On Wednesday I got up at 4:30 AM to collect the Hendersons from the airport. This should have been a simple exercise but as usual when I have to get up early – I could not get to sleep. When I eventually did at about 2:30 AM Muffin decided to give an impromptu Morris Dancing performance together with a few circuits of the bed.

I emerged from the nest at 4:30 unwilling to face the day – but managed to collect John and Christine without drama. The only coffee shop open at the airport was the McCafé – but it was not bad at all. It is amazing how few people are in Wien airport at 5:30 AM but it seems that is when the flights start arriving.

On Tuesday I had to go to Schleifmuhlgasse to get some coffee from Alt Wien and then to Wein and Co in Jasomirgottstrasse. The town was heaving with locals and tourist – basking in the sun. The air was filled with the smell of spring and the smoke from millions of cigarettes. Today it was cold and wet and everyone had vanished indoors - and I wore a coat, beanie and gloves.

I nearly killed myself and another cyclist in a head on collision. I was tootling along in a daydream and suddenly saw another cyclist heading towards me at high speed. I instinctively moved to the left – oops - wrong way. He screamed and we both swerved – missing death by inches. Why did I do that? I have been here now for 18 months and know I must be on the right.

Perhaps I get distracted by some of the sights. In Am Heumarkt yesterday I saw a mother with a toddler. She was pushing a pram with (one assumes) a baby in it, was smoking a cigarette and had a mobile phone scrunched up to her ear with her shoulder. It was quite a sight.

In Beatrixgasse a woman was putting her small dog in her car. Before doing so she wiped its bum with a tissue and dropped the tissue on the footpath – my footpath.

In Beatrixgasse a man stopped while his large dog pissed up against the door of an apartment block – my apartment block.

Why do people assume the right to have their animals piss and defecate on public footpaths? What makes them think this is civilized behaviour?

In the Post in Marokkanergasse to collect a parcel. The man asked me to sign for the parcel – before he went to get it. I don’t think about what would happen if I refused to sign before I got the parcel – I know what the result would be – no parcel.

On the counter in the post there is a display case in which Hannah Montana pens are for sale. Disney’s reach is global. It’s not her fault that she is the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus but it doesn’t help my digestion.

Cate is in Jakarta. She gets back on Friday morning and then we go to Tuscany. I won’t have to worry about whether or not I can get an Internet connection – there is no Internet. There will not be a Blog for a week.