Behold, I am healthy

It is early in the evening (7pmish) and I have just got back from a RUN. Granted, it was a pathetically short run, but my beer was calling me home.

What am I going to do, resist the beer? You resist the beer. Mmm, beer.

Anyway, tonight brings us to the next stage in the explorations of switzerland, namely the inside of my apartment. Exciting stuff, I know, but photos need to be posted somewhere.

First off, the bedroom, window looking out over the terrace of yesterdays fame and river beyond. Noice. One of these days I'll remember to close the window when I go to sleep, so the room is actually warm in the morning - Baden gets hell morning fog on a regular basis (walking into the station this morning it was rolling off the river). The bed is not just a mattress on the floor, despite appearances, and is hell comfy. It also has two roughly double bed size duvets (for a queen size bed) which, while seemingly slightly odd at first blush, actually now strikes me as a great idea - a perception that will no doubt increase in intensity when I find a gorgeous swiss mountainbiking lass to persuade to climb into it with me.
Yeah, that's right girls. We men finally have an answer to the problem of duvet theft. TWO duvets. Whatchagonna do now eh?
What's that? Steal both of them? Oh. Dang.

Anywayyyyyyy....

The lounge/dining room. For those who are around the 5'5 mark and below, the couch represents a palatial expanse of surprising softness and niceness. Taller people will have to get their hunch on, but it's no biggy. Says me, who gets the bed :)

The rest of the lounge is basically loungelike, and looks out over the street, which looks like this.
It has real cobbles, which is very cool. Also, throughout all the towns I've been in so far, they have these little fountain things you can drink from running all the time into big, clean pools all over the place. You can see one on the right of the photo, just before it turns the corner. One day, once I improve my hardcore photographer skills sufficiently to do one justice, I'll take a photo - they are usually made from stone, and quite nice.

Finally, the kitchen, which is quite boring but has all the usual things you'd expect in a relatively nice kitchen.

And now I'm going to go and read my book. It's about the problems with aid allocation in Africa, which I intend to solve (or at least get a trip to Africa out of). Till next time...

The rockpartment

See what I did there? Because it rocks. Yeaaaaah. Keep up.

First, about why I'm being a blog-snob rather than putting all this shit on facebook like a normal person.

Reason 1. I pretty much hate facebook. It is evil and sucks your soul when you least expect it.

Reason 2. I tend to go on at length when typing. If I do that on facebook, you can just click through the photos and totally ignore my witty commentary. On a blog, you at least have to scroll past the commentary to get to the photos. I mean sure, you could just not look at all, but one day there might be a picture of a naked gorgeous european girl. Willing to risk it? (Note: Girls reading this, if you like, please feel free to substitute a mental image of some really awesome shoes in place of the last, though I think if we're honest we can admit that everyone can appreciate a naked gorgeous european girl)

Reason 3. I've been thinking about photos, and what makes a photo more than a snapshot. Like, what do those smug bastard photo-journalists have that I don't that makes their photos captivating/compelling/where'smycreditcardI'mgivingsomemoneytotheredcross-ing/I'mgoingtocrybutit'sokforthesamereasonthatit'sokwhenaheroicdogdiestryingtosaveit'smaster-ing.
The first thing is (generally) war zones. Well I'm in Switzerland, so pretty much screwed there. The second is prodigious skill and natural talent. I'm out there as well, but maybe if I gave a damn about photos (i.e. stopped thinking of them as snapshots) it'd improve. The third (and this is where the blog comes in, so pay attention) is context. What used to be a home lying flattened and filled with silt - that's interesting and sort of compelling. But add even a brief story about how it's the flattened home of 3 children who are also now orphans because the same boxing day tsunami that took their home also took their parents and BAM - that's red cross material.
Naturally I'm hoping not to encounter too much tragedy along those lines, but I figure a picture of a tree will be a lot more interesting if there's the back story about how it's the tree that caught me when I was climbing along the cliff above it and fell off (safely fell off mum).

See what I meant about going on? Yeah. Though you all knew me anyway. There'll be some photos soon, promise.

Ok, so anyway, I'm now in Switzerland and look likely to be for a while. I'm also now out of the skanktel, and into the aforementioned rockpartment, so it's about time I gave an update. With photos. And context. High fiiiive.

The rockpartment is awesome. I have just finished eating tea out on the river terrace. Somewhere in the background, over the muted sound of the river, is the sound of someone playing an acoustic guitar. They're not Stevie Ray Vaughn, but they're not bad either. General mood - maxin the relaxin.

Because the river terrace is awesome, it gets a photo. This is looking down the river - the way I walk to work (note: though I could understand some of you thinking I walk there on the water this is not correct - there is a path along each side. Not to say I couldn't). At the point where the river fades out of sight there's a bridge, which is where I catch an awesome elevator (which I'll try to remember to take a photo of sometime) up to the level of all the shops. It comes out in a big outdoor cafe/bar/pizza place. Home to cafe/bar/pizza place - about 4 minutes gentle stroll... though I'm sure that I could do it in one if the elevator was well timed and there was urgency in the air.

You'll notice that the river looks very clear. That is because it's very clear, which is because it flows out of lake Zurich. Lake Zurich is very clear, because it surrounded by lots and lots and lots of money. Know what else has lots of money? Corrupt people. We can infer from this that money absorbs corruption, and corruption is like a contaminant/impurity; ergo the money surrounding lake Zurich is absorbing all the impurities from the water, leaving it clear. Ta-da! And I think in Switzerland if you even look like thinking about letting your dairy farm runoff anywhere near a waterway they shoot you - no questions asked. Mostly it's the money thing.

In the foreground of the photo is my dinner. It looked a lot less blurred in real life. It is bread that was still hot when I got it home, smeared with cream cheese, then covered in salmon, then normal cheese, then grilled. It was delicious, as was the wine (which cost me 5 francs for a bottle). Nom nom nom nom nom. Admittedly, it's not the healthiest dinner in the world, but it beat eight kinds of hell out the kebabs I've been eating for the last month (the skanktel was not equipped with any sort of cooking facility). I am now, however, quite worried about my cholesterol levels and early onset heart disease.

To the left you can see me worrying intensely about cholesterol levels and early onset heart disease. Worry worry worry I go. Mmmmm, winethatcost5francs. Worry worry.

Finally, before we abandon the river terrace, the magic of the interweb brings you

1) Me looking happy rather than pretentiously introspective.

2) Some whitewater kayakers playing around in the rapids just under the 300 year old bridge running along beside where I'm sitting.




Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I show you then INSIDE of the apartment! Or some other day - life's unpredictable, no sense getting all craaaaazyyyy with the whole planning thing.