my weekend

amazing guinea fowl at steirereck
some roses from rochusmarkt
our bath filled with ice and beer!
party balloons

kev took me to steirereck on friday as an early birthday treat, and it really was a treat! i am so happy we got to try out the restaurant before we leave vienna. it was a fantastic evening.

we then hosted a mini party on saturday night as a combined birthday and farewell bash. it was a lot of fun, but due to us being rather too noisy i had my first encounter with the austrian police. oohps! (maybe a good thing we are leaving?!).

sunday was a mega olympic watching fest! tennis, gymnastics, running. i love it all.

snapshots from the weekend

my head is all mushy today and things seem to be going wrong. our kitchen sink has a leak, our tv is almost kaputt, and our macbook is sick (which is making me really panic!). it is barely working and i'm struggling to get this posted as the spinning colour wheel is making an appearance every 10 seconds (or as we prefer to call it, the spinney wheel of death!).

this past weekend we had fun but not much photo taking unfortunately. we went to ikea, had a mini spring clean at home whilst listening to bbc radio 6music, watched football and snooker on tv (does watching snooker make me old?), enjoyed sunday afternoon beers with friends, and cooked lots (including asparagus and mushrooms on toast with butter and worcestershire sauce. really good!). oh, and we also watched the hitchcock film vertigo for the first time. we are trying to watch more old movies.

lazy weekend

this weekend mainly revolved around cooking, eating and watching tv. so a pretty typical uneventful weekend for me really. oh, but i did manage to have a mini clear out of my wardrobe (it badly needed it) and do some ironing which had been piled up since we returned from our holiday over 6 weeks ago (there is still some left to do. ironing sucks).

our only venture outside of the apartment was to the supermarket and to a small local market that has recently started up called fasanmarkt. it is here that we bought the amazing cheese and pumpkin topped rolls. i might have to make a weekly visit there on saturday mornings just for those.

weekend at home

some rainbow tulips from the supermarket to brighten up the place.

we've been listening to the new the twilight sad album called 'no one can ever know'. it's brilliant. the band are playing in vienna in a few weeks and i'm really excited to see them.

a section from a painting by mixed media artist ben allen called 'built to love'. kev bought the print for me as an amazing birthday gift a few years ago. amazing is such a great word.

i'm currently reading the fountainhead by ayn rand and loving it. i wasn't sure before i started as people had told me such mixed things about the book. but it has totally drawn me in and i'm engrossed. good thing really as it's over 700 pages long! i love the cover image by tamara de lempicka.

we killed another plant. it's looking rather sorry for itself.

my weekend

well, another weekend that went by in a flash. and i totally forgot to take photos.

what you can see is a view of part of the hofburg palace (taken whilst walking through the city), some takeaway sushi (lunch on saturday), sleet (we got caught in it late on saturday afternoon) and my first attempt at making a victoria sponge (my baking skills are bad. i definitely need lots more practice). i also attempted to make chocolate brownies but they were a complete disaster!

what the photos don't show are a lovely evening i spent drinking prosecco and catching up with mimie on friday, shopping in the city and a couple of beers on saturday in our local cafe/bar, and the tasty cheese scones kev made for afternoon tea on sunday when we got to hang out with dorte, bjarni and the very cute silja.

a run tonight was very much needed to work off all the cake consumed!

my weekend

wow. it got a lot colder at the weekend. i had to drag kev for a walk just to get out of the apartment on saturday. the weekend went by so fast. i'm not really sure what we did the rest of the time?

i did eventually try out the polaroid camera and discovered that it has something wrong with it. as you can see, they came out with random brown blobs on them. but i stuck the photos to the wall anyway as i like the abstract blurry quality of them.

oh and i cooked jerk chicken on friday and saturday night. see, told you. addicted.

my (long) weekend

so, friday was epiphany meaning it was a public holiday here in austria. bonus! the extra day was kinda handy as i was still feeling a little under the weather and kev had caught the dreaded lurgy from me.

the weekend was spent mostly at home resting, but i did manage to get out to the cinema to see jane eyre (totally brilliant adaptation). i cried (lots!) which was rather embarrassing at the end when they switched the lights back on. i also ventured out on sunday for afternoon tea at a friends place. delicious home baked cakes and earl grey tea helped to revive me!

i received two new cookery books for christmas and this weekend we tried piri piri chicken from jamie's 30 minute meals and beef tagine from jamie does.... i loved both. really great recipes.

oh, and i bought some new sparkly shoes in the sales!

hello 2012

i've been ill at home in bed for the past few days. really not the greatest way to start off the new year, but it has given me the opportunity to look back through my blog at what has happened over the past year. it reminded me of what wonderful times we've had in vienna, amazing meals, great times with friends, visiting new places. i hope that we can do lots more of that in 2012. there are so many more restaurants to visit! and cafes, museums, art exhibitions, shops..... i really want to keep exploring this city.

when back in england over the holidays i started to get a little homesick. it surprises me sometimes how much i crave and miss familiarity. but i need to keep focused on the new and what the future holds rather than looking back.

i considered the goals i made last year at the start of 2011 and they haven't really changed. i still want to lose a few pounds, read lots of books, take lots of photographs, cook new recipes and learn german. but i think my main goal for this year is to get into shape! (its going to be tough!) that, and start thinking more about the things i do have here rather than the things i don't. also to stop giving myself such a hard time that my level of german is still completely basic (and really rather rubbish). i need to get over my lack of confidence with it. i'm really not sure how to do that.

fairy cakes

i've been terrible at blogging lately. i just don't know where the time has gone to. i haven't been taking many photographs either. just no time, and daily life getting in the way.

we had a little pre-birthday celebration for our friend on sunday and i baked little fairy cakes with buttercream icing! they were rather rustic looking but i kinda preferred them that way.

national day

yesterday was a public holiday here in austria for 'national day'. it was a gloomy, wet and grey day and so we chose to spend it cosy at home. it was so lovely to relax, take a long bath, read and catch up on some tv watching.

it was also the start of our holiday as we are off to berlin today! YAY! i am so excited and cannot wait to explore a new city.

the photos are of flowers that our lovely friends jenny and thomas bought for us and some books that i bought way back with some birthday vouchers. they are from the virago modern classics series. i love the design of the covers (i already own excellent women by barbara pym which i LOVED). i need a new book to take to berlin with me (as i finished on the road by jack kerouac yesterday). i think i'll start with my cousin rachel! (rebecca by daphne du maurier is one of my favourite ever books).

ill at home

noodle soup from a packet and herbal tea. i'm hoping this combination will make me feel well again.

how should one eat noodle soup without getting it all over them?! (tip: don't wear a white dressing gown).