Yesterday John taught me what is probably the best thing I have ever learned in my life.

Say “beer can” out loud.

Go on, say it: “beer can”.

There, that’s how you say “bacon” with a Jamaican accent.

And now, with that wisdom imparted, here are some photos from my trip to London Aquarium a month ago.

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Mindy-licious Mindy of Beautiful Mess is very nosey indeed and has posed me the following questions as an interview meme:

1. we all know that you’re a world traveler, but have you ever made it across the pond to the good old U.S.? if so, where did you visit? and, if not, what would be your first destination?

I’ve never been to the USA, though I would very much like to visit. The first stop would of course be your house, to put the second l into traveller. The next stop (after we’d had cake and plaited each other’s hair (though you should feel free to braid mine while I plait yours)) would be New York. I really want to see New York at Christmas ’cause I get the feeling that you guys over there go batshit crazy for Christmas and I’d like to experience all that glowing, twinkling madness.

I’d also very much like to see New England: covered bridges, Meryl Streep getting all flustered over Clint Eastwood and his long lens, maple trees, Diane Keaton bringing up a baby and making apple sauce, all that kind of thing.

Then there are all the standard tourist sights in Washington D.C. which would be good to see too. But maybe I shall boycott Washington until the real president is instated.

2. you - like myself - are an admitted food lover (and, this, my dear, earns a great deal of respect with me). if you knew that the next meal would be your last, what would be on the menu?

Mmm, food … I’m a big fan of Mum’s roast chicken dinners, but I’m also partial to a good vegetable lasagne - the best I’ve had so far was the delicious one I had at a restaurant in Brugge. Anything with goats cheese is also welcome. So all that would be on the menu, along with Pepsi and white wine spritzers … and maybe some Nesquik chocolate milk. Then for pudding would be no-cook lemon pie, which is heaven on a pie plate.

3. you have an all-expenses-paid trip to meet the blogger of your choice. who would it be & why?

Probably Elaine. She was one of the first to link to me (though Rayne and her ratties must also get some kind of shiny rosette here) and has made me giggle most inappropriately from time to time (my favourite kind of giggling). I’d also very much like to hang out with her almost-4-year-old daughter, whose predilection for dressing up like a Southern belle must be encouraged.

4. what scent - other than the obvious choices of poo or rotting flesh or something equally revolting - makes you gag?

Hee hee hee, you said “poo”. I’m not much of a gagger per se - I have a pretty strong stomach - but I can’t stand the smell (or taste) of mint. Dad once tried to get a stain out of the bath with lots of toothpaste and the fumes forced me out of the house. Breathing minty fumes on me brings you one step closer to a black eye.

5. if you had to compile a collection of music for the soundtrack of your present-day life right now, what songs would you choose?

I tend not to listen to a particularly wide range of artists (though those who do have a place on my shelf do represent a fairly eclectic taste) so I always find this kind of question a little difficult to answer. Which songs do you think would cover a wild swing between hatred and love of work, a current inability to get to bed as early as I would like, excitement at growing sunflowers and happiness that I have good friends - and that I’m having lunch with one of them tomorrow?

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Want to play? Here’s how it works:
- Leave me a comment requesting an interview.
- I will email you five questions. I get to pick the questions (*evil laugh*).
- You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
- You will include this explanation (or a reasonable variation) and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
- When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

We have liftoff! There are green things poking through the ground in my vegetable patch. Yes, some of them are weeds, but 23 of them are sunflower seedlings - from the sunflower seeds that I just picked out of the bird food and shoved into the ground. The first seedling took just 6 days to show up. My only previous experience with sunflower seeds was back in primary school when we were given the opportunity to plant secret sunflowers (à la some book we were reading). I buried my seed in the dry dusty ground beneath an oak tree … and that was that. I don’t think any of the seeds we planted reached even the dizzy heights of germination. So to have green things looking up at me from the soil is a good start, I think.

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There I was, minding my own business (read: doing my best to listen in on a conversation in German), when a pair of lederhosen were thrust upon me. “Try them on!” … ok. I disappeared into the bathroom and fought my way into the odd garment. They were heavy and fairly unforgiving, so for a moment or two I didn’t think I’d get into them. Then suddenly I was in and they fit me surprisingly well. Damn it. They came up rather high at the waist, were not the slenderest of fits across the arsch and were very slightly long, but yeah, other than that they fit. I returned to my Austrians for judgement and was greeted with approval. “Turn around, so we can see the butt,” said Klaus. He has such a way with the ladies.

A little later we went to the Karner lederhosen experts, where Hubert presented “my” lederhosen, asking if they could be shortened a little. Herr Karner took one look at them and told him in no uncertain terms that these could not be considered a present for a girl. They were much too hard.

By the time we came to leave the workshop I’d prepared a little bit of German in my head that I could use on departure. “Danke für die Unterstützung,” I thought I’d say, as the lederhosen experts had been on my side about how hard the leather was. Only by this time the two men knew I was English and so cheerily said “goodbye!” as they each shook my hand. I opened my mouth, ready to dazzle them with four words of German and out came … “Goodbye!”
Damn it.

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I thought that when I went to Austria, I was just going to Salzburg, but H had other ideas and packed me off to Vienna on my second day to meet with some Powerfrauen. I’d not been to Vienna before, nor had I ever travelled on the Austrian railway, so travelling across the country for the first time in a comfy first class carriage may well have spoiled me for life (excuse me, are these grapes peeled?). On the way from Salzburg to Vienna I shared a compartment with a youngish businessman and further along the route an older man joined us and proceeded to doze and snore lightly on and off. Beautiful scenery whizzed by outside the window and I read bits and pieces from my free copy of the Salzburger Nachrichten. I learned that there’s a tunnel being built somewhere and it’s gone over budget and Elton John had a big birthday party. But I don’t think the two are connected.

I’ve run this site on my own for the past six and a half years, but with the arrival of Hubert’s enormous new project, which sees him taking a boat down the Danube to meet and give concerts with local artists, a new web team are making a fancy schmancy site specifically for the tour. This tour site will sit on the same domain and be what you see first, with the site I’ve been running remaining on the domain as the one stop shop for everything else you could want to know about Hubert’s career and projects thus far. I’ll be updating the “artist site” as necessary, but from now on my main job will be “web editor” for the tour site.

I went to Vienna in order to meet with three ladies who are involved with the project: Heidi and Mena who are running the project management and Julia who has been writing copy and will be helping Heidi and Mena. I had only previously communicated with these three via email, but knew what Heidi looked like, so wasn’t worried about finding her at Wien Westbahnhof. And either Heidi knew what I looked like too, or she simply thought it safest to wave at the person with pastiest complexion to leave the train.

Mena took me to Spa, where we picked up lunch for everybody and waited while the guy at the deli counter put together our rolls with a decidedly Mediterranean approach to speed of service. Back at Heidi’s flat my first introduction to her dog Mitzi was as she bolted out and down the stairs when Heidi opened the door to let us in. With some persuasion Mitzi was fetched back to the flat and the door shut firmly behind her.

We gnawed on our rolls and talked about the new site (you’ve gotta love a meeting that’s called “Sarah says”). Jobs were assigned, problems ironed out and we generally bonded in a way that you can’t quite manage just via email. After we were done with work Heidi asked me if there I was anything I wanted to see before I got back on the train. As the Tibet Kultur Restaurant was just down the road, I asked if we could go there. I know the owner, Tseten Zöchbauer, but again only via email. Unfortunately she wasn’t in when we went there, but it was great to finally see a place that I’d only previously read/written about and seen on the TV. I left a note for Tseten and bought a pretty scarf in the shop attached to the restaurant. If you’re ever in Vienna, do go to the restaurant at 9. Währinger Gürtel and experience a bit of Tibet in Austria.

It was time for me to head back to the station and Heidi and I walked down a few streets to get to her car. Mitzi meanwhile did her best to exert her independence every two yards, stopping to smell whatever looked most disgusting on the pavement, turning down streets when we wanted to go straight ahead and wrapping her lead around our legs.

At the station my train was waiting at the platform, due to leave in just a few minutes. Heidi and Mitzi escorted me right to the train and Heidi opened the door to the carriage for me. We stood for a moment on the platform saying our goodbyes, but the door got tired of waiting and started to close just as I was about to get on. Evidently a seasoned pro when it comes to trains, Heidi stabbed the button again and kung fu kicked the door open once more. The lady has style.

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The amount of travelling I’ve done in the past year is somewhat unusual - especially the fact that I’ve already made two trips so far this year and we’re only into April. There will be more cosmopolitan gallavanting to the continent at some point in the summer, but I don’t know quite where or when yet. One of the things I like about flying is the view of the world passing by thousands of feet below. I was first inspired to try taking photographs from the plane by my Flickr contact friend Richard and, as I had no travel companion to talk to on my flight to Austria last Monday, I spent a lot of the time staring out of the window and taking photos…

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