Cate spends an enormous amount of time sitting in office chairs. She starts work about 8:30 AM – gets a home about 7:00 PM – has a very quick dinner and usually works until midnight or 1:00 AM in her office upstairs in the apartment.
Her office chair seems to be OK but the one at home gives her enormous problems and she gets excruciating back pain. This can only be alleviated by one masseuse in Vienna – and that selfish woman got herself pregnant and has not been available for months.
So I took on the task of finding Cate an ergonomic office chair to see if this could help solve the problem. William got one online and I investigated this possibility but I really needed something a bit different with a head rest and other widgets – and I could not find what I wanted - and I really needed to test-sit it.
Cate spends most of her time on the telephone on conference calls which can go for (and I am not making this up) three and four hours. Sometimes she will emerge from her office at home talking and I will think she is talking to me - but then I will realize that it is just incomprehensible burble and she is on a call and is just heading to the fridge for a glass of wine to keep her alive during the call.
Mind you when she talks to me about other things it can also be incomprehensible burble so I do have to pay attention because it is my job to attend to her needs. After all - it is she that keeps me in such immense comfort and up to my ears in Macs.
Cate is one of those women who when they want to say something to their partner just says it wherever she is.
She will be in her bathroom using her hair dryer and I will be in the cat’s bathroom having a shower and she will ask me a question. When I emerge ten minutes later I will be accused of not answering her question. What question? The question I asked you ten minutes ago. You mean when I was in the shower? I don’t know where you were. Well there was not much point in asking me a question if you didn’t know where I was. I don’t have time to go looking for you I am getting ready for work.
Anyway she needs back support and neck support and head support – and potentially psychiatric help but that is another matter entirely.
So I researched chairs available locally and the morning Cate left for Saudi Arabia I set forth for Berggasse to the place I found on the Internet. The address shown on the Internet was a mattress shop but as soon as I mentioned office chairs a young man was produced and he led me 100 meters around the corner to the chair shop and to his fine range of ergonomic chairs.
I found the perfect chair - with absolutely everything adjustable – height – seat - headrest - lumbar support – arms - brilliant. The man was a board certified expert in ergonomics and demonstrated all the gadgets on the chair and what marvelous benefits they would have for Cate – he knew all about bad backs - I was beginning to think he knew Cate.
I said it was brilliant and now came the excruciating part. Knowing what the outcome was likely to be I took a firm stance, gripped the arm of the chair in which I was so interested and enquired – as casually as possible – how much he was asking for this exquisite piece of modern ergonomic design.
Him: €960
Me: Really?
Examining my finger nails and curling my toes and thinking ‘Oh my sainted aunt how could a fershlugginer office chair cost so much? Is it made by teams of highly paid Elves in the black forest laboring over hot anvils and then shipped first class in it’s own seat to Austria by Lufthansa?’
Me: That sounds like a very reasonable price – is it on special for some reason – it’s not faulty is it?
Him: Oh no sir – it is in perfect working order.
Me: Well then I certainly hope it is not (shudder – nose wrinkle) made somewhere outside Europe?
Him: Oh no of course the main parts are German made - but there are parts that come from…..
Me: Don’t tell me they come from (another nose wrinkle) China!
Him: Oh no certainly not - they come from Italy and Spain but perhaps there might be maybe a tiny teensy weensy little piece that comes from………er…… Asia
Me: Well as long it is only a tiny teensy weensy little piece and will not affect the overall European-ness of the chair. We Europeans must after all protect our heritage.
Him: No of course not - the important mechanical parts are German precision made and will last at least 1,000 years – and are guaranteed for 12 months.
I think he was impressed by my stoic performance and carried the chair to the car for me. He did this because I told him about my broken ribs but also because It will take a while before my toes uncurl and I can walk properly. Even after this length of time here the prices still astound me.
Before we came to Vienna it is absolutely inconceivable that we would pay prices like we do for the things that we do. It is one of the most expensive cities on the planet – and I buy everything that I can online from Amazon.
The other weird thing about Vienna is that you have to pay cash for almost everything. Almost no one takes credit cards and limit for Bankomat – bank cash cards - is €1,100. I love that no matter how much you have in your bank account you can only spend €1,100 – that is just so Austrian.
So if you want to buy furniture for €3,000, as we did recently – you have to go to the bank and get cash out and take it to the stores. In Australia if you carry that much cash around you are probably a drug courier. In Austria you are just a furniture shopper.
