h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, it's been a week - here are some things I have noticed, in no particular order...

zipping around on fully functional public transport is fun, and makes a city of 1.7 million seem a lot smaller than, say, Belfast.

the same does not apply for anything outside the city. I will need a car to get out to see the horse.

people bring wine to the office to share sometimes. This is considered normal.

so, unfortunately, is smoking in pubs and restaurants. Yuck!

there seems to be a requirement for any middle-aged man that starts going grey to adopt a uniform of jeans, blazer, and three days' worth of stubble.

women here wear a lot less makeup than in NI, on average. And more sensible shoes.

jogging in the palace gardens is not unusual.

which might explain why they're a lot slimmer on average than Belfasters, despite a bakery on every street corner.

Can we have a hootoo meet there? I've never been to Vienna, but I fell in love with it watching "Kottan ermittelt" in the 80s and have always thought that if I ever went, I'd never want to come back. I must be the only person in Germany who is seduced by the "Wiener Schmäh" and who could resist a piece of Sachertorte?

Is smoking really still allowed in cafes and restaurants in Austria? - I've just understood your use of the smiley.

Whoops - that came over wrong. The "who could resist a piece of Sachertorte" was a separate statement. I am definitely not the only person in Germany who could resist it. I'd be quite defenceless.

(my entirely opposite response to the seeming ability to smoke in bars and suchlike, there... ) MMM.... cake?

I found it odd enough, here, in the UK, in my last job, with one of the coders I worked with, who'd pop off at lunchtime, and return with beer for us to drink whilst we worked in the afternoon just seems somhow so wrong He was from Spain, so I don't know if its more of a thing on the 'mainland', and he just b brought the cultural drinking at work thing over with him

Me and my buddy at w*rk had our first around 10am even if it wasn't allowed to drink alcohol before 12. (Mind you we got up every morning at 5am so 5 hours without was more than enough! )

Our boss let us know - via one of his tools - that we ought to obey the rules of the w*rk place. But this tool had a bad habit of smoking in her office, which was even less allowed so we chose to ignore them. After all senior policy outranks alcohol policy, right?

A few weeks later we fired the boss. Just to be on the safe side. Problem solved

Anyway, where was I Vienna, right! A meet in Vienna would be great, wouldn't it?

Hope you find a nice place to live soon, Mala

I often get a message (often in the morning) via our instant messaging system, to come over to the other side of our office where I find my partners in crime opening a bottle of sekt

Naughty!

but, knowing me, not unexpected I think

(today it's black coffee because we were all out Karaokeing until the wee hours)

Back to Vienna: if their public transport is so good I'm SURE they have the BEST seat covers

No indeed. Neither the naughtiness nor the seat cover obsession were unexpected

No, the seats are all a plain, solid colour!

I'm glad you're enjoying it more than you enjoyed Belfast.

You've sold me Vienna already

We have ample cake in the office (I brought home leftovers this week) but wine??

I'd still appreciate a photo if you get the chance - it's not all about how awful they look

What pray tell is an "ample cake"

Link, please!

you do not exactly need a recipe for that one http://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ample+definition




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Actually it's often or pastries but I'm not fussy

Which reminds me, add some to my , after my morning meds.

re 16:

Florida Sailor!

All i found was this:
https://www.google.dk/search?q=ample+cake&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:da:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gws_rd=cr&ei=rXoLVMOEK8XOygOKooGYCQ

I am glad I could help. We have so many words in the English language that it is difficult to know even most of the common ones, I certainly do not know them all, even as a native speaker.

Let me add that your knowledge is excellent

I remember many years ago, long before the interweb I had a draughtsman working for me who got confused by a reference to the metal 'lead', he only knew that it meant to have people following you. To help explain I pulled down mt 50,000 word abridged dictionary to show him the various definitions.

'So many words', he sighed, 'you don't need that many'.

I did not dare to tell him what 'abridged' meant

I can converse in the Spanish of a two year old child, I like to explain that I speak a small amount of Spanish, but I understand very little because I know what words I understand, and nobody else does



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