Posts about Life
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One of my favourite aspects of our home in Spiez is the fact that we have such interesting and ever-changing views across the town and up to the wood behind our house. It’s particularly lovely to look out of the windows late at night, when neighbouring homes are sinking into darkness and when the surrounding…
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Since moving away from the UK, I miss jaunts into London, which now only take place once a year at most. A German resident of London, Konstantin Binder, provides me with a dose of the kind of exploration I would do, were I still in the UK.
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In January of 2005 – five years ago this week – Jo visited me in Switzerland for the first time. These photos show our wonderful time together.
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Jo learned to ski in Scotland when she was younger. After living here for several years now, she decided that it was about time to give cross-country skiing another try and give me my first shot at trying, as I’m not keen on regular skiing and had never tried cross-country before.
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I pledge to take more winter landscape photos this year, after being out this evening to take some long-awaited photos of the Christmas lights in Spiez.
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It was odd being here, disembarking with no passport check after two flights to collect baggage he had last seen on the French border. It looked as if there were people waiting next to the carousel; perhaps she’d be one of them. Was that her? The beautiful one over there? This is a 50-word short…
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A rare article in which I express how I feel on the subject of national referendum and the political process in Switzerland. This article has been inspired by a prominent national campaign on the subject of the proposed national ban on the construction of Islamic minarets.
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A greengrocer selling her wares at the side of the road starts throwing cabbages at a father and son standing at her stall without bicycles but wearing cycling helmets. A carriage full of train passengers passed out in their seats at the severe smell of rotten eggs pervading from the toilet. A glazier, attending to…
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A year ago today, I left my previous employer after seven and a half years to start a new working life in Bern.
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A personal history of computer desktop wallpaper, a Microsoft Switzerland competition in which you can take part, and some free landscape photos for you to download.
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I’ve recently joined Jo in a drive towards more fitness and have rescinded the use of tram transport in and around Bern in favour of foot power.
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Because I’ve wasted so much time with pointless babbling, I have had no time to create books of photography and of special holidays, yet I have wasted ten percent of my working day in inanities. So, no more. No more drivel. No more wasted time and a re-invigoration of my creativity.
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2008 has been a great year for getting out and doing things. Jo and I are off to England and Wales later this week for our Christmas and New Year holiday, the fourth international trip this year, so I thought I’d post my end of year review ahead of schedule.
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I’m not that good at small talk. I’ve spent much of my life being the quiet one in the room, in a group, in the office or at a party.
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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…
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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…
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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:…
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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…
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I began my new job with Burson Marsteller Switzerland today. This is how it went.
