Sunday Morning Thoughts – February 16, 2025

They did what now?

I’m well aware that this could refer to ANYthing but there you go. You’ll just have to read on and see. It’s pretty funny and embarrassing.

Where to start … too much in my head and I think I’ll need to post another one later. A lot happening in trauma too. Positive things.

You know what happened when I posted a picture I painted and said “I found my style” – total painter’s block. And you know why? Because I have NO IDEA how I did it. I can’t reproduce it. There’s no way. What was I thinking saying that? Anyway, I’m getting back to it now. I mean one of my paintings is going to feature in a local art exhibition. That’s just too cool. Step one, go to the art supply store and buy new canvases. I managed to fit 16 of them into my shopping trolley.

I could have ridden my bike but I’m still recovering and not back to 100%. This is taking longer than anticipated. But I’m writing this on a train that takes me on a little adventure. I’m hoping to post my thoughts later from an amazing location. They might even speak another language there … who knows.

It’s one of those places where the sun rises at 7 something but you don’t see it until 9.30. Side note for my Dutch readers – that’s what happens when there are hills and stuff 😉. I hope it’s not too crowded and I’m definitely taking a bus up that one hill. My cough is still pretty bad when walking stairs or uphill and, more importantly, there IS a bus. Planning on walking down though.

Looks like the new year’s resolution diets have ended. I’ve not seen that much chocolate on special sale for a long time. They never do that the first few weeks of the year. I think Valentine’s Day is where they start the chocolate promo. So much chocolate. I’m in the *let’s buy Valentine’s Day chocolate for half price the next day* club. Also flowers. Don’t buy them on Valentine’s Day.

Oh no! This joke just popped back into my head and now I have to share it. I would like to apologize in advance. I heard somebody refer to Valentine’s Day as “Alentine’s Ay” – that’s for the people not getting any V or D.

I’ll get my coat.

Regrouping – on we go.

Do you ever randomly chat with AI? I did that yesterday. You know what Microsoft Copilot tried to tell me? I had asked about successful democracies that still had a two-party system. My prompt also said that I didn’t consider the US a successful democracy. So, it came up with the UK. Yes, the UK. In what world is the UK in its current state a successful democracy? And two parties? Come on! Anyway, we had a little fight in which AI told me that “success” is subjective, but it did admit that I was right about the UK not having a two-party system. Well, duh! In the end it came up with the US and Jamaica as countries with a two-party (only) system. I gave up on it knowing the meaning of a “successful democracy”.

I know AI doesn’t really care about making mistakes but me pointing out that the Lib Dems are too big a party for the UK to be considered having a two-party system felt good either way.

I then did some fact-checking on Copilot when I asked it about Switzerland. It did well here. The Swiss government as it is today was formed in 1848. Even at the very beginning there were four parties present. And it was also decided from the very beginning that we didn’t want a president or prime minister. “President” is a representative role taken on by one of the seven members of our Federal Council on rotation.

I was looking into this trying to see if there are countries out there that successfully transitioned from a two-party system to something more sensible. Pre-Brexit UK might qualify.

Totally jumping to the next subject because I can’t deal with the insanity that is US “politics” at the moment.

So, have you ever noticed that when Swiss teams win something like World Championship gold in the men’s team combined event (Alpine skiing), they don’t seem to be singing the same national anthem? Well, they are, and they aren’t. Everybody sings it in their own language. It makes perfect sense. The main language spoken on the podium was French. In the post-race interviews the German-speaking team members were interviewed in French but answered in German. It’s a Swiss thing. And I think it’s beautiful

Eggs anyone? I know it’s a sore subject, but I walked past this yesterday.

I have no idea what they are talking about and why that was there but looks like we’re worried about the price of eggs tripling. I actually bought some eggs yesterday before seeing this. I was baking something. Four local free-range organic eggs – so good and affordable.

Not sure if I want to mention the Super Bowl. I mean for the first time ever I wasn’t even remotely tempted to watch it. Not in the slightest. I know there is a lot of money in any sports, but this is insane. I also no longer have the patience for a sport with this many interruptions and commercials. Too old for this shit. Just play the game so I can go to bed. It really shouldn’t take longer than 1.5 hours. But anyway, I don’t have to watch it. I’ll watch skiing instead.

Money … sport was a lot more fun when it wasn’t all about the money. Also, politics. Just imagine if those millions and millions of voter dollars were used to improve people’s lives. What a BS system spends all that money on winning elections. Then there’s nothing left. I can tell you one thing, if Swiss politicians started asking for money for their election campaigns, we wouldn’t stop laughing for a long time. I think I said this before.

About to change trains. Back in a minute.

Ever wonder what people are actually afraid of when they oppose trans women using women’s restrooms? Well, cis men. Simple as that. People are worried that men will dress up as women and go into the women’s restrooms. I don’t know what’s stopping them from doing that now or what that has to do with trans women but there you go. Notice how they never talk about trans men. In their thinking trans men would have to use the women’s restrooms. They haven’t thought this through.

Of course, restrooms are not the real issue here. But maybe calling people out and telling them that they are really afraid of cis men doing something to their daughters and wives is a start. They seem to be obsessed with restrooms after all.

I am genuinely worried about the trans community in the US.

Why did restrooms pop into my head? Well, train restrooms are gender neutral and super scary 😉. Restrooms on Swiss trains are actually pretty nice and clean and I’ve never had any issues.

Oh, we just entered the world’s longest rail tunnel. Remember when I used to get super anxious? Not anymore. I’m happy to tell you that I’m perfectly fine now. I didn’t even notice we were in the tunnel right away. That’s one of the positive side effects of trauma healing I guess.

Don’t get me wrong, still not a huge fan of big long tunnels. This one is like 20 minutes long but no longer anxious. I mean whoever had the idea of this crazy long tunnel needs to have their head examined. That’s for sure. It does cut travel time considerably though. I can get from Aarau to Bellinzona in 1h 52 minutes. That’s pretty cool.

Now, I have a little quiz for you. There’s a handful of people who are not allowed to play and spoil it for the others – you know who you are 😉. Only kidding I’m telling the entire story in the same post.

Here’s the question: what year do you think Switzerland last invaded a foreign country? No cheating! I’ll post the answer below.

While you think about that, here are some train station pictures. This also shows very nicely what happens when you decide not to stop to take the picture. Too funny that the bottom bit is all blurry. Yes, I’m easily amused.

And here’s a different perspective. Same hall just a bit emptier and I actually stopped to take the picture. This hall is at the main station in Zurich, and it is used for tons of different events. So, catching it all empty like this even with just very few commuters is pretty cool.

So, how are you doing on that question I asked you?

Would you be surprised if I told you it was in this century? Would you be surprised that it happened several times in the past 40 years? Well, we invaded Liechtenstein by accident a bunch of times. The last time it happened was in 2007. Armed Swiss soldiers walked into Liechtenstein. Technically that is an invasion – even if it was accidental. It was at night in a forest and nobody really noticed but being good soldiers they came clean and admitted to crossing the border.

The matter was settled quickly, the embarrassment huge and we offered to pay for any damage caused. I can’t say that I remember that incident, but I’m sure they mocked us about it. I know we would have done the same thing.

I bet you didn’t think you’d read a funny story about invading another country today. Especially when neutral Switzerland is doing the invading. I can’t stop laughing about this. “ooops, we’re in Liechtenstein – run back NOW”. I can’t …

Almost out of the tunnel now, so I’m gonna stop writing here and will hopefully post this from a castle high up above Bellinzona with a nice sunny picture.

Castello di Sasso Corbaro - above Bellinzona, Switzerland

Yeah, made it.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.