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Every summer, Vienna becomes the centre of the dance world for one month between mid-July and mid-August when ImPulsTanz brings the world of contemporary dance to Vienna. Every day of the week there are two or three world-class performances during the long summer evenings, followed by parties late into the night. This year, there are even midnight performances in the Wild Walk series, with shows starting at 11:30pm.

This past month’s weather has been a fortune teller’s nightmare; in fact, the previous two volcanos in Iceland, another two in Ecuador and Guatemala, a month long oil spill, all wreaking general havoc seem like the apocalyptic prophesy come true, echoing in shameless vengeance: I told you so.

For once there is nothing arrogant about preferring to be fashionably late.

Apr. 17, 2010, ICE 26 north to Dortmund, Germany from Vienna, departure time 10:40 a.m. At Vienna Westbahnhof the lines in front of the ticket counters are easily 50 meters long. The platforms are teeming with people. The numbers pulling little black carry-on bags and shouldering laptop briefcases are a clue to who these travellers are: the airline passengers stranded when the Vienna International Airport at Schwechat was closed on Apr. 16.

The “volcano-marooned,” they described themselves.

It was an ordinary Saturday morning; I woke up at around eight and made my way out of bed to make myself some breakfast. I turned the computer on to listen to some music as I prepared for my day. I had a football match in a few hours.

My phone rang with an SMS. It was from Ammar, a friend of mine from school, it read “the Polish President has died in a plane crash.”

The Africans were perched on the low brick walls of a bridge over the moat of Sforzesco Castle with dozens of bags laid out on rugs. They whispered to the tourists coming out over the drawbridge of the red fortress into the blinding brightness of Sempione Park.

One of the bag-sellers, who introduced himself as Ahmadou*, sidled up to me as I was taking a photo.

The arrivals hall at Vienna International Airport – Schwechat. The normal crowd, the usual slight sense of heightened anticipation. Suddenly a burst of applause and enthusiastic cheering: the Vienna Boys’ Choir has come through the automatic doors, the boys in uniform, with caps perfectly straight on each head. Back from another tour, they fall happily into their parents waiting arms.

Nearly 50,000 Greek workers huddled together on the streets of Athens, taking over the city on Feb. 24. During the 24-hour long strike thousands of anxious Greeks protested against the government’s strict measures which intend to increase taxes and cut the salaries in order to improve the country’s debt crisis. The protests developed into violence, with police firing tear gas and seriously hurting some demonstrators.

For snow lovers the call of the wild is getting ever louder as more and more of us seek respite from the madding crowds. During the upcoming high season of the Austrian ski winter, congestion on the groomed ski pistes can sometimes resemble rush hour in Tokyo.

When the 39-year-old farmer’s son Wolfgang Kulturer took over as managing director of the Carinthian Hypo Bank, he formulated the bank’s destiny as follows: “Expand or die.” In order for the institution with 220 employees and total assets of €1.9 billion to balance the books, the Carinthian regional government had to take over. Three employees were put in charge of foreign business transactions. This was on Nov. 1, 1992.