Seeker

This is a follow-up to my previous post "Naughty Ladies Fingers and Farmers Fried Up". I have to say the farmers round here (in the Austrian Tyrol) have been looking extremely warm, working from dawn to dusk scything and raking hay on the steep meadows before the next rain. Just another quote from our holiday hotel's newsletter: " PRECIOUSNESS OF THE ALPS   Over centuries the Edelweiss of large poplarity has itself pleased with the result that it was threatened by becoming extinct already 1878. On an international conference agreed Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy to pretect the Edelweiss. Up to then it was usual custom that young men the rock clamber, in order to pick as proof of love a noble white bunch for their chosen one. Edelweiss was used as tea and herb infusion for the fight of most diverse diseases, from bronchitis and container problems to tuberculosis and Diptherie." It was the "container problems" that caught my eye. S...

One of the joys of travel is the unintentional mirth created by translations into English of menus etc. My all time favourite (seen in a Belgrade restaurant) was "naughty ladies fingers" which I just had to order. It turned out to be spiced okra. In Greece I enjoyed "curded cow" and "curded sheep" (yoghurt from cows' and sheep' milk). In Slovenia the family enjoyed "roast lion" (lamb's loin) and "Serbian Ditch"  (Serbian stew). My husband and I couldn't bring ourselves to order "Farmers Fried Up" which was offered for dinner at the hotel where we are currently staying in Austria, even though it was clear from the German that it would be a mixed grill. As usual we're enjoying the hotel's daily newsletter for guests, helpfully provided in appropriate languages. Notice of the village's regular "GUEST SHOOTING COMPETITION" produces varying degrees of alarm or hilarity in Englis...

Do you enjoy eavesdropping on other people's conversations? In crowded places it's impossible not to notice what's being said right next to you. Here's a conversation I overheard from the next table in a coffee shop. 2 young women were having a heart to heart. The conversation went like this: Woman A : "I had to get up at 5 this morning to iron HIS shirt." (I am thinking, why didn't he do it himself?) Woman B: "Why didn't you do it yesterday evening?" (I am thinking, is this really 2011 or is it the 1950s). Woman A: "Because I got home from work late and by the time I'd cooked dinner, cleared up and sorted the washing I was too tired to stand for hours at the ironing board ironing all his shirts. And I hate ironing." I resisted the temptation to join the conversation and wondered whether HE couldn't iron his shirts because he was too busy cleaning the toilet etc. or perhaps not he was also too tired after ...