Enough partying for now

My birthday weekend was one long party and when you reach a certain age this can be exhausting. Haha, only joking. Of course I still have the stamina to go all the way and party with the best!

It started already mid-week with the birthday dinner of my friend Evi. She invited us to Mochi, one of the best Asian fusion places in town! We ate our way through everything on the menu and by the time desert came I was all around happy. Happy Birthday once again and great that you are joining the big 4-0!

My own celebrations started on Friday in the office with champagne and cake. Since I made the cake for yours truly, of course I have to you show my creation again. I happened to make a smaller one as well which we devoured on Monday in the office. Cakes never keep for a long time around here.

And while the planned evening with the girls and karaoke fell through, the alternative program happened to be a blast. My friend and I started at the Deli where we got talking to the people at the table next to us. And before I knew what was happening they had ordered me a little birthday cake (a brownie with vanilla ice-cream and not a burger with mashed potatoes; really, people with bad eye sight should just get glasses!)

The brownie broke the ice and we moved our tables together, shared a bottle of wine and later on went dancing (aka standing next to the bar) at the Chaya Fuera. When I was leaving the club I had some trouble finding the exit! I mean what’s the point of hanging floor length curtains in front of walls? It irritates the h*ll out of people who might have tunnel vision at some point during the night, it’s also a bit embarrassing when you see someone looking behind every curtain. So glad it wasn’t me though…

Saturday more partying was happening; it was the weekend and I have a reputation to uphold. But first a visit to my brother’s place where a very bad-tempered midget was working on my head-ache.

So glad that I could spend the afternoon taking a two hour power-nap to be ready for the evening. I was invited to a spring party which was held at the Deli Bluem about which I wrote here. All pictures now are from the hostess Ros who also organized this amazing evening. My friend from Deli Bluem was responsible for the great food though! Here are the two organizers! The evening was lovely and I even got my own raw vegan birthday cake. How is that for a birthday? Three cakes for me and I only had to make own myself. I really have great friends and I love them all!

 

 

Before going home I got a bouquet of peonies, half open and smelling lovely. The next day they were already open a bit more and today I took another picture and they are in full bloom! Aren’t they beautiful?

Last but not least on Monday evening I celebrated with my family since my brother, sister and great-cousin have their birthdays all around mine. We went for dinner at the Motto (great place, great food) where I got a rose from my brother’s garden. This rose looked so amazing this morning that I had to take a picture of it in front of another birthday gift which had finally arrived last fall. I wrote about my woes with Infurn already, therefore it is only fair to say that I got my chair in the end and it is beautiful! A really great gift from all of my friends! Yours, Pollybert

PS: Still, don’t order with Infurn! I just got lucky!

Design furniture heaven

One has to love one’s friends! Mine are especially generous and yesterday I got invited by T. an architect to see the furniture exhibition at the Semper Depot (only German). The last time I was there I went to see the Winter market I saw. This time it was for the furniture exhibition organized by H.O.M.E. magazine. Best part about it was that the event was open in the evening by invitation only and free drinks! Yeah, way to go. I had a slight problem though since I am not drinking during lent (except on special occasions which I decide!).

Anyway, so far I had only seen the ground floor and was especially curious to see all the other levels. Right after arriving on the first level I had this gorgeous view. And it got better and better the higher we climbed. And as an incentive there was a bar waiting on every level! I was not really interested in the furniture. I am not planning on buying anything in the near future, I love my place exactly as it is at the moment. Especially after my chair from Infurn arrived (already last October), totally unexpected (read about my woes with Infurn here)! But seeing furniture in such an amazing environment turns everything instantly in a need-to-have-right-now object!

So I decided to limit myself to the bar area with a glass of water (I can do it, I am calm and I am strong!), admiring the interior of the Semper Depot and the furniture from afar. My friend took the admiring a bit further and tested one of the beds. Oh, and you are never too old for some pillow fight!

My friend Mimi is way too distinguished for such public behavior, he rather made the rounds, shaking hands, lots of small talk plus checking all the goods on display while making a phone call. But even he could not withstand the charm of the cutest visitor of the exhibition. I will never say again that a man is not able to multitask.

The exhibition is open until Sunday, I will leave you with some more impressions! The last picture is from my must-have object. Wouldn’t know where to put it, it just strikingly beautiful!
Yours, Pollybert

Hands off from Infurn

This post shall serve as a warning to everyone who wants order at Infurn. I have already written about the company here but at that time I was not aware that there would be more surprises in store for me.

Long story short: I ordered on January 4th an Eames chair replica with an ottoman, was ‘told’ (ok, so I read it on their website) that the delivery time is somewhere around 12 weeks (let’s be generous here). We have now October 7th, I received the ottoman on August 28th (yeah, way to go!!) and was then told after my inquiry about the actual chair that it would be delivered around September 27th. When I checked my order last week (there is no communication between this company and their customers. Every information needs to be looked up on their website, no information is given by mail) I found out that the chair has already been delivered to me on the same days as the ottoman which was according to their record August 31st. Which was a Saturday by-the-way and nobody delivered anything on this day to me.

Upon inquiring quite urgently now with the customer service this was their only reply:

Great, no? I sent about 6 messages so far, plus I called their service hotline and was told in Spanish that I cannot leave message! I already paid for everything on January 4th and all I have to show for it is the ottoman with a crease. For me it is too late, I have an appointment with the consumer protection service on Wednesday, but my post might help you! Don’t shop at Infurn!

Birthday presents and other mysteries

Two years ago my friends presented me with an amazing gift for my birthday. They had all chipped in and gave me a lot of cash to buy myself the perfect reading chair.

First it took me ages to start looking and then even longer to choose one, but in the end I settled on an Eames Chair. Although it was an obscene amount of money, it was not enough to buy the real deal. I therefore decided on a replica, ordered and paid for it online on January 5th (this year) at Infurn.

And guess what? The ottoman got delivered on Wednesday. The chair is still missing, but it can only be weeks now, at least by the information on their website. Because as a special customer service you only get bombarded by their newsletters on a weekly basis, but for information on your orders you have to log on to their website and check for an update.

Usual delivery time is 10-12 weeks. After 18 weeks I was informed that the chair was not passing their quality inspection and the delivery would be delayed another 8 weeks. That would have made it the beginning of July in my books, not in theirs though. For my inconvenience they gave me twice a 10% gift certificate in the amount of the chair price. If I order something now I will probably have it for Easter next year.

While the ottoman is undeniable beautiful there is one visible fault that kind of disturbs me. A crease right in the middle between the two buttons.

But I don’t want to complain, the thing is finally here. I might be a bit worried about the rest of the chair though.

Also on this exciting Wednesday I had a cultural program in the evening. With my ‘go to’ (or better go with) friend Sylvia for all things cultural we had a ‘Mystery Tour’ planned at Schloss Neugebäude (Neugebäude Palace).

This was as far as the mystery went. We read about it on the announcement but there was no mystery to be detected on the guided tour we took.

Sylvia and our ‘quota man’ Georg paying rapt attention to the explanations of our guide.

We decided to pass on the included goulash and headed home. All in all the palace was not worth the visit, maybe it’s better during the day?

Us girls from the ‘city’: Sylvia, yours truly and Karin

I also have a sportive update. I have signed up for Vienna Night Run in fall and started with the training this morning. I know, I know, there is still room for improvement.

On another note, I will be going to Spain next Friday and you can look forward to a couple of travel posts from there.
Yours, Pollybert