The Next Best Thing to Be

I am not dying to be married and I’m not completely baby obsessed. Yet. But I think I have reached the age that if I am dating somebody that I know I’m never going to marry then what is the point? Dating for the sake of dating seems completely natural when you are 20 but I think it looses a little something when you start to lose that endless battle between your body and gravity. Or as my mother would say I’m getting too old to act like a teenager.

Die Familie und das Fischernetz

Another simple rule about travelling to Switzerland is that it can be one of the most expensive countries in Europe. We went to Zürich, which is not the greatest place for budget travellers. Had I gone alone I would have paid a small fortune to sleep in a closet. One of the benefits of travelling with a group of people you know very well is that you can afford much nicer accommodations. We rented a house not all that far from Tina Turner’s Küsnacht Ferienhaus at Zürichsee that was very reasonable since there were so many of us.





Zürich


Chinagarten


Zürichsee

Alpen

We’re Off On the Road to Switzerland

We used to visit my grandparents in Switzerland as often as we could when I was a child. A typical winter would begin with lazy days in the ocean at home and end with a boreal summer high in the mountains of their strange little oceanless country. Switzerland is not cheese and clocks to me. It is picnics at the lake and falling asleep comfortably in front of a fire while the adults talk about the good old days. It is my grandmother sitting on my bed brushing my hair while my grandfather makes us all laugh and scream with his Frankenstein impression. My childhood memories of my grandparents and Switzerland are inextricable.

Decathlon

When I was 20 I wanted to be the next Orson Welles. Only without doing wine adverts or acting in any movie that came along just to make enough money to finance movies. The first rule they teach you in school is to never spend your own money. Welles broke that rule many times. But he saw little choice. He was respected and called the greatest filmmaker during his lifetime but few people wanted to work with him. He publicly complained that Steven Spielberg was willing to pay a record setting price for one of the Rosebud sleds but would not give him a dime to make a movie.

Commands Met

Don’t covet your neighbor's wife or property.

Check. My neighbour’s wife is attractive but I can keep my distance. As for property I’ve never been the type of person who gets jealous because somebody has better toys. People tell me I don’t have enough worldly goods. I think I have too much.

Why You Shouldn’t Post When You’ve Had a Few

It has been brought to my attention on several occasions that I tend to ramble when inebriated. I am not a sad drunk or angry drunk. I’m a talkative drunk. I just will not shut up. My sisters say that my brother-in-law and I had our most interesting political debate after we both had a few drinks. I was much more aggressive in my opinions and he had a hard time getting his words out. That was a different experience for both of us.