Nice to meet you...

It's always a pleasure to meet those graceful,

long legged, long necked beauties.

The little Zeb in the back adds to the fun.

Adrenalin Grass

I've been roaming around some of my earlier pictures

and found those which illustrate perfectly the meaning of

"Adrenalin Grass"

It simply means that if you enter this high, stiff grass

your adrenalin pumps, since you never know what you might meet.

Back to Alois and the R.C. Hierarchie!

As I mentioned two entries ago, Investigators found a good deal to criticize in the World of Alois ( Bishop Schwarz) and his lady, Andrea. They spoke so far only of his financial generosity to himself and to Andrea.
They wanted to report to the world at large what they had found and how they might improve the situation. 
However, guess what, The Vatican, lead by Franciscus, said : No bloomin' way are you going public with all the dirt. It has to be kept a secret. Otherwise some people might leave our "Club" and other members would likely be less generous at the "collection"...
So, all of you investigators: Keep your mouths shut and don't even think about a "Press conference".

And now for some kudos for the Carinthian R.C. Church leaders :

They gave a big "rasberry" to Rome and called a Press Conference in spite of  this prohibition.

According to a report in the "Kleine Zeitung",  (19th Dec. 2017) during 2016 Alois and his girl friend Andrea Enzinger spent a total of  €700,000.00 but this increased in 2017 to €1,900,000.00.
There used to be some kind of a check in place which stipulated that Alois would have to consult a panel of advisors, if the expenditures were €100,000.00 or more. 
Now this was a lot of nuisance, which Alois did not particularly like. What to do? That's simple: Alois dissolved this Panel and hired his own man and, additionally, he increased this threshold  from one hundred thousand Euros to a lofty One Million Euros.
(Who needs such a pesky controller looking over your shoulder if all you want to do is spend $100,000 Euros.?)
It is almost a joke  when Alois had the church invest $600,000.00 in a "Wirtschaftsethikinstitute"
That's a long German word which, translated into English, means: (now get this!) 
"Institute for Business Ethics".
But first, wait a moment, Alois spent One Million Euros on the erection of a "Bath house".
I suppose he would need a Million Euro Bath House in order to clean all the dirty business happening under his jurisdiction.
Now, you might justifiably ask: Were there not annual audits in place, as in every other institute dealing with the public's money? Oh yes, there used to be such things.  Alois declared them "unnecessary" and suspended them four years ago.

Andrea Enzinger, ran the Educational House as well as the 64 Hotel rooms connected therewith.
Operating Expenditures under her jurisdiction  more than doubled in 2017 over prior years.

And so it goes from terrible to horrific.
  
This cannot be publicized! It would cause a loss of trust in our congregation. Oh Yeah? Keeping such a financial and moral quagmire of which many people knew a secret  would not?
 This is so typical of the Roman Catholic Church: The lower echelon molests children and the higher one "misuses" funds. Actually, they both do both; depending on their character and needs.

Bertstravels
can just say: "Beware of the false Prophets"

Is it really ?

Atheism is a  "Non-Prophet" Organisation.

( ; - )

Bert just loves Puns

Where goest thou, R.C.C Church

To all good church-going, believing Roman Catholics!

I hope that you have paid your Church Tax and  that you are generous to a fault when the collection bag, with the little bell at the bottom, comes around to you at Sunday Mass. Do not drop a miserly coin or two into this begging tool, but make sure it's paper money showing a big amount.
The RCC needs the money. 
The Bishop of this "Bistum" was Mr. Alois Schwarz. 
At his disposal were properties and funds which count into the millions of Euros. 
Alois has now been transferred from Klagenfurt (Carinthia) to St. Pölten ( Lower Austria).
Why?
There may well be a number of reasons. 
First, Bishop Alois had, what is referred to as a "close relationship" with a lady, called Andrea Enzinger. Alois promoted Andrea to the Chief of the "Educational House" at an annual salary of €91,000.00 ( Can$136,500) plus an automobile and a lavish apartment. This, one may assume, is only the tip of the iceberg.
All of this was a bit too much for the Catholic Hierarchy and Alois was transferred as mentioned above.
High Ranking Auditors and Business  Controllers left their jobs at mutual agreement. (this is a fancy word for "being fired")
.An Investigator/Controller was charged with the task of digging up the truth and writing a report about the goings-on at the Bistum of Klagenfurt. This report was written and supplied to the Vatican.
A press conference was called to report to the dues paying public what really happened in the offices of  Bishop Alois Schwarz.
This report must have been pretty damaging because... 
and now get this...
The Vatican prohibited its publication.

And if you think that such a thing happened only here and this one time, you have another think coming. If "they" do not molest children, they misappropriate funds in gargantuan amounts.

Do you think
Bertstravels is astonished?
Not at all. Such behaviour is expected.

The End is the Beginning

Well, if you want to read this story and have it make sense, you must scroll back to  Segment 1.

The End is the Beginning -part -11 -

Goodman and Miller in the Cafe Graf                                                                    

Music is part of our life. My father played every string instrument extant. He was best on the Cello and the guitar. There is a story, that he and his brother got musical instruments one Christmas. Franz, my father, got a violin and his brother Felix got a guitar. They also were enrolled in lessons. Franz would study his violin, but every chance he got, he grabbed his brother’s guitar and taught himself. Before long he played the violin quite well, but the guitar even better. Much better, they say, than his brother Felix. My mother played the Zither and she sang beautifully. She had a light, silvery voice. When we did the dishes after dinner, Irmgard would wash, I would dry, Inge would sit by the kitchen table and knit fancy table cloths with a huge round knitting needle, mother would do something else, but we all sang. Doing the dishes and singing went hand in hand. Often, the dishes long done, we’d still be singing. We sang excerpts from Operettas, we sang Folk Songs, we sang Schubert’s  “Trout quintet “

“In einem Baechlein helle, da schoss in froher Eil, die launige Forelle, vorüber wie ein Pfeil. Ich stand an dem Gestade und sah in süßer Ruh des muntern Fischleins Bade im klaren Bächlein zu.”

I still remember the lyrics. More than sixty years later.

The Americans have just come to Braunau. I don’t yet quite understand it, but I will in the future: they bring us

“freedom liberty and bread.”

I am shortly to discover one other thing they bring:

I bum around in the Main Square, the Stadtplatz.

A few houses down from City Hall is  Café Graf. As you walk in you come to the sales section. They sell rich home made chocolate torte, delicious  pralines,  bon bons,  juicy fruit cakes. This is what we call a “Konditorei” At the back is a glass door, which is always open. It leads to the actual “Caffehaus”  where you sit at a small round marble topped table and can have all the sweets from the Konditorei, together with strong coffee or tea. You may also have Cognac, various liquors, or a glass of  good wine.

All this is hearsay. I am too broke for the Konditorei and too young for the Cafehaus. Every time I pass by, I glance in, because I know, someday I’ll sit in there and eat and drink anything I like.

The Americans seem to like the atmosphere of this little place. They take it over as their club. Now I have friends who will take me there. Richard Keegan for one, but several others too. They bring an electric record player and stacks of  records.

This is the place where I first hear Benny Goodman play 

“Sing Sing Sing” and Glen Miller’s “In the Mood,” and the 

“String of Pearls” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo” with the lush Tenor Sax and vocals of Tex Bennecke. Never, ever before have I heard a voice like Billy Holiday’s.

                                                                       

I am certain I have just arrived in musical heaven.

That’s what music must sound like.

I can feel the pulsating rhythm in my whole body.

I not only hear the melodies but remember them at first hearing.

I hear Music with a capital M.

I know that I have been secretly waiting for this Music.

                                   

They tell me it’s called "Jazz."

My American friends teach me how to pronounce this beautiful word, so it does not sound like a board game.

I hang around there for days and listen to “Stompin’ at the Savoy”, “Down Under Camp Meeting” I fall in love with Louis Armstrong’s silvery trumpet and his gravelly voice.

I listen to Harry James play the “Trumpet Blues” and Tommy Dorsey’s rich trombone.

Who ever heard anything better than Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five.?

I learn the meaning of “Dixieland” and on first hearing I understand that they are all playing around the same chord structure. Everybody improvises like crazy and it comes out sounding beautiful.

But not to my mother’s ears. She declares it:  “unmitigated noise”.

“They are not even playing the same tune” she fusses.

My pleading to listen carefully and she would know that this is beautiful music falls on deaf ears, figuratively speaking.

                        ***************

This is the End of this story. There could be many more!