Well, after a lovely quiet Christmas, all hell has just broken loose! It’s called New Year’s Eve. The banging has been going on for days now and it has got steadily worse as this afternoon wore on. It turns out that, unlike in Ireland, fireworks are legal in Austria and appear to be for sale on almost every corner. And, by the sound of things, quite a lot of people don’t seem to be able to wait until midnight to let them off.

The noise is bad enough already. I certainly don’t plan to hang around until midnight to experience the full force of the racket!

The Oldies are off to Oma’s (she of the beautiful bikkies) to eat fondue, play silly parlour games and watch the fireworks from the safety of the fifth floor windows. The Oldies also mumbled something about the open-air disco on the Hauptplatz (main square) but I somehow cannot see the pair of them managing to shake their booties (or even their beer bellies) around in the cold at that hour of the night.

Whatever they do though, they won’t be seeing me. Or me them. I’m taking to my bed, covering my head and waiting until all the noise dies down.

Lock up your pets, have fun (you mad things) and see you in 2017.

Happy New Year!