Hot!
Moni had her stitches out and is as happy as a clam.
Sissi is growing like Topsy and eats her own weight in raw chicken every day. She goes quite dippy when I start to chop the chicken and keeps jumping up on the bench. I have had to resort to locking her out of the kitchen so that I don’t accidentally cut her paws off.
Geoffrey and Carmella have been and gone are now in Latvia – or possibly Lithuania.
We went to our favourite Fish Restaurant – Dalmatia and had (what else) the Salt encrusted fish. It was packed – and the service was very slow – but the food was terrific as usual.
On Saturday we savoured once more the truly wonderful Penne pasta with Salami, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Rucola at Da Capo. I am going to try to make this very soon.
Driven out once more by a smoker (Rant follows) – this time with a cigar. Well yes I did ask for a non-smoking table but it was next to the window and – two feet away outside and next to the window was a table of smokers. The man with the cigar was careful not to blow smoke on his partner (lest he offend her) – so he blew it through the window onto us instead.
We went of course to Stift Melk which I must say – even after the 4th visit – is quite sensational. Coming up I have three more visits so I am not sure that I am actually going to go into the Abbey itself and may hover around outside.
I will avoid the restaurant which serves the most poisonous Schinken-Kase-Toast I have ever had. I am sure it was not cheese. It could have been yellow rubber - and the Ham is beyond description but as I did not have my forensic kit with me it remains untested.
Why I ever stray away from the old (and always good favourite) of Sacher Wurstel mit Senf I just don’t understand.
No – I don’t want any locals to write and tell me what they put into Sacher Wurstels. I prefer to remain in the dark on this so that I can continue to eat them.
Cate and I went to Café Schwarzenburg for lunch on Sunday and were the only people inside the restaurant. It is now all non-smoking so this has driven many Austrians out into the sun but even so. I thought it was getting busier but it appears most locals are still away.
The ‘Beach’ cafes along the Donaukanal did start to come to life on the weekend and there is a photograph of one near Uraniastrasse where a bunch of people were doing Yoga on Sunday morning.
At Stift Melk we found where they have put Michael Jackson – sure they have dressed him up as a many centuries old saint in a glass case and call him Friedrich - but we know it’s him. We have a picture which doesn’t do him justice (you cannot use a flash in there) but you can get the flavour.
Cate is off to Egypt tomorrow and the cats and I will be left to our own devices. This is always dangerous.
Continuing my theme of the USA being the craziest country on earth there is a wonderful article by Edward Luce in the weekend Financial Times.
In it he says that a poll last week found that 42% of Republicans believe that President Obama was not born in the USA.
He notes that ‘no amount of contrary evidence will puncture the view that Mr Obama plans to establish “death panels” that which will decide which grannies get to live or die’.
This is because ‘the largest chunk of protestors know little about the reforms and have no intention of rectifying their ignorance’.
They believe all this stuff of course because they are told it by Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, FOX, and a wide range of barking mad, lying, wilfully ignorant, far right, tub thumping, xenophobic nutters whose whole lives are bound up in god, guns, abortion and conspiracies.
I wouldn’t give a rat’s bottom about any of this except that at some stage I am probably going to have to live there - and it's scary!
Moni had her stitches out and is as happy as a clam.
Sissi is growing like Topsy and eats her own weight in raw chicken every day. She goes quite dippy when I start to chop the chicken and keeps jumping up on the bench. I have had to resort to locking her out of the kitchen so that I don’t accidentally cut her paws off.
Geoffrey and Carmella have been and gone are now in Latvia – or possibly Lithuania.
We went to our favourite Fish Restaurant – Dalmatia and had (what else) the Salt encrusted fish. It was packed – and the service was very slow – but the food was terrific as usual.
On Saturday we savoured once more the truly wonderful Penne pasta with Salami, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Rucola at Da Capo. I am going to try to make this very soon.
Driven out once more by a smoker (Rant follows) – this time with a cigar. Well yes I did ask for a non-smoking table but it was next to the window and – two feet away outside and next to the window was a table of smokers. The man with the cigar was careful not to blow smoke on his partner (lest he offend her) – so he blew it through the window onto us instead.
We went of course to Stift Melk which I must say – even after the 4th visit – is quite sensational. Coming up I have three more visits so I am not sure that I am actually going to go into the Abbey itself and may hover around outside.
I will avoid the restaurant which serves the most poisonous Schinken-Kase-Toast I have ever had. I am sure it was not cheese. It could have been yellow rubber - and the Ham is beyond description but as I did not have my forensic kit with me it remains untested.
Why I ever stray away from the old (and always good favourite) of Sacher Wurstel mit Senf I just don’t understand.
No – I don’t want any locals to write and tell me what they put into Sacher Wurstels. I prefer to remain in the dark on this so that I can continue to eat them.
Cate and I went to Café Schwarzenburg for lunch on Sunday and were the only people inside the restaurant. It is now all non-smoking so this has driven many Austrians out into the sun but even so. I thought it was getting busier but it appears most locals are still away.
The ‘Beach’ cafes along the Donaukanal did start to come to life on the weekend and there is a photograph of one near Uraniastrasse where a bunch of people were doing Yoga on Sunday morning.
At Stift Melk we found where they have put Michael Jackson – sure they have dressed him up as a many centuries old saint in a glass case and call him Friedrich - but we know it’s him. We have a picture which doesn’t do him justice (you cannot use a flash in there) but you can get the flavour.
Cate is off to Egypt tomorrow and the cats and I will be left to our own devices. This is always dangerous.
Continuing my theme of the USA being the craziest country on earth there is a wonderful article by Edward Luce in the weekend Financial Times.
In it he says that a poll last week found that 42% of Republicans believe that President Obama was not born in the USA.
He notes that ‘no amount of contrary evidence will puncture the view that Mr Obama plans to establish “death panels” that which will decide which grannies get to live or die’.
This is because ‘the largest chunk of protestors know little about the reforms and have no intention of rectifying their ignorance’.
They believe all this stuff of course because they are told it by Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, FOX, and a wide range of barking mad, lying, wilfully ignorant, far right, tub thumping, xenophobic nutters whose whole lives are bound up in god, guns, abortion and conspiracies.
I wouldn’t give a rat’s bottom about any of this except that at some stage I am probably going to have to live there - and it's scary!
Ha! My favourite is Bill O'reilly (sp?). His adversarial interview strategy comprises of two equally sophisticated stages.
ReplyDeleteno.1: TALK LOUDER THAN THE OTHER IDIOT WHO IS OFFERING RATIONAL THOUGHT!!!
no.2: If no.1 fails, CUT THEIR DAMNED MIC AND CALL THEM UNPATRIOTIC, TERRORIST LOVING IDIOTS!
Regarding your pasta comment, i liked your spaghetti sauce.
While pondering Schinken-Kase-Toast, spare a thought for this breaking news:
ReplyDeleteAussie parents are being told not to give their children ham or salami or devon in sandwiches more than twice a week. Or more than three thin rashers of bacon or any form of fermented meat. If they become addicted to these foods in childhood they will continue this bad habit into adulthood and some studies say it will lead to bowel cancer. When I mentioned this to a gastroenterologist who had just checked me out (all clear), he told me that the studies were inconclusive, he doesn't believe them and not to worry. I haven't changed my eating habits and don't intend to!
Maybe you should just sign up to be a Monk at Stift Melk. That way you would avoid all the to-ing and fro-ing there and back and your family and friends could come and visit you there.
ReplyDeleteMy Spaghetti sauce is very good (the sample you had was not one of my best). Wait till you try my Ungarian Gulasch.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a matter of time before they discover that milk gives children cancer. You should see Ben Goldacre's book 'Bad Science" as it talks about the never ending beat ups by journos about pseudo scientific discoveries:
http://www.badscience.net/
The Monk idea is fabulous - but I am not sure Cate will be keen.