One down - three to go

I lost my electric razor. I looked in all the obvious places – washing machine – refrigerator – but it was definitively MIA. I went unshaven all day and was berating myself for getting forgetful – when I realised finally that I was thinking about it in entirely the wrong manner.

What I should have thought was ‘what would Sissi do with my razor if I left it on the bench in the bathroom?’ And there it was – behind the toilet bowl – apparently none the worse for wear.

A few things to report:

Sissi has been delivered to Dr Schnauser. She is not happy about it (Sissi – not Dr Schnauser) and particularly didn’t like missing breakfast. She will be collected – missing a few bits – this evening.

Many years ago we had Muffin attended to in this fashion. Six months after the event she presented us with two bouncing baby boys. We – and the Vet – were very surprised. The Vet was so surprised he did the job again at no cost.

We kept the boys – Baggins and Bilbo (who were named many years before the movies were released – and well before every second cat in Christendom was name Bilbo or Baggins). I asked the vet one time how many Bagginses they had on their books and it was something like 37.

Baggins was skittled by a car when he was only one year old but Bilbo survived until very late last year.

Muffin of course is still with us and I noticed on the ‘cat to people years’ chart in the Vet’s office that Muffin is the equivalent of 80 years old. She is certainly an old grouch and would be good company for Frau Gumpendorfer.

The dishwasher is now leaking so badly that I have to put a bowl underneath it when I turn it on. The dishwasher man (It would not be appropriate at this stage to call him a repairman) comes on Friday to collect another couple of hundred Euros.

We have finally finished our first jar of Vegemite. It has taken us more than a year to do this as we simply don’t eat much anymore. We have three large jars left so it will be a while yet before we ask visitors to bring us some.

I am however running short of my favourite ‘Australian Wildlife’ mugs – you know – the ones with Koalas, Kangaroos and Echidnas on them – so will give this task to our next group.

Billy is nearly one year old and we are having a party for him with a jumping castle on 10 December. Rozalin has arranged for his first service to happen – and I find this astonishing – the first service is not due for 20,000 kilometers or 12 months – whatever comes first. Well, Billy has only done 12,000 kilometers so far.

I know the Mercedes Benz people are very clever – but making a car that doesn’t need a service at all until it has done 20,000 kilometers is sensational. (I know Bill needs a service because he sends me a message every day – today it was it was a picture of a spanner with ‘ 27 Tagen’).

The printing presses are running hot in Wien and every day brings masses – and I mean masses – of advertising material to the door and letterbox. I could stop this avalanche if I could find out where to buy the appropriate stickers for the door and letterbox – but so far this has eluded me.

In the interim I am hiring Bobcat to clear the front door so we can get out to take Cate to work each morning.