What a couple of weeks this was. A 90th birthday celebration with dear friends. A special off-the-menu beef tartare for me and home-made Sachertorte (the real thing is so dry) for us all.
Then my acting class started with Jeanette Brox McCarthy and was followed by a 2-week hiatus because of a whisky and poetry evening with Irish poet, Neil McCarthy, which I had to miss because I was running a flash fiction workshop with Vienna Skill Smiths. (Neil says I can come to the poetry and bourbon evening in November!) And my sold-out workshop went so well that I’ll be doing another in November, and I’ll also be doing yet another tailor-made for my Schubis, when we agree on the date.
And then there was the Jeûne genevois weekend (Geneva holiday), and dear Ratshell came and we chilled in the historic centre of Vienna, at home, and at Schönbrunn over a long weekend.
And then there was the Australian #libspill!
Tony Abbott has gone and we have a new prime minister in Australia! Malcolm Turnbull. I do hope he can cut back some of those very right wings. OK, they say that he’s an opportunist, but I was called that in another life, too. So, let’s give him a go. An election next year, or perhaps before, will show what the people think after the string of coups in Australian politics. But somehow I’m feeling a little elated for the moment. And after having listened to #QandA tonight and the wise words of Tim Costello, Joan Baez and John Hewson, I see that hope is the only way, with a touch of realism, for we are not idiots, even if some of us are pacifists. Thanks to Joan Baez for her words and music. I remember way back in the 70s when she came to Montreux on a car-less weekend to give a concert. We all came by train, bike, horse, skates, whatever. She is still wonderful and so wise!
And so are the trains of hope bringing refuges from Hungary into Vienna. And the cars. And people are still walking the walk, as we talk, talk, talk. But things are happening. Bravo to all the volunteers who see humans, are human. There is hope when we stop thinking in nationalities and religions, classes, and races. We are all human beings, guests on this planet. And the outpouring of goodwill gives me hope that the October election for the mayor of Vienna will NOT be a blue one.
I’m off now to prepare for my acting class tomorrow night. Still have to learn a script. But I thought I might step out of the cliché of my character (a nasty older woman) and make her nice. This will turn the younger nice one into a nasty bitch, if I can pull it off. Bear with me. It’s a new way of exploring character for my writing. And no, I’m not eying a role like Miss Daisy.
Oh, and I’m pondering something for Valentine’s Day. Possibly a workshop to turn favourite recipes into sensual, maybe even erotic, short shorts to spice up a private meal. We’ll see if I can swing that one.
So, until next, onwards!
