Christmas Tree Cat
The Hot Water System belongs to the same union as the Air Conditioning and went out in sympathy with it yesterday morning. I think this may constitute a secondary boycott and I could possibly take legal action but I am not sure where to start. Certainly shouting at the Water Heater had no effect at all.
Cate was not well so did not go to work – she worked at home of course as she is never allowed to take a day off although she swears that this year she will not work on Christmas Day (which she really did last year).
Anyway Rozalin contacted the Hot Water People and advised them of the critical situation. They immediately dispatched a Serviceman with a police escort and he fixed the problem. This is the same man who has been before and speaks perfect English – but won’t.
So when he pointed at various buttons and dials and gave me detailed instructions I assume he was telling me that there were things I needed to do to keep the system operating properly. There are two red levers and a dial. When something happens on the dial (I am not quite sure what) I do something with the levers (I am not quite sure what – and it certainly doesn’t help that there are two levers)
I am quite sure I will be seeing him again in the not too distant future.
We have not yet been able to interest anyone in our lack of air conditioning. Fortunately it only got down to -8 yesterday so we were able to chip the ice off our Muesli without too much trouble.
The only real problem we have is the family of Inuit living in the spare room because the smell of fried whale fat is bothering Monika. She is a bit worried she may be mistaken for a seal and be harpooned. (What a fabulous word!)
I spent quite a bit of time with some painters today. They are painting the Beatrixgasse foyer and have a gigantic electric heater blasting away. So I hovered around them for a while until they got edgy and then I went over the vegetable section in Spar – which is deliciously warm and I now know how they make the grapes so mouldy.
It is so cold that the cats were all together in front of the fire. This is the first time this has happened and was done out of self preservation. At least when they are there I don’t have to spend time de-icing their whiskers with Cate's hair dryer.
I checked on the ducks and there a very few there. Where could they possibly be? I know they don’t fly south for the Winter – or at least they didn’t last year. There were however hordes of white birds.
I hesitate to call them Gulls because then Maalie will embarrass me by pointing out that they are something like Golden Crowned Hornswoggles (as any fool would know). This is the problem with writing a Blog when you know so little and you have some experts reading it.
One must be very circumspect about saying things that can be corrected or disproved.
Tomorrow I am off to buy more wood because I think it is going to be a long cold winter – still I suppose this is good training for St Petersburg where we will be on 26 December.
smokefreevienna
I have finished the first draft of my website. I am going to start trudging around the Innere Stadt to verify the information I have collected – and look for new venues.
For Annie - I have increased the font size - is it any better?
It was reported in the Austrian Times that: "Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) was forced to downplay media reports of near chaos after Vienna’s southern railway station (Südbahnhof) closed ahead of construction of a new main city railway station on the site".
Their photo apparently shows the chaos. This poor bloke had to wait 2 minutes for a green light.
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- Happy New Year Everybody
- Kakapo Artificial Insemination a 2009 Success
- Gott nytt år!
- It's the last day
- Art Trap
- Spiral Icon
- Inside Bubble Bobble
- Varför börja lagom när man kan börja med sällskap?
- Racing Year in Review
- Halsrapport
- Manhattan Paleolimnology
- En hals som förstör
- Kontraster
- Rousseau and Echolocation
- Harrietsham 10k
- Week Ending Dec. 27
- Re-shaping
- Sluggish and meandering
- Saltwood Boxing Day Run
- Playlist - 26th December 2009
- Snöigt
- Mystery of Amazon Manatee Migration Solved
- In Memoriam
- The Shining movie poster
- Min julafton
- Music for Landscapes
- God jul!
- Julen är här
- Merry Christmas and have a cup of Civet Poo!
- Jeez Louise and Thomas Sabo
- På plats i värmlandsskogen
- East Kent Sea and Countryside
- Merry voXelMas!
- Banana flavoured Cinnamon Chips Mmmm!
- Across the ocean
- Julledig!
- Stephen Fry on Operation Rhino
- The Ducks gave Cate the cold shoulder
- Leviathan: An Interview with Richard Mosse
- Geospatial Holograms
- En vit jul?
- Muscatatuck
- The Burj Dubai as Storm Machine
- Week Ending Dec 20
- Både bra och dåligt
- Crash State
- Dance and show us your miracles!
- Playlist - 19th December 2009
- Med solen i ögonen
- On Bombs and Preservation
- VIERNES
- A User's Guide to New York City pt. 2: Street Vend...
- A User's Guide to New York City pt. 1: Tenants' Ri...
- And the winners are!!!!
- Don't skip in Landstrasser-Hauptstrasse
- Technabob logo redesign
- Overweight
- Recent Site Change
- A PHOTO STORY BY REED + RADER
- An Ocea of calm
- Merry Christmas !
- THE FIRST DAYS OF SPRING - A FILM BY NOAH AND THE ...
- China, Iran, Myanmar, Australia
- CANDIE - POSITIVE MAGAZINE
- PHOTOGRAPHY OF GALA COLLETTE
- WASHED OUT - BELONG VIDEO
- PHOTOGRAPHY OF SANDY KIM
- Best New Blogs of 2009
- Love in the Time of Home Quarantine
- Pica-sso
- Napoleon did not have this much trouble!
- They might be Golden Crowned Hornswoggles
- Cracking the Planet
- Pirate Radio Speleology
- And a little child shall lead them (and my giveaway!)
- Christmas Classic 4 Miler
- Week Ending Dec 13
- Playlist - 12th December 2009 - Funkology
- HOT CHIP - ONE LIFE STAND
- ART OF COREY SMITH
- Editorial cartoons
- We would like to talk to you about the bible
- Northern White Rhinos Returning to Africa?
- Blog catchup time
- HEALTH LIVE VIDEOS AND INTERVIEW
- It's time to Butt Out
- Ninja christmas
- MEMORYHOUSE - TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
- CANDIE - STIMULUS RESPOND "SKIN"
- Eat the Earth
- PORTISHEAD - CHASE THE TEAR
- When a door closes
- TIMES NEW VIKING - BORN AGAIN REVISITED
- Get the Rat Hat ready
- Blackout
- Don't stand during the Messiah
- Make Mine a Minaret
- How To: Seed Grenade
- Welcome to the Sultans Suite
- Agenda
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