Friendship’s tidbits

Love and friendship come in many forms, big things, little things and all things in between.

They come in gestures, in telephone calls, in trips, in meetings, in letters or e-mails; they are sometimes conversations, sometimes gifts, sometimes tasks and errands. They are always appreciated.

My former housemate went to Bern today – last leg of her cancer journey and things are looking good. Bern is a place where we have gone to visit museums, gone on adventures, where she renounced her citizenship and now where she will finish making sure that there is not even one cancer cell lurking anywhere in her body.

Her husband just popped in with a “treat” – ah… memories come flooding back – all the pretzels we have hauled back for each other anytime one of us went through the train station and had even 5 minutes.

This one though is beyond big – and I am sure beyond good. The opposite of a tidbit as witness to a friendship that is ongoing through thick and thin. Such memories it evokes – here we are with Proust’s madeleine -

I will eat it to your health D-L!

Will look for this bakery when next I'm in Bern!

That's my cell phone! Gives one an idea of the size of this pretzel!

364 + 1 days in a year or…

Happy Valentine’s Day.

I have always been a wee bit allergic to Valentine’s Day:

–      as a child we had to make cards for everyone in the class so what was the point?

–      As a teenager, I seemed to never get a card from anyone that I was currently interested in, if even vaguely and of course wouldn’t have dared send one to any of my crushes (hmmm… maybe it was the same for them?)

–      As a young adult with no boyfriend, it was just another day

–      As an engaged person – there was one before the wedding and I can’t say that I remember anything about it.

–      As a married woman there were enough other important events – I mean Christmas wasn’t that far past, and after son number one we had just had his birthday; then there were all the upcoming birthdays – so that it didn’t get celebrated either unless we had ski holidays. That usually had me writing bad poetry (wonder if I will ever come across any of those – paper hoarder that I am).

–      As a widow – well what interest would there be?

I have been fortunate enough in my life to have had friends and family who believed more in the Carpe Diem school of thought; presents or cards came any old time and even birthdays quite often got celebrated way later.

Love – and yes I know that Valentine’s Day is supposed to be only romantic love – can’t be confined to just one day and to celebrate it then and yet not be loving the rest of the 364 days of the year holds no interest for me. 

Also love comes in many shapes and forms and can no more be confined to just “romantic” love than water to just lakes and oceans: either one celebrates it in however small a way every day, or it simply doesn’t truly exist.

So Happy Let’s-all-be-in-love-with-each-other-and-Life Day. Let’s all be kind at least 364 days of the year: love will find a way and hearts come in all sizes, shapes and materials.

 

hand-made heart from Harmony, CA, USA

Swiss coffee cream cover

natural moss heart from a forest walk

Deliver Now … or not

Whatever suits your schedule.

One of my pet peeves (and I truly don’t have many) is delivery systems: the local postal system although one of the best in the world has sadly gone the way of many for-profit companies and if I have a two-week period where there isn’t a misplaced letter or paper in my post office box, it’s a good period.  After faithfully scanning all the mis-delivered letters and objects I actually got a written letter with their excuses – and enjoyed a whole three weeks without error before going back to same old, same old.

But delivery companies are even worse – I can’t think of one or even one time when they got it right the first time. I have chased UPS trucks around the neighborhood, made innumerable trips across town to pick up packages at the main centers of both UPS and DHL and in general had to put myself out to obtain a package sent to my address (note the nuance, these packages are rarely even for me, but one or the other of the inhabitants at number 15).

OK usually the gate is closed meaning that they need to ring the outside bell – and if someone is in the cellar or the attic that bell is often unheard, but even if noticed by the time one gets to the gate, the delivery truck and driver are long gone.

Since there is no mailbox – or rather the letter part of the mailbox is sealed leaving the “milk box” part available – they will stick the notice on the front of the box thus notifying the whole world that there is potentially no one at home.

As there has always been someone, the notice is seen within 24 hours – often illegible as fallen and dirty and or wet, but we at least know which company to contact to try and retrieve the package.

Today the gate was open (due to my being at home and the amount of persons to-ing and fro-ing currently in my life, it is simpler) leaving them only the necessity of ringing the door bell. I was here – they obviously just pushed it a half a second once. How they managed to miss my being in the kitchen and the two visitors around the same time I’ll never know, but yet again I had to go online to request another delivery date.  Monday.

The only advantage: I was able to transmit my cell phone number and hope that if they don’t get an immediate reply at the door that they will call.

Not to mention names but DHL has chosen nothing better in a country where English is not one of the national languages (we only have four!) of “dhl-delivernow”. Glad that I am not awaiting medication or anything horribly important, but was obligated to tell them to leave it on the bench outside (they allow “neighbor”, “front door” or “other” – at no point can one say “call me when you’re here”).  Now that I think of it… the slip was in French, but the website that popped up was in English. Surely I could have also had French, or German or Italian or Romansch?

So deliver it now if that’s your motto!

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/59028515.jpg

Age

Unadorned, unexplained yet forever the subject of something or the other.

There are so many sayings such as “you are only as old as you feel”, Mark Twain’s “Age is an issue of mind over matter: if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”, Helen Hayes “Age isn’t important unless you’re a cheese” resonates just fine with me and I am also fond of Sophocles’ “A man growing old becomes a child again”  (the great thinker and philosopher didn’t say what happens to women so I’ll take Mark Twain’s “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been”.)

And of course there’s Dr. Seuss’s “Adults are obsolete children”.

Age is measured by how one looks, good or bad for “one’s age”; age is again measured by whether or not one has a gainful job; age is measured by one’s education; age is measured by many things – and never more so now than when we have access to quizzes via Facebook along the lines of “how does your taste indicate your age”; “what do your friends say about your age” and the like.

Recently a good friend sent me the latest in an e-mail.

Am giving you the link just in case and loved my own results, thus the blog even if it means

putting my real chronological age into the public sphere..

 http://www.age-test.com/

Breakfast reflections

Everyone is unique or…

The anomaly of a human being.                       

From the minute we’re born we depart the path of any one else in the world. Everyone’s experience is unique made up of family traditions, moves, chosen experiences or things that happen to us. Even twins no longer share every thing as they did in the womb – and they come closest to being similar.

Why this thought?

Breakfast this morning: there I was sitting in my kitchen in a French-speaking area of a country to which I possess the nationality even if I wasn’t born here.

The radio station – although Swiss – was tuned to a pop station and played mainly English songs, including one of my all-time favorites: “A Bridge over Troubled Waters” in its’ original version by Simon and Garfunkel. My table – bought locally but from a certain Swedish company, had place mats probably made in China and an old cut-glass vase from Germany holding tulips from Holland. I enjoyed peanut butter – so very American – and blueberry jam from the “Jam Lady” in the Swiss alps. I also had a slice of Italian Panetone received from good friends at Christmas (this is a wonder bread as it keeps) on a – for want of better words – sandwich board (flat wooden or plastic board that replaces a dish) bought in Germany. Coffee was “French press” Ethiopian – brought back from Addis Ababa by my older son just Friday.

Just that short 20-minute snippet of time belonged only to me – no one else in the world will ever exactly replicate it – the marvel of a human being and one in which we should all rejoice.

Christmas Lights? Or…

Winter lights?

This year whilst I was enjoying my River Cruise along the Danube, one of my friends bought and installed lights on the top of the tree next to the garage.

What a joy they were to see as I came home – a reminder of Christmas.

We entered January and still could think back to Christmas – at least through the Epiphany or Three Kings day Jan.6^th.  I left them as it was still mostly dark and dreary and even on the sunny days night came all too quickly and the sun didn’t get up early either.

Then I broke my arm and taking them down became a moot question. At the end of January I did give it some thought – and started a discussion with friends instead: are they Christmas lights or simply lights making winter prettier? 

The consensus was about half-half with half considering them “Christmas” lights (although not colored) and thus to come down by Epiphany and the other half considering them simply a means to brighten winter’s gloom and subject to an open-ended removal.

I decided that I could simply be considered eccentric and am leaving them up until I feel like taking them down – perhaps the first day that the sun is up before 7 a.m.

On the other hand, I may tire of them and do it soon. Who cares? One thing is sure: next year I am getting more and doing at least half of the tree!

Unco

So is there unco in my life?

In one sense not so much these days – after all when one isn’t out and about as much as usual, how could there be? In another – tons.

But there have been unco events especially with the weather: more the Ides of March than either January or February.

And unco, I have met so many new people, albeit all bent on one thing, either dressing me or undressing me as I have had the assistance of a fine institution “home care help”.

One doesn’t necessarily want to experience their fine care, but I am every so grateful to live in a country where such exists.

Unco???

Give  up?

It was the word of the day a few days back and I just couldn’t resist: will it remain in my vocabulary? Probably not, but I did enjoy the fun of a weird sounding new word.

adjective: Unusual; remarkable; strange.
adverb: Remarkably; extremely.
noun: 1. A stranger. 2. News.

It also led me to a vocabulary site: https://www.vocabulary.com/

I aced the first two quizzes – yes – something to add to, but not replace, the Reader’s Digest vocabulary quizzes!

 

http://www.wordle.net/create