Happy new year!

I wish you all a very happy new year wherever you are, whenever you celebrate it. We are more or less in the middle. When we start the year 2005 my asian friends already have around 7 am. And my southamerican friends still have 7 hours to go. Also some western Europeans are one hour behind. However I hope you'll have a great and interesting year 2005.
I miss you all!

Another sleepless night

There are so many things that keep me awake. I should finish some stuff for work I don't like to, I should write a letter to my aunt (which is a very difficult letter), my cat is snoring, it's too cold, it's raining and not snowing, I'm thinking of someone, I miss my friend, I'm angry with my cousin, ... There are so many reasons why I'm sleepless. But what does it matter, I have to get some sleep anyway. I can't stay awake the whole night and then go to work on a Sunday(!) without looking veeeeeeeery sleepy. I should look fresh tomorrow. Well anyway I think it's best to forget about all those things until tomorrow and then take care of all those things after having slept enough.
It's worth a try: "Sleep well Judy, sweet dreams! Listen to the tape you always listen to when you can't sleep, try to count sheeps or think of me." That's what my friend would say to me now. Ok David, I'll try it, promise. By the way, you still owe me that little thing, I won't forget that! And I'll go on reminding you of it day after day, every time I have the opportunity to. That'll be your worst nightmare, so do yourself a favor and give it to me baby! ;-) You know I love doing that to you... Good night!

Thank you

I want to say thanks to all my friends who sent me a card, an SMS, who called me or who thought about me during the last days. It's a great feeling to get so many good wishes from friends. Thanks to you all! I really appreciate that. And although I didn't have the time to write cards I thought about you a lot. Maybe I can manage it for your birthday... Keep in touch!

There can be miracles if you believe

Christmas... I feared this evening. I really did. In my family it's tradition that we all celebrate together. That means my mother, my father, my brother and me having dinner at one table. Our traditional dish for this evening is Fondue chinoise.
About one month ago my father and my brother had a terrible row and since then they don't talk to each other. Now imagine the two of them sitting in front of each other one whole evening without talking. And my mother who's not feeling well these days.

Well, what shall I say? We had a great evening with interesting discussions. The four of us had a great time. Dinner was delicious and the cookies we backed were perfect. Then we opened our presents. I found some for all of them. A new pyjama for my mother, a jigsaw for my father and a voucher for my brother. Well, I had two for him to be precisely. I gave him on to clean my car but he didn't like it. So I went to get the main one: A lift with my new car and the huge candle I made some years ago. And now guess what they gave me: I got the same kind of present from all of them. Stuff to clean my car L That's not funny!!! And I got a new pair of gloves and an interesting book. And of course a lot of chocolate -> who wants some?

No comment. I wish you a merry Christmas (without Santa's visit) and a happy new year. May all
your wishes come true!

Christmas?

Three days till Christmas. I'm absolutely not in the moot for it. There is almost no snow outside, we have no Christmas-tree, I didn't buy any presents yet (and I'm not sure weather I'm going to buy one or not) nor did I write some cards for my friends. This year I was lazy! Probably I was too busy. I always left home when it was still dark outside and came home when it was dark again. That's not funny, I miss the sun. The best present for me is that my cousin is here. She lives in Zambia in Africa and she's here in Switzerland with her two daughters. That's great. I'll certainly spend some days with the two girls to play with them in the snow (Although they're Swiss they've never seen snow before!)

There's another present I got: a good friend sent me an invitation and now I finally can accept it! My boss gave me the permission to take the days off and our national scout leaders asked me to join the team!

These two presents mean Christmas for me. Spending time with people I like. Not getting or giving material presents. Making people smile and being happy. That's Christmas! And now I'm looking forward to it.

Low battery - please charge

That's how I'm feeling these days. I'm absolutely out of power. The last three weeks were very busy for me. At work, scouts, at home, I didn't have one free day, no weekends, no free evening. My first free day since I'm back from Portugal was last Saturday. Friday I had to work till midnight. When I arrived home I went to bed got up at two in the afternoon on Saturday, ate something and went back to bed at 5 pm. Next time I got up Sunday at 10 in the morning. And I still was tired. We are making our own book with the whole Moot-Contingent-Photos! That was my appointment on Sunday. And Monday: I went to get my car. Finally! My first car, I'm very proud of it. It's a VW Golf IV, dark-green. I love my car, it's fantastic to drive and it's completely mine. My parents already asked me to lent them my car and my brother went to work with me only to sit in my car (He went back home by bus when we arrived at the office). Now less busy days are coming. Today is the last evening I have to work. Tomorrow and the day after I only work during the day and then I might stop working for this year. I still have more than two weeks overtime and I'm thinking of going to the mountains for new year's eve. I have to check weather I'm able to go skiing with my back. Should be able to, but you never know. Soon I'm going to drive my car back home. That charges my battery!

I proudly present you...

...my new car! Finally I got one. But I still didn't take any photos to show you. Follows soon, I promise! My number: James Bond :-) ZH 510 007 So if you see a green car with that number be careful!

Hmmm...?!?

X-mas time is coming! Which one shall i take today?

Welcome back home Judy!

Well, I really love that. Holidays are over, you have to go back to work. You really enjoyed the time and had some relaxing days. And then life starts again. Suddenly! You get home and hope to have some time to unpack your stuff and to arrive. But no, that would be too easy and too good. No, you get a call from someone who lives next to the office: "There is a window broken, maybe you better come and see". Thanks for telling me. So I went back to the office and what happened? Someone broke into the office and stole some money. This person really was in a hurry because he did not even take all the money. Only two empty cash boxes and an almost empty wallet. There are so many things in the office they could certainly use, but no, they obviously had not enough time or courage to do it properly. That was not the first time and it won't be the last. Poor people who do that. We think it was one (or more) of our youth but we never know. Why do they steal their own money?!?

Next time I won't go back home after holidays. Then such things can't happen again. But that's not possible, so... Whatever! Life's really annoying sometimes.

Back to (regular) live

When we arrived at Zurich airport, it was only one degree and it started snowing. We left the plane and went to the baggage claim to pick up our backpacks and went to the car. It was snowing and very cold. As we were not used to it we were freezing pretty much!
How comes? Well, Carola (friend from MOOT) and I visited Carlos (another friend from MOOT)in Portugal. We spent 11 great days there. He was showing us some interesting places and we went to the Sea. It was great, we had interesting discussions, funny evenings, and I ate FISH there! Imagine that. I ate fish...! My mother did not really believe me, but I showed her the photo. Carlos wanted to make sure my mother knows about it when I'm back home. So, got it!

Hmmm, I think I should show you some pictures to share with you. There you are. Enjoy it. I heard it was snowing and very cold that day we were at the beach :-p

Phone cabin in Lis for EURO 2004


Fishyfishy...


At the most western point of Europe. We were there!


Sunset in Lisbon


No comment! If you know what I mean...


The beach in Nazaré


Sunset


Where sun and moon meet


Because it's so nice


Back in Switzerland


It's really cold and snowing!


It was a great time and I really enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for being a (almost) perfect Gentleman Carlos. And you will get a payback for the last evening. I swear!!! That was not fair. Hey, I had a great time with the two of you. Hope we will meet soon.
And to the others: If you want to come to Switzerland: Don't hesitate, anytime you want to come here, tell me and I'll pick you up at the airport.

Almost two weeks without any news from Switzerland. Here you go:

I wasn't sleeping very well lately due to my back. After four hours sleeping I can't lie anymore, so I get up and do whatever I like.
When I get up at night I first go to my window and look at the sky. Sometimes I can only see clouds, but often I can see the moon.
For me, the moon is something that connects me with people all over the world. Wherever you are, you can see the one and only moon we have. The stars are different, but the moon is always the same. When I was young, my father was on journey pretty often. And he told me to look at the moon when I missed him, so he was always close to me when I saw the moon. And that's why the moon became like a link to every place on the world for me. Today, when I miss a friend who is far away from here, I look at the moon and think of this person and don't miss him of her too much anymore.

Are you thirsty?

Why get people drunk? Or why do they drink so much alcohol although they exactly know that they get drunk?
Today, when I arrived at a friend's birthday party a girl was sitting next to the street, vomiting, crying, shouting, ... Nobody was there to look after her. As usual, me, the social person, :-P stayed at her side and drove her home. My father's car now smells like **** and I could not enjoy the party at all. `
Thanks God I went out with a friend yesterday so I had at least one great evening this weekend!

How beautiful!?

Regular view


Today's view

The autumn leaves...

This is my view. Summer is now definitively over.


Yesterday the first snowflakes fell, immediately melted again and today it was only 7 degrees. Winter is coming! (Although we still have to wait for another month) Autumn stands for rain, thunderstorms and wet and cold weather. Don't like this season. I prefer winter, and winter means temperatures around zero, snow and of course skiing!!! I hope my back allows that...

Tired of doing nothing

I did not do many things during the last few days. I was at home, reading some books, watching TV, tidying up my room, playing with the cats, doing some jigsaws, ...
Yesterday I was tired of doing nothing and went to work although the doctor set me on holidays for two weeks. I don't feel sick, I want to do something useful. I am injuried, ok, but I'm not disabled. I want to do whatever I'm able to. I had a row about that with my mate yesterday. He can't understand me. I think hardly anybody understands my decision. But I don't care. I'm taking care of my back, I go for a walk if I can't sit anymore and I brought my hammock to the office and take a rest if I need one. I got tired of doing nothing. I never felt as tired for a long time, not even when I was very busy.

The diagnosis

My breast-vertebra nr. 8 is broken... Lucky me nothing worse happened. But anyway I will go to see a doctor I can understand on monday. Seems to be better.

Today we drove back home by bus. It took us 11 hours. Eleven horrible, long hours. After one hour I wasn't able to sit anymore, so I stood for another hour. Then one hour lying in the back row, and so on... It was horrible. Now I am at home, changing position every 30 minutes.

That was the end of my bad luck serie! I have to recover within one month, I don't want to cancel my trip to Portugal!!!

I don't want this holidays!!!

I went to France to work. We have a Camp here near the Mediterranean Sea. I repeat it/ the intention was work! Now I have holidays. I had an accident yesterday and broke a small f***ing thing (don't know the English word for it) at my back. I went to see the doctor, and the only thing he could do for me was giving me some medicine. Great! Now I am here in the hotel, doing nothing else than waiting for Saturday. That's fun...

It can't get worse...!?

This week didn't start well. Had some difficult situations at work. But I thought it could not get worse. Last night I dreamed of my trip to the famous Galapagos Islands and I hoped that this was a sign. I always dream of the beautiful islands when I'm feeling good.




And today when I started my computer, my harddisc was empty. I tried to recover my files, but no chance... Everything gone. Great! And the best thing: I wanted to make a safety copy of it today :-( Hahaha!

The family is very important

I organized a family gathering for my whole family. My uncles and aunts, my cousins and also my grandparents were invited. We did not meet for 15 years, except at weddings and funerals. I wanted to change that and tried to get the whole family together. Everyone came.

We met at 11 am at our Scout-House in the forest next to Zurich. And there it started: the electricity broke off, it started raining, they had to walk to the house instead of driving through the forest by car, ...

The only thing I learned today: The only person who does NOT make any mistakes is someone who doesn't make anything at all!

I am quite disappointed now and very angry. I hope to meet them only at weddings and funerals within the next 15 years!

As time goes by

I was supposed to stay at the office till 11 pm yesterday. There was nothing to do but waiting. In the room next door our youth were giving a party and we had to be there in case there would have been any problem they could not have managed on their own. And what do you do when you have nothing to do? You start looking for some distraction. We did not want to play "Settlers of Catan", what we usually do, there was nothing good in TV and no one in the chat. Then we found a 3D-jigsaw and decided to try it. It was very special because at the end you have a globe.


My latest jigsaw 

How embarrassing

A man is lying in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his mouth. A young nurse enters his room to sponge his face and hands. "Nurse," he mumbles from behind the mask, "Are my testicles black?" Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, "I don't know Mr. Jones, I'm only here to wash your face and hands." He struggles again to ask, "Nurse, are my testicles black?" Again the nurse replies, "I can't tell. I'm only here to wash your face and hands." The head nurse walks by and sees the man getting a little distraught, so she marches over to find out what's wrong. "Nurse," he mumbles, "are my testicles black?" The head nurse whips back the sheets, pulls down the man's pajamas, moves his penis out of the way, has a good look, pulls up the pajamas and says, "There's nothing wrong with them." Frustrated at this, the man pulls off his oxygen mask and asks again, "I said, are my test results back?!"

Moot was great

I'm not exagerating when I say that Moot was one of the best camps I ever visited. and I've visited a lot. I met some interesting personalities in Taiwan. Here are three of them:


Abdou. Thanks for those interesting discussions. I miss you and hope we will meet soon!


Carola, who I really miss. Fortunately we will meet again in 50 days :-D

and


Carlos, my new big brother, who is very curious. Had some interesting discussions with him. Hope this will go on... See you soon in Lis!

Of course there are many more. Send me a picture and I will expose it :-)

Enough for today, I will write down my Moot-Stories tomorrow. I am too tired now and that Blog will take a long time...!

The swiss contingent 

The most important thing to know in Taiwan 

Little Buddah (35 meters!) 

... and after 

Before... 

Weather changes fast 

You have to see it...! 

Taiwanese BBQ?!? 

Luxurious hotel after camping 

Our bus during Post-Moot 

Tea time 

My Team: Hung-Kuen, Abdou, Sarah, Rabbit, Sonia, Adolfo, Dimi and me (from right to left) 

Typical Taiwanese breakfast