Yes Hiss, I’m back! A little daunted at the prospect of trying to catch up on everyone, but back nonetheless. My reunion with Marion was truly heart-warming or sickening, depending on your point of view. It’s a little frightening loving someone that much— let’s just say I’ve never missed my parents like that. Or anyone. But there were overseas moments that put my mind off her for a minute or two.

Anyway, because this is the 100th entry, I had all sorts of things planned— a description of my European jaunt and some top five lists, which would probably take me until February to finish if I did it properly. Instead, I’ll just do a few top five lists:

Top five artistic moments in Europe:
• Seeing Manet, Munch, Schiele and Klimt at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna. The Kiss (available on the Belvedere page) was extraordinary and had me blubbering at its beauty, but I liked Adam and Eve even more. Even though it’s unfinished (look at their hands), their look of utter contentment in their pre-apple paradise is amazing. And they’re both beautiful, sort of like Marion and me if I was handsome, dark and buffed.
• Singing in the Frederikskirke in Copenhagen. It’s a beautiful church, round with a huge dome and an acoustic of nine seconds.
• Arriving at my first Irish pub, having my nearly-first Guiness, listening to the musicians sitting in the front window, just playing to themselves, and gulping in the smoke-free air. I’ll think twice about ever going into a smoky pub again.
• Singing Black is the Colour of my True Love’s Hair to the gentle folk of Cahirciveen, a place I unsuccessfully tried to learn to pronounce.
• Chasing up James Joyce in Dublin.

Five cities ranked from least to most annoying:
• Vienna (arty, excellent public transport, lots of pretty girls)
• Hamburg, especially the Altona area (easy to get around, great restaurants and pubs, easy to find red-light-district)
• Copenhagen (easy-going, clean, but expensive and doesn’t use euros)
• Amsterdam (excellent art, but difficult to navigate if you’re stoned, trams difficult to work out, watch the bikes)
• Dublin (mysterious bus system, nowhere to park, no street names, streets keep changing their names anyway)

So yes, I directed a couple to the red-light district in Hamburg in German on my second day there, of which I was very proud. I had a couple of space-cakes in Amsterdam, and was more annoyed with Dublin than pleased.

Five cuisines not to miss:
• Germany— schnitzel with noodles (spätzle)
• Denmark— pizza (it’s the only thing you’ll be able to afford)
• The Netherlands— pancakes
• England— full English breakfast
• Ireland— Guiness

Note the decided lack of any fruit or vegetable matter in that lot...

Five lucky finds:
• The beautiful town of Ardmore in Ireland
• A non-smoking section in a Viennese restaurant
• A seat with a view of the runway at Kuala Lumpur airport
• The English Church in Amsterdam (the choir was lucky to find it at all)
• A lost kitty notice in Seeon, over the lake from where I had seen a found kitty at a hotel

So, heartwarmingly, the Katte (kitty) got back to it’s owner, all due to me. ☺

Now some specifically 100th entry stuff:

My five (OK, six) favourite entries:
• A kiss is just a kiss: though wouldn’t do this now, I’m still quite proud of it
• Deutsch ohne Untertitel: a potential date with a future girlfriend— with three other chicks as well!
• Country afternoon teas: my most notorious and googled entry
• Uncharacteristic behavour: don’t try and combine flirting with drinking litres of tea
• Something a bit like fencenet but more interesting: Daphne always does great parties. My last flirtation before I decided to try hard for Marion
• Bloomsday 2004: Wow, I’m so literary. Strangely enough, Marion doesn’t get a mention

My five worst entries:
• I like routers and I’m not ashamed of it: N-N-NNNNERD!!!!!
• I need a girlfriend: did the last paragraph make any sense when I didn’t have a girlfriend, or was it always incoherent?
• Facing the abyss: does being utterly wrong count as bad?
• HTML taboos and poorly designed clock-radios: the nerd rears his bepimpled head once again. Nice picture though
• Too busy!!!: despite much enlightening pondering over Lia’s question, I never got around to typing anything

Five interesting entries about Marion:
• Enough of this G-rated dreaming!: Her first mention
• Oh the merengue is a sexy dance: Even though we obviously fancied each other it took four and a half months to get together
• Footy thrash profanity grrls!!!: Our first hot date (and an unsuccessful attempt to find a bucks party)
• You’re so sweet: Oops!!!
• I’m glad my pimple waited until tonight to flare up: It was on for young and old after this... why did I wait so long?

I’m able to post this tonight because I have a fever, so Marion isn’t coming over. So my significant loss is your insignificant gain. It’s good to be back though...

Here’s an interesting entry I’ve been reading by .

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