I'm off!

We arrive in Aussieland on Christmas Day; perfectly on time to celebrate at the beach with some turkey sandwiches. Wonder if they sell crackers down under too?

After ooh-ing and aah-ing at the Sydney Opera House, harbour and other similarly fantastic sights, we begin our trek by flying up to Townsville (as if we hadn’t flown enough!). From there we plan to drive down the East Coast until we reach Byron Bay (approx. 5 hours south of Brisbane), stopping along the way to poke and prod jellyfish and enjoy sights, surf and sun.

But all good things must end and in this case, our three week journey stops abruptly mid January, where we will be forced to fly back to wintry Europe from Brisbane.

Seven things

I came across this meme and as I am currently bored (I curse the fact that I don't have a TV), as well as too tired to think but not tired enough to go to bed, I figure this beats staring at the wall...

Seven Things I Can Do

• Play volleyball.
• Devour large quantities of chocolate and biscuits.
• Shop.
• Almost everything, if I put my mind to it. (Except of course the seven points immediately below.)
• Listen to someone spout absolute B***s*** and appear interested.
• Talk on the phone for hours. Face to face I am a relatively quiet person but pass me a phone and I can talk forever. The longest conversation I ever had was five hours, only broken because it was time to meet.
• Outfit other people. Well, that would go under "shop", too. I did say I was tired...
  

Seven Things I Can't Do

• Wait. I am a very impatient person. Although it has gotten better since I moved to Berne.
• Muster up any enthusiasm for cleaning. Hell no.
• Save.
• Do things in moderation.
• Maths in my head. 182-19= ??? Pass me my calculator!
  
• Drive slowly. Pair this with clumsiness and you can just imagine what my car looks like.
• Put my head under water whilst swimming.

Seven Things That Scare Me

• SPIDERS and any kind of creepy-crawly with more than six legs.
• Driving in heavy snow.
• Needles and nurses. A harried nurse once stabbed THROUGH my vein instead of into it. Went round with a black / blue / green / yellow elbow for a whole month. Charming. I'm sure she is a nice person underneath. Yeah right.
  
• My close family dying. It is inevitable, I know. But it will be very painful, nonetheless.
• Swimming in the open sea or in lakes. You never know what lurks beneath.
• The scary bits in films. I tend to spend a lot of the time behind a pillow or covering my eyes. Can’t stomach scary scenes at all.
• Drugs, or rather their effects.
  

Seven Things I Want To Do Before I Die

• Live abroad somewhere.
• Take a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
• Learn to speak Italian.
• Donate time and money to charity / volunteer work.
• Be able to do the splits.
• Start up my own business. Am open to any kind of ideas ;-)
• Have children. Maybe. Am still not quite sure if I want screaming brats. If one's children are always worse than oneself, I think I may reconsider this wonderful adventure.

Seven Random Facts About Me

• I hardly have any nail on my little toe.
• I can obsess about something for days.
• I adore shopping early in the morning. Well, actually I love shopping any time of the day. But it’s so much better when there’s no long queue in front of the dressing rooms.
• In the past five years, I have lived and worked in five countries and seven cities.
• I have black fingers (as opposed to green fingers). The life expectancy of every plant diminishes rapidly should I be looking after it. Wonder why?
• I love “Hello Kitty”.
• I was born April 4th (4 is unlucky in Asia) and for some reason I feel drawn to the number 13 and black cats (both unlucky in Europe).

24

After having spent the whole weekend watching the compelling "24" (yet again!), I have decided to dedicate an entry to this fantastic series.

The hero of the real-time show is Jack Bauer, a government agent of the CTU (Counter-terrorist Unit). Each season comprises 24 hours, one whole day in the life of Jack Bauer.

In the first season/day, he dealt with an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, his daughter's disappearance as well as having to uncover a mole within the CTU. In the second season/day he is tortured and reborn, whilst trying to stop a massive nuclear weapon from destroying Los Angeles. And of course his daughter went missing… again.

I’m currently on season three… completely hooked.

Wonder what that will hold for Jack?

HERE are some facts about Jack Bauer... for the die-hard & interested.

And should you be interested in the guy behind Jack Bauer... say hello to Kiefer Sutherland.

Cupcakes & more

Guess the fact that I do not have a kitchen is slowly getting to me... I've taken to browsing recipe sites and through cookery books... :-) Found a fantastic food / recipe site today:
the scent of green bananas: food from the guambat

The pics of her achievements alone are works of art and definitely worth a peek.

Oh, Champs-Élysées....

Oh, Galeries Lafayette....
We just spent a very enjoyable three days in Paris, shopping until we dropped (literally!).
Needless to say, we had a great time.

Being back (last time I was in Paris was in 2001) reopened my eyes to Paris' beauty and reawakened my dormant desire to live in a large city. Hopefully one day...

The Sandoz Room

Last Friday I came across the most beautiful ballroom I've ever seen. We were wandering around the Hotel Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne, when suddenly our guide led us into the Sandoz room. My knees went weak and my mouth dropped. Such beauty, such style... it was absolutly magnificent.

Failure

What does google consider to be the biggest or most important failure?
To find out, follow these four simple steps:

1. open google: www.google.com / google.de / google.ch / ...
2. type in "failure"
3. press "enter"
4. check out the first hit

I wonder how long it will take them to notice!

Ayurveda

Just had a very relaxing (or invigorating – cannot decide which) foot massage... as well as an interesting conversation.

I learnt that according to Ayurvedic philosophy, my dominant Dosha type is "Pitta" and I need to keep "cool". Unfortunately this goes hand in hand with avoiding all vegetables I like. Therefore I’m not so sure if I will fully buy into this philosophy… we’ll see. I did however book another foot massage; it really does wonders after a long session on the treadmill!

Will you... I do.

Last weekend I was awakened to the fact that time IS flying: a guy from my primary school class got married last year and a couple my age is planning to marry next summer. Yikes, it just made me feel so old! When I told M, he got this panicky look on his face, so I changed the subject quickly! Don’t want him to think that I am in any hurry to tie the knot.

Choices

The melancholy of autumn...

Our choices determine who we are, not our abilities.

waiting for... godot (?)

Sometimes I feel as if someone is playing a game of chess with my career. In that game I am a pawn, a mere figure, incapable of influencing the course of events that is my life.

Maybe it is time to move on, over and out.
The pawn is tired of being told what to do.
She wants to see or rather take some action.

Cars and shoes

I spent five minutes (!) looking for my car in the parking lot... I just could NOT remember where I had parked the darn thing... growing senile already... yikes!

Last Friday my clumsiness reared its head again...
I was at a hairdressers shop, walking up the staircase that leads to my client's office. I had almost reached the top, when suddenly my shoe shot off my foot and fell down onto the table below! Cringing with embarrassment, I crept down the stairs, hoping that nobody had noticed my malheur. But unfortunately a cute hairdresser had been working at that table. He received quite a shock when this shoe tumbled down out of nowhere and landed right in front of him! With a smile and a wink he passed me my shoe, stating: "thank you very much for thinking of me, but we already have bowls to mix the colours for our client."

Full-fledged employee

My 3 month probationary period ended september 30th.... jippee!

revenge is.... tasty(?)

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...
a German girl decided to teach her cheating boyfriend a lesson and bit off the top of his penis.... ugh!

Check out the pics (scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the left button) - seriously disgusting!

Birthday boy

Always looking for some excuse to celebrate (as if we needed excuses...), we decided to patronise the Hotel 3 König's Brasserie in honour of M's birthday yesterday. The food was good and the helpings ample. Highly recommendable.

Thinkpad

We got a new toy at work. Of course, it’s a darn sight heavier than the old machine, but in this case, BIG (or bigger to be more precise, compared to a laptop it isn’t really big) is beautiful!

The screen swivels round at 180° and it even has a fingerprint recognition sensor thingy! (This is, for those more au fait with computer terminology, an integrated fingerprint reader.)
Just stroke a finger over the sensor and the computer starts up. You don’t even have to enter a password; it allows you to bypasses most security. Quite the time saver!

I never knew I could get so excited about a machine. This just goes to show, wonders will never cease ;-)

10 eternal questions

Something to ponder if you're on a soul-searching mission or bored...
from the book by Zoë Sallis:

Question 1
What is your concept of God?

Question 2
Do you think this life is all there is, or do you believe in an afterlife?

Question 3
Do you accept the concept of karma, in the sense of cause and effect?

Question 4
What is your moral code, in relation to right and wrong?

Question 5
Do you believe you have a destiny and do you see yourself as here to fulfil it?

Question 6
What has life taught you so far?

Question 7
What advice or words of wisdom would you like to pass on to those close to you?

Question 8
Do you believe our survival on planet Earth is being threatened?

Question 9
Who do you most admire in this world, historical or living?

Question 10
How do you find peace within yourself? 

Last minute to Rhodes

We just spent a very nice week on the Greek island Rhodes. Despite numerous hiccups along the way:

> We arrived at the airport one day too early (AND our flight was sheduled for 5am!). Our driver did not thank us!
> The hotel was overbooked. Armed with nothing but a vague idea of where we had to go (name of town & hotel - no address!) we set off in our little car. Of course we couldn’t find the hotel (it was like looking for a needle in a haystack) and the owner ended up having to collect us.
> We both caught a violent stomach bug AND the hotel's watertank broke. No running water = no shower and most importantly, NO TOILET! Ugh.
> We lost the keys to our room and safe in the ocean, TWICE!
> On the flight back, my seat 21A did not exist.

Nevertheless, we returned relaxed (thanks to three days in bed), if not refreshed. ;-)

wind of change

Practically every day I hear that someone is radically changing (or planning to change) his/her life; be it moving abroad, changing careers, and breaking up, or wanting kids.... It seems that everything and everyone is on the move!

Speaking of which... my last few weeks have been quite interesting too:
I changed jobs (within the company), moved from Switzerland’s most dynamic city to its sweet but sleepy capital city, got a company car and cell phone and have been let loose to create havoc on the motorways for six months. In short, I am a sales rep.

Actually, it is quite interesting to meet my customers, chat a bit and try to get an order. Of course, at the moment I am in the honeymoon period, zooming around without any pressure. I wonder what it'll be like when the pressure kicks in... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. ;-)

I was sad to leave my team, though. Everyone was great, all very warm characters. I had a good time these past 10 months and I do miss them a bit, to be honest. It's nice to get sentimental for a fleeting moment ;-)

Down under

I’m off to Australia!!! Jippee!
Not tomorrow, nor next week, but over Christmas & New Year. I'm going with a friend, arriving in Sydney Xmas Day.
Celebrating the holidays far away from everyone will be strange enough, besides it being a swealtering 40°C . Then again, the last time we had a white Xmas in Switzerland was ages ago, so might as well enjoy turkey sandwiches on the beach for once! ;-)

The weekend

Last weekend I returned to my home town after a longer period of absence. Quite joyfully I hurried out of the station, ready to start what was sure to be a promising weekend.

But just at the entrance / exit of the station, my heel got stuck in the grate. A sudden jerk backwards made me reel and I practically fell flat on my face, in front of the whole row of waiting taxi drivers.
Cringing with embarrassment I picked myself up and hopped back (the floor was wet and it was raining) to where my shoe was sitting innocently on the ground. Now it would have been embarrassing enough at that point. But when I tried to retrieve my shoe and scurry off, the shoe didn’t budge. It sat tight. What complicated matters was, that the heel was not stuck on firmly. If I broke off the heal, I would not have any shoes for the weekend!
So with a flaming face, I crouched down and ignoring the jibes from the taxi drivers, the annoyed “tss” from commuters jumping over me to reach their trains and the curious looks from passers-by, I gently see-sawed the shoe out of its prison.
How embarrassing!

Branded

Yesterday, on the spur of the moment, I took the plunge......... and got myself a tattoo.

The Chinese character for LOVE now sits proudly in the small of my back, there for life.

Toastmasters

At a Toastmasters workshop last Saturday we were introduced into the art of influential acting and speaking. Amy Caroll was our host and quite the star of the show. The participants were mostly expatriates and people who had settled in Switzerland.

Interestingly enough, a discussion led to quite a few stating that they had had problems getting accustomed to the Swiss reserved manner. Some spoke of how depressed they became whilst they tried to fit in. I got the impression that it was quite liberating for some to express these feelings and to find themselves amongst others who had gone (or were going) through a similar situations. Those who had been in Switzerland the longest shared their experiences of when and how they managed to stop trying to fit in. If Amy had not diffused the situation, I believe the workshop may have veered towards becoming a self-help group!
Nonetheless, I enjoyed listening to their opinions and experiences.

Berlin

February 1st saw me packing my bags and making my way to Zürich International Airport. On arrival I sought out a bakery and 50 Berliners (sweet bun filled with jam) heavier, I made my way to the check in counter. My colleagues were waiting for me, smiling and in good spirits. We were all going to Berlin, accompanying a group of wild hairdressers on a shopping spree! As a welcome gift, each participant received a Berliner. Which prompted the question: “what will we get if we ever go to Paris, a Pariser?!” (a Pariser is a condom).

A few of the participants had not flown before, which took me by surprise. It is strange to me that something I consider so normal can be new to someone else.

We arrived and had a sightseeing tour to the hotel. The bus was so hot that I fell asleep twenty minutes into the tour! I like to believe that no one noticed.
The hotel was nice and is highly recommendable: the Lindner Hotel am Ku’Damm.

In the evening we all trouped off to an apéro at Sastre’s an innovative hair salon. Innovative means the place was a bar-meets-salon-meets-club. The owner was a boisterous hairdresser wearing a Scottish kilt which stopped mid-thigh, and had no hair at all, except for a wisp in the middle of his forehead, which he had styled to look like a rooster’s comb. His beard mirrored the wisp of hair, pointing downward of course. He and a colleague picked a few volunteers from our audience and set about creating wild and wacky styles with the new REDKEN hairsprays. He worked and talked at top speed, which everyone enjoyed. But then he started praising the hairspray’s new technology whilst working with an old formula! Luckily no one noticed and he swapped the bottle quickly as soon as he noticed.

After the show, drinks were free until nine pm. I got some girls started on golden Tequila, they couldn’t thank me enough! That was quite an interesting evening.

The next day I teamed up with two girls and we went back to Sastre. There we got some more free booze and watched those participants who had returned for a new do. It was quite interesting listening to hairdressers philosophize about different cutting methods. I was called upon to tidy up some poor unsuspecting boy’s eyebrows. That was quite amusing, he told me his life story to distract himself from the pain. Thank goodness there’s not much you can do wrong with eyebrows!

Off we went to the Hackischen Hofe after that. There we patronised every shoe store available. One girl tried on a pair of shoes and the leather was sooo soft that it got stuck in the zipper and SHE COULD NOT GET THE SHOES OFF ANYMORE! Poor girl was nearly in hysterics after fifteen minutes. But eventually the shoe came off and she calmed down. I have never seen a girl leave a shoe shop that quickly.

Flying home went off without a hitch, apart from our early arrival at the airport. Everyone, including the bus driver, was overly punctual, so we arrived at five pm, which was the time we were scheduled to leave the hotel!

The only fly in the ointment was that my bag did not appear on the luggage belt in Zürich. That peeved me a bit, as I had packed my favourite boots. Fifteen minutes after leaving the airport I got a call on my mobile. They had found my bag. It had fallen off the wagon during transporting from the plane to the building.

What a trip!

normal holiday

Christmas was Christmas without the Christ in it. Although I thoroughly enjoyed being with my family, I missed the whole surreal, nostalgic feeling that usually surrounds this holiday. Maybe this lack of “Xmas-feeling” on my part was due to Zürich’s controversial Christmas lighting?

Anyway, the prize for my most interesting present goes to my aunt. She gave both my brother and me a goat (live, not stuffed). Now, contrary to expectation she is neither a farmer nor a shepherdess. She sponsored the goats from Oxfam. Oxfam is an international organisation dedicated to the alleviation of hunger, poverty and suffering in this world. Their ways to raise money can take on rather ingenious forms, so this is how both my brother and I came to be proud owners of goats.

New Year had an equally bizarre touch to it. We invited round some friends and dished up large amounts of fondue chinoise (everyone dunks meat into vegetable stock), sushi, red wine, golden tequila and absinth; a very interesting combination (unfortunately slightly toxic for the overenthusiastic).