Pages

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

My Life Would Suck Without You!





























This is the title of the new song by Kelly Clarkson.

I just don’t know how they come up with names that are just so…well….romantic.

Anyway – my sentiments exactly about my Blog readers.

Easter has snuck up on us and we (i.e. Cate) has decided that we will go to either Ljubljana or Prague over Easter.

Google tells me it is about 400 kilometers to each place so that will be a nice relaxing four hour drive – or a less relaxing 3 hour drive if Cate decides to put the pedal to the metal.

I am not allowed to drive on trips like this. Cate says I frighten her. I frighten her? She scares the bejesus out of me. At least I carry a wooden peg to bite on so that I don’t scream like she does when I drive her to work.

I mean – if I want to die I have a cat called Muffin on whose services I can call at any time.

Muffin’s recent adventures reminded me that we had a cat named Robertson Davies Riccardo Patrese (AKA Roger Rogerson). Robbie used to often sleep on the top step of the stairs outside our bedroom and – because of his colour and the lack of light at that particular spot – was effectively invisible when he was on the step.

It is a miracle that over the many years he did this he did not kill at least one of us.

Robbie was supposed to come to Wien with us but was a daydreamer and wandered in front of a car in Sydney a few weeks before we were due to leave.

This was an astonishing outcome because Robbie did very little other than eat and sleep and the fact that he actually dragged his sorry fat ass out on to the road where he could be hit by a car was something of a mystery to us all. Maybe he was on a promise of a Mars Bar from the people across the road.

There is an outside chance that Cate will have to go to Sydney for a couple of days next week but she is strenuously trying not to - as it would be a killer trip and could well put an end to our weekend trip.

It is mighty fine weather here at the moment – almost balmy. I set forth today on my bicycle and went to the Digital Camera store in Stiftgasse and then to Alt Wien for Caruso Coffee.

Then I rode up Rennweg to the bike shop to get a pump – but got there between 12 and 2 – which of course is Mittagspause. A surprisingly large number of shops close for a lunch break – and I get caught a surprisingly large number of times.

If they had their way, shop owners would only open one day a week for an hour and we could all make our own arrangements.

As it is news day I should report that:

Nine out of every ten Austrians reject Pope Benedict’s teaching that condoms should not be used to combat the spread of Aids. (The other 1 out of 10 clearly did not understand the question or are halfwits).

Twenty-three per cent of kids aged four and five in Austria speak German badly, of whom a third are native speakers of the language. I can safely report that 100% of all Australians who live in Am Heumarkt 7/5 speak German very badly or not at all.

Austria's superb theft record is at risk after it was revealed that over 20,000 bicycles were stolen in the country last year - that's 66 per day - and police only managed to solve 25 of the crimes. I am not sure what the ‘superb’ refers to but will make enquiries.

However I am well aware of the rate of bicycle theft in Wien and never, ever leave my bike unlocked when I pop into shops.

Have a nice weekend and remember- My Life Would Suck Without You!

4 comments:

  1. Glad to know I count for something! Our Angel kitty is not the death by cat type. She is the "please sit down so I can drap myself over your lap" type of cat. Oh yes the linch Hour. I try to get places before lunch or just wait until after 2. I hope your Easter plans work out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought that Robbie was known as Bilbo? And I never did know, until now, what actually became of him - a flat cat, as my mother used to say. Whatever you may say, he did prowl the neighbourhood and protect his territory from invaders! But I wouldn never have wished him dead.

    Love the spices in the second photo - very exotic.

    Hope your Easter away with Cate works out. Her travel schedule is a killer. I'd like to know if her predecessor was as frequent a plane-hopper.

    And some of your blog readers depend on their early morning update of your news. I'm one of them.

    PS: Weekend away to celebrate my father's 92nd birthday - please accept apologies for my absence.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bilbo was the prowler and came to Vienna with us where he expired. Robbie was a sloth who rarely moved out of the house. We expected Bilbo to be squashed - but it was Robbie.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cate had no predecessor. This is a new job which is why it is so hard. She is also responsible for the former Russian states, Africa, Asia and the Middle East so has a lot of ground to cover.

    ReplyDelete