30 September, predicted high temperature in Villach: 24 Celsius.

We have an election here tomorrow.

We've had a flier in our letterbox entitled, Einladung zur Fasslparty. Which I think means something like, 'Invitation to a keg party' - it has a picture of a keg anyway - and it says Gratis Imbiss and Getränk (free snacks and drinks). I'm pretty sure this would be illegal in Ireland or England - it wouldn't happen anyway, at least not officially. But they do things differently here. I saw a TV programme about the elections in which one candidate was going round handing out small jars of honey to people in the street.

The local TV station, ÖRF, has described the campaign as Kurz, Hart und Dirty, which means Short, Hard and Dirty. The Austrians have a four per cent threshold and the fight to get above the four per cent on the extreme right has been fierce.

The mainstream parties here are pretty centrist - it's quite likely the main right wing party, the ÖVP (currently running the government) and the main opposition party of the left, the SPÖ, will end up in a grand coalition - but there are two parties (which used to be one, which makes it an electoral civil war), the FPÖ and the BZÖ led by Jörg Haider who used to be leader of the FPÖ, are squabbling over the narrow slice of the pie made up of xenophobic Austrian voters - which is unlikely to amount to enough to put both over the threshold.

The Haider party's slogan is Wir Sind Wir - We Are Us - a slogan with which, you would think, no reasonable person would agree (unless perhaps running on an anti-schizophrenia platform, perhaps). But given the fact that the Justice minister, a party member, has just resigned because she was shocked, shocked, to discover the party had an anti-immigrant policy, it's not hard to discern a certain insularity in the phrasing.

Haider's party is unlikely to make it, being strong only in this region - Kärnten (Carinthia) - where he is our local governor. Among the free publications we get shoved in our mailbox (apart from invites to free beer) we get regular magazines featuring the local politicians, who, Kremlin-like, manage to get their picture on several pages. I did a quick count today - our city magazine Villach:aktuell had ten separate photos of our mayor, the lovely Helmut Manzenreiter. But So Viel Kärnten, a glossy publication from the governor's office has no pictures of Helmut but 20 photos of Jörg Haider, including one in (shudder) lederhosen. That's out of a possible 71.

Kremlin-score: Helmut 10, Jörg 20.

And he's not even running in the election.

Weather in Villach: Sunny, predicted high 23 celsius.

Unlike London, Villach is a pleasant city to cycle through. Even if you're very bad at cycling, which I am.

Having only been a cyclist since May, I tend to be wary of certain bike situations. Such as, in traffic facing advancing cars. In traffic, facing advancing bikes. On the cycle path, with kids on bicycles coming up behind me. People with prams coming towards me. People walking towards me. Getting up on the bike. Getting off the bike. Staying on the bike.

I still have the feeling that there's a huge arrow in the sky that points directly at me on my bike. It has a flashing neon banner that says "HEY! THIS GUY'S IN HIS FORTIES AND HE STILL CAN'T RIDE A BIKE PROPERLY!" Sometimes it flashes red.

It doesn't help that when I notice someone coming towards me I cannot avoid a weird unconscious impulse to cycle straight at them. Which I usually deal with by overcompensating wildly, which has led me to crash into the wall on a number of occasions.

Mostly these days I manage to avoid falling off most journeys. I even manage to avoid stopping suddenly and braking ferociously at least half of the times I go out.

Which is good because, like I said, Villach is a pleasant town to cycle in. The cycle path runs along the river and goes past our house and all the way into the centre of town. That's the official path marked on the map. There are lots of other routes they don't even bother to mark that run all over town, plus lots of quiet streets you can go down.

The only problem is crossing the roads. Austrian drivers seem to look upon zebra crossings as entirely voluntary. They drive towards me and hover next to the crossing, daring me to even try to get across.

The other thing is that the green light takes ages to come on, and then starts flashing after about three seconds (I'm serious here). Since it takes me a couple of seconds to get going on the bike once I notice the change, I usually end up half way across and panicking.

That's when I could actually do with a huge arrow in the sky. The one that says, "HEY! GIVE HIM A BREAK! HE'S NEW TO THIS!"

Though it may not seem so, there is heavy work going on underneath the surface of this splendid blog.

All will be revealed soon, once I've remembered how Movable Type actually works.

Oh, and I've moved to Austria. Lots more on that, I promise.