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My life in Vienna

the year 2003
- first half -

Created 21 January 2003 ... Updated 23 June 2003

[ for pictures of Vienna check the photography section ]


My life in Vienna


Katrin • 21 January
Plans have changed. I had planned to go on a longer trip to Australia, meet some friends in Melbourne, go cycling towards Broken Hill in the dessert but, it's summer down under and summer in the dessert means: very hot, meaning, sun, no water and a very rough time cycling. So I'd better do that in a few months or so, so that plan has been postponed. Then a plan came up to go to Morroco, nice and warm, not too hot. Well, it just didn't fit in, have to be in The Netherlands the first week of March, to take pictures of my sister's promotion (from Drs. to Dr.). Then the week after we will go with some friends to the Salzburg area for a one week winter holiday and in the mean time I'm also still unemployed, looking for a job.

Still not sure what I'm looking for. First wanted to do some small projects, a few weeks working on a web site or so but there is not a lot available right now. Maybe time to take a real job again, real work in a real company building. Ouch, might be hard after having working from home for 2 year!

Big changes in some of my friend's lives, someone will get married unexpectatly (no it's not what we were thinking), someone else has his first boyfriend now and the twins of a friend are now in their fourth month and growing like crazy. And my life has slowed down... Well, nothing bad about that but it's so easy to keep it that way and not doing anything about it. Time for a job!

On the photography front it's been busy, the old Yashica TLR is a great camera, it takes great photos and now that I can scan the negatives it's not very expensive anymore. Have I already written that the 1938 Rodenstock camera is in perfect working condition as well? Already ran a few films through it and it's great. Uncoated lens, or at least a very old kind of coating, and it's great for portraits. Actually the picture on the lft has been taken with this camera. The only problem is to estimate the distance, no focussing aid so you really have to guess. Ah well, "they" say that with a lot of experience you learn how to estimate the distance. Time to go out and take more pictures then!

• 15 February
Collecting old stuff (or does Antiques sound better?) is a nice hobby, especially when you have developed a bit of a feeling for the marketprices. Used to buy a lot of books at a place where people can leave the old things they don't want to have anymore, mostly things people inherited. The nicer things are taken out and sold to antique shops and the standard things they try to sell themselves. They're a non-profit organisation so they sell books for next to nothing, a good way to start a collection and to learn about what's common.

Sterke man eBay is also a good place to look for books but the descriptions are usually minimal and you can't relly flip through the books, sometimes a book looks big an interesting and when you get it it's only very small and not that interesting. Then I went to the "real" antique shops to get a feeling for the nicer things, bought some books there but well, they're expensive but they can help you with finding books as well.

Then there is another option: flee markets. We have a very nice one in Vienna on saturday mornings. Unfortunately many people know it so you usually have to be early to find the nicer things. Today I did some great finds at the market and for a very good price. Haggling is a must and when you know the prices it's a lot easier. I'd settled my mind on one book, knew the usual price (around 40 euro) but this one didn't look like new so I thought 15-20 euro would be enough. Anyway, talked the price down to 10 euro. Then I found a Dutch language course from 1911, all parts complete and like new. Normal price 40-50 euro for sure but I was able to get both books for 20 euro. Happy, happy, happy! Just before I'd bought a few interesting books in a very special antiques bookshop (insider tip, all books in good condition and for very good prices) so yeah, plenty to read. Should stop buying really, got too many books to read but well, it's all so interesting, so much knowledge to gain...

Talking about old stuff: went to some cemeteries the other week. We have a very old cemetery, the Sankt Marxer Friedhof nearby that I'd never visited, till last week. It was used until 1874 and then left to itself, in the 1930s someone decided to clean it a little, put the fallen headstones back and all that. Then a bomb fell on it in the second world war so the cemetery had to be restored again in the 1950s. Now it's a lot like a well maintained park but the headstones show a lot of wear. The fashion was to have angels and biblical themes on the graves, so many graves have those, of course sand stone was a lot cheaper than the harder stones to many sculptures show heavy wear, very nice and nice for pictures. The first visit took 3 hours and 3 rolls of film. Also tried a "new" old camera and it apears to work perfectly. Also put some old TXP film in it, very moody. Hope to put some pictures on the website within the next weeks.

Have also taken some pictures from our local ruin: the sofiensäle. You can find them, together with a brief history on the ruins page.

On the job front a few offers came up, all still a bit up in the air, nothing concrete yet but I'll keep looking and continue of the offers so she'll be fine.

St. Marxer Friedhof Time to start learning the 1911 version of Dutch now... :o)

• 25 February
Take a look at Daisy's page...

• 21 April
A long silence but I'm still here. Have done many things over the past months and it seems as if I have found a new job, a very interesting one actually. More when the contract is signed...

• 30 April
... and not even just one job, more info on my second, professional, domain: www.xoning.com.

• 23 June
Still can't write a lot about my ongoings but I've spent a lot of time building websites, check my webdesign portfolio on www.xoning.com. Also decided to learn Macromedia's Flash again and have learnt PHP programming at the same time. Very interesting and very powerful for what I want it to do.

In the mean time I've found this:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the
things you didn't do than by the ones you did.

So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream.


        Mark Twain




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