Greg's First Book

We had a very nice surprise waiting for us in the mail the other day - a hardcover copy of a book that Greg participated in writing. He wrote chapter 2.

Don't ask me to explain it. I just proofread it. Understanding it might put my brain under undue stress.

We had another nice package arrive in the mail from Josie. Nice timing. A celebration package with lollies and chocolate and a cute soft Doctor Bear.

Karoke at Uni

I've clocked in a lot of hours at Uni this week, helping Greg with his paper. So it was nice to have a Happy Hour to relax at, at the end of the week. There was a karaoke competion with a prize of 50 Euros. Jordy and I were really hoping to win it, but they only had singstar plugged into the t.v. and there were a few technical difficulties.

I sang "Come on Eileen" but I very nearly burped "Come on Eileen" as I had consumed almost 2 litres of coke shortly before my performance. If I had, I'm sure I definitely would have won.

Kitchen Help at Schwarzwalddeckhaus

I got a room with a fab view of the mountains. I tried to say something poetic but my brain is not co-operating. Anyway, with the clouds, and sunset and mist, the mountains looked real good.Romantic even, if your significant other were with you...but mine wasn't.

As I had decided that this will be my last camp helper experience, (I missed my family too much)I thought I had better make the most of it, and walk down to the nearest town, Kleinzell, with the rest of the camp.

The children raced down the mountain, I could hardly keep up. Walking back up was a real mission. It takes the teens about 80mins to walk back.It took me 3 hours, gasping and huffing and wheezing all the way. It was truly a sad sad sight, but I'm glad I did it. It was beautiful.

Greg's First Stint in Hospital

Greg has been having ongoing problems with his stomache for over 2 years now. After many tests and humiliating extras from the doctors in NZ, with "no idea" being the doctor's best learned opinion, Greg was understandably put off any further doctor's visits.

However, pain drove Greg to consult with the doctors here. They also were confused and sent Greg on to the hospital where he continued to confound the doctors with his lack of real symptoms. In the end they decided, after prodding Greg repeatedly and painfully in the same spot as where your appendix is, that he must have appendicitus.



Luckily Greg had had nothing to eat all day so they could operate straight away. Unfortunately, Greg had just had a quick drink, 5 mins before his consultation so he had to wait 3 hours. Jordy had accompanied Greg the whole time in case he needed an interpretor but she wasn't really needed.

Poor Greg still wasn't allowed to eat for another whole day after the operation. An added indignity was not being allowed to drink coffee.

So Greg was there from Tuesday until Friday. He was meant to stay in for a bit longer but he was feeling lonely and wanted to come home. We did manage to play Settlers on Thursday.

A couple of things we did find strange was the presence of visitors rooms for smokers on every floor, and the sale of beer in the cafeteria. If there's a next time we are going to endeavour to be delivered to this hospital as it is very nice, friendly staff and great food. Plus they have a machine that goes "ping".

After a leisurely breakfast we moseyed on down to The Hundertwasser Art House. Vivian had introduced her class to Hundertwasser so I felt it necessary to visit the art gallery. Plus I like the cafe. It was prettier in autumn but the food was great.

We made a quick stop at Hundertwasser Haus. Then on to Schönbrunn Palace. It was still raining so we sheltered under the trees for a bit until it died down a bit. The walk up to the Gloriette looks a lot worse than it actually is. I was pleased with the view. A friend had deemed it unremarkable which had put me off.

It was only 2 Euros to climb the Gloriette, once we found the cashier and had woken him up, it was a very small climb. Well worth the 2 Euros. Jordy was at school so she missed out on all the fun.

Time for an early dinner at the Prater Schweizhaus. Their specialty is the Stelze which Vivian and Vicky dutifully ordered. This place is huge. Every time I visit I marvel again. So if you come and visit us, you know where we'll take you.

Quan Visitation

Thank you to Vivian and Vicky for making the effort and taking the time to come and visit us. Especially after we were mean to them and made them go touristing. But we had lunch first of course. The green door in the background is the door to our flat. Very convenient.

We went to the Belvedere Palace and walked through the grounds. It was so hot, I walked through every sprinkler I could find. We were too late to go in the Palace but that was okay cos, we weren't that interested in doing so at that time anyway. We looked at a few other sites of interest until it was time to go to the movies. After a stop at the ice-cream parlour first.

Although I enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean 3, I can't say that I liked it.

Poor Vivian. I kept her up until 2am talking. Considering that she had gotten up at 4am the day before, she was looking good.