such a perfect day

schifoan!!! schifoan!!! schifoan!!!

We finally managed to reserve an appartement for next week to go skiing. It wasn't as easy as I thought (note to self - do it earlier next year!!!) as the whole Gastein area is more or less booked out. The good news is however, that we managed to get the last appartement in Zell am See. I remember having been to Zell am See with P&G in my first year shortly after I joined in Austria for a company ski weekend. We went to some local pub with life music and lots of drinks (we had to wait for the German HR manager to go home at around midnight though ...) and it was simply fantastic. I think that was more or less the year of "Anton aus Tirol" and even though Zell am See is not in Tirol, but in Salzburg - it simply didn't matter when the whole pub went crazy singing that beautiful unofficial Apres-Ski-hymn.

I am now officially starting the countdown for my vacation - I hope it will start tomorrow afternoon.

ps: this just in - I have to attend a phone conference tomorrow afternoon from 3 to 4. Life sucks. But only tomorrow...

up where we belong

Just came home from doing some more x-mas shopping at the Cribbs Mall in Bristol. I enjoy taking taxis around here. The drivers always have interesting stories to tell. Last week I met a driver who actually competes in hot air baloon races all around the world. My driver today used to manage the Kelly Family a couple of years ago in the UK. Now he is a taxi driver but at the same time is a promoter for a new upcoming artist (he wouldn't tell me which one - he said he doesn't want to ruin it).

Shopping was great. Managed to buy some proper presents this time and even though I entered both DVD stores (HMV and zavvi) I didn't buy a single DVD. Of which I am really proud of. Like, totally.

I also managed to call Lufthansa today to check how I am going to fly home with my snowboard. Basically it works like this: if I manage to pack only 20 kilos, there is no extra cost for an extra snowboard. If with the snowboard the total weight is more than 20 kilos, I pay 35 Euros per trip and I can transport up to 35 kilos in total. But only if pre-registered via the hotline. Which I did.

Bad Gastein has currently 150 cm snow on the slopes, 80 in the city. Now all I need is accomodation :-)

the beginning is the end is the beginning

Wooooosh, Kawooooom, Satushhhh. Tschingggg!
This is my 500th post on my blog. Yeeeepeeeeeeeee!!!!

Ok, enough excitement. I am sitting in my living room in Frankfurt, the fireplace is making the usual fantastic sounds behind me and my back is being warmed as I write these lines - and yes, I am also sitting on the banana :-)

I am also watching Harry and Sally which is one of my favourite films (together with the other five thousand movies I like) and so I thought it’s time for an update.

This is my last evening in Frankfurt before going to the UK tomorrow and coming back Friday noon just to pack my stuff and fly to Vienna on Friday evening. Am very much looking forward to the holiday period this year to be honest as the last couple of weeks were spent with travelling from Frankfurt to Bristol and back and I am gladly going home to just do the usual nothing around Christmas. After a couple of days I will get bored doing nothing and so I hope to go to the mountains for some casual snowboarding and then I hope to go to Italy for New Years Eve.

It is too early to have any New Year resolutions or end-of-year looking-back statements so I will save those for later. For now only so much – I am very happy at the moment and very much looking forward to what is still to come.