Sunday Morning Thoughts – June 16, 2024

Painting knives rock!

I was supposed to be on a train by 5.48 but … even before I went to bed last night, I thought that it might not be a smart idea to travel through Lucerne while that Ukraine peace summit is going on. It’s not in Lucerne, but pretty close.

When I woke up at 5 AM I had a notification on my phone that there was a disruption on the train route between here and Lucerne. That made the decision to stay home easier.

I miss going on little outings. I’m totally blaming the weather. But hey! I’m getting an early start on writing and can hopefully fit in a walk before 8 AM. It might actually stop raining for a bit. And then next week temperatures will to up to 82°F/28°C. Crazy. My body is having a difficult time with the ever-changing weather and temperatures.

This week was all about art - and that’s pretty much all that’s on my mind. There’s pictures all over the place. I need a bigger apartment! And I just realized that I should address what a week is to a lot of people in Europe. Our week starts Monday and ends Sunday. So, for my American readers it would be last week, I guess. Anyway …

You know when you think you found THE medium to express yourself artistically and then you learn a new technique and you just fall in love with it? Painting knives are it. Granted I only used one for part of the two paintings I did in art class on Monday, but I’m hooked. I went to buy my own on Wednesday at lunchtime. Turns out I can get to the art supply store everybody has been recommending in 25 minutes from work. That’s longer than the 15 minute-bike ride from home, but short opening hours meant that if I wanted those painting knives, that’s when I needed to go.

When I got home I realized that to properly work with them I really needed a canvas and not just canvas paper. Luckily, I was able to leave work a little early on Thursday and I went to boesner in Unterentfelden. I mean their shop in Zurich is nice and all, but this one is HUGE. I had to go there by public transport. And it’s an easy 5-minute walk from the train stop. I bought three liters of paint and four canvases.

When I said an easy 5-minute walk I didn’t factor in how heavy three liters of paint can feel when you have to walk uphill and are trying to catch a train that leaves in exactly five minutes. I made it, but just barely. And my arms really hurt. I did two paintings right away and decided that I needed more canvases for sure.

So, on Friday I went back and bought 15 canvases. Twelve of them were 30 x 40 cm and then three smaller ones too. Four more paintings followed. I only used painting knives on all of them – no brushes. I tried to watch some YouTube videos on how to use them properly but got bored quickly. I think I’m gonna need to figure out my own technique and not think too much.

Since I know nobody was wondering about how I transported 15 canvases - I borrowed a car. Took me forever. I know it’s supposed to be nine minutes from here, but not on a Friday morning and not when you have to wait for a train to pass in Suhr (nightmare – always has been). Plus, I have to walk 10 minutes to where the car I’m borrowing lives and make polite small talk. I wouldn’t want to be rude. Then I run into former neighbors and that’s another chat. I then stopped at the supermarket to pick up something for the person I borrowed the car from. Took me 50 minutes to make it to the shop.

I knew what I wanted so that was quick, then I saw that there was an upstairs as well. I’d totally missed that on Thursday. I decided not to go up there. It’s where they keep the books and there’s a bistro as well. Some other time for sure.

They have EVERYTHING you could ever want when it comes to an artistic endeavor. It’s amazing. And the store in Unterentfelden is about 10x bigger than the one in Zurich.

Further canvases I will definitely go pick up by public transport (30 mins each way) or bike (16 mins each way according to Google Maps). Bike is by far the fastest and if it’s not raining, I can get those canvases on my bike no problem. I can ride my bike right along that stream that flows past my building. Super convenient. It actually takes longest by car. Yes, that’s because I don’t have one, but I doubt you could ever make it there in 9 minutes at a time the shop is open. Highly unlikely. Bike for the win.

I just realized that I did use a brush for one of them - the rest is 100% painting knives.

What else has been going on?

I think we need to talk to do lists. Been wanting to mention this for weeks and kept forgetting. So, here’s what I want you to do. If you have a to do list, just take it out and have a look at it. If you don’t have one just pay attention the next time you write one. NB it won’t work for to dos at work unless you’re your own boss.

I’ve started color coding my weekend ones. So, when I plan my day (loosely), there are to dos that are red, orange and green. My new rule is that there need to be at least as many green tasks as there are red ones. Red ones are things that I have to do (household chores and such) where I have limited wiggle room.

Then there’s orange ones where it’s something that I need/want to do that has some sort of time restriction on it. It could still be fun, but I have no way of deciding when I want to do it. For instance, I got free online access to a trauma summit, but it only lasted 24 hours. When there were 6 hours left (at 8 on Friday morning) I realized that all the videos they’d uploaded were 4.5 h. Bit stressful. I felt like since I’m writing a book on mental health and am currently in therapy for childhood trauma, I wanted to listen to it, but the timing just wasn’t great. So, I put 2h of listening a bunch of 30-minute sessions on my list in orange.

Then there’s green. Green is things that are fun. Things that I like to do. Things that give me energy. Remember this is the weekend. You can’t be doing all red and orange stuff all weekend. I mean you can, but … here’s the deal. “Me time” is what always goes out the window first. It’s the only time we have full control over. So, there it goes. We don’t want to let others down or feel like we can’t get out of family obligations. Or we procrastinate on the red tasks for so long that there ends up not being time left in the day for the green tasks. Those who know – know. And none of that is a good idea in the long run.

Give it a go and see how it works out for you. And remember that the green tasks need to be fun and give you energy. And if it’s not acivities that make you giggle like a little girl, I don’t think you’re doing it right 😉. There might or might not be a chapter in my book on the physics of counterbalancing stress.

Oh, and for those of you who still think Switzerland is not diverse. You should drive/walk around now during Euro 2024. You see plenty of Swiss flags of course, but group B is well represented too (that’s Spain, Croatia, Italy and Albania). Then there’s Serbia and possibly Portugal as well. Those are just then ones you will see all over the place.

Surprised I didn’t mention Germany? Well, how do I put this … I guess you could say that a lot of Swiss people in the German speaking part of Switzerland might experience excessive Schadenfreude whenever Germany loses a game. Was that diplomatic enough?

And it looks like “we” won our first game yesterday – yay us! I used to follow soccer. Now the only reason I know when Switzerland is playing is so I know when to go shopping in peace. Follow for more life hacks 😉

Raining again here - it’s 7 AM on a Sunday and I’m grumbling.

Happy Sunday everyone.