Oh Goody! Another shopping opportunity

So this week we go to London on Thursday and then to Oxford on Saturday morning so that Cate can attend a conference.

So we only have one day in London on the way to Oxford and there are no prizes for guessing what we will be doing on that day.

Correct – shopping.

More to the point – Cate will be shopping and I will  be carrying the bags for her and generally whining pitifully for coffee.

Most shops theses days have seats for spouses so I can try to tuck myself out of the way and play with my iPhone.

These ‘sad bastards’ seats are usually placed conspicuously so that the wives can keep an eye on their miserable spouses who sit there waiting for deliverance from the torture.

On Saturday we spent sometime in an underwear shop in Vienna while Cate shopped and they had no spouse seat so I had to park myself on the steps going in the women’s underwear section and tell everyone ‘Ich warte for meine Frau’  so that they did not call the police. (There was no chair in the men’s section either.)

We are going to Oxford by train on Saturday morning and then I will have a day and a half to mooch about while Cate attends the conference.

Then she gets picked up by a car at 6:30 AM on Monday morning to take her to Heathrow so she can get a flight to Moscow. I just don’t know how she does it.

I am taking a leisurely train back to London and will have the next two days there on my own so that I can mooch about and take some photos. 

It’s just not fair

This person drives faster than I do

I just do not believe that I got a speeding ticket on the A23.

According to the notice I got by email from Rozalin (the notices go to Ducky Pharma) I was hammering along at 98 kph in an 80 kph zone.

Well of course I was.

I am very careful around Vienna – especially in the 50 kph zones – and at SCS where they are ferocious.

But on autobahns no one in Austria drives at the speed limit. I do not recall the exact occasion because I always drive at 100 kph on the A23 – but I do it in the slow lane because the fast lane is reserved for those doing 120 kph – or more.

I think I am being victimised - or else as I speak many thousands more people are getting surprised by fines for the speeding blitz on 23 March.

On the weekend when we drove to and from Innsbruck Cate reached speeds of 140 kph – I bet SHE does not get a ticket. And people were passing us at speeds of at least 160 kph.

Cate always drives like the Hounds of Hell are after her and she has had just one measly ticket since she has been here. This is about my fourth.

Fortunately – in Austria you just get fined – and not very much – and don’t lose points off your licence.

I know – all you curmudgeons out there will say ‘well if you don’t speed you won’t get caught’.

But if I did not speed I would be the only one in Austria doing the speed limit.

It’s just not fair.

I just can't read maps

Schloss Ambras Innsbruck

We are going to Cyprus in June and will be hiring a car. Cate is going for work so I am going to tag along and we are taking a few extra days to explore the Island.

So we will ask for a navigation system which they agree to provide but unfortunately when we pick up the car there will not be one available and they will give us a map of Cyprus the size of an iPad and say here use this. This has happened before so we know what to expect.

When we went to Turkey we asked for a navigation system so that we could find our way to Gallipoli but alas they were out of systems when we got our car – and they gave us a map of Turkey the size of an A4 sheet of paper. We survived by using the maps in my iPhone but this is a very expensive way to do it because you have to turn on global roaming.

Unfortunately I am very bad at reading maps – especially tiny ones – so car navigation systems are really the only things that can get us to where we want to go. Sure – many people say they are bad at reading maps but trust me I would be a medallist in the ‘world’s worst map readers’ Olympics.

So to prepare for this eventuality I decided that I should buy a portable car navigation system. I used to have a Tom Tom but lost this on a trip – but it was pretty well shagged out anyway.

We don’t need a portable one in Austria because we have one built into our car and it has taken us all over Europe.

First I looked to see who has maps of Cyprus. Tom Tom does not - and Garmin does not specifically say it has - but Googling told me that there is a map of Cyprus in the Garmin Greek map.

So I duly bought a baby Garmin which included the maps for all of Europe – and ostensibly one for Cyprus. I can’t find this despite an extensive search. I have emailed Garmin and do not expect a reply.

So back to Google – and I discover that there is a map of Cyprus available from Garmin in Cyprus – so I email them for details.

Turns out it costs €110 and is only available on an SD card. This is just a little bit less than the cost of my new Garmin  - which includes all the countries of Europe.

So I have ordered a map of Cyprus from Amazon. We will just have to do it the old fashioned way.

On the bright side we will get hopelessly lost and see many parts of Cyprus we had never planned to.

And I imagine that on more than one occasion I will say ‘I wish I had bought that Garmin map for Cyprus’.