Daily Prompt: BFFs

Posted in Challenges by angloswiss

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from the person you’re the closest to?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us FRIENDS.

photocourse - movement 046

First of all can someone tell me that BFFs is supposed to mean? No forget it, probably not so important, I do speak and understand English so I suppose is self-explanatory.

I am very close to my three felines, but they have only shown me how to sleep sixteen hours a day and estimate the taste of tuna fish. My children no longer listen to what I say as they do their own thing and to be quite honest I do not always share their music taste.

That leaves me with Mr. Swiss. I never really learnt to play drums, although he did show me how to do a basic (and very basic) accompaniment using the brushes. As his taste goes more into the jazz world, I learned that Cannonball Adderly was not a secret weapon of the American CIA, but a jazz alto saxophonist from the jazz hard bop scene. I also discovered that John Coltrane was not a special type of railway car, but plays quite a good saxophone and Theolonius Monk was not a member of a religious sect, but plays piano, also to be heard together with John Coltrane. I married a jazzer and after 45 years I am probably a mini authority on a music that is not my speciality. It does sort of grow on you, and when you begin to recognise who is playing without asking Mr. Swiss, then you are getting somewhere. We have a rather large collection of jazz records, LP’s (you know the big black flat records with lots of different tunes before the CD was discovered). Today everything is on a so-called iPod although the record collection is still part of our daily life. There are a few special Miles Davis records amongst the collection. I think I could say, you name it, we have it.

There is a small corner of CD’s somewhere with some Paolo Conte, Lucia Dalla music, they are mine.

What else did I learn from Mr. Swiss – Swiss German? I am not sure about that one, it just took over and that is our home language.

We are not really soul mates; life would be boring if we were. We both have our own interests, but now and again we do share our likes. One is reading books and the world of literature. It does not matter what you read as long as you read. I grew up with the English book world and Mr. Swiss with the German book world (and some other continental influence). I even discovered when we eventually founded our joint venture as man and wife that he had some books in German and I had the same in English. I can read German books in the original language with no problem. Due to this I have found my way into the realm of German authors.

I think the most important lesson I learned from this complete Angloswiss mixture was that there are other countries with other customs and other ways of life in the world. I sometimes get an impression from my English family and friends that they feel sorry for me being in a place where there is no English spoken, no English food and no English way of life. They also ask me what I think of various British television actors and comedians who I have never heard of and then it seems I am pitied as an important part of my background is missing. I can only say, do not worry. I am happy where I am, have absolutely no wish to return to England and do not want to change my surroundings.

That’s that, I am a bit on the tired side this afternoon, had my weekly hour Tai Chi Course this afternoon. You might think it is all slow movements and no stress, but there is a lot of concentration required and I did not learn that from Mr. Swiss, that is all my own work.

Daily Prompt: BFFs

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16 thoughts on “Daily Prompt: BFFs”

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Martha Kennedy

28/01/2014 at 19:11

I love Lucio Dalla. I agree with you whole-heartedly. My life (though no Mr. Swiss) has been filled with people from all over the world. I first experienced this culture disconnect when I returned from a year in China in 1984 and everyone was talking about the radical new car design (Ford Taurus and Tempo) and saying “Where’s the beef?” and laughing. After a burgerless and carless year, I thought they were insane and I also wondered why they were generally completely uninterested in my year in China. Their lack of curiosity was baffling to me. Once I’d had that experience, I could never be “normal” again (if I had ever been).

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- angloswiss
  
  29/01/2014 at 09:08
  
  I am sure a year in China must have been interesting. I remember just four days in Marrakech. I have never forgotten them and they made a long impression on my ideas of life.
  
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Marilyn Armstrong

28/01/2014 at 21:06

Sounds like the English are just like their American cousins in assuming that they have THE best lifestyle and nowhere else could possibly be as good (or heaven forbid, better!). It’s a bit provincial, but most Americans — and apparently most Brits — have never lived anywhere else and can’t even imagine doing so. Pity. Other cultures have much to teach us.

Like my dogs. Your cats must be much livelier than my canines because my kids sleep a solid 20 hours a day … and those are the youngsters. The old lady sleeps a solid 22 to 23. Enviable.

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- angloswiss
  
  29/01/2014 at 09:05
  
  Perhaps it is international that we all think we have the best lifestyle. There is a lot to learn from other nationalities. I think Internet, FB and the contacts we have does extend our outlook on the way the world ticks. I have one cat that seems to sleep 23 hours a day and spends an hour looking for a place to sleep – what a life!
  
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  - Marilyn Armstrong
    
    30/01/2014 at 00:57
    
    The breeder of one of my dogs said in her next life, she wants to be one of my dogs. So do I, but I don’t think it works that way 🙂
    
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wscottling

28/01/2014 at 22:16

I’ve never been outside of the USA, mostly because I’m dirt poor and cannot afford it — that and I’m terrified of flying — but I have tons of international friends and tons of world-travelling friends. I love hearing about other cultures and other countries. I know there’s a big, wide world out there and it’s a wonderful one at that. If I can overcome my fear of flying, I might see it some day. Until then, I’m pretty happy to live vicariously through the lives of my friends and family. That is my lot in life. It would be nice to see Egypt one day, or Istanbul, or the Great Wall of China… but I digress.

Most people, like your English family, are quite happy to stay in their own little, comfortable corner of the world. And I don’t think that’s sad because if they are content, then they are content. That is their prerogative. They may look beyond their borders some day and see that there is, indeed, a horizon out there and that it might be fun to see what’s over it. Until that happens, I think it’s okay to allow people to tend their own garden and let the travellers pass them by if that’s their wish.

(P.S. I know you said it didn’t matter, but BFF is text-speak for Best Friend Forever)

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- angloswiss
  
  29/01/2014 at 09:03
  
  Thans for explaining the BFF – I do not do verx much text speak and at my age best friends forever are not so many, if at all. I don’t mind my english family doing what they do, we all have our own private lives to lead. I just do not like the feeling I always have that I am pitied and felt sorry for because I am not living their way. Our varieties in the world make life interesting,
  
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Mati Serrano

29/01/2014 at 17:13

Jazz music. Nice. Well, all I know from about the genre came from an anime series dedicated to jazz, “Sakamichi no Apollon” but – because of it – I have come to love what little I know.

Having a collection sounds really great!

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