Tag: #family
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Pushka is Coming Home
Tomorrow, I’ll drive over to Portugal to pick up this very special old lady š„°šš„¹ 10 years ago, when I adopted her in Malta, I promised her I would never abandon her. But then life had other plans. Thankfully, dearest, sweet, old Pushka, I managed to keep my promise to you after all. It’s been a…
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Precious Moments
My just recently adopted, old, toothless partner in crime is teaching me so much about life. About pausing every now and then to appreciate what we have instead of worrying about what we donāt have. About enjoying those almost imperceptible rays of sunshine. Most of all, he teaches me about love. I guess because we…
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Focusing On What Is Truly Important
Last week, I went on a 5-hour hike with a good friend of mine. Switzerland sure has beautiful corners everywhere. We walked from Schoenenberg to Sihlbrugg, along this incredibly tranquil trail. For the longest time, it felt as if we were somewhere far away in the wilderness. We barely met anyone else. Plus, following the…
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JoJo
I need to rave a bit more about this cat. Itās incredible to think that, had I not decided to hike from Switzerland to the Mediterranean Sea and, had I not spontaneously decided to stay in Montpellier for a few months, JoJo and I would never have met. I rescued him from the streets of…
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A BientƓt Montpellier!
Alright, this is it. One more sleep in Montpellier. Then, tomorrow morning, Iāll hop into a rental car and drive north, towards the Swiss border. All luggage is in the car already, so we can get a running start. All Iāll need to do at 6 am is to throw some cold water into my…
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So Many āThank Youās To You All
As we are nearing the end of this year, Iād like to say thank you to all of my friends near and far, old and new, for their support. Thank you for believing in me. There were so many acts of kindness… ranging from that little ālikeā of support for one of my posts, to…
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Milky Way
After camping for a few days, weāve now stopped for a couple days in the beautiful city of Biel. Yesterday was a lovely day of spoiling myself. I took a long, hot bath while listening to Cinemix, had a picnic dinner from Migros (awesome Swiss supermarket!), and went to the pharmacy to get some advice…
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Dad
Can I just say how grateful I am for my dad? I mean, I am thinking daily, “Damn, I’m stuck here in Germany in this small apartment without any privacy, camping on the couch in the middle of the room.” True. There are no doors to close, and it’s a small one-bedroom apartment. Nowhere to…
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A Discounting Mechanism
Have any of you seen ‘Where’d You Go Bernadette’? I’ve wanted to watch it for a long time and finally got around to it last night. The intro really hit me , which is why I want to share it here with you: “Have you ever heard that the brain is like a discounting mechanism?…
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Boo, Lara, and Bocelli
Thinking of this little family today. I found them in a pet store in Macau, in 2010. They had just been rescued from the street. A cat with three kittens. All of them were horribly sick. They had any infection you could think ofā¦ cat flu, ear infections, eye infections, ringworm, etc. One of the…
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Under the Big Top with Zirkus Knie: Birth of a Passion
Come run away with me to the circusā¦ in my article on TheatreArtLife, pondering the intricacies of life backstageā¦ In the words of Geraldine and Franco Knie: āThis is our life. Itās what we grew up with. We donāt know anything else. We learned from an early age that the show takes priority over anything…
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Isolation with Dad, Cat, and the Fish
Itās the end of March 2020. A slightly ruffled, disoriented āhelloā from myself and Bocelli, my dadās ever-meowing cat who isnāt quite sure how he feels about me invading their spaceā¦ How are you all? I havenāt written much in this blog since last Decemberā¦ As stage and production manager on one of the largest…
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Nanala
Last week, a friend of mine introduced me to a refugee from Pakistan (to protect her privacy, letās call her Nanala). We had an unforgettable dinner together. From the first moment onwards, Nanala struck me as a self-confident, warm-hearted woman. After a while she began sharing parts of her life journey. Eleven years ago, soldiers…
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Back in Pirate Paradise
Again, it’s been a busy month. In true Macau fashion, wonderful and exasperating things happened all at the same time. Through unbelievable luck and the kindness of my real estate agent, I was able to get the apartment back I had rented here until 2013. However, it took a few weeks and several hurdles to…
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Lost in Space
I love good storytelling – be it poetry, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, movies, TV series, visual arts, or any other type of creative expression. For the most part, stories engage me when they are about being human, about compassion and about overcoming our shortcomings and challenges. The other month, I watched the (rather kitschy) new…
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New Beginnings
Even though I have done it so often and relish the excitement of new beginnings, relocating is always difficult for me. This time around itās more difficult than ever before. Over the last months, Iāve been maniacally busy tackling the bureaucracy on my side of the world for my wife and I. There was no…
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Thin Mattress With a View
Time has been racing like a bullet train this month. Dissolving the rest of our household… cancelling all kinds of things like cable, phone, etc. etc. etc. … and multiple breakfasts, brunches, lunches, and dinners with friends and colleagues to catch up one more time before the big move. Now, I am sitting in front…
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Time Traveling
Just spent an inspiring and heart-warming weekend visiting relatives. In between vivid conversations and laughter, I also took some moments to time-travel through their extensive family photo library. It was wonderful to dive into old family history as far back as 1908. To visually follow the path of my grandma, see how she lived her…
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Being Grateful
Lately, life has run away with me a bit. Too many things happening all at once… some of them rather surprising and turbulent. Yet again, I was reminded to never be sure of anything. Everything can change in a heartbeat. We can lose and gain all we hold dear from one second to the next.…
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Friendship
Today I am thinking of my close friends, my family. This was Christmas 2006 with my best buddy (Iāve changed his name in my memoir to protect his privacy) and an entire team of unforgettable people on Kuredu Island in the Maldives. Every day, I am fully aware how lucky I was – and still…
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When I Found Home
When I found homeā¦ āOur relationship had grown like a table coral ā and still did. Tree-like, it fanned out, each tiny branch connecting to others to build a magnificent structure ā tough and brittle at the same time. Both of us knew how easily such a delicate formation could break. For the first time,…
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My Thoughts Are With Macau
Since last week, my thoughts are with Macau and with my dear friends who live there. Typhoon Hato went through my former home with wind speeds of up to 250 km/hour. My work buddies and I used to get excited each time a typhoon would come our way. Because if it made it up to…
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I Hope, Deep Down You Knew
Uniting my body with my soul meant breaking the heart of the one person who had always been there for me ā my oma (grandma). As the hormones took an ever-firmer hold, I tried explaining to her who I was. Unfortunately, she was becoming progressively more senile. Oma sadly asked for me. Countless times, she…
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This is to you Dad
For my Dad. I love you. Check out my story here on Bored Panda. Or, of course, you can read it right here: When you were little, you had a tame chicken, then a crow, and later an Alsatian. You named them all āJakobā. No points for creativity but, most definitely, for purity of heart.…
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Remembering Oma
Remembering my dear oma, who was born on this day in 1909 and passed away on 26th of December, 1996. What would I have done without you? āFrida carried herself with dignity. She was delicate, and small, but very strong. When she made spaetzle, a Southern German pasta delicacy, the recipe called for her to…
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Adoption
āFor years, I had puzzled over being the only dark-haired, darker-complexioned person in our family. My emotional make-up and character didnāt quite seem to fit with the rest of my family either. I had kept searching for similarities between my parents and me, as every child does, and had found none. But my mom Hildegard…