I've been boring.

Actually that's only part of the reason why I haven't written anything in a wee while. The other reason, (be quiet Greg, it's got nothing to do with playing Total Annihilation) is that I've joined the library and have been indulging myself. unfortunately, though not unexpectedly the English section is small. Even smaller is my favourite genre, Science Fiction/Fantasy.

So I'm going to have to go on another foray to see if I can find one of these other libraries that caused me so much frustration previously. of course this time will be different because I am much better at finding my way around and I hardly ever get lost anymore.

Yeah right.

Putting our couch together.

Now it was time to roll up our sleeves and put the couch together. I got the easy part which was to take the plastic off our mattress. Greg got to do the fun part which was putting the base of our Futon couch together.














I have often noticed that many men really enjoy putting things together. Greg is no exception. He couldn't wait to put our couch together even though we didn't arrive home that night until after midnight; (As you can see, Jordy was a great help.)even though I had very helpfully forgotten to buy any tools to put it together with. We tried a few various things in place of a hammer, and eventually settled on a frying pan. Then Greg got down to hammering only.... we have nice wooden floors which amplified the hammering....at 1 o'clock in the morning....in a 4 story apartment block. Eventually Greg decided that perhaps it might be wiser to wait until later after he'd had an opportunity to buy the right tools.



As you can see, this one has sunlight coming in. Greg was a lot later getting started on his project this time due to the fact that 1, it's summertime and everyone goes on holiday even the shopkeepers and 2, it's Saturday and so a lot of shops don't open anyway. Yes this didn't add to my popularity at all.


Some people are so touchy. You can see what Greg thinks of my "helpful" comments by the big plank he is holding in his hand as he heads in my direction.
















Ahhh! Now to enjoy the fruits of "our" labour. Someone pass the popcorn.

Furniture Shopping the Viennese Way

Vienna is a tiny city. It is a quarter the size of Auckland but with twice the population. They fit everyone in by building lots of apartment blocks. In fact the only way to get a house is to live on the outskirts of Vienna.

Also, Vienna is very environmentally friendly. Therefore hardly anyone owns a car. So what do you do when you want to buy furniture, you don't have a car or have friends that own cars, and the cost of delivery involves the sale of one or two body parts of which you are particularly attached to?(Yes, the pun was intended and yes I am exaggerating ever so slightly.)

You catch the bus of course.



Jordan in front of the IKEA furniture store, putting on a show to prove to her mean mum that it's too heavy for her to carry on her own.









The real story. As I have learnt the hard way, it only feels light because you've only been holding it for 5 minutes.






First part of the journey.














Half way there and Jordy has come to realize the truth in the aforementioned comment about the weight of things. So we stopped for an ice-cream whilst we regained our strength.






Now, where could we possibly put our nice new couch?

The European Look

I always thought that European men had the whole 5 o'clock shadow, unshaven look because they were manly and rugged and had better things to do with their time like...oh I don't know... drink coffee, speed around in expensive cars, swoop women off their feet and look sexy.

Now that I actually live in Europe, I have discovered that the boring truth is simply that, they can't afford to shave. If you were faced with spending $40 NZ just to remove a few manly hairs off your face or taking your wife and child out for dinner, eating ice-cream on the Danube and travelling to a neighbouring country, I think that you too would be content to adapt the European look.

This might also explain why I had such difficulty buying shavers. The first 5 I went to only had empty boxes with suspicious rips in them. Hmmm.

Some of my friends are Australian...

You know, it's not personal but Kiwis and Aussies have this whole "competitive thing" going on with each other. So, I don't know how to explain exactly, but the last thing you expect when you fly halfway around the world, is to walk into a supermarket and see Nestles, Maggi and Gilette products.
In one way it's good because it's something familiar but come on!

We have also spotted a couple of Aussie bars where you can buy fosters and "real Aussie burgers" for 10 euros which is $20 NZ. Get real!

The worst of it was when I was scanning through the local community course programmes and one of the courses they had on offer was "How to play the Didgerido" Ach!