Vienna and the BBC

For those of you who don’t know the story, Guy appeared on The Antiques Roadshow at the end of August with a draft script for the film The Third Man, where his lovely mother, Joy, had been secretary to the Director, Carol Reed. After the programme was aired on the BBC, we were contacted by Gerhard of The Third Man Museum in Vienna who was enormously enthusiastic about having the script in his museum. So we told the BBC, who had asked for any follow-ups, and then they said if we were visiting Vienna, could they film us? I thought it was only going to be Guy on film again, but it seems I may also be involved…

We flew Bristol to Vienna which was super quick and as we arrived in Vienna we could see our one suitcase on the carousel - Guy hurtled and got it, we got a taxi and were taken straight to the hotel. A grand total of 35 minutes from landing to sitting on the hotel bed. Phew! The hotel (Holiday Inn Vienna City) was great, very handy, and placed between a vegan ice cream shop and a vets…

We phoned Gerhard to let him know we were at the hotel and he arrived within 5 minutes - the hotel was very close to the museum, literally 300 yards away, and he took us back for a private tour before we went for dinner. His lovely wife Karin joined us later after finishing work, translating for a Japanese conductor. The plan was for filming to be done on the Sunday morning.

On Saturday morning we wandered happily round the local flea market in beautiful sunshine which was fabulous -we very nearly bought a four foot long pendant lamp but didn’t because we couldn’t figure out how to get it in the suitcase. We should have tried harder - it was a BARGAIN and would have been perfect for the refurbished cottage! We’ll just have to go back…

We bought lunch in the market - falafel, some sort of meat (I’ve no idea what, it was just ‘meat’), tomatoes, cheese, warm figs. It was delicious. We couldn’t find any benches so we sat on the plinth of a statute in the sunshine and watched the traffic. Eventually we figured out we were in the middle of a large roundabout…

By this time we’d had a phone call from the BBC saying that as it was such a lovely day, they’d like to film that afternoon, not Sunday - could we join them at the Prater (the iconic ferris wheel location from the film) which is now a pleasure park.

This was 1st October. It was Oktoberfest - the traffic was bonkers and there were people in lederhosen and dirndl skirts everywhere. Some of them really should have looked in a mirror before venturing out… Our taxi driver (straight out of ZZ Top) sensibly took us to the back entrance and told us how to walk through.

When we arrived at the Prater Guy looked up at the giant ferris wheel and said ‘Cor, you wouldn’t catch me up on one of those things’ - he’s not great at heights. Guy reckoned the Prater was the Austrian equivalent of Barry Island on speed. Because it was Oktoberfest there was a strange smell of sickly sweetness, chocolate and beer…

The first thing the BBC guys said when they met us was ‘that ferris wheel is great so we’d like to film you on the cable car’. Guy went slightly pale but said he could, and up we went - we bypassed the extensive queue due to the power of the BBC and I was allowed to carry Gerald, the furry sound boom thing - he was very cuddly.

Getting into the cable car was interesting - there was a sliding ramp which, as you trod on it, shot you towards the cable car door. Interesting, but not elegant! We did two revolutions which took about half an hour - an interview with Guy first then generic pointing and smiling with both of us. We’ve seen Homes Under The Hammer, we can do pointing and smiling. There was a great view from the top! Guy didn’t look down…

When it was time to leave (the BBC boys stayed on to get some more shots without us) they told us we had only one shot at being filmed getting out and told us ‘don’t trip up’ so I for one was concentrating very hard on (a) watching out for the sliding door (b) saying thank you to the nice man standing on the outside to pick you up if you did fall over and (c) wondering if my bum looked big from behind, so when the door opened I marched out and shot off, leaving Guy trailing in my wake. I think we were meant to walk off into the sunset holding hands. Or at least vaguely in the same shot…

We made our own way back to the museum - this time we had a female taxi driver who was the same age as us but funky and drove like a maniac - there were slidey leather seats in the back and before I had my seatbelt fastened she took off like a rocket and went round corners so fast I whooshed all the way along the back seat into Guy’s lap. Still, because she was so fast the fare was minimal! The BBC boys arrived and did the first bit of filming which was interviews with Guy and Gerhard pretending they’d only just met. They wanted me and Guy to come in through the door but gave up after the door kept sticking and I fell through it twice - they won’t use that bit. You might then be able to hear me trying to shut it very quietly in the background while Guy and Gerhard do the ‘hello how nice to meet you’ bit despite the fact we’d already been out to dinner with them the night before so actually knew them quite well…

The filming was done with different angles as there was only one camera, so we did a bit (e.g. Gerhard opening the parcel filmed from the front) then they wanted the same thing again from over his shoulder.

We were all hopeless - we kept forgetting the order we’d done things the first time.

The BBC boys were starving and had had a long day, so we decided to troop across the road for dinner then return to the museum for more filming.  Dinner was lovely (a traditional Viennese restaurant) and wine was consumed - you may be able to spot the ‘before dinner’ and ‘after dinner’ pieces…

Gerhard showed us where he was going to put the exhibition of Joy - it’s going to look really lovely.

Guy did a bit to camera at the end about it felt like the script was coming home and it was the right place to be  - I was sitting in the corner and got quite emotional at that point, but not very loudly as I was still attached to my microphone.

Gerhard finished each bit of his filming with ‘and it’s thanks to the Antiques Roadshow and the BBC’ - I think most of those will be cut out.

While the BBC finished off their filming by doing shots of the museum Guy and I put on headphones to listen to some of the FOUR HUNDRED versions of the Third Man theme that Gerhard has in the museum. Some of them are so bad they’re really funny - we stood there mostly getting the giggles. My favourite was the Ricky Martin soundalike - sounded like Ricky Martin but not very much like the Third Man theme…

Vienna is shut on Sundays - when we, of course, chose to go shopping. The cafes and souvenir shops open, nothing else. As we didn’t want souvenirs we had to make do with chocolate cakes and wine. It was a tough day.

We found two iconic locations - the doorway with the cobbles where Harry lurks (which looks totally different in real life) and we found Josef Platz - very cleaned now, it’s a huge square, strangely much bigger than it looks on film.

Public transport in Vienna is fabulous - 15 Euros for 24 hours for the two of us so about £5 each, which covers every bus, tram and train. Not only is it excellent value and runs on time but everything is spotlessly clean - they even had magazines hanging on the metro carriages by the seats!

On Monday we went for a very long bike ride with Gerhard - he took us all around the city and took lots of photos, stopping at every tourist destination.

We cycled back to the Prater which was deserted, very different (and much nicer) than the Saturday. Cycling in Vienna is great - there are cycle lanes everywhere, cars are very respectful and even people aren’t allowed in the cycle lanes. Buses stop for cyclists. It feels really safe. In a 3 hour ride we were only on proper roads for a tiny fraction of the time, but even then everyone gives way to the bicycle. Even on narrow streets cars don’t rev up behind you, they just wait patiently for you to get to where you need to be. The bicycle really is king - apart from the trams - keep an eye out for the trams. And it’s flat. We cycled a long way on the side of the Danube, across it on a cycle bridge then back along it. You can take bikes on the undergound too so if you get caught in a rainstorm (as we did) - you can just whip underground and catch it. People didn’t mind the bikes in carriages either - nobody was cross or said ‘tut’, they just managed. So unlike the Valley Lines. Guy and I had never taken bikes up an escalator before - how hard can it be? Gerhard went first and made it look so simple. As I started to push mine up and it went backwards at an alarming rate he shouted ‘put all the brakes on hard’ which did help but by then my bike had gone down two steps and I was still in the same place so I had to decide whether to go down two steps to join it and risk everything falling over, or stay put and very probably put my back out. I decided to risk it and negotiated my way back down the moving escalator, luckily without knocking everybody else over like dominos, but it was close. Phew. Gerhard said he wished he had had a video as we were both so inept - apparently it was very funny…

We didn’t travel on the metro for very long - just 3 stops - but when we got out there was no rain at all, the roads were dry, there was bright sunshine - and we were all still sopping wet. It seems the weather in Vienna is as localised as it can be in the UK. After a quick change in the hotel into something dry we realised we hadn’t eaten and it was 2pm by then. We headed back into town and wandered about until we could smell the horses. The Spanish Riding School is based in Vienna and is, oddly, smack in the middle of the city near to some of the smartest shops. The smell really does hit you when you least expect it, but it quickly became our method of navigating…

We ended up at the most touristy Café Central, which has an amazing traditional décor and grumpy waiters. We had apple strudel and fizzy wine then another glass of fizzy wine, some chocolatey things and probably more fizzy wine. Guy had a long espresso (with froth - like a cappucino but in a small cup) and I had a hot chocolate with whipped cream. Which would have been nice except it tasted exactly like Cadburys and cost about 7 Euros.  As if we hadn’t had enough chocolate, we then found the most amazing chocolate shop - we didn’t know what half of them were but we bought them anyway.

‘Going for a penny’ can be interesting - most public loos have to be paid for, and on almost every occasion I was escorted to my cubicle by the (often male) assistant! Quite often the doors were glass too… Guy also had to pay. He didn’t get the same personal service, but his did have the advantage of being called a Pissair…

Gerhard and Karin were amazing hosts - Gerhard explained the history of Vienna and why things were built the way they were. He used to do bicycle tours which he doesn’t any more, so we were incredibly lucky to have him give us such a personalised tour. He says he expects the same when he comes to the UK which could be a problem in Catbrook - we’ve really only got the Parish Hall and a couple of footpaths.

That could be tricky.

Happy Hole-iday

PS at the beginning - Guy on telly on 28th, 6.30pm BBC 1 Antiques Roadshow. Yes, he is that old... Before that there may be a bonus blog with the 'behind the scenes' story of Vienna...

So, Happy Hole-idays, eh? To be fair, most of the holes are now filled in. Hooray! So we thought we'd post a festive photo of us toasting our soon to be new house with fizz in our soon to be new sitting room.

It looks so simple, doesn't it? Oh no it wasn't (hooray it's panto season!)

First you set up the shot. There is a wheelbarrow pretending to be a table between you and the camera which has to be negotiated in the 10 seconds you have set the timer for.

You don't make it. Although it was damn close...

Have a swig of fizz and try again...

The camera falls over and takes a picture of the large hole in the ceiling...

Have another swig of fizz and try again...

The dog gets in the way...

But at least it means she's taking a break from licking the rubble where the builders cut their cake.

Try more fizz and another again...

The camera doesn't seem to work so you come back for a look...

More fizz swig, tries against...

Camera accidentally goes off whilst being re-set...

It's at this point you remember you have festive sweaters on under your fleeces...

Have a swizz more fig, one gore mo...

Your hushband hash a glarsh in each hand and you don't sheem to have made it back in time. The dog ish the only shober one in the housh...

You give up and take a shlightly drunken shelfie... Yay!

Lots of big holes

It's been a week of holes - dug out, filled, cemented, more holes dug and still more holes.

There are now vast holes under the old kitchen for the underpinning...

The bottom of the door is where the floor should be... and will be again, hopefully. Please note the lovely green paint on the wall - we're not quite sure this colour should ever have been made. It is VERY green.

Then there are holes in the base for the new barn/shed: 8 holes in all:

These have now been partly filled in with concrete which seems a shame when they were such lovely deep holes, but apparently it's something to do with the barn not falling over...

The new door way has been beautifully finished with stone and an oak lintel - the plastering will eventually go to the stones and it will look just beautiful from the Music Room (Piggery) side...

And from the kitchen!

The back door is looking nearly as festive as the outside loo - it has red and white Christmas tape all over it.  We're told it's safety tape - but it's Christmassy too.

And an exciting find - in the old kitchen, which will be the bathroom, the builders uncovered what looks like a chimney - it may even be the back part of a chimney for a bread oven, according to one of the local elder statesmen...

The idea had been to make a nice smooth wall, but this is so beautiful that we're going to keep it as a feature - there will be a basin in it. Eventually...

And finally, after the JCB left the sitting room we've been able to put some furniture back in. Look - there are chairs and a table. 

That counts as furniture, right? Crikey, it's practically ready for a Christmas dinner!

Ignore the cement mixer...

We demolish something else...

Yet again, it's been quite a week. After spending last weekend clearing out the lean-to at the side, it got demolished. On Monday.

It's the low bit on the side - ooh, and before it gets demolished, the colour of the new paint for the outside is in the middle - it's called Feldspar White. I swear that was the name of the pickle factory in Midsomer Murders... We tried to point it out to the builder on Tuesday, but by then it was a case of picking painted bricks out of the rubble...

There was a tin roof over a low wall - the general consensus was that this might once have been a piggery. It will eventually be Guy's Music Room. Or Piggery, as it will now be known...

Going, going, GONE.

Then we had a stone crusher on site to, er, crush the rubbish to make hardcore - we now have lots of piles of lovely hardcore ready to go under the house, the extensions, the new barn, the patio - ooh, will there be enough?

Then the builders made a hole in the side wall - this will go from the kitchen to the Piggery. Eventually.

From inside it definitely looks like a doorway. If a little large at this stage.

The back of the house is looking a little sad at the moment and, as one of the builders pointed out, it's shrinking by the day.  

Still, it's Christmas and there's no need to let standards drop, so we decided to put up some decorations. On the outside loo...

In the meantime, one of us made up a new game which involves bouncing round a large pile of twigs, stopping (always in the same place) and shoving our head into the twigs. We believe there is a rabbit in there. There may well have been, but if there was it was showing no sign of leaving! We think we may try again next time we visit...

There's a JCB in the sitting room...

A footnote at the beginning: Still no broadband due to a BT cockup but we've got ourselves organised and are now sitting in a festive and cosy bar in Tintern drinking Prosecco. The password is, and this is GENIUS, tinternet. We'll be coming back again just because of that.

It's been quite a week. We thought last week was exciting, what with taking the conservatory down, but OMG this week has been bonkers! Partly because the builders couldn't do anything on 'the other site' (there's always another site) due to the hard frost, and partly because OMG they work really hard!

So it's going to be a pictorial week, just because so much has happened. This is how the sitting room looked before we moved out. A bit Swedish Sauna, but really quite cosy.

And this was it by the end of Monday:

Lovely wallpaper eh? We've kept a bit of both the Swirls and the Brown Curry House types and we'll make Christmas Tree decorations out of them just to remind us, in future years, of what it was like.

By the end of Tuesday the kitchen and the bathroom had gone. Just LOOK at that damp... in the kitchen floor where there had always been a weird lump (we were expecting at least a body) the builders found 4 layers of vinyl under the carpet. And four layers of still water between the vinyl. We said it was damp...

On Wednesday the ceilings vanished. Along with the stairs. Mac, who is removing the plaster upstairs, has to get upstairs by going outside and climbing up a ladder and in through the window. He's young and agile - he's fine.

When the ceilings were removed the builders found most of a chimney. Which would be fine, if it hadn't been installed on top of the joists. Interesting construction or what? This was in the bathroom which, along with the old kitchen, was in the 'new' extension. That'll be the new extension with no foundations then... It's going to need underpinning...

On Thursday they started excavating to the side of the house for the oak framed extension (WOO HOO!!). It's a big hole. Please also note the lack of a front porch. Or, indeed, a front door.

And it's nearly a Sarah deep. The builders have avoided upsetting both the maple tree and the flowerbed - it doesn't look like much now but it's given us flowers for the house continuously since March. Amazing continuation planting so we're very keen to keep it!

On Friday we arrived to find a JCB in the living room:

That's it in front of the wallpaper... They started taking out the floors.

Which left the back door in an interesting position:

Today we've been emptying out the lean-to on the side so that it too can be demolished. There's been a huge bonfire, so our Sunday lunch was biscuits, a cuppa and two plastic chairs sitting in the sunshine near the heat of the fire behind the rubble. Bliss!

We get creative - and demolish things

We've moved out. Yep, properly gone! The new rental property is gorgeous - and DRY! We knew Atlasta was damp - but it was only when we moved the furniture we realised just how damp...

Even the carpets are wet. Bleugh. Still no matter - by this time next week there won't even be plaster on the walls any more... We are thoroughly enjoying being in a dry house and we've even had fun dismantling and rebuilding wardrobes, creating an extra worktop and getting creative with making it homely without spending even £1. [Actually that's not true, there was £1.43 for two jubilee clips for the washing machine...]

Remember the 'can you tell what it is yet' from a few weeks ago?

Well, we've now done creating!  From the plank and the forked branch we have this:

Can you tell what it is yet? No? Here's a clue then...

And from the shorter bits of wood we have this:

We are well chuffed - a hatstand and jewellery display (which doubles as artwork) for FREE. The board was from the greenhouse base shuttering, the branches were from the wood and the concrete was knocking around in the shed. Commissions (for a vast fee) will cheerfully be undertaken.

There'll be another creative display soon - a bit of kitchen worktop is going to make a dressing table. Although we may go mad and actually BUY the legs! I know - such extravagance!

The driveway is coming along nicely - it's almost passable now. The removal van (Abacus Removals, utterly brilliant) got stuck on the corner coming on his first trip - Guy and Mr Abacus got cracking with shovels and unstuck the van. The next time he drove up he simply wellied it and slid round the corner rather spectacularly, ending up just where he needed to be. The chap on the digger was looking on, open mouthed, so I said 'he used to be a stunt driver' and left it at that...

Yesterday was genuinely momentous. We removed the conservatory. That's 'we' as in the fabulous Mark with help from Rag, Archie and Pip. We genuinely couldn't have done it without them. AND they brought stollen bites...

From this:

To this:

WOW - look, there's a cute little cottage underneath! Again, a HUGE thank you to Mark and Rag - you're top of the list for the housewarming party!

Today we've had a quiet morning, we've shifted the contents of two flowerbeds, delivered dug up bulbs to a neighbour, wiped all the STILL wet paint off the inside of the outside loo and rammed in a post for a postbox (once the porch is bulldozed, the letterbox will be No More). We've hurtled down to Monmouth to find WiFi and the nice people in Caffe Nero aren't even looking at the state of us... Everyone else in here is clean...

Sarah's tip of the week:  Not really building related, but it's a good idea to label random bags of goo you put in the freezer. This avoids having pasta with stewed apple. We thought it was ratatouille...