swimming in the Aare

August 25-27: Nervous …

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I have a few things on my plate at the moment and am feeling nervous. I talked about working methodically but slowly, but if all goes to plan, I’ll have to start doing things much faster! Hopefully I’ll have more information about this by the end of next week. Sorry more can’t be divulged now!

The past few days have been spent at work, catching up with my friend Sonja who’s about to go back to Ethiopia to continue being a doctor, meeting my friend Leonie who’s about to move to Norway, contacting chefs and working on the four stories for my friend’s magazine, and cleaning Liliane and Rene’s house.

Relying on other people to contact me for those stories, when I’m working to a deadline, is making me feel like I’m not in control of what’s going on! I need to take 10 deep breaths, keep plodding along and find some patience. The latter is the tough one.

Here are some photos from yesterday. It was a beautiful day! I met Sonja at the Marzili, the public swimming area right in the centre of Bern, and then came home about 5pm to a lovely mountain panorama.

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Quite a few people were swimming. It was 18.5 degrees in the water

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This lady found a lovely sunny spot. Must remember that!

We thought about going in ... Sonja thought it was ok! But the belly button is always the test!

We thought about going in … Sonja thought it was ok! But the belly button is always the test! No go!

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I managed up to my knees

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So we opted to laze in the sun. Good luck in Ethiopia again, Sonja!

Clear as a bell!

The view from home. Clear as a bell!

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Zoomed in a little bit. The mountain with the mostly black face is the Eiger, then the Mönch to the right, then the Jungfrau

We face south so we get plenty of sunshine. All the mountains that we see face north; the north side of the mountain is considered the coldest (in the northern hemisphere). Brrr …

I weighed myself at Liliane and Rene’s this morning. 65.6kg. I think that might be the lightest I’ve been for a while. Can’t say it’s because of all the exercise I’ve been doing (although walking around London must have helped. The beers not so much …) so I attribute it to the ‘summer diet’. Lots of salads and not much stodge.

One thing I’ve noticed when I come home after cleaning the neighbour’s house is I want to declutter even more at our place! They have many ornaments on display and small objects I have to clean around, and I feel thankful that our place isn’t overloaded with adornments. Just a few well-loved items. Happiness.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 22: Glory-ious Days

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This afternoon, I raced home from work on Bruce in order to miss a big thunderstorm – didn’t take any photos of it approaching, but snapped a few shots after it had passed.

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Sunset on the Alps, taken from the front yard

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The brown, brown grass of home

It’s raining again now, 10.30pm, and boy do we need it. (That cool breeze will also make sleep easier tonight!)

Yesterday afternoon, after I wrote the post about what I’ve packed for our holiday, I met Claudia at the Marzili (public pool area) and finally snapped a few decent shots of the Aare – what bedlam it is on a hot day! This was Tuesday afternoon around 2pm (admittedly it is summer holidays).

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The steady stream of people walking back to the camping place to jump into the river again

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One of several places at the Marzili where you get out of the water. The rubber boats have to go down further to a dock area

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Have a paddle or a swim

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People put their clothes etc in waterproof bags, which also provide some buoyancy as you float or swim along

I’d like to buy a waterproof phone case so I can make a little film of the journey. Won’t be swimming for a while though, as all this rain will make the water murky and dangerous.

And last but not least in this photo-fest, proof that Dr Bronner’s liquid soap is not good as a shampoo for me. I’m getting my haircut tomorrow, and I think I’ll just let her wash out the weeks of … ??? whatever it is – soap scum? – and start again in Sicily, maybe with a bar of Savon de Marseille?

My friend SJ likes the home-made shampoo soap bars she can buy in her town. Do you use a soap bar for your hair too? Any suggestions? Because there’s got to be something better than this below! Maybe I should try the Ariana-method, from Paris-to-Go, and just use water combined with a good scalp massage?

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My greasy-feeling but clean head of hair

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 15: Close encounters

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No, not on the bike! With the camera! 🙂 (I can hear my mother breathing a sigh of relief from here!)

Today, after work, Iva cooked a barbecue lunch for Pastora and I on the terrace at the office. And then Iva and I jumped in the Aare. I need a waterproof case for my phone so I can take some action shots as it truly is a wonderful experience I want to share! The water was a gloriously refreshing 19.5 degrees.

My 15 minutes of exercise today was walking along the river and then swimming back to the office. We were gone for about 40 minutes, and I think 10 minutes of that was swimming.

Here are my afternoon ‘close encounter’ snapshots from the garden. I enjoy the results of the olloclip we bought in Strasbourg for my birthday and should use it more. Several of the cacti have flowers at the moment. What a treat.

Wishing you a wonderful, colourful day.

July 3-5: Weekend wrap

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We’ve had a bit of a heatwave here in Switzerland and for the past few days the thought of sitting in the office and writing at my desk has made me wither further. So, here’s a wrap!

After Thursday’s ‘disaster’ day, Friday went very smoothly, thank you! Work, then home for a swim with The Usual Suspects who were here to enjoy the pool and look after Boy, the dog, while Rene is in hospital and Liliane is at work. We played cards (we’re addicted to rummy) and sat under the tent, and jumped in the pool often. What would we do without the pool? Because the temperature has hovered in the mid-30s for a week, I’ve been jumping in water as often as possible!

Friday night we went to Kanjana and Sandro’s for dinner which was great fun, then yesterday we rode the Vespa to meet Iva, Marko, Pastora and Leandro at the karate dojo for an afternoon catch-up and swimming in the Aare.

We did the swim twice. You walk a bit upstream and then the current takes you down the river quickly. In this section of the Aare, near the dojo, the water flows slower than where I was on Thursday with Claudia. It was Pastora’s first swim in the Aare ever! She did well to control her fear of the rushing water. On the second pass, Leandro, Iva and I jumped off the steel footbridge into the water. I managed to touch the bottom of the river with my feet and emerge with bikini intact.

Last night we met The Usual Suspects (Lotti, Fritz, Eve, Paul, Liliane, Rene) at home for dinner under the tent, and more cards. Rene was allowed out of hospital for the night, so we all enjoyed sitting and talking with him. The full moon – a glorious orange – came up just after we called it a night.

Today has been another lovely, outdoorsy kind of day. My sister called to say hello (and to check if I was alright, seeing as I hadn’t blogged for three days!). Thanks for calling Judy! Then Leo and I booked the first part of our holiday to Sicily. We leave July 26 and come back August 7. We’ll rent a car (hopefully a Fiat 500!) from the airport in Catania and drive to Leo’s dad, who has a holiday house at the foot of Mt Etna. We’ll stay with Tony and Bossy for three nights, then head north to Taormina for three nights. That part is all sorted. Then we’ll have seven days to sort out where we go. We’re big fans of the Inspector Montalbano series so we hope to see a few of the villages where the show is filmed.

It’s 8pm and still 32 degrees. We sweltered eating another barbecue dinner with The Usual Suspects and swam all afternoon. Rene has just gone back to hospital and after I finish this, I’ll swim with Liliane when she’s home again. I really think she enjoys having company when Rene isn’t here. He’ll have more tests tomorrow. The two mini strokes could have something to do with him being bitten by a tick in Alaska a few years ago. He’s had a lot of problems since then.

Here’s a random collection of photos from the week that was. I’ve swum for the past three days and that counts for my fitfor15in15 – especially the Aare swim which is very active. I like swimming against the current to slow down – if you swim with the current you’re at your destination way too quickly!

Hopefully we’ll be able to sleep well tonight. The mosquitoes have been out in full force and seem to find my head, and ears especially, a great place to buzz around. Plus it’s been close to 30 degrees in the bedroom every night, which makes sleeping under the covers hard. I always have to have something over me to combat the mozzie bites!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 2: Karma Police

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Ha! What a day! I’m barely able to write this post from unindented exhaustion!

I rode to work this morning and saw police on the other side of the street, doing speed checks. So as I saw cars approaching me I motioned for them to slow down. Surprisingly, people waved or acknowledged to say thank you. Very un-Swiss for a stranger to acknowledge you!

Driving on, I laughed to myself that the Karma Police will get me for telling the drivers the radar was ahead. And then five minutes later … I ran out of petrol …

Karma … and then some.

I pushed the Töffli, which I think shall stay called Bruce, for 10 minutes to work, went to work and then afterwards set off on foot to the nearest petrol station, two kilometers away. In 32 degree blazing sunshine (not complaining, love the warmth!). Lugging my bag with my computer, jacket and helmet was a bit bothersome.

The first petrol station didn’t have the special petrol needed for scooters, so I walked on. The second further on didn’t have it either. I asked at an auto shop. No joy there but they directed me to a motorcycle shop … Further. They didn’t have it but they said try the petrol station nearby. Further. No dice there so I called it quits and caught the tram back into town to meet Claudia to go swimming in the Aare. I needed that 20 degree water!

After a lovely swim, my first of the season, Claudia and I walked to the hospital where Rene is, and I visited him for about 20 minutes. He’s in good shape and wants to come home tomorrow. He told me the bike has a reserve tank for such occasions and after learning how to switch it on via explanations and hand gestures, I jumped on the bus to go back to the scene of the crime.

Ha! Not happening. Not even one stop down the road, the cable that attaches to the overhead wire came loose (we have some electric buses in Bern) so we all got off the bus. I figured stuff it, what’s another few kilometers. So I walked back to work.

The bike worked and I drove home, stopping at the local petrol station which has the special petrol.

Rene reckons the petrol must have been siphoned out of the tank because it should last longer than four days. I’ll keep a closer eye on it next week!

When I arrived home it was 6.40pm and I jumped straight into the pool to cool down again. What would we do without water?!

Wishing you a wonderful day.