My go-to place is Vienna. I’ve been there twice this year already and plan to go back again in a couple of months’ time. It helps that I can stay with a mate who is the hostess with the mostess. Welcome presents await you as you arrive; she remembers what you like to drink and eat and stocks up accordingly, and cooks you delicious meals including preparing a state-of-the art breakfast every morning. When friends stay at mine, they consider themselves lucky, if I take them to the nearest greasy spoon.

Ironically, whenever I go to Vienna, I tend never to visit anything despite there being loads to see and do. This time I told myself I would definitely visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum – one of the finest art museums in the world, the Leopold Museum ( THE place to go if you’re an aficionado of Schiele and Klimt) and the Schönbrunn Palace (THE place to go if you like low-key interior design – I’m joking). As per usual, I ended up going to none of them, but I did make it to the odd café and restaurant and caught up with friends.

To be fair, I did manage to see the outside of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum from the roof of an overpriced cocktail bar, and at one point was driven in a taxi past the Belvedere (another fantastic treasure trove for art) but that was it as far as any sightseeing went.

In my defence, I managed a trip to Graz and back at the weekend, but again my time there was mainly spent sitting in the garden, eating wonderfully home cooked meals with the sole exception of going swimming in the Schwarzlsee on Sunday morning. A visit which ended in my mate’s son having to pull me up what I would personally regard as a mid-range mountain and everyone else a small hill. Fortunately for me, it turns out my mate’s son is deceptively strong.

During a busy morning of Googling, I became particularly excited at the news that my favourite contemporary author, Wolf Haas, had a new book out. I rushed to the Thalia bookshop on the Mariahilfer Straße, surprised to find that the book did not seem to be on sale anywhere in the shop. Undeterred, I asked the helpful shop assistant where I could get a copy of Wolf Haas’s latest book. ‘Müll?’ he queried. ‘No, I’ve read that,’ I replied with the obligatory eye roll at his professional ignorance. ‘The latest one. He’s got another one out.’ It was precisely at that moment that I wished I could remember what the book had been called. Nevertheless, I was adamant and not in the least fazed by the fact that a shop assistant in a major book chain in Austria seemed unaware that one of Austria’s most successful contemporary authors had a new book out. I insisted he double check for me. Anyway, it turns out the book is coming out in September.

However, the evening continued apace. I’d organised for my mate and I to go and see the latest Indiana Jones movie. By organised, I mean I’d looked up the film times on Google. Sadly, I didn’t check the dates (this seems to be a running theme) and I had failed to notice the programme changed on Mondays.  It was now Wednesday. After queueing in a spectacularly busy cinema, we found out it wasn’t on. Hence, how we ended up at an overpriced cocktail bar in the Museum Quarter.

It turns out the reason I go back to Vienna so often isn’t for the art, the culture, the historic buildings, it’s not even for the scrumptious cakes; it’s for the friends I’ve had there for decades which truly makes Vienna for me my holiday home. Plus, sharing memories with them over pouch drinks adds a special touch to every visit.