I might have a few visitors in the next day or two from Vienna and Montreal. Cybervisitors, that is. Welcome, if you've already arrived here. One of them is Rick, my dear American chum (how are you?) who I used to go to breakfast with in bars around Vienna. We met umpteen years ago on a cookery course for beginners, given at an evening school not far from where we lived. There were six on the course, as I remember, and three of us were Anglo-Saxons - me, R. and an American woman of fifty. We wanted to know how to boil an egg. Literally. What we got was a demonstration of how to make Austrian strudel pastry. Now if any of you are cooks, you'll know that this is no mean feat. That pastry doesn't just roll out like that, it has HOLES in it, large holes. At least, when you're as handy in the kitchen as we three were. But the great thing about that cookery course was that you made a three course meal and then sat down with your little group and ate it. Since the other people did learn something from their mothers about cooking, it meant that you could look forward to at least one decent meal a week. And it all happened in November/December when Vienna is as cold, grey, dark and uninviting as it gets. So that's where I know R. from. Did I learn to cook? You bet I didn't...
7. (On my 100 list, see below). I like going out for breakfast - at lunchtime...
8. After my friends, what I miss most about Vienna is the massive tree in the Volksgarten, opposite the Parliament building and just down the Ring from the Burgtheater. Sitting under that tree saved me from going nuts. I think about it often.
9. I spent almost my entire first 17 years, give or take a day out or the odd holiday, within a one mile radius of the house that's been our home for over 50 years. Since leaving it, I've lived in four countries, had about 21 postal or actual addresses, numerous telephone numbers, half a dozen e-mail addresses and one mobile phone number. I have wrecked people's address books...
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