a dark and wet day in wien

today has definitely been one of those days to stay indoors. i took these photos from our lounge window at lunchtime and cars had their headlights on already! i had to go out to the supermarket to buy food for dinner and now the bottoms of my jeans are all soggy. ewww. but i'm now snuggled up on the sofa with a blanket and a glass of red wine (well, it is after 4pm?). lovely. happy weekend!

interpol at the gasometer

kev and i finally went to our first gig in vienna last night. interpol played at the gasometer and they were AWESOME. we've seen interpol a couple of times before (both times in london) so it was great to see them in a different country and venue. their sound is always amazing and i could just listen to the lead singers voice for hours.

hot dog anyone?!

i tried to take some pictures of them onstage but we have a new camera which i don't know how to work (i need to read the instruction manual and find out what all the settings are!) and i couldn't actually see the stage (i'm too short) so i just had to wave the camera above my head and hope for the best.

i was happy looking at the pretty lights and listening to the music until about 50 minutes into the set when some huge tall guy decides to come and barge into my personal space. so then my only view was this....

errr?!! rather annoying.... but great night! (poor kev had to get up at 4.30am this morning to fly back to zagreb for a meeting. he's gonna be dead!).

interview experience...

on sunday i went to café espresso again. only this time i wasn't alone! i met up with the super awesome '29' for some drinks. yay. she rocks. (i took this picture from inside the café. i like the reflection of the light on the glass).

i kinda didn't tell anyone but a few weeks ago i went for a job interview. i won't tell you about the job or organisation itself but i was PETRIFIED. i've only ever had 2 interviews in my life (before this one) and therefore my interview skills are pretty nonexistent. i also get ridiculously nervous about these kinds of things. anyway, i had to do a 90 minute TEST. yep. and then attend the interview afterwards. i really couldn't tell how the interview went but one of the interviewers asked me 'are you intending on having children?'. now i see where he's coming from... i'm female, aged 32, currently childless...  but i'm pretty sure you're not meant to ask that kind of thing?! it pretty much sums this place up really.

oh and needless to say... i haven't heard anything from them.

friday night curry

i've been craving a great indian meal for ages (especially when i read my friends post here) so when kev and i decided to go out for dinner on friday we thought it could only be one thing... CURRY!

as you would expect i see so many traditional austrian restaurants in vienna and there are tons of italians/pizzerias and also quite a few asian restaurants (although i find it bizarre that they mostly offer japanese, thai and chinese food all in the same restaurant??!) but i've really not noticed many indian restaurants. i did however pass one (zum moghulhof on burggasse) during my wandering on thursday so we decided to go there without looking up any reviews beforehand.

mmmmm.... cobra beer!

now i'm not going to lie, the food wasn't quite up to what i would expect from an indian back in the UK, but i did enjoy it and i would return (but try some different dishes).

for starter i ordered some onion rings (yes, onion rings) but they were tasty and came with a lovely side dip (no onion bhaji on the menu). kev had a meat samosa which was also nice but not like samosas that i've eaten before. stupidly i forgot to take pictures (i was too busy enjoying my cobra beer and laughing at kev when he tried one of the chutneys/pickles and started to cry because it was so hot!).

for main i chose a lamb bhuna which didn't taste like a bhuna i know but again i did like it. kev had another lamb dish which unfortunately we can't remember the name of (a dish we hadn't heard of before) but i think it tasted better than my bhuna. and we ordered a garlic naan but they forgot it!

all in all i did enjoy the meal... the restaurant had a nice atmosphere... the staff were friendly... the service was pretty good (apart from them forgetting our naan but still trying to charge us for it!) but mostly it was just great to taste some indian flavours. oh, and the cobra beer was AWESOME!

still craving a chicken dansak though.... !

espresso café

when i was tired of walking yesterday i stopped and drank a couple of beers in a café called espresso on burggasse (in the 7th district).

i really like this café. it might not be everyones cup of tea but its just the sort of place i like and i love the retro furniture and relaxed feel to the place. i felt very happy sitting with a beer reading my book watching people coming and going.
the little patio out the front is looking a bit sorry for itself now with all the furniture stacked away but its really lovely in the summer months when the sun is shining.

p.s. i'm currently reading cat's cradle by kurt vonnegut. really liking it so far.

wandering in neubau

i needed to get out of the apartment again yesterday. but as soon as i'd got on the U-bahn heading towards the volkstheater stop (with the intention of walking around 7th district and spittelberg) i wished i'd stayed at home. my legs suddenly became heavy and the thought of wandering the streets aimlessly alone didn't exactly fill me with excitement. BUT it did me good and i did really enjoy myself. i do love the neubau district.

just a few snaps i took whilst walking around. i passed lots of great and interesting looking shops but i didn't go in any. some of them looked rather expensive! i did end up having a liquid lunch though. that was good!

they are currently setting up all the huts/stalls for the spittelberg christmas markets. i can't wait for them to start. lots of glühwein (mulled wine) sold in the streets. yum!

head spinning

you may remember back here (click on the link) i took a couple of pictures of some random dummies in a closed shop window on landstraße hauptstraße. i was passing the same shop yesterday and noticed that they have now cleared out the pool table and all the dummies but in its place is this....

and it spins around!!!

frida kahlo

wow. what a lady. today i finally went to see the frida kahlo exhibition which is currently being held in vienna at the kunstforum until 5 december 2010.

i seriously urge anyone in vienna who is remotely interested in art to go and see it! it is simply amazing. some of her self portraits are incredible. i love the way she dressed, the flowers in her hair, the thought processes behind her paintings. i felt really inspired. as part of the exhibition there are also some amazing photographs of frida. its the best €10 i've spent in ages!

for those of you who know nothing about her she was born in mexico in 1907 and died in 1954 aged only 47. in 1925 she was in a horrific bus crash which left her in pain and with health problems for the rest of her life. i'll let wiki tell you the rest!

saturday night dinner

on saturday we had a very lazy day. just going to the supermarket knackered me out! (energy levels not quite there yet). as we were spending the evening at home we decided to try a new recipe for dinner....

i think i've said before how much i love jamie oliver and his cook books. this time we tried pollo alla cacciatoria (hunter's chicken stew) from his book jamie's italy. i know i say everything is delicious but this was really DELICIOUS!!!

if you love chicken, red wine, rosemary and stews then you'll love it. such simple ingredients but such amazing flavour. it filled the apartment with the most wonderful aroma whilst it was in the oven. kev hates olives but we cooked the dish with them in and then just picked them out for him. he still loved it even though olives had been cooked in the sauce. and we added white beans into the pot about 15 minutes before dishing up (couldn't find cannellini beans). it was a recipe for 4 but we ended up eating most of it ourselves. oohps! (i hadn't eaten all week though. thats my excuse!).

back to the land of the living

a random picture of my over the knee socks. only problem is my legs are too chunky (fat knee syndrome) so they often start cutting off the circulation. i'm never gonna rock the 'over the knee' sock look... but at least i can wear them in the comfort of my own home.

anyway, phewy. i'm now over the worst of the dreaded flu. i'm up and dressed today. i'm not quite feeling up to venturing outside but i've made it out of bed and onto the sofa! at least one good thing has come out of being ill. i've lost weight! over the past 2 or 3 months i've put on over half a stone but when i weighed myself this morning i've lost 5lb. woo! (who needs a diet? just get flu).

i'm just tucking into some heinz tomato soup with a few slices of stale bread. mmm. i checked for mould but it looked alright. you just have to dunk lots.

happy friday and happy weekend! (and happy bonfire night to everyone back in the UK. light a sparkler for meeeeee!)

p.s. it was my nan's birthday yesterday. happy birthday nan. love you! xx