When Ani left, I knew that there was no future in us ever becoming partners. It was not just the distance but more the lack of friendship and common interests. With Trudi, I had as close a friendship I could imagine. Trudi lost her husband Fritz a few months after I move into the studio. Raised in a dairy, a daughter of a cheese maker, she married Fritz very young and started to have kids right away. Over the 40 years they were together they raised 2 sons, Martin and Richard, and 2 daughters, Priska and Therese. Having started so young they became young grandparents raising 9 grandchildren. They had a close circle of friends and were very happy.
Fritz was a butcher and Trudi tended the family shop, the employees and her family. Fritz got into politics and her circle of friends and acquaintances widened to include well known politicians and bankers. He was a very community oriented person being involved in the fire brigade and being an officer in the army. He was a renowned wrestler known for his style of wrestling. At 17, he was the youngest wrestler to have won a crown of distinction in the national wrestling competition. When he was too old to wrestler, he became the president of the Swiss Wrestling Association. Trudi was understandably devastated when Fritz suddenly died soon after they retired from their very busy life. They were ready to reap the benefits of a lifetime of hard work and the respect for their dedicated service.
I moved in to the studio apartment just before Fritz was admitted to hospital. Trudi and I both comforted each other and became good friends from very early on. We felt very comfortable with each other. I shared Ani, Elsa, and my sons with her, and she shared her family and friends with me. She trusted me and accepted me to a point I thought was not possible.
Trudi and I regularly visit Priska and her husband Mike and their children Jonathan, Gabriel, and Benjamin. Jonathan is a rap musician in a band that produced 2 successful CDs. They live about a 90 minute drive east of us. We also regularly visit Therese and her son Nils who live a 3 hour drive west. Richard and his wife Ruth and their 2 boys Florian and Manuel are a text book family who live nearby in the next village. Florian reminds me of how Christopher was. Both of the boys wrestle and place top of their rank in national competitions. Martin and his wife Angie have Didie a very friendly and inquisitive toddler. He says hello to everyone and is always looking for things to take apart. Severin and Venessa live with their mother Astrid, Martin's ex-wife. Both kids are very musical. Venessa has a beautiful voice and a beautiful personality. Severin plays guitar, wrestles and is a great guy, and he knows it.
Trudi is very well liked and respected in the community. She served in the bank commission and tended the family butcher shop for most of her adult life. Trudi knows most everyone in the area. She plays piano at the church service at the old folk’s homes in the region every month. She knows and talks to most of the old folk individually. To see her the way she is makes me very grateful to have her. Once we took 3 year old Nils, Therese's son, and he helped me with distributing the song sheets. He participated in the Eucharist, and soon after he drank from the cup, he began an impressive break-dance routine to the background music Trudi was playing. He spun on his knees and rolled on his belly like a snake. He crawled under the legs of the amused old people in the second aisle who have probably not seen a crawling child for much too long a time and who have probably never saw break-dancing.
All days with Trudi were special days and I thought how nice it would be if Trudi would be my girlfriend and if she could ever love me and accept me like I am. So I thought that I would make it my next project to win over her heart. I felt I had a great start in that we were such great friends. But I felt that Trudi felt good with me as long as Ani was there to keep me from becoming anything more than a friend. And I saw myself once more fall madly in love into a one sided love affair and fear held me back from making my move for a love relationship.
One evening after our regular meal together, we were watching TV when I felt the courage to confront my fears and talk to Trudi about them. I told her that I decided to break up with Ani as I needed more than just love. I needed friendship like we had and that I wanted to officially declare that my friendship and my admiration for her was slowly warming to another level. I told her I wanted to hold her hand and caress and kiss her. I wanted to be her boyfriend and as I was struggling in my broken German, I saw in her eyes that she understood and did not feel uncomfortable, and that made me fall deeper in love with her. I asked her to be my girlfriend whose hand I could hold and who I can cuddle with and who I can show my love to. I held her hand and she did not pull away but squeezed mine tighter. I kissed her on the lips for the first time and she kissed me back. I felt a deep love for her and told her so. And then she told me she had loved me for some time but did not tell me because of Ani.
We talked about how nice it will be to finally hold hands and cuddle. I added how nice it will be to make love. She set a date for making love on New Year’s night. She playfully got a tape, and cut it for counting the 50 or so days to New Years and hung it up over her bed. I willingly agreed to play her game. She invited me to cut a cm every day to count down the days. I only got to cut 1 cm before she told me that she could no longer wait. I agreed with her and we made love. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw her naked body. It looked like she was 18 years old and acted like she was waiting for the moment for much too long. She told me that I was like a 20 year old, and I felt like one as well.
Trudi called Therese and Priska to let them know of our new relationship and she told me that both of them were very happy for her. Then we made a week of visiting the rest of the family to tell them of our relationship before they would hear it as gossip. Richard and his wife Ruth were overjoyed to hear my good news. His son Florian remarked that they now have a new grandfather and I was overjoyed to hear that. Ruth claimed that she saw it coming. Martin and Angie were also not surprised. Venessa and Severin were at first shocked to hear that I was taking claim on their grandmother until we talked about it and by the time the evening was finished, they had calmed down considerably. Severin agreed to let me help him with his English classes at school. Rolf, Trudi's brother and his wife Vreni saw it coming and were glad that we finally found each other. When I told Chris, he was overjoyed and he told me not to blow it this time.
Trudi and I make a good team. She motivates me to speed up and I do my best to slow her down. I see her as a busy bumble bee buzzing from flower to flower all day long. She sees me as a slow turtle and totally accepts me as I am. We live more or less like we have for the past year. Except we walk hand in hand, kiss, dance, sleep together and show each other that we are in love. She reads for me in bed, patiently explaining what she read, while I look at her angelic body and wonder if its all just a dream. She is my dream girl from heaven and I am in a dream world. Trudi is all a man needs and all I want in a woman. She is devoted, loving, attractive and sexy. She is wise and follows her intuitions. She is spontaneous, adventurous, funny, dignified and honest. She is fun to be with and is a great cook. She is inspirational and motivating.
30 years ago I wrote a poem of my dream lady. Having known Trudi for over a year, Now I feel that it was meant for her.
I love you four seasons,
I need you for reasons
That last thru the year.
In winter you're a lover,
A child playing with fire
Wanting excitement
Hot with desire.
In spring you're a young girl
A flowering bud.
Overflowing with life,
Filled with God's love.
In summer you're a lady
A refreshing cool shower.
Proud and inviting
Like a blossoming flower.
In fall you're a woman,
A colorful fountain.
Pure and majestic
A towering mountain.
So please melt me in winter
With your soothing warm flame.
And refresh me like spring does
In that very same way.
Act like a lady
Give me that summertime feeling
Delight me with your colors
Give fall a new meaning.
Sweenaly is Trudi's pet poodle. Trudi treats her like a child. She is a very special dog, and Trudi feels that there is a human child somehow inside Sweenaly. Sweeney is like a child and fortunately barks only when we are going away or when she recognizes a place from the car. The rest of the time she communicates silently with her dance, her tail, her ears and her one and only eye. She tilts her head and wags her tail in a dance Trudi understands. Sweeny is always one step ahead anticipating Trudi's every move.
For luck Sweenaly has taken to me and I have taken to her, especially when I never really liked dogs all that much. She knows when I am coming home on my motorcycle before I actually arrive. She is very small and very soft and limp, almost like she was a rag doll with no joints. Her back legs are joined only by muscle and her gait is more like that of a bear or a sheep than like that of a dog.
Sweenaly had a close call when a heavy pane of glass fell on her paw. It could have easily killed her if it would have fallen on her. Poor Sweenaly had to wear a cast for 3 weeks. When she went for walks she was like a pirate, with one eye and a wooden leg. At home she clobbered on the floor like a blind man with a cane. We go walking regularly in many different places. Trudi knows every path in the woods and often finds and makes new ones. We pick berries when they are ripe and Trudi makes jam for the year and for giving away. We went to a mushroom exhibit and started to pick mushrooms for a while.
Our first bike ride was very memorable. Sweenaly was in a basket on the back of Trudi's bicycle and Trudi's backpack was on the back of my bike. Sweenaly jumped out while Trudi was riding and got caught in the wheel spokes. Miraculously she didn’t get hurt. A while later we noticed that Trudi's pack fell off my bike somewhere along the way. Fortunately I found it lying on the road when I raced back to look for it. Soon after that, Trudi's feet kept on being thrown off the pedal as she was peddling. Then the peddle itself kept on falling off the bike.
We do many things together and each day is filled with memorable events. We took a dancing class and realized we were good as long as she was leading and I was following. Fortunately she lets me lead some of the Tangos. We celebrate all birthdays from Trudi’s 4 kids, her 9 grandkids, her 2 brothers and 2 sisters and her many friends. We took Florian, Manuel and Benjamin to the zoo in Zurich for their birthday. The kids were so funny on the train. They reminded me of my own boys when they were that age. Thanks to Trudi’s magnetism for animals, we saw many animals. The monkeys came down to be observed from up close just as we passed by. The new born lions came out with their proud mother just when we were there. The babies were playing and the mother was displaying her pride. Another highlight, especially for the kids was the boa-constrictor who was ready for his petting just as we were going thru.
At the end of the day, we gave the kids some money for a souvenir. They each bought toy monkeys with arms and legs made of strings with magnets on the ends that grab on to any iron. That made great entertainment for the ride back home, as the kids kept on finding new ways to use the toys. They would break out in laughter as each one was funnier than the one before. It was a lot of fun to be with them.
Trudi has a very soft heart for animals and whenever she sees an animal, she melts. It seems that she attracts animals. She feeds foxes that come by our house. Once on our walk we were greeted by 7 calves with their little bells with a pig that seemed to want to integrate with the calves. Then another time we saw 2 birds making love on a branch right under the birdhouse. Then once we saw a swarm of bees following their queen to a new hive. They came very close to our house and it looked like dark smoke. Once we saw tiny baby spiders climbing over each other to a place that resembled a vibrating jelly made up of spiders crawling over each other. The only animals that Trudi has problems with are mice. I was told that once when Trudi was driving she saw a mouse cross the road and she automatically lifted both her feet off the floor of the car.
Elsa
Elsa was in America celebrating her 90 th birthday party when she suddenly fell while she was just standing still. She did not trip, but her legs gave way and buckled. Unable to get up she was rushed off in an ambulance. Being on the uncomfortable hard stretcher in the ambulance was the worst part of it all, she later told me. She had a hip replacement operation and came back and recovered in a few months. Elsa's children were very worried that should she fall, she is so far away from the neighbors that she would not be able to call for help. They convinced her to buy an alarm system that she could wear on her wrist like a watch and that she could call for help if she falls by pushing a button. Unfortunately Elsa got the cheapest alarm watch without any service guarantees.
Then the alarm started giving false alarms that annoyed the neighbors who had agreed to investigate whenever the alarm activated. People thought that she was accidentally pressing the button. She sent it in for repair but the store left her without a replacement. She told me that she had been a loyal customer for decades and bought all her house appliances there. How they treated her was greatly disturbing to Elsa. She told me that she has not felt as angry at anyone as she felt towards the store owner. She told me that her anger was making her sick. All that anger and being cooped up in her house during the harsh winter was hard on Elsa. She got a mild stroke and claimed to have trouble talking for a while. She also claimed to have short term memory loss. When Trudi heard all this she agreed to help find a solution to the problem. She phoned many places and found Elsa a new alarm watch that automatically called professional people instead of the neighbors.
Life with Trudi
Half a year later after making my move and proclaiming my love to Trudi, I have finally moved in with her. All what is left of my belongings, mainly books are up in her attic. Moving out was not easy. Trudi tried to convince me that I should throw everything away. My house plant was moved out while we painted the studio and they froze. I thought that they had died, but Trudi managed to save them. I felt great and fit. I was doing pushups every night and every morning, as many as I could do. I started 6 months ago with 15. I felt that it was doing my heart good to have it revved up like a motor. I figured it would be good for my blood vessels as well to be stretched a bit to their limit every day. Day by day I was able to do more and more. I amazed myself when I reached 50 push-ups 5 months later.
One evening we were at our neighbors discussing high blood pressure. I shared my story about how 3 years ago I had extremely high blood pressure and how I was able to reduce it from 185/120 to 145/100 by taking garlic, drinking herbal teas, and reducing my cream, butter, bacon and eggs. I agreed to have my blood pressure measured and it was back to the 185/120 level. Trudi was very concerned and sent me off to my doctor. I was so touched by her argument that she didn’t want to lose me that I agree to take any medication prescribed. My doctor was very pleased to hear that I finally agreed to take the medications. I was pleased to notice that the only side effects that I had from the medication was that my appetite greatly increased and that my stamina for doing my push-up increased from 50 to 70.
A few weeks later as I was working in Martin’s butcher shop I suddenly had a hot flash. I went in the cooler to cool down and found myself surrounded by pig heads hanging on hooks. I felt weaker and weaker until I felt dizzy and asked Marianna the bookkeeper to drive me home. Trudi was away and I lay down on the couch. Marianna called to see how I was, but I felt too weak to answer the phone. She called a second time and I was able to answer it. Feeling my situation, Marianne suggested that she drive me to the hospital. At first I almost rejected her offer thinking that a rest would make me feel better.
Then before I knew it I was being examined by a team of doctors at the emergency in the hospital just up the road from where we lived. They told me that I was suffering from an acute heart attack. They got me into an ambulance and drove with the sirens to the hospital in Bern where they operated on me right away. They shoved a cable up my artery in my legs and pushed it up to where the blockage was and inflated a balloon and left a metal tube inside to keep the blocked artery opened. Later they explained that if I had been 1 hour later I would have probably died.
The week before, the fountain in our garden got blocked. The bronze statue of a girl pouring water from a vase got blocked and dried up. We tried everything to unblock her with high air pressure and wires, but nothing worked. I eventually dug up the buried tubes all the way from the pump to the statue. After many investigations we were able to conclude that the blockage was in the statue itself. So we connected a container filled with the strongest decalcifiers that we could find and hung it above her head over-night to let the gravity work the solution down. It reminded me of a patient in a hospital with a glucose drip.
The following week, I found myself hooked up to drips and instruments. I was allowed home to celebrate my 60 th birthday. Trudi arraigned friends and family to visit during the entire day and I felt lucky to be alive and in such good company. Trudi and I think many times the same thoughts at the same time. We are synchronized. Trudi thinks we make a good team. I agree. Her admirable leadership qualities and her inspiring and motivating ways make her very convincing. We are openly thankful for each other and openly show it and say it daily. We like and feel comfortable with each other. We share our joys and sorrows with each other. We accept and trust each other. The fact that we love each other makes it that much more wonderful.
Trudi is very special. One day I backed out of the garage with the trunk of the car left opened. If the car would have been 1 cm higher or the door 1cm lower I would have damaged Trudi's new car and her garage door at the same time. When I was telling Trudi's friend Lenni about how lucky I was, Lenni told me that should that have happened, Trudi would not have held a grudge, she would have only eased my pain by saying that that nearly happen to her too.
We finally got our rubber raft and used it one day to drift down the Aare, the fastest river in Europe. Everything went really great till I jumped out for a swim and Trudi lost a paddle. The rubber raft got under a rope that was used by river surfers. The force of the river and Trudi's force combined to such a level that the boat folded in two pieces throwing Trudi and our bags out into the river. The boat and bag all ended up on the shore. I watched it all helplessly as I drifted down river before it occurred to me that I should swim to shore.
Fritz our neighbor had a close call when Erica inadvertently drove into his car in the garbage dump. Fritz was pinned under his car but suffered only painful bruises to his chest. To celebrate the fortune that the accident was not worse, Erica invited us to go up to her Swiss Chalet that his husband Peter built with his brother. He used all the wood that nature blew down in the storm of 2000 that caused so much devastation that it was given the name “Lothard” and set up a saw mill to cut it into lumber. He used the lumber to build a huge chalet. It is 3 stories high and about 30 meters long. He built a road that a tractor or a 4 wheel drive car can drive on. He has a cheezery and had what looked like over a hundred big wheels of cheese.
Canada
In 2009, we decided to take a vacation in Canada. Matias and Christopher were able to come up for an evening to wish us well on our trip. Up till the day before the flight I thought that I had convinced Trudi to travel light. But she started to pack two days too early and we ended up with the maximum amount we were allowed to take. We were going on holidays for the first time together and it was very exciting. The security at the airport was very tight. I had to take off my belt and shoes and had to explain that I had a metal tube in my heart when their probes refused to quit beeping when they scanned my chest for weapons. By the time they took most of Trudi's creams and soaps, the crowded boarding bus had left and we got to have a whole bus all to ourselves. It was such a relieving feeling to finally take off.
It was just getting dark when we landed in Toronto. The car we rented was waiting for us in Toronto. By the time we got a map and found the right way it was midnight when we arrived in Niagara falls. The streets were full with people of all ages, from toddlers to teenagers and grandparents. We walked to the falls and saw their beauty under the colored lights. We walked around the fall until we got wet and cold. Everything was junky and lit up like Las Vegas. By the time we found our car we had enough of Niagara Fall at night. Ellie was waiting up for us and had our bed ready. Adam was in Chicago with his fiancé Zhang. Trudi, not wanting to intrude insisted that we spend the first night at a motel.
The next day, Shah took us back to see Niagara Falls at daytime. We walked around the botanical gardens and saw the locks that are used by all ships that go between the 4 great lakes and from the Atlantic Ocean. We joined him on his hike one day and met some very nice people. One day we went to a country fair where we saw how the people dressed, shopped, and lived 300 years ago. We saw the school house and the machines they had. There was a very good band of fiddlers and an open air theater.
Algonquin park was our next destination. We camped in the most remote part of camp. We went for a short walk along the lake and had a nude swim in the same spot that I swam with Adam and Mathew the last time I was here about 15 years ago. The wilderness and roughness of the park was breathtaking. We were taking a short cut to our tent as it was getting dark and I was innocently reciting to Trudi about stories of people getting lost and being eaten alive by mosquitoes in the Canadian wilderness. In some places you can go for hundreds of kilometers in any direction without crossing another road. We were both so captivated by the dense wilderness around us that as it got dark we both realized that we were momentarily lost. Fortunately we were able to follow the noise of the cars driving in and out of the campground to find the road in the dark.
The next day we rented a canoe for a day. We paddled all around the lake. We saw an otter, a turtle and many birds. We saw many beaver dams but no beavers. We went hiking and saw how wild nature could be and how accurately it is portrayed and painted by the world famous group of local artists called “The Group of Seven”. We did most of the short walks in the park. There was a museum where we saw all the animals we were expecting to see in the wild stuffed and placed in their native habitat under bright spot lights. I thought the exposition was well done, especially the underwater parts of the beaver exhibit with the beaver diving underwater. Trudi at first glance did not realize that it was an underwater scene and thought it was unrealistic as she thought that the beaver was flying in the air, instead of diving in the water. Our last stop in the park was the museum about the lumbermen who harvested the lumber to rebuild houses destroyed in the many wars in Europe. We saw how dangerous their work was and how terribly they and their work horses were treated.
Then came Killaloe, where I lived with Christopher before we moved to Switzerland in 1986. The cheap motel I thought of staying at was closed. It was just as well as Trudi told me she wouldn't have stayed there anyway. We turned around and found a very nice Bed and Breakfast. The next morning we saw that it had a very nice art gallery as well. The man working there knew all the people I knew. After a big breakfast we drove to the house that I raised Christopher up in and walked around where we used to walk. Then we visited Garnet Granz, the insurance man who I knew, who knew everyone else. He told me that he has not seen me as happy as I was right then and there.
We drove thru an Indian reservation, where resident Indians are exempt from local laws. We entered what we thought was a café. The table had a few large ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts. Two big fat Indians were sitting in the living room. They told us that their place was not a cafe, but a smoke shop dealing with tax-free cigarettes. They proudly showed us unpacked cigarettes that looked like they just came from a rolling machine. Indian reservations have a degree of autonomy and the police are not allowed to enter. Cigarettes have a high tax and the Indians were openly selling their contraband cigarettes at a fraction of the price found in stores.
We went to Jennifer's book store and as usual it was open. Jennifer was unfortunately not at home. The store on the other side selling tea told us that she was away for a few days. We sent some SMS and had onion rings mushrooms and perogies at the restaurant on the reservation. On the way to Al in Foymount, a friend I wanted to visit, we saw a plant nursery called Gerber. Trudi got homesick seeing the Swiss name and we decided to investigate. It was lovely greenhouses with exotic plants of all types, but unfortunately the Gerber's were not home. We found Al's house which used to be a hospital at the deserted army base, claimed to be the highest point in Ontario. Like Jennifer`s book store, Al left his house open. Al was unfortunately not at home.
Sylvia was next on my list. She lived in a very remote house at the very edge of the Canadian wilderness. Sylvia unfortunately hurt her back and was in pain when we arrived. When she heard that Trudi was disappointed in not having photographed a real bear, she showed Trudi bear shit near her garden to photograph instead. She took in troubled teenagers from institutions and provided a halfway home for them to help them integrate. She had a very direct approach. She told those who threaten to run away which way to go to reach the road and avoid getting lost in the woods. To those that were a threat for cutting themselves intentionally, she advised them to avoid using dull knives and showed them where the sharp ones were in the kitchen. She spun, wove and made jam to sell and taught various courses. She was recently found by her daughter who she gave up for adoption when she was raped as a 14 year old and got pregnant.
When we got to talk about Marlise, Sylvia told us that she could be found in one of her remote cabins that she owned on lake fronts. We tried to find her to thank her for her part in getting me to Switzerland to marry her friend Susanne. Trying to find her was an adventure. The first remote cabin was on a relative good road but no one was home. The second actually broke the bottom of our rented car and we were lucky we could turn around and keep driving.
On the way to Peter & Marylin, Christopher`s godparents, we visited the Bonchere Caves. We arrived just in time for a tour. We were the only ones and our tour guide was the owner of the caves. He explained what a responsibility he had in keeping the caves open - especially for the 500 or so bats that were starting to move in for the winter.
We arrived at Peter's house to find him home and he was too dazed to recognize me. Then we called Al and invited him to join us. When Marylin came home from shopping we drove to a restaurant where Al was waiting for us. We had a great time reminiscing about our past.
Like going backward in time, the next stop was David and Kathrine. The house that was my first apartment when I was 23 years old happened to be just open for renovation. It must have been lunch time because nobody was in it. We walked into my old apartment taking pictures like we wanted to buy the place. Then it was on to find David's house. The flower shop was the first store I tried. They told me that Katherine was just in a while ago and they gave me her address. We walked down the main street of the town and there is very little of it that I could recognize. When we finally arrived at David's house, his canoe was just where I saw it the last time I was there with Adam and Mathew. Kathrine was home alone waiting for David. She had no idea of who I was. David soon came home to our rescue by recognizing me. He invited us to his Celtic music group he was playing guitar in. He took us to Ottawa and to places he hikes with Kathrine. His band gave a concert at an old folk’s home and we attended. Then we went to a nice Italian restaurant and gave our thanks and said our goodbyes.
Next morning we left to see camp Weredale where I spent my summers between the ages of 8 to 16. We fixed the car and we were surprised to have to pay so little, especially that the mechanic ended up drilling into his finger. The closer we were in reaching Camp Weredale, the more excited I got to relive and share my memories of it with Trudi. Just before we arrived, we passed by this very exclusive resort on a lake that was like a 5 star hotel. Each room was a cabin on its own. I thought a nice meal in a nice restaurant would be the perfect way to start my Camp Weredale tour I was so eager to present. Trudi got captivated by the hotel. The towels on the bed maticulously folded up to look like swans kind of depressed me but clearly impressed Trudi The grounds had animation signs in all over the place such as "Amusez Vous!" or "Sourriez Vouz! Maintenant!" that spoke directly to me, made us laugh and raised my mood. The resort had everything from canoeing to tennis. Unfortunately it was too cold for canoeing and my feet hurt too much for tennis. We used the swimming pool and the sauna and had a meal cooked by an award winning chef that did not impress us at all. We made use of the laundry facilities and washed all our clothes while we had a romantic diner.
We finally went to look for Camp Weredale the next morning it was just around the next lake. It was much the same as when I saw it the last time. I went to all the spots I remembered as a kid. A few hours was enough and we drove to Montreal. We drove by the church that didn’t let my mother in when she took us to a mass one Christmas. They were selling tickets to enter and she couldn't afford to enter. She was so hurt that she turned from a devoted church goer to one who believed that life on earth was actually the hell described in the bible. She never again went to church. We went to all the places I always go when I visit Montreal. My neighborhood, Weredale House, St Joseph’s oratory and Mount Royal. We drove around the wealthy part of Westmount to see the beautiful houses before driving outside the city to find a motel. We rested an hour and took the bus and Metro to the old part of Montreal to enjoy the evening. It was enchanting for both of us. We walked around the old part of the city and found a quiet restaurant and had a stylish meal.
Next on my list was Norma McKinnon, my music teacher when I was 13 years old. On the way to her house, we drove to a Safari where we saw all kinds of animals from the car. A lot of them seemed to think the cars were moving feeding troughs and they put their entire head in our car as far as they could to get some food. Two giraffes made love in front of us. We both enjoyed seeing the children animals. Trudi told me that she would have like to have children with me. I was touched as for me it is the greatest compliment a woman can give a man.
When we finally arrived at Norma’s the first question she asked was if Trudi played an instrument. When I proudly answered for Trudi she sat Trudi at her piano and adjusted the seat for her. She had me rush upstairs to get her music and her violin. Trudi played excellent especially as she never saw the music before. She ended up drilling Trudi on the difficult parts with her commandeering German and made Trudi repeat it until she got it right. Then she took us to see her son's farm. Angus has 150 milking cows that produce 1.2 million liters of milk a year. Angus swore by "Round-up" the fertilizer that killed everything else except the genetically modified crops called “Round-up ready”. He claimed that he could never achieve such yields of milk to stay in business without the benefits of gene technology. He implanted genetically rich and very expensive fertilized eggs into normal cows to give birth to cows with exceptional large painfully looking udders that gave exceptionally high quantity of milk. All of his cows were tagged with electronic tags. Everything on his farm was automated. The feeding robot mixed the food from various grains and vitamins and minerals individually mixed for each cow. Andus reminded me of Martin, Trudi’s son the time he was describing his new meat-smoking machine for his butcher shop. Angus showed us how the machine was programmed to feed each cow individually according to it's individual requirements for producing milk or meat. Trudi and I found it very interesting to see a bit of Canadian farming.
We invited Norma to a fancy restaurant nearby. I almost had to laugh at the extravagance. When I asked for salt and pepper, the snobby waiter in a tuxedo insisted on sprinkling it on my food for me. I almost grabbed the shakers from his hands. Trudi found it very amusing. Norma really enjoyed being treated like a lady. We were having a great discussion and she spoke German almost as good as me.
She told us about her neighbor, a Swiss couple, Heinz & Marianne, who came over 20 years ago to farm. We immediately asked to be introduced to them. Norma phoned them while she was cooking us porridge for breakfast and made an appointment for us to meet them.
We said goodbye to her and drove to Heinz & Marianne Sanchez’s farm. Their farm is about a third the size of Angus’s, and they don’t use genetically modified crops. They also raise miniature horses the size of a large dog that can be trained to serve the blind. in 6 weeks instead of the 3 years it takes to train a seeing-eye dog. They live much longer than dogs and don't bark. They are treated as house pets and have been known to sleep in the bed of the blind they lead and to be able to open doors to go outside to the bathroom by themselves.
Our next stop was Jacob and Hedi. Trudi’s Fritz was Jacob’s wrestling coach and friend. Trudi remembered when they bought a farm in Canada 20 years ago and started their life there with only what they carried in suitcases from Switzerland. We camped near Toronto. We cooled off with a swim in the lake and went shopping for something to grill over the fire. We just finished eating when the first few raindrops started to fall. I found it so nice to be in the tent, warm and dry and to hear the rain fall on the tent’s roof. The next day we continued on to Jacob & Hedi stopping by one of the nicest restaurants on our trip.
The first evening with Jacob and Hedi, we were up till 2am. They told us their story of how they came to Canada 20 years ago with almost nothing but the clothes they were wearing. They ended up raising 3 children and running a pig farm. The price of pigs suddenly plummeted one year and they got bankrupt. Now they harvest bio soybeans to sell to Japan for making tofu. They use their silo to wait for the right time to sell their harvest. They check the prices on the internet daily and sell at the opportune time. Jacob has more than 10 cow bells trophies for wrestling tournaments and each bell had its own story. He remembered how Fritz once said goodbye to an annoying man by squeezing the unfortunate man’s hand painfully hard. Jacob did the same to a Canadian official when they were refused entrance the first time for not having enough money. Jacob was now a modern cowboy driving pigs and cattle to their slaughter. Sometimes he covers 800km a day. On long trips Hedi goes along and they sleep in the truck's cabin.
Hedi drove us to the biggest salt mines in the world 5 km under Lake Huron. We could smell the salt in the air as it was being carried in open trucks to be graded and stored in silos and then loaded on ships to be shipped all over the world. The lake is too wide to see the other side. It is 230m deep and the beach and waves and salt smell made it seem like we were on an ocean. Millions of years ago it was an ocean and the lake was its deepest point. Then probably after the last ice age it overflowed into the Atlantic Ocean and over the thousands of years drained, receded and shrank. The salt accumulated as the ocean slowly dried up to eventually refill into what is the remaining 5 Great Lakes.
The next day we drove around to see the countryside. We saw many very big farms where one family owned all the land as far as you could see. We saw Amish riding their black carts. On the last day, we all went to a farmer's market where we saw animals being auctioned off. We saw a lot of Amish from close up and I got the impression that there were signs of inbreeding.
A pan flute attracted our attention right as we entered. The man was selling pan-flutes and CDs and was playing. As we were listening to him play, Swiss friends of Jacob & Hedi who came to Canada at about the same time 20 years ago met us. When they introduced themselves Trudi remembered them indirectly as friends of her long-time neighbor Fritz & Rosemarie. They also had friends who were visiting from Switzerland. One of them was a Dora from Guggisberg who looked very much like Irene, a woman Trudi met a week before our vacation. Irene is the daughter of a two time Swiss Wrestling Champion. She was opening a Swiss Wrestling Museum on the top floor of her restaurant. It is the first and only Swiss Wrestling museum in Switzerland, despite being the Swiss national sport. Swiss Wrestling, called “schwingen“ or “the swing“ has a long history that started many hundreds of years ago as a pass-time for the young farmers who brought their cows up the mountains for the summer to graze. They wrestled on a layer of saw-dust that made a level soft mat over the rough hard ground. Irene came to Trudi to look for any wrestling memorabilia from Fritz, a well renowned Swiss Wrestler. During her visit she told Trudi of her amazing fortune of having discovered recently that she had a half-sister called Dora. When Trudi saw Dora at the Amish market, she recognized her right away. She looked just like Irene.
The next morning we drove back to Ellie's. We both melted when we saw Isaac. He is so sweet and he has a face of a 3 year old angle. He is very considerate. We wanted to take him to McDonald’s and ended up in his neighborhood that he recognized. He told us he knew where a McDonald’s was, but warned us that it was far away. While we were trying to find it we got more and more lost and Isaac fell asleep. Finally when we found a McDonald's we woke him up. He looked at us with his huge black eyes and said "I told you it was far". As he was playing in the playground, a boy his age screeched. Isaac took it personally and started to sob.
Zhang and Adam are in love. They talk for hours and Zhang feels lucky in having met Adam. When we told her about Trudi meeting Dora she told us that she believed that her own meeting with Adam was prearranged in a way. Six years ago Adam went to visit his uncle Rahat in Toronto. Out of respect he wore a special hat similar to what Bin O Laden wears. Adam was attacked at 3 in the afternoon on a street filled with people. While he was beaten and kicked, onlooker on the street just turned and walked away. He ended up in a hospital for a few days. When he recovered he found that he could not find where he parked his car before he was attacked. While he was looking for his car he saw Zhang and asked her if she knew the neighborhood. Zhang helped him find his car and they have been together ever since. Zhang gives Adam credit for having passed her dental studies as she claims her English was not good enough to write all the necessary papers, and Adam wrote all of them getting top marks. Adam plans to run the legal and marketing aspects of her dental practice they hope to have. They plan to open a chain of dental offices probably staffed by Chinese dentists trying to get their American dentist papers.
Ellie & Shah invited us to an Indian restaurant and a concert in a big church. The orchestra played instruments as they were made 300 years ago. David & Tara took us to a baseball game. The game was played in a stadium for 60,000 fans. We were 1 hour late and when we entered, it was 0 for Toronto and 0 for the American team. Within 10 minutes, by the time we got to our seats, Toronto was losing by 3 points. Then it got exciting as near the end of the game it was 4-4. Toronto scored a point and won the game in overtime. We went up to the 450 m CN Tower from where we could look at the beautiful architecture in Toronto from above. In honor of my mother, I invited everyone to her favorite restaurant, Swiss Chalet, not only because the chicken and gravy was good, but because they gave a 2nd cup of coffee for free. My mother loved to shop and buy gifts. In her honor we went and bought gifts to bring back to our family. On our last evening we saw a high definition stereo version of the musical Cats performed from London and played on Shah's home entertainment system which he is very proud of.
The drive to the airport was a little hectic especially when we realized that we weren’t sure which way we were going after the exit to the airport was detoured. Once again we made a great team. I jumped in and out of the car at almost every intersection desperately asking whoever I could for directions. As we were in the boarding area waiting to enter the airplane, there was a man sitting who looked like a photographer because he was carrying what looked like a folded up tripod. He also had a daze that made you wonder what he was thinking so deeply about. His stare was so intense that his eyes seemed to be popping out. We both thought he looked like a terrorist.
When we boarded we were shocked to see the very same man seated next to us. He introduced himself as blind from birth. He was a Muslim charity worker who went often to Africa on aid projects. He fell in love with a lady there and he was going there to marry her. He was going to try to get the Canadian officials to let his African wife into Canada. It reminded me of when the Canadian officials didn't let my wife Anita into Canada because of her illness. We talked about many things, especially about being blind. He dreamt in sounds. He was able to cope better than us with his crowded tray. We spilt our wine and he realized it by listening to the sounds we were making cleaning it up. He told me that for him the concept of color made no sense. Especially how we tie it to temperature. That red should be hot and blue should be cold makes no sense to him. Especially when a red apple feels cold and a blue car in the sun feels hot. He was blind from birth and was brought up and schooled in a normal setting. He was a professional wrestler on TV for a while. The only blind one. But he gave it up as it was too painful falling all the time. He told me that what frustrated him the most was when people did not talk directly to him. Like asking his friends for example what he would like to order in a restaurant.
He told me he is most grateful for his parents for treating him like a normal boy and did not over protect him even to the point of letting him get hurt once in a while in the playground. When I asked him if there were any benefits to being blind, he replied that he felt that there was one. Not being prejudiced by how someone looks. I found him a most wise man. He reminded me of the time I wanted to help a blind man on a busy street. I was looking for the traffic light to turn green and when it did I proudly told him that it was safe to cross when he suddenly stopped me and held me back preventing that I walk blindly into a car that he heard was turning the corner.
The final stop in our holiday was Amsterdam and we had a 5 hour stay over. The plane landed early in the morning and we could see all the cars going to work. The lighted greenhouses made a very interesting sight. We got on the first train we could hop on and when we arrived in the city center, I invited Trudi to come to a cafe to smoke a joint. She laughed adding that she would never go into such a place. We agreed to meet somewhere up along the main street. The cafe was very nice and the man behind the counter was very helpful. He asked me if I wanted an “up” or a “down”. When I asked who would ever want a “down” he explained that the ups wake you up while the downs relaaaaax you.
When I left the cafè, I saw Trudi approach me. She was like she was very angry. She was talking very loud and told me that it was all over between us. I was devastated and in shock. She speedily walked away and let me follow her like a dog. She explained that she realized by seeing me so drugged that I cannot live without smoking. We were both shocked by each other's behavior. We eventually both decided to try to enjoy Amsterdam and to not talk about who shocked who first until we were back on the plane. We decided to treat the last hour like a fart after a good meal. And just like a loud fart doesn't linger long, we were able to get on and enjoy Amsterdam. The buildings were all crooked and looked like they were from a fairy tale book.
We were given a very warm welcome when we came home. Rolf & Vreni picked us up in Bern. Fritz & Rosemarie who took care of Sweenaly were waiting for us. So were all 4 cats.
Life with Trudi
The 3 floor apartment block with the 12 apartments that Trudi owns was built by her enterprising father 40 years ago. Each time someone moves out, Trudi renovates the apartments by removing the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. She installs a new kitchen, a new bathroom and covers the floor with new panels.
She coordinates all the work needed from plumbers, electricians, painters and floor layers. She made a study on how much renovating costs she could deduct from her tax and decided to change the windows the following year. I was very impressed by how she handled her various projects. Fritz left her part owner of a restaurant that was going increasingly into debt because it was unmanaged. She mediated that her son Martin, a butcher by trade take over full ownership of the business. This caused a split in the family with the 3 other children feeling cheated by their brother Martin. Martin turned the business around that would have made his father Fritz very proud.
Our neighbor Fritz Rohrbach is a handy man and he goes with Trudi once in a while to a home builder’s hardware warehouse where they can wonder around admiring all the gadgets, tools and machines. Trudi offered me the job as the janitor of her apartment block when the janitor moved out. I reluctantly took it and surprisingly found the work enjoyable and invigorating. In the summer, I had to cut the grass every second week, and in the winter, I had to shovel the snow away around the block.
When Elsa visited her family in Utah last year, she made a sudden turn and broke both her hips. She was operated in America. She was suffering more and more from her hip replacement and her Swiss doctor just kept on prescribing medication. Peter her son insisted the doctor send her to have an x-ray and to see experts. It was soon determined that the bones around the hip replacement were dying as they were not getting the blood supply they needed. By that time, Elsa was in such bad shape that she needed to go to hospital for an operation to correct the problem. Elsa was close to dying. I saw her gradually lose her will to live. Within a few months she made a full recovery and she is back to her normal active self.
We saw some great theater. Priska, Trudi`s daughter joined an amateur theatrical club and we saw some of the group performed. The theater was in a small restaurant in a very ancient cellar. There was no stage or any props. She played a lawyer to a man who unwillingly became involved in a black money washing scheme that suddenly left him a millionaire. Priska is very beautiful and has great acting skills.
We saw a play about a local Swiss heroin called Vrenelli of Guggisberg. It is a kind of Romeo and Juliet play where two lover who are not allowed to marry because they come from different classes of society. We saw a very interesting play about the people of Rueschegg, a community close by. The people were very poor 100 years ago and they were known to carry their wares in wagons all over Switzerland to sell them door to door. The play had the spectators riding in a coach with the actors on the side of the road begging for food like they had to do 200 years ago. We had to walk from setting to setting. We were given soup that was given to the starving locals at that time.
We also went to a theater about the local animal doctor of last century who founded the local bank in Ruegisberg, our neighboring town. It was very interesting to see how the local area was developed. The stage was an outside setting next to an old farmhouse so there were no props except for the actors with their horses and wagons. We went to the west of Switzerland and saw a play that was about how poor families were forced to sometimes sell their children into a kind of slavery to be chimney sweepers. We also saw a big production with the huge stage built on Thun Lake. It was about a love story about a rich refined lady from the upper society and an alcoholic barber from the lower class.
We took a mushroom course and Trudi can now recognize most of the wild mushrooms that we find on our walks. Whenever we find ones we can eat we cook and eat them. We started to play cards with our neighbors Fritz and Rosemarie. It is a Swiss card game that is played in teams called “Jass“.
My big toe was growing more and more inward and I finally had my feet operated. I was not able to walk on it for 6 weeks. I used the time to publish into book form all that I wrote. I was amazed at the Print-On-Demand possibilities available. You can submit a book to be printed in a bound book format for much less than it would cost to print it out on a home printer. The book is available to be bought on-line. So I ordered some copies and sent them to my family and friends who could read English.
Egypt
We went to Egypt for our 2010 holiday. We went to Sharm el Sheikh with Analise and Walter, friends of Trudi and Fritz. They used to go together on their holidays with all their kids. We stayed in a very nice hotel with very nice corals right on their beach. The food was fantastic and everything was provided. We had many memorable moments. One was where Trudi entered the wrong room which was identical to ours. She saw that the safe where we kept all our valuables and documents was open and empty. She was in such a shock that it took her a while to realize that she was in the wrong room.
The fish swimming around the corals were fantastically beautiful. All the Egyptians were very friendly and helpful. We went on a night out in the desert with the Bedouin to look at how they live and to buy some of their handcrafts. Then we were introduced to the stars which in the dry desert shine exceptionally bright. We saw Saturn thru the telescope as well as the craters of the moon. It was a very nice evening. The children of the Bedouin joined us and led us to dance with them. We were surprised not to see any women but I suppose they were busy cooking us the meal that the men served us.
Trudi and I flew to Cairo for a day to see the pyramids. They were fascinating. I managed to walk around them but I had to do it alone as it was outside the tourist zone and we were warned not to go out too far by ourselves as we were prone to being robbed. The feeling I got around the pyramids was that time stood still at times and rushed by at other times and that the hour we were given to walk around freely was much too short. We rode on a horse drawn wagon driven by a young man and his 10 year old son. I was impressed that when we arrived at the point you could see all the pyramids, the boy looked under my seat and told me that some coins fell out of my pocket. Trudi and I found some men very brutal to their animals. We were surprised to see the pyramids so close to Cairo and to see the camels and horses go home by themselves at the end of the day. The Bedouin keep their animals in garages next to their houses. We went to the famous museum where we were surprised to see all the Egyptian tourists and local visitors. We were both surprised that Cairo was so large. We visited both a Mosque and a Cathedral.
We went out to a tourist place one evening and saw belly dancing and a man who twirled so fast that his four or five colored skirts he wore made a special effect that was dizzying to look at. What was incredible was that he kept twirling nonstop for about 20 minutes. Because Walter did not snorkel with us, we took him on a glass bottom boat so that he could see some fish and corals. All the other days we got up late, ate a big breakfast and spent the day on the beach. Everything was included so we ate and drank whatever and whenever we wanted. We went snorkeling every couple of hours and we read and contemplated the easy life.
Swiss wrestling
We went to The Swiss National Wrestling Competition held every three years in a different part in Switzerland. Fritz, Trudi's husband, was very involved in the sport, first as a wrestler, and then as president of the National Wrestling Organization. He won over 50 trophies. He won his first at age 17 and holds the record of being the youngest wrestler ever to win in a national competition. Swiss wrestling requires both strength and agility. The wrestling is over a round 10 meter diameter thick mat of saw dust. The object is to grab your opponent by his pants and throw him on his back. The person who is first to have both shoulders on the ground at the same time loses. In Swiss style, the winner helps the looser get up and brushes the sawdust off him.
Fritz was a renowned strategic fighter known for some of the moves he originated, perfected and used to win. We sat in a very choice spot reserved for honored guests like Trudi. Next to us was an old man who Trudi had known as he had wrestled against Fritz many times. Fritz told Trudi that he was a very “dirty” wrestler, punching under the belt or getting in a last blow. He was dressed up in his local Swiss costume, quite opposite to what I imagined how Fritz would be like. The size of the stands, all temporary structures, was staggering. It sat 50,000 people most of them under a canvass roof. In the center were six 10 meter diameter round mounds of sawdust in a hexagon and a seventh mound in the middle. The roar of the crowd of approval and disapproval echoed during the fights. The atmosphere was like that of a roman gladiator fight you see in movies.
The defense minister of Switzerland, Ueli Maurer, came alone with a back pack and sat 5 rows below us. He was treated by the people around him like one of the crowd. He stayed till the very end and left by himself just as he came waiting in the crowded lines just like everyone else. The president of Switzerland also sat close by. She was accompanied by her Page, a young lady cloaked in a brightly colored regal clock carrying a staff and looking like a character from a theatrical play. The Page came from Riggisberg, and of course Trudi knew her.
We attended Trudi’s brother, Hans Ruedi’s and his wife’s Arianne's birthday party. I was so happy to be a part of such a nice family. On our way back we dropped into Irene's Wrestling Museum, the only one in Switzerland. We saw how dedicated Irene was. Her father was a two time “king” as the national tournament champion is called. Irene showed us the old picture that Trudi gave to the museum, probably one of the first photographs taken of the sport. To Trudi's surprise, Irene showed us the inscription on the back side. It was signed as a wedding present for Fritz and Trudi. Manuel and Florian, our 2 grandchildren from Billy and Ruth are not involved in the Swiss wrestling, but came in second and first in their age category on the national level of international wrestling. They were on the front page of the Thun city daily paper.
Canoe
We bought a canoe and took it out many times. We had to pick it up near Zug, about a 3 hour drive. We used a mattress to carry it on top of the car before making the foam pieces we saw in Canada used to carry canoes on car roofs. We paddled around a mountain lake nearby with shallow marshes and could get really close to many birds. Once we saw a nest with a little red bald head poking out. It brought back memories of our canoe trip in Canada. Trudi was especial happy to be able to bring the dogs with us. Another day we paddled down the Aare river to a place with wild geese protecting their young. We were a bit afraid of the geese going after and grabbing our Sweenaly or Onya while we were having a picnic. They came after our food after Trudi threw them a few pieces. I had to defend our food, our dogs and ourselves with my paddle. I took my motor bike to be able to get back to our car parked at the start point.
One day we took Benjamin and his friend from Germany out on a canoe trip. It was a wonderful day. Benjamin knew the lake we were on and took us to a very small sandy beach. There were other older kids there and they were jumping off into the lake from a 10 meter high rock. Benjamin and his friends took a few jumps. Then Benjamin took the canoe out by himself and suddenly it got too windy for him to paddle and he had to tow it in by swimming with it. We decided to paddle back to the car and when we got back to Benjamin’s house it got very windy. On our drive back home, the hails were the size of eggs and we were glad to have the roof of our car protected by the canoe on top. l. I imagined all of us under our canoes in the middle of the lake if the storm would have hit a few hours before it did. Another trip that I took myself was down the Aare river between Thun and Bern where the river narrowed and flowed extra fast. I already went down that part many times with the children, Adam and Trudi using our rubber raft. Unfortunately our canoeing lasted only a couple of years till Trudi got a new car with a window roof. She did not think the new car was suitable to carry a canoe.
Friends
We met many very interesting people who knew Fritz and remembered him being so involved in the past big wrestling events. Christian and Elizabeth the farming couple who used to hunt together came up to see us one day and recalled the good old times with yodeling and tales of the times both of them went hunting. As they were singing the hunting songs, Christian was acting out the hunt, from looking thru make believe binoculars to taking aim and shooting the animal with a make believe rifle.
We had visits from Otto and Doris, old time friends of Trudi, Fritz, and our neighbors, the Rohrbachs. They immigrated to Australia about 20 years ago. While Doris seemed happy to be going back home to Australia, poor Otto was clinging to his old pal Fritz Rohrbachs showing how much he missed and wanted to stay here in Switzerland.
Heinz and Elizabeth, longtime friends, moved to Riggisberg with their big poodle that gets along very well with our little poodles. Heinz plays the accordion as a one-man band. They came over one night and we played music outside in our garden.
We went to Therese and Nils a few times. Therese is another power lady like her mom Trudi is. She is doing well in her decoration business thanks to the nouvo rich Russians who buy the most expensive houses and order the most expensive curtains. She had very bad luck with her past men in her life. Her first man got MS and the second got crazy. Despite the marriage breaking up she has been able to keep a very good relationship with both men. Martin, the one with MS fills me with energy whenever we visit him. Nils, Therese’s 5 year old son is a beautiful looking boy. He is into action and Therese somehow encourages him to be a rascal. Nils is so attached to Therese that he has to be painfully torn away from her most of the time. Fortunately Therese met a banker thru the internet. Christian was thrown out by his x-wife and had to leave behind his son Luis, a few years older than Nils. The boys have become like brothers. Christian has a summer house in Appenzel and one day we were invited to stay up there a few days. He looks just like his father who took us up in the rain to go mushroom picking in the moss covered woods nearby.
Elsa stayed with us over Xmas. We brought her to our family visits. Everyone was so happy to have finally met her and everyone liked her very much. I was surrounded by power women and felt very proud. Trudi and Elsa invited friends and family to a private concert. They played 4 hand piano. I was very proud of Trudi and how elegant and full of grace she was.
Sweenaly
Trudi bought Sweenaly a new harness and leash. She began to bite anyone who tried to take her new harness off. A year ago that only happened when she was already in bed and sleeping when you tried to remove her harness. She growled first, then snapped and only if you persisted in removing the harness would she bite. She even bit Trudi in those circumstances. Gradually it happened more and more during the day. I had the idea of changing to a harness to one easier to remove. She got so possessive with her new harness that it suddenly got impossible to take it off without using leather gloves and another pair of hands to hold her down.
We took her to a doctor who confirmed that it was not pain that caused Sweenaly to bite anyone who tried to un clip her harness. It was like trying to removing a bra from a nun. A dog psychologist trainer gave us a lecture on dog psychology. Dogs are herding animals who have a recognized and accepted level within the herd hierarchy. She explained about the alpha, beta, and gamma types of dogs. Onya who sleeps in a dog bed next to our bed is a gamma dog, while Sweenaly who sleeps on our bed with us usually between us is a beta dog who is a control freak. She is a control freak because she is insecure. No wonder, being half the size of our cat and having only one eye that barely sees. When I snickered a bit at all this, the dog psychologist kindly warned me that if I didn’t want to end up with Onya on the floor, I should make an effort to maintain my alpha status in Sweeney’s herd. So now I understand Sweeney’s growling whenever she wants to be picked up or given a special treat. Before I thought it was an order, now I take it more as a complaint.
Being Swiss
The highlight in many ways of 2010 was that thanks to Trudi,`s influence in the community, I applied and got accepted for Swiss Citizenship. Being on social welfare, I was not expecting to get accepted. During the interview, when I was asked why I wanted to be Swiss, I told them that being on welfare I was afraid that one day my residency papers would not be renewed by a disgruntled bureaucrat who happened to get out of the wrong side of bed and because of that, I would lose out on being a grandfather to my grandchildren. When asked if I looked forward to being Swiss and being able to voice my vote in Swiss referendums, I told them that other than greatly admiring Swiss culture, I would be a passive honorary non-voting Swiss citizen letting the real Swiss citizens decide referendums. When asked about how I planned to integrate into Swiss society, I admitted that I was too old to learn the Swiss dialect or to change my culture, but that I did understand the dialect and I did admire the Swiss culture greatly. I promised that I would promote Switzerland to the world like a proud citizen.
Hungary
In 2011, we decided to go to Hungary for our vacation. It was to be a search for my roots. I envisioned canoeing on the many small rivers and ponds and stumbling on interesting places and meeting interesting people which you always meet on journeys of search. I looked forward to bicycling to remote cemeteries and looking for the name Vecsey. I planned to stay mainly in local Bed and Breakfasts where I looked forward to the special attention I usually get when they find out I was born in Hungary and can speak Hungarian. I was hoping to get to meet Tibor, Erzsy and their family and proudly introduce Trudi to them.
The more I googled the name Vecsey, the deeper I dug. I reached back to 10 generation in 1450 where one of my grand ancestor fathers started his family branch that led to counts, martyrs and the Vecseys who left their mark that had survived in statues, memorials, castles, buildings and street names. Because the trip was to be a search, it was to be spontaneous with no planning, other than to make a short few days to visit Ani, right at the end. We planned to take the car on the night train to Wien so that we would have more time in Hungary.
Our plans changed as we got closer to our departure. The canoe was the first to go. The right at the last moment the bikes had to be unload from the car and left behind because Trudi was afraid that we would not be able to load the bikes on the train. The train ride was so smooth that I missed the clickity clack sound that trains in my memory make.
We decided to drive direct to Hungary from Wien and stay there for the night in a Bed and Breakfast. Trudi wanted to visit a place she once went with her mother many years ago just on the Austrian side of the Hungarian border. She remembered Hungarian towers guarding the border against Hungarians who would otherwise flee. She also remembered being offered a big mug of beer that made her almost throw up feeling that it would have been too impolite to refuse to drink it.
We found the lake and the place to rent bikes ride around it. We drove to Szombatlely, where I was born and raised till I was 6 years old. We went to the square where our apartment used to be. I was raised up in and where I went to school. We spent a nice time and I enjoyed sharing with Trudi my boyhood.
Then we drove on to Nagykanizsa, where my father and sister were born and where my grandfather is buried. We found the Vecsey Street named after him in memory of his services to the town as its mayor. He built a great big family house but suddenly died 1 year later of appendicitis. We found the house and were able to enter just before they closed. It is a kindergarten now. I envisioned my father running around as we walked thru the neighbourhood. We drove up to the church my father built that looked more like a military lookout tower than a church. We decided to drive on to cool off with a swim in Balaton Lake.
When we got to the Lake, looking for a camping place we unexpectedly found ourselves in the very same famous Hevis resort Hotel that Trudi`s brother HansRuedi and Arianne praise so highly. The receptionist we talked to remembered Hans Ruedi and Arianne by name. It was so nice we decided to stay a few days. We called Ani that we would stay the week on the Lake before we visit her. The food was very good. We even danced a bit. You can walk in your swimsuit from your room to the thermal baths below the hotel which is pumped from a well 600 meters below. The bath was very reinvigorating and we walked around to decide what we wanted to do the next few days. We were both fascinated by Heviz lake, the largest natural hot springs lake in the world. A 300 m diameter pond dotted by lily pods with coloured roses and people floating with their colored hats that look like flowers.
Our next stop was camping along Balaton Lake and I was looking forward to using our rubber raft. We found a very nice place to set up out tent and hammock. We launched our raft and circled uncontrollably in the wind until it was not fun anymore. Trudi chose to swing on the hammock and I went back out and pulled myself as far into the reeds as I could and tied the boat secure and read my book. I heard a nest of birds right next to where I was anchored. It was very peaceful, and the only thing missing was Trudi. I stayed there until Trudi called me on the phone wondering where I was.
There was a Roma festival which I wrongly understood to be a Gypsy festival close by. It ended up to be a theatre about the Romans who had summer homes along the lake a 1000 years ago just like the Germans have at present. We greatly enjoyed a group of men in their Hungarian dress singing Hungarian folk songs about their lady lovers they refer to as “my little birdie ” who flew away. As a boy I remember that my penis was also “my little birdie” and that I should never let it out of its cage for too long. We had a very romantic diner in restaurant that had gypsy music that I remembered once visiting when I took a vacation with Adam and the kids.
We walked to the ship port nearby from where we planned to take a boat ride on Lake Balaton the next morning. I was enjoying the feel of increasing windiness. Trudi must have instinctively felt the storm coming as she started gaining a distance from me. There were lots of weeping willows that made an eerie sound when their leaves blew in the wind. It sounded like ocean waves breaking on the beach. Enjoying the sound, I decided not to try to keep up with Trudi when she got out of sight. When I got to the camp grounds, she was waiting at the entrance and it started to rain. Once I saw that the tent was sufficiently anchored to the ground I enjoyed the storm as I have always done listening to the increase in the wind and rain. I felt safe. I dozed off until the chill woke me up. We got under the warm blankets that Trudi in her wisdom packed. I dozed on and off the entire night enjoying the storm. Trudi did not find it so nice as she was too cold to sleep, and probably too afraid that the tent was going to blow away with both of us inside.
By morning the storm had passed but we were not sure if it would return so we went to a Bed and Breakfast close to a thermal bath on the other end of the lake to recuperate from the storm. Trudi wanted to drive further and we found a thermal bath next to the Danube. We passed thru a town with one of the Vecsey houses conserved as a library and I wanted to find it but Trudi was too tired and afraid of driving around in circles and getting lost and not finding a suitable accommodation. Perhaps the fear of having to camp out a second night freaked her out. I experiences a A Deja vu of our Canadian vacation when I was so close to Camp Weredale, yet ended up in an expensive and exclusive fishing hotel. I was so close to the Vecsey house and the same “fishing angel” who guided us to a fisher hotel in Canada, this time guided us to an exclusive fisher hotel that had a mounted head of a Canadian bear hanging from the dining room wall.
I took a long walk along the lake by myself to find some piece of mind and wind down from the emotion roller coaster ride I felt I was on. I expected to find signs they had in the fisher hotel in Canada to remind guests to “Smile!” and “Be happy now!” I was cheered up by the beauty of the place. It was big enough to look natural but was in fact a place where they bred fish to let them out into the weaving canals that were gardened to look like a meandering river from where families fished. It was such a nice place that we stayed 2 nights. The food was good and we went back to the Thermal Baths on the Danube where we were the day before. We enjoyed observing the people bathing and how talked so passionately and so loud.
Trudi called some distant friends, the Martis who had a house in Hungary and live there half the year. It was just at the right time to visit them so we had to postpone our trip to Ani one more time. She had prepared and was expecting us for the second time.
Szeged was our next stop before meeting the Martis at a restaurant near where they lived in Choymoylospàlas near Szeged. Szeged is a university town with a Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent-Györgyi who discovered vitamin C and its role for health in the 1930s. School was out and the students reminded us of Jonathan, Trudi`s grand son. . They were all so elegantly dressed. The historic city with so many beautiful buildings, kept Trudi busy with her camera. We met the Martis with Swiss timing accuracy, which is “right on time”.
Uli Marti and Martha Marti Marti, (not a typo error) met us at the local drinking place. They told us how they decided to move to Hungary because they were able to live off on the taxes they would otherwise have to pay in Switzerland. Because retired people do not have to pay for any public health services in Hungary, they end up living well very cheaply. Hungary is and has always been very accommodating to the foreigners who move in and take over. This is seen in bed and breakfast places where owners temporally move into their garages to make their entire house available to tourists. This was always the case, from the Germans today to the Russians who left 4 storey blocks that lie abandoned and are falling apart when they left. Before the Russians, the Austrians and French left their castles behind, the Turks and Romans left their thermal baths, and the Mongols left their fencing, horsemanship and music skills.
Both Uelli and Martha are very frugal with their money. I suppose they have to be as they have a big house and a summer home in Switzerland. They knew the prices of everything, in Switzerland and in Hungary and in the surrounding EU countries as they often travel and help pay for their way with bargain prices they find on the way. They not only knew the current prices of most things, but also how the prices were in the past. They were both like walking talking data banks.
Uelli collects beer coasters, beer glasses, and beer memorabilia. He has over 17,000 coasters, all in their ring binders and all scanned and archived on memory sticks. He told me that as a collector true to the collector’s code, none of the items can be bought. They all must be given, or traded or taken. We went to a restaurant and we had a beer. It was served in a beer glass marked with a beer logo that he did not yet have. He asked me if I have room for it in my back sack. It fit and after shocking the waiter with a very generous tip we left with Uellis trophy like hunters celebrating a kill.
The Martis were so nice to us that we didn’t want to leave. So we stayed. It was a very nice time with the Martis and they took us all around. When we arrived, Uelli was sick with a fever of 39.5C°. I went with him to a doctor who was highly recommended by Martin, Uellie’s Swiss neighbour who moved to Hungary 12 years ago to raise sheep for wool. The doctor was very professional. He extinguished his cigarette before entering the examination room where we were waiting. He was dressed in a black shirt and black pants with thick suspenders held in his overflowing belly. He spent some time with small talk before connecting Uelli to a bunch of electrodes to measure his heart. Then he made a urine and blood test and in a few minutes had a diagnosis for kidney stone which Uelli suspected from the beginning. The medicine he prescribed cost a fraction off what it would cost in Switzerland, which certainly made Uelli feel good. A few day later Uelli was well enough to enjoy the party he arraigned to welcome his new neighbors in his Swiss way.
Uelli referred to his new neighbors as the “Krumplis”, krumpli being the hungarian word for potatoes. They always gave him a basket full of potatoes after every harvest. Just as the “Krumplies” arrived, all nine of them, the weather turned from hot to cold and started raining. We managed to find sweaters and jackets for all the guests. They came with lots of gifts and a huge cake marked “To our Best Neighbor”. I felt the Krumplis appreciate Uellies openness and honesty. They all laughed when they heard that Uelli called the Swiss couple who live by the garbage dump and who complain a lot as “Kueder Dinu”, kueder being the German word for garbage. They laught louder when they heard that Uelli called Dinu`s wife as “Chatterly Ruth” chatterly being the German word for chattering. I had the fortune to meet them. They are Germans who, like the Swiss, bought cheap houses in Hungary and took the advantage of being able to live cheaply and well. Dinu reminded me of the comic book character Strupi with the same wave of hair. There was a thermal bath nearby that Martha took us to a few times. I read my book and enjoyed the peace on Uelli`s piece of land called Tanya 517. Martin brought over his herd of sheep with a few newly born for grazing.
Uelli drove us all over the area. We went back to Szeged for a second deeper look. He took us to a backward remote area towards the Rumanian border. We crossed the Tisza river by a ferry boat and had a very enjoyable lunch for a really great price. He drove us one day to a park featuring puszta culture and heritage. There were very few tourists there. The park wardens explained to us that the money situation was very tight for the locals who relied on tourism. We were driven to a show place where we were shown the capabilities of horsemanship inherited from the Mongolians thru Attila the Hun, the feared outlaw cowboy of his time 1500 years ago. It seemed like the entire family put on a show for us. There were more of them than of us. A 10 year old on his mule tried to keep up with and imitate the men doing acrobats with their horses, all without saddle.
It was difficult leaving the Martis, but we wanted to visit Ani and see a bit of Budapest. Our navigation computer stopped working but we had no problem in finding Ani’s house on the last block of a row of blocks that used to be houses for coal miners and their families until the coal ran out. Ani was waiting for us with drinks and food. She took us to a hotel nearby and we had a supper and talked about all the people Ani knew in Switzerland. The hotel was right on the main road going to Czechoslovakia, and each truck roaring by sounded like a wave breaking on the ocean beach.
6 months ago Ani fell 6 meters from her second story balcony. She can now walk with a walking stick. She survived because she had a little luck and a lot of skill. She was fixing a curtain on her balcony when she stumbled from the stool and fell the wrong way. Fortunately she fell on a patch of hard lawn 1.5 meters wide between concrete slabs. Like a circus performer, she made a perfect landing, on her toes, letting her leg bones break her fall. She made the perfect roll letting her rib bones cushion her fall. She broke a few ribs but skillfully managed to save her back, neck and head. She never lost consciousness and was able to call for help. She remembers the uncomfortable shaky ambulance ride as one of the worst moments in her ordeal.
We went to the hospital where she spent 6 month recovering. She told us how the the hospital care workers from doctors to nurses and cleaners are so overworked and so underpaid that they expect a tip for their service just like waiters expect a tip in a restaurant. She described how you had to bring your own cutlery and toilet paper because visitors would take them home. All in the hospital remembered Ani as an extraordinary patient with an extraordinary strong will to live. She does have a very strong head, and Trudi calls her the “Big General” in comparison to Elsa who is known by many as the “Little General”.
We drove to a thermal bath in Eger and had a nice bath. There was a 200 year old Vecsey house in the area and we drove by to try to find it. I very much wanted to walk around the neighborhood and the cemetery, but I found myself squeezed between two very strong ladies. It seemed to me at times like a war scene with Ani desperately navigating Trudi around in circles looking for the house. All I wanted to do was get out of the car and walk around the gypsy neighborhood and get a feel of the place. We drove around it so fast and so many times that I felt dizzy when we finally found it. It is a very large estate that houses a modern hotel, a museum, and the 200 year old castle famous for it being built by a famous architect. It was at one time the residence of Anna Vecsey who had 2 very high ranking aristocratic husbands. It is now abandoned for lack of money to keep it standing. The government hopes that someone will buy it and keep it from falling apart.
I could not find the peace I was seeking so much and at times just wanted to run to the cemetery and lose and find myself there. Trudi was also slowly loosing her nerves. With Ani navigating in front and me translating from the back it was hectic for all of us. With Ani yelling “right” in Hungarian and me translating “left” in German, and Trudi driving “straight ahead” we ended up going on the wrong way on the autobahn with unending fields of memorizing sunflowers and no exist to turn around in sight. We got to see and experience a bit of the expanse of that part of Hungary. Ani explained that the never ending fields were Cooperative farms left over from the Communist times.
Our next stop was Budapest and I looked forward to visiting Tibor, Erzsi, Fanny and Reka, and introducing them to Trudi. I envisioned how well Erzsi and Trudi would get along, and how we would talk using all the French and Hungarian we knew. I suggested that we find a Bed and Breakfast close to where Tibor lived as it was close to the train station so that we could see both the city and my friends without the car. When we reached Tibor’s house, they were not at home, but they were expected to be back home after lunch in a hour. So we drove around looking for a Bed and Breakfast. We drove around a few blocks without seeing anything. Trudi suddenly got the driving around in a circle blues and decided to put an end to it by looking for a Toyota garage for a fuse to fix our navigation computer.
So we drove around in larger and larger circles until we saw a big modern Mazda dealer. Trudi in desperation drove in after having missed the entrance and having to circle back. When we arrived in the Mazda dealer we must have look a pitiful sight. The lady immediately took our car keys, sat us down and served us a strong coffee, and tried to pacify us that an expert was already looking to fix our problem. At hearing the word expert, I suddenly remembered how Uelli had to wait 2 months and pay 1500 Fr to replace a fuse box that was used for the windshield wiper. I had an uncomfortable vision of the cash register clinging like it does in the western movies when they have a fight and things get broken.
The lady came back with our car keys and with the burned out fuse and told us that the problem has been fixed. When we asked how much that all cost, she refused any payment. Trudi gave the lady a generous tip and the next priority on her list was to turn on the navigation computer and find a suitable hotel. The navigation compute stubbornly refused to work, so we returned to have the expert look at it and give us a second fuse. For his kindness and because of Trudi’s kindness, and because we didn’t have smaller change, he received a second more generous tip for the second fuse. Trudi was happy that to fix the problem cost only a tip and it reminded us of the garage in Canada where the man fixed our rented car for a fraction of what it would cost in Switzerland. When we turned on the navigation computer it turned on in a “locked” anti-theft mode so we returned to the garage a third time and ended up giving a third big tip when they unlocked it.
Once it was unlocked, and working and before any other problems surfaced, I searched for the nearest hotels listed in the navigation computer. Near the top of the list a few km away was “Hotel Ventura” that sounded cheap and adventurous. The room met Trudi’s level of adequacy and we ended up staying there 2 nights. The first thing Trudi did was to look over the handful of brochures she picked up at the reception desk. Within minutes we reserved a gala gypsy concert followed by a boat ride on the Danube with a diner on board.
The concert was a group of musicians and dancers that played gypsy music. The 4 men dancers were like living percussion instruments, slapping their leather boots, their own bodies and their partners and stomping the floor to the rhythm of the music. The ladies showed their grace by dancing and twisting to the wild music with full carafes of wine balanced on their heads. They screeched as the men flung them around. It all looked so authentic that I ended up looking for those fake scripted smiles often seen on shows that repeat hundreds of times. The Gypsy musicians and dancers played like they would be out in the wild around a camp fire without an audience.
After the concert, the program included a boat cruise where we had diner. I kept on seeing people, especially in the service who resembled some of the musicians and dancers. The evening was so surreal, that both Trudi and I were shocked at the thought that the performers would turn waiters and waitresses after their performance. After the concert we went for a walk on the main commercial avenue in Budapest, called the Andrassy Utca.
The next morning, we programmed the navigator to go to Möbisch on Lake Neusiedler where Trudi had fond memories with her mother many years ago. Close by was Haydn’s House and we walked thru it while it was raining outside. Liszt was as well part of the exhibition as both of them were considered in their time superstars, a generation apart. Like today’s superstars, they were told what kind of music they could play, usually by the king who decided what he wanted to listen to. Haydn exercised his creative freedom to introduce new types of music in his time, and Liszt took over and expanded the boundaries wider into new terrain. This new expansion no doubt had an influence in the urge for politic freedom people searched for in those times that ended with Freedom Revolts in 1848.
Entering Wien, our navigator led us to a very nice hotel with a especially nice old court yard with a tree and statues and very close to the metro station that went to the cit center. We roamed around the narrow cobbled stone street until we saw and interesting cellar restaurant that advertised live music. We found the place enchanting. The cellar continues in many small rooms and the restaurant can seat 450 people. The musicians could play anything the people wished to hear. Trudi requested the song “The merry widow” and sang along with them as they played.
When we left, it was still light and we walked around the center admiring the many statues. Trudi recalled when she was there with Fritz, they stumbled on the famous riding academy, but the entrance had just closed for the day. So Fritz, knowing the politics of dealing with people went to the exit and paid the man guiding the people out to guide them in for a quick look.
It was very windy we both felt a storm in the air, so we decided to go back to our hotel as fast as possible. We decided to go see where we would have to load our car, and then walk back to the hotel from there. We ended up walking the wrong way and walked for over an hour looking for our hotel. When I exhausted at all attempts to find our hotel and suggested that we just take a taxi, Trudi was so tired and mad that she replied with the German order: “It will be walked”. From that point on, the annoying memory of being lost in Budapest turned to a cherished memory that caused us to smile and laugh.
Early next morning we drove to the train station, had our breakfast and loaded our car on the train. We had 4 facing seats all for ourselves for the entire journey. We had a rest stop at Therese and Nils before arriving home to Sweenali and Onyali and our neighbors Fritz and Rosemarie who watched over them while we were away. Everything went well while we were away. Sweenali tried to bite Rosmarie just once right at the beginning when Rosmary tried to move her to the side of the bed. I admire Sweenali for her temperament, openness and honesty. She is capable of biting just like Trudi who is sweet most the time with a sharp bite now and then.
After holiday blues
After the holidays, my social worker who was so understanding and nice to me suddenly became toxic. She categorized me as living common law with Trudi which meant that Trudi was obliged to pay me 1000 CHF a month for house work like cutting the lawn and doing the vacuuming. Trudi, being very fond of new gadgets really wanted to get the new robot vacuum cleaner that her sister Susi had and liked so much. It drives all around the room randomly sweeping up the dirt.
Trudi immediately bought one and at the same time bought a robot lawn mower. She then told the bitch that she already had the house help she needed and did not want to impose her rent paying tenant – me, with housework. She came by one day to inspect my studio upstairs in Trudi’s house and wanted to see my kitchen. I told her that I share Trudi’s kitchen with Trudi. Later I received a letter from her accusing me of lying about my living arrangements. She also accused me of spending social welfare money on my private project writing books and trying to get them published. Lying and unauthorized spending were the grounds that she was using to try to stop my welfare payments.
I was her first client, as she called me. She was young and inexperienced and most probably pressured by her superiors to find any way to get me off welfare. Her face dropped when I showed her the rental contract I had with Trudi that clearly stated that I had the use of her kitchen. It dropped even more when I showed her the 5 year old letter of authorization that I got to work on my projects. She ended up apologizing to me.
The last time that Didier was with us was 2 years ago. His mother Angie complained once that we returned Didier with sand in his diapers and Trudi thought that that must have been the reason for Didier’s absence.
We have started to see Didier again. When Trudi asked one more time why they didn’t bring Didier over for the past 2 years, they finally opened up. The last time Didier was at our house Angie got suspicious that I raped him because I was upstairs with him a long time changing his diaper and when they went back home, Didier refused to let any man change his diaper for a long time. They saw suspicious marks between his legs that lead them to suspect that he was raped by a man. Investigating my computer and seeing that I had visited some pornographic sites made their suspicions even stronger. As Martin was not 100% sure that I raped Didier and he felt that I kept Trudi happy and did not want to jeopardize her relationship with me, he decided it was better not to disclose his suspicions. At the same time he refused to risk having Didier near me. Now that Didier can talk, he felt that it was safe enough for him to be near me. Trudi feels that I should defend myself over these accusations but I feel that to take it serious would be to give it credibility.
Once Didier started to visit, he did not want to leave, so he stayed overnight a lot. When he first came, he refused to go in the swimming pool that our neighbour Eva lets us use, even with floaties on his arm. In 2 weeks, he was swimming without floaties. I remember him as a 2 year old who went crazy whenever his snow boots had any snow on them. Now he is a very curious boy who constantly asks why for everything. He can write his name and can count up to 5, but refused to include the number 3. He sees every worm and bug that he walks by and takes the time to carefully inspect it thoroughly.
Horoscopes
One morning Trudi read out the horoscope for the day. Her horoscope warned her not to pass up the short holiday that was coming her way. It seemed interesting to her that we were invited by our friends the Martis to go up and see their holiday home high up the mountains in Wallis the next day. My horoscope warned me not to pass up on the opportunity for a fresh start coming my way. It also warned me that it will come with unexpected expenses and stress.
When I opened my email a few hours later, I found an email from a personnel manager of a German company. He wrote that he found my 8 year old resume on the internet and would like to offer me a three month freelance consulting job in Berlin that could extend up to 8 months. The job description was something way over my head so I wrote him back to set him straight that I was out of the picture for 8 years and that I was really just a product trainer and a technical writer for products that are now outdated. I thanked him for bringing back to me wonderful memories and suggested that he go directly to Keymile where he will find many experts that he was looking for and that I left behind 8 years ago. I almost kicked myself at realizing that I was cutting off a branch and sitting on the wrong side of it. So I quickly added that if he ever looked for someone to write a manual in English, or to prepare and give a course on outdated Keymile equipment, I was the man he was looking for.
He immediately sent me a reply that he had talked with the customer of the project and that the customer wanted to interview me just the same. He sent me some confidentiality forms to sign and promised to get back to me the following day. He confided in me that he was very desperate to find for his desperate customer someone who knew something of the old Keymile products for which I wrote the operational manuals. And I confided in him that I felt grateful and lucky to be able to have the chance to stick my head back into my old profession for a while.
The next day we went with the Martis up to their vacation home in Wallis. The weather was much warmer than what we expected and scenery more beautiful than I expected. The area is so steep and so rugged that there are signs of avalanches everywhere. The narrow roads hugging cliffs with drops of hundreds of meters reminded me of some of the roads in South America.
Next, we went to Therese, Christian, Nils and Luis to visit them in their vacation home in Appenzel. Trudi was excited about my job opportunity and her talking about it just made me that much more nervous. It was raining but cleared up for long enough that we all went to the forest that we went to with Christian’s father Herman to pick mushrooms the last time we were there. The forest was filled with moss and smells and noises of a jungle. The cool wet weather was ideal for mushrooms and we were all amazed at the amount of edible mushrooms we collected for a fantastic meal the next day.
When I came back home, I found a letter inviting me to go to Berlin for an interview the next day at my own expense. I phoned him back that I would only come to the interview if they pay my expenses, and that I would look for the cheapest way to travel. He agreed immediately and I immediately got a sickening feeling of being taken advantage of. I told him that I would not look for a ticket until I receive a written confirmation that I will be reimbursed for my trip. I received the email confirmation within a few minutes. They informed me that they will brief me a half hour before the interview. The flight cost almost the same as the train so I immediately booked the flight to Berlin.
Trudi bought me a pencil case and a backpack with a name tag that she filled out with my name and address written in large letters. That backpack almost ruined the marriage of the couple Roland and Heidi who own the store Trudi bought it from. Heidi did not realize that Roland had given Trudi the backpack the evening before after the store had closed and blamed Roland for misplacing it when she could not find it the following morning.
I felt like a kid going to school for the first time. I imagined all the new things I would see for the very first time like new state of the art tools and measurement equipment. I was so excited that I could not sleep the entire night. Early next morning I took the train to the airport and caught my plane to Berlin.
Berlin
When I arrived in Berlin, the man that wanted to brief me before the interview told me that he was not able to meet me and that I should just take a taxi to the interview alone. The taxi had a bit of trouble finding the building in what looked like a very run down part of Berlin and I arrived just in time for my interview.
The interview was on the third floor and I had to chase after the men who greeted me and led me up to the third floor leaving me to drag my suitcases, and my backpack with my dangling laptop around my neck. They were waiting on top as I struggled up behind them and rhetorically asked if I needed any help. We sat down in a big empty room and they explained in their arrogant sounding German dialect the project they needed me for in 2 weeks and hoped that I would not be too bored by the work. They explained that I was replacing a man who was unable to do the job because he was on “sick leave“. They needed me to configure 4500 UMUXs installed all over Germany, similar to what I had to do in Taiwan 8 years ago.
They offered me 500 Euros for an 8 hour day which was more than what I earned before I got laid off 8 years ago. Feeling more confident about everything, I insisted on compensation for any overtime and that they find and pay for my accommodations with a kitchen. They gladly agreed with an empty “of course” like they would have offered that without my demanding it.
The man from the employment agency called Jörg looked like he was an SS captain in a war movie. He had a pockmarked face and I felt a wiff of mistrust oozing from his pores. He let me use his computer to book a flight back home and drove me to the airport. The traffic to the airport was very heavy and I arrived as the last of the passengers were boarding the plane.
I supposed that the unexpected expenses that my horoscope warned me about will be that Susanne will find out and sue me for half of my salary and the welfare will take the other half. But money or no money, I rationalized, it will make a great story in my life. And if I make a lot of money, most of it will be sparkling and hanging on my Lady Trudi’s neck. It will be at least entertaining to see Susanne try to get that.
My contract for the job in Berlin finally arrived and I started to look for an apartment. They were very hard to find at the price I wanted so I downgraded to look for a room. I got a bit concerned after my third attempt and on my fourth try the lady was reluctant to give me the room without seeing me first. I suggested a video call, but was unable to convince her that I was safe. For luck I was using Skype and Trudi was there to listen in. As I was saying goodbye to her, Trudi jump in and had a short woman to woman conversation with her convincing her to take me in. So I immediately signed the contract and Trudi immediately started to pack my luggage. Trudi and her friend Lenni took the train with me to Geneva Airport.
When it was time to check in I got a nasty surprise. My luggage was overweight and I had to pay double price for it. And the second suitcase I wanted to check cost me 3 times the price I paid for the flight. The lady at the desk seemed to take forever with my credit card and the line behind me started to become restless. For luck the computer system was down just at that same time. She disappointingly returned my credit card telling me that I was exempt from paying any of the additional charges because the computer network was down.
I arrived in Berlin the evening before the start of my assignment. It was Halloween evening and children were dressed up going door to door as I was pulling my 2 heavy suitcases along the cobblestone street looking for the apartment. I arrived just as a group of witches and ghosts left with their treats. I felt like Santa clause with the pile of gifts Trudi packed for my new landlady and her 6 years old son. I kept on calling him Valantino until he corrected me by saying that his name is not Valantino, but just Valentin. Silge, his mother, is a pantomime artist who performs with Laszlo, a Hungarian. Silge is studying full time to be a specialized councilor some schools have for children with problems in expressing themselves verbally. She hopes that she will get a job near Hanover where Howni the special man she met on the internet lives.
Howni has a 5 year old son Farni who looks like a miniature mini him. Farni and Valantin reminded me of Christopher and Florian. Farni was always tugging at Howni`s beard like Christopher used to tug my ears. Farni looked up to Valantin and Valantin treated him like a younger brother. Howni has an old and presumably big house that he is managing to make a living from by renting out the parts he doesn’t use. He has enough pigs to satisfy his appetite for them. Silge and Valantin make a weekly 3 hour excursion to Howni and Farni to be together on weekends.
Silge gave me a set of keys and told me to make myself at home. I felt relieved when I saw her pile of dishes drying in the air and her bath tub filled with toys. It took me back 25 years. Silge showed me how to get to my office and the next morning we left the apartment together. It took me 30 minutes to arrive to work with the train and another 30 minutes to find the office. The people in the office were very nice and spoke in a very difficult to understand dialect that I found exhausting.
I had a very good salary and I spent all my free time spending it. I became a consumer for a change. One of the first things I bought was a brand new laptop and a comfortable office chair, a table lamp and a book on Berlin. I had a very pleasant routine. I set the alarm for 6:00 and was the first to use the bathroom. Then I had my special cereal mix and made some sandwiches for lunch. Silge was usually in the bathroom when I left the apartment to catch the train to work. The sunrises were spectacular red.
By the time I finished work, it was dark. The streets were always filled with people of all ages, with many bicycles zig-zagging around the pedestrians like slalom skier racing down the hill. I did my shopping along the way home at the various small shops on the way and usually ended up at the shopping center nearby with three floors of different types of stores. Silge was usually already home with Valantin and his father Axil by the time I arrived. They did not usually cook in the evening except when Valantin requested palachinta that he liked so much. The kitchen was very small and we laughed at the thought of how funny we would be in the kitchen if all of us were fat. We ate each other's food freely and they made me feel as a part of the family.
After supper I usually returned to the shopping center to buy more things. Along the way were especially nice old buildings because Berlin is so very large that it was too big to be totally destroyed. Right across the street where I lived was a school that reminded me of Harry Potter’s school, with very wide winding staircases and very tall ceilings and large doors. I was surprised to find a huge auditorium which took up the top three floors of the castle like building. I enjoyed shopping so much that I even bought Silge a new hat for her theater and I took Valantine to buy him his birthday present.
Trudi and I video conferenced on skype every evening. On weekends, Silge and Valantin drove three hours to Howni, leaving the apartment all to myself. I usually washed my clothes and visited parts of Berlin that I had not yet been to. The weather turned out very nice; clear and not too cold, so I left the many famous museums for cold rainy days. I found Berlin a most beautiful city; spotted by forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes and beautiful buildings and wide boulevards. I was mesmerized by Berlin’s violent history culminating with Hitler and the Berlin Wall.
Within a week after I arrived in Berlin, my X-wife Susanne’s welfare office contacted me and threatened to send the Swiss collection agency after my salary if I did not repay the 14,000 CHF wife alimony they paid to Susanne on my behalf while I was on social welfare. The following week, I faced a second 14,000 CHF threat from those that paid the child alimony they paid to Mathew on my behalf. I was amazed at how fast the news of my release from welfare spread.
Trudi came up one weekend and we stayed in a 5 star hotel. The hotel reminded me of the one I stayed in China, a tube shape with the balconies all facing towards the center looking down to the luxurious reception and lounge with the piano bar below. We went up the tower that reminded us of the CN tower in Toronto and took a boat ride along the Spree meandering thru Berlin that reminded me of the boat ride we took in Budapest. We went to the opera to see Mozart’s Magic Flute and sat in the first row on the top balcony that was filled by enthusiastic kids as young as 10 years old. As the performers took their bow at the end, they all cheered hooted and whistled, giving a deafening crescendo of applause for the 3 children playing the lead roles clearly coming from the school applauding them.
Trudi and I were both fascinated by the Berlin Wall. We went to remnants of it preserved for future generations so that they would be reminded never to build such a wall again. In its 30 year evolution from barbed wire that people jumped over to electric fences cars drove thru, to walls trucks plowed thru. With each successful attempt to cross it, the wall improved. There was a church called the church of reconciliation that happened to be in the death strip between the 2 parallel walls. It was abandoned but because it blocked line of sight from watchtowers, it was demolished in the goal of making the wall totally impregnable.
At the time the wall was dismantled, it consisted of two parallel 3 meter high reinforced concrete walls with a corridor between them lit up at night and patrolled by hungry dogs. It had strategically placed watchtowers. Soldiers were ordered to kill any border crossing violators as if they were traitors who betrayed the socialistic cause and sold out to the fascist corporations in the west, their one and only enemy threatening their socialistic lifestyle. The strip of land between the 2 parallel walls became to be known the death strip because it was not possible to sneak across it alive, and because people were dying to cross it. The ground had a layer of sand that showed footprints of escapees so that any guards who failed to detect them in time could be punished. A network of spies consisting of thousands of civilians in a hierarchy of spies spying on spies was organized and called the state security force, or stasi for short. Nobody knew who the spies were because spies were forbidden to reveal their undercover to anyone, especially family members. So usually they worked in pairs and used their children to gather information.
My work was very rewarding; especially the salary. I had to document new lines from antennas along the train tracks and cross connect their signal thru the old Ascom transmission equipment called UMUX that I was familiar with. UMUX had such a user friendly interface which was so intelligent that it caught most mistakes operators made. The notations for naming the lines used abbreviations of the 4500 stations over the entire German railway network. With time I got to learn a lot of German geography, cities, suburbs and villages.
My boss, a lady with a hooked nose not only looked like a witch, but also acted like a bitch. She was the bitchiest witch I ever met. The less I understood her, the faster she talked the second time, usually publicly berating me for asking a question twice. It was painful for my colleagues as well who always turned their eyes away pretending not to have been listening. I learned that it was much better to insisting on a few examples and to figure things out by myself. Once I figured out where to find documentation I found out the notations used in naming the new connections. By trial and error I developed a working method and a checking method that made the work very routine.
My boss was very intelligent and extremely busy. Often she would let me know that with her “I can't help you right now” blurts and the “don`t bother me now” looks, when I finished and asked for more work. She would tell me to come back later leaving me to wait and repeatedly peek into her office to find her still on the phone, or with colleagues discussing things. Instead of waiting, I started working on stations that were not yet installed completely naming the not yet installed connection with bolded XXXXXXXXXXXs to be easily spotted and added at a later time.
The work was what I imagine juggling balls must be like; very strenuous and concentrating. I usually got a sore neck and back from looking and working with 3 different monitors and keyboards. I thought of Christian, Therese`s investment banker, who also spends his days in front of multi monitors. The paper documents had such small type that I had to use a magnifying glass to read them. The nicest part of the work was configuring 20 UMUXs with the cross connections to transmit the new connections to the right place. I felt like I was playing with a great big model railway.
After documenting nearly 700 connections and configuring 20 UMUXs, I was told that my services were no longer required. The man whom I replaced because he was sick was again available. They gave me enough time to submit the hours I worked and to return my keys. I was devastated. I had proudly promised Trudi who was so proud of me that I would pay for half the new car she just bought as well as take her on a dream holiday to Alaska. I even promised to buy her a diamond necklace. I promised Christopher to pay for driving lessons so that he could get his driver license. The thought of all the people who would be so disappointed with me was depressing. On the other hand I was relieved as I had worked just over a month and that because of that, they had to give me 3 months notice to terminate my contract.
When I returned to my apartment that black Friday, I found the postman filling the letter boxes. I also noticed that my name which I glued on the letter box had fallen off. The post lady saw me glue my name back on the letter box and reading my name pulled out a registered letter that she was just about to return to the post office. When I opened the letter, I got the second shock of my shocking day. It was from my employment agency stating that my contract with them was immediately terminated without further notice. My third shock followed like a quick hook after a jab; there was no money transferred into my bank account for the previous month I worked.
As if to relieve the shock, Howni Silge`s special man arrived with Farni, his 5 year old to build a platform in Silge`s room which like my room, had a very high ceiling. She wanted to move her bed and TV up there. Howni was able to finish building her platform in one day. When I said good night as he was finishing off, I jokingly wished him luck that his loft would hold up, he laughingly said that he had all night to test it out, Next morning he proudly claimed that it didn't even squeak.
While he was building the platform, I took Valantin and Farni to the zoo. Valantin found a large styrofoam piece that looked like a boat or a rocket right as we left the house and he carried it and played with it all along the way bringing it back home as the prize find. Farni was collecting small discarded liqueur bottles and found about 6 different kinds. Valantin, carrying the big piece of Styrofoam that required two hands to carry was stuffing his pockets full with small pieces of interesting stuff from bottle caps and colorful pieces of plastic. It all took me back 25 years when my kids were doing the same.
Before Howni and Farni left to drive back home, he read over my contract – 20 pages of German legalese that I never read myself and could not have understood on my own; even if it would have been in English. It stated that I had to submit an invoice before payments could be made to me and that I had to be given an entire month notice before my contract could be terminated. It also stated that I had 14 days to challenge any decisions before they became binding. Howni helped me to write an invoice and a rebuttal. When I tried to contact my employment agency next Monday, no one picked up the phone. I tried a few time a day and I could not even leave a message which I found suspicious. When my emails were not answered, I got more suspicious. After persistent calling the secretary finally answered. She promised I would be called back; first in an hour, then in the afternoon, then the next day. After a week of frustration, the secretary informed me that the man responsible was sick and he would call me back when he returns. That is when I went to look for a lawyer.
There were 3 lawyer offices between the train station and my apartment block. One of the lawyers in one of the offices was called Andreas Kraft. Kraft in German means strength, so without hesitating I made an appointment with him. Mr Kraft agreed to take my case and that I could go back home to Switzerland.
On my last evening in Berlin, Silge and Axel invited me to a farewell party with a bottle of wine and bread and cheese. Then after a few glasses of wine she invited me to join her and her school friend Susanne to a theater presented by 2 pantomimes. The show was good but I found her shows with Laszlo much better. During my 2 month stay in Berlin, Silge and Laszlo gave two public performances; one in a hospital and another in the theater next to her apartment. They produced a 2 act skit which was very impressive in its simplicity and very revealing in its depth. The first act portrayed how a young couple met, fell in love and became partners. The second act portrayed them in old age enjoying life together. It is Charlie Chaplin like all in black and white, black clothes, white gloves and white painted faces.
With the many things I bought, the 2 over packed suitcases got packed some more and with all the bags I could carry and hold, Axel and Silge walked me to the train station. I felt sad to leave. When the train arrived, it was packed. The first half of the trip I spent my time either leaned against my luggage, or spread out on the floor when there was enough floor space. I spotted a free seat in the second half of the trip and fortunately no one came to claim it as reserved. Trudi was waiting in Bern to pick me up with Sweeney, Onyali and our new car.
2012
Back home
By the time I got home a third vulture greedily landed on my salary that I didn’t even receive yet. When and if my salary arrives, I will celebrate and leave the vultures just the bones.
When I went upstairs to file my letter, my little office where I pile everything chronologically so that I can always find them was gone. When I went to have a smoke, the shelf I use was overtaken by Santa cookies. With each gaze, I saw that everything that was mine was gone from their place. Trudi had moved the office into the TV room and the TV room into the office and refurnished them both. My books that I proudly displayed on the bookshelf were in boxes, and the big pile that was my office was leveled and evenly distributed all over the house in inconspicuous places. I felt a bit shocked and even more so when I saw that my smoke corner had been cleared out and all my harvest that I was so proud of was given away. Peter was visiting Elsa and I asked Trudi to give him some. She wasn’t joking when she half-jokingly threatened to give it all away. She did.
When I asked if Christopher could come with us to Priska`s Christmas party, she told me that it was too late to ask Priska to change her plans, suggesting that I change my appointment with Christopher for the next day which I refused to do despite her anger over it. A déjà vu of the treatment I received in Berlin hit me like a ricochee and she reminded me more of the too many rude and disrespectful people I met in Berlin.
When Christopher arrived, the first two questions he asked were “where is Trudi and Napoleon?” He was happy to hear that we would be alone to celebrate his birthday. He was very sad about me losing my job. We visited Elsa at the hospital and had a very nice time. Elsa has finally given in to going to the old age home. Her main fears were being around old people and losing her freedom; especially to be able to cook her own food. Elsa inspired me in many ways and I imagined how she would inspire and rejuvenate the fossils she ended up to be with by setting up a cooking club and taking over the kitchen.
We went to the Chinese restaurant here in town and had a fantastic meal. Fortunately the waitress heard me wish Christopher a happy birthday and he got to eat for free. It was so nice to be alone with Christopher.
As if to give closure to my bitter sweet Berlin experience, Trudi and I went back to Goms in the Wallis part of Switzerland with Martha Marti as planned. This time we stayed a week. We brought our cross country skis but it snowed all week and we went skiing only 2 times. It was very cozy being somehow locked in the cabin and seeing all of that snow hanging over the roofs like frozen ocean waves. Everything was white which contrasted with the black birds that landed right by the house whenever we fed them. There are small catholic chapels along the trail that are simple on the outside, but looking like a bazaar for religious statues in the inside. Trudi landed on her bum the first time we went skiing. The ski trail follows the stream from the melt water of the Rhone ice fields up the valley, the source of the Rhone. We skied 2 train stations down the valley where we had a coffee and dessert waiting for the train going back. When we wanted to pay at the restaurant, we realized that we had forgotten to take money. The man in the restaurant was so nice that he lent us 20 CHF for the train ticket back home.
We had so much snow that there wasn’t any place to shovel it away. We had a walkway to the parking place that was a tunnel with snow piled 2 meters high on each side. One evening when we came back from a theater, I went up ahead to open the doors. When I went back to look for the ladies, I found Martha sitting on Trudi`s lap in the middle of the path with both of them laughing uncontrollably. They looked like 2 bob sled racers who had just won a race.
Lawyers
When I arrived back home, I got a letter from my lawyer that the company accused me of not being able to do the work assigned to me. I had made a summary of all the connections and equipment that I configured in the 6 weeks I worked and sent them to my lawyer as proof of the work I did. A few weeks later, I got a letter stating that the company will sue me for breaking my confidentiality contract I signed agreeing not to make available any data to third parties. Mr. Kraftphoned me a few days later and suggested a settlement. He said that if I sign a settlement to agree not to pursue this case, they will drop all the charges against me. I replied that I would refuse to play “deal or no deal“ and would demand justice. Then my lawyer sent me his bill and wrote me that he can regretfully not represent me anymore because the court that would hear my case would not be in Berlin. I told him that I found all of this unjust and that I will use social networking platforms like Tweeter and Facebook to make it all public.
There was a lot of money at stake. But most all was already promised to Trudi. After all you cannot wear pride like you can a golden necklace, nor will pride get you up to Alaska. Writing the letter made me feel great.
I wrote DB, the firm SD&T hired me out to an email complaining that their partner firm SD&T refused to honor my contract. I added that unless I received some support from DB that I would be forced to make my case public. DB wrote back that there was nothing they could do and that I need to settle the case with SD&T myself. They added that if I make the case public, that they would as well sue me for defamation.
I asked to have my complaint sent one level higher and suggested that turning a blind eye to the corruption of a partner firm reeks of corruption or incompetence or both. After waiting for a reply for a few weeks, I decided to write a complaint letter directly to the CEO of DB. I wrote that I found this kind of behavior not befitting a state-owned company like the one he proposed to lead. The minimum I expect from a state-owned company like DB was an official statement to its partner firms that fail to honor their contracts with temporary workers they hire out to DB is that such actions are not acceptable nor tolerated by DB. I added that failure to do this is to be complicit with cheating temporary workers, especially the foreign ones who are at a disadvantage to have their complaints investigated and who are unlikely or unable to fight for their rights in court.
I waited 2 months for some kind of reply before I wrote a second letter in which I added that that DB`s apparent condolence of SD&T not honoring my contract led me to believe that my case was not unique. I added that if that was truly the case then it might explain the reason why DB was suffering from so many cases of vandalism.
A few days later I received an email from the CEO of SD&T stating that if I agree in writing not to contact DB regarding my case anymore, then they would agree to pay me for the work I did for DB on their behalf and drop their charge against me for violating their non disclosure clause when I sent that information to my lawyer in Berlin. Not wanting to continue fighting I agreed. I then made a video titled “Corruption, whistle-blowing and vandalism” and published it on YouTube with a detail of my own personal experience. I have no idea how SD&T got to see this video, but within a few weeks, they sued me. I defended myself by writing the following letter to the courts.
To whom it may concern:
I have just received a letter informing me of the law suit against me by SD&T in regards to my YouTube video that SD&T claims is damaging their reputation.
The above mentioned video does not specifically target SD&T but briefly mentions my particular case with SD&T in order to give credibility to the video. The video attempts to promote the following message. If your contract has not been honored. then instead of resorting to vandalism, you can use YouTube and Social Networking on the internet to make your case public. In this way companies might think twice before not honoring contracts with people who they know are vulnerable and defenseless to fight this kind of abuse. Once my contract with SD&T is fully honored, then I am willing to remove the video that SD&T claims is damaging their reputation.
I lost the case. So I wrote a second letter.
To Gerichtspräsidentin Hofstetter:
Concerning your decision regarding my case CIV 125635.In accordance to your decision to censor my YouTube video that referenced my legally binding contract with SD&T not being honored, I have removed the video from my channel as you required me to.
Although I would like to appeal your decision and the censorship you impose on me, I have unfortunately lost all respect and confidence in the Swiss judiciary system. I am forced to accept your decision without appeal despite finding it so blatantly unjust. Shame on you and shame on the Swiss courts. ………
I was ordered as well to pay a few thousand Swiss Franks to SD&T for court costs and compensation for damaging their reputation. I wrote SD&T that they could deduct the sum from the unpaid bill they owed me. They replied that they will sue me again.
So I wrote a letter to the courts again.
To the gerichtpräsidentin:
It is not with such a great surprise that I find myself being sued a second time for damages by SD&T. No wonder, considering your last verdict regarding my case with SD&T that gave such a clear and loud message that it pays to be a corrupt criminal. Turning a blind eye to corruption especially by courts of law that have the mandate to punish corruption is the highest form of corruption. Punishing the victim and rewarding the criminal is a shameless corruption.
Please inform your most honorable colleague Mr Losinger (I am sure that is how you refer to him) and please be informed yourself of the following. I am unable to pay any of the present or future fines that the court imposes on me and that in the end; the Swiss citizens will be burdened to pay for this German corruption and exploitation.
I republished my video blanking out the reference to SD&T and my particular case with them and retitling the video “Corruption, Whistle-blowing, Vandalism and Censorship in Switzerland”.
The love boat
Trudi went with Therese, her son Nils and her partner Christian on a cruise from Dubai to Venice stopping along the way in Oman and Egypt and going thru the Panama Canal. On her way thru Egypt, she re visited many of the places we did together a few years ago when we flew there with Walter and Annalis. They were all there before when Fritz was alive and had fond memories of their time together there.
I bought Trudi a video recorder before she left and she recorder her entire trip. I edited it and put local music to it and published it on my YouTube channel. I made the 3 videos entertaining and funny by making the cruise ship into the famous "Love Boat". I made Niels the captain, and Trudi the animator. Therese became the boat`s chief decorator while Christian of course ended up to be the Chief financial officer I referred to as Chief FO. Trudi took such great movie clips, and I found such nice music to it that the videos ended up to be one of my most popular videos on my channel.
While Trudi was away, I was working on a video about a project to promote thinking about the future. I called it the “1,000 year project”. It was to use grave stones that in Switzerland get discarded and reused after 25 years and collect them to build walls and towers. It included a planet walk that showed how big the universe was and how small the atoms were and that we were right in the middle of it all. I presented it to the major of my town, a woman who is also a preacher in the neighboring community church. I tried to convince her that the project in effect serves both schools and churches, exactly like she was doing. It was very bad timing as she was right in the middle of a zoning project and was facing upcoming elections.
I presented my project to the school board but they rejected it saying that they had a full program for the year and could not include anything new. We have 2 ministers in our town, a man and a woman. The man minister didn`t want to know any details claiming that decisions as to the use of the cemetery was under the control of the community and not the church. The lady minister, a young mother, seemed very interested but lost her interest with time.
House pets
We got Kenny, a 3 rd poodle, He is a puppy and Trudi was like a mother with a new born child. He barks like it is his duty to bark. He is very cute. While Sweeney walks like she has high heels, and Onja constantly jumps up and tries to get into Trudi`s pockets that are filled with dog treats, She also bites the mop and vacuum cleaner as if she was once a housemaid. Kenny races back and forth like he was a Ferrari. He is very inquisitive, sniffing everything in front of his busy nose.
Mupf, our white cat comes back often like he has been chased under a dusty floor. He was at one time like a wild cat and did not let anyone pet him. Trudi and I are at a loss of explanation as to why Mupf and Kenny cuddle up to each other. When Mupf came home one day with 3 bite-mark holes in his ear, Kenny licked Mupf`s festering wound for a few days and the ear finally healed. It is so nice to see Mupf cozing up to Kenny when the other dogs are not around.
Friends
Thank god for friends. We went to the annual outing of the local Swiss-wrestling club that we are always invited to go to. This year, the trip was to Jura to see the 25 meter high lookout tower. It was very impressive with the 360 degree panorama view. The Swiss wrestlers are a very special group who know how to have a great fun time.
Then we went to the annual outing of the local SVP political club that we are always invited to go to. Last year we went to the jail museum in Bern and saw all the tricks the criminals use to break out of the tightest of spots. The year before we saw the atomic nuclear power generator near Bern. This year, it was to the huge hydro-electric dams up the 2000 meter high Grimsel pass up in the Swiss Alps nearby. Like the wrestlers, the SVP politicians as well know how to have a good time. The series of damned up lakes act like batteries storing power from the grid covering Europe whenever they can. In times of high winds, and low usage such as at night, wind power supplies energy to the grid and this excess energy is used to pump water high up into the lakes in Switzerland. In times of high usage and low winds, the power stored in this way is used to supply the grid. The selling and buying of this electricity is automatically set to sell high and buy low just like selling and buying of stocks. The highlight of the tour for me was the 10 meter long crack in the middle of the granite mountain that we were able to walk into. It was filled with huge crystals.
Davis and Kathrine from Canada visited us. They stayed for a few weeks and we felt like tourists for a few weeks taking them all around to see the sights nearby that people come from all over the world to see. We went to the Abbeg textile museum and saw collection of doors, furniture, paintings, and books from all over the world. David was interested in everything so I brought him to all of the many interesting treasures around Riggisberg. We went to the secluded Roman bridge and the lumber yard and even a place where they sell all kinds of cut stones and rocks for building material and for grave stones. There was a typical Swiss barn being built nearby. We both enjoyed seeing the fast progress they were making to build it. Trudi was also interested and offered to bring the workers some warm Schwander bratwurst for their morning snack. We had such a fun time. David and Kathrine are both very special nice people who are so much fun to be with.
Theater
Ani came for a 2 week visit. We took Ani and our neighbor Eve to see a very interesting outdoor theater nearby in Toffen. It was based on historic facts that happened right where the stage was 800 years ago. They used real horses to make it all so realistic. The outdoor play was set beside a castle that is still occupied by the same family who owned it at that time. The play was a play within a play. A theatrical group arrived with their horses to play to the noble family living in the castle. The play was based on historical facts. The family inherited a big yellow diamond owned by kings for many generations. It was allegedly stolen from the family by a wandering theatrical group. I learned that Toffen was named after the stone quarry nearby that provided the smooth spongy rock called Tuff that is seen in the many old buildings still standing nearby.
One day, Martin his dad was looking for him. He failed to return home from kindergarten and Martin thought that he might have walked to our house. So I joined the hunt for Didier. I found him with a girl from his kindergarten. They were walking hand in hand near the school. Isha and Didier got in my car and as I was driving Isha to her house, her older sister who was out on the street looking for her froze in shock when she saw Isha in my car.
We took Didier to see a musical about William Tell in the rain with Therese and her family. It was an outdoor theater up in the mountains with a mountain lake being the background scenery. Didier is very clever and very funny. He likes to walk in the woods going off the trail and has a knack at finding snails and spiders hidden along the way. He is a real fan of spider-man. He is a real joy to be with.
Trudi`s daughter Priska and Mike her husband took us to a play called "The peep show" which was one of the funniest I have ever seen. A Swiss family living in a remote alpine farm decide to enter a contest for the most innovative family business. The idea is to allow tourists a view as to how a typical Swiss farming family lives. With time and growing success, the family starts by living a normal life to that of putting on a theater for the googling tourists. The Swiss characteristics are portrayed as well as the various cultures of the tour groups having a peek at the Swiss family life.
We saw a one man play that used the old part of Bern as its stage. The play was about the Black Death plague. It is a bit of not too well known history where the Jews living in Switzerland were blamed for it claiming that they were poising the wells. Their houses, wealth and possessions were expropriated and they were all burned at the stake alive.
We went to the light show on the government buildings this year without dogs and without Fritz and Rosmarrie. It was not as good as the previous year, but being all alone with Trudi made the evening much more enjoyable this year.
Urs Rutishauser visited us and he invited Trudi to meet a well known and very rich family of his friend, a very famous beauty surgeon. Trudii drove Urs to the practice sessions where they prepared for their concert.. Before Urs left to go back to America, they invited us to their concert in the surgeon's villa on the Aaree river in the center of Bern.
2013
I retired 9 years ago when I lost my job and started writing. This year I officially got my pension. The first thing I did was to find a dentist to fix my teeth. One molar was starting to hurt and had to be pulled out.
Family and friends
Christmas gave a good ending to the year. Christopher came up for his birthday and this year, Trudi was able to join us. We went to the same Chinese restaurant as last year. We were greeted by the sad news that the cook had just nearly severed his finger cutting frozen meat with his saw. He had to be rushed to the hospital. His assistant was rather new to this style of cooking that involved theatrically cooking each meal publicly with 2 knives to cut and stir like he was a samurai. Not knowing any better, I gave him some spaghetti to fry. Unfortunately he did not know that the spaghetti would stick to the hot stove top. His newly cleaned stove top suddenly turned out to be a smoking mesh of burning spaghetti. Mine was his very first plate. I felt sorry that I gave him such a bad start. He was apologetic and excused himself for my mistake. He explained that it was his very first time cooking on the stove.
For New Year, Trudi got her entire wonderful family together in the restaurant where Severin works as an apprentice cook. They were all a bit surprised to find out that I had paid the entire bill. I was just as well surprised to have been able to save up the money to do that. I was so thankful and honored to do what Fritz their father would have done.
Jacob and Heidi from Canada visited Switzerland and we got to reminisce about the nice time we had when we went to visit them a few years ago.
Elsa tells me that she feels like a very very old person, a new feeling she has not felt before. She told me the last time that she felt like 200 years old. Her kids visit her regularly and her grandson Martin has bought her house in Gutenbrünnen. Martin as a child suffered from Attention Deficit Syndrome and caused his family great worry about what will happen to him when he grows up. He was traveling in South America and noticed that the beer there was not as good as the beer in Germany. He realized that American beer was as well lacking in quality and taste. When he saw that German beer was not available in USA, he decided to start to import the beer. He is now a multi-millionaire as the largest beer importer. He ended up marrying a a lady from the Philippines who had a beer distribution company and now their combined business as importer / distributor has grown to include European wines. Eva, Peter and Hans, Elsa`s sons came to clear the house for renovation and they visited us. Trudi prepared one of her specialty dishes.
Anita`s sister Rita from Chile found me on Facebook and got in touch with me. She told me that shortly after Christopher and I left Chile, they adopted a baby girl Marcela. Then by surprise Rita conceived and gave birth to Edmundo. Edmundo was sent to a Swiss private school in Santiago and despite being expelled for being unconventional, he became an engineer. He started a business assembling cheap metal lockers from China with expensive locks from Germany. He had 11 workers working for him. They stacked the lockers on trailers and rented the trailers to beaches in the summer and ski resorts in the winter. At first they had trouble convincing people to use their lockers because they were afraid that the eintire set of lockers could be easily coupled to a car and driven away by thieves. To get over this problem, Edmundo had a uniformed police guard his trailers of lockers. Edmundo had to go on a business trip to Germany and he wanted to meet me and his cousin Christopher. We picked him up at the train station and I recognized him right away. He had a slight resemblance to Christopher. We took him all over the area and he stayed about a week.
Edmundo collects beer coasters just like Ueli Marti , so we went to visit him. Ueli showed us his collection of 17,000 coasters and gave Edmund a bag full of his duplicates. We went down to his cellar and saw his collection of the beers and the wines that he fermented. To end the evening, we went up to his very special bar he calls his Traby bar. It is very small loft he decorated sitting only 3 at a small bar. There is a collection of drinks from all over the world; some of them are very old. And there is a story behind every bottle and every collectible. He even has the operation manual of the famous Traby car that his mini-bar is named after.
Edmundo`s father Mundi has a collection of antique cars so Trudi and I took him to the antique car museum nearby. It was closed for renovation but Trudi managed to get us in. We stayed up late in the evenings smoking, talking and laughing.
Trudi and I both love having visitors. Simone, a 16 year old daughter of Therese's very close friend is one of the best badminton players in her category in Switzerland. Her ambition is to participate in the Olympics in 8 years. She comes weekly to Belp nearby for training from a Canadian coach. She stays overnight at our place whenever she comes for her training.
A day at the courts in Switzerland.
Over 1 year ago I thought that I was finished with the company that hired me for the job in Berlin and refused to pay me and I was satisfied with exposing them on YouTube. Now a year later, I am faced with a suit against me. I had to protect myself again. So I wrote a letter listing the injustices done to me.
Dear Honorable Judge.
I was hired by SD&T, an employment agency to work for DB, the German National Railway. 6 weeks into the project, I was informed that the man I replaced recovered from his illness faster than expected and that he was available to take over the work. They thanked me for my work and I thanked them for the interesting work. I submitted my bill to my employment agency but was not paid because they claimed that I did not do the work assigned to me. I got a lawyer in Berlin, and to defend myself from the false accusations, I sent my lawyer a list of all the connections and lines I programmed during the 6 weeks. They replied that because I disclosed internal data of the project, I broke a confidentiality clause of my contract and was required to pay a fine as a penalty. They offered to settle out of court suggesting that if I drop my demands for my salary, they will in turn drop the fine they were charging me for breaching confidentiality.
I reported this to the CEO of SD&T and he refused to help me so I published a YouTube video. The main message of the YouTube video was to present an option to vandalism as a display of frustration to corruption. The video advised that the newly available facilities of social networks like Facebook and video servers like YouTube should be used instead of vandalism to vent frustrations and to try to ensure that they do not happen again. To add credibility to the video, I described my own case as an example, naming SD&T.
In addition to the YouTube video, I complained directly to DB claiming that I was not payed by SD&T for my work. A few weeks later, SD&T claimed that I was damaging the relationship they had with DB and offered to pay me my 6 weeks of work as long as I agreed not to complain to DB any more. I agreed.
A few weeks later SD&T saw the YouTube incriminating them and demanded that I remove it. They threatened to sue me for damages if I don't. I replied that as long as they refuse to honor my contract stipulating a 3 month notice after the first month, I would refuse to remove my video. They sued me in the Swiss courts and won their case without me every being there to represent myself. The court's decision was that I had to remove the incriminating video and pay a fine and court costs of nearly 3,000 SFr to SD&T. I refused to pay the fine. SD&T sued me for further damages.
This time, the Swiss court invited me to represent myself.
When I arrived at court, I was delighted to see a journalist who wanted to record the case for possible publication in a consumer advocate magazine about legalities. The hope of transparency suddenly clouded when during deliberations, the journalist was asked to leave. I was delighted to see the judge in jeans. The feeling of delight ended when the judge refused my demand to first settle the issue of my contract before dealing with the damaging charges against me by both the employment agency SD&T and their client DB, the German Railways, with my YouTube video. He disagreed saying that I was naive to have signed the contract without fully understanding it. He claimed that the contract was written in a way that could be interpreted differently to how I interpreted it.
The judge explained that he saw no corruption as no laws were broken. I claimed my right as a whistle-blower to publish my case on YouTube. "Whistle-blowing is uncovering crime" he patiently explained to me. No laws were broken so I could not claim to be whistle-blowing. He repeated that I was free to fight for my claim of injustice concerning my contract, but that my contract was a separate issue that could not even be settled in a Swiss court. I would have to sue in Germany.
The judge suggested that he write a settlement that we could hopefully accept that would end this case once and for all. In 20 minutes he called us in and showed us his settlement suggestion. He asked the journalist to leave during the deliberations. He recommended that we forget our different opinions and agree that it is better for both parties to agree not to sue each other. He then demanded that all defamatory claims on my YouTube videos concerning SD&T and DB be permanently removed from the YouTube platform. If I agreed to that, SD&T would forgive the original fine. I was to be exempt from any fines and court costs. I meekly agreed. I am happy all this is behind me now, even though I only got a fraction of what was legally due to me.
Mediterranean Cruise
In April of 2013, Trudi and I went on a cruise in the Mediterranean with our friends Analise and Walter Moser, and Martha and Uili Martis. We were 15 minutes late, and the bus patiently waited for us. The bus took us directly to our ship, a floating 10 story high luxury hotel. All of the 2,000 passengers were Swiss and most the entertainment and food was catered to make the Swiss feel at home. We started in Savona and went around Italy as far as Montenegro. We sailed during the night and were able to land at various harbors along the coast that were filled with history going back to the times of Alexander the Great 2300 years ago. We had day stops in Budvah which has a 3,500 year old history. We had day stops at Kotor and Korfu and Napolis.
Summer
The summer was very busy. It was filled with births and deaths and marriages. <
Trudi`s daughter Therese and Christian met on-line at a dating service. Christian told Therese that he likes to travel more than he likes to work. He didn't tell her that he was a successful investment banker. He wanted to filter out ladies that might go after him just for his money. He is very authentic and humble. I asked him once if it didn't make him nervous dealing with millions of dollar in a very unstable financial climate. He told me that for every looser, there was a winner and for him it doesn't matter if there are thousands of losers and a few winners. He makes money on flowing money no matter which way it flows. <<
He has few relatives but many friends. His father who is just like him fell in love with a gypsy who traded in scrap metal. Christian eventually got a diploma in international currency trading and works looking at rows of monitors listing the very latest prices and transactions.
Therese and Christian one day announced 2 messages of joy. The first was that they were expecting a baby. The next was that they were going to get married. The wedding took place in a hotel known for its beautiful view from every room looking out on the lake of Zurich and the lit up villas of the rich on the other side.
There were over 100 guests. We all got name tags that made it easier to remember who was who. Trudi got the prize for wearing the most attractive dress. Therese was glowing and showing that the baby was due in a few months. Luis, Christian's 11 year old son and Nils, Therese`s son were dressed up in tuxedos and bow ties.
The food was very good and the entertainment was excellent. A cabaret was performed by a couple. The theme of the sketch was the difficulties that arise when a man and a woman live together under the same roof. From the differences of toilet etiquette to the differences of interests, wants and needs. It was very funny and the music was great. <<<<
All of Trudi`s grand children were there. Vanessa sang 2 most beautiful love songs. She has such a beautiful voice. Severin accompanied her on the guitar. It was very well done. Florian came late to announce that he won the second prize in the Swiss National Wrestling competition in his category. What a family.
The dancing was started off by Therese and Christian doing the waltz. The timing was awkward. It was alternating between both leading and both following. The music was disco and for me the highlight was seeing Didier dance. He was doing like what seemed to be splits on the dance floor. It all reminded me of when Matias was dancing during Davids and Tara's wedding 15 years ago. <
Their baby was born a few months after. Helen Julie is about as gentle as babies get. She looks exactly like Christian who proudly admits it and at the same time tries to underline how Julie has Therese's eyes. Adam and Linqing in Chicago, gave birth to little Andrew 2 months after that.
Elsa
Ani was able to visit Elsa, in the hospital before Elsa died. Her family came over to say goodbye to her. She refused to die. There was talk about turning her pace maker "off" to help her die, but in the first sunny day in a gloomy week of rain, she finally let go of the life she loved so much. She died holding hands with her family. About 13 family members came to Switzerland to pay their tribute to Elsa. From the youngest Charlotte, it covered 2 generations thru Ariel and Eve. Trudi housed them all and for 2 weeks, we had the pleasure of living and eating all together. Trudi arranged the funeral service and 50 or so people were invited to celebrate her life. Old photos and videos were shown and people shared their own memories and stories about Elsa. It’s a blessing to have shared so many years with Elsa.
She filled my life with so many wonderful people - her family and friends. Elsa polished me up for and led me to my beloved partner Trudi and her family and friends. My life has certainly been greatly enriched by Elsa and company. Elsa taught me so many things and we had such a very good time together.
Despite Elsa's age when I met her, she had a lot of childlike qualities. She was playful, funny and bubbly. She was very spontaneous and always looking for adventures. She could at times be a little rascal, in a very positive innocent and loving way of course. She was able to trust and forgive like only children can. I met Elsa 9 years ago while I was waiting for the train to Bern one Saturday afternoon. I sat down on the bench beside her and as fate would have it, the train was delayed, something that is quite rare in Switzerland. She had 2 overstuffed shopping bags on the bench beside her and as I sat down on the bench she defensively grabbed her bags to draw them right next to her as if I was going to squish them. I made a joke that she didn't need to be so afraid that I would run away with her bags. She immediately noticed my English German and we started to talk in English.
Elsa was waiting for the same train as I was and finally when it came I helped her get on. She told me that she parked her car 3 stations away where she didn't have to pay for parking. She added that “gasoline to drive here would also costs money”. She told me she occasionally came to Utendorf to go shopping because there was both a COOP and a Migro on either side of the train station. She explained, with a glimmer in her eyes, that she shopped at both stores because “each of the stores offered different items on sale to attract the customers”. By going to both stores, she was able to double her “on sale” shopping items and save a lot of money. Like hitting 2 birds with one stone.
And by shopping a few hours before the stores closed on Saturdays, she had a bunch of last minute items “on sale” that the stores could not keep till Monday. And when Monday was also a holiday, she got even better bargains for even more items. We had such a nice conversation and when we arrived at her station, she told me where she lived and invited me to visit her any time.
I knew where her house was because I used to go up there with my children to walk around the caves nearby. The next day I drove my bicycle to see her. We had a great talk and became instant friends. She told me she had a sore back and I offered to vacuum her house. While I was vacuuming, she cooked me a nice meal. Every week from then on I bicycled up to her house and vacuumed the house and helped her in the garden and we had a nice meal together and had a nice talk. She also came over to my apartment a few times whenever she came looking for bargains in Utendorf.
Shopping with Elsa was very special. She told me about going shopping with her grandmother in the times of hyperinflation. On one occasion, her grandmother in Germany decided not to buy rice after thinking about it for a while at the store. Back home she had second thoughts and decided to return to the store to buy it. Elsa remembered seeing her break down in tears when she saw that the price of that rice had doubled in that short time. Elsa recalled her own experience of how painful it was to have to take money from her children's piggy-bank to be able to pay for some unexpected items on sale that she needed to buy, but had no money for it just at that moment. Those scars remained throughout her entire life. Elsa would suggest that we drive to a faraway gas station to fill up because the gas was a few cents cheaper there. She would add that the car needed to be driven anyway so that it didn't rust up. “Then it would be really expensive to repair she argued”.
Elsa never bought the cheapest, claiming that it was cheaper in the long run to pay more for quality because it would last longer or be more nutritious. She compared each item of food she bought like an artist appraising the worth of a work of art. Weighing it in her hand and putting it up to the light and squeezing it to test its quality and get the very best deal for her money. Only after completing this thorough inspection would she reluctantly put the item in her cart, inevitably to go back one last time for something that promised a better value for her money.
Going to restaurants, we would never get the cheapest menu, but we would always leave the restaurant with our pockets full of toothpicks, napkins or sugar that as she said “would be thrown out anyways”. At home, she would carefully cut the napkins in half so as not to unnecessarily waste any. Boiling water was timed to a science. She shut off the electricity to the boiler just before the water would be heard to start to boil to such exactness that she had it down to an art. After all there was no need to let the water boil longer that it needed to boil and waste electricity unnecessarily.
Just try to rinse the plates with running water even if it was cold water and you would get a rude surprise and a sheet of paper to wipe the plates off. Doing laundry before 9 pm when the electricity cost more was of course a luxury she never took. Many roads lead to Rome, or Bern or Thun, but only one way was the cheapest even if it took more time to drive. And usually those out of the way shortcuts were much more scenic. She loved to drive especially when she was being driven. And whenever I drove a bit too fast, she would be my most efficient automatic speed control, reminding me immediately of the extra gasoline the car needed to drive fast and the risks of expensive speeding tickets.
To those not knowing Elsa, hearing these amusing stories might make them think that Elsa was stingy. She was not. She was frugal. And she was very generous and very fair. She was a giver. She never went to a free concert without paying for it. She never underpaid anyone who worked for her. And she hired the underdogs. And by the amount of requests for donations from the many charities in her mail, it was clear that she gave as much as she could give.
One day Elsa wanted to show me the place she spent many years as a child. We drove up to the Black Forest in Germany, bought some wine, cold cuts and had a picnic and walked around the places she remembered so well. Another day we went camping. We found a farm offering a "sleep in the hay" experience with breakfast with the family. The barn was full of flies and we decided to sleep out in the farmer's field. It was especially nice to have breakfast with the farmer's family of 5 kids. They had 20 cows and we had all the cheese, butter cream and milk we could eat, which we did just to get our money's worth.
Elsa invited Christopher and me to the place of her first job as a teacher many many years ago. On her first day, one of the students proudly bragged that they had managed to break the last replacement teacher that Elsa was replacing. They treated that poor broken teacher so badly that she could not take any more and quit. Elsa calmly replied that she was not worried one bit as she had raised 5 boys that were much tougher than any one of them seemed to be and she had survived.
One rainy day Elsa suggested that we go down to Ticino, where it was sunny. We left early Saturday morning before the sun came up and arrived at about 11 in the morning. All the public campgrounds were full and Elsa suggested that we camp behind one of the many ruins we saw along the road for free. She added that with the money we would have had to pay for camping, we could have a nice dinner in a nice restaurant. I had my doubts, there was a cold wind and threat of rain and the ground everywhere was rock and very rugged and uneven. I told Elsa that if the police saw our tent in the middle of the night, then they would ask us to move it. Elsa's reply was that we park our car a bit away from where we camp and that we camp out of sight from the road. We camped behind the ruins of a chapel in a circular flat stoned clearing just the right shape for our round dome tent. We found a fancy restaurant nearby with really nice toilets and had a nice meal. After the meal we used the bathrooms there to wash up for the night.
To our surprise and my relief, when we finally left the restaurant, the cold wind had turned into a mild calm. The clouds parted for a full moon and we walked around the narrow cobblestone streets of the old town. I really worried about Elsa not being able to get up the next morning. Next morning Elsa claimed to have had a nice sleep. We had breakfast at our special restaurant with those nice bathrooms that we used again. We drove around Ticino the entire day and walked to some very big waterfalls and thru some small quaint villages and visited the 200m high dam that was in the James Bond film. People were bungee jumping and Elsa thought that it all looked very exciting. I was just hoping Elsa would not get any of her strange ideas to try new things.
Elsa was a first class lady. For many years she flew to America for the winter like a bird migrating south. We had it great, me and Elsa. While she was wintering with her Mormon friends in Utah, I had the use of her house all to myself under the guise of taking care of the house. I drove Elsa to the airport and we took the train using her 2 remaining 1st class upgrade vouchers. We had a picnic in the 1st class wagon. We laughed a lot recollecting the many nice moments we had. Like the time that when I found the cookies too sweet and she licked the sugar coating off with her tongue and offered it to me saying ..."here, try this now maybe you will like it better".
When we finally arrived at the airport, we were told that they had some very bad news for her. Her flight going thru London was canceled and they booked her on a direct flight the next morning. Elsa thought that that was great news. Elsa was relieved not to have to go thru the London stop over, which she did not look forward to. We stayed the night at a hotel in Zurich. We walked around Zurich in the parts that she knew 70 years ago until it was dark. She showed me where her father worked as a patent lawyer. We had a nice meal before going back to our hotel room. Due to her age, she was entitled to free special services and it was great to see her picked up by a special little car and get special treatment reserved for a VIP that she was.
I picked her up when she returned from America. Her children had arranged a wheelchair for her and she was pushing the wheelchair with her suitcase on it. She was accompanied by two somewhat embarrassed empty handed flight attendants who were supposed to be pushing her and carrying her luggage. I supposed that her “I could do it myself” left them totally perplexed.
I will never forget one New Year's eve with Elsa. Simone invited us over. It was snowing so hard and the road was so icy that we started to slide down the steep winding narrow road. We slid into a snow bank so hard that we got stuck. A pickup truck nearly hit us coming up. The man helped move our car safely off the road and drove us back to Elsa's house. In the chaos of the moment I slipped and the dog from the truck helping us bit me.
Elsa was, in a special way, my Dear Abby. Elsa convinced me that I must become more extrovert to sell myself to find a job and to find a partner. I was happy to have Elsa help me by going thru 2 big suitcases of clothes that I inherited and brought over from Canada 5 years ago but never unpacked. I gave Elsa and my son Christopher a fashion show. After seeing the clothes on me, and making me do the cat walk, they both delegated the clothes either to a pile to be kept or to a pile to be disposed. I was surprised to see that Christopher consistently had the same opinion as Elsa regarding what clothes suited me and what did not.
My unemployment insurance was running out and I could not find any work. Elsa suggested that I get on welfare and rent a room in her house. How could I refuse such a great idea and such a generous offer? Life with Elsa was very nice. I helped her around the garden and was able to use a part of it to grow my weeds, despite her strong dislike of all weeds. That to me showed Elsa's true nature most clearly. Her wonderful ability to accept, respect, and understand people and tolerate their differences. Whenever she asked me to pull her weeds I always told her that in a way it broke my heart to pull them out because I found them so beautiful. In a way I related to the weeds I suppose.
She wrote a poem about me and my problem offering a solution as was her custom.
I have a friend called Andrew
My garden he does do.
But he has that thing About pulling out weeds
Weather summer, winter, fall or spring
Because they are so pretty, he says,
And a dark cloud moves over his face.
To again make him happy-
What can I make? Bake a cake?
Or fix some soup With plenty of chive?
Or take a drive?
Or sip on a glass of wine? By candle light dine?
Or have good talks Or long walks?
Elsa had one of the most free and most fearless spirits that I have ever seen in a person. Her tolerance, her uncompromising ways of accepting people for what they are and her balance of respecting others and at the same time keeping true to her self is most clearly seen by her 6 children who are all so different yet fit together all so well. Thank you Elsa for everything and I will greatly miss you.
Here is another poem Elsa wrote me:
Love is such a strange addiction.
True at times and sometimes fiction.
Falling from heaven, straight into hell.
Wanting, rejecting, hoping, repel.
Impossible, wonderful, crazy time.
To my good friend Andrew on his way-
this little rhyme.
Home with dogs and Bitcoin
Eva invited Trudi to visit the Rutishausers in America. First week they spent in NewYork and saw a Broadway show. The next week they flew to San Francisco and explored the coast with Racheal. They spent the rest of their time in Utah and the national Parks around there.
I stayed home with the dogs and learned about Bitcoin.
Sweenali was getting very old. A few times we would lose her and she was so very hard to find, especially when she was under low growing leaves or when it was dark. She could not hear at all and she could barely see with her one eye. It got to the point where she could not jump up to the bed or into the car. We decided that it would be best to put her in a permanent sleep. She was such a special little dog, so sweet and with such a sharp bite. Rosemary and Christopher had to use leather gloves to pick her up.
Onya was getting very old. She could not jump up on the bed, or even go up or down the stairs. We had to carry her more and more. I had a backpack but it was clear that it was not so comfortable for her. We were not sure how much pain she had so we decided that it would be best to put her in a permanent sleep. She was such a special little dog. She was so attracted to brooms, mops and vacuum cleaners. She would hear the floor be cleaned from upstairs and run down to bite at the broom, mop or vacuum cleaner.
Nico is a toy poodle that is as small and black as Sweenali was. He was the beloved poodle of a rich old lady. The lady was walking with Nico when he pulled on the leash and the lady fell as a result. She had to go to the hospital and Nico was moved from place to place and needed a more permanent home. Someone asked Trudi if she could look after little Nico while the lady was in the hospital. Trudi of course agreed to take him for as long as needed.
The lady died and we were invited to her funeral. The minister knew what a great deep meaning the lady had for her Nico. He asked Trudi to bring Nico and invited them up on the stage during his sermon. There were 5 dogs in the little church. In our church in Riggisberg where Trudi is on the church committee, dogs are not allowed. In the beginning, Nico would sit under the table to avoid having to go in the car, with the fear of losing the heavenly sanctuary of Trudi and taken to another place. It was not possible to grab him under the table as he would just run away.
While Trudi was away, I stumbled on to the Silk Road. Fascinated to try it out, I bought my first couple of Bitcoins which fascinated me even more.
For Xmas, we repeated the family dinner we started last year and this year, Florian and Stefan and Christopher joined us.
Cruise
In April 2014, we flew to Barcelona and took a cruise to Casablanca, Lanzarote, Madera and Magada with the Mosers and Lenny, very close and long-time friends of Trudi. In Casablanca, we walked around the city and we were invited into a drugstore to see how they made the well-known and very expensive cream that Trudi already knew about. In Lanzarote, we hired a taxi driver to take us to the places that Trudi and Fritz visited 2 years ago. The taxi driver told us how the local fishermen were forbidden to do any commercial fishing on their own. They were only allowed to fish the waters for private consumption. In Madera we took a bus up to the highest ocean cliffs in the world. In Magada, we hopped on a local bus to enjoy the local neighborhoods, the local people, and the lush trees, plants and flowers all over the city. In Barcelona, we took a tour of the city.
Urs and Agnes, Trudi`s cousin, stayed over to babysit Kenni and Nico. They had such a good time that they promised to babysit our dogs when we go to Romania to attend a wedding.
Romania
In June we flew to Budapest and took the train to the closest train station to Ueli and Martha Marti`s tanya where they picked us up. A tanya is an isolated farm on the Great Plain of Hungary. Ueli`s tanya was the size of a couple of football fields with a house surrounded by shady trees in an island of treeless fields. The next day we crossed the Tisza in a car ferry and drove the 500km to Chandu in Transylvania, Romania.
Transylvania has a very rich history. It is a continuation of the Hungarian Puszta, rolling plains the size of Switzerland. It is almost completely surrounded on the north, east and south by the Carpathian Mountains and served as a gateway for the first modern humans to have entered Europe some 42,000 years ago. At the time of the iron-age, the celts, who lived in Transylvania rich with salt mine, were rich salt traders. At around the time when Jesus lived, Romans were attracted by the rich local gold and silver ore deposits. The territory was invaded from all sides 200-400 years later by various migratory populations of barbarian tribes such as the Goths, the Huns, the Avars, and the Bulgars.
By the 11th century, Transylvania had become a largely autonomous part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarians living in Transylvania, known as the Székelys, played a key role in the defense of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Ottomans. They built up a reputation of being guards of the eastern border. Most of them claimed to be descendants of Attila and his Huns.
Northern Germanic tribes called Saxons who immigrated to England were also encouraged to immigrate to Transylvania so that their skills could be used to develop and exploit the rich fertile lands. By 1930, 300,000 German speaking people lived in Transylvania. Transylvania was taken away from Hungary and given to Romania at the end of WWI when Germany and its allies were defeated.
Nicolae Ceausescu, in his efforts to cleans Romania and reclaim the land developed by the Saxons and Hungarians, made life difficult for them. He persecuted them till most wanted to leave and go to relatives living in Germany or Hungary. Nicolae charged over 5,000 US dollars for each person wanting to leave. The German government in an act of saving the Germans fleeing Transylvania paid the total bill. Ceausescu in effect sold the Germans of Transylvania back to Germany and expropriated their land and homes which he gave to the local gypsies who had settled in Transylvania in the 13 th century. By 2007, of the original 300,000, only about 15,000 Saxons remained in Transylvania.
The drive from Hungary to Transylvania was very impressive with the many cathedrals and the huge mansions of the rich gypsies along the way. The mansions resemble more cathedrals than homes. Most gypsies are very poor, but some have acquired great wealth in their business of recycling metals. Apparently the unfinished inside of the villas are not as impressive as their outside facades. They are mainly status symbols of wealth and power. Also impressive were the endless long rows of stalls along the side of the roads selling sold hand-made goods like furniture, baskets and trashy and tacky looking plastic decorations for the garden.
We finally arrived at the house of Fred and Joli, the couple who invited us. They drove us to our hotel nearby where we had a cold shower, not knowing that we had to leave the water running for more than 10 minutes before it got warm. Joli makes beautiful handmade objects of art from corn leaves. There is a lot of methane gas wells on hills that are like blisters on the landscape filled with earth gas. Most houses are connected to the network of gas pipes that run along the side of roads. They were bent in many places where they looked like they were used like guardrails to keep cars from driving off the road. Speeding impatient trucks passed on sharp curves and overtook slow trotting horse drawn wagons filled with gypsy families. It made the driving very nerve racking. The countryside was very scenic with unfenced and free roaming grazing sheep. Well-kept and very clean restaurants catering to tourists were next to broken down houses that the gypsies took over from the Saxons who left.
The area is known for the fortified church towers which were used to protect the church and its congregation against invading Turks. We went to a gypsy market next to our hotel selling second hand items. We saw many items laid out on the ground that we imagined could have at one time come from Swiss homes that had been broken into and robbed. We were told that we did not need to have any fear of being robbed ourselves as there were no thieves around – they were all in Switzerland.
A train passed by our hotel a few times each day. The barrier across the busy main road is lowered and raised by hand. Beautiful flower blooms decorate many of the streets and we saw many of the finely decorated wooden gates that the Szeklers are known for. We visited an area called Sovata known for its salt mines. It has a warm natural salt lake that is used as a health spa. It reminded us of the famous Heviz health spa in Hungary that we stayed at a few years ago. We were surprised to find a parking lot filled with old Swiss buses donated to Romania.
One of the reasons that we were invited to attend the wedding of Fred`s and Joni`s son was to take a look at an organ in a church that needed to be repaired. Fred thought that Trudi, being a member of the Riggisberg church committee, could raise some interest to raise some money to repair it. The church was built in the 14 th century and was renovated in 1790 and 1948. The organ that is now out of service was built in 1912 and was last repaired in 1995 by a Swiss sponsored school that specializes in fixing church organs in Romania.
The wedding
The wedding between Karola and Korcsica, Joli`s son, was quite an experience. The day before, we went and bought bow ties that all the men were asked to wear for the wedding. Everyone, except for the bride and her family, met at Fred`s and Joli`s house the morning of the wedding. There was a big “Welcome” sign at the entrance. Family members and special guests were decorated with bouquets of flowers that were pinned to their lapels and dresses. Friends of Karola, chosen to be bridesmaids, were all dresses in beige ball-room gowns. Friends of Korcsika, selected to be best men, all had red suspenders and red bow ties. They seemed to be a circle of long-time close friends. A band was playing music and photographs were taken.
The master of ceremonies made a farewell speech for Korchika announcing to his family and friends of his leaving to start his own family. He thanked them all, on Korcsika`s behalf, for their past support. He apologized for any past misgivings and misunderstanding. The grandparents cried while the parents and friends showed big smiles on their faces.
We all followed him to the bride's house a few blocks away. The musicians played music to which all sang along. The best men carried bottles of wine and offered drinks to the neighbors lined up along the way. When we arrived, the bride's family presented and offered Karola`s 5 year old sister to Korcsica. Korcsika complained that she was too young. Then her older sister was presented who he found to be too small. Karola was finally presented and Korcsika found her just right. The master of ceremonies gave the same farewell speech on behalf of Karola and got the same reaction from the crowd.
Then we all walked to the church nearby for the wedding. After the wedding, there was a bus for those without cars to drive them to the big tent 30km away where the wedding party was held. The tent was decorated with a red carpet entrance and silk ceiling with chandeliers. The band played mainly Hungarian music and there was a large dance floor which was full of dancing guests most of the time. It was impressive to see the guests dance so well. Many sang along with the songs with great theatrical enthusiasm. Most of the young people knew the words to many of the song that I heard my mother sing so often. They really showed what a great time they were having.
There was not a dull moment. Every once in a while an announcement was made. One of the announcements was that the bride had suddenly disappeared. The best men and bridesmaids rushed out of the tent to try to find her. Then later the groom disappeared, causing the same reaction. The band often played music non-stop going from one song to another without pausing between. Looking at people dancing with such enthusiasm for so long was almost tiring. The party lasted till the early morning.
We spent our remaining time in Romania sightseeing around the area. Barbara and Franz from Switzerland were also invited to the wedding and they were staying at our hotel. Franz was a fireman and he managed to convince his community to buy a new fire truck and uniforms and to donate their aging ones to Romania. Franz named the fire truck “Raphael” after his son and both of them drove it to Romania. Barbara and Franz also were able to convince their school commission to donate some of the school desks. We all went to visit the schools and fire department to see if they were happy with the donations. The schools were happy to replace some of their wobbly desks for the more stable Swiss ones. And we appreciated to have an inside view of a bit of the local community.
On the way back to Hungary, we went to Arad to find the memorial for the 13 Hungarian generals that during the freedom revolt in 1848 changed sides from fighting against the Hungarian freedom fighters to fighting with them. They were eventually defeated and executed as traitors. They became to be known as the 13 martyrs. A distant relative of mine, Count Karoly Vecsey, was one of the generals. We could not find the memorial so we paid a taxi driver to lead us to it.
We paid a visit to the museum commemorating the 1956 Hungarian revolution near Ueli`s and Martha`s tanya. We saw photographs of boys who fought on the streets of Budapest against the Russian tanks. They put plates on the road that looked like they could be land mines. When the tanks slowed down to avoid the plates, the boys would throw their Molotov cocktail bombs at the tanks setting the tank on flames.
We visited Ueli`s and Martha`s neighbors. One is a Swiss family who live in a little old house with their 2 daughters. Martin raises sheep and is a shepherd moving his sheep from place to place for grazing. Once a year he sheers his own sheep as well as those from others to sell the wool. He learned to speak Hungarian. Ueli`s other neighbor is a Hungarian family who live in a big new house with their many children and grand-children. Ueli calls him “Krumpli” which is “Potato” in Hungarian, because he harvests potatoes on his farm. He hires Romanian gypsies as cheap labor. He also has big green houses where he grows peppers. He has thousands of geese that he fattens up for their meat and feathers. They are not fenced in and he has lights on all night so they continually eat and are protected to some extent against the foxes. As we were passing by, he called us in for a drink. I do not know what kind of wine he made but despite it not tasting very strong, a few glasses got all of us very drunk.
We met Laszlo and Zsuzsi from Budapest at the wedding and they invited us to visit them before we flew back to Switzerland. A nice young man helped us find our hotel in Budapest. He was a dance teacher and was the number one champion in his category. He started dancing at a very early age. His dancing partner moved to Italy and now he teaches dancing to those that want to also become professional dancers. Zsuzsi was unfortunately not able to see us, but Laszlo took us out for the evening. He showed us around and we had a very nice dinner together. He used to live in Switzerland and is actually a Swiss citizen. He is a chemist and is now retired. He is asked from time to time to give lectures in his field of expertise.
Our trip to Romania is one of our all-time highlights. We not only met so many wonderful and interesting people but also learned so much about Romania and its rich culture.
Back home
Before attending the National Swiss Wrestling Competition this year, we went to a theater about a small village organizing a competition for collecting some money. The Swiss are very talented and are able to make fun of themselves. Trudi went thru many of the things that the play showed on what it takes to organize a wrestling competition. Trudi of course helped Fritz organize competitions on the national level, so she could relate to the play on a personal level.
The National Swiss Wrestling Competition held in Burgdorf was so moving for Trudi that she broke into sobs when they honored Fritz by marching a flag with his name on it onto the field.
Eve, Elsa's daughter visited us and took us to where her husband Martin left her a cabin in Graubunden. The drive was especially nice and we stayed in a hotel where we took day trips to interesting places nearby. One place was the famous local water bottling plant that takes mountain glacier waters and bottles them to ship them world-wide. The driving over high mountain bridges was great.
We decided to finally spend the reservations that Eve and her family gave us as thanks for helping them through Elsa`s funeral almost 2 years ago. We decided to go in fall and to bring Didier with us to liven everything up. We picked a lot of chestnuts, and walked with the dogs a lot. One day, we lost Didier. We thought he was ahead of us as he was anxious to play the computer game he and his friend found one day in the internet room. But he was nowhere to be found in the hotel. As Trudi and I were discussing as to what to do next and how to inform Angi that we lost Didier, he showed up. When he realized that he lost us, he went all the way back to the start to try to find us.
We had our annual Xmas family gathering joined by all of the Doesch family and all of the Vecsey family, we were 35 adults, 5 children and 4 babies.
Edmundo and Claudia visited us at the end of the year. I invited them one evening to Thun with Christopher, Mathew and Ronya and her mother Melani. Mathew later took us to a very interesting place he sometimes goes to. It is a meeting place that is a bar and a market and a disco and theater and art gallery. The price of everything sold there is determined by the buyer.
Trudi`s 70. birthday party
In February 2015 Trudi turned 70 and I organized a special birthday party for her and 50 family members and close friends. I explained that the main objective of the party was to have a good time together, laugh a lot, eat well, and remember and share all the good memories with Trudi. To help revive long buried memories, I collected photographs highlighting many people and events in Trudi`s long life. Trudi took most of the photographs during her life and she collected them into albums. I scanned the albums and made slide shows. Trudi helped with the annotations and selected the music. I printed out a few brochure highlighting pictures of long buried memories submitted by a few people.
There were more than a thousand photographs in the slide shows. Many were very old photographs that showed a world already gone by with the clothes, and cars of the past. Many of the old photographs were very small and the faces on them were too small to see properly. I zoomed in until the faces were shown in detail as if using a magnifying glass. With Trudi`s help I added text of the names of the people in the photographs. I am sure that the slide shows will be appreciated by those in the Schwander-Pfaffli family already born and yet to be born who one day will be interested in digging up their rich roots. From the old photos going back 3 generations, it was interesting to see how facial characteristics were inherited down thru the generations. I stored the 40 minute slide shows on a USB memory stick and gave a stick for each family to make copies for the other members of the family, present and future and to look at the slide shows at home.
Then I tried to be funny and singled out Rolf by mentioning that I couldn't help but observe a somewhat worrying look on his face as we all knew that Rolf and Vreni do not have a computer nor do they know how to operate one. I asked Vreni if she had a TV apparat. I discreetly compared the UBS memory stick to a penis and the connector to which it couples with the TV as a vagina. I told Rolf that all he had to do was to take out his “little stick” to prepare his stick by extending it so that the stick's head comes out in a horizontal position ready to be inserted into the hole in the back side of Vreni`s apparat. I ask Rolf to be gentle, not too fast and without using any oil which might cause Vreni`s aparat to spark uncontrollably. Then I told them to turn on and enjoy.
I warn the others that might insert their sticks in various different computers to protect themselves with anti-virus protection like AVIRA, not to be confused with VIAGRA. It is also advisable to keep the head of their sticks clean by wiping it with a dry tissue. Fortunately, very few understood my humor.
I started to describe Priska`and Mike`s birthday party last year and how Trudi was laughing so hard at the stuttering entertainer called Rüedu. I wanted to hire Rüedu as the entertainment, but he refused to do anything but a neutral free show that excluded all personal references to anyone in attendance. I could not convince him not to worry about insulting anyone because the Schwander and Pfalli families all have that wonderful gene that allows them to be able to laugh at themselves.
I told the guests that I considered hiring a yodler choir with the yodelers with their hands in their pockets making sounds as if they were squeezing their balls. Or alphorn blowers blowing their extra long horns. I added that I knew that Trudi would enjoy having alphorn blowers, schwingers, rock throwers and flag throwers as entertainers, but they all needed to be outdoors and not indoors like we were.
I continued that Trudi has a magical ability to stay sweet and loving at times and not turn bitter. It is very difficult to get Trudi bitter, even if you chew up all her eye glasses and hearing aids like our dogs often do, or scratch her brand new shiny car, like I once did. Even if you chop the top off her 30 year old tree, like our neighbor once did. She will never lose any of her magical sweetness. She is magical and she bewitches all those who are close to her.
Because Trudi is magical I decided to hire a magician for the entertainment. Unfortunately I could not find a funny magician that was not afraid of getting personal. So I decided to do it myself. Didier agreed to help me. Nils asked to help as well and did one of his magic tricks.
Then I spoke directly to Trudi, in my broken German of course so that the guests could understand.
Like magic, you my darling are extremely fast and unpredictable. The only thing predictable about you is that you are spontaneous. Anyone who can keep up with you is led by you from one beautiful flower after another one, just like a bumble bee. You are so fast, that you even had 4 kids in 4 years. But to be fair, Fritz was not that slow himself. But you my love are magical fast. In a few short years, you have been able to change a wild alley cat, a “strubi catz” into a tame house dog, a “stube hund”.
Your "changing rooms around" magic trick is quite impressive. Like the one where you change the TV room and the office around, or the dining room and the living room around. I just hope you will leave the kitchen and the bathroom where they are.
You are magical in the bed room, with our 3 dogs and 2 cats. The magic starts when we all go to bed, and lasts till the morning when you do your "Bathroom" magic trick. You know, the one where you enter the bathroom and in an hour or even less, you exit with darker reddish hair, painted nails, all dressed up and perfumed. How do you do that? You are just amazing.
I got the guests involved by asking them if anyone thought if it was physically and biologically possible for a human to have a better sense of smell than that of a police dog?
Then I spoke to the guests in my broken German of course.
Trudi is allergic to my smoke and occasionally when Trudi goes out by herself, and I have the house to myself, I enjoy a smoke. I wait till she is sufficiently far away and after I have smoked; I air out the house, shower, deodorize myself and change clothes. But when she returns, and after I give her a kiss, her nose starts to twitch and she can tell that I have smoked. “I see smoke coming out of your ears” she claims. Amazing. How does she do it.
The magic of reading thoughts is òne of Trudi`s best tricks. I would think to myself that I better empty the compost bin and take out the garbage and do some other urgent things. Before I can complete my thoughts, Trudi would say, “Andeli, can you take the compost down, its overflowing and starting to stink in the kitchen, and while you are at it can you take out the garbage, and flush the toilet and replace the toilet paper. She can read my thoughts faster than I can think.
You all know the magical powers Trudi has in the kitchen. Trudi`s magic does not stop in the kitchen. Her "filling garden bags" magic trick is impressing, but not one of my favorites. One minute the huge oversized garden bags are empty, and suddenly, "poof" they are full. And what I find amazing is that the faster Trudi cuts the poor plants, the faster the plants grow. Magic.
Then there is Trudi`s "Where are the leaves now" magic trick. I sweep leaves under the front door welcome mat and "poof" before I know it they disappear from under the mat and magically reappear all washed, ironed and polished decorating our table.
Then Didier, Nils and I did a few magic tricks.
I told of how Urs comment that the yoga exercises Trudi does every morning - the “5 Tibetans”, are obviously not enough and that “6” which in German pronounced “sex” would be better, hoping that people would understand the pun.
As a finale, I suggested that I do my very best trick - cutting a pretty lady in half and putting her back together again. To quell any concerns about any mess on the floor I had Priska`s cleaning product “Jamako” that guaranteed to remove all spots. For those concerned about any unwanted cuts, I had Priska`s “BestLife” products handy that guaranteed fast healing.
I further tried to be funny by describing the problems I went thru to find a pretty lady volunteer for my sawing her in half trick. I claimed that Heinz said that his wife Susi would be willing, but when Susi saw the uniform that she would have to put on….. I paused and held up a bikini with stars pinned on like in the circus, …..it was much too small for her…I continued.
I told that Martin claimed that his wife Angi suggest that I should use Trudi`s “silly” dogs, Kenni and Nico, but changed her mind when she realized that if I failed to put them back together again, there would be just more “silly” dogs.
I said that Didier liked the idea of me cutting Angi in half because then he could have a part of Angi all to himself. Angi insisted that I practice my trick first and Martin offered to set me up in his butcher shop. Martin suggested I practice with a hen in his shop before doing my cutting up trick with Angi. But I was afraid that Angi would take that wrong and I thought practicing with a bunny rabbit would be more appropriate. I asked Otto who raises rabbits if I could take his very best bunny for a while, he thought I was referring to his wife Ruth. Finally when I explained, that I did not mean a “playboy bunny”, he gave me his very best rabbit, but it proved to be much too small. Martin then offered me a cow which proved to be much too big. A pig turned out to be just right. I held up one of Trudi`s smaller sized bras and told Angi to get dressed in her uniform for the show. Then I faked a telephone ring and told the guests that the entertainment time has run out and that it was time to eat. I was relieved to see that most of the people were relieved.
Memories were shared. One was from the neighbors Rosemarie and Fritz who remembered Trudi driving when a mouse ran across the road. Trudi was and is so afraid of mice that she automatically raised her 2 feet high up in the air while driving the car. Another was when Didier asked Trudi why she bolted and locked the house door at night.
“It is a habit from the time Fritz died and I was scared of being alone in the house” Trudi explained. Didier replied that if she would have just left the door opened at night, she would not have been alone.
Astrid did an amusing presentation about how the number 4 kept on coming up in Trudi`s life. Vanessa sang while Severin played his guitar. It was a wonderful party and it made me feel very lucky that I felt to be a part of Trudi`s family.
Trudi is a member of the community church committee. She as well plays piano regularly for the church service at 2 of the old folks homes nearby.. I join her with the dogs and help her carry the electric keyboard and the music books. The old folks are always very happy to pet our dogs. I help distribute the books and help people find the right pages. As if that is not enough, Trudi plays piano for the old folks playing songs that the old folks remember singing as children. Many with varying stages of Alzheimer surprisingly remember the words. One old lady who was known as a yodeler when young bursts out yodeling whenever she sees Trudi coming. Trudi, also a talented yodeler joins in. Usually when we arrive, the old folks are slouched in their chairs. After Trudi gets them going with her music, they are all swaying and clapping. I was particularly attracted to one old lady who was obviously a beautiful hot lady when young. I asked her if she was married, and she replied with a wink “not yet”.
Romania
In April, we went to Romania with Walter and Annalise Moser. We took Didier with us because Franz and Barbara, the Swiss couple who invited us to join them were bringing their son Rafael who is a few year older than Didier. Didier looked up to Rafael, especially that Rafael had a real miniature tractor to play around with, and as well a drone that he was able to fly around the dining room table as we were eating. He even had a real fire truck named after him and he drove it from Switzerland to Rumania with his father Fritz. It was a mostly unused firetruck and all of the accessories, replaced by the firefighting truck and accessories from a well to do Swiss community who insisted on having the very best fire protection. Barbara arraigned to replace many of the wobbly desks in some Romanian schools with the sturdy Swiss made ones that were being replaced as the schools were being renovated. Franz and Barbara were invited as honorary citizens of the community in recognition of all the help they provided to the community.
While Barbara and Franz stayed with the local fire chief commissioner who had invited them, we stayed with Ueli and Martha Martis. We rented a car and explored the surroundings. The salt mines provided a cheap and limitless supply of salt from the time of the Celts, the Romans and even up to 50 years ago. Now it is a cave dug in the salt 100 meters below the surface visited by tourists that wonder at the grandeur of a built in cathedral, built into the cavern, and asthma patients who spend the day breathing in the salty air for therapy.
We visited the remote farm of a family that Ueli befriended. Ueli referred to the family as the “slave traders”. They organize and hire out local labor to work abroad for what many regard as slave labor wages. They have a remote ranch where all their animals are free to roam without being fenced in. They hired a few locals that stay the entire season and sleep in over-sized coffins with their dogs sleeping below on the ground. These “huts” face the woods where the bears, and the wolves, were it not for the dogs, would go after the otherwise unprotected farm animals; the pigs, lambs, goats, and hens, geese and turkeys.
Ueli was sometimes not very friendly to Didier and a few times moved Didier to silent tears with his harsh words of criticism. Trudi at one point had enough and got into a confrontation with Ueli defending Didier. Didier later thanked her for defending him. Another time Walter got a bit impatient of seeing Didier`s very long video taken from the back window of our car. Walter was anxious to see the hockey game, like everyone else. Everyone patiently and respectfully and politely watched Didier`s somewhat very long and boring video hoping that it would soon end. Walter was showing his frustration too much and Ueli eventually threatened to kick him out of his house in the dark with his pajamas on unless he disappear into his bed room.
Fortunately, Walter went to his bed room without a fight. When Didier`s video finally finished to the relief of all, and the football match was finally turned ON, Walter would, like a kid being punished, peek his head out when it got too noisy to see if any goal was scored.
Teccin
We were in a holiday spirit and we decided to cash in the travel vouchers that Elsa`s family gave us when we helped them with Elsa`s funeral. Trudi chose a hotel in Teccin called Bellavisa located high above a lake with an especially spectacular view. Trudi was there before with Fritz and the family, and it gave her many happy memories to visit again. The food was excellent and the entire hotel was very dog-friendly. There is an outside part of the restaurant looking down on the lake a few hundred meters below. When it gets dark, the hill on the opposite side of the lake starts to light up house by house until the lights look like stars. We drove around especially taking the back roads up high on the ridge leading us to most interesting little villages along the way. We went for very interesting walks and I got to hear one more time the adventures that Trudi, Fritz and family had. One was from the restaurant we stopped at where they lost little Gabriel late one evening.
We enjoyed our stay in Bellavista so much that we took Didier there for a few days. He made friends with a boy his age and we did not see him much. One day we went up to the lookout and when we returned, Didier went ahead of us and when we looked for him at the hotel, he was nowhere to be found. We did not know if we should panic or wait. We thought about phoning Angi and Martin, but did not know what we would tell them so we decided to wait with that call. The hotel staff could not help us and just before we decided to trace our route back up the steep winding trail, to see if we could find Didier there, he arrived. He told us that when he was ahead of us, he stopped and waited for us but we never passed him. He got worried that we might have slipped and fell off the steep winding trail, he went back down to the start to look for us.
We enjoyed Bellavista so much that we convinced Agness, Trudi`s cousin and her husband Urs to join us there for a few days. When we returned home, we visited a very high impressive wooden tower in Emmental in our annual trip with the Swiss Wrestling Club.
Back home
Riggisberg started an annual theatrical event. The brother of Dr Zehnder, our family doctor is a world famous flutist and conductor. He invited a group from Czechoslovakia to come up to Riggisberg to perform. Their performance was fantastic. Martin the butcher did the catering and served a 5 course 5 star meal. Severin showed his talents by making the decorative desserts. Severin started to practice the art of Swiss wrestling called “Schwingen” and in his last tournament he should have won his first crown. Instead he sprained his knee so badly that he needed an operation.
Trudi was very busy in the garden. We started out by buying a very comfortable hammock with a movable stand. Then came the tearing down of the 20 years growth of the beautiful vines that were climbing up the house. She tore them down faster than I was able to take them away. Then Trudi set up her round above the ground plastic 3m diameter swimming pool that she used when the grandchildren were young. It attracted Didier, Isha, Didier`s classmate, Lucia, our 5 year old neighbor, and children from the refugee camp in our town on the many hot days. It started to leak, so Trudi bought a much bigger one where she could swim around with the kids. It is a 5 meter by 10 meter plastic, above the ground, swimming pool that needs a ladder to enter as it is over a meter deep.
When we dismantled the swimming pool for the winter, we saw that it had destroyed our lawn. So Trudi decided to have the lawn paved with tiles. We went and bought all the materials needed and Trudi hired 3 refugees to do the work.
Heart Attack
Trudi was in the Spanish Mallorca Islands with Therese and family for 2 weeks. I stayed home with the dogs. The day before Trudi`s return I visited Mathew and we had a very enjoyable evening together playing a game of chess. When I drove home I felt a hot rush and dizziness and eventually muscle cramps that reach the neck and jaws. I remember unable to turn on the light in the bathroom and lying down on the cool stone floor before falling down and enjoying the coolness of the floor relieve the burning hotness I felt inside. It was then that I realized that the feelings I was feeling were the same that I was feeling during my first heart attack 6 years ago and that if I did not get off the floor and go to the hospital, I would die right there. I thought about my life and how blessed I was to be with Trudi, and somehow, that gave me enough strength to get up and walk the 100 meters to the hospital next to our house.
I was driven by ambulance to the hospital in Bern 30km away. The paramedics in the ambulance told me that they were initially told to leave me in the emergency room but were very happy to hear that they could take me directly into the operating room, which they had trouble finding from the underground garage.
It must have been about 4 o’clock in the morning when they started to operate on me. Just like for my first heart attack 6 years ago, they inserted a tiny balloon and a camera into my arteries and follow the arteries to unblock them with the balloon. The operation was done by a professor who was teaching his students how to preform each step of the operation. He praised them for the wonderful work they did and at the same time showed me the before and after photographs of the place where they unblocked the blood going to feed my heart. The worst part was like the first time I had such a same operation 6 years ago. The more I needed to urinate, the more futile it became.
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