The sound of silence…

My husband introduced me to the Peruvian Pan Flute more years ago than I’m willing to admit – love at first sound.

Yesterday a friend sent me a clip from YouTube: the Sounds of silence.

Reflect: the true sound of silence is so full.

As children, we listen, but don’t always hear – babies communicate without words and not always with cries either. Think of a mother’s smile as she tends to her baby – communication without words. Think of a lover’s glance – the whole world can be held in the lack of words.

Think of friends who exchange smiles – there is no better hello.

Think of the ill and their carers: again often a smile, a tear, and a sigh send more messages than words can ever communicate.

Think of those to whom you wave from a distance: a message is sent: I see you, I care about you.

Think of touch – the holding of hands, stroking of a cheek, the pat on the back or the knee. All communicate care, like or love – without a word.

In this busy world we should listen more to the sounds of silence. Enjoy the clip

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BFnjVazFSTE

The modern church or….

Some of them run disco evenings and now accept credit cards in lieu of the old coin slot.

For those of you who have travelled to Europe and if not for religious reasons, but for reasons of tourism have gone into a cathedral (more likely as the protestant churches seem to mainly be under lock and key except when in actual use) you will have noticed a slot box (usually in bronze or iron towards the first pews of the rear) in which one may make a donation for the upkeep of the church. Also where there are candles to be lit in front of saints there is another dropbox for the odd coin that they charge.

an old-fashioned coin box to pay for your voltive

Well, on one of my day trips to a big city in Northern Switzerland I popped into a church, only to find that they were advertising “disco nights” once a month (ok not a “proper” catholic church but a reformed church in a former cathedral, but also had installed a machine to the rear of the church for credit card payments.

the modern coin box

Where is the charm? I agree that some things probably need to be modernized, but seriously a credit card machine for church donations?

I will not visit that church again.

How to go crazy…

It doesn’t take much, nor long when dealing with administrative tasks!

This morning in the mail I received a letter announcing that if I didn’t pay within 10 days the property taxes in the next state up on a piece of land the family owns, this state would be within it’s legal rights to slap a mortgage on said property.

So far, so good.

However, I had already paid this tax shortly after I received it last fall!!! Even reconciled in my bank accounts so I know that the bank paid it (sometimes, I discover a month later that something I have scheduled hasn’t been paid… but that’s another problem).

I had used the payment slip they sent and did it on-line. This is an important fact as we have a reference number of some 20 digits that allows the receiver to correctly attribute the payment.

Instead of writing a letter, paying the postage and trying to cover any other payments from the bank as proof I decided, oh mistake, oh mistake, to call.

I properly followed the instructions and got the usual, “sorry all of our collaborators are busy”, with the addition of please consult our on-line pages.  Then after no collaborator is available within 10 minutes they simply say “sorry, no one is currently available, please call back later”. I repeated this cycle 6 – yes SIX – times (never had it worse), meanwhile duly checking the website, but of course, my question isn’t covered.

The sixth time I go someone and with my client number was able to have her “find” the payment. Although there are separate reference numbers for each bill, it seems that the banks sometimes “correct” the number to the one that you last used for that invoice and thus my property tax payment became simply a payment on my income taxes. Arghhhhh

And I can’t say that loud enough! At least this year I am forewarned.

There are days like that: I also have no heating in the attic so I called the heating chap. He was quick, but the problem couldn’t be solved so now I’m waiting for the company that checks the whole system to call me and come see.

I have dinner with a friend, which will save my mood, then it’s coffee with girlfriends followed by cocktails tonight with the neighbours. My day will end better than it began.

And, oh, the sun is shining. Right now though my blood pressure is through the roof and my faith in the “system” non-existant

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I can’t lick my rear…

Nor do I wish to, but I daily admire the ability of my two cats to lick any part of their body!

So supple: yes some of the positions look weird, but I truly wish I had their capacity to turn my body into a pretzel. Imagine being able to bite that itch in the middle of one’s back, or

to inspect a spot on the back of one’s thigh. The only place they have to actually use a paw to reach is their head and ears and someday I fully expect to see them simply make their tongues longer!

stray cat

A few wee years ago…

Our eldest was born on a Saturday evening after having spent Friday night asleep (there are some lucky moms in this world – I was twice – as both my sons were born on Saturday nights after daytime labor and I proceeded to sleep after their births as well).

He had all the pertinent parts, thrived and now is, in turn, a father himself.

Feet seem to be a thing in our family so instead of the usual newborn baby picture here is the one that most impressed family and friends alike and led to my insisting that his son also have his footprints taken.

All the best my son.

Utterly or Udderly?

I came back to Switzerland a long, long time ago, but it’s really my sister who loves cows.

I love the mountains, the lakes, the folklore (including cows), the paper cutting and in general most everything – so much so that I actually took the nationality.

But cows, they are something typical and somehow sacred to Swiss folklore. So many things from cows, including the cheeses for the national dishes of fondue or raclette, never mind the very-sought-after Gruyères cheese.

Once a year there is an exhibition “Swissexpo” concerning only cows. For the past 17 years it was held in Lausanne, but due to the obsolescence of the exhibition grounds there and the lack of good access, this year the International (yes, there were some 200 cows from outside of Switzerland!) fair for cows “Swissexpo” was held in Geneva.

I saw all 1’000 cows, admired them being groomed for show and duly noted all the agricultural supplies, equipment, etc. on show.  German seemed to be the main language and interestingly enough there were as many young women taking care of them as young men. I noticed that the girls seemed to work slightly harder as well so it will be interesting to see in a few years time a farm or group of cows owned and cared for only by women.

Although I didn’t take too many pictures, there were many a scene that I wouldn’t have thought of, not being a farmer myself: the dash to put a pail under the tail anytime a cow decided to produce a leak or more; the forking over of fresh hay constantly; the attention given to hair cutting (or whatever one calls it if it is an animal – not shearing as they weren’t taking all the hair off), the waxing of the udders to make them stand out more, the precise braiding or fancy cutting of the tails, etc. Truly a fascinating industry when seen close up.

One also forgets that on top of nature’s “calls” that the milk cows need to be milked.

udderly attached

 And of course there were specimens of the next generation to admire.

All in all a few hours well spent!

utterly adorable

Catching up, or

Finally having lunch with a friend of long date, but one with whom we seem to struggle these days to schedule anything. She comes and goes and I come and go and as Rudyard Kipling said about East and West “never twain shall meet”.

I don’t remember how many dates and hours we tried until today’s lunch worked – but that’s the beauty of friendship – one keeps at it until it works!

The time passed, as usual, in a flash. Lunch was delicious the talk more so.

Caught up? Not quite, but better than if we hadn’t taken those few hours.

Oops we neglected to plan the next coffee, sushi, Indian, or whatever else our tastebuds fall for, back to the e-mails, the WhatsApp “conversations”.