Posts from the category Life (and how to live it)
The Cablecom Debacle
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The story of our Cablecom episode began when we looked into the possibilities of additional English cable channels at home in the Bernese Oberland. After several years of having just the most basic and outdated BBC Prime, which runs episodes of shows like Keeping Up Appearances and Dalziel and Pascoe as repeats several times per…
St. Andrew’s Dinner
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Jo and I bumped into a couple on the train home from Milan a few weeks ago: a British guy working for the British Embassy in Bern, and his Russian fiancée. After talking about all sorts of stuff, including life as Brits abroad, we were invited to this year’s St. Andrew‘s Dinner to celebrate the…
A Sun, Drowning
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As office workers and shop girls sway home from the city on the dusty local train, the sun reaches out orange tendrils of light. Plucking ineffectually at the clouds, trying desperately to gain purchase, it sinks inexorably in the rolling landscape before the clouds catch fire and shadow overwhelms its realm. The death is ferocious:…
The Wrath of Nature
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As the sky prepares itself for evening, darkening through shades of blue and colouring more and more from the day’s greyness, the cloud in the distance becomes more dense; a threatening presence trapped on the far side of the open doorway to a narrow alpine valley. Gusts of wind twirl the outer reaches, bringing the…
New beginnings
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I began my new job with Burson Marsteller Switzerland today. This is how it went.
TFI Thursday
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So this is what it feels like to be on a last day at work. Not much different from any day over the past few weeks, as I began winding down some time ago and I completed all the clearing out of desks, drawers and files last week. Today, it’s just finishing up bits and…
Back to the Future
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I’ve decided to blog about our wedding and honeymoon trip from Switzerland to Scotland and back again and this is the first entry.
Life amongst death
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A visit to the ruined city of Pompeii is primarily about history, destruction and death. But there is a great deal of life there too; not just the tourists in abundance, but also a wide range of gardens and plants which have flourished amongst the dusty courtyards and cobbled streets. Beautiful hedges, flowers and trees…
Into the end
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In a day less than two weeks, I shall be leaving this office for the last time.
Headbanging
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A man, tired, carries his daughter onto the train as she rests her head on his shoulder and sucks her thumb. The train picks up speed and the man stands, resting from the waist on a suitably padded bench, with the girl half asleep and his back to the adjacent window. With each sideways rocking…
I’m getting married today!
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Or, in other words, T zero! It’s been a long and eventful journey up from Switzerland to Scotland, though we’ve had only a couple of minor hiccups and no real problems. I’ve been keeping a diary as we’ve been travelling but as you can imagine, I’ve more important things to think about today! I’ll post…
T minus 8
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With only just over a week to go until we get married, and less than 48 hours until we’re on our way to Scotland, I’m getting really excited. Yesterday was very emotional as I was able to finally complete the definite versions of the last pieces of stationery and I booked hotels in Oxfordshire and…
Late Night Laughter
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Jo at the Kornhauskeller bar in Bern, towards the end of a wonderful evening with Switzerland-based friends to celebrate our upcoming wedding.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
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Heaven is a warm, cosy home, with sparkling candles, a Christmas tree dusted with (fake) snow, and my love wrapped in a soft blanket with me, watching a good film after eating one of her delicious meals.
Listless list
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Jo is away in Scotland for over two weeks, and I find myself listless. There are lots of things to do, which I’d planned to fill the time while Jo’s not here: preparing photographs, tidying and cleaning, bringing some semblance of order to the piled mess which is my home office desk. Getting those endless…
The date is set
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We will be married in the late afternoon of Friday, 5th October 2007 at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.
The Beginning of the Engagement
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I’d not planned all that much about it, though one thing was certain. Some months earlier, it had come to me in a brain-wave. I wanted to ask Jo to marry me by the light of stars and moon, on the banks of the lake in the town where we live.
Earmuffs
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It was a long night last night. The voices didn’t let you sleep much; they never do at the weekend, do they? It must have something to do with the excitement of the end of the week when you were a kid; when you were hustled through the darkness, packed onto a train and met…
