to reason that I’d get a letter from Merkur offering 25% off.

They’re blessed expensive to start with,  so any port in a storm.  This is also the reason why we don’t have one of these high falutin’ machines here at home.   Bob’s too cheap.   I think I paid a whopping €14 for our coffee maker,  which does NOT require any fancy little hockey pucks,  and which I will quite likely pitch out when we finally leave Europe. 

Confidence is high that wherever we end up after our little sojourn here,  we won’t be using any appliances that require 220 volts.  I’ll happily take any and all wagers.

 

I should also say that,  the first time I received one of these special offer letters,  I only bought about four packages,  since I wasn’t sure if there was any kind of a limit to the number that I could buy.    I don’t presently remember what a ‘skid’ is called in German,  but the lady at the checkout did say I could have bought an entire skid if I had wanted to.  OK then!  I try to keep it down to what I can carry out of the store in two bags,   one in each hand.  I mean,  let’s not get silly.

 

Today’s little shopping excursion however, was along a completely different vein. 

At some point in the not too distant future,  Travelling Companion wants to make something called Potica.   Um ya,  spell-check doesn’t like that one.  But I’m not changing it to Pontiac.

Anyway,  in my quest to try and explain this sort of thing,  I went to YouTube,  with mixed results.   Potica is very common in all countries that were once Yugoslavia,  let’s say,  and so there are a few different variations on the recipe.   This video however,  even though it’s in Slovenian made me howl!   You don’t need to understand,  to get a chuckle.   By the way,  the product that they’re trying to “sell”,  so that the lady of the house doesn’t have to worry about dropping her freshly baked Potica on the floor,  looks absolutely horrid!  That’s because the whole thing is a joke.  I’m sure of it.  And I don’t speak Slovenian.  If you can just shove it in the cupboard the way she does,  and dust it off once in a while?  Hm.  I don’t think they’re serious.

 

Potica is so common in Slovenia,  that you can get some pretty decent stuff in the grocery stores, but the store bought kind still comes in a distant second to home made.    At least the narrator says “Potica”  the proper way.  That was what I was looking for in the first place!

*Gawd* I’m so easily side tracked.

 

So this was my mission for today:

Ya ya.  I know,  it’s a meat grinder.   BUT,  it’s also very useful for grinding the walnuts that are used in Potica.    They had a plastic version out on the floor of the shop I went to,  and after the clerk and I had a little discussion about the one we get to use back home that I said was made out of metal and was “ancient”,  I guess she realised that T.C.  wouldn't be satisfied with the plastic version.  She had to fetch this one from the back somewhere.   When I say the one we have at home,  what I mean is,  the one that we have to borrow from T.C.’s older sister Magda.   T.C. has always wanted one of her own,  so hopefully this one will fill the bill.

I even ran some walnuts through the thing just to try it out. 

I hope that’s a fine enough grind,  or I’m in trouble.

The other thing I liked about this one over the plastic version,  is that you can clamp it right to the side of a table.   Why is it when I use those two words,  I think of the Beverly Hillbillies?  I shall resist the temptation to once again get sidetracked.   *Steady now*

 

 

The lady in the store said to keep the receipt,  and that if for any reason it didn’t quite pass muster,  I could bring it back.  I don’t think there was anything in that offer that would include me actually using the thing,  but I’ve cleaned it all up again,  and it’s as good as new.   Really.

And now we wait.

 

I guess I’ll let you know tomorrow what the answer is.   It’s kind of like Christmas only,  actually no it’s not.

 

Thanks for lookin’.

 

 

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Getting Emails.

I don’t really get that many.  Never did really,  even before wandering off into “Blog Land”.   Ever since then I just figure that anyone who wants to know what’s going on, will have to suffer through whatever drivel I post here.

That can be a challenge some times of course,  since I can’t really blather on about certain subjects like I’d prefer,  but a little self control is probably good for me.   Trust me,  I have at least a half dozen good rants in me that are just dying to get out.  But NOPE,  not gonna do it.  (Wasn’t that George Bush senior?)

Oh,  and of course,  there had been MORE emails,  but I do tend to discourage those which come to me as the result of someone simply clicking on the “forward”  icon and sending me some stupid thing that I’m not really interested in.   I want to say to that person ,  “But,  how are YOU?”   “Tell me about you.”    They never do.  I suppose that would take some effort.  Or maybe some truthfulness?   It would be more interesting I’m sure.  Even if it’s only getting your bunions removed.  I’m here.  I can read!  And I don’t know anyone out there who is getting their bunions removed,  so you can’t say,  “Stop talking about me”.  

See how tough it can be?   Cripes!

 

So I’ve a had a couple somewhat interesting notes in the last few days.  One from daughter number two basically telling me that our fancy schmancy Whirpool washing machine that we’ve only had since about 2003 (I think)  is basically a piece of junk and either needs new bearings,  or to get tipped off the back end of a pick-up truck at Thompson Metals.  That was the fate of our previous washing machine,  but it had lasted 14 years up to that point.  That’s a pretty good life for a run of the mill washing machine I think.  It was a top loader and finally packed it in when the water was trying to splash up through the console.  Water and electricity?  Hello, not good.

We’ll see what she finds out.  Hey, Thompson Metals even have a website!  I didn’t see our old washer in that photo on the lead web page though.  Just a hunch,  but I’m guessing it’s long gone.  Daughter number two will give Fast Eddie a call,  and see what he recommends.  Don’t be fooled by a name like “Fast Eddie”.   He’s not “Fast and Lose Eddie”,  and we’ve used his services when needed for many years.  One of the very few appliance repair types that I let set foot in my house.   Most of them aren’t worth a pinch of coon sh*t.

I just now had to come back and correct something.  Seems I fell for the “loose/lose” conundrum.  Damn!

 

Then another email of note came in the other morning from Nan.   You remember Nan,  she came for a visit back in the fall.   She had been here the year before with her sister,  but this time came over on her own. 

Anyhoo,  she does have a few offspring,  as many of us do,  and it so happens that one of her sons will be visiting Vienna next month with a group of musicians.  Now,  I say “musicians” since they do have musical instruments.   However,  there are breeds of “music”  these days that don’t seem to interest me all that much. 

We’ll come back to that.   Suffice to say,  the group will need a place to crash,  since they haven’t quite been able to come up with any suitable accommodations up to this point.  Oh,  and by “suitable”,  I think we could insert “free”,  or really cheap?   But this is Vienna remember.

Maybe it’s the “country boy”  in me,  but I have no issues with putting up someone’s kid and his friends.  I seem to recall many a time coming downstairs in the morning when I was a kid on the farm,  and discovering people sleeping on couches and mattresses in the living room whom I had never seen before.  It was just one of those things.  They too were usually musicians.   Most of them penniless.

So I’ve exchanged a couple emails with the young lad,  and it seems there’s actually going to be seven of them,  but I think I may have figure out all the logistics of who will sleep where.  Originally there were going to be five,  so what’s a couple extra?

We have a certain number of beds,  and a whole bunch of floor space.  There was some indication that they do cart along a couple “mats”,  as he put it,  so I think they’re used to bunking just about anywhere there’s a spot on the floor.  I know where I’ll be sleeping,  so it’s all the same to me.

I thought it would be prudent to haul out the one air mattress that we shipped over with us when we moved.  It’s been inflated all day,  co confidence is high.

We actually have two of these things, and I probably should have shipped them both,  since the other one has been sitting in a closet back home the whole time.  Oh well.  Who can predict these things?

And the “music”?   Well,  there’s something called “Heavy Metal”,  and then there’s some sort of by-product referred to as “Grind”.   It’s a fairly apt term I find.   If you were to fit all the instruments in a big grinder,  and somehow manage to still keep them hooked up to an amp,  turned up to about 11 eleven of course,  that would pretty much sum it up.  But hey,  whatever makes you happy.

Just as a side note,  when I informed Travelling Companion where they would be playing, (click that one,  I dare you)  along with the name of the group,  she just said,  “Oh my”.    I had to chuckle.  The most “out there”  music she’s ever heard in her life was Frank Zappa.  And trust me,  at least you knew what he was saying.   I’ve tried watching the group on YouTube,  but about 10 seconds is all I can handle.   Maybe our parents were like that with the Beetles,  but I don’t really think so.  Well,  maybe the Rolling Stones,  they were kinda scary I suppose.

That’s enough details about that for now I think.

 

*****

 

Just a brief recap on the last couple days.   Yes it was an “Operations Review” on Tuesday.   Glad I got that right.  But the Big Cheeses that came in were only of the head office in Switzerland kind.  There was no corporate jet.   They had to fly commercial.  Boo hoo.     The company jet ‘Big Cheese’ doesn’t come over until some time in April.   I mixed up my facts.  

Hey,  maybe that group can ride over with him?  *rolls eyes*

 

Oh,  and I’ve been informed that it was midnight when T.C. staggered in on Monday night.  I wasn’t asleep.   Really.

Further to that,  it seems that T.C. ended up doing most of the talking during the big pow-wow.  That’s not supposed to really be the case,  but since English isn’t the first language for most of the others in the room,  that’s the way it goes some times.   As a result of all the preparation (Sunday and all day Monday)  she figures that they “finally get it”.   It’s a complicated business.   Even if I were permitted to explain it,  I couldn’t.

I’m slipping off into dangerous territory here.   Time to re-deal the cards.

 

One last thing:

This is yet another reason why I’m not overly keen on doing the chauffeuring thing in the afternoons.  There’s always at least one idiot who wants to play bumper cars.   There was no sun shining in anyone’s eyes either.   Wanting to yell something rude out the window as I pass by is always interrupted by the wide open road just ahead of the bottleneck,  so I always stop myself.  By then there’s no point in asking any of them (as they stand there with their accident forms) if they are in fact, retarded.

 

Gotta love the big city!   We got all kinds.

 

Thanks for stopping by.