Definition of a waltz: a dance in triple time performed by a couple, who turn rhythmically round and round. The waltz (from German Walzer [ˈvalt͡sɐ̯]), meaning "to roll or revolve"
“Now that Covid’s on the way out, let’s rebook that trip to Vienna, cancelled in 2020, when the whole damn world was locked down.”
So we did, in September.
“It’ll be relaxing, all that lovely architecture, jolly Christmas markets, chocolate cake and Wiener Schnitzel -we’ll book a concert and chill out to Strauss.
This fx!! online doc won’t let me in. Refused entry on a form requiring double vaccination, which nevertheless accepted that I had already been, triple time, with booster!
Jabbing phone numbers for Austrian Airlines and Austrian government; hanging on the telephone listening to endless Strauss; enough to put you off 19th century dance music for life. As for chatbots…. guaranteed to drive you insane.
Tuesday, forced to drive to Heathrow two days before the flight, the airport supervisor, looking at my vacc documents, passport and nein,nein nein notifications on smartphone, declared “This is silly, just going round and round.”
I love powerful men who can manually override a “computer says no” system to let me in.
Thursday. Relaxing moment No 2
Quaking in the queue for the damned who have not got the requisite PPf2 masks,(NHS standard number illegal in Austria). Nice Austrian guy stemmed my mounting hysteria “don’t worry, they will give you a mask at the desk “and they did!
Finally, in Vienna, we had a lovely time wandering around the Christmas markets, seeing the Titian exhibition in the Historical Art Museum and doing various Viennese type things, cake, Schnitzel and a concert at the Palais Schoenborn. Wait, those black PPf2 masks some are wearing remind me of…? The lights dimmed; performance began. First violinist, how shall I put this without being cancelled, was not exactly a raving beauty; her bilingual delivery, through owlish glasses, was flat in contrast to her sparkly frock. But then, when she wielded her violin bow, WOW, her duracell battery kicked in and she was energised. Oh Himmlischer Fahrt!. Spell-bound, we thrilled to the music.
Relaxing moment No 3
News announcement.
Compulsory vaccinations, another lockdown, this time for all, in two days’ time. Uproar from people deprived of their civil liberties. Police cars, ambulances and throngs of people tooting horns and waving placards all over the place. Thousands of them, a veritable red sea of demonstrators opposite the Hofburg Palace. We had to cross. And then, behold, a burly young Moses with two young companions parted the waves and we scurried in their wake, grinning meekly at the throng.
Then I realised what the masks reminded me of – the horrific black gas mask erupting from the throat of Richard Wilson in “the Empty Child” episode of Dr Who, set in the Blitz.
On Monday, the Christmas stalls, hotels, restaurants musical venues etc would all be closed, due to the resurgence of Covid. Poor Viennese!
Coronovirus, like some Danse Macabre, evolves, resurges. How long do we have to keep revolving, and twirling to its nefarious ever changing tune.
I leave you, in hope, with some lines from T.S Eliot
What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
