Come to me

I was out walking the dog today with a friend. We passed a gardener who was working on the street, and after about 20 meters I realized the dog was way behind us, so I called her. "Come, come" I yelled and clapped my hands, and nearly doubled over when the gardener took a few steps towards me. Hahaha!

I can't help it, but I take pleasure in little things nowadays.

Helping out

Some time ago I volunteered to spend a couple of hours a week for needy people in my 'hood. I had an interview with the organization, which I think is good, even though a 15 min session isn't enough to know I have no alterior motive (which of course I don't). Nevertheless, a first impression is not to be sniffed at. And the limit is set to two hours a week, something to do with insurance I think.

Today I had a first meeting with an elderly woman. I cannot say that she was especially needy, but I guess everybody can use a bit of company now and then. And she was great. Despite the quite large age difference we spoke about everything and nothing. We were sitting at her balcony, enjoying the sunshine, sipping at Prosecco and just enjoying chitchatting. Charming!

And she had a black cat. Always a plus in my book.

Kitties have grown

Yesterday my cats were five years old! And with the years they have become more and more like me. This is exactly how I stretch in the morning.

What is wrong with people these days?

Always a pleasure having people over for dinner who appreciate human contact.

First cruise of the year

First cruise of the year yesterday. It was actually a test-run since I am sharing the boat with two friends this year. It went so-so to be perfectly honest. Ok, I wasn't a star when I first got the boat, but they are total amateurs. Just to open up the boat took them three times as long as it takes for me to do it myself :).

Out on the lake they realized it is not at all like driving a car. Water moves, a road doesn't. And when one of them were trying to park it went...well, not good. I had to take over and make sure we didn't crash into anything.

Ah well, practise makes perfect, right?

Me a mosquito?

Ok, so now I know why all Japanese people are so skinny. They eat with chopsticks! I used mine today, and with the meat and veggies it was ok, but the sauce with rice was a bit more tricky. First of all it takes a long time to eat and second, the sauce is very difficult to scoop up. A great diet coming to think of it.

Then I learned what my name means in Japanese. Well sorta. Turns out that European names are difficult to direct translate, so they take syllables and translate them one by one.

My name means "safety" "two" and either "fruit" (gosh, I hope not durian) or "mosquito". Hmmm.

Dark matters

Gosh, I really don't know where the time goes. It flies apparently, and the blog has been sorely neglected the last few weeks.

I have worked with the oldies, I have taken up sports again after the winter where I was slightly lazy (and gained 2 kg's!), I have had dinner parties and been hanging with friends.

And yesterday I got a new flatmate, after the other one moved out last week. The new one seems very friendly and easygoing, and I hope we can develop a nice relationship.

Yesterday evening we talked and got to know each other a little. Turns out that our respective careers are extremely different, I hardly understood anything he was telling me, but it was something about finding dark matter (CERN-like) in the universe. Personally I enjoy sunshine more ;).

He brought me a very nice gift, guess where he comes from?

Healthy

I donated blood again today, and every time they measure my haemoglobin, blood pressure and temperature, and I am happy to report that my previously high pressure is now back to normal. Well, normal for a smoker, still slightly high but within the normal range, 138/95. And this despite that I walked fairly fast down to the city.

However, I still might have to visit my doc, the lump is still alive and kicking, but smaller. I will make another attempt to squeeze tomorrow.

Self is the best doctor

Since quite some time I have had a lump on my shoulder, and lately I had a feeling it has grown more inwards as well as protruding. It was movable, not hurting, not bleeding, so I haven't been worried.

However, I started to think it was time to go see my doc until today! When stepping into the shower I noticed a drop of pus on the tip, and while in the shower I started squeezing. And how I squeezed! I more felt than saw how much pus was coming out of there! Omg, it must've been many milliliters.

And yes it was pus, not white wine :), and doc will have to wait.

Swiss party!

So last Saturday was the party to celebrate my Swiss citizenship. It was a success if you ask me. My apartment is perfect for mingling, and even though many people had met each other before, I saw some who hadn't met before, and were deep in conversation. I just love to introduce people to each other, I should've made a career with it!

And it all went smoothly (even though the guy who promised to help me didn't!), with 24 guests. And for once I didn't cook too much, just enough. 84 meatballs went with the wind, two trays with beef tartar (brought by a friend) together with two trays of pastry with chilipaste and cheese were empty by the end of the evening. Peanuts were eaten. A large cheese plate left two tiny bites. Six loafs of bread and almost three cakes were consumed. The only thing left was half a bowl of tomato salad :). Too healthy I presume.

And today I recycled exactly 24 bottles of prosecco and wine. One bottle each on average, and considering some people drank a lot (probably including myself, I cannot remember :) there must've been a number of people driving and being careful with alcohol.

Only one mishap, and of course a child was involved. The 6-year-old wanted to try my spin bike and broke it! I think she probably pressed all the buttons at once and caused a shortage of the circuits. We noticed when smoke started to come out of the bike, and it started to smell burned rubber. The bike is now residing on my balcony (no way was I going to sleep with that hazard in the house), and I guess it's a goner.

Later a new tenant in the house joined, and it turned out that he's a guitar player. Good thing I kept my guitar, which I played when I was about 15 and got a top grade for in school. And before you mention it, yes it was a helluva long time ago!

-24.2%

Gosh, I'm good. I don't how I did it, but I managed to reduce my electricity consumption with 24.2% in the last year, from 1,847 kWh to 1,423.

Pat on back!

A helluva lot of Swissies

Let's see if I get the numbers right. Last year around 30,000 immigrants were granted citizenship in Switzerland, two thirds of them had to go through the lengthy and costly process that I did, and one third had it a bit easier. At least processwize, since they were refugees. I imagine that they had the difficulties beforehand.

Today I was at at party arranged by the city of Zürich, in order to welcome the new Swissies. 2015 some 3,600 people were granted citizenship in Zürich, and 1,700 of them showed up for this evenings event.

We were greeted by the "Stadtpräsidentin" Corinne, who told us that we were over 100 nationalities, the majority being Germans of course, but also a few countries where there were only one person who made it through the process. Those countries were Barbados, Benin, Guinea-Bissau and I think Indonesia. And that she was happy that the initiative to throw out foreigners was not accepted in the last election. Big applause.

Then then were some music, and a new Swissie, an author, who had been to the party last year, who talked about why she came to love Switzerland and why it's important to vote. I agree.

After that not too lengthy session, about an hour, there was an apero with food and drinks. Very well organized in the congress hall, and I was lucky enough to go with my neighbour. She also became a Swissie last year. It was fun.

Unfortunately I didn't get to talk to any of the politicians, people were queueing up to get selfies or doublies or whatever they are called. But now that I'm a real Swissie, I can hold my head up high and get in contact through email, and they will have to listen to what I say :). Direct democracy, I love it!

Eagles

I just saw a shadow outside my window, and to my surprise I saw this big bird fly by. It looked like an eagle to me, it was huge. Bigger than a seagull. Brown and wide wings. But it cannot be possible, eagles in the city? Nah, must be some sort of related bird, a hawk? Are there even eagles in Switzerland?

One thing for sure, am not letting the cats out today.

Brand new filling

Went to see my gorgeous dentist today. I wish it would have been under other circumstances. He's always so cheerful and acts like he's happy to see me again, and yadi-yadi-yada I understand he's like that with everybody, but still, it's nice.

The reason was that a filling was coming lose, and needed replacement. And I don't get that mankind put a man on the moon nearly 50 years ago, and still haven't invented drills that aren't so noisy it feels like your head is gonna explode.

Nearly an hour it took to remove the old filling, and replace it, and at one point I had kinduva mask over my face. Felt really weird. I wish that I once could look my best with gorgeous man, and not like something out of a horror film with half my face hanging down due to anaesthetics. Just sayin'.

Kids, kids everywhere

I know, it's been a while. Not that I haven't had something to say, but time flies and enough with excuses.

Today I was at a birthday party with plenty of kids. The birthday person herself had reached an age even older than me (!), but with a large family there was no getting away. There were kids friggin everywhere! If I wanted to move my chair I had to look out. But I have to admit. They were well behaved.

The thirteen kids aging between 1 and 17 were quiet in comparison to the two monsters living next door. Which leads me to believe that after two kids, they start to educate each other and the parents get more relaxed. I saw food being passed on to the kid being more hungry, kids taking care of each other without bothering the parents, and we the adults could have uninterrupted conversations.

If all parents could be like that, I wouldn't dislike kids so much. Yeah right, in my dreams.

A little shopping spree

So I did go shopping today. First I bought a pair of jogging pants, I mean proper ones. I used to powerwalk/jog in old mans shorts, that I bought in South Africa (urgently needed something to swim in) a long time ago, so well invested money, even though it was full price. Ouch!

Then I found a skirt for 5 francs (yippee!) and two sweaters for the price of one. As well as a pair of tights in another store for a whopping 17 francs! H&M used to sell tights for like 3 for 10, but not anymore. However, they are very slimming and for that worth its price.

Slowly but surely I am expanding my wardrobe, and for once this evening my guests will see me in something new. I wonder if they will notice?

No shopping spree

I had a lunch date in the city today, and thought that I'd finally get around to go shopping for clothes while there. Most of my stuff is falling apart from wear and tear, and to be honest, aging. Fashion has never been my thing, and every time I walk into a clothing shop I get pain in my back and feel an urgent need to get out and have a ciggie.

But I did try. However, I had to visit a friend who works in the city and who wanted to go for a drink (hey, when did I ever say no to that?), and I had to check on the boat. And then conveniently my tram arrived, and I immediately postponed the shopping for tomorrow.

At least I came home with a brand new pair of shoes (50% off!!) and a purple powerband. It's one of these thingies you work out your arms with (am trying to avoid bingowings). The guy in the shop looked a bit funny at me, when I told him I wanted a purple. Apparently there are different colours for different strengths of the band. Purple is strong in case you're interested. Personally I think colour is more important than functionality ;).

Unexpected meeting

I had an extremely nice day yesterday. First I had an old friend over in the afternoon, and we had no shortage of things to talk about over homemade brownies and Irish coffee. No better way to spend a cold afternoon.

In the evening I had made an appointment for a guy to look at my guest room. Flatmate is leaving, he's found his own abode, and I am currently looking for a new person.

The day before yesterday a woman was here, but I got some funny vibes, so not sure about her. The guy yesterday on the other hand, omg. It was like we've known each other a long time, and we talked, talked, talked about everything and nothing. He ended up staying for six hours, we had dinner and kept on talking. The only catch is that he yesterday got a new job offer away from Zürich, otherwise he could've practically moved in directly. So let's see how it goes, if he decides to leave beautiful Zürich.

Funny that, how you with some people get along so well so quickly, and others not.

Ze Swiss railways

It's been a little while since I wrote last, I really don't know what happened, but all of a sudden I felt no need to write. Weird that.

But here I am again to tell you about ze Swiss railways. The other day I got a letter sent to all citizens in Zürich, talking about some railway maintenance taking place between Hardbrücke and Oerlikon between February and mid March. At night.

Yes, I realize there are people travelling on the trains between 22.00 and 5.30, but to tell all of Zürich about it? Wouldn't it be enough to post information at the train stations about it? Six Fridays and one Monday according to the letter.

Especially since the last sentence in the letter reads "Die Züge fahren trotz Bauarbeiten fahrplanmässig", meaning the trains go according to the timetable despite the construction work.

Hmm. Using my tax money to send a letter like this, not ok Zürich if you ask me.

A friendly ghost

In my home the man spends a lot more time in the bathroom than I do. I'm the type who showers quickly, dresses, a wee bit of mascara and I'm done.

Today flatmate offered to share his face-mask with me, an offer which I laughingly turned down, being the natural beauty that I am. Can you blame me?