Another busy day, another short blog post. Back to the Twitter feed:
Would you rather be wealthy and ugly, wise and sickly, or beautiful and stupid?
Is this for real? Seriously? There are people in the world who would choose to be stupid? Or sickly??!! (Take it from someone who was in constant pain for 8 months, nothing, oh nothing, is worth sickly.)
I quickly searched the net and there were listing for other answers, but I realized if I have time to read those posts, I have time to write about something better than this drivel that I’m currently writing about. So I’ll just say I go for choice #1, spend all (O.K. most of) my money on worthy causes, and hope that I at least would be sexy ugly.
The administrator of NaBloPoMo encourages “wordless weekends” to help ease the burden of posting daily. So in that vein (O.K. so not totally wordless) here is my post of artwork by Annie.
The first 2 shots are during an annual event called Long Night at the Museum, where about 50 local museums are open from 7:00 p.m. to about 2:00 a.m. Entry is free and there are lots of children’s activities. Our favourite was outside the main Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, where they allowed children to paint large canvasses and then displayed them.
Annie's final creation
The rest of the images are Annie photographic originals, either taken with her toy camera or with my not-so-toy camera.
(I had to look it up to make sure I was spelling “Best-laid” properly. It looks weird.)
There are lots of advantages to being self-employed. Both Markus and I have worked as employees and as our own bosses. Markus, in particular, seems to be much happier when he isn’t answering to someone else, whereas I can see the advantages of a contained job description that comes from working for someone else’s company. (Because when you work for yourself in a small business, your job is “everything that needs to be done at all times”.)
Markus has been working 6 days a week, almost every week, for the past 3 months. Today he had structured the work schedule to have tonight off. His friend from Canada, Mara, and her son, Julian, are here for one night on a stop-over during a European trip. We invited some local friends over to have dinner with us as well. So you can see where this is going……..
Due to a problem with staff, Markus had to jump in and work tonight. We canceled the Innsbruck friends, I’m picking up Mara and Julian at the train station and then we are going to go to visit with Markus at the cafe. I’m sure it will still be nice, just different than planned.
I’ve always been someone who is good at embracing change on the big scale, but have difficulty being flexible on the fly. (Unless plans are completely canceled and I get to stay home and do my own thing; I’m almost always up for that.) I guess life never fails to give us the opportunity to learn the things we need to learn. Sigh.
Yesterday was the first session of a writers group here in Innsbruck for native English speakers. It was really interesting!
One of the members who is friends with the teacher offered her home, blood-orange tea and a big pot of soup. It was a comfortable, warm environment perfect for getting creative.
Linda, the teacher, is a retired professor from the American Studies program at the University of Innsbruck. She believes that writing is about accessing deep within yourself to discover interesting and charged energy. Totally non-linear, so right up my alley of course. We started with a relaxation exercise and then memory recollection. She took us through exercises to draw out works and emotions, and then made us do “free” writing where you set a time limit and are not allowed to stop writing. No editing, reading what you wrote, picking up your pen, lifting your head.
It was a frustrating and also weird experience at times, but overall I can see where it is going and think that some good writing can come out of this process. We’ll see over time.We are meeting once a month, and as the group is only going to be about 7 people, there should be lots of great writing, reading of work and discussion.
As well, this Sunday I’m going to see what the local International Choir is all about. Just really pushing my creative boundaries!! Although if I don’t start channeling and seriously focusing some of that energy, my 60+ Christmas cards are never going to get out the door in time for the holidays. Wish me luck.
O.K., this is going to be what I imagine is not the last of the lame posts this NaBloPoMo. A creative writing professor at the University is holding a series of classes for native English speakers. I just found out yesterday that it was tonight, and the day was already quite booked.
So, I’m running out the door with a pen and notebook in hand, hoping to learn something and be motivated to write more. And meet more English speakers. (I’m feeling very defeated by German lately and not particularly encouraged to widen my circle of locals.)
Hopefully tomorrow will be something more interesting. But hey, day four and still going.
I’ve had a blog post request. For bread. Good friends Ryan and Renate will be making it three years in a row by celebrating New Year’s in Innsbruck with us again this December 31st. It is so special for Markus and I. (And Annie has fun with them too, of course.)
Ryan and Renata work very, very hard, living in Victoria and flying to Winnipeg to work on a contract every week. Every week! One of the upsides to this, though, is airmiles. So they travel. And this year they are off to Kenya with stops in Switzerland and then Innsbruck. (Markus and I are hoping to join them in Montreux if we can work it out with the cafe and Annie.)
When Ryan read that I was posting every day, he must have been thinking about his upcoming visit because his request was for a post about bread. Because really, the bread here is something to look forward to. It is fantastic. And it is everywhere. I’ve found good bread in Victoria and Winnipeg and London (Wildfire, Tall Grass Prairie and the Portuguese Bakery respectively), but you have to look for it and sometimes go out of your way for it. Bread here is very important and very available. There are bakeries every few blocks. (They are like 7-Elevens in Winnipeg.) Even in the airport they have mini-ovens so that the bread can come out fresh for the tired travelers. It matters here. (I’ve never heard an Austrian talk about a low-carb diet.) This isn’t true everywhere in Europe either. Italy, home of fantastic food, serves mostly white bread. Tasty, but white.
When Ryan and Renata come, they slip out to the bakery every morning and pick up a warm loaf. One of Ryan’s favourites is a sunflower bread called Sonnenkraftbrot (sun-strength bread). It has a chewy crust and a soft but dense center.
Sonnenkraftbrot
We’ve also tried, and like, potato bread, walnut bread and even the Bauernbrot (farmer’s bread) is great with cheese and cold cuts.
Although I’ve branched out more lately, the first year I was here I was addicted to Wurzelbrot (“root bread” because of the shape), which I guess technically is a white bread but tastes so lovely. And it even tastes great toasted the next day, as bakery-fresh bread here does not stay fresh very long. No preservatives.
Wurzelbrot
Often times Austrians (including this little family) will have a simple dinner of good bread, cheese, and cold cuts. Delicious.
So we are looking forward to your visit Ryan and Renata. Your bread awaits.
Instead I saw this: “What is more important: peace or freedom?” This is a question that nations have been founded on and millions of words have been written discussing this topic. It is also a topic that I consider much more American than Canadian for some reason.
So what can I say about it in a short blog post? Well, that I am deeply, vastly grateful, that I have never been in a position in my life where I have had to chose, to give up one for the other. Because as left wing and peace-loving as I am, if I had to live in a world where I wasn’t basically free to wear or say or write what I wanted, I wouldn’t value my life very much anymore. For me, just being alive isn’t enough.
Of course, there isn’t such a thing as total freedom, and more than of course, even if I say or do or wear what I want, it isn’t consequence free. But I get to examine those consequences before I take action and mostly decide for myself if I can live with them. I’ve met and studied with people who have lost literally everything because they weren’t so lucky to be born in a country that values freedom. So I feel closer to this subject than I did a few years ago.
And still I have no idea what I would do if I was faced with the direct choice of peace or freedom. Could I kill someone else to keep my freedom? Or my family’s freedom? Would I risk my life or the life of my children to fight oppression? I now have people in my family history who fought for Hitler and who fought against Hitler. I have voted for people who had to make the choice between peace or freedom…or at least between peace or war. And they believed freedom was at stake, and maybe it was. I’ll never know. It is all so not black and white to me.
It certainly could be argued that I’m just passing on the decision, the choice, the battle to someone else. And that is probably correct.
So I am just going to thank every God imagined that I have been blessed with a peaceful life in a free society. And pray that Annie is given the same gift in her life. It is perhaps the greatest gift of all.
My friend, Maria, lives in Antwerp and plans to take her daughter back home to Canada to celebrate a real Halloween some year. I’m imagining her daughter (and Annie) discovering at an older age that there is this place where you are allowed to dress up, walk house to house and then people give you a pillowcase full of candy. It is going to seem like Nirvana.
In the meantime, we do the best we can.
For our Halloween there was pumpkin carving…
And dressing up in costumes…
And the traditional Halloween donkey ride…??
The restaurant where we met, Nattererboden, is a favourite for parties as it is quite rural (although only 15 minutes from town) and has an outdoor playground, indoor play area, petting zoo and occasionally the donky riding. All in a large traditional restaurant setting with fantastic food. (I know I’ve questioned this before, and I know there are exceptions, but why do restaurateurs in Canada so often think that “family-friendly” means lots of plastic furniture and processed food??)
The kids played in the playground despite it being rather crisp outside, carved pumpkins, made Halloween baskets from a pattern I found on a craft site, and ate candy. The trick or treating aspect wasn’t there, but the kids still had fun.
There are oodles of fun events throughout the winter in Austria, but I’m still glad I’m introducing Annie to my childhood traditions. I’m going with the belief that Annie will be an international child, instead of just confused. And of course for my girl, anything where there is sugar involved is a great event.
Well, I’m going to try, again, to post every day in November for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month.) I’m needing more structure in my life, so thought I could manufacture a bit through this system. I have a feeling these daily posts will be short, but as good friend Sue says…it’s MY blog!
It was a busy week this week so yesterday I ended up conking out when I put Annie to bed. I actually started to get sleepy while reading to her, so she turned on the bedside lamp and read to herself (and me) while I nodded off. That child can be so independent already. So here I am at 5 in the morning (which is actually 4 in the morning due to daylight savings time) wide awake and ready to go.
The grand opening of the square in front of the cafe on Tuesday went well. I was there for 13 hours helping out but that was nothing compared to Markus who ran around working and organizing from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. We were very worried about the weather, as the day before we had quite a bit of snow in Innsbruck. But the sun came out in the afternoon and, although cold, a few thousand people did show up. And most importantly many people came into the cafe who didn’t realize that it was there. Hopefully that will help business over the next few weeks.
Today a few expat families are forcing a Halloween celebration in this land where it doesn’t exist. We are meeting at a restaurant and carving some pumpkins and, most importantly, letting the kids dress up in costumes. Annie is pretty excited, as she wasn’t going to be allowed to wear the Ariel mermaid costume Mom brought her until Fasching, which is next February. When I told her it was only one sleep until she was able to dress up in it, there was a very big smile.
I’ll post some pictures tomorrow for your enjoyment…and so that I have a topic for Day 1 of NaBloPoMo!
