Fire & Water

Huge media event of the day: the village post office was struck by lightning! Luckily the resultant fire was quickly put out by the local fire brigade and thankfully no one was hurt. The couple who lives in the top floor was out. But what a homecoming they look forward to! Poor things.

A promise

To Manuel:

In that book which is
My memory..
On the first page
That is the chapter
when I first met you
Appear the words..
Here begins a new life

(La Vita Nuova) - Dante Alighieri

Thank you for being in it.

cloak and dagger operation

My flatmate smuggled me into the laboratory he works in this evening. Was quite interesting poking my nose into all sorts of unintelligible things (well at least they were quite confusing to me as a non-biologically minded person). Despite extremely simplified explanations of this that and the other, I would not be sure that I understood all the technical terms and procedures but it was very insightful nonetheless. But I sure am glad I did not study biology, as his job would drive me up the wall. The patience he must display on a daily basis is about the accumulated amount of what I manage to muster throughout a week. I must take a leaf out of his book. Patience is a virtue not (yet) present in my life. Maybe one day.. you never know.

He's here, the phantom of the opera

The most powerful lyrics ever written:

Floating, falling,

sweet intoxication!

Touch me, trust me

savour each sensation!

Let the dream begin,

let your darker side give in

to the power of the music that I write

- the power of the music of the night..

Don't you just feel the Phantom weaving his magic web around you?

A trip down memory lane

I always knew I was born with the wrong sex! I now have written proof: This numerology report indicates that I should become a priest. (It just goes to show, Mum is never wrong. She's been going on about it ever since I can remember!) The report further states that according to my life path number I have a natural fascination for the occult and religions of this world. Freaky. I think I'm going to give away my Witches Bible and other books as those times are over. Or are they really? Wicca is on the rise, maybe one day it'll replace the Roman Catholic Church, you never know! (No new flatmates please don't worry, I am not going to "clean" our flat before we move in with a weird ritual!) I don't do that anymore. :-)

But if you're interested in getting to know the "real" you: Check out this free report under: http://www.123numerology.com/?hop=mcclain, it'll only take 2 min. But bear in mind the English language can be extremely ambiguous! And don't forget to include your middle name if you have one in the second part!

Bridging the Basel-Zürich divide

Yesterday I spent the whole day in Zürich. Strolling through the streets, sampling a quick bite of mango, eating breakfast for lunch (can’t get enough of that!), and I even proved to myself that my memory hasn’t vanished into a cloud of smoke after all: I found a café I once visited about 2 years ago!
After lunch we (S&M and I, like the abbreviation) meandered along the cobbled streets. My legs got a good workout as I was wearing high heels – in my defense I can state that I was wearing office shoes for a good reason - but besides that fact I came to the conclusion that Zürich is quite beautiful. I need to hang out there more often (well, as soon as I renew my Gleis7).

My key ring now sports a new key! It just dangles there promisingly, making me want to rush off to the next IKEA and go mad. But no, I have to try to focus on my report. :-( Oh well, IKEA's open until 9pm, so maybe later.. if I can get the car..

I've just been told that the company my dad works for has a huge family day coming on – cue for a family invasion! I missed last year’s but apparently the bands were quite good and the drinks were fair. And as a classmate of mine is organizing the event I guess I need to show my support (or so!).

Gadgets

Enduring happiness comes with a 12 hour removable, rechargeable battery!
It's small, shiny, light blue, slightly heavy, provides for hours of enjoyment: I've found my new toy a Creative Zen Micro! My new MP3 Player! And if I'm lucky enough my boyfriend will let me access his computer and then bliss'll be complete!

Soul searching

Again, again, and again I question my future. Do I really want to spend the rest of my days slaving away for someone else, working 8am to 10pm in some box with a glimmering screen, no life, no laughter, no happiness? Ok, so I could start up my own business, could work for myself, could do this, that and the other in the business world, and there is such a thing as work-life balance so what’s with the melodrama? Well, Miri’s “substitute” arrived today and she brought with her the key to my hidden dreams. The box is unlocked, the damage is done: my dreams surround me, darting here and there, teasing, tantalizing, and whispering enticements in my ear. And off I go again. I’m back to square one: in a clinch. On one hand I’m lured to the bright lights of capital cities, to the world of consumer goods, fashion, frivolity, lifestyle and design, but yet there is one side of me that keeps on wondering if I should not disappear off to the other corner of the world and try to do something useful with my life.
Anyway, my new flat mate for 3 weeks is called Vera, has learnt to be a midwife and goes off to developing countries where she teaches women how to become midwives. She’s just come back from Afghanistan. Her husband’s a photographer and they go off on projects together. Pretty admirable.

Home sweet home

Fantasy is slowly but surely becoming reality: we’re moving in to our new flat this Wednesday evening! I’m all excited, just got off the phone with our new landlord. He let slip that his wife watches the soap “Bianca” – I already like her. (Frivolous I agree, but soap operas have proven to be an important bonding factor for women!) Anyway, wow. I am speechless. :-)

sex & swissness

My mailbox yielded some very interesting mail this morning: I work as a mystery shopper and was asked to evaluate a local sex shop. They will even pay for me to buy something! I wonder how much a vibrator costs. Never thought I would be paid to please myself.

This is going to be a weird day, first thing this morning I got told off. L
I went to the post office and as it was completely empty, I headed directly for the only open desk. After our transaction the lady kindly pointed out that next time I should please take a ticket before approaching a desk, as otherwise it could disrupt the system. I just looked at her in amazement. Nobody had entered the post office since my arrival, we were completely alone. I was so astonished that I almost laughed out loud. She was completely serious so I just smiled and said I would do my best not to contribute to disrupting the system and left. What Swissness!

Children

I have just been told that a girl who was in my year has given birth to a girl. Well, congratulations to you proud mama and welcome little Kyra! You’ll soon learn all about this weird society you’ve entered!
But seriously I must say I was mildly shocked when I heard the news. Of course I know that 24 is a perfectly normal age to have children and get married etc. But it is so unthinkable for me now that confronted with the possibility I would be more likely to make for the hills! Besides, although I like children, I do prefer them from a distance (or asleep). I know, the mothering instinct seems to be slightly lacking. But maybe I’ll grow out of this slight wariness of screaming brats, or not. I don’t know.
What made me think was the fact that this girl from my village got pregnant despite being on the pill and never noticed (yes, honestly!) until the day of delivery. She went into hospital convinced she may have appendicitis (hello, does that seem familiar?) and came out with a baby! Just imagine!

The Germans

My German flat mate is proving to be my nemesis… for some reason I just cannot articulate properly when he’s around. I come out with all sorts of weird Swissgerman / German phrases!

Imagine this: the whole flat was invited for dinner by a neighbor. As both Miri & I were wearing skirts, I wanted to ask Stefan to bring along the key to the flat. So I called out to him: “Hey Stefan, da du als Einziger einen Sack hast, würdest du bitte den Schlüssel mitnehmen?”. With which I wanted to say: as you’re the only one with a pocket, could you please bring the keys”. But he just stared at me and burst out laughing. So I was like “what on earth are you laughing about?!” Then it dawned on me: the use of the word “Sack” is ambiguous: it can also mean “balls”. So here I was telling him that as he was the only one with balls, he should bring along the keys! Oops!
Doubtful as it may seem, I am actually perfectly capable of speaking proper high-German occasionally!

Yet another thing he found funny was when Miri moved out and I was helping her sort out her stuff. I was standing in front of an almost empty shelf in the kitchen half-trying to determine what belonged to me. Actually I was thinking of something completely different and I believe I was screwing up my face in thought. Anyway, Stefan was observing me as I believe he found it mildly fascinating as to why someone would stare at 3 items or so for over 4 minutes without moving. So having finished contemplating life (or so) my eyes lit upon my Grandmanier liquor. So I go “oh, my alcohol!” And he just falls apart. He’s like: fistly it took you that long?! and secondly of course the alcohol belongs to!

WHAT?! I wonder if my "wine phase" when he first moved in misled him slightly.

Practice makes perfect!

Well I've seen quite a few interesting things in my time, but this guy certainly takes the biscuit!

Check out the latest headlines: Man moves train with right ear

A Chinese man, Zhang, pulled a 24 ton train 40 metres within 4 minutes by his right ear.

Saved from homelessness!

The contract for our new apartment arrived today! After weeks of frustration and disappointment, fortune has decided to shine on us. Having gotten this far the minor details like the fact that only one for us four has physically set foot in the place and that it’s on the outskirts of town will not deter us from signing the document. Thankfully our representative at the visitation had the presence of mind to take some pictures with his cell phone. So based on his selling skills and five tiny photographs, we decided to leap into the unknown and go for it. I’m really looking forward to this move as my future flatmates are great and the flat is just next to a small stream which has lots of opportunities for grilling and hanging out.

The residents of our current building threw us a good-bye barbecue this week – very sweet of them. The three who own the building turned up as well (two live next door), one of whom I hadn’t met before. Those three have all had very different life paths, it is quite amazing that they found each other and banded together to buy a house.