Rebuliding with red cranes
Railway
Roofing details inside supermarket.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: R – Needs to start with the letter R and have at least six letters
Daily Archives: 19/12/2017
Flower of the Day: 19.12.2017 Protea
Let’s have a photo of one of my favourites. If the triffid would exist, and I am sure they do somewhere in a laboratory, they would be related to the protea. These flowers look so strange and out of this world. Now and again they arrive in our local store at a price that I would not pay, even strange has its price. Taking photos does not cost anything.
Daily Prompt: The price of Health
I have diabetes type 2, the one you get because you probably indulged too much in eating sweets, cakes and anything else containing sugar. The one that is your own fault for not using more judgement when stuffing yourself full of the sweet side of life. To be quite honest, I do not even like sweets, but was always partial to a nicely homemade cake and of course if you have a coffee you added the real McCoy. No sweetneners, but sugar, two spoonfulls. My dad always reckoned that sugar was good for you, but I think that somehow came from the rationing in the days of war. If the government rationed it, it must be good for you, so you use it when you can. Rationing makes commodities more interesting.
So I now have to/should measure the sugar content of my blood three times a day. Are you kidding? I have a machine. I can prod my finger (ouch!) and let the blood drip onto the plastic piece. I then insert the plastic into the machine and voilà, I get a measurement. I am supposed to do this measuring three times a day, morning, midday and evening. The silly little bits of plastic with the secret blood counter, are not free. They cost at least half a Swiss France each. This means CHF1.50 a day, if I do it the way I should.
Relatively speaking (no idea of the meaning of this word) I belong to a sickness insurance in Switzerland. This is not free and I pay every two months. Today I got my new assessment beginning next year. I am now paying almost CHF 1,000 (CHF = Swiss Francs) 6 times a year. Can I afford to stay healthy, to visit my doctor? I am now saving. The little bits of plastic for the machine cost only a third of the price if I would be living in another country. We Swiss have precious blood it seems. I do not measure the sugar content of my blood three times a day. I do not measure it daily. I have to visit the doc now and again for a routine check on my MS medicine (a few thousand francs a year (90% paid for by my insurance) so I combine it with the diabetes check. Up to now I am still alive, and if at all, I might get hypoglymia which is low blood sugar and that can be cured by munching on a glucose sweet. I now avoid most unnecessary visits and medicines perscribed by the doctor.
Mr. Swiss told me some time ago that the sickness insurance will be increasing. I can still afford it being a golden oldie, living on a state pension and only having to look after I, me and myself. How does a working family with kids manage to pay this? It is law in Switzerland that you must have a sickness insurance, everyone: even the baby that has only just arrived in this expensive world. Admittedly the Swiss system is a good one because you do get value for money. We are a specialist nation. If you see your GP and it is discovered that you have someting special, then you are sent to the next doc, who happens to be an expensive specialist. When I was younger all my doc in England did was apply the stethoscope on the the chest, checked if your lungs and heart was doing its job and the rest was left to chance.
Health definitely has its price in this day and age.
Good Morning
Yesterday it snowed, not just now and again, but a real genuine snow that fell from the early morning until lunchtime. It was also very cold, so not much hope of it melting in the meanwhile. We managed to get out of the garage and skidded onto the side road. We turned the corner and discovered that thanks to perfect timing, the local road train was passing through and the barriers were closing. The car in front of us was our guide to the the road situation. The train passed through and he drove off, wanting to turn left towards the main town. Mr. Swiss mentioned that his tyres first of all drifted right, then left and right again until he managed to get onto the main road towards left.
Now it was our turn. We waited for a traffic free road and launched out. We must have hit lucky as we did it with no great problem. Thanks to the fact that Mr. Swiss is Swiss and grew up in snow and ice in Winter, he drove with no great difficulty to the supermarket, although slower than usual of course.
This was the entrance road to the parking lots, and it was still snowing. Luckily the snow ploughs had done their work and the road was clear, but it was still snowing. Mr. Swiss even risked driving up to the top floor as it is easier to get to the entrance of the supermarket being able to walk straight and not up a slope. I was glad we arrived safely with no problems.
Some roads were better than others, but on every street you saw one of this mini ploughs where they were clearning the sidewalks. I was happy to get home again afterwards and we were both glad that we had no big problems. It is those that leave early in the morning that make the worst experiences. Thank goodness for being golden oldies. We can now plan our own day.
Even the Chrismas roses they were selling outisde the supermarket got their fair share of snow, but they do not mind so much. They are the first and almost only flowers to appear in the cold winter months.
Otherwise I was quite busy yesterday and made the most of the jouney in the snow, taking almost 100 photos. I had to upload them and work on them and filter out the bad photos. It is not easy taking photos from a moving car, especially as I cannot tell Mr. Swiss to stop or slow down for the perfect prize suspicious photo. I try to do it as quietly as possible.
At the moment it is not snowing and I am not sorry. We have a bit of shopping to do this week for this wonderful Christmas season where we wallow in stress in the stores. I have made a list, but there are a few things I like to buy when fresh. I have my ham and red cabbage for next week already, which takes care of one day, probably Boxing Day. Everything else will be taken care of at the end of the week. Why do we have to do this every year. I do not even celebrate Christmas. If there was such a fuss about my birthday, nothing would ever get done.
And now to move on to the bathroom cleaning session and a few other hobbies I have in the appartment. Have a good day and love your computers. They love you too.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 