Sunday Morning Thoughts – May 19, 2024

Sitting in traffic for hours in purpose, people are mental!

I think 2020 was the only year we didn’t get traffic alerts for the Gotthard route. It’s a long weekend here, so people are heading south. They are heading south by car. They are stuck in traffic for hours. Not sure how long it got yesterday but last I checked it was four hours. Four freaking hours. Of course, the fact that the second fastest route across the San Bernardino was still closed (snow and such) didn’t help matters.

I walked the entire Gotthard route. I’m not gonna say you could walk those 20+ kilometers that traffic was backed up for in four hours, but …

I mean to each their own. I’m just glad I don’t have to join them. I’d never head south on a weekend like this and if I did – have you heard of Swiss trains? Reliable, fast, super easy to use. Yes, they do get crowded on weekends like this, but you can always book a seat or not take the busiest trains. There are slower routes. There are super early trains. There are options.

Anyway, that means fewer people up here where I live. I’ll take it 😉.

Do you remember me telling you about that jigsaw puzzle I got? It was a map of Switzerland. I thought “cool, let’s practice Swiss geography”. Well, turns out that apart from very few areas in Switzerland, I could pick up a piece and if it had a place name on it, just put it right where it belonged. My rookie mistake was that I didn’t realize that about half of the puzzle were random and obscure small villages in France, Italy, Austria and Germany. I might have told you this already. But here’s a couple of pictures.

Help! We’re surrounded!

What an amazingly oddly shaped country Switzerland is. Love it!

On Friday I went to an exhibit at the House of Photography in Olten. That’s an easy 10-minute train ride from Aarau. I almost said it is walking distance as I have walked it before. The exhibit was on Vivian Maier and her work. I found it fascinating. It’s been a real success, so they added an extra week – if anybody’s interested, and they also extended their opening hours. It’s well worth a visit.

Yesterday, I did some writing and then went to a paint event to learn how to paint like Monet. Well, my waterlilies look more like UFOs. I did not feel that painting the way I felt the van Gogh one. Could be that van Gogh’s insanity spoke to me more than Monet’s perfectionism. He painted the waterlilies like 100 times. Also, we were shown a quick movie about Monet’s life before we started. I did not connect with that story at all.

Our instructor told me not to come to any other “paint like …” classes. He encouraged me to just paint my own things. He loves my style and he also said “you give each painting your personal touch anyway”. They are running some workshops where they teach you technique rather than telling you what to paint. I looked at the ones that are already listed and I’m doing all three. They sound super interesting.

I love that I tried and failed at this one. The water and reflections tripped me up, but that’s something to work on. This painting was at sunset. So the light etc. is super specific. I did enjoy the process and also realizing that I really need to feel a painting for it to work. I understood some of the instructions better when I started thinking about them at home and I know where I went wrong. I’m fascinated by water and reflection and how to properly paint that. I’ll be practicing. Not to paint a Monet but with water being such an important part of my life – walking along rivers, walking along the coast with the North Sea breeze in my hair, I think it’s worth the effort.

Oh, and I totally aced that talk I was asked to give in my role as hiking ambassador. That was great fun. I’m a natural. I wasn’t really worried, but still – you never know what the audience is like. I got hiking tips and met the nicest people. It was a wonderful evening.

Hanging out with a bunch of friends on Zoom I was asked how refugee or immigration friendly Switzerland is. Difficult to answer that one. Immigration – if you have a job all lined up, it shouldn’t be a problem. Most immigration is from European/EFTA countries so then it’s even less of a problem. You should expect a ton of paperwork though. When it comes to refugees, the rule is that you can only apply for refugee status in one country. It feels like the process in Switzerland is a bit more thorough than in other countries – that might put people off. But as we saw with the war in Ukraine, we can move quickly if we want to.

I’d say we’re doing our part, but it feels like we’re better at giving money and sending aid. We’re not going above and beyond to get people to come here. And historically refugees have preferred to stay in the area they are from moving to neighboring countries. That makes sense of you have hope of returning.

I was also reminded of the difference between political Europe and geographical Europe. It’s not easy finding refugee and immigrant numbers for geographical Europe by country. It’s always EU numbers. I guess that’s one way for us to pretend that we’re keeping up with what EU countries are doing. We can just measure numbers differently to make them look better. Problem solved …

OMD, just saw this random dude comment on a picture on my IG. “[…] Your photography skills are incredible! Keep it up”. I know, dude. Way to state the obvious. Not sure why the “keep it up” bugs me. I don’t mind it coming from a friend or somebody I know, I don’t think. But in this case … Well, anyway he’s not shown up in my DMs, that’s something. Now the fact that him saying that bugs me is gonna bug me.

We really hit something big in therapy last time so this time around we didn’t try anything new. We just explored what else could be attached right there. And guess what happened after – I think I got to the very bottom of something. Not ready to share yet, but this feels like the source of so many things.

I might write something in my other newsletter later on. But I feel like I should go for a walk or do some painting as well. Oh and laundry. Hang on while I put my to do list in this newsletter. I’m so all over the place today. Only in my thoughts though, I haven’t really moved much other than from my bed to my couch.

And I totally have baby fever. Well, not so much baby, but toddler – as in when they can communicate. Toddler fever sounds a bit weird though. Like something you could get arrested for. Kids are always drawn to me. Anywhere I go, they find me. I am super silly and I will join in on the *pressing all the buttons* fun at the museum of technology, because – why not? I will also join kids at the petting zoo and help them approach the animals in a way that will make them feel safe. I once showed a little girl how to pet a goat and the goat ended up snuggling up to her. Her face lit up – what a moment.

How did I get here? Oh yes, this also came up in therapy. Animals are my safe place. I guess small kids would be okay too. I’ve always had a special connection with animals. My therapist suggested volunteering as a dog walker for a shelter. Excellent idea, but I am so not a dog person. I’d go for sitting somewhere reading a book surrounded by cats. Total cat person here. Or goats. Or pandas. And have I mentioned cows lately? Poor dogs! Nothing against them, just a very strong preference for cats.

Another vote coming up in June. We got a 90-page booklet with all the relevant information. Pro and con arguments, how the parliament (both houses) voted etc. etc. I got the envelope on Thursday and I voted yesterday. I don’t usually waste time on reading up on things when the vote in parliament was unanimous. It’s their job after all and I do have some trust left.

Let me finish with a random question. What is a song that always makes you get up and dance? Mine is “Take on Me” by a-ha. I HAVE TO jump up and dance when I hear that. It’s just so good. Put yours in the comments, please. And if you’re not the jump up and dance kind of person or no longer able to – what song makes you wish you could jump up and dance?

The sun’s just made an appearance. Time to go for a walk. Have a lovely Sunday everyone.