wow

The best way to spend a lunch break in Geneva: put on rollers, down by the lake, stop for some sushi (today I had salmon speciality and nordic rolls = best sushi ever!!!), continue out on the pier to get closer to the water and away from car noise and most people, change, sit on a rock with a gentle warm breeze in the face, once warm enough after the cold air-conditioned office - dive into the water and swim, swim, swim and enjoy!!!, dry in the sun while eating, really making sure to taste all the flavours miam, lie down and let the sunstrokes caress the body, fall asleep for a short nap = relaxation guaranteed!!

This was the way I spent my lunch 1h30min today. So needed, so longed for, a perfect moment of paradise, vacation and wow :)

today's dream about a different life...

Woke up in a bit of a grumpy mood despite the beautiful weather and having fallen asleep laughing yesterday - not sure why, perhaps some forgotten dreams, perhaps the fact that it was yet another working day... Kind of made me ponder, as so often, if my job is the right one for me. It's not that i hate my job (well at least not most day), i actually like it quite a lot especially lately since i got a promotion and have been given more responsibility and more interesting tasks. It's more that i'm never really sure if this is really what i want to do but then i don't know what that 'thing' is, so i let life go on. Someone said, though, that when you found the thing you like to do you wake up with a smile on working mornings (at least most of them) feeling joy about going to work. And although i like my job, i'm far from feeling any joy from it except for very rare moments. So perhaps it's time that i have a change, that i find something different to do - the question, however, is both quite simple and oh so complicated: what?

Today's answer is to open some kind of book and lunch place. A place where you can go and have a nice break from your job, eating something healthy and yummy, with some allergic adapted meals, and where there are lots of different books to look in, read during lunch and perhaps even borrow, or buy... A place with nice and filling salads - something severely missing in Geneva where you can get tomate mozza anywhere but where it's very difficult to get a nice salad with filling and yummy ingredients...

Negative points though: my salary would most probably drop severely - and it's too expensive in Geneva, and my father, after a few decades as a restaurant owner, told me never to open or work in the restaurant business....

Positive point: to work with food and among books - 2 things i love! however, the idea is probably a bit romanticised in my mind...

Good girl...or...

Had a doctor's appointment this morning and came out in a bit of a sad, tired, depressed mood... If I'm a good girl I should now stop eating all products with gluten (pasta, pizza, bread, couscous...you name it), with milk (cheese, yoghurt, ice cream...), with yeast which regretfully seems to include not only vinegar and I don't mind eating salads but not without vinegar :( and all alcohols... Well at least according to the doctor - but I think that I will have to research this last bit a bit further... so either I continue eating as normal and will probably, in a few years, have to start taking some kind of awful pill for the rest of my life or I become a good girl and decide to eliminate all the products mentioned above and hopefully my body will regulate itself, but probably I'll still have to take the same pill... what to do? I could go without milk and gluten products although it will be a pain since it makes your life very inflexible since most restaurants becomes a no no. No wine or vinegar will be more difficult though... and part of my life will become really boring... Perhaps I will try to do my best, and maybe cheat at some moments and hope for the best...

No wonder then that I felt like getting some nice sun flowers on my way to work to try to cheer me up a bit and bring in at least some sun in my life :)

What would be the most difficult food stuff for you to give up?

Today's street shot

Two American men taking photos in front of Iran Air and looking very naughty... Wish I had my camera on me - next time ;)

The best sandwich in the world???

I had heard about this sandwich place close to work by several of my colleagues who swear by it as it is supposed to have these great yummy best sandwiches, in if not the world, then at least in Geneva. For some reason I have never gone there myself before - perhaps my normal resistance to following the crowds. When one person tells me a book is a great read I get interested and might well pick up a copy within a few days. When lots of people tells me that 'this is the book to read', the chances are bigger that I won't read it than that I will... Why? Good question - but I guess I prefer to find my own way, my own catches and to be surprised.

Hence my earlier reluctance to try out this 'great sandwich' place for a year or so. Yesterday lunch however, after a friend cancelled on me last minute and as I was starving but with no real idea of where to go or what I felt like eating, I finally tried out these sandwiches. Not to be disappointed, which was a surprise. Not really knowing what to ask for as there are lots and lots of choices, I asked for some assistance and the lady working there was very happy to help me out. Finally chose parma ham, parmiganno cheese, sun dried tomatoes with a marvellous taste, roasted aubergines in garlic and zucchini dipped in breadcrumbs. The result: wow! A huge, super tasty sandwich where everything seemed to melt in my moth with a mixture of flavours filling my senses. And all this for 12CHF. A bit more expensive than an ordinary sandwich - but a lot bigger and the ingredients are really top class.

If it was indeed the best sandwich in the world? I am not sure as I have some great memories of sandwiches from my vacations in Slovenia. However, it was for sure the best sandwich I have had in a long long time. Perhaps this should teach me to sometimes listen to what other people suggests ;)))

Or perhaps not. I kind of like going my own way in life...

Chinese interrogation methods at Guantánamo...

What can I say other than that some "lessons learned" are the wrong ones. This is one example(also in Swedish news). Shameful.

See also an earlier comment on the use of torture on 13 March.

stress release nr. 1

Today's recepy for stress releasing:

2 cups of rollerblading down by the lake
2 cups of sushi and teriyaki salmon
1 cup of swimming in the lake, facing the mountains, forgetting about the world
1/2 cup of reading a book while drying in the sun
1 big fat yellow sun
optional: a sprinkle of small thin clothes

Temperature approx. 25-30°

Mix it all up and shake before heading back to the office. Miam :))