Have yourself a Merry One

Well, what's all this stuff about global warming? I went out last Friday to a pub called Fiddlers Greenvirtually in the middle of nowhere, way behind Alland, Mayerling and Maria Raisenberg to see a show called Irish Christmas Festival provided by a Mr. Dietmar Hasslinger, I recommend to check out his site Weltenklang.
This promoter brings Irish Musicians to Ostrichland on a regular basis, I have been to many such a show in previous years and this time there was a trio called the Trad Lads, augmented by two Tap and Step Dancers, and a very fine quintet called Slide who played contemporary Irish Folk and if I may say so, these guys were clicking on all cylinders. Check them out if you like and if you're interested in this type of music.
Anyhow, driving home from the middle of nowhere was a pleasure of its own in -18 degrees in the darkest of all nights and I sure cound myself lucky that the car battery did not give in.

The consecutive Sunday we ventured out to set a wee and tiny little trail around Mödling at -12 degrees (yup, I just said -12).  Snow was all around, two drink stops were planned for and the tactic was to make it short and spend  more time dwinking the hot stuff. Well, some runners were late, some were very late, some started to panic over the phone (no names will be mentioned, it was just a Pain in the Ass) and in to time two groups of three Hashers each got lost (the entire Kunft family as well as the Moron Department with Mrs. Standing There).

I had to take care of ussy Schumi who lost briefly, then Richard Kopf and Rhymes with C* reappeared out of nowhere as she had just missed her flight to work somewhere over the great pond on some sort of huge vessel.
Got to the first drinkstop which was at a stall from a Christmas tree vendor from Styria who provided "Schnapstee" by his own defintion, well, at least the potion was warm.
Got to the second drinkstop which was the smaller of Mödlings two annual Christmas markets and still no sight of all the missing ones. No phonecalls were answered and fate had it that they all went back to the carpark already and missed out the better bit (which was less than 200 metres away from the cars).
After a short circle (still at - 12) those who were left went over to the intended OnIn which opened up its gates a few minutes after reservation time and so it was left to the last 8 standing to make it down the road to a very fine pizzeria.  My personal lesson learned is to use polenta next time. Hear those mobile phones ring I say!


Mele Kalikimaka to all of you.