A while ago my small partner in crime and I went to register the business at the Chamber of Commerce (WKO). It’s challenging, shall we say, to do it in your third language — especially with a completely unpredictable one-year-old. But the lady we spoke to was patience itself and didn’t bat an eyelid when my golden nugget dumped the entire contents of my purse onto her desk. The nugget quickly tired of her unappreciative audience and went to investigate the long corridors of Vienna’s WKO.
“Wo ist deine Mama?” — six worried faces looked out of their offices. Mama was standing in the doorway, trying to discuss the registration while keeping track of her little explorer. Oblivious, the little explorer turned on the charm while wandering in and out of rooms, but the worried faces held their ground. Eventually, she gave up and returned to us.
We were almost finished when my lucky charm found a bowl of small things (read in capitals: CHOKING HAZARDS). But the WKO lady was so kind that she let us choose one to take home, and my little helper picked a Glücksschweinchen.
“Baba,” my lucky charm said on the way out. “Baba,” six cooing faces waved her goodbye. Since then, I’ve been carrying my little piglet in my purse — and I hope it will bring us good luck.