Flak Towers in Landstrasse
Well it certainly was a wonderful evening. Muffin and I sat there together until the wee hours and enjoyed every morsel of the spectacle unfolding before us. I have decided not to build the fallout shelter in the basement and just hope that President Bush keeps taking his medication until Inauguration Day.
However, Russian President Medvedev has blamed the USA for the world’s problems and has announced new missile deployments in Europe. Missile deployments? Is this man being advised by Dick Cheney? Why in the name of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would anyone who is not insane want to deploy missiles in Europe? Has he entered the MTV 'who is the craziest President’ contest? There is some stiff competition but he would certainly give it a shake.
I guess that Sarah and the Alaskan ‘First Dude’ will now start their run for 2012 and it will be interesting to see if the Republican party is unhinged enough to entertain the concept. More than 50 Million Americans apparently thought that Sarah Palin would be a suitable Vice President - and that is a truly scary number.
Incidentally – of all the totally loony far right wing hacks in the USA – Ann Coulter is by far and away the looniest of them all. She makes Bill O’Reilly look like Karl Marx. Her Blog is hilarious and should be compulsory reading - http://www.anncoulter.com/
Stories not to be missed include ‘Did a Muslim Black Panther pay for Obama’s Harvard tuition?’
There is a section on Wikipedia about Flak Towers and the link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak_tower#Flakturm_VIII_-_Arenberg_Park.2C_Vienna
According to a local Blog reader – the towers are so big and solidly built that to would be impossible to knock them down without using explosives – and this is not possible because of the proximity of residential buildings. So I guess they will be there forever and may be the last things left on the planet when we finally destroy it.
We don’t enjoy driving much as we should as we haven’t adapted to the high speed motorways - and are still a bit timid. Cate insists on driving when we travel as she says I drive to close to the edge of the lane – or the middle of the lane – or too fast or too slow – or whatever the case may be. Anyway – she got the Queen Mary up to about 140 on the A1 and was passed by many cars including some that could fit into our boot. I am not at all worried by fast driving – it’s the slow stopping that will be the problem.
The good news is that Melissa is coming from Paris for Christmas (but sadly without Merlin – and of course Henri). So I will need an extra duck from Stadtpark for Christmas dinner.
Once again I was the only customer in Massimo – at 12:30 – and there were three staff there. This place obviously does not make its money from being a café so I will need to investigate to find out what is really going on.
I had my first trip to the local Post Office to collect a parcel from Amazon. I was not home when it arrived so the Postie left a note in my letter box. This was a remarkably painless exercise and required very little action on my part other than to present my notice and identification. Most of the Post.at offices here are well hidden in side streets – and are very quiet. The few that are visible are always crowded and should be avoided.
I also managed a conversation of sorts with the meat person at Radatz in Landstrasser-Hauptstrasse and asked him for some meat for a goulash. I actually wanted it for a curry but don’t know the German word for curry yet – but figure they are much the same sort of meat. I will let you know. I have found that the answer to most questions asked by sales assistants should be ‘Ja, Danke’ and use this a lot. I have had a few surprises but mainly seem to get by. However, when I asked for a Coca Cola in Anker today the young lady tried to sell me some Orbit chewing gum – I think my accent needs more work.
However, Russian President Medvedev has blamed the USA for the world’s problems and has announced new missile deployments in Europe. Missile deployments? Is this man being advised by Dick Cheney? Why in the name of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would anyone who is not insane want to deploy missiles in Europe? Has he entered the MTV 'who is the craziest President’ contest? There is some stiff competition but he would certainly give it a shake.
I guess that Sarah and the Alaskan ‘First Dude’ will now start their run for 2012 and it will be interesting to see if the Republican party is unhinged enough to entertain the concept. More than 50 Million Americans apparently thought that Sarah Palin would be a suitable Vice President - and that is a truly scary number.
Incidentally – of all the totally loony far right wing hacks in the USA – Ann Coulter is by far and away the looniest of them all. She makes Bill O’Reilly look like Karl Marx. Her Blog is hilarious and should be compulsory reading - http://www.anncoulter.com/
Stories not to be missed include ‘Did a Muslim Black Panther pay for Obama’s Harvard tuition?’
There is a section on Wikipedia about Flak Towers and the link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak_tower#Flakturm_VIII_-_Arenberg_Park.2C_Vienna
According to a local Blog reader – the towers are so big and solidly built that to would be impossible to knock them down without using explosives – and this is not possible because of the proximity of residential buildings. So I guess they will be there forever and may be the last things left on the planet when we finally destroy it.
We don’t enjoy driving much as we should as we haven’t adapted to the high speed motorways - and are still a bit timid. Cate insists on driving when we travel as she says I drive to close to the edge of the lane – or the middle of the lane – or too fast or too slow – or whatever the case may be. Anyway – she got the Queen Mary up to about 140 on the A1 and was passed by many cars including some that could fit into our boot. I am not at all worried by fast driving – it’s the slow stopping that will be the problem.
The good news is that Melissa is coming from Paris for Christmas (but sadly without Merlin – and of course Henri). So I will need an extra duck from Stadtpark for Christmas dinner.
Once again I was the only customer in Massimo – at 12:30 – and there were three staff there. This place obviously does not make its money from being a café so I will need to investigate to find out what is really going on.
I had my first trip to the local Post Office to collect a parcel from Amazon. I was not home when it arrived so the Postie left a note in my letter box. This was a remarkably painless exercise and required very little action on my part other than to present my notice and identification. Most of the Post.at offices here are well hidden in side streets – and are very quiet. The few that are visible are always crowded and should be avoided.
I also managed a conversation of sorts with the meat person at Radatz in Landstrasser-Hauptstrasse and asked him for some meat for a goulash. I actually wanted it for a curry but don’t know the German word for curry yet – but figure they are much the same sort of meat. I will let you know. I have found that the answer to most questions asked by sales assistants should be ‘Ja, Danke’ and use this a lot. I have had a few surprises but mainly seem to get by. However, when I asked for a Coca Cola in Anker today the young lady tried to sell me some Orbit chewing gum – I think my accent needs more work.
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