This is my dear friend Anna in Sydney. She is doing a Max Factor makeup course by correspondence but is only up to lesson 2. How do you think she is going so far?

Gosh this is a funny place. We woke up this morning and it is snowing heavily. I suppose the ducks know that this sort of stuff happens – but I am sure they will be disappointed. The buds on the trees will certainly be having another look at the calendar.

I had a look at Merisi’s Site Meter and saw with some interest that on 26 February she had 5,397 visitors! Excuse me? Yes that’s right, 5,397.

Well I thought she must have published some previously unseen pictures of Paris Hilton with a Chimp – but no it was just the usual terrific photos.

Of course, Paris with a Chimp may no longer do it as people have become very blasé about Paris. ‘Ah really’ they would say, ‘but what sort of Chimp?’

Merisi averages many hundreds of visitors each day – and who could blame them. Her site is a joy to behold.

However, having recovered from Facebook rejection I am not going to become wound up with Blog Visitor Envy.

If my Blog is worth viewing then people will view it and I am quite happy with my (admittedly rather pathetic compared to Merisi) daily quota.

I am pleased that the Cemetery Cat photos seem to have pulled in a few extras – and I would probably do rather well if I turned this into a Cat Blog. I would lose the dog owners (but who cares about them).


(Dog lovers can forward complaints about this gratuitous and offensive remark to my Google email address).

Cate is off to Turkey on Monday and I am following on Thursday. I am currently looking at my Lonely Planet guide to see where the Cemeteries are but I will need to visit these while Cate is working.

She will probably want to go and see things like old buildings, churches and mosques and I regret to say that Istanbul will probably be heaving with these.

This is my first visit to Istanbul and of course I am wildly excited. Having seen ‘Midnight Express’ I have decided against strapping any drugs to my body while I am there so I should be OK. I will make sure there is nothing in my underpants except me - and will get Cate to check.

I have received my first speeding fine so am now in the club with Cate – although my pace was much more relaxed than hers. I was photographed doing 67 KPH in a 50 zone at 7:04 AM one morning in January when I was taking Will and Kris to the airport.

I can’t think of any 50 zones between here and the airport so will have to be a bit more careful – although around Landstrasse there are a couple of 50 zones that pop up for no apparent reason. Knowing the Austrians as well as I do, I am sure these have been well thought out so will not quibble.

It is a problem with Billy of course. At the best of times it is like restraining a wild beast and when gets his head at pedal to the metal time he just brings in the Kompressor and goes like the wind.

Whilst it is news day I regret that there is nothing dramatic to report from Austria (apart from the Fritzl trial on which this Blog is silent).

There have, of course, been the usual number of deaths on the ski slopes but these are now so unremarkable that there is no point in commenting, unless they are particularly bizarre.

On this occasion someone skied into a snowcat. The report doesn’t say if the collision killed them or if the snowcat subsequently dismembered them and ate them.

I didn’t realise that the cats were so big in the Zauchensee area and have told Muffin about this strange phenomenon and that she should be careful when we go there with her and the kittens (well they have to learn to ski).

The attempts at guessing the mystery object were abject failures but I suspect no one really tried – Steph least of all. She treated a quite serious attempt to stimulate thought as a complete joke.

I haven’t seen it in action – but it was being used by workmen who were laying cobblestones. My best guess is that it is used to squeeze cobblestones together so that they fit properly.

Now as I finish the Blog the snow has gone and the sun is shining, the buds are budding and the ducks are quacking. Ah Wien!


Bloody Hell! I posted half an hour ago - and now it is snowing again!

PPS: An hour later - no snow and bright sunshine!