A reminder that we are off on Friday to Salzburg, Schladming, Prague and Cracow.

My laptop wireless connection will work as well as it usually does when it is taken out of the apartment (it suffers from separation anxiety whenever it is moved more than 1 meter from a wireless modem) so you may not get any Blogs at all next week.

So take a break – have some fun – cruise around and stop worrying about the cats and I (Or, if you prefer, me and the cats – your call).

Speaking of which.

When Monika arrive here she was a skinny, nervous wreck. Clearly unwell and close to being unhinged. (She was abandoned when she was pregnant with five little tackers inside her and had clearly been badly treated).

She is still nervous and it has taken a long time for her to get accustomed to being picked up and cuddled.

Importantly, she is physically well and now quite plump. (Although she has been a bit wobbly for the last couple of days but appears to be on the mend).

She clearly has some mental scars and has some personal habits that would startle a drunken and disoriented Orang-utan – but we won’t canvas those on this Blog.

Even though we have been together for 17 years Muffin never stops looking for ways to surprise me. A few nights ago she vomited on my head when I was a sleep. This was a first – and I hope a last.

All cats have now been banished from the bedroom – mainly because of Monika’s abysmal habits – but Muffin’s behaviour didn’t help much.

Steph reminded me of what happens when you get a computer problem that you cannot resolve. In Dell’s case - when the war ended there were many Gestapo left unemployed. Dell recruited these and used them to train the people on their help desk in Mumbai.

Yesterday I made the mistake of indicating to the man in the Blumen in the Landstrasser-Hauptstrasse markets – where I was buying Katzengrass – that I liked his new shop front. He spoke non stop for 5 minutes, gesticulating wildly – and I understood about 3 words during the entire conversation.

I tried on a couple of occasions to interrupt him to tell him that I did not have a clue what he was talking about ‘Es tut mir leid aber….’ but he was in full flow and could have been stopped only with a club which unfortunately I was not carrying at the time.

I can manage if someone talks really slowly – but no one does. They are like the French and talk at high speed. I always get hung up on a word early in the sentence and then it’s all over. He used ‘geschaft’ very early and I spent the next two minutes racking my brain for the translation – thinking – I do know this word…hmmm…let me think…

However, I have a new German teacher who starts in a couple of weeks so will supplement the minimal amount of work I am doing now. Her name is Brunhilde (well of course it’s not - but you know I never use real names – except for relatives and close friends) and I am looking forward to our first encounter.

Let’s hope she doesn’t start the conversation with ‘geschaft’.

It is coming up for the Anniversary of Cate’s first lesson and she says that she is almost ready for the second (I am not joking!).

A special mention for Possum who is crook and needs another operation (Gallstones! What is the matter with this woman). Lots of love. Get on with it.