The Vienna connection Part 2 - The private concert

Where did I stop last? Ah, yes. The day after the party. As you could read in Part 1, OrangeX and I actually slept through the “private concert” given by Konrad "Bones" Windisch, Christoph Schellhorn and Sascha (Links only in German. Sorry) after they had finished a gig in a club nearby. We were told that the music during the night was so loud, that Pinki expected the police to knock at his door any time. The party and music went on until about 7 am.

The next morning OrangeX and I woke up quite rested and found Andrea in the kitchen and then Pinki rolled in to join us. They had slept only about two hours, or so. All of a sudden, Andrea called us all over to the terrace where we saw this and this great picture (photos by Pinki) and sorry, blogger won't let me again.

Christoph and Sascha had fallen asleep on the terrace furniture. I still wonder how Christoph could even breathe in that position! Believe it or not, we then (noisily) started cleaning up, folding tables and benches, clearing away empty bottles, etc. and it took both boys about 10 minutes before they even opened one eye. I had already prepared coffee (they needed it more that we did) and when I came back with the cups, they were already helping out to clean-up the mess of the evening before. We sat down at the table, and Pinki offered to make breakfast for all and came back shortly after with a huge pan of scrambled eggs “à la Pinki”. Everybody dug into it and enjoyed the more than welcome meal.

It didn’t take long that Christoph reached for his guitar and started playing, and Sascha took over the second voice. For the next 1 ½ - 2 hours, we had a second private blues/jazz/bluegrass jam session. It was just fantastic! It’s such a pity that “Bones” wasn’t there, too. What fascinates me the most is when musicians are so concentrated and in their element, that you can literally see the different emotions going through them as they play. Christoph is one of them. He lives the music and music is anchored deep in his soul. I can tell you one thing: this talented young man is 23 years old and I’ll bet he’ll be up there with the big lead guitarist names sooner than we think. So keep your eyes and ears open! HA! And we bought both his CDs and had them dedicated.

After the boys left, we sat around wondering what we’d do for dinner, so we decided to take it easy and go for a meal at a local restaurant about 15 minutes walk from Pinki’s house. There are some really beautiful mansions there. Wiener Neustadt used to be a weekend getaway for the Viennese folk to be able to relax and enjoy some countryside.

We came back home, tummies filled and satisfied but still tired from the week before and the party. It was a beautiful warm summer night, so we went on the terrace, lit a few candles, put on nice background music and laid back on reclining chairs to enjoy a last drink, chat a bit and gaze at the starry sky. We had quite a laugh when Pinki's left legt went a bit crazy (muscle spasms) while reclining. Sitting in a wheelchair all day, he keeps a pretty fixed position ,so when he stretches and his body weight is shifted, his legs start to shake. He's a complete paraplegic at level T8 (8th vertabrae of the thorax), so has no control whatsoever over it. The funny thing is that you totally don't expect it. It's like:"Hey! You can move your leg!" Not!

Anyway, more to come this weekend. All about our short trip to Wiener Neustadt and Vienna... and a certain bar. Oh, and for now, you'll find photos of our day here.