Sunday Morning Thoughts – June 23, 2024

Summer anyone?

I know that some of you are experiencing sweltering heat at the moment. Here it’s still gray and miserable. So much rain. The temperature right now is 12°C/54°F. It’s going to get a little warmer but not much chance of seeing the sun today.

There were mudslides in the Alps and there is still flooding. Zermatt – I town you will have heard of – is currently completely cut off. Roads and train lines are closed. We’re lucky in the sense that we have great infrastructure and things will be back to normal in record time. So far I didn’t hear of anybody being hurt, might have missed it though. Weather alert systems seem to be working well. Kinda crucial in remote mountain areas. And I just heard on the radio that one of the major routes across the Alps (San Bernardino) is closed and will remain closed through the summer because the road is damaged. It’s an important route for southbound summer holiday traffic.

There is gonna be discussions on what’s causing these natural disasters. I mean they’ve been happening for centuries; they have just become a lot more frequent. This year in Switzerland we’re blaming it on the Böögg. I’m gonna have you look that up yourselves if you want to know more. Essentially what happened was that this snowman that we put on top of a pile of wood and then burn couldn’t be lit on fire in Zurich during the Sechseläuten festivities in April. It’s like our Punxsutawney Phil as it predicts what kind of a summer we’re gonna get. And by “we” and “our” I mean the people of Zurich. It’s a custom in Zurich City. The rest of Switzerland is pretty much just making fun of it.

Normally, this snowman burns and the time until the head explodes (it’s full of fireworks) is noted. Depending on how long that takes, we know what kind of a summer it’s going to be. This year it was too windy, i.e. too dangerous to light a fire in the city – so all this didn’t happen. It’s been raining pretty much ever since. And that ladies and gentlemen is why Switzerland is blaming the lack of Böögg burning for the crappy weather we’ve been having.

I think they have burned it now elsewhere overlooking Lake Constanze, but that’s just not the same.

Okay, we need to talk cinnamon rolls. OMD! I mean this is the reason I have an annual rail pass. I can just hop on a train to Basel, get a book I wanted to read that I couldn’t get in Aarau and cinnamon rolls. I’d heard about them on Instagram and had made a mental note. Then, when I found out that none of the bookshops in Aarau had the book I wanted, I had the option of getting it for sure in Zurich or Bern (the looked that up for me) OR I could chance it and go to a bookshop in Basel. They also have the best foreign language section in all of Switzerland. I needed a Korean language guide – for reasons.

It was on the way to Basel that I remembered cinnamood. And you know what? It’s right down the street from the bookshop. Win – win – win. Their selection is insane. I went for the classic cinnamon roll and a red velvet one. Super expensive (like $7 each), but OMD so totally worth it. Here’s what they looked like in their cute little box. I wish I could share the smell too. Cinnamood is a German chain and this is their first location in Switzerland.

And then we need to talk about book titles. And book covers. The book I’d seen all over the place and that had the best book cover ever was the German version of “More confessions of a forty something f##k up” by Alexandra Potter. How in the world am I expected to guess that the book called “Wenn das die Lösung ist will ich mein Problem zurück” with a very colorful cover is THAT book in English with the most boring cover ever? The German title translates to “If that’s the solution I want my problem back”. I mean, common on! Give me a chance.

So, I had them look it up. I’m so bad with names – also author’s names - that I didn’t instantly recognize Alexandra Potter. Now I know. Here’s the book covers. I got them of the OrellFüessli website. Do you see my problem? How is this the same book?

I could probably write an entire newsletter on weird book/movie title translations. My favorite is still “Bend it like Beckham” and that it was “Kick it like Beckham” in German. The title in German was actually in English, but they changed “bend” to “kick”. Go figure. It makes no sense. They could have gone with “Kick ihn wie Beckham” in actual German, but nope. Navigating all these different languages is not always easy. I think I once bought the same book I’d already bought in English in German because I didn’t pay attention to it saying it was a translation.

But hey! I got cinnamon buns out of it. Not complaining.

I’m still trying to make sense of something we seem to have gotten to the bottom of in therapy on Friday. It’s a topic that I wrote an entire newsletter about before, and I even pinpointed the origin of an issue in it. It’s just the depth of it and the 1000 things that are linked to it that I couldn’t get to by myself. I have filled four pages with notes of things that have popped up since and that suddenly make sense now.

I’m still in the process of literally getting my paternal grandmother off my back. Intense pain in my shoulders and the left side of my neck. When I looked at what shape and color the pain had it showed up as a wicked witch all in black. I’ve sent her on her merry way with a few choice words. Not sure she’s entirely gone. I think she’s still circling above. And yes, wicked witch is the perfect picture in this case.

I have a full page of how she made me feel as a child and none of it is good. I had to physically shake it off after.

Then I remembered that my grandpa made me a sewing basket – I mean I had the coolest one in school! And I’ve had this for exactly 40 years. It’s brilliant. I got all my sewing stuff in there and I use it on a regular basis. My grandpa was famous for making baskets. People came from all over the place. I sometimes got to help him. Fond memories.

Also this week, I went to a second art technique class. This one was on layering. Loved it. The teacher told me that it was important to fill my apartment with my new vibes. He didn’t think it was crazy having all these paintings all over the place. I loved that he said that. The picture I’m using as the cover picture for this newsletter was done Friday night. It felt very intentional and more in control than the others. Still, I just let creativity flow. No plan as such. I didn’t use any water to get that effect, it’s the painting knives. You can do really thin layers with them. Love it.

I have created an Instagram account for my art but haven’t uploaded anything yet. I have taken individual pictures of my paintings in the same spot with the same light yesterday. So, stay tuned for that. I’ll let you know in next week’s newsletter when there’s actually anything to see.

You won’t believe it, but I see some blue skies and the sun is out. This is not going to last, but I am totally going outside right now. I’ll bring an umbrella.

Have a great Sunday everyone.