Losing it

9 May 2018

Today seems to have been all about “losing it”.  We lost the sunshine to thunderstorms.  I lost our prepaid credit card, and Cornelia lost it when she woke up in Salzburg.  The odd one out is the third of these.  The other things were found.  Cornelia totally lost her shit tonight.

Let’s start the day.

She surprised us by waking up just after 07:00.  This was most unexpected as she’d been to bed so late last night, but she was keen to get up and have breakfast.  After showers (ah, luxurious hotel showers…!),we enjoyed a fabulous breakfast, spoiled only by the need to exercise resisting the temptation to stuff our faces with pancakes, pastries and other delicious-looking pastries.

Ian was in charge of tourism for the day, so we followed him off down into the old town, to the splendid gold-roofed house.  Cornelia was momentarily interested, before charging after pigeons!  We found a playpark where she was able to run around with Daddy for a bit, before announcing she needed a poo.  I have to say, the Austrian loos are terrific!  Spotless, modern and spacious.  An odd observation, but worth noting!

We checked out of the hotel and navigated our way to the cable cars which would take us to the top of the mountain.  To my great horror, when I went to pay, our credit card was no longer in my wallet.  Anyone who has lost a credit card knows the pain of retracing your steps in your head!  I knew that I’d paid the hotel bill, then been distracted when Ian arrived with Bluebell immediately after.  But then, I was sure I’d had it in the parking lot at the cable car car park, because I could remember being annoyed that the ticket machine didn’t take credit cards.  Anyway, we paid for our cable car tickets in cash, and headed up to the snow.  Ian was still in his shorts!  Cornelia loves a good cable car, and this one was no exception!

We dismounted two-thirds of the way up, in order to move to the next car that would take us to the very top.  It was much colder at the top, as you would expect, and we climbed the stony path to the peak for photos.  The view was predictably AMAZING, made even more atmospheric by the rumble of thunder that was heading our way.  Sure enough, the rain came as we marched back down.  Bugsy was tired and hungry, so we had lunch at the halfway point down the mountain, which was surprisingly good and reasonably priced.  I am trying to cut down on mid-morning snacks for her, as she’s getting into the habit of not eating her lunch.  It worked a treat today, as she wolfed her chicken nuggets and chips!

The whole experience was slightly tainted for me, as I couldn’t stop thinking about this bloody credit card.  Once we were back at Bluebell, I checked around the van and the top of the ticket machine.  It was nowhere to be found.  I had already called the hotel and they definitely hadn’t found it.  Ian suggested he go and check in case anyone had handed it in.  I said a small prayer, and it worked!!!  Ian came gambling back to the van with a huge grin on his face.  Someone had found it in the car park and handed it in!  I can’t thank that person enough!

So, our happy little trio set off for Salzburg.  Cornelia was allowed her one hour of screen time on her Kindle, and as Ian had done most of the driving so far, I was keen to spend some time behind the wheel.  No sooner had we swapped seats, we were stuck in traffic, and Ian watched in horror as his carefully-built up mpg started sinking lower and lower… As we crossed the Austrian-German border, we were selected to be investigated.  How exciting!  It’s like being a school, when you know you haven’t done anything wrong, but feel really guilty anyway!  Answering questions like “Where are you going?” and “Where have you come from today?” suddenly feel like the most difficult questions!  Thankfully, I have been OCD about my organisation of “stuff” (which was why losing my credit card was so bloody frustrating), so was very quickly able to lay my hands on our passports, driving licence and insurance papers.  Four sweaty armpits later, and we were waved on our way.  Phew!

I managed to weave my way through diversions and accidents without causing any of my own, and we finally arrived at our Air BnB in Salzburg.  Cornelia had been asleep for just over an hour, and woke up literally as I parked the van.  Cue a completely changed child.  She screamed and sobbed, and screamed and sobbed, and screamed and sobbed.  Nothing particular was the matter, other than she was tired and had just woken up.  She didn’t stop the whole time Julia was showing us around her flat, and continued even after she had left.  She wouldn’t let Ian anywhere near her, she wouldn’t even raise her head to say hello to Julia, and she kept screaming at me that she wanted her Kindle back.  (Note, she had used her hour’s allowance for the day, and no amount of screaming earns extra time!)  The grand finale was her hitting me in the face (yes, really!).  I have zero tolerance for that, and it took some time before she was breathing normally, had unclenched her fists and given me the apology she needed to give before I would discuss anything with her.  It is SO difficult to know what to do when she is like this, especially as she’s disturbing the neighbours, but I’m sure that as long as I deal with it as I would have at home, I’ll get the same results.  Anyway, it was a completely hideous evening, with her alternating between bursting into tears or wanting to cuddle me as close as possible.  She did, however, eat her tea, and have a shower.  Bedtime has been another difficult one tonight.  She just wouldn’t go to sleep, despite being desperately tired! She has now climbed into our bed, and Ian (who is really tired) has just decided he needs to sleep, so is in her bed.  Who knows what the morning shall bring?!!!  Hopefully not the two extra lbs I must’ve put on tonight in beer and chocolate…