Long weekends.....

First long weekend
Well the weekend was a well-deserved 4 days, but unfortunately mainly spent doing the usual DIY. The patio was grouted, although there a few white shades of concrete, which adds to the aged effect. Most of Friday was spent on the roof, with both Ian and I balancing over the remaining 10 glass windows sticking film to stop the sun from heating our house up to above 30c. A lot of cursing, and a few squirts of water at each other took place, but a successful job done. New plants were potted in the window boxes and our house plants are making a miraculous recovery after moving them outside and spraying them with the hose pipe.

Second long weekend
A three-day weekend, this time. Saturday was spent searching Vienna’s outlet village for bargains. But much to our disappointment there wasn’t any. I should learn my lesson and firstly never go there on a Saturday, and secondly don’t bother and wait until I go to the UK for shopping. We then proceeded to explore Vienna woods. We drove to a town and then got a bit lost, and ended up using Ian’s hidden ability to find a small road to park on and take a walk in the woods. We did start to follow the marked trees (saying what colour trail you were on), but soon got bored and went onto to different paths. Luckily as it was getting late, we made it back to our car with just our skills of ‘let’s go left, and then take this path, then right….’.

Sunday was spent relaxing – me reading, and Ian shooting Xboxers online. Oh and with what was supposed to be a little nap, I fell asleep for 3 hours in the afternoon. Sunday was also a belated chat with my nephew, Sam, to say happy 7th birthday. He had been on holiday and opened his presents late. I must admit I love buying him presents (Ian can vouch for that too), plus I love putting play Mobil together as well.

Monday was a national holiday in Austria, and so we took the opportunity to venture into the Czech Republic. The perks of living in central Europe and in Retz, is that one country has a national holiday, so we drive 10 minutes and you are in another country that doesn’t. We drove to the city of Brno, and went to the 2 large shopping malls. Fortunately for our bank account there was nothing exciting to buy, apart from a pair of jeans for Ian (his clothes are too big for him now after losing so much weight). We did have a quick look in Marks and Spencer’s and managed to spend 40 Euros on food. They only have a small corner with non-perishables – but we bought some biscuits, canned food and sweets, and a bottle of bucks fizz (I know I can make it myself, but there is nothing like a glass of M&S bucks fizz). We also went to the Czech Tesco’s, and bought a few things they don’t have in Austria.
I love the way this shop isn't prejudice with its shop display.

And guess what? Yes next week is another 4 day weekend. It helps to explain that at the UN our daily hours drop 30 minutes in summer, from 8 hours to 7.5 hours excluding lunch. With that in mind and the fact that I have opted for 30 minute lunch breaks, I am gaining far too many hours (we have flexi-time), and so keep taking days off using my spare hours (it’s ace!)
And finally it was bedtime…..with the addition of Morpheus!
PS – For the English people – the weather is usually hot, sunny and in the late 20’s to 30’s……Hahahahaha