Category Archives: challenge

Daily Prompt: The Pesonification of Natural

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Wild Flower Meadow, Feldbrunnen

I like natural. I am a natural natural, do not believe in changing things to look unnatural. Of course in my younger wild years, when I still have limbs that moved according to how i wanted them to move, lipstick, eye shadow and even eye liner were part of my appearance. Today you might find lip stick, even two, in my bathroom cupboard, but you would have to search for them and they would probably be in an unusable condition. Even lip stick has an expiry date. My own expiry date has been overdue for many years and I gave up a long while ago.

Of course, there are certain occasions, a family wedding or party, where everyone likes to look unnatural. Not wanting to stand out in the crowd I comply, but it is not me. I remember some time in the dark ages I decided to have my hair coloured. I did it once, I think it was a reddish hue of brown, but I know I never had the roots treated and so it was really a unique moment in life.

To be quite honest, I have other things to do with my time (and money). I do visit the hairdresser regularly and have a crop with the magic words “short all over” when asked. It is so much easier to let the shower run over your head daily and let is dry afterwards, all natural, I do not even know where the hair dryer is, if we still have one. I am surrounded by natural. Even the food I eat is natural. Today we had Bratwurst for lunch. Just a simple plain veal sausage Swiss style. Mr. Swiss originally chose a “cordon bleu” which is a slice of pork, filled with a slice of cheese and breaded. My oldest son does not eat cheese and picks the cheese out of the meat and I do not like it for the simple reason that I do not know the cheese origins hidden in the disguise of bread crubs. The pork slice is also very suspicious – is it pure meat or other attachments included. I told Mr. Swiss OK, you can have a cordon bleu, but No. 1 son performs a post mortem on it before eating, I am suspicious of what is included beneath the disguise, and so will take two Bratwurst and you can have the cordon bleu. The result was 3 Bratwurst, cooked in my own natural onion sauce. Somehow Mr. Swiss changed his mind. I am a complete naturalist, although a fully clothed naturalist.

Not wanting to go into too many details, but I have two dress styles: one for the public and one for I, me, myself and home. At home I am a natural, t-shirt type with comfortable stretchy stuff, in summer shorts and in winter longer trousers. If they let me out I change into something more exclusive, but with no frim fram on the side, perhaps except for my earrings. That is the only unnatural thing I allowed myself when younger. If the ears are pierced then wear earrings, the holes are there for something.  There was a time when I thought a tattoo would be a good idea, but voices were raised against this in the family. With my luck I would probably have contacted blood poisoning.

That advertisements for moisture creams, cosmetics of all kinds fall on barren ground with me. What do these creams do? Will I be transformed into god’s gift for the man, will heads turn as I walk along the street. If I had my wonderful salt and pepper locks of hair coloured will I become the most wanted golden oldie. I do not think so, and if it happened, I would not be interested. Although I did enquire at my hairdresser’s how it would look with pink or blue hair. She found it would now work perfectly as I now have more salt than pepper and the colour would take easily. Unfortunately general opinion was that is should remain a natural, although I am still thinking about it. I could mix pink and blue, it would definiely be something completely different and turn the heads of the golden oldie population.

caneToday my new cane arrive, by DHL, special delivery.It came from Germany and I had to pay Swiss value added tax on it. I decided if I have to have a cane, then something completely different as this cane will be my permaent escort when I am let loose on the crowds (except for the supermarket, where I can use the shopping trolley as support). I should have something a little special. I even paid extra to have my name put on it. I had a choice between silver or gold, but I chose silver as I found the black lettering stands out better. Perhaps my next choice will be gold.

Mr. Swiss found typical me. Although strange, another colleague said exactly the same.  Other golden oldies walk around with a cane in a neutral colour that melts into the background, usually brown, and I already have a dull brown cane that no-one really notices. I did not want to melt anywhere, and I must say I am very happy with my new cane. Who cares about natural, I have been a natural all my life, and now it is time to do things completely different: although this stick will only be used on city excursions, the plain old brown stick with the retractable spike for icy surfaces will be used for my cross country safaris.

cane

Daily Prompt: The Personification of Natural

Daily Prompt: Struggle – It’s all in the mind

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Oranges 06.06.2016

Even lemons have their interesting aspects.Take a pboto of them, you do not have to buy them. If life gives you lemons, then go back to bed, they might go away. I have discovered that bed is a good place to solve problems, because by being in bed you do not have problems. If you have your iPad, iPhone, or whatever on the bedside table, it makes it all the more interesting. My mum always said that there is no such thing as having a problem, or a struggle, it is all in the mind, meaning it is all a figment of imagination. If this is the case, then I would say I do not have to write about struggles, they do not really exist, just a figment of imagination.

I do have a struggle to rise in the morning, not such a psycological struggle, more a physical struggle. My first steps are to open the blinds and let the light stream into the bedroom. These first steps are very uncertain, but I know that I can do it. This morning my back, as well as my legs, gave me a warning, but I ignored it and found my way to the kitchen where my struggle continued. I dropped some jam on the kitchen top, and so struggle No. 2 arrived, wiping it Breakfast and a computeraway. At the same time I had to co-ordinate my movements as the water was boiling for my tea. I took a quick glance at the table, but noticed that Mr. Swiss had already placed my computer in its accustomed place, so what could possibly go wrong. I glanced out of the window and it was raining again. As I was not going anywhere, I decided there would be no further problems and so I munched my breakfast contentedly. The next struggle was already on the horizon. I cleared away the remains of breakfast, did all the things a computer likes having done when you are finished with it: emptying the cache, running your Crap cleaner, and your anti virus programme. If I had used my Apple it would not have been necessary but morning is time for my Windows machine.

My vacuum cleaner was waiting. This is no struggle as instead of using some other means of support, the vacuum cleaner does the job just as well. It was then smooth running and I managed to clean the bathoom and the doors in the appartment with no big problem. Ok, it was a struggle, but a normal struggle and not an exceptional struggle until, yes, until I began to cook. It was ratatouille, the dish with zucchini, eggplant and peppers. This was programmed for a struggle. As I began to slice the zucchinni, three slices were already on the floor. Another struggle called for my attention to pick them up.

After lunch I decided to have a golden oldie sleep to avoid any further struggles with my life. Again I had to struggle to rise from the bed. That is a disadvantage with beds. It is easy to lay on them, but a struggle to leave them.

computerI am now sitting at my computer and struggling with writing this piece of blog. Mr. Swiss has left me to take a walk. At first he was going to town and invited me to go with him. I had to remind him that I was expecting a delivery from the DHL man and had other things to do. I intended to do my weekly kitchen intensive cleaning struggle, which only takes half an hour, but then it is finished for a week. Mr. Swiss changed his mind in the meanwhile and decided the journey to town would become a walk in the surroundings, as it look like it would rain. I told him a walk was in my programme for tomorrow, but today was not a day for struggling with a walk. My new cane should arrive today by DHL and I want to try it out tomorrow.

After writing this blog on the subject of struggle, I have come to the conclusion that it is depressing to write about struggles, as being a golden oldie it seems that everything is now a struggle. Even my computer had a struggle just now as it sort of lost the connection to the WordPress app, but I found it again, without any further struggle.

Enough is enough, I have done enough stuggling. I have other struggles waiting for me, although it is all in the mind.

Daily Prompt: It’s all in the mind

Daily Prompt: We are rebuilding – daily service will be resumed as soon as possible

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computer

What did I see when I switched on my Apple computer today. Of course, they are rebuilding, a new app, a new programme – great. Mr. Swiss told me about it yesterday and he already got it on Saturday. We both have Apple Macbooks as an alternative to our Microsoft computers. Mr. Swiss got his in a special offer and gave it to me to try out. I became an Apple disciple straight away, although in the meanwhile I also got myself a new Microsoft with Windows 10, I am completely rebuilding.

So now apple told me that I would have to be patient. My computers basically speak German and this screen says that the installation is being completed, another 11 minutes, although it was just a matter of 5-6 minutes and a new start which it did all on its own. Computer time is faster than real time, although there are exceptions.

Rebuilding has been the story of my life it seems. I grew up in London town after the war and there was not very much left in my area, being near the docklands, which seemed to have been a favourite target of the enemy aircraft. Although my dad told me from his war experiences in Germany in the last part of his war service, there was not much left in the German large towns either. It was war: you bomb my town and I will bomb yours. There were a few countries involved in this war and rebuilding was planned afterwards. This has resulted in a new modern European design, each country doing its own thing. High towers, lots of glass, and traffic free zones in the cities, the traffic mainly being banned to the outside peripheries.  The center of London, where I grew up, was an exception. They left the ruins for about ten years until they deicided what to do with them.  It seems to me that they are still deciding and what they have done up to now has not impressed me.

Switzerland was neutral during the war years and so the country was spared from the bomb destructions. I think the bad guy in this war thing decided to leave Switzerland as a nice little country to use after the war as a sort of unspoilt center, just my thoughts on the matter. To a certain degree it worked, but mainly because that guy was no longer there to plan anything big with Switzerland. The only ruins you see in Switzerland are where they decided to build a new bank or factory. The old parts are under some preservation law and Bern is still Bern with its covered streets. Our town of Solothurn was founded by the Romans. If they now walked the streets they would find the cobbles very Roman friendly. Our problem is when they decide to rebuild something, they find a few skeletons, an old Roman wall and even the outlines of a Roman villa (near the local hospital). This is OK, but means another pause in the work until the archaelogists decide what to do with the bones and the wall remains. In our little village, on the fringe of Solothurn, they discovered it was a hanging place for the criminals. Beneath the estate where I live, there were three skeletons which were just tossed into a hole. Probably the criminals of the old days.

In the meanwhile my Apple computer has its new start. Computers are something in daily life but they are being constantly rebuilt.  I remember facebook when it was, well, just a Facebook. Now I see daily videos of dogs being rescued, cats doing things that cats do not usually do, and also humans doing things that are sort of super human. I do not find it funny if someone has an accident, and I strongly believe that all the trash I see in Facebook is a trick, not real, just designed to make you go “oooh” and “aaah”. Of course you can eliminate the stuff that bores you. I eliminated at least 20 various cooking sites because it was all the same stuff under another name and it was just plain boring. 100 ways how to cook pizza toppings. What happened: I got the same pizza variations under other site names. They conspire with each other behind your back.

Facebook has been re-built so often that if the original returned again, I would probably not even recognise it as being a return.

I just got a plish thingy on my iPad/iPhone and iEverything else: Microsoft wants to buy business network Linkedin – for 26 million dollar. I think I am in the wrong business, another rebuild taking place.

It is fashion to do it new, to keep one step ahead and be modern. I am 70 years old (next December) but it seems to me my life has been one big re-build. Now I am tired, although I do like my computers. They rebuild themselves all on their own. Not to mention pingbacks and the grid …..

TV

Daily Prompt: We are rebuilding, daily service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Daily Prompt: Understanding it all?

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Stick

I travel bilingual since almost 50 years, actually trilingual, but the third part is only spoken being Swiss German. The other two languages are english and German.

I now need a walking stick to help me on my way and ensure that I do not stumble of fall due to dizziness or putting your feet in the wrong place. My feet do remain attached to my legs, but they have developed their own way of life. Short story, it has now been discovered that I have MS – ok no big deal I am not alone with this and it has probably gone unnoticed for a few years due to blaming it all to old age, being stupid and a few other misunderstood factors by me. You do not run to the doctor for every little ache and pain. It costs money and time and I was too busy with my life to bother. Now it has caught up on me. I can walk ok, as long as they are short distances with something to support me on the way. Even shopping is easy peasy as there are things known as trolleys which you can cling onto if the going gets tough.

Now is the time for a walking stick. The Swiss were amongst the inventors, being a country full up with mountains. We have perfectioned the idea of walking and our sticks are the best in the world, although after examining my choices in Internet I have discovered that the web site I found directs me to a German link. This is not astonishing as Swiss links are few and far between. I did not just want any old stick, like the one I found at home, I want something completely different. Just an ordinary brown design with a cork similar handle is not my thing. I like to stand out in the crowd. I am used to standing out being 1 meter 75 centimetres tall. Now I have a new purpose in my life, find the walking stick that suits your taste.

I was all for the gothic look, the stick with the steel, preferably silver, head as a grip in the shape of a skull. I actually found this, the price was OK, a little more expensive than the others, the problem being that it was a knob. I do not want a knob, but prefer a nice stable handle as in the photo.

I decided something colourful would be ideal. I do not want a folding stick, as there is no point in having a stick if I have to constantly fold it and hide it. I only need it for the long distances.

StickI quite liked the look of the one on the left. Nice and colourful, known as “Tropical Island” described as having a trendy Derbygrip made of stable cast resin with a tropical design all on a stick made of stable light metall. The height can be adapted and it also has a rubber at the end. The price is right, so this will probably be the first in my collection.

Looking further I also discovered one with a silver handle which was a few hundred € more expensive. Of course, there is also the execution with the gold handel, another 200€ more. I think I will remain with the Tropical Island. There are untold possibilities using a stick and I am sure I will soon be engaged in such conversations with other golden oldies “Where did you get that stick?” there eyes reflecting the green-eyed monster. Of course I will not tell them. I want to remain exclusive. They all have a computer and can do their own Google search. I have also decided to have it engraved for a few € more on a silver plaque with my name. The engraved plaque is placed just below the grip.

My pholosophy: if I have to have a walking cane, then why hide it. Mr. Swiss found “typical you”, although I am still wondering what he meant with that remark.

Daily Prompt: Understanding it all?

Daily Prompt: Why complicated when simple

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Electricity power line
“Where are we boss, lost my bearings on the way down.”

“Simple Joe, this is the heart of it all. the place where the dreams are created and it is all ours. Just ignore the guy with the horns sitting in the furnace. He has ciculation problems.”

Joe became a little uncertain, especially when he noticed how the eyes of the boss had a strange far away transparent look when he spoke of this place.

Joe was good at his job, it was just the machines that often decided to strike and not work. He had been trying for a least 2-3 days and thousands of the customers were becoming disappointed. they were losing faith in the organisation. The cyber home was filling up with disappointed followers. It now rested on the shoulders of Joe under the guidance of the boss, to return everything to normal.

“Do you have any plans of the room boss?”

“Sorry I did not quite understand. Plans? never seen them, it is all done by computer of course.”

“But I don’t see any computers.”

“We are surrounded by one big computer. We are sitting in the middle of it all, cannot you feel its presence. Its brain is pulsating, throbbing, guiding us to the final solution.”

“Aha, so where do I start.”

“Didn’t they tell you when you were training for the job.”

“Not really, they said nothing could possilbly to wrong. It was all a matter of pressing the “go” switch, and sorting it, keeping it nice and colourful. Didn’t you notice how everyone was happy when I turned the boring browns into blue on the grid. It was a psychologically valuable exercise and looked so pretty.”

“Joe we don’t want pretty, we just want it to work, and at the moment it is not working. Any suggestions?”

“I thought you would have some.”

“Joe I am the boss and not paid for making suggestions. If you insist, then unscrew the black box on the left.”

“Why not the blue box?”

“Because I said the black box. Any problems?”

“No of course not, you are the boss.”

With a few profanities because Joe cut his finger on the edge of the black box whilst removing it, and there was blood trickling onto the floor, Joe was now uncertain. He was sure he saw a little figure run out of the black box and lick away the blood spatters.

“What was that boss?”

“What?”

“That little guy with the long tongue that licked away the blood dripping from my cut finger.”

“Oh, that’s nothing Joe, probably your imagination playing tricks with you and the self cleaning system we have.”

Boiler

“I am not so sure boss, look he’s back and licking my finger again. Did you see?”

“Joe been on the LSD again? Now come on and do your job.”

“Where do I start?”

“How should I know. Try unscrewing that green tap. Or perhaps the red Tap.”

“I didn’t know that computers had taps. They told me it was a nice clean system, all dry and civilised.”

“Don’t get technical on me Joe. I am paid to do the organising not the dirty work. Now unscrew.”

“But what if there are more of those funny guys in those pipes waiting to be let out. I don’t like this at all. We had a nice clean grid that turned up regularly every day, no miniature vampires craving for my body fluids.”

“Joe we have the most modern method of online communication.”

World of Information 25.05.2016 Exhibition 10010ENTER0101 (21)“What’s that box in the corner? Hey there is a robot guy inside and it looks like he wants to tell us something.”

“Where? Oh, that’s what happened to him. He sort of disappeared. We have been looking for him for the past few years. That was our first prototype before we decided to use real people. We had a few problems with Wordy. He got jealous of the humans and wanted to be one of us. He even started to visit our victims, sorry customers and eventually stopped working. He was full of chocolate cake. Yea, he was getting addicted to the stuff. One of our grid users always fed him on chocolate cake, he would even beg for it. Did him no good, that’s why we decided to employ humans again.”

“I like chocolate cake as well boss, but you never let me out. All I get are hard disc hamburgers and solid state chicken nuggets.”

“Yeah, well you ain’t a robot. So get on with it.”

“No way. Let’s just try the automatic switch on with the grid again. I am sure it will work one day.”

“Joe, where are you going, don’t leave me alone with those little guys and Wordy, they said somthing about revenge and they are coming to get me.”

Daily Prompt: Why complicated when simple

Daily Prompt:Yes we have mountains in Switzerland

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Jura mountains behind Solothurn

If you took the mountains away from Switzerland, it would just be boring. It would be flat no mountain roads to navigate and no tunnels to build. These mountains are everywhere. Take a walk into town and there they are. Now and again they hide behind clouds, but it is all a scheme to make you feel secure. The are always lurking in the background. Before I left England 50 years ago, I had never really seen a real mountain. Ok, I had spent a couple of holidays in countries where they had mountains, but as a tourist you did not actually find they were in the way, you avoide them. They were useful for a photo to show that you had been there and seen it. You did not have to do it.

Living in Switzerland you  join in for the thrill of it. The mountain cemeteries are full of tourists that found their fame on the mountains, especially when they fell off. The graveyards in the Bernese overland villages are full of the victims. For some strange reason family Angloswiss joined in and would spend their annual holidays in such places as Adelboden, Gstaad and Grindelwald . Everywhere you look mountains, they were in the way. Switzerland does not have an ocean, just a few lakes to compensate for the moutains surrounding them. I believe even the water in the lakes is mostly melted ice dripping down from the mountains.

EigerThere was our memorable first holiday, for me, in Grindlewald. The photo is an original taken by me standing on flat ground with the camera. We had a holiday appartment, very comfortable, with a great view towards the mountains, of course. This mountain was in the way, very annoying. Every time you relaxed on the balcony it was there. Of course it was not alone, it was surrounded by other mountains, something called the Jungfrau and Mönch, but this was particularly annoying. A large bulk of rock, not even a nice slope to climb up and it was sort of hanging over from the top, putting everything into a shadow. Even the holiday appartment was full of books about mountains. It seeme to be a real obsession with the people living in the area.

“What’s that mountain over there” I asked after two days. Mr. Swiss was after all a born swiss, not just a paper Swiss like me and they had mountains in their blood, although he came from the lower plains of Solothurn,

“That’s the Eiger” he answered.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, if you have a look through the binoculars you can see the windows of the Jungfrau railway.”

I had been studying this block of mountain through the binoculars, but never noticed these windows until he told me about them. I should have married a dane or someone dutch, where mountains were more bumps in the roads.

I began to read the one of the books in the appartment, The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer, telling of the various attemps to climb the Eiger. For a non-climber, it sort of got me involved. The Eiger is over hanging, so it is not a straight climb up and plant your flag at the top. With today’s methods it can be done, but in the earlier days you were really lucky to survive. There is one place just over half way up known as the Spider because the ice gets into the cracks and looks like a spider. Here there is an opening in the wall and those that got that far noticed that this opening was almost without end, deep and dark. There was a climbing team that saw the frozen body of a mountaineer standing at the entrance of the spider, that reappeared after many years. There is the tragic story of the young Tony Kurz that was left hanging a few meters away from the window of the railway window where the railway worker was ready to help him, beause he could not free his rope from the hooks and died of exhaustion. There were many victims and after reading this book I saw this mountain no longer as a block of rock.

My holidays in the mountains were not exactly training grounds for being the first Angloswiss housewife to plant her feet on a summit, but our hikes were numerous. I could climb anywhere, the problem being that descending was not my sort of thing. I had my own system. Whilst my men were happily running down slopes like mountain goats, I would sit and sort of slide down the slope on my posterior. It was not very elegant, but I arrived in one piece.

My only mountain climbing today is with a car on a nice safe road, or by cable car or gondala lift, although in my younger days I did succeed in climbing the Engsligenalp a few times whilst on holiday in Adelboden. I thought if the cows can do it once a year, so can I. I must admit there was a path with ropes to hold onto in the less safer places.

And now I sit on the porch, see the Jura mountains at the edge of my village and enjoy life. If the Jura mountains were not there it would be a straight run to Germany and you would arrive much quicker in the Swiss border town of Basel. Why do these mountains have to be in the way?

Daily Prompt: Yes, we have mountains in Switzerland

Daily Prompt: And another embarrassing prompt?

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0 answers

“Joe, what’s with the daily prompt today?”

“Nothing, I got one.”

“Great, but no-one is seeing it, we have no answers.”

“It must be there. The automatic prompt machine was switched on yesterday. I did it before the party.”

“But it is not working Joe. The machine is striking. Did you do a re-boot, to make sure?”

“No need, modern technology does it all. I can see the new blue gridded window, looks great.”

“Yeah, super, very aesthetic,  but it is empty. No-one has turned up for the event. Did you do another check after the party yesterday.”

“Heck, it was way after midnight. We were celebrating and that sort of thing runs all on its own. Have a look in the reader, there are lots of blogs all about the new theme of the day.”

“The problem being that no everyone looks in the reader, they get a mail in their in-box to tell them the new prompt has arrived and then they all rush to the new skyblue grid to partake. Joe, it’s like getting an empty box for Christmas, there is nothing inside.”

“My cat loves empty boxes. Even if I put something inside it, he empties the box and sits in it for hours.”

“Sorry to disappoint you Joe, but these are real live humans that look in on the daily prompt, some of them even suggest the word to use. They don’t sit at the empty computer and play with the keyboard, they write things, they tell everyone about it. You know that can get a little frustrating if they write for 20 minutes, press the buttom and no-one sees anything.”

“Yea, but you know the party and all that. We had a real ball, and when Fred’s beer glass fell over on the computer it was a real laugh, all the letters were disappearing. The connections got a little wet – oh sorry that was yesterday’s prompt. That one worked, did you see it boss, it got 118 entries.”

“Great and today we have 0 entries. Did you get the letters  back again?”

“I ain’t sure, I think that was when I fell asleep. I thought that was why we had a reader. You know, if you can’t find it on the grid, it is bound to be in reader. Look boss, there are all the answers that the people wrote in the reader.”

“Yeah, great, but it is only the people you follow that you see in the reader. All the others are left out in the cold.”

“On my grid it says that there are 70 bloggers liking the prompt, that is success.”

“Joe I like watching ball games and reading science fiction. I even like reading the New York times, but it don’t mean a lot if I can’t get a ticket, buy the book or if my paper boy is sick and doesn’t deliver the paper. People get disappointed beause they don’t see anything.”

“Have you tried the refresh button?”

“For the last two hours every five minutes and nothing happens.”

“Ok, I will have a look later. Now I have to get some rest, I have a headache and don’t feel so good. Must have been the Tequila I had to go with the beer. My mum always told me to stay away from the Tequila.”

“And what are our disappointed customers supposed to do in the meanwhile?”

“They could go for a walk and enjoy the fresh air instead of sitting at a computer. It would be more healthy. Or they can have a look in on the reader, that’s where the crowd meets and write something for later. Boss I don’t feel too good, those parties can be really heavy sometimes.”

“What were you celebrating?”

“The success of the one word prompt, everyone loves them.”

No offence meant, I love the new prompt system and am sure that Joe and the gang do their best for us all, but mistakes can happen. No body’s perfect. The embarrassing moments make the fun.

Daily Prompt: And another embarrassing Prompt?

Daily Prompt: The Angloswiss Connection

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M - Optician

I have a single word Prompt from WordPress via a suggestion from one of the bloggers and I sit and look and wonder where do I go from here. With a photo of course, I have many connections via my computers, iPad, and iPhone. I no longer have a landline, do not need it. An iPhone does the job quite well and I can switch it off if I want to go into solitary confinements, a golden oldie sleep or whatever. At the moment it is switched on.

So I visit my online and photo connection to make a choice and hello, Mr. Swiss has been taking photos again. He is also connected to my online agent and his photos also appear on my page. I sort them with a special code to be sure I am no going under false pretences when on a photo site, but this is my site, my place and I will do what I want (sounds familiar). Mr. Swiss was at the opticians this morning having his glasses corrected and he had to wait. What do you do when waiting, you take a photo or two with your iPhone of course. I just discovered these and decided to use one so that you are not foced to look at my computer world – again. He is getting quite good at photography, even had the built in mirror effect, although this was probably more luck than judgement.

It was one of those connective moments in time for him, a memory now registered with my online photos. Life is wonderful today, we are all connected. I am connected via my computer to thousands of people blogging away their lives, just like me. No matter where you are you get connected.

computerYou want to see where I am now, at this very minute. Just imagine the chair on the right at the front with my body. This is where I am now sitting and writing this blog. It is a pleasant day, not exactly heat wave weather but warm enough to sit outside in a t-shirt and shorts. My computer is ready to go, the blue tooth mouse as well and the iPad in case I get a message from another planet, or another country. This is the connection  headquarters of Mrs. Angloswiss.

My father is in London is a nursing home. If there is negative news I get it immediately. He does not have a telephone or a computer. At the age of 100 and 8 months it is a bit late to begin with a cyber life. He has good days and not so good days. I used to be able to call him, but he no longer has a phone.  He is connected to me via my friend and family.  I may get an e-mail, or an FB message. I can even see my dad in his room via the FB messenger when my friend takes her iPad with her when visiting. Only today Mr. Swiss asked whether I had heard anything about my dad. I try to be a realist in this connection knowing that bad news always travels fast. Today my friend sent a message to say she visited him and had an hours conversation with him. He even said he should have some money in his room in case he wanted anything. Of course he can have money but up to now there was not a great need. It shows his realisation of the life surrounding him, a positive sign, and he is happy to have some cash in his room.  I am so glad for this connection.

Now and again my iPhone buzzes as someone in WordPress is connecting with a like or a comment. I also get this on my iPad, but here I have turned off the sound. Mr. Swiss found that buzzing in one place is OK, as long as it is at the softest tone, but two buzzes are too much, especially as they do not arrive at the same time, but with a fraction of a second in between. Of course you have to recognise the signals that your connective elements use. A message is always a “ping” and notification is a melodious “plong”.  There is also an aggressive and loud “Plang” from the Swiss news to tell us of important events, such as Stan Wavrinka (who?) wins a tennis match or here is another negative event in the world. Mr. Swiss and I both get these reports. Sometimes it might only be Mr. Swiss which is usually an SMS from his drum teacher or otherwise. Life is not easy in the cyber world today, the connective sounds differ and it is wise to know where they come from. This is the reason why I switch off my connections during the night and after lunch. I do not want to be on a 24 hour connection.

Daily Prompt: The Angloswiss Connection

Daily Prompt: Playtime for playful me

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candycrush

This is really the only game that I play today. I used to be a gamer, an addicted gamer: you name it and I played it and all connected to facebook of course, where else. I blogged in many places, places that no longer exist. Most of the games I played in facebook no longer exist, and that is just as well. I would be glued to my computer building farms, restaurants and even a town. I also had a couple of islands. Basically it cost me nothing but my time and one day I woke up and realised time is the most precious thing you have so I gave it all up and began to blog more.

The only playful moments I now have are with Candy Crush, one of those bird brained obstacle courses where there now exist over 2,000 levels. I am only a beginner with my level 245 and have been stuck there for the past six months, but it does not bother me. Why should it? I only play when I have nothing else to do, just a time passing episode in my little Angloswiss life. I am a little playful now and again, to release the tension of every day life. The world is not very amusing when you are only cleaning windows or ironing, there must be more to it. And so there is candy crush.

I have been revising my knowledge of the Russian language since I discovered something called Duolingo. It is an app, costs nothing and seems to have more languages that I have ever heard of, Russian being one of them. I play on my iPad and even have the russian keyboard so no problem, it is all combined. I could also play it on my computer, but why should I. To much organisation with the cyrillic letters. Just 10 minutes a day on my iPad regularly does wonders.

Today the world is not full of games, but apps. If you are online with a phone, iPad, computer, or whateveer, then you can download an app for something or the other. The word “app” is apparently the shortened version of “application”. The first time I heard this word was when Mr. Swiss had his first iPhone and No. 2 son was visiting. It was a new world for me and they were comparing apps. Son was telling Mr. Swiss the various possibilities and I was sort of listening wondering which language they were speaking. It was spiked with a lot of english, but not the sort of english I knew.

Today, many years later, I realise what it was all about and now my problem is how much room does a mobile phone/iPad have for how many apps. This is important because if your mobile whatever it is does not have enough room, then you will be missing out on valuable games to play. There is also to be taken into consideration that not all apps are free, there are some that cost money and the ones that I generally avoid. “Look at my iPad and you see my playground” would be a good motto. Mine actually only has one game, the rest is comprised of various WordPress pages and radio stations and of course Facebook with its messenger app.

My son told me I must have “what’s app” so believing in everything that No. 2 son says, I downloaded this fantastic app and discovered I did not need it. I have a good arrangement with the Swiss telephone company where I pay monthly and everything is included, with free SMS. If you belong to Facebook you have the messenger which is free. Needless to say “what’s app” no longer exists on my mobile devices.

I used to have Skype, but also something the Facebook messenger has replaced for me. I noticed when I used it as a telephone that either the connection was lost now and again or the other person could not near what I was saying.

My mum always complained when the cigarette prices increased saying “what other pleasures does an old boy have in life” (she was a cockney), although I found that there must be more to the life of an “old boy” than cigarettes. I could now modernise these wise words with “what other pleasures does a golden oldie have in life when she does not have her digital connections”.

Daily Prompt: Playtime for playful me

Daily Post: A Swiss Smoothie

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Bernese Alps

Living in a country with 7-8 million population you would say it is smooth running. We even see mountains from the parking lot of our supermarket, although in between there are some local buildings, just to show that it is not all smooth running. We also work for our living, at least those that have not yet reached golden oldie status as myself. We are a direct democracy meaning that the problems are solved by the people through a voting system. You have a problem?:  No problem. Just collect enough signatures for your particular problem, hand it in and it soon becomes a people’s problem. To solve the problem we vote about it. Every Swiss citizen is his own politician, we do not just complain, we do something about it, although as a British ex-pat with a Swiss passport I am sometimes swamped with all the decisions I should make to enable smooth runnings. For that I have a Mr. Swiss who grew up in this system and usually makes the decisions, or I let him think he does.

Today is again a voting Sunday, when your mobile phone constantly makes noises with the latest results and the television programme and radio are telling you what is happening. Our TV is silent at the moment and also the radio, except for some Internet jazz music now and again. It is not that we are not patriots, we love Switzerland, expecially the cows and the countryside, Swiss fondue and cheese.  We have alps and banks, what more could you possibly need. It seems that there are a few loose threads to be tied today.

Swiss VotingTo assist with your decisions, the government sends you a booklet telling you the various decisions to be made, with an explanation. The political parties naturally also send various coloured pamphlets wanting to influence your choice in their favour. I thought it would be interesting to show a few of those pamphlets here, but when I asked Mr. Swiss where they were, he said they were now in the garbage, no longer to be saved or read. His opinion of the politial parties probably.

Of course our literature is available in 4 languages, French, German, Italian and an obscure language known as Romantsch, only spoken in our mountain Kanton of Graubünden, although I would add, they have a few dialects to complicate matters.

What is it all about? Do you really want to know? I had a quick look, but it is not worth while explaining it all. Suffice it to be said there will be no changes in the Swiss way of life to influence other countries, we usually just punish ourselves by having these referendums at least 3-4 times a year. Mr. Swiss and Mrs. Angloswiss have a good system. Mr. Swiss watches all the political discussions on the TV and listens to the radio, as well as reading the newspapers. He is then completely in the picture. We receive the necessary voting documents about a month before voting day. He then writes “Ja”, or “Nein” (yes or no) according to his wise decision and then fills out all the papers for himself, me and also my son who still lives at home.

The next part of this smooth running is to put the documents on the table together with a pen for our signatures. Of course we sign, what is the point about studying it all and thinking it over. I would mention this is the part when I ask Mr. Swiss what it is all about. His first reaction is “you should look at the TV, lisen to the radio and read the newspaper”. Of course I do, but generally my favourite programme is “East Enders” a british soap and Master Chef which is a cooking programme. I usually read a book when the political discussions are running as they are all talking in loud voices and arguing. I prefer my own smooth little corner. I must admit there are topics where I do not share Mr. Swiss opinion. Some years ago there was a vote to make everywhere non-smoking. He decided it was going too far with a “Nein”. I was of the opinion, being an ex smoker, now non-smoker since almost 20 years, that here a “Ja” would be a good idea. It was the last time that I filled out and signed a voting form with a different opinion to Mr. Swiss. Since I leave it to Mr. Swiss, with a quick glance to make sure that my life remains smooth where my signature might be needed, to put things into proportion.

This evening the results will be announced, with the probable result that my favourite German soap “Lindenstrasse” based on the english “Coronation Street” will probably be DVD’d as its timing would interrupt the Swiss voting results.

Yes, we are a direct democracy. There are decisions to be made, which might interrupt the smooth side of an Angloswiss life.

Daily Prompt: A Swiss Smoothie