90. Buy A Better Zoom Lense For My Camera (70 -300)

I have a Nikon D60 camera with a 18-105 lense which I love but I did feel that I needed more zoom capability when we were on safari in South Africa the last time.  I've been looking at getting a 70-300 lense but I was really struggling to justify spend so much money on something that I might only use a couple of times a year.  I know that I'll use it when we go to Kruger at New Year but not sure how regularly after that.

I got quite a lot of money from my parents-in-law for my birthday last week and decided to look at getting a zoom lense again but I still struggled with the price.  It just didn't sit right with me, I wouldn't mind spending the money if I felt that it would get used enough but I couldn't honestly say that it would.

After much pondering I decided that I would look at other makes of lenses instead of Nikon ones.  I found a Sigma 70-300 lenses which was 1/3 of the price of the Nikon one (120 euros compared to 375 euros) and Ian and I went to the camera shop yesterday to look at it. 

The Sigma lense isn't much longer or heavier than my current lense and shorter and not as heavy as the Nikon equivalent which I bought Ian last year.  The lense also has a macro function which I have no idea about but seems like an added bonus ;-) 

So I bought it!  And now I still have enough birthday money to buy a netbook too :-)

5. Visit Budapest

After we'd been in Vienna for 3 days, Ian and I took the train to Budapest to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary.  It took 3 hours to get there on the train but it was lovely and relaxed, we booked into the premium section and we were the only people in there! 

I really liked Budapest, we stayed on the Buda side of the Danube in Lanchid 19.  Lanchid is the Hungary name for the Chain Bridge which crosses the Danube and which we could see from our hotel room.  The hotel was much more relaxed than the one we stayed at in Vienna and I liked it more. 

We were just a few minutes walk from the funicular which took us up to the top of Castle Hill.  Ian and I spend a lot of time just wandering around the area as it was really pretty.  We had manged to time our visit so that we got there before most of the tour buses arrived and managed to get a lot of good photos without lots of people in them.

We went to a lovely restaurant in the Castle district that Ian had booked for us on our anniversary called Alabardos which served traditional Hungary food with a modern twist.  The food was fab and we drank lots of Hungarian wine, a different wine with each course as recommended by the sommelier.

6. Eat Hungarian Goulash In Hungary

I was under the impression that goulash was a type of stew but on most of the menus that I saw in Hungary goulash was listed as a soup. 

Having eaten it on a particularly cold day, I can see why it's popular - it was lovely and warming and I really liked it.  Definitely one to try and make...

45. Celebrate My 40th Birthday And Not Care That I’m 40

It was my 40th birthday when we were in Vienna.  To be honest I don't care that I'm 40, I certainly don't feel like I'm 40 - how does that feel?  In my head I still think that I'm about 25, I guess one day I'll grow up and figure out what I want to do with my life (maybe when I'm 60?)

Ian had secretly organised a suprise trip to the Ice Hotel in Sweden for my birthday!  I'm so excited, I've wanted to go there for years!  We're going for Valentines weekend in February and I've already started planning what I need to get - thermals are high on the list.

We went to Demel to eat (birthday) cake.  I told Ian that I had to eat 40 types of cake while I was in Vienna but I didn't manage to make it past 3, one each day that we were there.

Ian had organised dinner at the restaurant near our hotel, Drei Husaren It was listed in the guide book as one of the top 10 restaurants in Vienna (number 3 I think) so we were expecting something nice. 

When we first arrived at 7.30pm there were 2 other couples in the restaurant but both of them were just finishing their meal and went off on a tour.  So we were the only people in the place, along with the waiters and the piano player.  The piano player asked if we had any songs that we wanted played and I told him to just play whatever he wanted, so he got up and walk offed :-)

The food was ok but nothing special really and the dessert was bad, chocolate cake that didn't taste of chocolate.  And the waiter with a bad case of BO.

We each had 3 courses and one glass of wine as well as one bottle of water and the bill came to 200 euros!
Then the waiter came to tell us that the credit card machine didn't work and we needed to pay cash!  We didn't have enough cash with us so Ian had to go to the cash machine in the snow to get more money.  After that we had to pay to get our coats back as well!

Ian and I had a good giggle about how he had planned this surprise meal that wasn't very good but was one of the most expensive that we'd had.  It was beginning to seem like an episode of Fawlty Towers by the end.

3. Go To A Proper Kaffeehaus In Vienna And Eat Cake

One of the most famous Kaffhaus in Vienna is Demel which is just outside the Royal Palace. 

The whole reason that we went there was to eat cake but when we looked at the menu there was no cake so I asked the waitress for a cake menu and she 'Cake is at the buffet'.  We were a bit confused about what we were suppose to do and thought that we had to go and sit in the other part but finally Ian figured it out.  You have to go and look in the display cases and tell the assistant there what cake you want, then she gives you a ticket for your waitress. 

You can also watch the bakers at work through a glass window. 

Phillipe Starck and his wife were having lunch just a few tables away from us....

4. Eat Schnitzel In Vienna

I really like to try and eat at least a few traditional dishes when I go to new places so it seemed logical that I tried Schnitzel in Vienna. 

We went to the oldest schnitzel restaurant called Figlmuller which has been running since 1905.

The schnitzel are huge, they were hanging off the edge of the plate!  I really liked it but there was no way that I could eat it all.  I think that you would have to starve all day to be able to eat a whole one, most of the other customers around us couldn't finish their's either and quite a few of them wrapped them up to take home.

2. Visit Vienna

Ian and I went to Vienna for 3 days to celebrate my 40th birthday.  Neither of us had been to Austria before and we were really looking forward to it. 

We stayed at the DOCO Hotel in the centre of Vienna which was a really nice hotel and opposite St Stephen's Cathedral.  Unfortunately the weather decided that it wouldn't play nicely and it was freezing when we were there, apparently 10 degrees below the normal temp for that time of year and it snowed too. 

Not exactly the best type of weather for sight-seeing but we did our best - we went to the Spainish Riding School and watched the horses training. 

We also went on the Hopon-Hopoff bus tour one day so that we could see most of the sights without freezing.  We went to see the Hundertwasserhaus which was pretty funky looking, unfortunately you can't tour around any of the apartments so we could only look from the outside.

65. Clear Out The Kitchen Cupboards

As half the contents of the cupboards had to be taken out anyway this weekend, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to clear out all of them.  So I empty everything and threw away all of the stuff that I didn't want/need.

Everything is all neatly back in the cupboards again but I'm not sure how long it will take us to remember where I decided to move everything too.  Ian jokingly asked if we could label the drawers, at least I think he was joking.  I might just hide the label machine incase he wasn't.

26. Go For Afternoon Tea

We went to the Hotel New York this afternoon for Afternoon Tea.  It was lovely, nice sandwiches and lots of dinky little cakes and pastries on a cake stand.  I did think that the sandwich could have been cut in half to make them more dainty but I'll forgive them for that ;-)

Not quite on par with the afternoon tea that we had at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town - there were only 19 types of tea to choose from compared to 35 at Mount Nelson.  I'm definitely going back there for afternoon tea one day.

After that we went for a walk in Kralinge Bos around the lake as it was quite a sunny afternoon still.  It was a little bit cold but I like it when it's sunny and cold, always seems like it's much healthier to walk in that type of weather.  Probably not any different from normal but it is in my head.

47. Finish The DIY Jobs In The House So We Can Sell It

We're busy revamping the kitchen to make it look more modern.  The actual cabinets are perfectly fine and still look good and we've replace the combined microwave/oven and put in a new oven and replaced the dishwasher over the last few years so they're all fine too.

The worktop and tiles were really old fashioned and I've never liked them so we decide to replace them.  So this weekend Ian and his Dad have changed the worktop and installed a new sink and hob.  Even without the new tiles it looks great, once the tiles are in place it's going to look fab. 

There was a lot of attempts to get the wiring in the hob correct because it has to be connected to 2 fuses due to the Dutch wiring system.  Lots of trial and error with only certain parts of the hob working but they got there eventually.