THIS is why I spent the horridays under the bed.

As if Santa wasn't intimidating enough.. Sick sick sick.

Thanks to Annti, for enriching my already vivid nightmares. love her.

ewwwww.

And oh... the bells haven't rung since Thursday-... they usually are my alarm clock

Tradition says, the bells got sent to Rome. Really. So no bells, and the eveangelical protestants don't do them either in solidarity.

The bells will ring on sunday.

Meanwhile, urchins go around from house to house with noise makers in the villages, and have a little song and dance, and want their victims to pray, and they get candy, and a bit of mony. Probably to go away. I've never seen that, but seemingly, it's a custom.

And now I have to go close my winder, the wind is all wrong. It's the night of the bonfires, and people take all their garden stuff and burn them, and am still not sure what THAT signifies. But if the wind is wrong.. it sure isn't good for asthma patients. Tonight it is.

GAWWD, I hate the horridays.

The horridays are back....

'Good' Friday. hokay...

This morning, on the radio, there is this guy who goes around asking questions of people, and asked, the 'man' and 'woman' on the street, what Easter is about. You'd 'Think' that it was a non-brainer... the resurrection of Christ. Right? Wronnnng.

The answere went from, 'celebrating the beginning of Spring' to 'celebrating the crucifiction', to... well it doesn't matter... the easter bunny and eating chocolate does, and it's 'fambly'.

Makes me wonder about the quality of edumacation in Austria these days, it really does.

And it became unavoidable.. the whole day, blather about the Easter bunny, and Easter nests, and spend, spend, spend, because, y'know.. for those three days, about one billion Euros get spent. Scam.

In one sense, the one person was right... celebrating crucifiction... because 'good' Friday is a horriday in northern germany among the protestants. Go figure.

I assume it isn't any better there. For anyone who doesn't particularly believe in ANYTHING, it is irritating at least, and more than irritating at worst.

HOSWEVER: I finally found out what the significance of the Easter bunny is... yep.

Some progressie 'priest' was on the radio, saying that bunnies sleep with their eyes open, and are a symbol of being on watch, and defensive, and protective.

I didn't believe a word. It's a pagan thing with the rites of spring being celebrated. Such bullshit.

I nearly got thrown out of my guild over it today, joking around. After doing a lot of innuendo jokes about eggs, but marko started it. Because I said a lot of the uproar is just pagan ritual. Which is called 'falling into the barn with the door in your hand'. In german.

After bitching about people buying waaaay to much food, because after tomorrow, preciousses... everything closes. It's like Christmas, second most terrible horriday of the year.

I won't deed all the junk.. I want my bit of ham, my white bread with raisins, a couple of eggs, and some horseradish, and I will be incredibly happy with my meal. Even if it sounds perverse.

I've been dreaming of making a creole spinach salad for days, but they jacked the prices up so high... well it wasn't worth the effort. Even though it is spectacular.

So here we are... the only silent night this country ever sees, and a three-day horriday...

We're already just about on lock-down as a nation... a few hold outs to get more money out of buyers, but... in forty-five minutes this place is gonna look like everyone died and the dead stillness will be overwhelming.

I did my shopping.... three days of nothing to be had otherwise.... and was on-line getting 'presents' from my game. They are doing an 'event'. Lots more loot when you kill things, and then sell what they drop. I could also turn my horse Estella into a reindeer, but I wouldn't do that to the poor dumb creature.

And since I declared myself the guild grinch... and everyone was ooooo.... Merry Christmas, I was all, 'oh yeah, happy horridays you guys.'

So we're down to the crunch... three days of absolute quiet.

I just spoke with Peter... five minutes is ok and he is half-way there... it was just more sadness. He didn't realise that today is Heiliger Abend, and for austrians, the 24th is the very very very big one, not the twenty-fifth.

I asked him about their Christmas party, and he was all 'it was all right', but am not sure he remembered. Juliana told me they were sort of overwhelmed the day before it when I visited. They have fifty patients, and 100 people rsvp'd.

Their common rooms aren't all too spacious, so it was a worry. On the other hand... fifty people, and two visitors per? Tja, just brush them aside, hey, and forget 'em. That ratio is telling.

Today must have been good. He said he'd eaten too much at lunch, and it was fried fish and potato salad with mayonaise, and he was uncomfortable. That was an hour after lunch, so I guess it varies with him still... who knows how the mind works? I have this idea that his is sort of like a fun-house at the moment.... the room with the distorted mirrors. And black holes. Something like that, anyway.

And yeah, on Christmas Eve, you eat fish here. I often talk to the tobacconist lady I see first thing every morning. We both have a passion for cooking, so I said, 'I have a Christmas gift for you.' And gave her my recipe for Filet of Sole in Sherry out of my New England cookbook that Marion gave me, and is very precious to me. Because the woman said she was doing sole tonight. Don't know if she'll try it, but she seemed very happy to have it.

And I dragged my sorry arse over to the market to wish Millie a merry merry... very early, before she got deluged with demands for flower arrangement miracles at the last minute. She drilled me on what I was planning to eat for the 'horridays'.. I said, 'nothing special'.. I'll bake a chicken breast in the oven, and that will hold me for two days, and the next will have Breinwurst.

'YOU! A four-star cook! Oh, RRREN!'

'It's not the same, doing it for yourself, and gawwd knows I've not much appetite these days...'

I mentioned the sole in sherry and she said, 'Oh gawwd is that good!' It's a simple, fast, very elegant dish. I normally had to work on the 24th, or better said, volunteered, but it was stress pure. Up at four, at the market at five to buy three days' worth of food, dump it in our kitchen, then do my shift, and coming home, I did NOT want to do an extravaganza, and that recipe was perfect. Delicious, festive, done in no time. Peter had cooked the potatoes for the salads, and had prepared it, a rapunzel salad with bits of garlic and potato in it and with pumpkin seed oil, our local specialty, and chilled a bottle of champagne. And had bought some very expensive desserts from the top bakery in town. So I had 20 minutes of cooking, and we sat down and let go, lit the tree, and the advent wreath, We never did big gifts at Christmas. I'd get some nice clothes, maybe, he'd get a ritzy calendar, he loved art ones... We kept it low key, and in the real spirit of things. The big gifts always came when the one or other of us never expected it. Sometime during the year, out of the blue... sort of a declaration of love. I've always loved that about him. And I would do the same, of course.

I sort of liked it like that. It was more about tradition than anything else.

Millie was my 'victim' if I was test driving recipes for an upcoming dinner... brought samples, and she was always
'Oh, THIS one you have to give me!' I assume she spread them through half the market. It got so I nearly didn't trust her... she always said they were perfect.

Just another facet of how subversive I could be... smile.

This is probably one of the saddest Christmases I will ever have.

I sincerely wish that my readers have a very nice one, a thoughtful one, without the stress, and think about the important things one should be grateful for... health, good relationships, love wherever it comes from... and just STOP... and breathe a bit. I think that is what it should be about.... and wish it for all.

Merry Merry, etc. etc.

Tomorrow is Evacuation Day...

It may have been on The Daily Show, but is historically accurate. So forget Black Friday, and think about Evacuation Day. I can only link, not embed...

But you can see it here.


And btw... it was funny as hell. And why didn't I learn about it in school? Just wonderin'....

Trick or Treat.....

The programmers of the game I play in Berlin are always inventive. Every Tuesday they turn off their servers for a few hours and fix bugs, or add something new or make an 'event' , as they call it. Some of them are lame, some are interesting. Yesterday they took longer than usual, and had to wait for a huuuuge patch to install itself once they were back up.

The theme of the week is: Halloween! Yay...

They really went all out this time. You always begin in the same place, the town square in an idyllic realm's largest village. And I learned per special notice that there were empty baskets all over the place. And if you got one, you were to go to the 'Halloween Narr (fool)' and you would receive 'candy'. The Halloween Narr is an effigy scarecrow on a crossbar with a pumpkin head and flaming eyes.

Trick or treat in other words. Normally if you have to find things they are few and far between, but not this time. You are generously given all sorts of candy, and I guess there are six sorts.

As is appropriate, the candy is Halloween 'creepy'. Frogs on a stick, dead eye-ball chewing gum, sugar skeleton bones, pumpkin drops, moldy lollipops, candied worms, and so on.

Normally in the game, if you are given 'sweets', they are to be used in the dungeons, and enhance your life force or abilities somehow. So instead of telling you what the candy does, all you get is, 'you have to taste it to find out'. So I tried 'em out.

Takes 'Trick' or 'Treat' to a whole new level. Activate one and it can say 'eeeewwww, horrible'... and you suddenly have minus 20% of your attacking force for two minutes, which isn't good if you're in a fight. Or 'ooh, delicious', and you get a 50% life force increase for five minutes, which is a real 'treat'.

And even within one sort, they aren't uniformly the same effects. Each one is different. Won't go on, just giving you the idea of how it works. I think this is the best Halloween in a long time. Very clever, and I get a week of trick or treating. Who else can say that, right?

Whoever thought this 'event' up really put a lot of work into it, and I think it is as funny as hell. Whoever it was, they must have Halloween as the top 'horriday' of the year.

Apropos Horriday... today is our national one, come around again. You're supposed to go out hiking and take in the beauty of the country. Except the weather is dreary, and there's a fine mist, so will be in-doors. Because we all know what 'mist' means now, right?

Happy trick or treating when the day comes.

Annnnd.... the long weekend in US broadcasting is UPON us.

The news cycle stops till Tuesday. Oldies will go into Soap withdrawal, and the WUURRLLD stops.

Happy Fourth to the US peoples. Tja, I got asked how WE celebrate that here. We do not. It is not our national horriday. Ok, the US Embassy and Consulate people will have events, that's clear, but---really?

Every country has their own national holiday. France is having theirs on July 14th, for instance. When the Bastille fell, and the Revolution began. Ours is on October 26th, when the second republic began in 1955 after the last of the WWII occupying troops left the country and turned us on to fending for ourselves... mostly...

I've never seen how the French do that. Here it was usually quiet, reflective, and people went hiking. To enjoy the beauty of the countryside. As of late, it is more 'ambivalent'. It's just another day off.

I've never seen anyone get 'excited' about it.

No barbeques, fireworks, or some arcane traditions.

But it raises the question... does anyone there really KNOW what the fuck it is they are celemabrating? Other than rabid tea-partiers, and then their knowledge of history is provably 'sketchy'. It's just another horriday with fambly you probably avoid the rest of the year.

With all that is going on, just another day to distract people, and not realise how thoroughly they are being fucked over, but go for it. A distraction for a day or so is sometimes a welcome diversion when people are hurting.

Have I said how much I hate Sundays?

I do... with a passion. And normally, I find something distracting to just make the day pass...

One of the themes on The Daily Show this past week was how fucking Goldman Sachs ruined Greece, and it was nefarious, no one seemingly had could rein in that firm. And I sort of love that country, as unusual and wonderful as it was... and as usual, no one will be held accountable. Wouldn'tcha know, hey. They get advertising on MSNBC which makes me wonder.

I was just watching 'My Big 'Fat Greek Wedding' for the third time because I was bored, and it is funny, romantic, crazy, and entertaining... but memories got engaged. And there is a lot of truth in it.

My first encounter with Greece involved my high school history teacher, who was also my father's history teacher, and he once let out she'd come in with dark glasses in HIS time after a week-end bender. Hoppa! She taught European history, supposedly. But what she taught was Greek history. Mrs C could warp your mind with what I thought at the time was absolutely insane. She would tell us the Greeks invented EVERYTHING. Democracy, toilets, you name it, they were the first, and was so first. Suffice it to say that by the end of the year.... we were 'approaching' the ancient Romans.

Thank goodness I did have some courses at university which gave me a different perspective on 'world history'... without the histrionics.

Something must have stuck in my head. So when I was first in Europe, and we had a long vacation, I took it into my head to visit Athens. It involved a very long and dangerous journey that took over forty hours by train. Long story.

But I got there, and fell in love. It was gritty, loud... so loud.. but fascinating. I was in a flea-bag hotel, but being an early riser, would walk up early in the morning to the Acropolis, and sit there watching the sun come up. And could see all the way to Pireaus, and the ocean beyond. There weren't any guards back then. It was amazing. And there were people who would tell you all about the history of the place for a pittance, and it was Mrs. C all over again. Such pride in the country's history and their contribution to western culture.

But it was also about the immense hospitality they were showing. I was just a very poor student. But I had a knack for finding interesting places to eat. I went window shopping, and found what looked like a cafeteria, but there only seemed to be locals in it, so homed in on it.

They had a menu card that was so long, I thought, 'whoa, no way they have all this ready...' So a waiter came, and asked me what I wanted to order and I had three choices, and to every one of them he said, 'No, we don't have that tonight.' So I asked, 'What DO you have?' somewhat put out. And he cocked his head, and said, 'Come with me...'

And brought me into the cleanest kitchen I have EVER seen, and there were three ladies bustling about, and big pots on the stove. Salad stuff hanging down some sort of ladder thing, and a cooler of some of the most mouth-watering-making desserts you can imagine. Well, I could have been thunderstruck by Zeus. Knocked over by the most delicious smells.

And said, 'May I have some of THAT, please, and a sald with THAt please, and that over there for dessert?'

I guess I was a hit for choosing correcty. It was probably a kidney stew, a salad, and the dessert was so sweet it hurt my teeth. But was delicious.

They don't do that any more. I was astounded at the time, however. I don't want to see how most Austrian kitchens look, believe me.

The woman who ran the hotel was 'motherly', and seemingly liked me. And was into making money, of course, but she did a remarkable thing. She said, 'Hon, you have to go to the islands... get out of here for a day. Listen, you park your bag, you won't be charged, and go see what Greece really is all about.'

And I thought, 'Ok, may be a scam, but am interested...' It wasn't expensive. And off we went... To Aegina, it was not so far away, and a school of dolphins followed the boat, it was magical. And Poros, which wasn't so hot, but overrun with cats on the docks wanting fish-heads the fishermen brought in from their catch.

And then we sailed to Hydra. I melted. At the time, I didn't know that Leonard Cohen and some really awesome people were living there. I probably would have recognised him if I'd seen him.... But sailing into that tiny harbour was overwhelming. I slunk off on my own, and started exploring the coast-line, came to a fishing village, and everyone was wonderful.

But I got back, and to my room and there was a lot of shouting in the night. Police raid. I was more or less oblivious. I sleep like the dead, always have.

I had no idea what was going on. Got back home in one piece, although some stuff went down on the way to getting there because I was such a naive idjit.

I've been back once since. Athens got 'clean', and sprawls... it was amazing. We stopped at Hydra, and it is still heart-breakingly beautiful. And the Greeks are pretty cool, if sort of crazy about thinking they invented everything in the world. It's their heritage. And they have a lot to be proud of.

What I didn't know at the time: it was the Time of the Generals, a dictatorship, and there was a lot going on I had no idea of, because I didn't follow news.

Skirting on the edges of potential danger without a clue.

They recovered, but now? Goldman Sachs fucked them half to death. And when I see their ads I'd like to punch their collective faces.

Good grief, hey....

I'm so out of the loop, it's pathetic. Got up and wanted to whip up the energy to finally go visit Peter. So first stop, it being Monday, get something for breakfast next door. (Sundays I vegetate and just try to sleep. Never go out, just check up on things I didn't have time to check during the week.

And I went next door... and they were closed. EVERYTHING was closed, and barely being awake yet, was all 'WTF??? A horriday? What the hell is going on now? We already had Christ's fahrt to heaven, so... June, double horri... OH CRAP. Of course, it's Pentecost, which is a double, the Sunday and Pentecost Monday. Everything closed.'

My synapses in the brain are sluggish in the morning, creepy but true.

Which meant, rev down, take the bus to the train station for some staples for the day, as I had not stocked up on anything, and that's the only place you can get anything, then come home and kick myself for now having been aware.

And it also meant no trip to Gamlitz, because there is no bus connection from Ehrenhausen to Gamlitz, and there is no WAY I'm walking the seven kilometers over hillsides each way to get to the nursing home. It's gonna be thirty degrees C. Verflixt! It's taken me a week to get revved up for that visit.

So will have to bore myself back to sleep and try again tomorrow. Crap!

Happy Healthy 2011

Everyone gets roses. And I am in hibernation.

Well... to continue with looking back on the year(s)

Two people made a sudden entrance into my life when I was about fourteen or so. Moved into 'da block', freshly married, and beautiful.

I fell instantly 'in-love', they were so beautiful. Especially with the wife at first. Tall, elegant, kind, and so very funny.... and from another world, hey, NEW YAWK. She turned heads, and I was so silly... I'd have done cartwheels if only to get a moment's attention. He was my cousin, very tall, austere, and also very nice, and turned out to have an immense amount of patience, because, oh wow, I was 'in-love'. And absolutely pathetic, couldn't hide it, it hit me with the power of a thousand suns.

So I was 'the PEST'. I couldn't get enough of them, I was so infatuated. And was horrible. Growing up in a drab corporation tenement building, well, there wasn't much glamour to be found, and they were it, and I wanted EVERY moment. I was awful.

He was a cousin of mine. And for me, she was 'the goddess'. And she soon had a baby, a girl, and I was there from the start of her life, baby-sitting. He'd been in the military, and the job market was so terrible, he had a very rough time, and eventually re-upped.

Just before 'the girl' was born, they utterly surprised me, and took me to visit New Yawk, which was so unimagineable to me, I thought I had died and gone to Hollywood. And made myself even MORE absurd, because I took a mess of clothes for a two day stretch, and changed three times a day---seemingly to their amusement, because I thought people there did that.

We were at her father's house in Queens. They took me into Manhattan for a day I will NEVER forget. They made everything magical. One thing confused me at first. We took the ferry to Staten Island, got off, and they said, 'This way, we're going back.' And I thought, 'Why come here if there's nothing to see?' And then I learned why. We were half-way across, it had gotten dark, and the entire sky-line lit up.

That was Christmas and New Year's all rolled into one, it was so beautiful, and so very thoughtful. Unforgettable. We ate in Chinatown, they chaperoned me through Times Square, and I just gawked. I'll never forget that, and how kind it was.

We had the usual hum-drum life after. Sometimes they did mad-cap things. 'Let's go to New Yawk for a cuppa corfee.' and before I knew it, we were on the way, six hours down, six back. And we had corfee and a chat.

I took care of their first-borns for the first five years, till they moved away to a village near the coast. I was there for visits a few times. It was beautiful.... but when I watch Desperate Housewives, that road sort of superimposes itself on me, and makes me laugh.

We've remained in contact over many decades. And they visited. Often. So it was my turn, and I tried to return that wonderful gift they gave me. To make up for all the peskiness that was my young self. And give them some joy. And show them some awesome things in my new world. I think I half-succeeded....

What they taught me? She taught me snark, but I was already a bit of that even in young. She also taught me that you can take it only so far. He taught me the value of patience, and following orders. (I refer to the dread clamming incident... he told me to stay put, and I followed where he was going.... and ended up knee-deep in a bog, and it took three people to pull me out. Thinking, 'Oh shit, now I know what quicksand must be like.' Another embarassing adolescent idiocy...)

They weren't perfect, no one ever is. But came damned near to it. Like shooting stars zooming across one's horizon, and me catching the tail and basking in the glow for just a short while. The glow braked the fall, and remained in the heart. Good people.

They help and form you without you knowing they are doing it.

That's more valuable than diamonds, or precious stones, or anything.

So much for looking back on the year. People of influence, hey.

Happy, Merry, Merry, Happy... etc etc

Wishing everyone the best possible Christmas, and family peace, and yummy things to eat...

(am dreaming of a slice of mince-meat pie, and a slice of squash pie... and am death on desserts, but haven't tasted either in years... so it's a strange urge, must be sick....)

Just finished my mails and my head is so under pressure with a cold, I just want to go to sleep.... but not before wishing anyone I missed a Merry Happy. I messed up forgetting time zones, so best wishes to everyone in New Zealand. Am not up to snuff.

Oh, the obligations....

The darkest days of the year, halleluhjah...

Christmas is today, the 24th in Austria. Then we get Christmas day, which is for family, and St. Stephen's on the 26th, which is for friends.

But today.... is inner circle. Quiet. And very much what it is meant to be, I guess...

If you don't have one, it IS very silent. But they go all gooey and nice, and sentimental.

Yesterday I had to get out of Café Purgatory, I needed to think. And there were two teens, and of a sudden, they started looking frantically in front of the bench for something. It went on a while, so I asked, 'Excuse me, did you lose something?' And one of the kids said, 'Yes, the tip of my lip piercing.'

I didn't flinch. I have a nipple one, and if they get out and roll around, difficult to find.

And I said, 'Guys, is the BENCH screwed into the platform?'

'No.'

'Well move it forward, and I'll help you look under it.' And we did , and my eyes are shit in the dark, and I saw something glimmer, but it was Feldspar.

They gave it up, and moved the bench back like good little boys... just as the train came in, and we went on our way, but they were in my car. Got off in Leibnitz, next stop, and said, 'Thank you, and Happy Christmas.' And I smiled, and said, 'To you too', and no, I didn't tell them I have a nipple ring, thenk you...

A real oldie would have had a problem with them. They are young, have wild haircuts, and think a piercing in your lip is something 'good'. But if you pretend you've seen it all before... they are very polite.

My thoughts tonite are with Annti. We're usually both alone on this evening, and she doesn't believe what she can't see, and otherwise had a miserable time. So to my darlin' ... yeah, Happy Merry, blah...

Annti is a font of information. She freaked when I casually mentioned I was going to Afrika at the end of a mail before I did my post, thinking W. was gonna drag me to Ethiopia and help kidnap his son. Now that would be an adventure... except he's dumb as Jello....

Which triggered a memory from early hotel days. A Nigerian who wanted to hire me to sell stoves. In Abuja, but I think that in the 70's it was called Nairobi. Names change, and it gets confusing. He was very odd, it was three in the a.m., he had a beautiful wife, and said I was brilliant, and that he was an alcoholic and a prophet. I hadn't thought of it in decades, actually, but it is probably in my diaries.... I have several, but prefer not to look back.

The firm in question was across the street from the ho-tel, and I 'think' it was normal stoves, but it was an office on the first floor, with only a sign down below, so I really have no idea what they did.

Annti says my life is 'mad-cap'. Yeah, to a certain extent.... Sometimes slap-stick, sometimes dangerous. A chapter I'm still not ready to discuss, the most terrifying six months of my life, and I hope 'that' man is rotting somewhere.

But Annti... on this of all nights... I wish you peace and quiet, and everything, everything good.

I didn't do much today. Peter called four times, and I caught cold so wanted to just rest. I walked over to the market, haven't been in weeks, and Millie had been worried. And the tobacconist, and did my 'Merry Merrys'. It was Schmuddelwetter, everything melting, and resulting fog, and dirt from all the crap they spread when it snowed.

Called my old boss, wished her happy Birthday, and a wonderful Fest.

She's 74 now... and I know she liked me remembering, and calling. She's surrounded by a mess of family, which is good.

Otherwise... I didn't do anything special. Just watched a film on the channel I subscribed to. With Julia Roberts.... woman on the search for what she REALLY wanted. It was too long, but... It was called Eat, Pray, Love. A third of it was filmed in Italy, and it made me cry. Oh my, Florence, where I always wanted to visit, and Rome! where I've been, and Naples. It had to do with food, and oh, gawwd, the food! It was about a spiritual journey, but it was the Italian part that got to me.

This night.... always makes me sad, and remember. I'd forgotten how MUCH I love Italy, and the culture there. That was fairly heady. I'd been there before Peter and I connected, and fell head over heels. And when we did... I dragged him down there, and he was as thrilled as I was.

Just marching into one of the stellar restaurants in Venice, and being greeted as preferred customers. (They can be snobby...) And chatting, and getting a haircut and an Italian lesson from Franco, and travelling all over the inner bay to the other islands, even the cemetery, which was amazing... or renting part of a palazzo, and running for the ferry boat after putting water on to boil and getting living crabs at the fish market, well yeah, it made me 'homesick'. Shouldn't have watched it.

It was mad-cap, all right.

I long for the old Venice, when it wasn't overrun with tourists and dead pigeons on St. Mark's Square. I long for a lot of things.

So this night.... it is so quiet, I take stock of things, and end up sad.

Peter is being horrible again, calling. Every time I go down there, he gets hyper.

Whatever, Merry, Happy, count your blessings, ruminate on what was, and hope for better times.

I AM GOING to AFRIKA tomorrow! Well, who would have THUNK it???

I was so unsuspecting. Mostly because I took an afternoon nap after being up from three a.m. and watching Soaps, and the news from yesterday, the highlight of which was seeing Rachel Maddow doing her show live for the second day this week, and oh boy, doing it in front of nine hundred people at the YMCA on 92nd street was stupendous to watch... Otherwise, it was depressing.

And the SOAPS, hey, it's Christmas, they should be over-whelming with good cheer, and blather, and people sucking up to one another, but NO, it was cancer, and murder charges, and deeply dark Dickensian shit, and the trees were more European, white lights, and everything color coordinated on the trees, like some of my nightmares. So I retired.

Then the phone rang. Peter. 'I'm in Afrika, can you come and visit?' (Funny, last time I heard, he was in Gamlitz and I was supposed to go to the Xmas party there tomorrow.)

'Really? Where in Afrika ARE you?'

'I don't know, but you have to get a ticket to come see me, and take the most expensive one. I'll pay for it.'

(ooooo, he lurvs me...)

'Are there Gazelles, and crocodiles there?'

'I don't know yet. Just get on a plane and come see me.'

'Good, I'll try to pin-point you on the internet, and parachute in, ok?'

(Never wake me out of a deep sleep, I snark.)

'NOOO, you land in the MACHINE!'

'Well how can I find you if I don't know where you ARE????'

'I'll figure it out.'

'Are you SURE there aren't any gazelles and crocodiles?'

'No, haven't seen any yet...'

'Well, I'll see you tomorrow, ok? I will find you.'

'Good.'

My supposition: the rooms have flat-screen tee-vee, he loves watching documentaries, and probably saw some nature thing, fell asleep.... and thought he was in Afrika.

Sigh... it upsets me greatly on the one hand. On the other, I had to laugh, although it wasn't a laughing matter, but do have a sense of the absurd and what is scurrile...

Tja, happy horridays.

Oh great.... yet another heart trauma....

Can someone please TELL me what I did to deserve all this?

Peter is back in the home... because.... it's gonna be the bloody horridays, and they don't keep patients in the horsepital during them. Maybe because Baby Jeebus is running around, or something.

His breathing is laboured again.... sounds like water on the lungs... and he's not supposed to get excited. You could just as well tell water not to run downhill. And happy horridays.

hmmm....

Planning to attend the Christmas party at Peter's place on Thursday, and thought he had had his phone cut off again, as he hadn't called yesterday, or by afternoon today. So I called, and whaddaya know... He's in hospital in horrific Wagna, but they don't know if it is stationary, or just a check-up. And will call me when they know.

And this after watching the Ven's Soap, where they provide horriday cheer by diagnosing a child with eye cancer and will have to remove it.

Isn't ANYBODY in the horriday mood? Herrgottnochmal...

Merry, Happy.... ya think?

How can that be America? It might be the best thing and in the real spirit of the season to act on the call for help below.

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I hate being indoors

Because memories come back.

Ok.... another fractured fairy tale....

Once upon a time, there was a handsome and intelligent young boy.

Aaand... he was morally sorta 'iffy'... but had a very interesting life in another country.

He travelled in theater circles. Met people... jaw dropper for anyone else, believe me, assisted them, and was charming.

But this is more about what he wanted for his friend. Whom he loved.

Love.... is so complicated at times. I'm not gonna make it 'pretty', or disneyfy it... It was very nice. And the boy wanted his friend to rise and shine in spheres the boy had never dreamed of. He had someone in the higher echelons of government, and the boy should have been picked to fill a position he was over-qualified for, just to get a toe hold.

But it didn't happen, because the wrong party won an election, and it went down the drain.

And THEN, a former friend was due to take over a part of the capitol's theaters, and wanted him to be his assistant, and me to be HIS assistant. And his friend said, 'WHAA?' And went to the bookstores to get text-books, in order to even KNOW what THAT was about....

So it was a commitment of sorts.

And then... the man due to take over had a heart attack and died.

And that man was iconic in the theater world.

Things happened that were heart-breaking, in other words. Stuff HAPPENS, you know???

I was just remembering a funny story this evening. All the theather stories. The child and the friend would trade them, and make one another laugh heartily. I should have told that one when I was on a visit the other day. Oh, they know about the Ginger Rogers/Marika Rökk fight during WWII. And all the other stellar people the child met.




But the boy was involved with a production in Vienna, and Marika Rökk was the star. And she was more Hungarian with the accent than Eva Gabor. And everyone KNEW she did yoga before going out to perform, in her dressing room. And there was an understudy, who had NO idea... And the rest of the team thought it would be good for her to go in and wish her luck... so she opened the door. The diva was doing a headstand behind it, and she knocked her over, and one of the best cat-fights in history ensued.

Horrible story, in essence, but so funny in the telling....

I should have told that. Everyone knows her here.

I guess I'm thinking.-... life has many cross-roads, and you choose, and sometimes wonder 'What woud have happened IF...'

Gawd, I hate the horridays.

The War on Christmas is escalating???!!!!!

Funny...

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Ok, now that I calmed down.. it's Nicolo!

Yeah, I sort of forgot... But Peter called me all agitated this afternoon... Nicolo and the Krapusse came to the home today. I should have been there. He was happily eating Christmas cookies, and the Krampus scared him. I'd have loved to take photos of the Krampusses getting into their gear. And the costumes... and the people behind the masks. But I just got sort of 'down', and it is cold and messy weather, and so on. And am not exactly 'Happy' at the moment. So I just went out for cigarettes, and something to eat for the evening.... and the weirdest Nicolo was next door in front of the photo shop. He was sort of creepy. But I wasn't surprised....

The owner, a lady, seems to like Aktfotos.
Naked or sort of half naked. And they are in her show windows. She is a tall, wild-maned, brunette, very attractive, sleek, and has a nice manner. I always get my passport and document fotos there. Like, it's next door, and not really expensive, but I like her.

I could imagine her being a femme fatale in a Soap, really. And she's put herself out there, nekkid but tasteful.. Walk by every day. Man, she has the most awesome nipples I've ever seen, and I will have to shut down now before my blog gets to the restricted adult section.

I don't know WHY she does that... but she is very good. Has the eye, and should be photographing for Playboy.

So you see? It's sort of 'fun'. Peter called yet again just right now.... The Krampus visited him... but he got a bag of goodies.... they go easy on the 'old-uns'. I mentioned the photograph lady, he knows her, 'she's odd, but very nice'....

Someone is going on a sugar high....

What can you do. Have a happy Nicolo, hope you find a nice thing to make you smile, and make you feel all warm inside.