Edith Lappel A Birthday Treat

Edith Lappel - Photo by Nigel A.  JAMES

The Best Show on Earth

Sometimes, when celebrations come knocking, a nervous kind of worry steps in.  And, this often happens when others are dealing with the subject of one’s very own life. So, when Edith Lappel found out that a power-point show of her life was intended for one of her birthdays of note, she had to take action. She took the whole thing into her hands, and, instead of a one-evening party, a weekend of fun and discovery took off!

With only close family and the very best of her friends, the tour began with a glass of champagne outside the place of her birth, Then came the house she grew up in – which – amazingly hadn’t changed in the slightest. Even the windows were still the same colour!  Dinner at her favourite Viennese restaurant followed, and then, early to bed, because action was coming.

The next day was the day of her schooling. Her kindergarten, her school and her college, and, of course, at each port of call a glass of the bubbly! And then, after lunch, the train down to Graz, her favourite Austrian city.

It was there that she first started working, and, it was there, amongst the narrow cobbled streets that the memories of the young-fun-that-just-has-to-be were planted! And, there she was, once again, having just the same hoot as those days long ago!  But, the party had still to crescendo!

And, it did in a theatre, her favourite cabaret stage from the past, and, there it was still, just as good and as cutting and as fresh as if time had stood still.  But, of course, time does carry on, and, lunch the next day was back in Baden, the small town just south of Vienna where the trip had begun.

 And the lunch that she made was her childhood, pure!  Her favourite dish that her mum used to make, Wiener Schnitzel with salad and served with a glass of nicely cooled wine. In many respects, our tastes never  grow up, and, nor does our love of good fun!

The three days of showing her past were far better than a second-hand show on the wall, and, everyone there went knowingly home, Edith had shown them herself as she is!