Budapest

Currently, I'm in the middle of transforming a bomb-scene like apartment into something a lot more habitable. Progress has been slow, but good. Most of the bedroom furniture has been assembled, and you can actually see the floor in the living room now. I no longer have to walk on boxes to get to other boxes. My hope is to have everything finally put away within the next two weeks. But we'll see.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of Budapest, where I went with a friend for my birthday weekend. A few facts about Budapest and Hungary that not many people know: Budapest is a combination of two cities, Buda and Pest. Hungarian wine, especially their whites, are delicious and unlike most whites that I have tasted. It's an absolutely beautiful city, rich in history and culture. Hungarian food is mainly meat based, but us vegetarians can always find ways to survive. Hungarian pastries and desserts are divine, and it's easily one of my top ten favorite cities in the world.

On our first evening in Budapest, we went to a wine tasting event in a cave, underneath the Buda Castle. We had to talk down about 60 steps to get to the actual cave. While trying to get out of the cave, I got lost, and ended up asking two of the servers to help me find a way out. They calmly climbed up 60 steps with me, pointed to the Exit sign, and asked me to go there. Apparently, my mind decided that the Exit door was merely a suggestion and that I had to find my own way out. Anyway, here's a picture of the cave where did the tasting:



After the tasting, we walked around the Buda side of the city, and took some pictures of the Chain Bridge:



And of the Parliament, which is apparently the second biggest Parliament building in the world:



The next day, we went to the biggest Turkish bath place in Budapest. But before we could go there, we were distracted by, what else, food. We suddenly found ourselves outside a cafe, and before we knew it, these Hungarian desserts had already been ordered and consumed:



At the bath, there were about 18 pools of various sizes and temperatures, and over 10 sauna rooms. Three of these hot pools were outdoors, and to be in a steaming hot pool, when the outside temperature is below freezing, was amazing. We were there for over four hours,and even after that, I didn't want to leave. Security almost had to be called to pull me out of water to get me to leave. But if you were there, you'd totally understand why I wanted to stay in there forever:



On the last day, we just walked around on the Pest side of the city and tried in vain to find a falafel place. We instead ended up going to one of the restaurants in the Castle district area, and we were glad we did, because our last meal was divine. On the way back to the airport, I had a glass water bottle in my handbag, which broke because my bag fell. As a result, everything from my cellphone to my glasses got soaking wet. This was clearly not my fault, because one can only buy water in glass bottle in Hungary! I blame the country of Hungary for the destruction of my phone and the near murder of my handbag and all the accessories it contained. The End.

New Year, new me?

Let's be honest, that's never going to happen. No matter what the year, my insanity will never go away. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or for people like me, an awesome National Day of Eating. I just got back from spending ten blissful days in England, as a result of which I feel like I'm part British, and hence from now on, I'm going to use words like "reckon" and "knackered" on a frighteningly regular basis. All this shall take place while sipping a cup of tea, with an outstretched pinky finger, of course!

Speaking of the New Year, did any of us make any new year resolutions? Mine is to lose the ten pounds that I have been trying to lose for the last one hundred years, in addition to losing the five that I gained over the break, and to finally be beach ready. If history repeats itself, then this resolution will soon fall by the wayside to make room for cookies and cake. And fondue. And chocolates. And...okay I think you get the idea.

2010 pretty much changed my life, by taking me halfway across the world and bringing some truly amazing people in my life. I'm blessed to have had the opportunities that I did, and grateful for the love and support of some truly amazing friends and a special someone. I hope this year continues to surprise me, in the best possible way. For now, let's enjoy these last few moments of lingering holiday laziness and peace, before the new year begins full throttle. I "reckon" I'm now going to practice my "loveleh" British accent and try to convince the residents of Switzerland that I am, in fact, British, dahling! And I'm going to ask anyone who doubts my "Britishness" to "bugger off"! Cheers!

Happy Holidays!

Dearie me - I can't believe it's been nearly a month since my last blog update! The following has happened in these past few weeks:

- I signed a new contract to stay in Zurich for an indefinite period of time. Or at least until I've managed to eat every single piece of Swiss chocolate that I can lay my hands on.

- I went to Paris during Christmastime, and had the most wonderful time with someone wonderful. There was an attack of the snow, but it made everything that much more beautiful:



- Because of the holidays, there are chocolates everywhere, especially at work. As a result, I have now turned into a zombie who just trolls all the floors in the office building, looking for my next chocolate fix. I walk up to random people's desks, take any chocolate that I see lying around, and then walk away. I hear there's talk of staging an intervention to help me make it out of this. I hope they have chocolate at the rumored intervention.

- A direct side-effect of the above situation has been an exponential expansion of my ass. It is as wide as Pluto the planet now and shows no signs of shrinking anytime soon.

- I hosted my first cheese fondue dinner, and it was heavenly! I would like to show you pictures of said event, but I was too busy eating all the food to remember to take pictures.

- I have been eating so much fondue that I'm basically starting to look like one.

- I upheld my annual December tradition, and lost one glove last week. I now have five left hand gloves, because I keep losing the right one on a different mode of public transport. Every year. For five years in a row. Just one of the many reasons why I need therapy.

- Managed to take some pictures of the Christmas tree at Paradeplatz:



- And took some pictures of Zurich in winter:



I'm now off to London for Christmas and to Birmingham for New Year's Eve. So in case I don't get around to updating this blog anytime soon, here's wishing everyone Happy Holidays and hope you have a wonderful New Year!

I love Paris - Part Deux

(...continued from below) The Hummus and fatayer helped me attain inner peace. We walked around aimlessly for miles, and found ourselves at Palais Royale, where a group of street musicians were playing wonderful symphonies of Beethoven and Mozart.

We strolled toward The Louvre, a majestic piece of modern architecture nestled in a histortic neighborhood. I'm more of an architecture person than an art one, and I had already been to Louvre on my last trip to Paris, so we just decided to be tourists and took some pictures of the museum and its surroundings:





We crossed the Seine and walked on Pont Du Carrousel, a wonderful bridge overlooking both left and right bank:



From here on out, I went a little bit insane. Allow me to explain: for the longest time, I've coveted this Burberry handbag. I love the concept of being creative with plaid and am impressed with the number of ways in which they can make it hip. Not to mention, Hermoine asked me to buy Burberry. And we all know that if Hermoine says it's good, then it must be true. So, while we were crossing the bridge, I had an epiphany. I deduced that with the low Dollar-Euro exchange rate, the bag wouldn't be all that expensive.

But we had a situation: I didn't know where the Burberry store was located. So I whipped out my ancient smartphone and looked up the address of the store on the left bank. We found an address on Google, and since google never lies, we trusted it enough to make our way to St. Germaine, where I was assured the store stood. Alas, Google had joined forces with Steve Jobs and conspired against me! For we were at St. Germaine, where we found Chanel, MaxMara, and other stores, but no Hermoine's Burberry. Desolate, I made my way back to the right bank. It was just as well, because I discovered something truly startling in my hunt: Hermoine was no longer the face of Burberry! If they abandon Hermoine, then I abandon them! What I eventually ended up buying in place of the Burberry bag is too traumatic and shocking to be put in writing. Let's just leave it at that.

At night, we had dinner at the Loving Hut, a wonderful Asian vegetarian restaurant, not far from the Bastille. The food was delish, and neither the brother nor I uttered a single word and were focused on the eating the entire time.

We walked to Bastille after dinner, and the monument, in the shadow of the moon, made for a pretty sight:



This is where I explain to you what stood between me and creme brulee: it was my pants. I committed a grave fashion faux pas, you see - I only packed two day dresses. So I was forced to wear pants in the evening and was thus physically unable to indulge in any creme brulee, due to lack of flexibility to stuff anything else in my stomach. Nevertheless, we marched on and continued strolling along Bercy, soaking in wonderful moonlit castles:



and caught sight of the Eiffel Tower towering as a beacon of light and making the city dance in its lights:




You could close your eyes and almost hear the sounds of carriages riding along the river and of street stalls wrapping up for the day, as they would have hundreds of years ago. The night was perfect. Sure, there was a situation where I thought one of the towers of a castle was Eiffel Tower, which earned me a shocked look from my brother, but that's a rookie mistake, right?

The next day, we went back to Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church atop a hill:



And made our way back to Place de la Concorde. We chilled at Jardin des Tuileries where we grabbed a quick lunch, took a nap, and then do the one thing that I had still not done in Paris - have creme brulee. We walked along Rue Rivoli, and I'm proud to let you know that success was met:



This concludes an exhaustive recap of Paris. This post is no shorter than the previous one, in fact, it's even longer, if possible. So if you're reading this and are still awake, I'll just say that if you ever get a chance, do visit Paris, at least once in your lifetime. And let me know if you also feel its magic the way I do. It will make you feel fulfilled and yet will leave you wanting for more. It will transport you to a different world, all the while allowing you to enjoy the convenience of this one. Paris, je t'aime!

I love Paris

To quote the great Cole Porter:

Every time I look down on this timeless town
whether blue or gray be her skies.
Whether loud be her cheers or soft be her tears,
more and more do I realize:

I love Paris in the springtime.
I love Paris in the fall.
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles,
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.

I love Paris every moment,
every moment of the year

There's just something about this city that resonates with me. It's hard to explain what, or justify the why. I look forward to walking around and assaulting the locals with my pathetic French, and am still in awe every time I walk on Voie Georges Pompidou or am walking past The Louvre. The buildings and churches and castles never change, but each time I walk past them, I discover something new. Whether it's a missed sculpture, or a particularly unique coffee shop, Paris awakens the dormant explorer in me, and makes me feel like a little kid in a candy store. I can walk around for miles and miles without a care in the world, and even though my feet cry for respite, my mind and heart yearn for more. It's always had a special place in my heart, and if this trip was any indication, it will continue to do so for some time to come.

On my way to Paris, I had decided to blog about this the "right way." I was going to make a note of names and places of all the restaurants where I had a meal, and list all the cafes and do some actual critiquing. The plan was foolproof, I had my ever handy IPod Touch and was making a note of everything both days. But my lifelong aversion to Steve Jobs and everything Apple reared it's ugly head yet again. On my way back form Paris, I realized that my entire notepad had been wiped out, as had all my music. I had a mini breakdown in the train. It was not pretty. There was no knight in shining armor to rescue me either. So details of the Paris trip will not be like I imagined it to be and I'm going to have to wing it. Please send a letter of complaint to Steve Jobs for me, will ya?

I took train out from Zurich to Paris on Friday evening. It was a five hour train ride, with stunning views of rolling green hills and pretty farms along the way. The train pulled into Gare Du Nord at around 9:30 in the evening, and my hunger levels had reached insurmountable heights. The brother met up with me at the station and we walked to the hotel, which was about a five minute walk from the station. My brother tried to make conversation with me, but all I could think and talk about was food. Since the brother has seen the monster that I turn into when denied food, we quickly dropped my bag off at the hotel and made our way to the nearest falafel joint. It was only after devouring an entire falafel and some halloumi and some fatayer did I feel human again. I was exhausted from a busy week at work, so we decided to call it an early night and made our way back to the hotel.

Next morning we woke up reasonably early, and made our way to a pretty decent Crepe place. I've always believed in the saying, "Why have one crepe when you can have two?" and I proceeded to do just that:



Some people double fist on alcohol; I double fist on crepes. That's how I roll. After crepes, we walked around on Rue Lafayette, home to many a stores and smaller cafes. We stopped at a cafe for some coffee and made our way to Place de la Concorde. This is one of the biggest squares in Paris, with sweeping views of The Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, Jardin des Tuileries, and the Louvre. The weather was perfect, with not a cloud in the sky, and we took at least a dozen pictures around the fountains and of the entire square:



From there, we walked on Champs-Elysees and made our way to Arc de Triomphe - a monument about the Napoleon wars.



The top of the arch lists names of all the soldiers who fought for Napoleon, while the inside lists the names of all the cities and towns Napoleon conquered.



I know all this because of the hired tour guide a.k.a my brother. He was willing to share his fountain of knowledge in exchange for good cafes and crepes. Everyone in my family will work for food. We're cheap that way.

Interesting fact: Did you know that Napoleon was only 5'2? Who says short people can't conquer the world? This gives me hope of one day turning my dreams of world dominion into reality.

The inner child in me that needs to be fed every two hours started to scream for food again, and we began our hunt to find a good place for lunch. Came across a wonderful Mediterranean place, whose name I'd give you, were it not for Steve Jobs. Instead, all I can offer you is a picture of what we ate:



This post is turning into an encyclopedia, so I'm going to continue the rest in a Part II of this post.

Kinder Ninja

You weren't expecting me to post the next update so quickly, were you? I like surprising people - keeps things interesting. Let's see what happened on Sunday. The morning began as all mornings do, with food. Breakfast was included in our room and board, and we all know how I feel about free food. Right before I ate pretty much everything that I could humanly eat, I walked around and took some pictures from the hotel of Lake Thun and the mountains:





And one more:



After breakfast, we made our way back to the sports company with whom we now had a rafting trip planned. The gear we had to get dressed in this time around was rafting gear, which they thankfully had in my size! I was ecstatic. Ecstasy lowered itself into mere happiness upon discovery of the fact that they still didn't have any shoes in my size. We drove to the river (I think the river was called Lucino but I could also totally be making that up) and got a lesson in rowing and instruction-following. Soon, we were in the river and pretty much thrown into the rapids as soon as we got in:



The fact that I'm terribly uncoordinated is not news to anyone. And this is without you even being aware of how one day I fell on my strawberries while walking and crushed them all. But I digress. Due to my lack of coordination, I would keep sliding into the raft, as opposed to being seated on the edge and paddling. Thankfully, I was in the very back, so no one noticed. However, when such things happened:



my screams got loud enough to wake up the dead. Soon, we got our first break to catch our breath. I was extremely proud of the fact that I still hadn't fallen into the river. But it was still early days. When we made it back into the river for round two, the rapids we encountered were even stronger. At one such time, the wave that we got hit with was too strong, and it ended up taking my paddle away. Yes, I lost my paddle. To the river. I don’t think such things happen to normal people, but they do to me. It turned out to be blessing in disguise, as the rest of the guys had to carry my weight, which we all know is quite a bit to carry.

In one of the general hilarity that ensued from me losing my paddle, my friends started calling me Kinder, which means child in German. This had to do with the fact that my birthday comes once every four yrs and nothing at all to do with the fact that I am short. Nothing at all, I’m positive. The raft guide who sat next to me and saved my life many-a-times was chatting with us, and when he kept hearing my friends call me kinder, thought that was my name. We explained to him the origins of the word Kinder. He then looked at me and out of the blue said that I looked like a Ninja. Which, in hindsight, I totally did. It was decided that I be called Kinder Ninja. I must admit, I actually quite like the sound of it. It has the makings of a solid action flick. "When the world is in peril, only one person can save it - Kinder Ninja" Like sound of it. I'm calling Spielberg as we speak.

Anyway, once the rafting adventure ended, we drove back to Zurich. The trip was amazing, the company fabulous. I leave you with one final image of the views that we passed on the drive back:

Extreme sightseeing

This weekend, I went to Interlaken with a few friends. The plan was to go canyoning on Saturday, stay in town overnight, and drive back after brunch on Sunday. But we all know that when I'm involved, things seldom happen according to plan. We made it in good time to Interlaken, even though most of us were worse for wear from a brutal night out on Friday night. The two hour drive there was filled with hilarity and general silliness. The first thing we did upon reaching Jungfrau, the region within Interlaken where we would be staying, was decide to have lunch. You can imagine how happy this made me feel. I decided to go ahead and have a plateful of rostii with the justification that I was going to be burning a lot of calories canyoning. Little did I know das katastrophes that awaited us...

After lunch, we made our way to the company with whom we organized the canyoning. As usual, there were no adult wetsuits available in my size, so I had to end up wearing a kid size suit, and tragically, even that was a bit too big on me. I was glad that I had that rostii earlier to keep me emotionally happy, otherwise this wetsuit situation would have had me bursting into tears. We got all geared up in our wet suit, jacket, lifevest, helmet, ropes, and everything else that we could humanly carry on us, and got in the van that would drive us to the canyon.

Our driver was an...interesting French guy who had never driven an automatic and thus was causing almost-accidentlike situations every 2.4 seconds. After the first couple of times, we almost got used to it. I hardly ever even prayed for my life after the fifth time that we almost crashed into another car. The general hilarity from the morning continued well into the afternoon. The weather was rainy and cold, but the scenic beauty of the valley and the fun company made it enjoyable. Alas, joy would soon turn into sorrow, and sorrow into despair. As we got closer to entering the canyon, we found out that one of the rocks from the mountain had fallen over a tunnel and we thus had to turn back. Clemount, in this thick French accent, gravely told us, "Je suis desole but I have no Plan B!" We secretly wanted to burst out laughing (remember, we were in our silliness phase of the trip, which is when everything was funny!), but suggested that he ask around and see if we could come back Sunday morning and go then. He thought this was an absolutely brilliant idea and drove to the nearest town to inquire more about the situation.

While we were waiting for Clemount to do this thing, I went all Annie Lebovitz on everyone and whipped out my camera:



Here are some really cool views of the Jungfrau range:



Meanwhile, Clemount came back with the depressing news that we couldn't go canyoning as it was too dangerous and we had to turn back.At this point, we were still in our wetsuit. Standing outside of a van. We were dressed up in extreme sportsgear and were taking pictures of mountains. As my friend C put it, we basically ended up doing "extreme sightseeing". Came across some really nice views on the way back though:





We decided to drown our sorrows in Fondue, which regrettably led to "whoever drops the bread takes a shot" games, and as always, I lost. By midnight, I was falling asleep standing up. The fact that only horses can sleep standing up is a myth, which I successfully managed to dispel on Saturday night.

While we were discussing with Clemount what to do in place of Canyoning on Sunday, one of our friends C then proposed the idea that we could go rafting early Sunday morning, since we were staying in town overnight anyway. Clemount again thought that this was the most brilliant idea ever. We started to wonder if he lived on a Funny farm and had infact only been let out for a couple of hours that day. Our analysis of him continued well into Sunday afternoon. So rafting we did go on Sunday, but to learn more about that little adventure, and the meaning of the term "Kinder ninja", you'll have to check back tomorrow (or a week from now, but I promise, rafting details and the pictures will be uploaded soon!)

The Evil Snowman

Today is truly a great day. Not only was I full after just one dinner, I also figured out how to change the language on one TV channel from German to English! Never before have I been so happy to see Law and Order reruns. In celebration, I'm going to tell you all about Sechseläuten and show the outcome of some death and gravity-defying stunt photography that I did just for you.

Monday was a public holiday in the city of Zurich, in celebration of Sechseläuten. Sechsawho, you ask? Well kids, allow me to introduce to you my favorite new holiday. It's a traditional festival that celebrates the end of winter, hence earning the place of my favorite new holiday. Celebrations last over two days. Sunday was a local Parade with the children of the city, followed by a Parade with adults on Monday.

Monday evening, the procession ends at "Sechseläutenplatz" which is in Bellevue, about a 7 minute walk from my apartment. At Bellevue, a huge snowman is built that is burned down. Because this is Switzerland, everything, including the destruction of Evil, has to be scheduled. So the burning begins exactly at 6pm. According to tradition, the burning of the Snowman indicates an end to winter and beginning of summer. According to the folklore, the faster the snowman burns, the earlier summer beings, and the longer it lasts.

Now that you've had your history lesson, let's talk about what actually happened. On Sunday, I inadvertently stumbled upon the children's Parade. I was trying to get the tram to go to the Main Train Station, but none of the trams were running. So I started walking towards Bellevue and came across food stalls on the way. Here's another important life lesson: Where there's a Parade, there's food. My day immediately started looking up. I had already missed my train, so I decided to catch some of the Parade. As I hadn't lined up early enough, I was in the back row and could barely see the trees on the other side of the street. An elderly couple took pity on me and let me go sit on the curb with all the little kids. Here are some pictures I managed to take of the parade:



Most of the kids in the Parade were handing out candy to the other kids on the street. I resisted the urge to extend my arm out and wrestle for some candy with 4 year olds.



See the little girl in the extreme left corner? She turned around and told her parents, "I waved and smiled at one of the boys but he didn't smile back." Story of my life sister, story of my life.

I decided to be a professional photographer and climbed atop a pole, just to take this picture for you:



This one below was taken by me dangling off a tree like a monkey. Such are the death-defying risks I take for you. Some people may claim that this was taken from a balcony just above the street, but what do they know?



Now, you may have noticed a trend here. I have tons of pictures of the parade and the crowd, but none of the Burning Snowman. There is a reason for that. Here's what happened: Monday afternoon, I joined a coworker for an easy 5k hike that turned into a 10K one. We headed back to Zurich way before 6pm. I had full intention of hanging out there until 6pm to celebrate the destruction of the Evil Snowman and all that he represents, to take some pictures, and to head back. That was the plan. But you know what they say...Life happens when you are busy making plans. So, as I was planning out the next few hours of the evening, this happened:



Remember how I said that there were tons of food stalls? Well, I had a sudden urge to stop at every single stall for a quick bite. So I had mango juice, Chocolate Crepes, some rice and curry - all within a span of 30 min.

At the end of it, I had reached a now familiar state of Food Coma, and had no other choice but to go back to the apartment before I caused a medical emergency at the Burning Snowman event. God forbid I delayed the burning by even a few minutes - that would be catastrophic here in Swissland. So head back I did. But fear not, I have been told that the snowman died a quick death, indicating a long and prosperous summer. Which is great, because now I can have my ice cream by the lake. I've heard that calories don't count if you eat standing up, so that's what I hope to do most of this summer. No time like the present to test that theory out, I say!

Visit to Lucerne

After delaying my "out of Zurich" trip more than once due to foolishly believing that when weather.com said "Rain" it would actually rain, I finally went to Lucerne and prayed that it wouldn't rain, even though liar.com said it would. Turns out, it did not rain, and the day was absolutely beautiful!



Lucerne is one of the main cities in central Switzerland and about a 40 minute train ride away from Zurich. The brother and I got there at around 12:40, and I was promptly hungry. Since we traveled there on Easter Sunday, everything was closed. Everything in Switzerland is usually closed on Sundays, but due to Easter, even the one or two cafes that are usually open were not. We finally came across an Indian restaurant, which thankfully was open. Had a good lunch and set about exploring the city.


Right behind the restaurant was the Lion Monument, which was a memorial dedicated to the Swiss Guards who served in Paris to protect King Louis XVI against the French Revolution. We stood there for a bit and saw a busfull of Indians run over to the site to take group pictures. One lady was shouting at the top of her voice in a thick, fake British accent asking everyone to gather around her for a group shot. It was all quite comical.

First up in the walking tour was a walk over The Chapel Bridge. This is a covered wooden bridge connecting both sides of the town and rumored to be the oldest wooden bridge in Europe. You can see paintings depicting Swiss life in olden days on the top of the bridge as you walk across it.

We walked along the other side of the bridge and peered into the windows of all closed stores. This took us to Sreuer Bridge, which is the second covered bridge and was used to fortify the city. Here's what it looked like from Sreuer Bridge:



We then proceeded to walk uphill, which proved to me just how out of shape I am. Trust me, running on a treadmill means nothing if you can't even climb a steep slope. I was ready to collapse after about ten minutes, and we had a ways to go before we reached Musegg Wall. The wall, with its many towers, was a part of the city's fortification plans. The main reason for the hike, however, wasn't to see the towers, it was to see the breathtaking views from atop the hill. Have a look at what we saw:



I love these pictures because it really did feel like I had been transported back in time, when the world was just simple in black and white.



Please ignore the dark circles; I didn't get my 12 hour beauty sleep, and my hair dryer caught on fire. I cried all the way to Lucerne.



Since I was about to collapse from breathlessness, a direct side-effect of my fatness, we decided to finally, thank you god, start walking downhill. The sun had just started to come out, take that weather.com, so we decided to have a cup of coffee and sit by the lake. What I didn't realize was that I was sitting behind a trash can and my brother has no photographic skills, so the only decent picture of me and my coffee has a trash can in the background.



I, on the other hand, was experimenting with my camera, and took some candids of the brother:



We sat at the cafe looking at this, talking, and just hanging out for some time.



Eventually, the real world, which in my case is almost always food, came calling, and we made our way back to the train station. Here I am, probably thinking about food and my dearly departed hair dryer on our way back:



Lucerne is really beautiful, as is, I am beginning to realize, most of Switzerland. I'm currently waiting for the weather to warm up a bit so I can go bike riding and hiking. But before that, I need to lose the fat to be able to lift myself up the mountain. Before that, I'm going to eat. Bye.

Easter-Eve

So apparently the Gods of Wellness did not take too kindly to me gloating about my recovery. Also, I think I got over-excited about feeling better and was out until quite late, almost 10pm last night. Now I know 10pm isn't really late, but remember, I'm serenading as a 60yr old grandmother right now, so it was way past my bedtime. And after coming back, I watched the latest episode of Lost, which decidedly could have waited for another day. All this led to me feeling not-so-good this morning, and rather than age another 20 years and be 80 again, I decided to stay in and recover.

Speaking of coming back late, the reason was that I attended my first big drinks evening with everyone on the floor and got introduced to many, many new people. Everyone seems super nice and friendly and welcoming. I did get almost run over by many very tall people. They felt really bad and kept apologizing, probably thinking, "I'm sorry, but are you a real person? Is it legally possible for anyone to be this small?". Instead, they just said "I'm sorry, I didn't see you". I had to tell them that most people don't see me, so it was ok. Overall, it was a fun evening with good people and bad karaoke. And no, I did not sing. Come on, you know better than to ask that!

I'm happy to announce that my porter/tour guide/computer technician/entourage/tormentee aka my younger brother arrived this morning. Among the two of us, I have a reputation of being a bit of "Monica" from Friends, so imagine his surprise when he walked in and saw five opened half-unpacked-but-not-really suitcases, with clothes strewn all over the hotel room. I tried to explain to him that I had equally divided all my clothes in all the bags to hedge my risk, in the event that any of the bags went missing. I also tried to explain to him the rationale behind the open and half-unpacked bags: I couldn't decide what to wear, so I just had to try out a few different outfits everyday, didn't I? I don't think there's anything wrong with this approach, do you?

Anyway, we went out for lunch and packed all the open bags to get ready for the big move tomorrow! The plan was for us to go to Lugano this weekend, but I don't know if I really want to do any traveling (shhh...don't tell him that!). I bribed him to come here with images of Lugano, when what I really wanted was for someone to carry my bags and all my groceries for me. The weather is also supposed to be cold and rainy over the weekend, which further diminishes my motivation to go anywhere. Currently, we're in the middle of a shouting match (well, he's shouting, I'm rasping) about the weekend plans; I'll let you know how it concludes!

Also, since this is a four day weekend, posting will be a bit light, unless I have another major STIDT to report, or if we do end up traveling anywhere. What to expect next week: Some pictures of the apartment, the lake, more work and non-work updates. Until then, if I don't get to talk to you soon, have a Happy Easter! Also, please make reservations at Casa Desai for the summer at the earliest; vacancies are filling up fast! Ciao :)