It's one year and six days since I arrived to live and work in Switzerland and you probably think I have given up altogether on blogging. In fact, we are finally emerging from a continuum of visitors, major work projects and travel just as autumn arrives and the weather will encourage us to spend more time indoors. Not today though. Like yesterday, it's sunny and bright (warm in the sunshine, cold in the shade) and the sunlight shows the gold, russet and plum hues of autumn to brilliant advantage.
After a year, we are still discovering new magic places to visit (mountains, lakes, Swiss chalets, picturesque cows) within an hour or less of Zurich. Will we ever get tired of cows and cowbells, mountains and lakes? I think not ever, in fact, I am wondering how I will live without them when the time comes.
What is so appealing about Switzerland is it is a healthy country - people take health seriously here. At the weekend, when there is an instant of sunshine everyone old and young, with walking sticks or without, is out walking and what puts me to shame is how many people much older than me are steadily plodding up mountain paths past me as I huff and puff my way along - winter and summer and all stages in between. I think there are many parallels between Australia and Switzerland in this respect.
And yet I observed in the Global Corporate Challenge (in which 80+ Zurich teams recently participated) that the Swiss were not out front. It was Australian and American teams in the top five. Perhaps there is a simple explanation - the Swiss generally have a healthy attitude towards health: regular, moderately challenging, enjoyable. Not fanatically competitive to the point of burnout. Or perhaps the Swiss are happy being as they are and do not desperately need to be the best of the best. I must say with so many contented cows all around you all the time, it's quite tempting just to enjoy the green grass at a leisurely pace.
One or two of our visitors continue to think of Switzerland as too much chocolate box and discipline and not enough real life. Most have been like we are, impressed to see that community law and order and a bit of healthy respect for the good old life as the norm is not a bad way to go.
It has been very healthy visiting Greece which I love except for most of Athens and Piraeus and the bits the tourist have completely wrecked. There is all the colour and warmth and emotion and excitement you could ask for - and the yoghurt is to die for. (Just have a look at this sculptured bread in the picture left that we found in a back street in Rethymnon on Crete). But with it the chaos of noisy, unsafe, unruly traffic and the pox of litter and abandoned stuff marring the face of the countryside.
After a year, we are still discovering new magic places to visit (mountains, lakes, Swiss chalets, picturesque cows) within an hour or less of Zurich. Will we ever get tired of cows and cowbells, mountains and lakes? I think not ever, in fact, I am wondering how I will live without them when the time comes.
What is so appealing about Switzerland is it is a healthy country - people take health seriously here. At the weekend, when there is an instant of sunshine everyone old and young, with walking sticks or without, is out walking and what puts me to shame is how many people much older than me are steadily plodding up mountain paths past me as I huff and puff my way along - winter and summer and all stages in between. I think there are many parallels between Australia and Switzerland in this respect.
And yet I observed in the Global Corporate Challenge (in which 80+ Zurich teams recently participated) that the Swiss were not out front. It was Australian and American teams in the top five. Perhaps there is a simple explanation - the Swiss generally have a healthy attitude towards health: regular, moderately challenging, enjoyable. Not fanatically competitive to the point of burnout. Or perhaps the Swiss are happy being as they are and do not desperately need to be the best of the best. I must say with so many contented cows all around you all the time, it's quite tempting just to enjoy the green grass at a leisurely pace.
One or two of our visitors continue to think of Switzerland as too much chocolate box and discipline and not enough real life. Most have been like we are, impressed to see that community law and order and a bit of healthy respect for the good old life as the norm is not a bad way to go.
It has been very healthy visiting Greece which I love except for most of Athens and Piraeus and the bits the tourist have completely wrecked. There is all the colour and warmth and emotion and excitement you could ask for - and the yoghurt is to die for. (Just have a look at this sculptured bread in the picture left that we found in a back street in Rethymnon on Crete). But with it the chaos of noisy, unsafe, unruly traffic and the pox of litter and abandoned stuff marring the face of the countryside.Still living in Switzerland with the occasional holiday on a Greek island would be just about the most perfect life I can imagine - as long as there is the prospect of returning to live in Australia when I get tired of winters. And visiting Ann and Graeme in the Marlborough Sounds - yes, they will move there at the end of this year.
This winter I am hoping to try cross country skiing though I suspect I will not get past putting on skis and trying to move in them. Fortunately, there is snow-shoeing to fall back on. At this stage though, hopefully snow is still some time away.
My hairdresser has declared that I now look Swiss thanks to her administrations. I can now go into a restaurant and ask for a table and the bill and order from a German or Swiss German menu without almost no problem. And with the help of Leo and Babelfish, I can send replies in frightfully bad German to emails I get at work. Check in again this time next year and let's see how much more progress another year brings with it. Adé.
This winter I am hoping to try cross country skiing though I suspect I will not get past putting on skis and trying to move in them. Fortunately, there is snow-shoeing to fall back on. At this stage though, hopefully snow is still some time away.
My hairdresser has declared that I now look Swiss thanks to her administrations. I can now go into a restaurant and ask for a table and the bill and order from a German or Swiss German menu without almost no problem. And with the help of Leo and Babelfish, I can send replies in frightfully bad German to emails I get at work. Check in again this time next year and let's see how much more progress another year brings with it. Adé.
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