Homesick in Switzerland

Ever since high school (as far as I remember) I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with spring… for those not in the "know", that’s a season… Spring, Summer, Autumn Winter. OK so I’m not feeling very accommodating at the moment, don’t be offended. I’m not feeling my best… Spring seems to have arrived in Switzerland and my nose and eyes are telling me so. Although my first bout of sneezing and sniffling is often accompanied by a cold/flu, that’s part of the package with changing seasons. Probably everyone (me…) walking around enjoying the deceivingly warm weather thinking they (I…) don’t need a sweater and then regretting it when passing tall buildings or the sun gets hidden by rogue a cloud on a cloudless day (how the hell did THAT happen?!)… cos then you really feel the breeze… if you can hear it, it’s saying "Haha! Serves you right! It’s never good to assume!". And indeed it serves me right… I’ve been suffering since Sunday evening (went out hiking to Gurten that whole afternoon) and it looks like sticking around for the rest of the week just to piss me off.

The worst part is that I can’t differentiate which symptoms are what! Itching and runny nose are probably hayfever allergies, but I sneeze and sniff my way through a bad cold too. Then there’s the puffy, itching, red and watery eyes… Watery eyes are definitely allergy… but is it puffy from sneezing and rubbing or just hayfever? How about the cough and sore throat that keeps me up at night and wakes me in the morning? And there’s the stiff muscles… cold and flu? or just a side effect from sneezing too much?

*UGH* I don’t want to move anymore… I don’t want to go out… I don’t want to do anything at all. I just want to lie down (it helps with the runny nose) and stare blankly at the white ceiling. Maybe I’ll fall asleep and it’ll relieve this headache I’ve had since waking… probably another side effect of my coughing and sneezing… have I bruised my brain perhaps? Whatever…

It’s that time of year. Chinese New Year. 2008 is the year of the Rat. So… here goes…

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!
MAY YOU BE PLAGUED WITH JOY AND HAPPINESS, GOOD HEALTH, PROSPERITY AND SUCCESS IN THE YEAR TO COME!
MAY YOU BE HAUNTED BY THE GHOST (god) OF WEALTH AND MONEY IN THIS VERY AUSPICIOUS YEAR OF THE 8 (Fatt = Prosperity) 2008!!!
GONG XI GONG XI!!!

“No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.”

—Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

That right! We’re going places… Real soon too! At least going 2 places sometime before March. "Where?" you ask? I don’t know… hehe… I’ve just bought a couple of special tickets from our local supermarket in conjunction with the railway here. CHF54 gets a Day-Pass to travel Switzerland-wide for two people. For comparison, let’s say I want to take a train from Bern (here) to Geneva. That would cost CHF50 ONE WAY. So a return trip would be CHF100. With a half fare card (which we have), that still costs CHF50 per person return.

And now with this special ticket I can travel as many places as I want (with Kwang of course!) for the whole day for only CHF4 more than a return ticket to only ONE place by myself. Now tell me that isn’t a bargain!!! Only catch is that the ticket has to be used by March 5th. No problems there I’m pretty happy with that. No fuss no mess… validate the ticket on the day you want to travel and off you go *whoosh*

So looking forward to it. Will have to decide soon where we wanna go… We’ve always wanted to see more of Switzerland… and now’s our chance!

Christmas is over! How was your Christmas? Was Christmas good to you this year? If not, then it’s probably your fault…. After all, Santa was watching! Haha! Not really… My Christmas was uneventful as expected! Cooked some nice food but that’s about all I did. Read here on my other blog to find out what I didn’t do. ^_^

As for whoever reads this blog, I hope that 2007 has treated you well! The year is nearly over. Have you made your resolutions yet? I haven’t… haven’t really got a lot of resolutions to make… I’m living each day as it comes… trying to be thankful for the things I have, rather than whine about the things I don’t have. I’m thankful for the little things that are often so unappreciated yet so important… to be happily married… have an understanding husband… to be able to experience little pieces of Europe… have a roof over my head and clothes to wear… to be healthy… to have a family (albeit far away) who cares about me. Each morning I wake up and tell myself there’s no reason not to smile.

I hope that 2008 brings more new experiences and adventures my way. I wish you also a great new year and a wonderful and exhilarating 2008! Don’t forget to take down your Christmas trees! Remember it’s BAD LUCK! TO have then still up when the new year arrives! So better hurry and tear down those decorations!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Regarding the past 2 posts…

My "something to look forward to" turned out to be something I’d rather not do… for now. For anyone who reads but didn’t bother to guess, the calligraphy said "Kyudo" or Japanese Archery. There is a club here where I was considering taking lessons… learn something I’d been meaning to for a while now. Kyudo is done as a sport as well as spiritual building/strengthening activity. I went for a introductory session that Tuesday several weeks ago and was somewhat disappointed… not because the club was small and had only had about 10 members. But because ALL the members were aged 50+ yrs… and only the tutor spoke (halting) English. I know it seems kind of shallow of me to base my decision to not learn Kyudo on age or ethnicity/language differences… but I felt out of place simply watching them practise. All these Swiss people who hardly spoke to each other (some mind and body thing) with grey hair… it was a little off putting to say the least. I’d better look at regular archery perhaps?

As for Kwang being sick… that was only a half truth. He was feeling sick but not from flu or a cold or anything simple as that. He had food poisoning of some sort… which puzzled us both to no end, because we’d eaten exactly the same things those last few days leading up to his sickness. Needless to say, he purged (from both ends) throughout the night and demanded super-sweet hot drink of honey afterwards to replenish energy and fluids. In any case, it’s all over now.

Things here are more or less same old same old. My hair is currently the longest it’s been since I was 12 yrs old… and thank goodness for that because I just about freeze my ears off each time I go out! Yes… winter is here… yes it’s cold… yes we’ve had snow. No snow in the past few weeks but that won’t be for long I suspect… *praying for snow* It’s Christmas and my wishes shall be granted! I wish for a white christmas! Yippee!!!

In Case I don’t get to write again before then…
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

My Dear Kwang Kwang is sick tonight. Not entirely sure as to why though. He developed a headache this evening while I was out and then told me he felt nauseous and decided to go to bed early. I wondered if perhaps we’d eaten something not right, but we’d been eating exactly the same things these past 2 days, unless he’s had something I don’t know about (which I doubt). I went in to check on him a few minutes ago and he said he felt sick… he’s shivering and cold but his face is red hot (fever?). He’s all bundled up with warm clothes, socks and gloves and all our heat packs because we have no hot water bottle. The bedroom heater is also on full. (boy oh boy am I in for a warm night!) I hope there’s nothing serious going on. Dear boy is probably coming down with a cold or a flu… I should make him some Lemon Honey.
                                       

I’m feeling kinda excited at the moment. Tuesday next week I’ll be attending an introduction session for something I’ve been thinking about for a long long time… years in fact… So finally I’ve stopped procrastinating and making excuses about cost and time and priorities etc and I’ve plucked up the courage to contact the appropriate people… After many years…  that time is finally come. What the hell am I talking about right? I’ll tell after Tuesday! If it’s all I’ve imagined it to be… we’ll see.

A hint for those who can read…

Well, the cheese festival was a bit of a disappointment and not much of a festival at all. There were about 10 - 15 market stalls selling many varied Swiss cheeses. It didn’t smell much cos there was a stand right up front with some smoke from a wood fire going and it did good masking the cheese stink. There was a nice raclette tent, and another with mulled wine (it’s sweet and warm and very aromatic) but we didn’t have any. Not a lot of festivities going on and overall I was pretty disappointed. I should have brought my camera though… the cheese wheels were huge, there was one that was 3 feet across! There was a small competition going , where you had to guess how heavy it was and there would be a prize for the winner… maybe a lifetime supply of Emmentaler cheese? HAHA!

Hmm… should I have bought some cheese?