AH.............VIENNA!

Having been excitedly planning our joint birthday trip to New York for some months now, daughter suddenly throws a spanner in the works, decides that she can’t afford it after all and pulls out, leaving me in a frenzy of indecision....

Do I continue with my dream and go alone to New York? Do I travel halfway across the world to be on my own in a city where we had planned sightseeing trips, shopping excursions and a long-held desire to pay my respects at the World Trade Centre?

Nope.

In a move that would shock most indecisive Librans, I opt to shelve NY for the time being, and change plans, dreams and continents to go visit a new-found friend in Vienna. After all, she travelled solo to London to meet a bunch of strangers she’d only met over the internet, so why can’t I do the same and visit her in her homeland?

Decision made, I start planning anew, intending to take my new chum out for our birthday dinner - we were born on the same day, albeit ten years apart - and go and buy a Viennese guide book to find my way about the city.

First things first - GET A BLOODY PASSPORT!!

Next - check flights and hotels..... Then it occurs to me that perhaps I should ask her if she is available for such a visit - and indeed, if she even WANTS a visitor! To my relief, happily she does, and even offers me her apartment to stay in, so there is no need to book a hotel..........

Vienna - home of Sachertorte and Schnitzel - here I come!