And Here's Captain Von Trapp

Me and Riccardo - two current fixtures at the Whitsun Festival - except he runs it and has more talent (and money) than I every will.

I don't normally put photos of myself up on the blog - there are much prettier things that I take pictures of in my travels. However - and you knew there had to be a however I will make an exception in this case.

I have lost a fair bit of weight in the last year - about 8 kilos I would say. Though the initials reasons were not necessary good the result has been to my benefit. For a while there I was getting the look of an Irish Priest on a Saturday night and this was not a good thing. Unfortunately what it has meant is that most of my clothes don't fit me anymore - I tend to look like I've borrowed my older brother's stuff. This is particularly true of my dark suit and my tuxedo. So the only solution - buy a new suit. Which I did - the tuxedo we will leave for now I don't wear one often enough to go and invest in another one. A lovely dark gray pin strip, however its very light, summer weight and creases beautifully, particularly in a suitcase.

Now I know that's a poor excuse for me doing more clothes shopping but it was raining in Vienna last week and there wasn't much else to do other than shop - honest there is nothing in that city! Well okay a few museums, some coffee houses, a clutch of palaces, the Lipizzaner Horses, the Vienna Boys Choir, the Statsoper, the Volksoper - but I mean other than that nothing!

So we stopped into a Trachten shop and I saw this jacket I liked, but it really didn't look right without the vest, and then there was this nice blue checked shirt and dark pink tie (hey it works here so back off...) tie and really none of the pants I had with me would work with the jacket. And the next day there was this shirt and tie combination that was killer and really I only had one that would go with the ... oh shut up, its all rationalization but it works for me.

And here's Laurent and I at our favorite table in the Sketch Bar of the Hotel Bristol. Gunther sets it up for us every evening and the food and service are so good we can't see why we would bother going any place else.

So for the past few evenings and mornings (you dress for the morning concerts here) I've been dressing up like I'm with a road show company of Sound of Music - and no I'm not playing the Mother Superior!!! And its one of the most comfortable suits I've ever worn. And it doesn't look half bad. And it was rather funny to be stopped on the street last night and asked for directions in German!

And that's it for pictures of me!

23 maggio - San Desiderio di Langres