Posts about Life
Minarets and missiles
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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.
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
Love of my life
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You know how the saying goes: behind every good man stands a great woman.
One year on
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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.
Through the Windows
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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.
One little soldier boy, marching around Bern
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I’ve recently joined Jo in a drive towards more fitness and have rescinded the use of tram transport in and around Bern in favour of foot power.
Into the Future
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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.
Review of My Year 2008
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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.
My Security Blanket
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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.
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
