Going, going.......

We're packed. Really. We have the thick , warm, woolly clothing, which means there will be a heatwave in Austria. We have the many and various medicaments...blood thinners, heart slowers, eye drops, paracetamol, yes, we need almost a separate suitcase. We have one or two books as I can't cope without some reading material and I don't read German. What else? Small opera glasses, camera, 2 mobile phones, neither of which is likely to work. Passports, tickets, both of which I shall have to check fifty times to make sure I've got them.
And that's it. Apart from handing our keys to our lovely friends who will live in to look after the house,there is nothing more I can do. Well.....maybe just dust round, water the plants, check the heating system.......
No. Enough. Off to , hopefully, a crunchy, snowy Christmas, with log fires and Carols in little village churches. to Beethoven in the Mozarteum. To Christmas markets in the snow, sipping gluhwein.
I'll let you know how it really was when we come back.

Not ready

Oh look.....an empty suitcase. And it is still, um, four days till we leave for Austria. Friends keep saying kindly 'I expect you're all ready to go arent you? Packed, and everything?'

Not sure if I'm being laid back or just avoiding making decisions, but suspect it is the latter. There are little piles of THINGS on the spare bed, passports, tickets, very thick socks, and suddenly I'll have a brainwave and add...a camera, or binoculars. Why binocs ? Dont know but surely they'll come in useful up a snowy mountain. Wont they?

I have done some forward planning, most of which has consisted of saying, 'Do you want to take these thick cords?' (answer, 'Dont really mind') I have washed some thick fleeces, and found woolly nighties, the sort that Grandma used to wear, only to be told, 'For goodness sake, we're not going to the Arctic'. Well, I feel the cold. Terribly. Could I fit a hot water bottle in? Now there's a good idea.

I shall do my usual, which actually I'm quite good at, that is to have one totally focussed hour, and actually put things in cases, check, double check, and close the things. Open again just to make sure there are enough knickers/socks/fleeces, did I pack thick tights...Half of the contents will return unused, I know.

Coffee

Coffee is a sort of necessity for me, am I suffering from addiction, I wonder?

Sometimes the smell is even better than the taste, that lovely warm wafting scent that says..mmmm, coffeeeeee.

I wa surprised to find out that coffee was actually discovered in the 9th Century in Ethiopia. The story is told of a shepherd who had very lethargic sheep. One day he found that they were eating red berries of a little bush, which apparently made them quite hyperactive! Coffee berries. Grown on an evergreen bush called 'Coffea'.

Socially, the drinking of coffee became popular in the 17th century , when the Coffeehouse cult came into being, particularly in Vienna. In Oxford, as early as 1650, there was a coffeehouse, run by an importer of the beans. I wonder if its still there.

When I was at College we drank 'coffee' by the bucketful, only then it was Nescafe. We kept awake, we studied with a mug of it by our elbow, we drank it out of choice. Then all of a sudden, coffee bars opened, and we learned what real coffee tasted like! Percolators came into being, filter jugs, cafetieres and espresso machines. What had we missed?

I couldnt believe it, when recently on Brittany Ferries, I tripped into the Salon de The, asked for a small coffee....and got, yes, a mug of Nescafe. This, on a French boat? Mon Dieu. When in Canada, I am always amazed by the way the country seems to run on Coffee! Wherever I went, whether to the garage, the hairdresser, the Dr, there was always a cafetiere, and the offer of fresh coffee. It's the first thing that a waitress brings before you order anything.

The 'pause cafe' which we enjoy round about 11 am is slightly foreign to the French. They dont stop in working hours. Well, actually, they do, when it's to drink my coffee. The bars are usually full of men, drinking a glass of wine, a beer, but only occasionally, a coffee.

There are too many choices now, and confronted with latte, skinny latte, capuccino, and all the other things, I am bewildered. Just give me a petit creme, please

Decorations

The shops are suddenly full of Christmas decorations...yes, I know you've had them in the UK since August, but we are a little slower here, a little more restrained....

Each garden centre and DIY shop has an area full of plastic Santas with their obligatory ladder (to be fixed on outside wall), garlands, anything that will light up and drive your neighbour mad, and a distinct lack of cribs or things of a 'spiritual' nature.

Any day now, Monsieur G. next door, will fill his garden with twirling lit up things, deck every bush with more lit up things, and put the aforesaid S.C on the wall. Neighbours from all over the village come to look. The lights illuminate the whole of our lane!

I think back to my childhood. We spent days making paper chains, painstakingly sticking colours together, hanging them all over the house. We painted walnut half shells silver and made little boats with masts and sails for the tree. We cut out angels and hung them by windows. We were so creative. Tinsel was a huge treat, there wasn't much around then. We had, I remember, a sort of coloured paper folding bell thing, which hung with streamers across a room. It must have driven my minimalist mother up the wall! But we had such fun.

Today's decorations are very beautiful and very expensive, or rather tawdry. For me, less is definitely more, and my 'tree' this year is just a few branches cut from the birch tree, painted white, and hung with simple corn decorations.