ice, ice, baby

Thankfully, the weekend, which was a very social one, made me snap out of the murderous mood I was in on Friday. It began with a leasurely brunch with a friend at High Tea, my favourite location for brunches, on Saturday morning. Well, actually it had begun already with a birthday dinner at the Pampered Princess' sister's on Friday night when we were served football-pitch-sized pieces of lasagne and cake. On Saturday night, my book club (more about that another time) convened but I couldn't stay for dessert as I had to rush home, get changed into my party gear and pick up TD for Novala's belated New Year's Party. Although most of the guests had already left when we got there it was very nice and we were quite impressed by the futuristic, Manhattan-esque part of town we'd never been to before. Apparently, shortly after we'd left with the "unwanted" presents (a CD and a fluffy tapestry monstrosity) we'd got in exchange for ours a veritable blood-bath took place.

On Sunday, I went ice-scating on Lake Neusieldl with the Mermaid, the Pampered Princess and the latter's hubby and sister. Judging from the crowds, half of Vienna seemed to have had the same idea. It was my first time on skates this season and when we got there, the uneven ice and fierce wind almost made the Mermaid and me return to Vienna right away. After a while the wind eased up, we'd found our "ice legs" and we also discovered totally smooth ice further away from the shore. In fact we really got into it and thought we might need our passports any minute as the natural border to Hungary lies somewhere in the middle of the lake. Mole West, Neusiedl's trendy lake-side watering hole had temporarily converted its terrace into a filling station for frozen skaters, defrosting them with mulled wine and punch where in summer (people who think they belong to) the beautiful people sip their mojitos. Conveniently, there was no need to take off your skates for the pit stop unless you wanted to show off your expensive après skate gear. Being the only one of us without ridiculous hat or hood and sporting Chanel shades, a Prada coat and Gucci bag, the Pampered Princess was our admission ticket to the world of the smart after-skating-clubbers. I couldn't help noticing that unattractively blotched or "freezer-burnt" cheeks seemed to affect everyone. Cold, a great democratic force of nature.

Shortly after sunset, the Mermaid drove me home and stayed for dinner. I had planned to conjure up a risotto but then was too starved for any domestic goddess stunts so toasted sandwiches had to do.

Today, I bizarrely have a completely stiff neck and sore shoulders. I must have skated with hunched shoulders because of the wind. I'd actually expected my bum to hurt as I'd fallen smack down on it not while skating but when I wanted to take a group photo of my friends taking off their skates afterwards. Well, it looks like a generously padded derrière does have its advantages after all.

Purchases: Boring for the blog, good for my budget - no major acquisitions and none likely this lunch-break. Sorry!