Sunday morning thoughts – September 10, 2023
Thought I’d better start adding dates as these thoughts keep happening.
Feeling a bit rant-y today (I have no idea if that’s even a word and I have this rule for my Sunday morning thoughts that I don’t look stuff up. I just write and see what happens.
Anyway, on my mind today are friendships, hotel prices (NYC – are you kidding me?) and hormones (I might have bought three books on Friday). Let’s take them in that order. And just for the record, I do see what’s going on in the world with earthquakes, heatwaves, and other crazy (nature) event. I just can’t write about those on a Sunday morning – for my own mental health.
I’ve had some friends reach out to me when they saw on LinkedIn that I was back working in Zurich. I guess it has been about eight years since I last worked there. This made me think about friendships in general. It made me think back to the first friends I had in foreign countries. They were pen friends. The goal was not to meet (although I later met some of them), but it was to share about our lives. The response was not instantaneous. You had to wait for days or even weeks. And that had more to do with the postal services on either side of the world than with the respondent’s response time. You made sure you had nice paper to write on, you made sure your handwriting was legible and sometimes you included pictures of family and pets. All this made me feel a bit nostalgic.
Fast forward to today. I still have friends all over the world. Some of them are Twitter friends (NOPE, I’m not calling them X-friends for obvious reasons), then there’s Instagram friends, there’s friends I made through awesome communities like It’s Just Us (read about it here), there’s old school friends … basically, there seems to be a bit of an overload of friends. But then why is loneliness a fast-increasing problem? Complicated topic – one for another time. Not because it’s not important but because writing about it will get emotional. I can deal with emotional. I can sort of deal with the heat. But I’m not going to be actively combining the two.
I’ve started reconnecting with old friends and have made new friends that actually live in the country. This doesn’t mean that I love my friends abroad any less. It just a bit easier to meet Swiss people in person. I need to quickly mention my friend Brigitte from Belgium at this point who just made me smile with pictures of her dog Billi. Too adorable.
On to hotels, hotel prices and traveling alone. In most countries you pay per room. In Switzerland you pay per person. That’s good if you’re traveling alone but does it really make sense? I’ve only stayed in hotels in Switzerland on a handful of occasions – most of those were during the pandemic when traveling abroad wasn’t allowed. I booked single rooms, and they came with single beds. Like the kind that you almost fall out of because you’re no longer a kid and not used to small beds like that anymore. Those rooms are obviously smaller than double rooms and it’d be difficult to fit a double bed in them. So, you can fit more of them and don’t lose that much money, I guess. They all came with private bathrooms though. That means basically the same cleaning efforts are needed. Is it really fair that you pay half of what you pay for a double room? As a solo-traveler I’d say “of course it is”. From the hotel’s perspective I’d say guests paying per room makes more sense. I think it’s worth checking double and single room prices when you book. Depending on the country, a double room might be the better deal even when traveling alone. And who knows – you might get lucky.
Having said that … looking at hotels in New York City, I will say that it should totally be per person. And come on New York! You’re cool and all, but I’m going to need a better deal than that. Not looking to book just yet as I don’t know if I can get the time off but I had a look anyway. I loved the prices in 2021. The hotel I stayed at back then has triplet their prices. I’m not paying that. But you know what? I have a feeling I won’t be traveling alone this time. Take that NYC hotel prices!
Anyway …
You know when I ranted about doctors not knowing about hormones? I meant all hormones, not just the classic male/female ones (testosterone and estrogen or progesterone). There’s so many more and they are actually quite fascinating.
Hang on, I have to move my little writing table again. The sun keeps moving and it’s too hot. Yes, I know that the earth is moving too. Give me a break!
I did mean what I said about the doctors I’ve encountered not knowing sh*t about hormones, but what I was really criticizing was the fact that so little attention is given to hormones in their training. And, that their solution to reducing belly fat in perimenopausal women still is eat less and move more. That’s just ridiculous.
I take full credit for any fat on my thighs, my butt, my hips – that was all me. There’s a lot of chocolate, cake, ice cream etc. in there. And a lot of work has gone in creating that fat storage. No argument there. BUT that belly fat?! That wasn’t me! It might be normal that this happens at my age but it started bugging me on my walks. My backpack comes with a hip belt (I’m not going to look up the proper English word for this, but it goes round your middle). It just started being really uncomfortable. That’s when I looked into perimenopausal weight gain etc. That’s when I found exercises that help my body manage whatever my hormones are doing.
New me wants to work with my body instead of against it. Maybe all of you have been doing this forever and are all caught up on what those hormones do in your body and which foods are helpful and why. It’s all new to me. Especially the working WITH my body thing. I don’t hate my belly fat. Getting rid of a couple of inches did help me feel better, though and that belt around my middle doesn’t feel nearly as uncomfortable. What also happened is that for the first time in my life my blood pressure is higher than it should be. That through me a little. I won’t lie. So, I want to see if I can help my body find a hormone balance and also get that blood pressure back down. I’ve only just started reading one of the books and scanned the other one and I’ve already found interesting facts. Or rather foods that I hardly ever eat, but that I could easily make part of my diet.
The third book on the subject I had to order online. They didn’t have the original English version at the store, just the German translation. I hate reading translated books.
Anyway, that’s some of what’s going on in my brain this hot Sunday morning. I’m going to take a break to plan the rest of my day and might be back with more of Rhena’s journey later on. It could be too hot to write and I might pass out in my hammock though.
I’ll leave you with a picture from yesterday’s walk. It’s of a church and just as I’m typing this the church bells have started going as it’s 11 AM. Happy Sunday everyone.
I was the family scribe growing up. I had many pen pals, mostly in Europe. I kept notes on important dates of family and friends. Sent out holiday letters. When a teen, my mother found my diary and shamed me for its contents. It would be many years before I found the courage to write again.
Good afternoon by the time you get this, since church bells are ringing! Nice to hear from you, my Swiss friend (hope you agree, probably should have checked that out, I tend to “adopt” friends when I find them ! Just waking up here in SC, USA at about 7 in the morning, stiff, stretching, still on sofa from where I do everything. Almost. Rants, OK, hotel prices, hormones, Ahoh, no coffee, first has escaped me. I’ll just go with it too. Give myself Sundays off from productive activity of the chore type but actually sort of in the mood so may do anyway. Did not realize you were working in Zurich, a city I remember and enjoyed briefly in 1982. Geez, I’m getting ancient! I’ll just throw in turned 76 years old yesterday. Feel like an antique. Likely not a lot of of time left in this world but the way things are going, that’s OK with me. Our political shenanigans are over the top and frankly embarrassing but will not go there on a weekend.
I read about issues in New York City that may explain hotel prices. It’s all these nut case state governors and some individual immigrants making their way to New York, overwhelming the city! Why just there? Good grief! It’s an island more or less, meaning space is limited. Well, there is the “Guitar Man” and Central Park. I get that attraction and others but there are wide open spaces that might be more accepting of our influx of new asylum seekers.
Moving on to hormones and tummy weight gain. I get that too. After the loss of my worthless uterus, my special doctor encouraged me to eat well for optimal recovery. I would speak to him about that, but bless him, Covid took him from us. I recovered just fine but the tummy, flat enough before, took off and has been a nuisance ever since. The rest of me followed the weight gain too so now I eat like a bird post Covid; does not matter a whit. Lost about 30 pounds along with my taste buds. Then came the “fall of 01/14/2021” when I fractured my femur into many pieces all out of alignment, what a mess. Full of hardware rods and screws, just making getting around harder with other issues. I think fro my nurses’ point of view, hormone replacement therapy is indicated during peri menopausal times but doctors may worry about side effects. Have to balance risk and benefit. And the information and recommendations change daily.
Have a great day. Maybe Rhena will come out later. Always welcome here. We’re still missing precious Max 🐶 💔 but it was his time to go off to the rainbow bridge 🌈 (doggie Heaven) poor guy could not hear, see, walk, was in so much pain, screeching when I tried to pick him up for snuggling. But it’s always hard. Ny two girls 😽😽 are being a little testy claiming dominance but they’ll be fine! Sophie and Claire send love, too. Bye now! 😘😘😘🇺🇸🌎🕊️💃🏼🎶