It’s early. Before sunrise. I’m looking through the train window at the beautiful colors of the clouds. I know that I can’t really take a picture out of the train.

All you’d see is the inside, because the lights are on and it’s still darker outside.

Lucky I took a picture at the station at 5.50.

I’m usually on the 5.36 train for this adventure, but that train wasn’t running today. They are doing construction work on the main train line this weekend.

I would complain about this if I didn’t know that maintenance work is needed or even crucial to have the trains running smoothly.

Something the Germans neglected to do for too long and that’s why they are now having issues – especially on their highspeed tracks.

But I digress.

We just crossed the main Swiss freeway (the A1). Pretty empty at 6 AM on a Sunday morning. I still prefer the train, because I can write and eat breakfast.

There is one thing I don’t like about the early trains on Saturdays or Sundays. Drunk people trying to get home from a night out.

I have some questions. Why was your night out in Aarau? And what were you doing between the time the last club/bar closed and now? There are night trains you guys.

Anyway, I’ve never had a bad experience as such. I just prefer my early morning trains to be quiet.

I wish you could have seen the Alps with the colorful sky behind them. We just passed a great picture spot. We’re also passing a bunch of castles on top of hills. Part of our defense system that dates back to the Middle Ages.

Have you heard of the House of Habsburg? They also built a castle in my canton (province/state) and that’s how they got their name. We’re not entirely sure what Habs meant in this context, but burg you’ll recognize from places like Hamburg, Edinburgh etc. It’s a fortified dwelling – a fortress.

So, when they built this castle, they called it Habsburg and subsequently called themselves Habsburger. The village where this castle was built is still called Habsburg.

Now there’s a pointless Swiss fact for you.

I went to a museum on Thursday that talked about Switzerland and the war and then another one on Friday where I learned about top secret stuff.

Fascinating!

It was a reminder that the Swiss have actively fought for their rights and their freedom for centuries - especially after 1291.

I’ll write more about this in a separate newsletter.

I’ve changed trains without you noticing and as my German train leaves Zurich main station, I see the Alps in the distance and think I should have gone up a mountain instead.

But with trains running on different schedules this weekend that would have been a bit more complicated.

Now passing the airport. Planes have started landing at 6 AM. Remember that we like our quiet time. So, no planes before that.

Oh! There is an Edelweiss plane just taking off. We’re almost matching its speed – or we were. It is now gone - out of sight.

So, let’s focus on the Rhine, shall we?

It’s difficult to get this shot just right. This is in Eglisau and that’s the Rhine. I’ve walked across that old bridge in the distance and under the one the trains run across. It’s one of my favorite bridges.

I’m now in Germany. My phone hasn’t caught on yet. And it might not, because we’re only in Germany for a little while. My train will re-enter Switzerland very soon.

It’s the kind of international cooperation that is essential when your border looks like ours and when it just makes sense to have trains run through Germany for a few kilometers.

And as we re-enter Switzerland I have to get my camera ready for that Rhine Falls shot.

OMD! I just saw a fox in a field with a bunch of herons. All minding their own business, but the fox had its nose right down in the grass.

It’s things like these that make my day. And it’s also another reason to be out and about early in the morning.

Wow! The Rhine Falls with hardly any water.

That’s actually why I’m here. I wanted to see them at a low water level. The next picture is from a train on that other bridge above the falls. Also taken out of a train.

Don’t you love it?

I’ll be back to finish this later on.

First, I need to walk down to the bottom of the falls, then back up. Across the bridge and climb even higher up to get to that train line opposite.

While I walk, I feel the water’s calming energy.

This is where I can recharge easily. It doesn’t take long. It doesn’t take a lot of water.

This is also where my mind wanders. After I talked to a photographer, a question I had recently read popped into my head.

Why don’t people speak Swiss?

The answer is easy, but also – why don’t we?

We’re basically four different linguistic and cultural groups that decided to form a union and to defend their rights and privileges against foreign rulers.

It’s kind of special that this union stretches across the Alps. I mean parts of Switzerland are south of the Alps and a huge chunk is in the Alps. Yet, north of the Alps is where most people live.

So, how we got all those regions together as one country – I have no idea. I mean there is a rich history and some strategic moment and the control of the easiest way across the Alps, but that’s a different story.

As for the vocabulary to use:

We are Swiss. That’s everyone’s nationality.

We speak Swiss German, (Swiss) French, (Swiss) Italian and/or one of the Romansh languages (there are five main ones). And I cannot answer the question of why we didn’t come up with a common language - I’ll have to think about that some more.

If you move to Switzerland, learn the language of where you’re moving. German is good for starters of you move to the German-speaking part. It might help if you understand Swiss German and know a few phrases.

That’s where Germans can struggle.

They waltz in and think everything is like at home because people speak German. We don’t like that. We happily switch to Standard German for foreigners who made the effort to learn German.

For Germans – some of us don’t. We expect them to at least understand Swiss German if they live here.

Those are the rules.

An interaction at the Rhine Falls actually made me think about migrants from which countries do best in Switzerland. I think Italians are still our favorites. They have the food. As do Turkish immigrants. The French are fine as long as they stay in the French-speaking part.

Scandinavians tend to integrate well, but I think the Dutch do it best. They learn Swiss German in no time – with just the tiniest of accents. Our languages have a lot in common, especially the /ch/ sound and the diminutives. Values align well. And I think we also share a sense of humor.

Plus, our countries are of a similar size. They have a lot of water, we have mountains. Both mean that there is limited space where people can actually live.

Oh, and you know who else does well? Anybody who is interested in learning about our country and isn’t afraid to ask questions. We’re pretty friendly and helpful.

Unless you annoy us. So maybe try not to 😉

How did I get here?

Oh yes, I took a train from Neuhausen Rheinfall all the way to Zurich Oerlikon. That’s where they apparently sell the best bagels of Switzerland.

I mean social media say so. So, I had to put that to the test.

They look nice.

That’s cinnamon raisin and onion before I took a bite. They are really nice. I’m gonna put some butter on the cinnamon raisin one and toast it lightly.

Yes, in that order. I don’t have a toaster – so it’ll go in the oven.

After I’ve eaten my bagel, I will add some Rhine Falls pictures to this.

*waiting for me to finish eating*

It was soooo good. I wish you could smell and taste it.

Back to this morning.

It was a very successful outing. And I was back home before 11. I usually aim for 10, but that wasn’t possible today because the earliest train was canceled. Actually, not the earliest train because that’s the “airport train” – it’s a regular train, but it runs so people can make extra early flights. I guess I could have walked to Aarau and taken that one.

Technically.

Then that stop on the way back meant that I lost another 15-30 minutes. But here’s more pictures.

The water level was super low. It’s still impressive though. I shot a video from the platform at the bottom of the falls.

That’s all for now. Why not go out and explore? It’s fun.

Or do one new thing today. Mine was going to a random bakery in Oerlikon to get bagels.

Happy Sunday everyone.

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And here are my other newsletters

A newsletter on adventures:

https://onthemovewithevelyne.substack.com/

A newsletter on mental health topics:

https://oypayattention.substack.com/

A newsletter on art / painting:

https://demystifiedcanvas.substack.com/

Thoughts on automatic translations, thoughts on cultural humor, thoughts on (language) history. Many many thoughts.

You might need a large coffee for this one. Or a nice hot tea. Or hot chocolate.

Crap, now I want one too.

This started with Substack deciding that they would just auto-translate people’s notes. I mostly write in English. That’s a choice. If I wanted to address the German bubble, I’d write in German etc.

Most of Europe knows English and can cope with me using Fahrenheit on occasion and AM/PM instead of the 24-hour clock.

But if I was solely writing for European readers, I would be writing differently.

I use language very deliberately. Most linguists do.

I create new words, because they don’t exist. I have fun with language.

Anyway, there are many things that go into good translations. And none of them are simply translating word by word. They include nuance, they include culture, they include history, they include so much more than just words.

Seriously, this pisses me off.

People think you learn a language by just learning grammar and vocabulary. Well, that’s a start. I’m not gonna knock that effort. It’s necessary.

Language opens the door to understanding a culture and its history. And you know you’ve mastered a language when you understand cultural jokes. And yes, those jokes are different in the US and the UK. Of course they are.

Makes sense since the language is different too.

I think many Europeans will have a shared experience on this. I learned British English in school, was exposed to British TV and loved British humor growing up.

I was recently reminded of Keeping Up Appearances and Fawlty Towers because of an American on YouTube doing reaction videos. Too funny. The comedy and his reaction equally. The one where Basil tries to flip the light switch and flips something entirely different – that had him floored.

I’m not gonna be more specific on this. Those who know – know.

Why am I telling you this?

Oh! Yes, because French is not French and German is not German just like Spanish is not Spanish when these languages are spoken in different countries.

I’ve talked about how Standard German is different in Switzerland and Germany with the Germans thinking they own the language etc. and their version is the only correct one. Annoying!

I feel like I need to build a little bridge after that comment. Or at least share one from yesterday’s walk. It’s between Switzerland and Germany – across the Rhine.

Then there is French, which is spoken in many countries, and we can’t even agree on how to count. Let’s look at the numbers 70, 80 and 90.

In France it’s 60+10 (soixante-dix), 4x20 (quatre-vingts) and 4x20+10 (quatre-vingt-dix). So, you’re doing math. I remember walking into the breakfast room at a hotel in France and being asked my room number. In my head I was thinking 72 (septante-deux), but then I remembered that I had to say soixante-douze (60+12) because I was in France.

In Switzerland we use septante, huitante (mostly, although octante seems to be around too) and nonante. Easy, right? It corresponds to seventy, eighty and ninety. No math involved.

Enter Belgium. I mean I get that they want to be different but make up your mind people! Here it’s septante, quatre-vingts and nonante.

As far as I’m aware Luxembourg follows the French French pattern.

Aren’t languages fun?

I know there are many more countries where French is spoken, I just went with the ones where I knew the counting system.

Did I have a point?

Oh yes, don’t freaking auto-translate my writing. That was the point.

I remember a lot of cultural and historical information in my textbooks. For instance, the first parliament in the world – the Alþingi at Þingvellir in Iceland. You can’t get around that when learning Icelandic.

It was established in 930 CE.

Yes, there is a debate around whether you can call it a parliament, but it’s a cool fact nonetheless.

And actually standing there a few years later and seeing what I’d learned about in real life. That was super cool.

I was also studying Old Norse. So going there was a must.

That reminds me of something similar yet different closer to home. In Switzerland we used to have the Landsgemeinde (and two cantons still hold them at a cantonal level). It’s an open-air town meeting, where issues get debated and then there is a public vote by raising hands. This started in the 13^th century.

Democracy runs deep in both countries, I’d say.

I would argue that this is still noticeable today. I can only speak for Switzerland from my own experience, but Swiss democracy is definitely not a spectator sport. Once you turn 18 you don’t register to vote – that happens automatically. You are now expected to vote.

That was brought to you by the democracy squirrel in my brain.

Back to language. Another fun thing are false friends – the linguistic kind.

Let me give you some fun examples.

Bellen

Depending on what languages you know, you might have a different reaction to this. My Swiss German brain thinks it means “to bark” as in what a dog does.

My Dutch friends will think of a telephone. In Dutch bellen means “to call somebody on the phone”.

Klarkommen/klaarkomen

In German this means “to get along” in Dutch it means “to have an orgasm”. This could get slightly awkward, I guess.

Maybe I should stop following that German woman who lives in the Netherlands and posts things like this on Instagram 😂.

Verkocht

In German this means “over cooked” or “cooked so long it’s now mush” in Dutch it means “sold”. So, walking by houses with a sign outside saying “verkocht” feels extra weird.

And funny.

And this is where homophones and homonyms are entering the chat.

Homophones are things like their, there, they’re. They sound the same but are spelled differently. Trip me up often. My brain can’t tell the difference.

Those should not pose a problem with auto-translation. But what about homonyms (same spelling, different meaning)? That’s where it gets trickier.

There are many examples of course. Let’s take bat (as a noun). It kind of matters if it’s the animal or the baseball/cricket kind. If the context is ambiguous, this could be funny.

I was struck in the face by a bat.

The bat flew across the field.

Context matters. The first one is unlikely to be the animal, but not impossible. The second one could be either. That one place I stayed at in rural Denmark had tons of bats flying around right outside our window. And they flew across a field.

This is more difficult for auto-translating.

Where it gets really fun is when we throw in a word like row. Take a minute to think of four different forms (not meanings, distinct forms). I’ve come up with:

to paddle a boat

a line of things

to argue (noisily)

a noisy argument

Two verbs, two nouns, different pronunciation – same spelling. Things like these will be difficult for AI. And this is just a simple example that didn’t include all the meanings.

Good luck AI.

And no, I have nothing against people using translation tools. Of course not. They are helpful. Depending on the language they can be very limited though.

And remember that they don’t always understand nuance, sarcasm or linguistic jokes. I’m sure the list is much longer, but it’s Sunday morning and I’m out of tea.

Sooooo, I’m sure I’m supposed to use a proper transition, but I’ll just not worry about it.

Have you seen the video of yesterday’s hike? I posted it on my YouTube channel as well as in a Substack note.

And I’m adding two other versions of this hike. Just for fun.

It looks quite different in March and April and then there is September too. What cracks me up is that I tend to take very similar pictures – every single time. Too funny.

Yesterday’s hike:

Then there is the one from March 21, 2023

I forgot to restart the recording after crossing that wooden bridge into Germany. That’s why the ending is just a straight line.

Same hike on September 29, 2023

Rudely no swans yesterday. There is a reason for that, obviously. It’s nesting season.

I’m gonna leave you here. Go and learn a foreign language – it’s fun. And we sure need a bit of fun in today’s world.

Remember that silly is important and go do something silly today. I already know what my silly thing is. And nope, there will not be any pictures 😜.

Sunday hugs everyone.

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Mid-week Grumble

Seriously, why did I eat all that cake yesterday? That was way too much sugar. I guess that’s birthdays for you. Cake is kind of mandatory.

Okay, maybe not mandatory, but I like cake.

My brain is still in a sugar coma, I think. I have no thoughts. Or at least not ones I want to share.

Focus!

Oh no! I just saw someone riding their bike by my building. Now I want to go ride mine. Seriously brain. Are you just gonna give me squirrel moments all morning?

Is this what 51 is gonna be like?

Next squirrel moment.

I just looked up the song a little girl was singing at my cousin’s birthday gathering yesterday. It was in Swedish and it made no sense to me. It turns out not the girl’s fault. This is the song and these are the lyrics.

It makes no sense. Something about a little pig up a tree and there’s candy.

It’s peak Astrid Lindgren. Just a fun song.

Silly is important.

And she did this really well. I remember seeing a picture of her up a tree when she was already quite old saying that there was nothing in the Bible to say that old women can’t climb trees.

And since silly is important I posted this as my birthday note yesterday:

If I ever stop being silly – call for help!

Then again…

Trying to stay positive is not all that easy at the moment. I mean among all the craziness I’ve got my own (C-PTSD) struggles. Second set of weird (emotional) flashbacks within a week in the early hours of my birthday – very fragmented still. Different emotions and this time also visual.

A bit dream-like.

So, not the greatest start to my birthday, but I managed to work through and heal the parts I understood. Some current friends showed up in this one too. Ones that rudely live far away.

The connections my brain made – weird.

I figured them out, but weird!

Walking usually helps me figure things out or recover from major healing sessions.

So, on Thursday I went on a hike I’d been putting off for a while. I didn’t think about it, I just went. Right after lunch. When I got there, I remembered...

It’s the most infuriating stretch of that long distance hike along the Rhine or the border to Germany, whichever way you want to look at it. The Rhine is more accurate as almost an entire Swiss canton/state/province is north of the Rhine, but most of it is along the border to Germany.

So, this is the entire stage. Screenshot from Switzerland Mobility. It’s Route 60 and called ViaRhenana. I obviously didn’t do the 32 km because I like my feet.

You wanna guess which part I did? Yep, that hilly bit.

Below a close up. That’s 100m elevation gain and loss and gain and loss and … you get the picture.

There is no hiking route along the water. You’re basically up in the hills.

That one hill with the straight line up had me swearing a lot. Then that straight-ish line down is where I met a group of seniors hiking up. They hated it too.

They would have never admitted to it, but their faces were all red.

As was mine.

I was grumbling along. Unless there were birds or sheep or cats.

I saw a green woodpecker! He flew past me twice. That was super cool. He then hid from me up a tree – they are sneaky that way.

Seriously made me smile though.

Here’s the video from Thursday and as a comparison the one from September 2023. Thursday was in the afternoon, and September was early in the morning.

And then there was this view of Laufenburg (Germany on the right, Switzerland on the left – same name, different countries). This was the destination of my hike.

Just stunning.

Finding joy in your everyday life is so important.

Even if the beauty in this shot lies across the Rhine in Germany – that hurts my Swiss heart a little.

Made me happy anyway.

On Friday my joy came from exploring the new bookshop (grand opening was Friday) with my cousin. We figured – between our birthdays was a great day to do this.

And, just for the record, I don’t wanna talk about the four books I bought. I really don’t.

I had a 20% off voucher. And it was my birthday. So shush!

We spent about an hour in there. It’s not a big store. Just one floor and probably no bigger than 100m2.

They have little tables with reading lamps.

I love it.

We were asked about three times if they could help us find anything. We were like “no thanks we’re just checking out what kind of books you carry”.

I absolutely loved how many English books they had.

And I told them as much.

Great selection overall. I’m totally gonna get a customer loyalty card.

Now the church bells are going. I think it’s the end of Catholic Mass, but I’m not sure. I like them either way.

I have my windows open and earlier I had a wasp visitor.

Wasps can be annoying and that somehow reminded me of FIFA. Go figure.

FIFA World Cup anyone?

Question: Are any of my readers planning on going to a FIFA World Cup game? I’m hearing crazy stuff. I mean, no public transport, not allowed to walk to the stadium and don’t even get me started on ticket prices.

And if there are buses and trains, they are extremely expensive.

Some guy in the comments on YT said that people just need to drive. I replied, “so everybody is supposed to rent a car, just to get to the stadium?”.

I’m seriously too European for this.

I’ve not been to a FIFA World Cup, but the Women’s Euros last year were in Switzerland. With your ticket (I paid like $30 for mine, front row right on the goal line) you had free public transport across the country on game day. Trams stop right outside the stadium.

I paid an extra $10 for drinks and snacks. That was it.

Last Sunday I went to an international handball game. Two tram lines and one train line - just across the street. Easy.

Back to the World Cup.

I don’t even think the no public transport and no walking are the worst thing. FIFA seem to have banned people from parking in those huge parking lots citing safety concerns.

Lucky nobody has to go. I think a boycott would probably help.

And please, can we get FIFA out of Zurich? I might need to start an initiative. Apart from the current US government, they are the most corrupt organization I know.

Personally, I think European teams should pull out of the World Cup and have friendly matches in stadiums across Europe for the fans. But I guess there is too much money involved and careers on the line.

And backroom deals…

Here’s what I’m picturing

How can we make more money?

Ban parking at the stadium?

That’s a great idea! And we make them park elsewhere for like $200 with mandatory shuttles for another $100.

We’ll also make walking to the stadium illegal.

And charge them 10x the regular fares on buses and trains.

Perfect!

I don’t think I’m that far off.

And continuing with the insanity …

We really need to spare a thought for Caitlyn Jenner. You know the woman who proudly and publicly voted for the current president. A president who had made it clear what would happen to trans rights if he was elected. Crystal clear.

Now poor Caitlyn can’t travel internationally because the M in her passport doesn’t match her appearance.

I tend not to point fingers at people who voted for 47 because of where I grew up and because I know what tactics are used to make people afraid and to fool them into thinking it is the right choice.

I’ll make an exception for Caitlyn though.

Bit of Schadenfreude.

I’ll remain a trans ally despite her, and obviously trans rights are human rights. None of what’s been happening is okay. Well, it’s horrific really. I hope people are able to stay safe.

And on the issue of safety in everyday life. Or not tripping over stuff …

Why did I just look around my living room? There is so much that needs organizing. So, I’m probably just gonna sit on my sofa with a good book and read all day.

And I promised to bake brownies, so that’s happening too.

And I bought a new cookbook. Not for the recipes but for suggestions. I always substitute stuff. I’m a creative – I don’t like rules.

But I’m also Swiss.

Now there’s a complicated combination.

Maybe I should take a cooking class. Just for fun and to mess up recipes.

The cookbook I got is on protein bowls – hot and cold. It looks like a lot of fun and they explain the ingredients, the macros you’re getting and everything. I think there’s also something on substitutions.

I love some of the combinations I’ve seen. It should be fun. And those bowls can easily be heated the next day, or the cold ones will definitely keep in the fridge.

I’m super excited.

I really feel like I want to go on a walk; now that spring is firmly here. The weather is nice, so popular routes will be crowded.

I’ll go somewhere obscure.

Oh! I know – I’ll walk to where I used to live one town over. Through the forest and then back along the river. That sounds like a plan. One that doesn’t involve planning or public transport.

Except for snacks. I’m gonna need those - but I have cake. That works.

I’m gonna leave you with these super cute mugs I got myself for my birthday. I know I’ve shared them before.

I mean, how cute are they?!

I feel like sometimes we’re not meant to resist. Especially not when it’s something cute and silly.

I probably won’t use them. I’ll just look at them and smile. Every day.

Okay, I need more sugar. Or water. Or something.

So I’m gonna need to leave you here.

I hope you were able to follow my random thoughts that were all over the place today. But at least they landed on books, brownies, spring walks, and super cute mugs - which is not the worst place to be.

Happy Sunday everyone! Hugs all around.

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Too young to remember? – Think again!

Mid-week Grumble

Finding myself – again

These past few months have been incredible. But also incredibly draining. Not in a bad way as such. It was more in a healing-takes-time-and-energy kind of way.

Luckily, I had the time and space to really lean into this from the end of January. I’m working on pieces of how lonely healing is – in a sense that nobody can understand exactly what’s going on.

Our wounds are our wounds, and that’s why only we can truly heal them. It’s our responsibility to do the inner work; others can’t do it for us, but they can support us. They also can’t fill the voids those wounds have left, the emptiness. There are not enough people in the entire world to do that.

Finding myself again also showed me how much energy there is if I do the things I like, the way I like to do them.

I mean there will always be things we don’t like or there’s work that puts a time frame on things, but the time we have at our disposal is ours.

And being able to spend that time in a way that benefits me, my nervous system and my entire body has been amazing.

I now have three days a week without any commitments or obligations and I love that. Are there financial drawbacks? Of course. Vacations can wait – I can explore Switzerland on my Train Pass.

That’s one of my non-negotiables. As long as I can cover that, my rent, health insurance and food. I’m good.

Then I only need a museum pass and I’m golden.

I like eating out once in a while, but I prefer saving that money for something I really enjoy.

I knew all this about me, but sometimes those things can get lost.

And when we reconnect with our bodies and there is proper communication again – they resurface.

Now can we talk labels?

Are you an introvert, extrovert or ambivert?

Or is it just a spectrum like most things? Apologies if the term “spectrum” triggers some of you.

To me it just means that no two people are the same. Why would a label change that? And who decides what the norm is?

I think the best way to describe myself is as an extroverted introvert. For me that means I love spontaneous connection, but I recharge in solitude.

I’m super happy to go on adventures on my own, chat with random strangers, meet people online and if they happen to be in Switzerland maybe also in real life. I have no trouble starting a conversation with strangers.

This might look like your “typical” extrovert. Connecting with people everywhere - sometimes in the weirdest places.

Or striking up a conversation with someone in October or November 2025 only for them to recognize me yesterday back up on Mt. Rigi. That was such a fun coincidence. Same day, same train.

I’m telling you that first train up is where the magic happens.

Turns out we would have been on the same cable car if that had been running.

We had a lovely chat and parted ways after like 30 minutes. We might randomly see each other again elsewhere. That’d be fun.

This gives me energy.

I guess part of it is the novelty. Or the excitement of the unknown. I thrive on that. Not in every situation, but on adventures – bring it on!

So that’s one part of the equation.

The other one is how I recharge my social batteries. Social interactions that are not spontaneous but planned or scripted in a way, like work events or also just eating out. Or the socially acceptable way to hang out with friends or at a party when I just want to read a book.

I might still have a good time, but those (can) drain my energy.

And that’s why I don’t have a full calendar. I have post-its on my front door with very few set plans.

I like being alone. I like me. I like spending time with me.

Me time is me recharging. Me time is me doing exactly what feels right.

And if this sounds awful to you – you’re probably not an introvert.

I’m guessing that there are introverted introverts, extroverted introverts, introverted extroverts and extroverted extroverts. Sometimes the “mixed” forms are called ambiverts, but that leaves you with two forms to chose from - and they are not the same.

Great! I just found out about omniverts. Now it gets even more confusing.

Either way, I’ve found what works for me. For now. And that’s good.

Why am I telling you this?

Oh, I was asked about my personality type last Thursday and there are so many different ways to describe those, so this is what my brain did.

I’m sure you’re aware of the BIG FIVE personality traits. There was an entire semester on personality for my psychology degree.

Not sure how much of that I found useful and how much stuck.

It is important to know that each of those BIG FIVE traits operate on a spectrum.

Most personality type frameworks use similar traits. Some of them use dichotomies, others a spectrum, but what remains is that the possibilities are endless. Even for people who are the “same” type.

That’s why labels might be helpful, but they can never fully describe a person.

It’s up to each of us to figure out how to live our own individual lives in a way that suits us.

Okay, I think I need to lighten this up a little bit.

Adventure time!

Adventures

On Thursday I hiked up to my favorite local peak. It’s called Wasserflue and you usually have a nice view of the Alps. I saw deer and a chamois – that one stared at me for a long time. I couldn’t take a picture with my phone; it was so well camouflaged. It made me smile.

I posted this note that has a video of that hike.

It was a little crazy because I started the hike so late, but I made it down before sunset. And the good thing is that there is always a bus waiting at the end. This one takes me straight home.

Oh, church bells.

400 words in I just decided that I will turn yesterday’s Rigi adventure into a separate newsletter.

But I do want to leave you with a few pictures. This was stunning. My friend from back in October/November showed me the best spot to photograph these crocuses.

This next one was on the way up. A stunning morning.

And then one more from the way down the other side to Vitznau. Spring has definitely sprung.

There was some snow left, but not too bad and the fog cleared shortly after. It was already really low down, then it disappeared completely.

And by the time I reached Lucerne, it was bright and sunny.

I love these mornings on the mountain. I would have loved to do this one hike, but I’d have needed the cable car for it (closed for maintenance work this week).

I was back home at 1 PM for a home cooked meal. It was perfect.

And nope, I don’t want to talk about the two mugs I bought. I didn’t need mugs, but they had cows on them and in them and the design is the cutest and it’s my birthday next Saturday.

The salesperson agreed with me that I really had no other choice. It was quite comical.

So, Mt. Rigi is one of my top 5 happy places (in Switzerland) where I go to recharge, where I feel at home. Two are seasonal; three are year-round. I’m going to do a series on them.

I’m sure you have your happy place(s) too. What are some of yours? If you don’t mind sharing. You can also be vague in your answer and give us a region or a country.

My five are coming on my On The Move With Evelyne newsletter. And I’ll stick to Switzerland for now.

I’m gonna leave you here. I might do something a little crazy later today. There are two tickets left at the moment. It’s a sporting event. I kind of feel like going, but might prefer to spend that money on books instead.

We’ll see what the day holds.

Stay tuned.

And remember everybody’s perfectly aligned life will look different. I’ve found mine – more or less.

I’m happy. And I’m very protective of what I’ve created for myself.

That’s my way of choosing me. That’s my way of putting myself first.

Sunday hugs all around.

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Some housekeeping – I haven’t set up templates for my newsletters yet, but what I’ll do is put all four of my newsletters at the very end of each one. So, you can check them out if you like and you know how to find them if you don’t have the Substack app. A little bit like me adding recent newsletters on Sundays.

Recent newsletters

Mid-week Grumble

Tulip Festival in Morges

All my newsletters – main pages

Evelyne’s Newsletter

Environment, mental health, travel/walking, photography & the odd rant.

By Evelyne Luethy

On The Move With Evelyne

I'll be writing about travel, hiking, rivers - anything that's on the move really.

By Evelyne Luethy

OY! PAY ATTENTION!

I'm launching this Substack to provide support for fellow trauma survivors. I'm not a mental health professional, but I am here to show you that you are NOT ALONE and that THERE IS A WAY. I've also written a book called OY! PAY ATTENTION!

By Evelyne Luethy

Demystified Canvas

I'm writing about my art. Sharing videos of me painting. And much more.

By Evelyne Luethy

Others remain stuck, but that has nothing to do with spring.

The church bells are going. I think Christ has risen or something. I don’t really know. These are the more subtle Protestant ones. I’m sure there’s plenty of Easter services going on today.

Back when not everybody had the exact time available to them, the bells had to ring for 15 minutes so people could make their way there.

And I sure remember my grandpa stopping work at 5 PM on a Saturday when the bells rang in the weekend.

I love bells.

And yes, my last name means bell in Swiss German. Not the church bell kind, but the doorbell or bike bell ones.

So, if I ever get married – I’m totally keeping my name. Not sure why I’m telling you this, but you never know, I could still get married.

Just know that if I happen to go to the centenarian exhibit again as it moves to Lausanne or Geneva, there might be a reason for that. I chatted with one of the psychologists who were responsible for the study and subsequent exhibit for a long time.

A very interesting person. Plus, a psychologist.

Okay, focus! Talking to myself here.

If you’re interested in the study – here’s the link with all the information you need.

I came across this by chance when looking for the rose fountains yesterday. I wrote about those here. I mean I wrote about the entire day, but the fountains were part of it.

Those rose fountains are run by the protestant church – they are so pretty.

I like the Protestant church when they do stuff like this. Or when they put on exhibits like the centenarian one.

And I love that protest is what led to this branch of Christianity.

We know a thing or two about protests and resistance in Switzerland. I don’t want to say it’s a national sport, but … when your national hero is built around an act of resistance, it’s hard to deny the importance.

In case you’re unfamiliar, look up William Tell.

It doesn’t matter that the well-known story was fictional. I mean the Bible and other Holy books are proof of that. It still sets the tone.

So, when I saw that there was an exhibit at the National Museum on Water, Power and Resistance, I knew I had to go.

There was a lot of resistance when it came to hydropower and one of the people who shared their story made an important point. You can protest all you want, but if you don’t have your own solution for the problem, you’re in a weak position.

The protests he was involved in were not always entirely successful, but they did lead to better overall solutions.

Protests work.

Another person talked about the “Verbandsbeschwerderecht” that we have in Switzerland. Try saying that three times fast. It is the right of environmental associations to file legal complaints on behalf of nature. As in giving rivers a voice for instance.

This is federal law. So, if these environmental NGOs see nature or landscapes in danger, they file a complaint on behalf of nature.

That means they can object to projects that affect rivers, wetlands, specific habitats and landscapes.

Just the fact that we have this right means that companies who are planning a project like that now involve the environmental NGOs in their planning processes sometimes even from the very start.

I like that about us.

It shows that democracy is not a spectator sport and that accountability matters. A lot.

My brain feels a little empty today. I mean I wrote all these newsletters this week. Check them out.

Six countries in a day? – Part 1

Six countries in a day? – Part 2

I had no plans for today … crazy Swiss edition

A marathon without a finish line

But I do have two more topics that bug me today.

That Easter traffic jam we have every year. This year it seemed longer than usual. It’s not unexpected. Everybody knows it’s gonna happen. They close the freeway exits and entrances in the area, so traffic doesn’t expand into the villages. Also, something that is well known.

Yet people do it every year. And then complain about it.

And Switzerland is to blame. Somehow.

Newsflash: you don’t have to do this.

Also, I feel really bad for people whose country is so bad that they can’t spend the long Easter weekend there. That must be horrible.

Just because your family has always done this does not mean you need to continue the tradition. I mean you can, but don’t complain if you decide to get stuck in traffic for hours and hours and hours.

I think we should charge people to drive through the Gotthard tunnel. I mean if you drive across the bridge between Denmark and Sweden, you pay a lot of money. We should totally do that too.

Or we could only allow electric vehicles on peak traffic days. That would help with crazy air pollution.

And don’t complain about high petrol prices and then go for a drive across Switzerland just because. Maybe prices are not high enough yet. I wouldn’t know.

But I would be so mad at myself if I was stuck in traffic if the weather was the same north of the Alps or even better. I mean it’s sunny north of the Alps right now.

I have my windows open. It’s gonna be like 22°C today (that’s like 72°F). There might be some rain later on, but for now it’s bright and sunny.

I just can’t with this – I mean you have a 4-day weekend (in most of Europe) and you spend two of those days driving or stuck in traffic all while complaining about high petrol prices.

Make that make sense.

On the topic of making sense, can someone please explain to me how Sunday is the first day of the week?

I know it used to be that way for religious reasons at some point, but now that we’ve all pretty much agreed on the weekEND being Saturday and Sunday, it doesn’t feel like it makes sense anymore.

Have you heard of ISO 8601? Look it up. It’s cool.

And with that rabbit hole to go down, I’ll leave you with this picture.

That’s the Limmat River and we’re looking upstream towards Lake Zurich. You can see the Alps in the distance; a tram is crossing the bridge and one of those tourist boats has just passed underneath the bridge.

It was a pretty perfect day.

Hugs all around.

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I don’t mind it in the fall - that’s totally okay. But this? Just NO!

Just scrolled through all those No Kings protests, well, not all of them, but it’s looking good. We should do that every day to pick up momentum.

Let’s go!

Or maybe have a quieter start to our Sunday morning. I’m sitting here drinking linden blossom tea out of a big mug. It’s quiet, it’s peaceful.

And my mind, as usual, is curious about weird stuff. Exhibit A:

Rock, Paper, Scissors

How do you say this where you are? I’ve heard many variations and never really thought about it too much.

In Germany, people also say Schnick, Schnack, Schuck. Which… I don’t even know what to say about that.

But we also seem to just randomly change the order. I wonder if that affects how we play it. I mean there has to be something that happens in your brain, doesn’t there?

In German-speaking Switzerland it’s Schere, Stei, Papier (scissors, rock, paper). That has to make a difference.

Sorry, but we need studies.

French – pierre, feuille, ciseaux (rock, paper, scissors); Swedish – sten, sax, papper (rock, scissors, paper). I’m sure there is regional variation for those languages as well.

Are there people out there who say paper, scissors, rock; paper, rock, scissors; or scissors, paper, rock?

I need to know.

Well, my brain does.

I’m also always curious about new places. So, I went to one of those “most beautiful villages” in Switzerland.

St-Ursanne, Switzerland

Apparently, one of the most beautiful Swiss villages (or best tourism village according to UN Tourism).

Well, what can I say – it ain’t bad.

And that my friends is where I should leave it.

But I’m not gonna do that.

I might write a separate newsletter on those Swiss Instagram hot spots.

So here are some thoughts on the first one I went to.

To me, a village can’t have a Coop or Migros supermarket. To make the village grade, you need a Volg or no store at all. It has a Coop.

Also, can a village truly have a train stop? Well, if it’s a narrow-gauge line that’s allowed. This one wasn’t. So that’s the second strike, I think.

It is a cute village, but I’ve seen better. I didn’t feel like I needed to take pictures. It reminded me of Stein am Rhein (not a village, but the old town has a similar feel minus the traffic).

Here’s a picture I took on the way back to the train station.

I have a feeling that the Grand Tour of Switzerland people just needed a town in this canton and thought this would do nicely. Fair enough.

My canton is only featured with one (ONE!) place on the route (according to the official map), possibly two if the map is slightly off and does in fact include Aarburg Castle). I was at the one official photo spot on Monday. You can read about it here. It was Hallwyl Castle.

I feel like I should say something nice about it. It really is nice. People were super friendly. Everybody said hi. Well, bonjour, but same difference.

The region is stunning. I mean, the Doubs is a beautiful river. It also forms a lake. It’s definitely a region I want to explore more and hike around in. That’s probably gonna be a destination for a long weekend.

I’m gonna save some things for a possible separate newsletter, but I do need to mention this viaduct. I love a good viaduct. If you missed it – here’s the Viaduct in Brusio.

For this one, you start at the very bottom and then climb up this path to the train station. There might be buses too, but where’s the fun in that?

You can also walk along the road (very unbusy), that’s less steep.

When I saw that the village was at least a 15-minute walk from the station, I decided to just stay on the train and go to the end of the line.

The end of the line that was in *drumroll* - France.

Well, of course I did.

The place was called Delle. I walked around randomly for about an hour. It was cute. Was it worth the detour? Well, it was for the experience and because it didn’t cost me extra. That quick hop across the border was included in my Swiss train pass.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Lauterbrunnen. I still have never been there. But I have a feeling I’ll be disappointed because there are sooooo many beautiful places here and the prettiest ones are not the ones we tell people about.

It’s like cheese and chocolate; we don’t export the best stuff.

We’re sneaky that way.

Speaking of Switzerland.

A rule-based society

This is for the people who are complaining about all the rules they have to follow when in Switzerland. Well, it works for us – mostly.

And to me it doesn’t make sense to criticize Switzerland for being rule-based and for fines issued for rule breaking and then turn around saying actions need to have consequences when it comes to certain presidents.

That my friends is exactly it.

Actions should have consequences. Around here they do.

And I’ve noticed that people who have lived here for a while start getting annoyed by people being loud during “quiet hours” when they go abroad. It’s too funny.

I am so Swiss that I will check my watch if somebody is loud at lunchtime. We do take this very seriously.

But yes, you are allowed to flush your toilet or take a quick (!) shower after 10 PM. And my guess is that if you live in a building where you wake up every time your neighbor flushes the toilet (like a really old building), you’ll stop flushing in the middle of the night pretty quickly.

Self-regulation and such 😉.

…

I think I might leave you here, I got a crazy day planned for tomorrow. A day that starts on the 5.20 bus and ends on the 20.39 bus at the earliest. It’s gonna be epic, if it all works out.

I can’t even believe I hadn’t thought of trying this before.

I’ve linked recent newsletters below and there might be another one today on OY! PAY ATTENTION!

Hugs all around and please share your No Kings experience if you went.

I’d love to hear it.

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On The Move With Evelyne

Hiking along Lake Hallwil – on the boring side

And that’s where I also need to say that I would probably consider this a walk rather than a hike, because of the length and lack of elevation gain. But that’s probably just a Swiss thing…

Read more

a month ago · 10 likes · 2 comments · Evelyne Luethy

I need to start with a difficult story, because it’s all over my YouTube feed. And no, not just magically. I once did a deep dive into that world when I was considering writing my master’s thesis on religious cults.

And things just blew up.

I promise the newsletter will get lighter after this! Skip if this might trigger you.

SA trigger warning – another Duggar arrest

Well, if you don’t know who the Duggars are, maybe also skip.

SA stands for abuse of a certain nature. Something that’s very common in purity culture, where adult children are told they can only spend time with their boyfriend/girlfriend with a chaperone present. Someone needs to make sure they won’t touch or even kiss before they are married.

It’s super healthy.

They had a TV show called 19 Kids and Counting, where they promoted this lifestyle. It was on TLC.

Of course, we later found out that the oldest son had SA’d his sisters, had an active Ashley Madison account and a few years later he was tried and convicted on federal charges of possession of CSA material. Really sick stuff. The “c” stands for “child”.

Now a second son has been arrested on similar charges. He molested a 9-year-old girl in 2020. When the girl’s dad found out last week, he went nuclear – which isn’t always the case in these circles. Usually, the girls get blamed.

So, dad going nuclear is a good thing.

Everybody was rooting for his wife saying she should leave him immediately and get out of there for the sake of her kids.

That didn’t last long though. Because plot twist, she got arrested too.

Four counts of child endangerment and four counts of false imprisonment. They have four kids. The same counts were added to her husband’s charges.

He might actually get locked away for a long time as the child molestation happened in Florida. And in Florida they don’t care if it was over or under the clothes. In Arkansas, where they live, this matters. And yes, it’s as sick as you think.

Over the clothes is not as bad and that’s why when caught they keep repeating “it was just over the clothes”. Only to turn out not to be true, of course. Sick, sick, sick – either way.

Also, they think that if they apologize it’s all taken care of.

Makes me sick.

And NO! It freaking isn’t.

Should I find satisfaction in the fact that fellow inmates know how to take care of people like that? Probably not. Do I? Yes, very much.

And B-R-E-A-T-H-E.

One size fits all solutions can be dangerous

I wrote about this in my mid-week grumble:

During the Q & A at the end of a bunch of talks on Neuroscience at the BrainFair in Zurich somebody said, “we should really all learn to meditate and we would all feel so much better – this should be a mandatory thing”. She was clearly expecting the experts (Psychiatrists and Neuroscientists) to agree.

Rather than doing that, she was put in her place. I’m paraphrasing the answer as I couldn’t write it down in full.

First argument: just because you had a positive experience with meditation, that doesn’t mean it’s helpful for everybody. We tend to overestimate the similarities between how we experience the world and how everybody else does. This is highly individual.

Second argument: for people with severe depression meditation can make things a lot worse. So, it’s a dangerous assumption that because something works for you, everybody should do it. Or that it will benefit everybody.

Let’s keep that in mind.

I was so glad the question was answered that way. I remember struggling with meditation for years. I just couldn’t do it. I was shamed for it. Like I just needed to try harder.

Then there were breathing exercises. I couldn’t do those either. Today I know that it was because I had severe trauma linked to not being able to breathe. And it wasn’t “just” the almost drowning one.

I fainted during my first Qigong class, when we did a breathing exercise.

So much for “it’s good for everyone”.

I didn’t know that’s why I couldn’t do it. I just knew it didn’t feel right. Yet people kept pushing it on me.

Now I can do breathing exercises, but boy did that take a lot of time, effort and healing. Not knowing what was blocking it, added to the stress.

I still have some meditation CDs – I might give this a go again. The breathing exercises I can do now are helping. My diaphragm is a lot happier. It’s also helping with lymphatic flow.

On that note. Something else that was mentioned during the BrainFair.

Glymphatic system

I first mentioned the glymphatic system last November in this newsletter.

Somebody talked about what happens during sleep and how sleep can help us remember things better and they then went into what we think happens during sleep. Three things really – first, what we learned that day gets repeated during sleep and moved to long-term memory (this is simplified of course). Second, the new connections in the brain get tidied up and similar ones lumped together (also simplified) to make space for future learning.

And then he mentioned that a newer discovery was the glymphatic system that removes waste during sleep.

You can picture it like the removal of cached data on your computer or phone. Things that are not needed but take up space.

Okay, I might be oversimplifying that a little bit and it’s not what the expert said. I just need to make that clear.

You should totally read up on this. It’s fascinating. And we’re only just starting to figure it out.

What we definitely know though, is that stuff happens while we sleep and sleep is important.

I just love that the brain has a waste disposal system. And I’m not surprised. I’m now actively forcing myself not to go down that rabbit hole again.

Best move on to walking. That seems like a safe topic.

Hiking in Switzerland

You can get the full story in this newsletter.

I’m adding a few more pictures here. They are all in the YouTube video as well.

As you can see in this first picture, you really want to keep your eyes on the path. One missed step and you’re in the lake.

It was such a gorgeous day. Amazing!

Some parts were a bit more boring with a wider path, but still beautiful and still part of a nature reserve. So, no bikes, no horses, no other traffic. A safe space for nature to thrive.

I wish I had recorded some of the birdsong along the way. It was amazing. It’s so quiet there on Friday morning.

There are also a lot of benches along the way. I particularly liked this one.

Lucky I had some homemade bread and carrots to eat while I sat down.

We don’t have an ocean and there are always hills or mountains on the horizon, but our lakes are pretty nice, and our rivers are great hiking companions too.

In a couple of hours, I will walk along my river to get to my niece’s birthday party. She’s three today.

I better get that blue coloring book and that blue chocolate she wanted wrapped. I also need to get the brownies I baked ready for transport.

Have a great Sunday! I hope there is cake in yours too.

Hugs all around.

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Recent posts

Silent for a reason

Mid-week Grumble

Hiking along Lake Hallwil

Hiking Video - YouTube

Shout out to the friend who watched trash TV with me yesterday. Each in our own beds – pausing the program to send voice messages back and forth. That was exactly what I needed.

Some of you might have seen the video I posted as a note. I’ll add it at the end of this.

It’s what hiking in my hills looks like.

Starting point: easy, farming going on. Germany in the distance.

This is not classified as a mountain hiking route, but soon it looks like this:

Yes, that’s the path. And if you slip and fall to the left – you’re pretty much dead. I’m not trying to be dramatic. That’s just a fact.

There’s a different route up if this is not for you, but I love it.

The view from the top is pretty amazing. That’s the Alps right there. Well some of them.

You can actually see two valley pretty clearly from here. I grew up in the one on the right. There’s a river in each and they converge very close to where I live now and then flow right past my building.

When I rode my bike the 10k to high school I went across that hill you see in the middle.

If anybody tells you this part of Switzerland is flat. Maybe show them this picture. It’s the Jura Mountains although around here they are hills, really.

The clouds were extra special on Friday.

And at the end of the hike you see the old town of Aarau right across the river. Always a special moment.

And here’s the video for you.

Hugs all around.

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I’m the most important woman in my life after all. I love that there are events all over the world, it’s just not what I choose to do today. And I’ll continue to speak up for women and women’s rights throughout the year.

This was early this morning on my walk. The air is a bit hazy because of Sahara dust in the air but look at how the sun radiates through it. I loved it.

One hour stolen!

I know a lot of my readers are in the US, mostly in states where the clocks have just changed. I mean, stealing one hour is always a drag, but making International Women’s Day an hour shorter feels deliberate.

I know it’s not.

But the way the world is going, who’d be surprised if it was.

Nobody really.

This is not the case in Switzerland and the rest of Europe of course. We’re changing our clocks at the end of March.

International Women’s Day coinciding with voting day in Switzerland is also a good day to remind my readers that women got the right to vote in 1971. Yes, you read that right. Watch the movie The Divine Order (Original: Die göttliche Ordnung), it’ll explain everything.

Explain – not excuse.

If you’re thinking, we’ve come really far – can we talk about Love is blind?

Love is blind / psychology of attraction

I got Netflix back for one month because I want to see Love is blind Sweden. Not sure why, but I’m not questioning it. At least trying not to.

Okay, I’m questioning my judgment on that a lot, but there you go …

I do believe love is blind, but I don’t think people are. You can totally fall in love with someone’s energy or their voice (or on social media with what is said in DMs and posts), but if there is no physical attraction … that’s not gonna work in real life.

So there we are. They get engaged sight unseen. They listen to their intuition. They try to get in touch with their feelings. No visual cues of any kind. Just a voice. Just words.

An interesting experiment. So far so good.

Then they see each other for the first time and the expectation is immediate physical attraction. If it’s not there, you gotta pretend it is. You signed up for this, so now you have to act like it’s destiny.

This is where it gets toxic. There is forced intimacy – red flag. There is forced invasion of personal space. There is deliberate and toxic focus on people’s insecurities. And there is drama because drama sells.

No drama couples might not even get featured because emotional maturity does not make for great TV. Toxicity does.

And there is always toxic behavior. Usually by men who practice “brutal honesty” in a more brutal than honest way. People who clearly don’t have the emotional maturity to even be in a relationship – let alone get married.

I’m now seriously questioning my decision to watch the new season of Love is blind Sweden. I’m strangely drawn to social experiments and fascinated by the psychology behind it.

That might be it.

Also, it’s easier to spot toxic behavior towards others. That’s part of it too. It can help heal some of that in a “it wasn’t my fault” kind of way.

Language is also a factor, I don’t get to watch enough programs in Swedish, which brings me to my new favorite Swedish word.

Linguistic corner – soulmate in Swedish

Yesterday I learned the Swedish word for soulmate – it’s tvillingsjäl. It literally translates to twin soul or soul twin.

I love that.

I’m totally gonna start using it.

Zwillingsseele oder Seelenzwilling? I like it. Âme jumelle ou jumelle d’âme? J’adore. Although I’m totally making that up. I have a feeling it would be plural in French.

New word obsession unlocked either way.

Mental health in today’s mess of a world

I’m not ignoring the wars, I’m keeping an eye on what’s going on – that’s important. But I choose to spend more time and effort on developing a program to help people. Mental health is too important not to use all my knowledge.

Then again, I shared this as a note yesterday …

Trying to consolidate everything I’ve learned is difficult to say the least. And the mountain of things that are crucial just got a lot bigger. I mean, for me things have really started unraveling since January 28 – in a good way.

I haven’t had a moment to breathe and try to write it all down.

This is ultimately going to be my contribution to women’s health. A compassionate transformation guide.

Can men benefit as well?

If they want to listen and learn – yes. The course will focus specifically on women though. And on perimenopause, the quiet or not so quiet wake-up call.

What do we need?

One mindset shift. One mental pivot. And things are starting to change.

Fascinating.

I think I’ll use pivot – not just for the fun Friends memes.

While it is a simple shift, there is a lot of pivoting involved. If you change one variable, everything changes. Just like an Excel pivot table. Even the frustration is implied in the word pivot.

Seems fitting.

…

I’ll leave you with pictures from a little adventure yesterday. The Rhine Falls always ground me. I needed that. I left home at 5.20, got there at 7.06. I walked around, felt the power of the water up close, walked around some more and then took the train to Schaffhausen at 7.57.

I was back home at 9.46.

Were the 51 minutes on site worth the 3h 35 minutes travel time?

Yes! I think they were.

Happy Sunday everyone.

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Something to cheer you up – Jellycat

I was in tears when I started hanging out with friends on Zoom. That’s when two of the most genuinely nice people I know showed us their Jellycat curling stone. You can find it here.

They had a bunch more to show us and we were hooked.

Things escalated a bit and everybody started scrolling through the Jellycat website. I think I said “Oh look, they have … “ at least 10 times. My favorite remains the curling stone. But the Raclette and Fondue ones are also brilliant. I mean there are just too many to mention here.

Go to the link I shared and click on Amuseables. You’ll love them.

Jellycat’s mission is to put a smile on people’s faces and boy did they deliver on that!

Did you have a look? Did you see the ukulele? If you missed it – go back!

I think three of us have now requested a train as that seems to be missing.

Why was I in tears before all this? Well, it’s been quite a week. I’ll try and keep this as light as I can.

Two mental health walks

I discovered how to get to repressed feelings and memories that were too painful to show up even in therapy.

Now, the floodgates have opened. I’m being hit by at least one memory a day. Usually, it starts with random flashbacks. It’s powerful stuff.

But the relief is almost instant when I actually “go there” and don’t shy away from difficult emotions and painful memories.

This led to two walks this week.

One thing I can NOT recommend is walking that close to the water’s edge with tears streaming down your face. Not the best idea.

The walks were perfect. Emotions and memories were able to move through my body and mind and are now reprocessed.

Mostly.

Some will need more time, because they are off the charts painful. I’m glad I was able to go for these walks. Movement helps so much.

Movement by a body of water, that’s even better. I’m lucky enough to live right across the street from a river. I walk along it almost daily. In fact, I will go for a walk as soon as I hit publish on this newsletter.

Let me take you along on those two walks. I’ve created two videos. The colors are a bit boring in February, but it was unseasonably mild. Perfect hiking conditions. And mostly flat for a change.

Stories from my walks

There was a wet dog. Good boy had just gotten out of a river. He wanted to share his excitement. You know the shaking off the excess water right next to me.

His dad saw it coming, leashed him quickly and held him back. I was grateful.

Of course, I saw them again when the dog was off the leash as he was excitedly meeting another dog.

He saw me and came running right at me, ready to jump on me.

That wasn’t gonna happen.

I stopped, put down my hand firmly and said “NO! STOP!”. Made the dog stop in his tracks and back off.

His dad was laughing. I just shook my head at him and his human friend and possibly used my favorite Swiss insult on him.

A day later I walked past a golf course. They were warning us of flying balls. Apparently the golfers can’t aim properly. Then there was this guy with a weird looking leaf blower clearing about 10 leaves off one of the greens.

I have some thoughts on that. I mean I have thoughts on golf courses in general.

We should turn all golf courses into biodiversity havens.

And how come people don’t go pick up their own golf balls? That should be part of the game. Also, who would still play if they had to carry their clubs everywhere themselves and if there were no golf carts?

I’d be impressed by that – a tiny bit.

One more story that warmed my heart. A little boy on a bike. He was about three years old. He stopped, looked at me, smiled and said “hiiiii” like we were old friends. I smiled back and gave him a cheerful “hi” as well.

He got back on his bike and heard him ask his mom “who was that?”.

That was so adorable. It made me smile and I’m smiling as I type this. I think the little guy knew I could use some cheering up.

On that note, here’s an idea that made me smile too.

New mini-series – day trips from European capitals

I had this idea while hanging out with friends on Zoom – technically early this Sunday morning. So here goes.

I haven’t been to that many European capitals and from some of them I’ve never done day trips, so I’ll leave out Paris, Prague, Rome and Brussels. For Brussels I could come up with things as I’ve been to Belgium a bunch of times. Especially in the area close to the Dutch border. Maybe I’ll add that.

The most recent I’ve been to is Oslo. So, I’ll start there.

First time I went I really wanted to go to Lillehammer. I was backpacking – solo backpacking, and staying at hostels. Lillehammer became a day trip rather than a proper stop because it was not that easy back then to book accommodation (you had to find a public phone and call them) and I had found a good hostel in Oslo.

It’s super easy. You just hop on a train. It takes about two hours.

It’s totally worth it.

A must is checking out the ski jumping arena and Maihaugen. There’s other stuff too of course, but those two I never miss. Maihaugen also features an Olympic museum.

If I had more time, I would take the train all the way to Trondheim. That takes a lot longer (up to 8 hours), but it’s beautiful. Trondheim is one of my favorite places in Norway. So much to explore!

I love the bike lift, even though I’ve never ridden a bike there. The Cathedral is stunning – the biggest in the Nordic countries. There’s a fortress too and beautiful, colorful wooden houses on the water. It’s pretty stunning.

Last time I was there I got stung by a wasp. That was less fun.

Oh and if you go to Lillehammer, they have the most aggressive mosquitos I’ve ever seen – anywhere.

Back to Trondheim.

I would then catch the Hurtigruten boat down to Bergen, stopping in Ålesund and Molde; possibly Geiranger too.

I’m just realizing that I need to make this a separate post, because I have a lot more to share about that part of Norway.

Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tease on here and then post a full newsletter on On The Move With Evelyne.

I’ll start with capitals, but I might include other cities later on. This is gonna be fun.

We have the following capitals coming up – probably not in that order:

• Reykjavik

• Dublin

• Edinburgh

• London

• Oslo

• Stockholm

• Helsinki

• Copenhagen

• Vaduz

• Bern

Wait till you see where you can go from Stockholm in a day. It’s pretty cool. For Bern I have a few. Vaduz is a bit difficult, but I think I have one where you don’t leave the country 😂.

You’ll love it.

If you’re wondering when I got up to have this finished so early. The answer is 4.48.

Going for a walk now that the sun is up.

Take extra good care of yourselves and have a lovely Sunday.

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The World is on Fire

I’ll keep this part short – ish.

That war they want us to focus on is bad and could get a lot worse, but what is it distracting us from? That’s always the first question.

There are the alleged and unconfirmed ties Epstein had to Israel. There are the Epstein files. Major distraction from those as the people who are sifting through them are also reporting on the war.

Has anybody seen Congress? Are they still around? Has anybody paged them?

Trans rights in Kansas

If your reaction to Kansas revoking trans men and women’s driver’s licenses was “oh it’s just Kansas”, you’re part of the problem.

It starts in a deeply red state, with a small minority. Like last year when they did the same with passports.

Then they move on to a bigger minority – last year it was dispatching ICE and causing chaos.

Women across all groups are already a target too. The list of examples is long, but this time around it started with reproductive rights.

And then there’s voter suppression – that’s the ultimate goal.

I mean if trans people can’t prove it’s them with a valid ID, they can’t vote. And we already know that non-white people get harassed when in line at polling stations. We’ve seen that. It’s the whole “immigrants are voting” narrative.

Next up women whose names don’t match their birth certificates because they changed their names after marriage. We surely can’t let them vote. Do we even know who they are?

It always starts “small” and grows from there.

And that’s why trans rights should matter to all of us.

Trump Action Tracker

I came across this and wanted to share it. People are tracking Trump’s actions. Here’s what their aim is:

Documenting the actions, statements, and plans of President Trump and his administration that echo those of authoritarian regimes and may pose a threat to American democracy, since January 2025.

I highly recommend this page. On “Violating Democratic Norms, Undermining Rule of Law” the count stands at 702 actions since the inauguration.

Let that sink in. That’s more than one act a day.

Pet Shop Boys - Numb

Then I came across this song yesterday and I wanted to share it with you. It’s not new, but it somehow fits. It’s called Numb and it’s by the Pet Shop Boys. Here’s the YouTube link.

The men’s bronze medal game between Switzerland and Norway ended with the already defeated Norwegian team releasing their last stone with a pirouette and then using the broom to divert the stone slightly so it would hit a Swiss one.

Everybody laughed and shook hands. Too funny. I love when even top competitors don’t take themselves too seriously and are up for a laugh.

Then there was the grand final between Scotland and Canada – yes, I know it’s Team GB, but they are Scottish and that’s what the Swiss French commentators referred to them as. It all came down to the very last stone and Canada won. That wasn’t as much fun, but they really upped their game towards the end and it was well deserved.

Have you heard of Salomé Kora? The Swiss sprinter turned Winter Olympian? She took part in the Summer Olympics three times and now competed in the bobsleigh event. How cool is that? She’s not the first athlete to compete in both Summer and Winter Olympics but the first Swiss one.

So, it did make headlines.

I also just realized that this is the first Winter Olympics where women race 50k in cross-country skiing – just like the men. It used to be 30k. Not sure what the reason for that used to be. I mean it’s a well-known fact that if the distance is long enough women often outperform men in endurance sports … but anyway …

They are now also doing a 50k. It’s currently still underway.

On cross-country skiing: I’m sure you’re all aware of Johannes Høsflot Klæbo the Norwegian who won every single race there was. From sprint to 50k and classic or free. It didn’t matter; he won.

Did anyone see the press conference after the last race? It was hilarious. I’m doing this from memory and parts of it were in Norwegian, but it went something like this:

Reporter: Are you looking forward to seeing your girlfriend again after all these races?

Klæbo: Well, uhm yes … [sheepish]

Teammate: Come on, tell us! What’s the plan?

Klæbo: Well, we’re in the same hotel is the women and they are still racing tomorrow so we can’t …

Teammate: yes, you have to be quiet!

Klæbo: [laughing, because he realizes what he just implied]

Teammate: [laughing]

Reporter: okay, next question.

Remember this? Friendly banter and such. Too funny. And EVERYBODY was laughing. Also, our commentators were hilarious. There was a lot of friendly banter there as well. Such great fun.

And they even let us in on some little team secrets. Like how the Swiss men’s curling team would use more French in their discussions when playing the Germans, just to make sure they’d understand even less than if they spoke Swiss German.

So, this confirms that understanding the language of your opponent’s helps – a little. And I know I’m going to enjoy understanding everything that’s said in the Switzerland – Sweden game.

I hope Ski Mountaineering is here to stay. How cool was that? Those are some real life skills in the Alps (other mountains exist too of course).

And who can tell me which country – one that’s currently in third place on the medal table – only medaled in two sports?

Yes, it’s the Netherlands. The two sports are Short Track Speed Skating and Speed Skating.

Well done them, but also – just a tiny bit boring and predictable 😉😂.

I’m still trying to figure out why curling isn’t a thing in the Netherlands. It makes no sense to me. You could totally have a curling rink in the middle of the speed skating one – or couldn’t you? Somebody look that up please.

I’m adding upcoming newsletters and recent ones here and this newsletter continues below.

Upcoming Newsletters

A bunch on mental health that don’t have titles yet.

Then there is Gaslighting a Nation on the current state of the US and how a decision made in the 1950s set the stage for what’s going on right now. Not sure if I can finish that one today.

And one on the evolution of this painting – my most frustrating one to date. I think it’s finally finished.

Recent newsletters

Finding the sun - Locarno

Mid-week Grumble

…

Back to this newsletter

I just read something about how your nervous system can limit your flexibility when it’s on edge. There’s someone claiming that it’s not shortened muscles or fascia, but your nervous system. This sounds intriguing. I must investigate this further.

Now in my upcoming mental health posts, I will be talking about an amazing transformation that started when I understood self-compassion for what it really is. Remember when I said that my Titanic experience helped me lift the blanket of shame?

No worries if you don’t – but here’s what happened next.

I suddenly realized that I needed a shift in perspective. Sort of like “I can see clearly now the rain is gone”. Everything became clear. Then it escalated quickly. Literally one major breakthrough a day for the past three weeks or so.

What was the major shift in perspective?

That my body is working for me and not against me. That none of its reactions are my “fault”. That the body (I’m including mind and nervous system here because it’s all three) reacts exactly how it’s meant to react. Having a craving is not faulty – it’s my body signaling. Pain is a signal. Feelings are signals etc.

My body is trying to help me.

Now, what doesn’t help in the long run is fighting it. Working on the symptoms rather than root causes is not helpful. I already knew that. I mean a massage can help short term, but if you have to keep going back for the same complaint, there might be something else that could be done.

Many of us have lost the ability to listen to our body’s signals. Western medicine is excellent for acute issues, but it often doesn’t teach us how to understand our internal cues. It wants to shame and blame you and sell you pills for everything.

I’ve always had that sense of wonder – now I apply it to everything my body does and signals. Of course, being highly sensitive adds a lot to the mix as well. I’m currently training to have that be less overwhelming and use it to my benefit.

What a ride!

And very much a work in process.

Like getting to the realization that I’m rejecting myself just the way my parents did – crap that one hit hard! It was a quiet but seismic moment.

This all happens subconsciously of course, but it makes so much sense.

I’m still sitting with that one. It only happened yesterday.

I’m gonna write about all that and about how going back to systemic constellation work was a total game changer. I’ve done the guided / group version a bunch of times almost two decades ago and it was super insightful, then I abandoned it for some reason.

I never realized that I could do this myself, in my own apartment, with just a bunch of post-its on the floor. This is powerful stuff.

Yes, you need to be receptive to it. Yes, it comes with a warning – you need to make sure you’re emotionally stable enough to handle it. And most people benefit from professional support. So please be careful if you try it. This needs a gentle approach.

My nervous system now needs time to adjust to the new “order”. If you move one part of the system, the rest has to catch up.

Ha! I didn’t want to write about all this today, but there you go.

If you need a laugh, make the social media algorithm show you videos of people trying curling at home, with random objects. Or there’s the ones with that Canadian finger poking stuff.

Hilarious!

The world could be such a lovely and fun place.

Sunday hugs everyone.

I’m going on a little adventure with a friend later today.

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I think I might go to the flower shop at the train station and rescue some flowers. They are usually half price the day after Valentine’s Day. Or maybe some rescue chocolate?

It’s insane to me that chocolate well within its best before date is sold at a huge discount just because that special date has passed. But… since I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, I’ll have that chocolate a day late.

I love the Finnish concept on this day – they call it Friends Day (or Friend’s Day, I guess). It’s about friendship and doesn’t rudely exclude single people. I wonder if they still have special chocolate for that day. Must find out.

Back at the Ghost exhibit

I ordered something online Friday night and normal people would wait for it to be delivered on Monday. Then there are impatient people with a Swiss train pass who decide they’ll just go pick it up in Basel on Saturday. Why Basel? Well, they have really cool museums and also – Cinnamood.

The pick up very close to the station took seconds. You scan your order code and step right up to the counter. Couldn’t be easier. Of course, then I had to walk around in the rain to get my cinnamon roll. That was less cool. I refused to open my umbrella because it was not worth it for just a couple of minutes between stops.

I’m not made of sugar.

It was good to be out and about.

I then went back to the Ghost exhibit at the art museum. I wrote about my first visit here.

This time different things stood out to me. I had a different reaction. Then again not all that different.

I knew that my nervous system was very vulnerable, so I approached my visit with a lot of self-compassion. I even talked to one of the museum guides about what happened last time.

She told me that she knows other highly sensitive people who had similar experiences. That made me feel seen. And my feelings validated.

I might write about a specific aspect of the exhibit in a separate newsletter. I created a little collage on the topic. The quote on the left is from a different part of the art museum, but it fits really well.

I saw these white dresses and they triggered something – unsurprisingly. The description reads “Claudia Casario’s nearly invisible white dresses capture the quiet trauma of unending violence that women in her family and acquaintance have experienced and passed on for generations”.

I think we can extend that to women and girls in general.

…

Yikes! How do I pick that one back up again?

Olympics?

It takes a village

Have you heard about that Swiss Alpine skier who won three gold medals? His name is Franjo von Allmen and he’s 23. Aged 17 it was not clear that he could keep skiing as his family could no longer afford it after his dad’s sudden death.

A crowdfunding effort meant that he could keep going for one more season and that’s when he made the Swiss national team.

And look at him now!

Then there was the Swedish cross-country skier who fell twice during yesterday’s relay race. The second time a ski broke and she kept running on one ski until a team technician made his way to her with a replacement ski.

Of course, the technician also fell on his way to her. It was quite comical. Comical because nobody got hurt, just a couple of bruised egos and a gold medal that was suddenly out of reach.

They managed to come back and win silver.

And here’s another Olympic story that made me smile. It was the mixed doubles curling event. It was the Swiss team. I saw the woman’s last name and that definitely rang a bell or a couple of bells. Her name is Schwaller-Hürlimann.

I remembered that somebody called Hürlimann was the skip of the Swiss gold medal team at the Nagano Olympics in 1998. That was her dad. And her mom was also a professional curler, competing for Canada and later Switzerland.

Then there is Schwaller – another name I recognized. Her husband’s dad and his uncle won bronze in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

It’s all a family affair.

Their little son, who is one and a half, stole the show when he grabbed a broom and started cleaning the ice. Too cute.

Made me smile.

Busy Olympics day today

Yesterday, I watched the giant slalom race on the train – just like about half the other passengers. Two Swiss medals. Yay us!

Today, I’m watching the biathlon pursuit races. Seriously, you need to watch those too, they are my favorite races by far. Then there is cross-country, snowboard cross, curling – always fun and Alpine skiing, speed skating and ski jumping.

Who’s on snack duty?

I’m reorganizing my kitchen and moving furniture around my apartment. That’s the perfect *Olympics on in the background* activity. I wear headphones and can run to the laptop to watch when the commentators get all excited.

Which the French Swiss commentators do a lot. I love them.

Do people have favorite Olympic events? Specifically a winter event?

I just listed some of mine, but if I had to pick one favorite, it would be biathlon, closely followed by curling.

I’m gonna leave you with something I read but couldn’t verify with official IOC sources. Apparently, the banned Swiss cowbells at the Olympic venues. How dare they?! I mean if that’s true… very uncool.

And since it’s Sunday, there’s this mountain church on Mt. Rigi. I linked the newsletter I wrote on the light festival below.

Have a lovely Sunday everybody.

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Recent newsletters

Light Festival Lucerne

Mid-week Grumble

Winter Olympics

Guess which country won the first medal? Go Switzerland! Of course, I totally missed it and only heard about it after the fact. Luckily, you can now go back to the livestream and watch a race later.

It’s also a lot less stressful when you already know the result.

I might have to watch more of the Olympics this time around than I usually would. That sense of community, that sense of peaceful competition, that Olympic feeling of the entire world coming together. The sportsmanship and camaraderie – it feels like I really need to see this.

And also seeing normal human behavior. Volunteers and visitors working together to make it an amazing experience.

One low point during the opening ceremony - they showed J.D. Vance on the big screen. Spectators had been told not to boo during the ceremony. You can totally have that rule, but then you can’t turn the camera on J.D. Vance. You can’t have both. Sorry. Not happening. These are people who are paying attention. We’re firmly standing against the actions of the current US administration.

That doesn’t just go away because it’s the Olympics.

Sports in different languages

I watch sports on the Swiss French tv because their commentators are amazing. They are funny, they know their stuff, they are passionate – it’s a joy every single time.

With that comes knowing what certain sports are called in French while my brain is switched on to English, Swiss German and German.

I’ll give you some examples for today.

• curling – curling – Curling

• biathlon – biathlon – Biathlon

• ski alpin – alpine skiing – Ski Alpin

• snowboard – snowboard – Snowboard

So far so good 😉. Then we have:

• luge – luge – Rodeln

• patinage de vitesse – speed skating – Eisschnelllauf

• patinage artistique – figure skating – Eiskunstlauf

• hockey sur glace – ice hockey – Eishockey

• ski de fond – cross country skiing - Langlauf

I’m not actually confused, but I just went down a rabbit hole of the origin of ski de fond. Apparently, that has to do with a longer distance than alpine skiing. Similar to German Langlauf – where lang means long. And in English as well, I guess – if you’re skiing across the country, that’s usually long unless it’s Liechtenstein or something.

Also on language – how about the confusion when the alphabetical order the teams are entering the stadium is completely messed up. Well, not really messed up but in alphabetical order of the Italian names for each country. Suddenly Jamaica enters with the Gs, the Philippines with the Fs and Japan joins Jamaica and the Gs.

Luckily Switzerland stayed with S and came in right after Sweden – Svizzera and Svezia. So all was well.

Don’t tell me languages aren’t fascinating.

I just realized that I should be watching the Olympics in Italian. Swiss Italian commentators are fun as well. Something worth considering.

Voting in Switzerland

In March we’re voting on whether to halve our TV and radio license fees. And I’m now thinking about what might be different if we do. I don’t think Swiss French and Swiss Italian channels will disappear, but it might have an overall effect on how many programs are available in each of our languages – especially Romansh.

Of course, the political right wants us to say yes so they can put more of their money into news media and spread their propaganda. One party that opposes the lowering of license fees is using Musk’s and Trump’s faces to remind us what’s at stake…

Then there are taxes. I don’t know if this is the case in other countries, but in Switzerland when you get married your incomes are combined and taxed jointly so you (automatically) end up in a higher tax bracket and pay more than unmarried double income couples. In our system the more income the higher the percentage you pay in taxes.

We call it marriage penalty (Heiratsstrafe).

I went for a walk this morning, and where I live we always get the political posters right outside. So, here are two examples.

The first one says that married people should be taxed individually. The second one says it’s too complicated, unfair and expensive.

I have some thoughts – I always do. The main one is that those parties/organizations in favor of keeping the marriage penalty are also the ones who want women to stay at home and raise the children. You know those “traditional family values and gender roles”. So, for them single income families are the goal.

How do you achieve that? You create a system – or work hard to keep it in place – where it doesn’t pay for women to work outside the home. And BAM! there’s your argument for why women should stay home with the children.

And no, for them children are NOT optional or a choice. They are mandatory.

I might publish my Sunday Morning Thoughts a bit later on March 8. That’s when we vote on this. Results are usually in by mid-afternoon on voting day.

Festivals of lights

I haven’t published my newsletter on the Festival of Lights in Lucerne (LILU) yet. There’s a reason for that. I wanted to add the Rigi Light Festival. This year is the first time this is happening. It started on Friday and lasts until the end of the month.

It’s up on Mt. Rigi and it’s a 1.5 kilometer evening walk. And you can trust them when they say it’s mostly flat. It is. I went yesterday. I don’t want to give too much away as there will be a separate newsletter, but here are some pictures.

The one with the trees and the benches is from down below in Weggis looking out over Lake Lucerne.

I got there early, so there was still a touch of daylight. It’s a lovely walk even without the lights and I think I might go again, possibly adding another 6 kilometers, because I can. There are quite a few winter hikes up there.

More thoughts

Have you read my mid-week grumble? In case you missed it – here it is.

This week has been incredible in terms of mental health. If you remember me writing about Drowning, you might also remember shame playing a role.

Well, it turns out that if you lift that blanket of shame and get to what’s underneath, things start moving.

Did I know shame was important? – Of course.

Did I know there was a lot of shame in my childhood? – You bet.

Had I worked on this in therapy? – Well, duh!

Had I worked on it several times? – obviously!

Were there things that we couldn’t get to even with EMDR? – For sure.

Did I possibly just uncover more abuse? – Yes, the very disturbing kind.

Did that lead to a very important healing step? – Yes!

I will need to find the words to talk about this. That important step happened yesterday, so I’m still processing. My body will need some time to process it too, as will my nervous system. This one’s big and an important piece of the puzzle.

And you know when it happened?

When I was like “okay, that’s enough healing – I’m done”. By that I didn’t mean I was done healing – we never are. I meant that it was good enough. I already felt so much better, stronger, healthier.

My body was like “NOPE, I got something for you”. It might have been my nervous system that started it, sometimes it’s difficult to tell.

Interesting times.

But hey, I went on an adventure to walk it all off. I went up a mountain to feel connected. Connected to nature, connected to winter, held together by light in the darkness.

Sunday hugs everybody. Take extra special care of yourselves.

I’ll leave you with this quiet reflection.

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Personally, it’s been a pretty successful end of the month, but I’m not blind to what’s happening elsewhere.

That’s where physics come in. The tide can only turn when enough people are making it turn. We’ve seen that in late-80s Europe. At some point the wall had to fall, the iron curtain had to be taken down.

This needed every single person who was involved.

It didn’t solve all problems overnight. These things never do. But it created the opportunity to rebuild and to rebuild stronger.

Europe has been side-lined a bit, but we have voices too. And how we deal with ICE agents traveling to Italy for the Olympics will further set the tone. And how many European teams will end up taking part in the soccer world cup this summer will also be a sign.

I’m not holding my breath on that one. Too much money involved… And FIFA is so corrupt, there’s no knowing what they will do.

Yikes, I just turned my head and saw my pile of *to read* books. I should stop writing and start reading.

First, I want to tell you something about trusting your gut.

Constipation? Let’s talk about it!

I think we all know that problem. For women it can be linked to their menstrual cycle, so in perimenopause – all bets are off.

Since I introduced regular and targeted movement into my days and started eating more fiber and protein, I’ve not really had a constipation problem for years.

So, Friday a week ago came out of the blue. I’ll spare you the details. Just picture trying to pass a brick that seemed to get stuck and wasn’t moving at all. At some point I was considering going to the ER.

Finally, after hours of trying – relief. Painful, but it was out.

Suddenly my body craved only non-fiber foods. Like the less fiber there was, the more my body wanted it.

I was like “this is weird, but I’ll go with it”.

Monday rolled around and I was in the same situation as on Friday. This was painful and I was confused. I asked the internet and the answer was “fiber rich foods”, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds – you name it, it was mentioned.

Also, drink enough.

I was ignoring that one, because I was drinking at least two liters a day.

At around 5 PM I thought “I can’t do this again” and I went to the pharmacy. He told me the same things. Basically what you get told a lot when you’re overweight - move more and eat healthier. To be fair, he didn’t say it like that at all. He just gave me tips as to how to get softer stool that moves more easily.

He also gave me something to help things along – the rectal kind.

Well, that didn’t work as planned and after a couple of hours I gave birth to this huge brick that was bone dry and dense like I hadn’t seen before.

That’s when something clicked.

I hadn’t hydrated enough. I had added more fiber to my diet but not adjusted my liquid intake. It was not a lot more fiber – but I found out that per tablespoon of certain seeds you needed to actively add about 250 ml of water. So two tablespoons meant half a liter.

Yikes!

Lesson learned.

I’m happy to report that we are now back to happy poop 💩.

My body knew that more fiber would likely have dried out my gut completely. I trusted it and it worked out well in the end.

I’m now trying a new hydration approach, really monitoring it. The goal is at least 2.5 liters a day and if I walk around a lot (like 3x 20,000 steps during the festival of lights), I should drink even more.

Let me take a sip of water.

Sometimes things are not what they seem. My body was right in refusing more fiber-rich foods. Doctor’s or pharmacist’s orders were based on the most likely cause, but in my case, I knew it wasn’t that.

Yes, they said “drink enough” but they also said that two liters a day was good.

Glad me and my gut figured it out and have a much healthier relationship again.

What a relief.

This was not an experiment as such, at least not an intentional one, but I did run a social experiment last week. And that was interesting too.

Behaving like a man in class

I was the only woman in a course and usually raised my hand when I wanted to say something. As a result, the course leader would acknowledge the hand and then forget about me. The 10 guys would mostly just interrupt and speak whenever they felt like it.

Not all of them, but mostly.

When I was sharing an experience, I was told what I should have done differently. I wasn’t looking for advice. I hadn’t asked a question. Yet I was interrupted and told what I did wrong.

I didn’t do anything wrong at all. The system is flawed and I tried to highlight that. It’s a system I know pretty well, and it was to do with language. It’s not like I’m a linguist or anything.

Peak mansplaining.

A woman can’t possibly know more about the use of language in Switzerland than me – a MAN - even if she has a master’s degree in linguistics and is a writer and published author. No no no … *sigh*

The thing was, when I started interrupting and just talking over others, I was told to let them finish. Funny that.

Also, somebody shut down completely when I mansplained something that was oh so obvious to me in a slightly condescending tone. Suddenly, they didn’t want to continue this conversation.

An interesting experiment, but exhausting. I’m not made for being a complete dick – for obvious reasons, I guess.

But hey, apparently, I “won” the course. Not my claim somebody else said it.

I’ll take it because authenticity wins every time. I don’t need to be told how to be me, thank you. I got it.

What a lot of people don’t want to hear is that authenticity requires a lot of work.

Becoming your authentic self

You don’t just get up in the morning and decide to be your authentic self. I mean, you can totally try, but most of us carry a lifetime of messages telling us that who we were, naturally and effortlessly, wasn’t acceptable.

Too loud.
Too emotional.
Not girly enough.
Too girly.
Too quiet.
Too bossy.
Too much.
Not enough.

You know the list. It’s endless, contradictory, and impossible to win.

So we adapt. We shrink. We hide the parts that made others uncomfortable. And over time, our authentic selves don’t disappear, they just get buried under layers of survival strategies, social rules, and well‑intentioned advice that never actually fit us.

Finding your way back isn’t a single moment of clarity. It’s more like an archaeological dig. You brush away the dust, uncover a fragment, hold it up to the light, and think, Oh. I remember this part of me.

And then you keep going. Authenticity isn’t a straight line - it’s a series of small returns to yourself. There are no shortcuts either. Forget all those people promising to fix you in 10 days.

Some days you’ll feel brave. Other days you’ll get knocked flat by an old pattern you thought you’d outgrown. That’s part of it.

That’s part of the journey.

When someone tries to “fix” you, it can land like a quiet punch.

You’re sitting there, having lunch, talking about nothing dramatic - and suddenly you’re handed a list of things you “should really work on.” Not because you asked. Not because you hurt anyone. Just… out of the blue.

Most of us know how that feels.

It’s jarring. It’s intrusive. And it can make you rethink whether you want that person in your life.

Over time, I’ve learned something softer and far more effective - sharing our own experience. Not with the goal of making them go down the same path, but to share a recent experience I had. It can be framed as “I’ve recently worked on this, and it has really helped me” – as a story, not a nudge. As an experience shared among friends with zero expectation.

If someone is open to it, they’ll take what resonates.

If they’re not, it’s simply not their moment - and that’s okay. Their path is theirs.

Whenever we try to clear someone else’s path for them, we often end up stepping on their toes. Not out of malice, but out of fear, urgency, or our own discomfort. Sometimes the impulse to “fix” others is really a way of avoiding something in ourselves.

People aren’t broken.

We don’t need to be fixed.

What we long for is to be seen, heard, and understood.

We can learn about ourselves - our minds, our bodies, our nervous systems - but nobody can walk that path for us. And we can’t walk it for anyone else.

I’ll write more about this in my Cowbel’s Compass space, because it’s a topic that keeps returning.

It’s the difference between helping and controlling, between witnessing and diagnosing, between presence and intrusion.

Remember to breathe today. Remember that there are fun things for you to do – especially when everything feels difficult.

Sunday hugs.

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Balloon Festival in Château-d’Œx

Drowning

Mid-week Grumble

What just happened between Europe/Canada and the US reminded me of getting out of a relationship that used to be great but turned toxic. You know the type – the partner who used to bring you flowers now brings you … tariffs. At some point you finally realize that you have agency and you work up the courage to stand up for yourself and walk away.

Mark Carney’s speech helped with this process. I can’t remember the last time I heard something so eloquent and passionate. At least not something that lasted longer than the average attention span of a modern human. Plus, parts of it were in French which – being Swiss – I appreciated as well.

Do you guys know how important soccer is in Europe? Some national teams are seriously considering pulling out of the World Cup – no decisions have been made, and nobody has actually pulled out yet. Knowing how much Germans love Fussball, just the mere suggestion that this might happen is huge.

Trump tried imposing ridiculous tariffs on EU countries but caved as soon as they stood up to him. And I mean properly stood up to him.

As others have said in their analyses, cutting ties is difficult but sometimes necessary if you don’t want to go down with the ship. Especially when the ship is on fire, taking on water, and loudly insisting it’s winning.

It’s sad to see. It’s even sadder to know that it’s going to get a lot worse.

…

Watching this from Europe, I have to admit that I loved all those creative videos on Greenland that kept popping up. And the men dressed as Vikings chasing ICE agents? I didn’t know I needed to see that. Nordic cardio at its best.

I’m putting my spotlight on the positives. Especially the ones in my own life.

That means focusing on where I have agency and gently reminding those in trouble that they are not alone and that there is a way out. Taking back control, taking responsibility, getting unstuck – none of that is easy, but all of it is necessary.

And this is also when I remember things I love. Like languages. Since some people seem confused about where English originated or what languages are spoken in certain European countries, I’m digging up some language history for you.

Here’s the Lord’s Prayer in Old English. Doesn’t look much like Modern English, does it? It still had all the verb endings and cases (accusative, genitive, dative) – just like German still has today. It’s what makes German learners cry.

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum,
si þin nama gehalgod.
to becume þin rice,
gewurþe ðin willa,
on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg,
and forgyf us ure gyltas,
swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum.
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge,
ac alys us of yfele.
Sōþlice.

I find it fascinating how languages evolve. I might even write an entire newsletter on that at some point. I was an Old English Tutor at university after all. I could talk about this for hours and I often do.

Now at the time the US was officially first discovered by Europeans, Middle English was spoken in what is now the UK. I picked a passage from The Miller’s Tale. This is out of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

From The Miller’s Tale

Whilom ther was dwellynge at Oxenford
A riche gnof, that gestes heeld to bord,
And of his craft he was a carpenter.
With hym ther was dwellynge a poure scoler,
Hadde lerned art, but al his fantasye
Was turned for to lerne astrologye,
And koude a certeyn of conclusiouns,
To demen by interrogaciouns,
If that men asked hym, in certein houres
Whan that men sholde have droghte or elles shoures,
Or if men asked hym what sholde bifalle
Of every thyng; I may nat rekene hem alle.

Chaucer died in 1400, so that was still almost 100 years before 1492. The reason why you can read it more easily than Old English are the French (or the Normans). What you’re seeing here is French (post-1066) influence on English.

You wanna guess what the percentage of vocabulary with French or Latin origin is in Modern English? It’s more than you think.

Next up is what most of you will be familiar with and that’s Early Modern English – Shakespeare and such. He wrote Hamlet in 1600.

So, roughly around the same time as the first settlements in the US. Just for reference.

Now in Switzerland – you know the place where we would be speaking German if it weren’t for the US – German has been spoken since the 5^th century. Of course, it was initially a form of Old High German that later developed into the Alemannic dialects that are still spoken by about 65% of the Swiss population today.

We don’t entirely agree on that number because of multilingualism and other factors. For instance, are we counting people who speak German but not Swiss German separately or not?

An important distinction.

This was Lucerne last night before the Festival of Lights started – quiet, calm and peaceful.

It’s been gray and miserable where I live and in large parts of the country. I can sort of guess that the sun is above the clouds but only in the same way I hope all my socks made it into the dryer safely.

The weather fits the general mood of the world. All the more reason to love the LILU in Lucerne and I might have to go back tonight. Those lights manage to shift something within me.

They seem to calm my nervous system.

I’ll leave you here.

Be safe.

Stay warm.

Fingers crossed that the power stays on in the areas getting hit by that ice storm across the US.

Sunday hugs.

RIP Alex Pretti who died trying to protect a woman from ICE. He was executed.

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This week I also wrote:

January 22 is always a difficult day - but I made it thanks to so many amazing friends from all over the world.

And then I was grumbling too:

So, it’s now 10:20 and I have no thoughts. Excellent.

Well done me.

I mean, I have thoughts but not ones I can share or should share. Or does anyone really want to hear how diarrhea announced itself on a walk, at the furthest point from home with nowhere to “go”.

It’s not like you can ring a random doorbell and ask to deposit something. And it happened to be a sunny day, so a lot of people were out walking. That meant just dropping my pants was not really in the cards either.

Wait? Is that really how I’m gonna start this newsletter? What a great start to people’s Sunday morning 🤣. How can I pick this up?

Well, I could tell you about the mid-week grumble that people thought was funny. So if you haven’t read about me being stuck in a loop of gullibility, you can read about it here.

Can we talk about groups of people blocking an entire sidewalk? Or worse, the entire width of stairs people use to get from one platform to the next?

I mean, I had already moved to the next car to be able to exit the train faster because of this gaggle of women who had taken over my car.

I got out quickly but was now further away from those stairs to the underpass. When I got there five of them were casually walking side-by-side without a care in the world. Behind them an increasingly annoyed mass just trying to make their connecting trains.

But we’re all Swiss and too polite to say “MOVE!”.

Right at the bottom of the stairs, they stopped blocking everybody.

That’s when we had enough. There was some swearing, some (polite) shoving. And we made it through. Everybody made their trains.

What didn’t help the situation was that this gaggle of women was more of “une bande de femmes” as they were speaking French. Now to roll with the stereotype of the French-speaking Swiss population, they also sounded just a tad tipsy.

I was on my way to the LILU in Lucerne (festival of lights is probably a good translation for Lichtfestival Luzern).

These are some of the pictures I took. The little lights were by the Lion Monument, and it was crowded. Not great for short people. Somebody should invent something like a ladder attached to your legs and when you can’t see it automatically lifts you up.

As you might be able to tell those sunflowers where my favorites.

I’ve only seen about a quarter of the installations, but it was too crowded to go on. Not too crowded in general but too crowded for me to go on walking, getting bumped into and NOT wanting to hurt people.

Then again this big guy who just assumed I would move out of HIS way might have gotten an elbow to the ribs. Not me actually moving my elbow towards him – just me refusing to move it away.

Seriously, men will walk right into you if you don’t move out of THEIR way. And then they yell at you. They see you and make an assumption.

It’s a stupid game and I’m no longer playing.

We’re taught not to inconvenience others and not to be in the way all our lives. It’s our default setting.

Who out there still uses their phones in their factory settings? I bet none of you do.

So, we can totally take up space and inconvenience the shit out of people and make them move out of OUR way. Queen style.

Okay, for me it’s without a dress, high heels, a tiara, painted nails and makeup – undercover queen style I guess.

Oh! Just I just looked at the word count and it says 666 after that last sentence. Coincidence? I think not. I love numbers.

[after the final edit that’s no longer the case, but … anyway]

I wanted to ask you something. If you walk up or down some stairs, do you count how many steps? Please tell me I’m not the only one.

I do it every time I walk up or down a flights of stairs. Up more than down for obvious reasons.

So, I’m at this school where I’m taking a class and the elevator is busy. I figure I can totally walk up to the 4^th floor (that’s the 5^th floor for my American readers). I start walking and I count 5 x 8 steps for the lower floors and then it shifts mid-floor to 5 x 7 steps.

Now I get that the lower floors have higher ceilings because exercise classes are held there, but why does it then not shift between floors two and three but mid floor three? Makes no sense to me at all.

Yes, those are the things that keep me up at night.

And there’s another thing, I have friends who have this view out of their living room window. How is this fair? I mean it totally isn’t, but there you go.

I’m using this picture taken from their balcony with their permission, but I’ll keep the name of the town to myself. Those who know, know.

Next week the WEF is on in Davos, and I don’t think I should share my opinion on here. It used to be something I watched when I was a student. It fell between semesters, so I had the time. There were interesting panels and you could actually learn something.

Now it has descended into… I don’t even know what to call it. A propaganda machine with people crawling up each other’s you-know-whats.

There was an anti-WEF protest in Bern yesterday. Unfortunately, it was one without a permit, so police got involved. We’re big on permits here.

Luckily Davos is easy to stay away from. I live nowhere near there and I have only been there once for a wedding. I don’t think I need to go back any time soon.

Posh mountain resorts are not my vibe, although I have to admit having enjoyed off-season Zermatt. Off-season meant no tourists to speak of and the hotel sauna to myself.

Not sure if I should leave you with that image. I could share my sauna outfit, but I’m not sure that would help. I mean it’s basically flip-flops.

I’m not making this better, am I?

Quick! Think of something!

Squirrel!

That’s it. I need a squirrel moment.

Do you know how “squirrel” became synonymous with ADHD distractedness? Have you seen the movie Up? It came out in 2009 and the dog in it kept being distracted by squirrels. That’s it.

People who receive voice messages from me are well aware of my squirrel moments while talking. They happen a lot. Hardly ever is it an actual squirrel 😉. I mean it could be.

I should go walk in the forest – that’s where they hang out, usually.

I leave you with this picture of the famous Chapel Bridge in Lucerne. I took it last night before braving the train station crowds.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

Stay sane and be safe.

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This time was different - all cantons agreed. Even our national railways observed the minute of silence. And every single church bell rang for five minutes.

It was very moving. And it showed me that despite our differences – and those are not just linguistic – we are connected at heart. It made me forget the madness of the world. It made me appreciate where I live even more.

The tragedy in Crans-Montana also helped me figure out where my path has to lead. I’m hoping to reveal on January 22. Maybe not publicly yet but to at least one friend who will appreciate the importance of that particular date. You know who you are.

On that note, I had a very interesting experience on Friday. Talking for hours. Getting deep into philosophical topics and feeling incredibly inspired and content after. There are not too many friends this happens with.

The other one is unfortunately too far away for in-person coffee runs. Online is second best, I guess. And it doesn’t seem to matter how long you’ve known each other. Sometimes things just click.

I find these deep and instant connections truly fascinating. I am also aware of trauma wounds and souls with similar scars finding each other - something I believe in deeply in a non-romantic context. Soul mates happen. It’s beautiful.

Webinars rock

I’ve been in so many webinars lately, learning about very different things. Yesterday it was pelvic floor muscles and how healthy feet influence their function. And how the jaw and the feet are both linked to these muscles. He showed a few exercises and boy did they work.

One exercise was spreading your toes out and lifting them from the floor. Then there was lifting just the big toe and vice versa. Or the classic pick up a towel with your toes. That one I knew. I did the first two sitting down and when I got up, I could really feel it in my pelvis.

Mind blown.

There were also a bunch of webinars on nutrition. One that wanted to ban sugar outright and one that said your intestines need sugar. That made me look into when people started using sugar. People have used forms of sugar for thousands of years.

The problem today is too much refined sugar, but sugars – I don’t mean fructose and natural sugar in food, but as an additive – have been around for a long time.

I’m not a fan of all-or-nothing thinking as it keeps us from making changes and actually achieving things. There are a few exceptions of course for instance addictions, but even there we have different options.

Have I ever told you about how Switzerland decided to go full on pragmatic in how we deal with drug use? You can look up Platzspitz if you like. It’s a park right by the National Museum. It was an open drug scene that was a no-go zone around the time I studied in Zurich. They closed it 30 years ago and people who frequented it were given alternatives.

Instead of marginalizing drug addicts, they can get everything they need safely. The Narcotics Act of 2008 aims to minimize health and social harm. So, there is a substitution treatment, needle exchange (so clean needles are used), and even supervised consumption rooms. Illegal drug use is still prohibited of course.

Using this pragmatic approach, with safe usage and decriminalization, we have seen a reduction of opioid-related overdose deaths by 64% and a reduction in drug-related crime from 20,000 to 5,000. The focus is now on major dealers and stopping them rather than criminalizing those using.

It works for us. And it helps to have a good system in place when new challenges arise.

That brings me to big pharma.

Fighting symptoms and not root causes – hello big pharma

We keep fighting symptoms instead of root causes and those who make money from this surely don’t want it to change.

I have nothing against medication and with acute or chronic illnesses it can be lifesaving and is often the quickest way for relief.

Sometimes there are other options though.

What started me on my healing journey, was when I came across the book “It didn’t start with you” - book recommendation. That was more than five years ago. It helped me understand that not all pain I was feeling was MY pain. And that it was okay to give it back to the person it belonged to.

It’s fascinating stuff. And it works. We are much more entangled in our ancestors’ stories than we could ever imagine.

I can offer more resources if anybody is interested. As I said it’s something I’ve been working on actively for a few years now.

And since trauma is passed down through generations until somebody is brave enough to resolve them – those patterns stay. Over centuries. Yes – over centuries.

I don’t even want to imagine what effects the current state of the world is gonna have on future generations.

Governments that don’t care about their citizens or safety regulations are difficult to come to terms with – admission of responsibility and consequences help. As we’re seeing in the Crans-Montana case.

They don’t make what happened disappear. They don’t undo the harm, the hurt, the pain. But the fact that there is accountability and that changes are being implemented across the entire country shows that we are set on not having a tragedy like this ever happen again.

Lack of accountability and consequences on the other hand are traumatic, and it obviously doesn’t help if they happen over and over again.

We’re moving into truly dangerous territory. “Insane” doesn’t do it justice, makes light of or normalizes the situation. Threatening a NATO ally with military invasion?

Not sure what the end game is.

Could it be postponing an election due to an ongoing war – like in Ukraine? Could it be forgetting that they weren’t the aggressors and that the war is actually happening in their country?

Or is it that the head of state of Greenland is the Danish king? You know just like King Charles is the head of state of Canada. Are we thinking we’ll automatically become king if we invade Greenland?

Or is it greed – plain and simple?

Either way, there is a silver lining – the threat has united Greenlanders. And it has strengthened their bond with Denmark. One that hasn’t always been undisputed.

And have you seen those Lego videos? Funny. Even if the situation itself isn’t. This one is in three languages. Messing with Vikings? Maybe reconsider …

Switzerland was not invaded in either world war, we scared everybody off. Plus, our country is a pain to invade. Not saying Greenland is similar – well, maybe I am 😊.

It’s the little things

Just like those creative Lego videos, people at Maison Cailler are doing fun stuff. There is a little train transporting a “Schoggistängeli”. It fits on the carriage perfectly. Not sure how to translate “Schoggistängeli” into English, possibly “chocolate baton” - chocolate “stick” doesn’t work for me. It needs to sound more posh or French 😉.

And then there was the drop of milk that you could personalize at Maison du Gruyère. This is mine.

Remember that silly is important.

Also, there are views out of the train window that never get old. I have walked around this lake before. Seeing it makes me smile every time. The trees are blurry, because the train is moving.

A window into Swiss life 😊.

Apologies for late delivery of my newsletter today – I was in a webinar from 10 to 1.30. One that ties directly into what might happen on January 22.

Stay tuned, be safe and have a lovely Sunday.

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This is what I saw when the news first broke at 7.22. It didn’t sound that bad “several dead”. Tragic sure, but … there was no indication of what was gonna follow.

The morning light promised a beautiful day.

Then on the train back the first press conference – a tragedy unfolding.

Here’s a note I posted yesterday (click to see the full note).

I hope to be back to writing soon.

Take good care of yourselves and each other. Hugs all around.

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You should smell my breakfast though. Just out of the oven. The cinnamon smell is amazing. I’m gonna eat it warm. So good!

If you’ve read any of the newsletters I’ve linked below, you know where my head was at this week. I don’t do holidays with family. I prefer going on adventures. Making memories.

So, I was minding my own business when I suddenly got this Substack notification on Friday. Apparently, I’m funny. Who knew 😂. Here’s the thing though. I’m a lot funnier in Swiss German. Something most of you will never experience. Too bad really.

Yay, an astrologist on the radio! Can’t wait to hear the generic look ahead to the new year. This should be fun. Where’s my popcorn? Oh, it was just a teaser for what’s coming up. I’ll circle back to this if it happens before 10.30.

Let’s talk about portion sizes. No, not what you think. I mean, how are you supposed to compare foods in terms of calories or nutrients if those numbers are given to you per serving? What if one serving size is 42 grams and the other one is 60 grams. You need a calculator to compare the two.

In the EU and Switzerland the rule is that those numbers need to be given per 100g or 100ml. That way you can easily compare different foods. We’re allowed to put per serving numbers as well, but only in addition.

So much easier.

And who even decided what one serving is? It so depends. If you’re eating it as a full meal, you might need a couple of servings. If you’re eating it as one of several sides, you might just want half a serving.

Why are we making it difficult for people to make informed choices? Give people information that makes sense.

Happy for those of you living in the US to share their thoughts on this. Or maybe there are other countries doing this too that I’m not aware of.

Oh! Madame Etoile is back. Apparently 2025 has been a chaos year and we’re blaming Neptune and Saturn. A chaos year? Really? Did anybody else notice that? Also, she just said that not everybody was equally affected. Jeez, please make it stop!

And they left it on a cliffhanger. I mean I really wanted to know which zodiac signs will thrive next year. It better be Aries!

Give me a minute while I jump up and dance around the apartment. Take on Me is now on the radio. Jump up = get up slowly as not to hurt myself 😉

Where was I?

Lost, probably.

Ah yes, one size fits all. It makes no sense. It makes no sense in portion sizes. It makes no sense in hotel bathrobes. It makes no sense in Astrology.

And brace yourselves for January. It also makes no sense in personal development.

All those people promising us that they found THE solution to our problems. You just need to do this ONE things and you’ll thrive. In reality, there are too many factors at play. Don’t fall for it! I do believe people when they say “here are 5 things I do that help me (!) regulate my nervous system”, but that doesn’t mean it will work for me as well.

Every single experience, every single emotion, every single sensation shapes our being, shapes how we (body, mind and nervous system) react to the world. Add neurodivergence to the mix and it gets even more fun. And let’s not forget perimenopause. What a crazy ride that is.

And there’s people out there who think they can wave a magic wand.

Noooooo! She’s back. Next year: innovation, but it’s also gonna be stressful. You heard it here first.

Back to those “I can fix you” promises. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need fixing. I need education and reliable information. That’s what I need. I need the blame and shame to stop and for people to actually teach me about nutrition and different types of Magnesium and which one works best in perimenopause and for the neurodivergent brain.

I need to learn how to combine carbs with other foods to avoid blood sugar spikes. No carbs is not working for me, for so many reasons. I’ve been trying this new thing of watching what I combine my carbs with and it’s been a revelation.

You guys probably already knew all this, but I only knew bits of it. A deep dive into the interaction between cortisol, insulin, the sex hormones and dopamine was eye opening. Turns out watching cortisol levels (the bits we can influence) is key in healthy insulin production. Also, some of these use the same pathways and receptors, so if cortisol is consistently high, the body can produce as much progesterone units as it wants, they won’t find a receptor to latch onto.

Fascinating stuff. I need to revisit it and use an A3 paper (A4 was not big enough).

For me, this was what I needed to figure out. If any of you did a similar deep dive, you’d have completely different lightbulb moments. None of us have the same starting conditions. We all start at different places. We have our lived experience. We have our prior knowledge.

We are all unique and that’s beautiful.

That also means there’s no way around us educating ourselves and figuring out what works for us. We’re the only ones who can. Self-help books can guide us, but it’s still up to us to figure things out.

Rant on one size fits all solutions – over, maybe.

Also, reading it back it feels a bit like a sales pitch for Cowbel’s Compass. That was not my intention at all, but if you want to read what that’s about – you can do it here.

Oh! I song in a language I don’t speak. Time to sing along loudly. I wonder what I’m singing. I hope it’s rude 😂.

On that subject. I went to see Song Sung Blue on Christmas Day. If you plan on seeing it, it might be less gut-punchy if you familiarize yourself with the true story behind the movie. I felt blindsided.

Also, make sure you double check a foreign language movie has subtitles … I mean I could follow it fine but my brain hurt after. And in Switzerland people don’t question you or even mention it, if you get a ticket for an Italian movie without subtitles – they just assume you know the language.

You know what happened yesterday? I’m convinced the lead actor of that Italian film walked right past me at the train station in Bern. I should stalk his social media to find out if he’s currently in Switzerland.

Right, I need to get ready, I think pants are required where I’m going. And it’s cold out so I need to make sure I’m warm enough for the 25-minute walk.

I leave you with a picture of Rigi Scheidegg on Christmas Day. This was right after sunrise and nowhere near as warm as it looks.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone. Be safe.

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Gruyère(s) – a cheesy adventure

Boundaries revisited

Mid-week Grumble – Christmas Edition 2025

Cailler - the chocolate made with real milk

But doomscrolling won’t help with that.

I do pay attention and I do hear what’s going on. I’m hearing about Bondi Beach just now … But I don’t feel another rant on mass shootings is what I want to write this morning.

Instead let me tell you about this major thing that’s going on today in Switzerland. It’s the big Timetable change, Fahrplanwechsel, Changement d’horaire, Cambiamento d’orario.

Annual Timetable change

Once a year in mid-December our public transport schedules are updated. I usually just check the trains I use on a regular basis. No major changes around here, but my bus leaves a minute earlier again. And there are more local trains – running every 15 minutes until late.

Looks promising. I haven’t heard about any changes that annoy me. Of course that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

Zurich is getting a major overhaul. Everything seems to be changing. Tramlines run on different routes than we’re used to or change numbers midway. It’s weird.

There is one tram line that always confused me – the number 8. Now it gets even more confusing, because that will now take you up to ETH and University replacing the number 5. Makes no sense to me.

You can check the online timetable – that’s not a big problem. There are apps and maps and people you can ask. Where it gets dangerous though is when you want to cross an area like Central or Bellevue where a lot of tram lines meet. Lines appear where they shouldn’t, and suddenly you’re guessing which way they’ll turn. That’s gonna require a lot of relearning.

Yet, it’s still not as bad as Basel. That area between the trams and the Swiss train station is insane. On Friday I managed to extend my arm to block someone from walking right in front of a tram. She was annoyed with me at first as she didn’t realize the tram was inches from her.

It’s so dangerous. You can’t really tell where the road is and the bike route and the tracks are confusing too. Just because a tram stops on the left doesn’t mean it stays on that side. They seem to be crisscrossing at random.

I know that area well, but even I sometimes get caught out.

Be careful out there! And remember that it’s okay to yell at somebody if it stops them from being run over.

A pre-Christmas evening in Zurich

I don’t celebrate Christmas but I like Christmas markets, Christmas lights, Christmas music (to a certain extent), Christmas cookies and anything cinnamon flavored.

I took this picture of part of Zurich’s old town across the Limmat.

There’s also a singing Christmas tree. If you’re in Zurich, there are performances every day. Or almost every day. This is very close to the Zurich police department that has the gorgeous entrance hall. We call it Blüemlihalle (flower hall). That one you can visit with a guide Wed-Fri 2 PM to 5 PM. Just look up Giacometti Hall Zurich. I posted a note on this.

Nez Rouge – Red Nose

You might see these ads all over Switzerland in December. It’s an organization that drives you home in your own car when you feel unable to drive. They can’t guarantee a ride as it depends on volunteer availability and they won’t drive in treacherous conditions either, but usually it works out and it’s free to use.

Main benefit of nez rouge and the reason many people drive instead of calling a taxi – when they know they shouldn’t – you’ll have your car at your house in the morning.

Billy Elliot – dreams matter

I went to see the musical Billy Elliot yesterday and I think I’m gonna write an entire post on that. It’s all about knowing your dreams and making them happen. About how friends can plant a seed. Then there’s adversity. There are societal obstacles.

Thought-provoking musical. And I don’t know how many of my readers would be 100% supportive if their child wanted to become a dancer. I think I’d try but I’d worry for sure.

Stay tuned. I want to watch the original movie to get back into those feelings.

Christmas Ads – another favorite

This one seems to be popular and I like it too – enjoy.

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One last thing before I leave you. I’ve created a new button. Use it to support me without taking out a subscription. You can choose the amount and it’s a one-time thing. And it’s not a separate app where you need to create an account.

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I need to get out of here: There’s so much going on in my mind and things that want to be written. I might need to take a break and paint or go for a walk in the rain. Also, sleep is still difficult.

My mind is exhausting. Exhausting but brilliant. Have I mentioned that I’m writing a second book? I think I said that I’d publish it on my birthday. Silly thing to say, but we’ll see what happens … 😉😂

Can I pull this off? You’re guess is as good as mine.

Have a lovely Sunday. And if you’re in Switzerland, don’t get trampled out there. Christmas shopping on Sundays is hectic here; we’re not used to shops being open on a Sunday. It messes with our brains.

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Hugs all around.

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