Vienna has a wonderful incinerator right in the middle of the 9th district (where we live). As well as handling waste disposal it provides district heating. It looks pretty cool too.

Irish Green Party TDs should take note.

Does installing Leechblock to Firefox mean that I admit I have a problem?

And no, I won’t say what sites I am blocking

Brilliant.

This whole diving thing is one of the reasons why I have no time for soccer.

Interestingly a friend who is a physiotherapist (and a soccer fan) says you can spot the real injuried players. They are the ones who don’t roll around the ground as it is too painful to move at all.

FIFA really needs to sort this shit out. As an excellent preview on the world cup I read recently said:

The potential rewards for diving are so high and the potential downsides so non-existent, that in many cases it’s foolish for an attacking player not to dive. The chance of gaining a small competitive edge via a dive is worth it in exchange for looking like a man who falls over from his own farts.

There was an American woman walking around behind me as I shopped for beer this evening. She was having a conversation on her phone.

“I am in the Spar, near my house”

It was quiet, so it wasn’t hard to follow her side of the conversation.

“So, tomorrow night, do you want to sleep with me?”

Said totally nonchalantly, like a person would ask whether you need more milk.

Seeing as she phrased it that way, and not “Can I sleep with you”, she is playing hard to get.

It’s been sweltering all week here in Vienna. Yesterday and today were the hottest, up into the 30′s. It was 33°C when we got home from shopping for patio furniture at 5pm. I am suffering with the heat (I stop functioning when it gets over 25°C) a reckoning has to come. And it arrived about 20 minutes ago.

We could see grey clouds from our terrace but that faces mainly east. It was only when we looked out the west facing windows that we saw what was coming.

It reminded me of the amazing storms I used to see in Chicago. Huge towering clouds, boiling with the wind the push out in front.

And when the storm breaks it’s impressive. Well impressive when seen from indoors, and all the stuff than can blow away/get wet has been secured

As I type the rain is hammering down and we are getting bursts of hail, mixed with lightning flashes.

Who needs fireworks when you have a good thunderstorm?

I am worried that my child (age 3.5 weeks) is turning into a yob already.

It looks like she is being very disrespectful to here mother. Personally I blame the parents…

There is a saying I use at work from time to time, when people are bitching about work:

If it was easy, they wouldn’t need us to do it

It occurred to me today that there is a corollorary, which also contains wisdom:

It would be easy if we weren’t doing it.

I had better not use that one in meetings though.

Italian restaurants are great. Wherever you go in the world they usually provide good food at a reasonable price. And as almost all restaurants put the Italian names for dishes on the menu they are language safe when you are travelling. A diavola pizza is the same everywhere, expect pepperoni, peppers, and maybe onions.

At least it is supposed to be. Since I moved here I have seen move variety in diavola pizza that I thought possible. I have reached the point where I have no idea what will be served to me when I place my order. Peversely I now order diavolas just to see what exotic twist the chef can put on the recipe. Last night it was really odd. There were peppers and onions on the pizza, but no meat. And it had a weird addition I have never seen on a pizza before – cucumber slices. WTF?

Because I was asked for this (and not by relatives), here are three more shots.

See, I am comfortable with my paternal role. This picture was taken in the grounds of the Lichtenstein Palace around the corner from our house.

The gardens are open to the public (for free) and have an excellent playground. When Rosemary is a little older hopefully she will get to go there.

Although she is only 3 weeks old (as of today) Rosemary has already shown she is strong willed. She doesn’t just let her parents decide what is best for her. Here you can see her ruminating on whether she will go for Chocolate or Vanilla flavour milk next.

Already we can tell she is growing and starting to put on weight. But she is still a small thing. Her tiny hand was swallowed up by mine.