I am ready for it

The reindeer rug is back

This is the time of the year when Cate scours obscure recipe books for the most outrageous Christmas concoctions she can find.

Sure on the surface the recipes are common or garden variety - but she chooses ones that have exotic ingredients that you could possibly find in the spice market in Istanbul – but which of course are nowhere to be found in Vienna.

Although I must say I am much better at finding things than when we first arrived.

So I spend days looking for things like Venezuelan beaver cheese  and Costa Rice crab apples. And then the recipe will call for something like a teaspoon of pine nuts but you can only buy them in kilo bags. So the remainder are stored in the cupboard until they go green and furry.

Anyway – I have broken the back of the  shopping – which is just as well because nothing is open here on Sundays and all the shops close early on Monday.

All I have to worry about is Cate’s ‘secret’ list. This is the shopping that I do no yet know about and will not be revealed until the last possible moment – when she will say something things like ‘Oh by the way I will need….’

And send me off in a mad panic ten minutes before the shops shut.

But I am ready for it.