On my way

There don’t seem to be enough hours left for all the things I wanted to do or should have done before I leave on my trip.

I havn’t started packing,but just glancing around the chaos that once was my fairly tidy bedroom tells me it won’t all go in.

Suddenly I have got lots of ideas for posts and no time to write them.

I wish all of my new found Blogger friends, good luck,good health,and inspiration while I am away,and I hope you will drop by again when I come back from Thailand on the 24th of September.

Maybe I will be able to write something during my travels,but first of all have to find the ins and outs of Internet Cafes.

Take care

Diamonds and Rust.

Pilgrimage

We were nearly always in England around the 14th of August,his Birthday corresponded with the girls’ Summer Holidays so there was no great problem in those days. As the years went on and he was alone and older. We still made the effort. He didn’t say a lot but I know he appreciated it.

His 90th was one of the most enjoyable,he loved being the center of attraction,not only was he the cats whiskers in Pridoux Brune, the senior residence where he had a little flat,but family members came to visit that he hadn’t seen for years.

We had arranged a little party and had been up at the crack of dawn trying to find a micro wave oven small enough to fit well into his very small kitchen.(He hadn’t really cooked anything for himself since she had gone so at least he could try fast food) We had forgotten of course that he had pacemaker,although it doesn’t really affect them.

He did use it. Just the same as he bought himself a new car to celebrate ! And used that as well.

The following year I went over, and bought the obligatory box of Liquorice All Sorts it was the last box I bought him.

He is still very much in my mind. Somehow he never really got old.He was and remained for me a person who I always respected, one of those people who didn’t have to say anything to radiate authority.

He gave me a lot of things to take on life’s journey.

Once when I was about ten he went up to London for a meeting,and came back with a beautiful tan pigs skin school satchel for me. I used it throughout my school years, weighed down by books the strap never broke,and it always reminded me of how much he did love me although I don’t think he ever said it.

After he died we found the satchel in the boot of the nearly new car,he had used it for his tools.

There was so much left unsaid,but then both of us were better writers than talkers.

Happy Birthday

The Bad Boys

If I see films of them while I’m in the company of Swiss friends I’m not too sure whether I want to cringe in shame or be intensely proud of the skinny wrinkly,old men jumping up and down on the stage.

A couple of them have been doing it for the last forty five years and they still haven’t had enough.

Yesterday they filled a stadium in Lausanne which holds 41,000 people. Rock Bands came and Rock Bands went,but the bad boys stayed.

I saw them once at the Marquee in Soho but at that time nobody really new who they were. Later I preferred their music to that of their rivals, but didn’t admit it to my friends.

I give you, the Rolling Stones.

and as an afterthought their girlfriend Marianne Faithfull,who after a turbulent life could very well be nominated for an Academy Award next year.

What’s your favourite film?

Watching films on the television certainly gives you a wide choice but for me it just isn’t the same as seeing one in the cinema, and certainly not if it happens to be an old one of David Leans.

No darkness to envelop you, no huge screen to capture you, probably no ice cream in the interval. For me the cinema wins every time.

That’s why I looked into the local rag today to see what was playing nearby. It’s been raining cats and dogs here for the last week. Definitely film weather.

I had the choice of nine films,all of them fantasy, and action.!

That’s why a post that someone on my blogroll had written this week really cheered me up, as he told us what his favourite film was. (he hardly dared admit it)
Of course our age might make a difference  but there are films that we never get tired of seeing. They just seem to be getting a lot fewer.
It’s difficult for me to chose which one I would take on a desert island, I have at least three favourites, but it would probably be, Out of Africa

Swiss Army Officers’ Pen Knives

 

To all and sundry near and far

F. Christmas in particular.

“I want some crackers and I want some candy,

I think a box of chocolates would come in handy.

I dont mind oranges,

I do like nuts,

And I should like a pocket knife that really cuts.

 

 

 

from” King John’s Christmas.

A.A.Milne

King John of course had never heard of Swiss Army Knives or he might have been more explicit

I have, and apart from the obligation as a Swiss Citizen to own one ( I mean an original one ) I know too that they are the best.  That’s why I certainly will be taking one along on my trip.

But there is a snag attached to them,and that is they have got something against women.

Sometimes we might like to have longer nails as men and sometimes even paint them.

But you have to chose between opening your knife and keeping your finger nails intact.

 

O.K. So not all women are Swiss Army Officers,but sometimes we would like to use one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ernest Hemingway and his little Kraut Marlene

Apparently the John F. Kennedy Museum in Boston are showing 30 letters that Ernest Hemingway wrote to Marlene Dietrich between 1949 and 1959.

The correspondence shows us how yet another”Great”man of the war and post war years succumbed to her charms.

I just wish I knew how she did it.

I am old enough to remember as a young girl her song “Sag mir wo die Blumen sind” being a world hit.Not that you could say she sang it,Marlene couldn’t sing anything,but her vocal chords brought forth something that once heard wasnever forgotten.
I was bowled over. That wasn’t just a filmstar that was a women that defied Hitler openly,and he was just as fascinated by her as all the others.

When I was working in New York in 1969 she gave one of her very few concerts at one of the biggest theaters on Broadway, and I was invited to go by one of her countrymen,-thankgoodness,for I could never have afforded it otherwise.

She must have been well over sixty at the time. It was dark in the theater,then one beamer lit up a small circle of the stage and Marlene tripled out wearing the famous skintight rhinestoned robe and white fox fur.

In the theater you could have heard a needle drop.

Then this fragile figure looked over her shoulder and almost shouted “See what the boys in the backroom will have” The audience were at her feet,and she kept them there until almost two hours later she gave us “Where have all the flowers gone” A song that at that time that was more than appropriate.

We waited at the stage door to long for Marlene,-I really wanted to see her.

But then she rushed by so quickly that I had to chose between looking at her face or her legs-I chose her face.

Be prepared for Asia

The start of my Asian Odyssey is slowly nearing.

I can’t back out of it now without losing face.Not that I want to,I’m really looking forward to the new experience.There are just some days when the little voice inside of me asks if I haven’t perhaps bitten off more than I can chew.

Already I have sworn never to open a travel guide again until I reach Bangkok on the 23rd,and then just purely for reference purposes. To read all the well meant tips is enough to give any woman nightmares.

The problem is,it is completely the wrong time of year to visit south east Asia,and poses a question on what to take with me.

As readers of past posts of mine will know I’m supposed to be backpacking. The Rucksack is now one with wheels and the volume it should hold is increasing daily.

I was never in the Girl Guides but a motto of mine is definitely “Be prepared”. Especially when you are travelling.

I remember after sitting for hours at an airport gate in Saigon on way to Singapore, watching (sorry) an American businessman completely loose his calm when we were told at last we would have to spend the night at a hotel. It wasn’t that he would miss his meeting in NYC, it was because he didn’t have a clean white shirt in his hand luggage to wear to the next one.

Usually I have things in my luggage,hand or otherwise, for every occasion,and at times I have been very glad of it.

The packing experts say we should never take more than we can carry comfortably for a distance of two blocks, but with weather conditions in the north of Thailand I might even need my Wellingtons. Then of course it might not rain continually and so my once so lovely red hiking shoes might be the the shoes to have up in the golden triangle, except they do tend to give me blisters. I could fall back on myTeva’s although I might get very dirty feet. My Crocs might be useful and I could also wear them on rocky beaches. Naturally I need a pair of decent looking flat sandals so I don’t seem too much like a tourist when I’m walking around on town streets.

And of course I will be staying three days in Bangkok- someone might just ask me to have dinner at “The Oriental”. Maybe my Ferragamo heels should come along too.

So I do have shoes for every occasion, it’s just that there is no room for clothes.!

Sometimes I’d like to be a man.I’m sure they don’t have these problems.

Another use for Whiskey.

A friend of mine has just called me to ask what kind of a day we had yesterday.Yesterday being the 1st of August, and the Swiss National Holiday.

It is celebrated by parties , speeches , bonfires, and fireworks.

The bonfires commemorate the fires that were lit on the hills of Helvetia on the first of August 1291 to spread the news of the joining together of the first three states in the country we now know as Switzerland .

I like the parties, the speeches range from conscience pricking to downright boring,they are usually political and their aim of course is to make us truly grateful that we live here, because the rest of the world wish they did.

And then we get to the Fireworks-and that was why my friend called me. They have a very loving and docile (towards the people she knows) German Shepherd dog called Astra,but on August 1st, like many cats and dogs in Switzerland she goes berserk because of the fireworks. Most people like to watch the fireworks, but that is at night. Here a lot of kids or otherwise think it’s fun to set off those loud ones during the day, and all day. You can imagine how it affects the animals.

Toward evening my friend and her husband decided Astra couldn’t take it any longer,so they packed their rucksacks and made for the mountains, at least there Astra would have some peace and they would celebrate the rest of the national day alone.

Alone, don’t you believe it. My friends are good hikers and climbers but so are a lot of others here and they had brought along their fireworks.

Astra? Well she really saw stars that night. My friends husband thought he could try giving her a nip of the hard stuff as a sedative, just a little of course,but Astra loved the taste and couldn’t enough of it.!!!

Didn’t a well known Scottish Whiskey firm use two black and white Highland Terriers as a logo? Maybe they still do.
Maybe someone would like to borrow a German Shepherd.

Next year I’m going to give some to Dominic von Tribo.

Firearms, Whiskey and the Swiss

That the Swiss can live peacefully with weapons has been obvious since William Tell hit the proverbial apple.

That Swiss males in military service age keep their rifles and pistols at home and the female population grows continually is almost a world wonder.

That our medical Doctors have little to no experience with dealing with gunshot wounds is explainable.

The Swiss don’t shoot each other,they shoot at targets.

Probably each village here has a shooting range. It is obligatory that every male from 18 to 40 has shooting practice.

For under and above that age there are countless rifle and pistol shooting clubs-also open to women, and contests in marksmanship are continually being held.

An elderly gentleman who doesn’t live far away from me took part in the last “Eidgenossisch” National Contest.

He is 101 years old.

He can still score better than any other in his category-veterans, he hopes to be at the next,and doesn’t see why not.

For his 100th Birthday he bought himself a second hand computer and loves using it.

When asked how he manages to keep  himself so well,he says he drinks a glass of whiskey a day.

Just one.