Weeks 8 & 9... Peaks and troughs

You may be pleased to know that I have decided to refrain to subjecting you to this nonsense on a weekly basis, especially when I don't have a lot of news to share. The last couple of weeks has been all peaks and troughs...with the peaks during the weekends, appropriately and thankfully. That's not to say that the Monday to Friday parts have been bad, just nothing of particular excitement to report on.

Negotiations on the new apartment continued including being vetted by the owner of the building...! Most housing transactions here are through agents, but it seems that if the building is owned by an person or family they do like to check out who's going to be sharing their home. This is of course very reasonable, but does feel a bit weird... I put a shirt on! We passed muster and so pressed the button on moving our furniture to Austria and commenced the various legal bits and bobs. As a result, for the last couple of weeks I've been in Vienna but my head has been at Mereghyll, working through photos and trying to remember what we want to ship and what we don't and figuring out what will and won't fit in the new place. With some magnificent help from friends and family back home things are progressing well.

Looking at photos, and taking "virtual" tours around Mereghyll and zooming with the future tenants (who popped up for half term) has reminded us what a fab place it is. As Anna has pointed out a couple of times, we didn't do this because we don't like where we were living, which of course couldn't be further from the truth. So it's good to know the place is in safe hands of Rachel and Damon, who we know will take care of it; indeed, probably better than we manage! 😆

Interlude: As someone without a fixed timetable, I found time to listen to the whole of Dominic Cummings's interview with the combined select committees...! I would point out that I listened in chunks over a number of days, whilst doing a variety of manual tasks that I would have been doing anyway - cleaning, cooking etc. Doing it in one sitting would be a little too much. He reminded me of a few people I've worked with: bright, passionate, confident and cursed with a total blind spot when it comes to how to work with other people. Different people, need different things and if you really want to effect change you need to stop, think and plan your approach, tailored to each one of the variety of individuals you'll need to work with to bring about change. Not just rant. I don't know the guy and maybe he does do these things, I'll never know, which is fine. It was compelling stuff.

And so to the peaks...in two senses. The weather got better, the COVID restrictions eased a little and thanks to our new chums in the Vienna International Centre Hiking Club we've finally been to the mountains! It was great. Two weeks ago, the threat of lots of rain and thunder and lightning meant a change of planned walk away from the mountains. Of course, for Anna and me this makes no difference because it's all new. A walk in the furthest reaches of the Vienna hills above Baden and meeting some new people made for a great day out.

And then last weekend we joined the club for a fantastic walk across the Kuhschneeburg (Cow snow castle). It was one of those walks where you get all the ascent out of the way at the beginning. Just shy of 1000m up a steep slope, reminiscent of our trekking in Peru, followed by a gentle descent through forest and alpine meadows...to a bar! Great views, great company, 2000m peaks, stunning beetles, flowers and trees and the promise of many an adventure in the future. And all this, a simple day trip out on the train. This is what we came for! Can't wait to share it with friends and family, hopefully in the not too distant future.

The dots:

• I followed a lady cycling in a tutu whilst carrying a pug in a special small-medium size dog-carrying ruck-sack. It (the dog) was on its back, completely sparko with its little legs poking out of specially designed holes. Hilarious!

• Anna's name is more prominent in Austria than in the UK - we've seen streets, a hospital, a pilates studio and a schnitzel restaurant all called Anna! 😁

• I cycled to the end of the Danube Island! And I've been to TK Maxx and IKEA...!

• I've started to think about what I might do with myself whilst I'm here... more on that at a later date though.

• We found a fab place for a picnic... please do join us sometime

• COVID jab number 2 tomorrow!