22 - 28 June 2009

Maria Alm is full of the sound of accordian music. Nothing new there, except that this time it's Scottish jigs and reels. 65 Scottish country dancers with a combined age of, at a guess, about 4500, some of them even from Scotland but most of them English, are literally whirling away the rain-soaked hours. We chanced upon them and they took a break from their eight by thirty-two Strathspeys and square sets to dance a few simple do-si-dos so that we could join in. A lively evening in the company of Virginia Reel, Gay Gordon and one local farmer who was really reeling. He frequently and loudly reitterated that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and showed his appreciation tangibly to all the ladies.

15 - 21 June 2009

Midsummer, and this past week it has rained day and night almost without interruption. June 21 is traditionally celebrated with mountain bonfires on every inch of the horizon and big firework displays. This year, additional celebrations were planned for the opening of the new high ropes course in Maria Alm. But Midsummer can't be postponed due to extremely bad weather, so it just wasn't celebrated. A massive disappointment for thousands of tourists and locals, perhaps not so disappointing for Dominic, whose car broke down on his way to catch his £5 Ryan Air Salzburg return flight. He missed his flight and enjoyed a week of English sunshine instead.

8 - 14 June 2009

The Fire Service here is run almost entirely voluntarily. Most of the village are involved and in an emergency they are summoned by an extremely loud siren which can be heard from all over. Three blasts and everyone leaps into action. At their annual party this weekend, children's activities included climbing a ladder to the roof of the Fire Station and abseiling across the road, piling as many children as possible into the cherry picker and elevating to 50 metres, filling a room with smoke and then playing hide and seek. None of that was risky enough for Mary who decided to scramble through a barbed wire fence and sustain a nasty gouge to the back of her leg. After a bit of discussion about where a first aid kit could be found, the firemen managed a bandage, but no dressing or antiseptic, so they wrapped the bandage around the uncleaned cut and secured it with a bit of sellotape. Mary skipped off to have a go in the car accident simulator.

1 - 7 June 2009

Something is changing in never-changing Maria Alm. Up until a year ago, the 500 year old church clock chimed and pealed day and night. Up until this week it chimed from 6.00am to 11.00pm with a hearty peal at the start of the day. Now the joyful 6.00am peal has been silenced. Since the bells are no longer waking everyone up, few are awake to notice this. Justine noticed and popped into the Tourist Office to discover the reason for it. The staff were up in arms to learn about the erosion of such a long-standing tradition and suspected it was due to pressure from Guest House and Hotel owners who must field regular complaints from their guests. They are sending a posse to the Vicarage to find out more. Watch this space!...

25 - 31 May 2009

Our move to Austria has been mostly seamless in red tape terms, but we've been well and truly tied up in it when it comes to the car. This week we finally achieved Austrian plates, having overcome hurdles such as - the make and model of our car does not exist, if it did exist it certainly wouldn't exist as an LPG conversion, if it is an LPG conversion then it certainly shouldn't have a tow bar. After a year's worth of fun phonecalls, faxes, emails and meetings it will cost us over £2000, plus a special bonus £50 for the huge dossier that the tax man has had to compile for our case.