Monday was an absolutely glorious day in Wien. It was almost balmy and the sun was shining, birds singing, ducks quacking etc. I went on a fruitless search to get a particular type of Chanel lipstick for Cate but it was – surprise – not available here. Or indeed anywhere – a search of the Internet revealed that they no longer make this particular type.

The workmen have almost finished repaving the Graben and Kärntnerstrasse and it looks really good.

The Christmas decorations are being erected and I guess it won’t be too long before the lights go on. There will be an official ‘light switching on’ day just as there is a ‘start of Christmas tree selling’ day and we will find out what this is in due course. It’s time to do a stock take and find out if we have enough Christmas decorations – including owls and hedgehogs etc.

We did buy some Polar Bears (for some reason this spell winter for us here even though we are a zillions miles from the nearest Polar Bear) and of course I will let you have pictures as soon as the bears go on display.

The problem with buying real wood is that is very…..well…..woody. It comes in 13 kilo bags and leaves a trail of dust and splinters behind it. I can only fit 10 bags in Billy and can only take 2 of these on Dolly at each time. Which makes 5 trips to get 10 bags of wood into the apartment. And the whole load is only enough for about 4 nights because real word burns like…well….wood.

Sushi rolls are much better. They are easier to handle and carry around, they burn for longer, are a whole lot cheaper and make almost no mess. Cate unfortunately likes real wood so I have to have some to start the fires off and then I can throw Sushi rolls on when she is not looking.

The cats don’t mind much what is on the fire so they are much easier to please. Muffin and Sissi are now almost friends and often touch noses. They met on the stairs recently and Muffin starting licking Sissi’s ears. Good Grief!