I wallow in the glory

Our apartment is supposed to be fully fitted out for temporary accommodation – and this is fine if you just wanted to sleep here. Anything else is a bit of a challenge.

So far we have existed on salads as I have been struggling to think what I could cook with one small frying pan and one small saucepan.  Perhaps one pork chop and some potatoes.

So I have bitten the bullet and bought some cookware and some other essentials – such as a vegetable peeler. The highlight of my day today was buying a bagel cutter as the knives here are just not up to the task and I just love toasted bagels – which we can get from Shapiro’s kosher deli.

Our other major difficulty is that there is no overhead lighting in the lounge room or bedrooms. Such illumination as is available is in the form of small lamps on side tables – and there are not many of these. It is a very dim place indeed at night.

So we told the people about this and they are delivering more lamps.

I get lost almost every time I leave the apartment and just have not been able to come to grips with the local geography. I find it immensely confusing and most of time have no idea where I am. Without my TomTom I would not be able to go anywhere – except for Kroger – which draws me like a moth to a flame.

I just love the vast array of foodstuffs and drinks and wallow in the glory of being able to read all the labels - and having a choice of 50 different yoghurts  - and even fruit and vegetables which – unlike at Spar – are mostly edible and even tasty.

People can’t understand me most of the time so I am practicing speaking American. Whatever happens – it is better than trying to speak German.

The cats are disappointed

We have sort of settled into our temporary apartment in Carmel. It is compact and there is little danger of us losing anything in it. The cats are disappointed with the straitened circumstances in which they find themselves and probably think that Cate has lost her job.

We have been assuring them that this confinement is only temporary and that they will love their new house which has many rooms which they will be able to explore.

It took them a few days to settle down and Monika spent some time under the bed.

Some things have been more challenging than others. We had extraordinary difficulty buying gas because we don’t have local credit cards and you cannot use a foreign credit card – and people are astonished at the sight of cash.

It took us 5 minutes of negotiations to be able to pay cash – and it was a close call as to whether or not we would get any gas at all. We had to nominate the amount of gas we wanted and then pay in advance. At the conclusion we asked the attendant if there were ever any other people who did not have local credit cards.

She said they had an English girl there once. She did not say whether or not the English woman was successful in buying gas or if she abandoned her car in the driveway like we were considering doing.

Most conversations about anything at all start with people asking for your social security number. We fall at this hurdle and are being punished significantly because of this. We are paying penalty rates on our house insurance because we do not have social security numbers or a credit record.

This makes as much sense as many other things that have happened. What does my credit record matter if I am paying in advance?

However – I love my local Kroger store and have signed up for their rewards program. Apparently the more I buy – the bigger the discounts I get on gas at Shell gas stations. I will be happy to get any at whatever price.  

We have a pool in our apartment block and ducks swim in it. This makes me happy but is unlikely to impress the other residents.

It's good night Vienna