Freeze when you're winning

It's 8 a.m. on Saturday when Turkish Delight and I meet B. near Burgtheater where ticket sales for the Robbie Williams concert on August 18, 2006 will commence at 09:30. There's been quite a media-hype about it and according to a radio station one demented lady has even been queuing since Friday morning (!). With subzero temperatures at night I would not do that even if someone promised me 10 tickets for free. And a night with Robbie. Then again...

Fast forward. By the time we had our tickets it was 11:15 and I was positively frozen solid despite multiple layers of "sensible" clothing. When we arrived, a tv ad for Raiffeisen bank starring national ski-hero Hermann Meier was playing. "Ooooh, LOVE this ad, it's so funny", we all exclaimed. After the 10th or so re-run within 3-odd hours, I was tempted to throw a big, spiky object each at the screen and the speakers. We all officially HATE that ad now. Inbetween ads by the big sponsors they showed RW's Knebworth gig.

After one hour or so, my feet felt like blocks of ice. In fact, the whole experience reminded me of the less than comfy experience of lining up for some alpine chair lift minus the bulky ski boots. Admittedly, you don't get half as many freebies on the pistes. An impressive collection of things was being distributed with the woollen caps being the most useful items.

I got several each of all of the above. If the condoms were intended for immediate use (might have been a good way to warm up a bit but then the scenario was somewhat lacking in privacy for my taste) or post-concert (with Robbie, dream on), I have no idea.

Interestingly, we (aged 32, 33 and 34 respectively) were among the younger crowd. Unless the more geriatric queuers thought the event was in honour of some one-off performance at Burgtheater starring their thespian hero the only other explanation could be that kids (most schools have 6-day-weeks here) were at school and had got their housewife-Mums to queue (and pay!) for their tickets. I'd also expected the male/female ratio to be less balanced. When we left victoriously, there was still quite an impressive crowd of hopefuls:

Tickets were being sold at the Toblerone-esque stalls behind the white partition wall.

Afterwards, the three of us were in desperate need of defrosting (never mind emptying our bladders) and made a beeline for my favourite café for a hot drink and leasurely perusal of the gossip mags. Who cares if your toes feel like icicles when you can hold the precious tickets in your hand nine months (mental note: don't do anything stupid such as getting pregnant in the meantime. Oh! Now I understand why they were giving out condoms!) before the actual event.

When we got home Turkish Delight read online that there was going to be a second concert the day after ours. I later heard the same thing on TV about an extra concert in Hamburg. For some reason I can vividly imagine the Robster and his managment sitting in front of some nice fireplace, laughing their heads off about all the idiots who freeze their derrières off all over Europe, oblivious of there being plenty more tickets than they thought. Perhaps they just wanted to ruin the chances of those who bulk-bought in order to sell tickets on E-Bay. Ah well, he's forgiven and "my" concert's sold out already, never mind about the second one.

The venue is Ernst Happel Stadium, an open-air stadium where I have seen people as illustrious as David Bowie or R.E.M. I also saw Robbie W. there in 2004 and he's definitely the only performer for whose show I'd freeze my ample behind off any time. Nine months to go, counting the days.

Purchases: None so far today but then that's alright given the time and the fact that I bought 4 tickets at €78 each on Sat. In my lunch-break, I will go to Morawa to find out whether the December issue of BBC'S Good Food Magazine is worth buying.
P.S.: Have just returned from my lunch-break. Yep, did indeed buy Good Food mag. Plus the new UK edition of Marie Claire, my favourite glossy mag. Aaaaaand, I bought something dead cool. I'd seen this pictured in Brigitte magazine which in fact co-developed this gadget. I so wanted/needed to have it. When I couldn't find any shop which stocked it in Austria I almost ordered it online from the German manufacturer but then the not-so-customer-friendly delivery charges made me think again. Last night, as I walked down Wollzeile en route to the cinema I saw it in the window of a shop. Eureka! For those who don't know any German: it's a little kit of letters and numbers with which you can customise your biscuits. Cool, eh?