Determination

Course of action: Ignore the slight runny nose and sneezes, inaugurate "hat-wearing-season", turn on the radiator and trust your little friends and helpers:
I need to be fit for the Firm's annual Sales Conference next week!

Zoology Homework

Friday night, on the outward-facing pane of a window in my Dad's studio, a little suction-footed visitor:

Who said you needed to watch wildlife programmes on tv when said wildlife actually comes to your door. Well, window, but you get the idea.

Cross-Selling

I've seen interesting "retail-weddings" (e.g. wine & lingerie), but this is a new one for my collection: a one-stop shop offering studio photos and a new hairstyling that makes you look (even) better in the pictures. Interesting!

Autumn Dinner

Last Sunday, the almost-complete book club convened at my place. I decided to decorate the table with maple leaves from my yard and little squares of paper I bought in Tokyo last year: 

The starter was a tarte with roast garlic, cherry tomatoes and yellow courgette (from Amica's garden) and chevre:

The main course was pumpkin curry - my very first curry,actually:

The dessert was plum cake with a meringue layer:

When the guests left, they weren't exactly starving so K.'s lovely gift survived a little longer:

Wish me Luck

My Mum has asked me to deliver the speech at my granny's funeral today. Gulp. Obviously, it's too hard a task for the children, but she thought it would be a more personal touch than if all the speaking was done by the priest and it should not be quite as emotionally taxing for a grandchild. "Granny would have wanted it" and "you're a very controlled person". Am I? I've "done" weddings before, but speaking at a close relative's funeral is a different pair of shoes altogether. Deeeep Breath.

Still Life

Well, I hadn't expected to be back in KLU so soon and for so sad a reason, but here I am anyway, assisting my mother with various tasks and rituals relating to my granny's funeral tomorrow. Last time I was here, I had also travelled by train. As I was waiting for the delayed train back to Vienna I had plenty of time to study the interesting still life on the platform right opposite:

It reminded me of towels hung to dry outside a hairdresser's, when in fact it is just an assortment of cleaning rags arranged in military symmetry. Not quite something you'd expect to see on platform 1 of the main railway station of a provincial capital.

New Enzis

After the fire that destroyed the greater part of MQ's Enzi chairs, they first ordered new ones of the same type and then obviously changed their minds/had some leftover budget they wanted to fritter and commissioned more weather- and fireproof ones: 

I like the colours and the new design, but the old ones (in the background in the picture below) were more comfortable to sit/lie on as the material felt softer, almost like a firm mattress.  

Christo @ Heldenplatz?

I often walk to work taking a shortcut through Heldenplatz. Yesterday, I noticed this interesting congregation of tent-like structures which reminded me of an artwork by Christo. In fact, it was part of some event/fair there. It wasn't clear whether the workers where in the process of erecting or dismantling the tents, but they looked very decorative in the morning sunshine anyway.

Transience

The Sunday before last, I was sitting in my parents' garden chatting with my two grannies. Last Sunday, the younger of them died as a result of a heart-attack. Despite her age (88) it was unexpected and came as a shock, in particular as she seemed both healthy and content when I last saw her. I still haven't downloaded the pictures I took that weekend that show her rosy-cheeked and smiling happily. Recently, whenever she saw my Mum and myself, she was repeating incessantly what a gift time with us was for her and how grateful she was for every sunny day and all her positive memories. I am glad that her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren came together for her birthday this summer as there was nothing she loved more than "the whole family together". It's brutal for the bereaved to have someone ripped out of their lives, no matter how old they are, but it is definitely better for all parties involved than prolonged suffering.

Red Alert!

Can you guess what this lady's favourite colour is? It doesn't show as well on the photo, but her hair was almost the same fire-engine red as her clothes. Her son had a lucky escape by not having to dye his hair and put on red jeans and sneakers, I guess.

Make Mine a Furry One!

The only thing missing now to accessorise my cool new phone is a tasteful case to keep it warm through those chilly autumn and winter months - a leather bag lined with genuine fur. So...unobtrusive, don't you agree:

I spotted these weird specimens in the window of a shop on Vienna's Wollzeile. The english tag makes me assume that these must be a bit hit with (Russian, would be my guess) tourists.

Procrastination

One of these days I will...

- tackle those boring letters/statements from banks and insurance companies and file them in a more organised way

- sort through the pile of recipes I keep tearing out of magazines and only keep the ones I think I'll actually ever use and file them...see above

- seriously declutter my wardrobe/shoes/jewellery 

- have my living room painted (dread! so much stuff to clear away)

- start all those "creative" projects I've been wanting to do for ages

- sit down and think what I really want to do for the rest of my life

Sound familiar?

Speaking of Frequent Flier Miles...

My "trophy" arrived yesterday, a Longchamp "le Pliage" bag in a lovely autumnal plum colour. Lovin' it: 

Who wants to use their miles for free flights or upgrades anyway. Just think of that evil carbon footprint, ts!

Saving Up

I might not have the most impressive track record when it comes to saving of the traditional, monetary, kind. I do, however, love saving when it comes in the guise of shopping and gives you tangible goals , such as the things you get when you trade in your frequent flier miles or "points" you earn with some customer loyalty card or other. Case in point: hitting the "dm active beauty" programme's jackpot and cashing in 1500 hard-earned points for 3 hours of pampering:

I did it!
Aren't you jealous?

New Toy

*Geek-alert* Only continue reading if you are interested in gadgets.

Yay! My new Android phone arrived today. I got it for only € 49 by renewing my mobile contract. It's not the latest state-of-the-art Samsung Galaxy S, but its Galaxy 3 predecessor, but I'm not complaining as it's much faster than the old G1 I've been using ever since my Nexus One came back from "repair" the second time and turned out not to work any better than before.

A guy recently remarked that I was unchararacteristically tech-minded for a woman. It hadn't actually occurred to me until then, but I suppose it's true.

Off Peak

On the weekend, I went for a swim in the Wörther See both on Saturday and Sunday. The water temperature was rather on the chilly side, which I like as long as it's nice and sunny outside. Compared to my previous visit, "Strandbad" was virtually deserted:

I like those wooden huts which can be rented by season-ticket holders only. There are long waiting-lists and several conditions tied to getting one of those sought-after leases.

G2 Summit

Yesterday, my Mum and I went to fetch my maternal granny from her home so she could have a chat with my other granny who is currently staying at my parents'. Together, the two ladies have a combined age of 183 years, which I find quite impressive. And no, it' not because they drink champagne by the gallon, two of the three glasses in the photo are my Mum's and mine respectively as together with Mum's mum we toasted Dad's mum's 95 birthday earlier last week. 

Carinthian Haul

Have I mentioned that I am easy marketing prey? When I got a € 10 MEXX voucher, it didn't take me long to spend it. It contributed to this lilac cardigan I bought in KLU today. It looks great with my grey and dark blue jeggings (also by MEXX, bought in the sale).
I particularly like the wool-covered safety pin/fibula: 

I also bought a short-sleeved polo-neck jumper in what I hope is exactly the same yellow as the one in the retro, or in my Mum's words, "old-fashioned" skirt I bought in London (v. previous post). We'll see when I try the two on together back in Vienna. Even if it doesn't match the skirt, I think I'll get a lot of wear out of it anyway: 

Back on Track

"I want to see a proper shopping post again", the Empress told me, adding (jokingly) that I had veered off track with "all that travelling". Well, here we go again. Part of my latest haul, a beautiful (and not exactly cheap) 60s style wool skirt I bought at Hobbs when I was in London:
I honestly could have bought the whole shop! Actually, I went and got RED magazine after my first reconnaisance visit as there were signs saying you could get 20% off everything with a voucher in the magazine. I dutifully cut out the voucher and returned to buy the skirt. Well, including the magazine price, I still paid more than GBP 16 less than I would have. Applied economics, is what I call this!Today, a parcel from Boden arrived, containing among other things this pretty silk top from the summer sale: 

I also bought some nail polish in London, No7's "Foxglove 43": 
Try to ignore the fact that my fingers look stunted from this angle - isn't this a beautiful, rich autumn colour? Well, even if you disagree, I love it!

If Only It Were So Easy!

...but thanks anyway to the Pampered Princess for this original gift! And I do like baking. Who knows, it might work with a bit of voodoo thrown in for good measure.

Recently, the sons of friends (aged 7 and 3 years respectively) seem to develop crushes on me. Now it's just a matter of raising the average age of my admirers by some 30 years.

A Typical Saturday Afternoon Pastime in a Typical Austrian Village

On our way to and from the Gartenlust exhibition/fair in Halbturn, Amica, Mademoiselle and the rest of our posse passed the local sports ground. The local football team was playing. To me, it looked so endearingly nostalgic and "old skool" to see those mainly male spectators perched on wooden benches, rooting for their team, the members of which they probably all knew in person/were closely related to. 

more aficionados:

Prices are decent and affordable, with concessions for senior citizens and members of the military. 

Out with the Old

On Saturday, I was in Halbturn, Burgenland, and passed by this trailer full of books outside the the gates of Halbturn Palace where a charity flea market was being held. Personally, I am a bit squeamish about second-hand books unless I know the person who owned them, but I still tend to feel sorry to see books discarded. I actually pressurised my boss into giving away rather than tossing out unwanted books he had sorted out a huge pile of books in the process of moving into a smaller flat and this little pile has been sitting in the hallway of our office for weeks now. Should you be interested in one of them, let me know...

And Now for a POSITIVE Culinary Experience...

Not all was yukky in London, though. I was thrilled to find extremely good matcha ice-cream for a very decent price at Wasabi's Knightsbridge branch. The picture makes you think it's actually wasabi-flavoured ice-cream, but thankfully, it wasn't: 

Lethal. Well, Almost

WARNING: If you come across this innocent looking box of vegan and gluten-free cookies, give them a wide berth. Seriously. 
Last Saturday, MC showed me her old hunting grounds, which included a "Planet Organic" store where she loved to eat and shop. We weren't yet in lunch-mode, but decided to stop for a tea and cookies. The above cookies cost almost 4 GBP and contained 5 individually wrapped biscuits. MC was about to tear the wrapper off hers when I stopped her, having just taken a bite of mine. She took a bite and was just as disgusted as I was. We both agreed that they tasted of a very potent kind of bleach or nail polish remover. I'm not exaggerating. We half expected our stomachs to disintegrate. I have no idea whether they had just gone off and hence gave off this utterly revolting taste, or were supposed to taste like that. In the latter case, who are these people who actually like such cookies?

It's those Little Details...

I was quite impressed when I saw that there were sockets for electric appliances with UK, US and European plugs in my hotel. I know it's a business hotel, but I had never previously seen that anywhere. Nice detail, don't you agree?

click to enlarge