This is your life. Do what you love and do it often.

 

Thanks to Travelspirit for posting this. So inspirational!

BBQ at Pennys

And here comes another story about my best friend Penny: It was a sunny Sunday and I had planned to invite Penny for dinner to celebrate her birthday (officially her 35^th…). Due to bad weather coming up we changed our plans and Penny invited me over for lunch. She said very proudly “We are going to have a BBQ!” I was quite surprised to hear that Penny could handle a BBQ by herself. No offense there, but we all know that Penny is not a big cook – neither am I, by the way… But I love BBQ and I was looking forward to a BBQ on this beautiful summer day.

I arrived at Pennys and the first thing she said was “Can you give me a hand with the BBQ?” Oh Dear, here we go… Penny couldn’t change the empty gas bottle of her BBQ by herself, so she asked me to help. We both tried it several times, but in the end we had to give up. The empty bottle wouldn’t move one millimetre. Penny wanted to ask her neighbour for help, but he wasn’t in. “No problem”, Penny said, “I have an instant disposable BBQ, we are going to use that one!” After removing the outer package, there was a slice paper under the wire net.  Penny lit the slice paper with a piece of match. Everything looked fine and after 20 minutes – exactly like the manual had told us – the flames were gone and we put the meat on the BBQ. In the meanwhile the potatoes were baking in the oven and we had prepared a salad. After another 10 minutes we looked at our steaks and… there was no change, they still looked were raw.

“One small BBQ plus one piece of match then you can enjoy your picnic cooking.” said the manual… My stomach was rumbling and I started to doubt that we would ever get a grilled steak. Penny looked at the meat, Penny looked at me and then she said:

“I don’t understand it! We did everything the manual told us. Right?”

“Right!” I could only agree.

“So why is this not working then?”

I had no clue… It looked like we were missing something.

“All my colleagues are using the instant BBQ and they all love it. Whenever I am trying it, it is not working. I think it is time for plan C…!” Penny said.

“You are going to fry the meat?”

“I am afraid so, yes. And if that doesn’t work…” Penny had a big smile in her face “…we are going to order pizza!!!”.

And there she was, standing in the kitchen, frying two steaks in the pan while outside on her back yard there were two BBQs, none of them working…

That’s Pennys way of BBQing – but I have to admit, the steak tasted great, we had a yummy lunch!

One of these days…

It’s not even eight o’clock in the morning and everything that can go wrong goes wrong. Well, no, not entirely. Actually the day started quite nice:  When I woke up, the sun was shining in my bed room – after two weeks of rain that is a fantastic feeling. This morning I had to go to the post office that only opened at 7.30 a.m. That meant I had to go to work late, but it also meant that I could take my time eating breakfast, drinking coffee, reading the newspaper – enjoy the sunny morning.

That was the good part of the day… At 7.30 sharp I entered the post office. I had to pick up a registered letter (I don’t like registered letters, usually they are bad news!) and I had to cash a check, some tax money I got back from the local government – which was good news. I gave the check to the post officer, he copied my ID, wanted to give me my money and then suddenly startled… What was wrong? “Oh, I am sorry,” he said, “ I can’t give you the money. You should have cashed it a week ago. There is a date on the check. See?” I couldn’t believe it. I had finally taken the time to go to the post office and now it was too late. “Don’t worry”, he said, “the money is not lost. Just go to the government and get a new check.” I was relieved. I signed for the registered letter and went immediately to the government. Guess what? It only opened at 8.30 a.m. … I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t wait for another hour, I had to go to work! While sitting in the car and feeling sorry for myself, I opened the registered letter. It was from my car dealer. It said that I had to bring the car immediately to the garage, they had to check the brakes. My car was out of a series where the brakes were weak… Any more good news this morning?

I drove to work by taking the highway. I had only driven half of the way, when I was stuck in traffic jam. Traffic jam? There is never a traffic jam on that particular highway at that particular time! Why now? Why today? I wanted to scream. And so I did. I was sitting in my car, all by myself and I screamed as loud as I could! Did it make me feel better? No! Because I was still stuck in the traffic jam.

When I finally got to work (45 minutes later than usual) I saw that my colleague, who shared an office with me, had opened her window to let the fresh air in – only hers, not mine. It was no big deal, I can open the window myself. But it was a selfish thing to do and it was  just the last straw this morning.

Today wasn’t a Monday, it wasn’t even Friday 13, it was just another ordinary Thursday, but I was ready to go back to bed by 8.15 a.m.!

Sämi, the cat

I don’t like cats. The only cat I really like is Garfield. I have a Garfield calendar and it makes me smile every day. But I don’t need any other cats. Here at work we have Sämi, the cat. Sämi doesn’t really belong to our company, but he prefers being rather here in our building than staying with his family. Probably because here he is spoiled by everybody – but me!

A couple of years ago I was sitting at my desk, when I was shocked by a shadow jumping up the windowsill. It was Sämi. I nearly got a heart attack. I shouted at Sämi and made him leave my office. Since then he was not allowed to come into the marketing office again! And he observed.

But not this morning. This morning I was one of the first at work. Sämi was already waiting on the stairs for somebody to pet him. Unfortunately for him, it was me walking up the stairs. Although he knows exactly that I would never touch him, he didn’t care and followed me up the stairs. I looked at him and said “you know that you are not welcome in the marketing office!”. He looked at me and sat down on the stairs. Good, let him wait for somebody else to pet him.

I went into my office and started to work. Only 5 minutes later Sämi walked through the door . I looked at him and said “Sämi!” He ignored me, walked to my colleagues desk, tried to hide behind it (although that did not work well) so that I could only see his head and looked at me. Actually this was quite funny, I have to admit. Now I tried to ignore him and went back to work. It didn’t last long till Sämi started to walk in my direction. I stood up and said “Sämi, get out!” He stopped, sat down and looked at me. This cat is not stupid, he understands every word you say! – Oh well, so stay there, if you are happy. But not long and he got up and walked again in my direction. I repeated “Sämi, get out!”. Again he ignored me. He then jumped on my colleagues desk. A desk that was full of stuff, I was worried that Sämi was going to damage something. But still I would not touch Sämi – I don’t like cats! I said “Sämi, get down!”. You can guess it, he didn’t listen to me. He passed the phone, the laptop, walked over some paper piles and jumped to the windowsill. Another place that was full with stuff. I tried it again: “Sämi, get down!” He looked at me like he wanted to say “where the heck should I go, there is not even enough space for me to lay down on this windowsill!”. On the windowsill there was a vase with water and a palmtree in it. Sämi tried to squeeze between the vase and the window. Of course that did not work, because there is only about 2 cm of space and Sämi is not exactly what you would call a small kitten… I grabbed the vase and shouted “Sämi, get out of here!” I was really glad it was early in the morning and nobody else was in the office, the two of us made quite a show! How would I get this cat out of my office without touching him?? While thinking about it, Sämi choosed to sit down on the windowsill. You could see he didn’t feel comfortable, first of all, there was not a lot of space on the windowsill and secondly there was still me, shouting at him. But he was determined. Sämi had another try and squeezed next to the vase. Again I grabbed the vase and shouted. Sämi sat down again. I went back to my desk and thought, why do I care? It’s not my cat, it’s not my vase… But then, I did care! I could even read the cats mind! I could clearly see how he thought “why don’t you stop shouting, get back to work and let me have my nap here? I am not bothering you at all!” But he did bother me. And I am sure he could read my mind as well. Suddenly Sämi stepped very slowly (I have never seen that cat do any fast movements, I don’t think that is even possible!) from the windowsill to the desk. He crossed the desk with all its paper piles, head high up, jumped to floor and walked out of the office – without looking back once.

Meditation

According to Wikipedia the definition of meditiation is “a mental discipline by which the practitioner attempts to get beyond the reflexive, “thinking” mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness”. So far so good. I was never interested in meditation, that was far too esoteric for me. People that meditate are wearing red clothes, are humming “om” the whole day and are living in another sphere than we “normal” people do. At least that is what I thought till yesterday.

Yesterday I had an appointment with a homeopath, at the same time a good friend of mine. I asked her to help me because I have been having a disturbed sleep for months. I thought she would give me some homeopathic pills and that’s it. Way to go…  I had an appointment with her two years ago, so I knew she would ask me a lot of questions, before she would give me any pills at all. But what happened yesterday let me feel  like I was at a shrinks – the only thing missing was me lying on the couch… I told her, that every night I was waking up between 1 and 2 a.m. and then again between 5 and 6 a.m.  I knew it had something to do with my organs, but I didn’t know the details. So she explained, between 1 and 2 means I have a problem with my liver, which means there is anger that I can’t cope with. Between 5 and 6 is a problem with my colon, which means I can’t let go. She asked me some more questions and immediately we found explanations for both problems. But then came the spooky part: My friend said she had done a meditation on me right before I arrived. I had no idea what that meant “a meditation on me”. She told me about the meditation, it sounded like a dream she had and the main actors in that dream were she and me. The whole story could have been written by my life, it was really scary and gave me goosebumps. She had found out things that were important to me, but I had never told her before!

Now I am interested. I want to look into this meditation thing. Another spooky thing: This morning, when I opened the newspaper, the first article that caught my eye was an Asian special, telling about a “normal” guy in Switzerland who does this meditation thing as a living!

Another friend told me about the website www.dailyom.com. I don’t read it every day as there are some articles that are too esoteric for my understanding. But from time to time I found some interesting stuff – like today! Todays daily om was about meditation…!!!

No more depressing winter days

I like every season of the year: I like spring time, when everything is nice and green. I like summer time when it is getting hot and you can walk around with only a t-shirt on. I like automn, when the leaves start to change colours. And I like winter time when it is really cold and with a lot of snow. What I don’t like is everything in between, that is not really the season, but still quite typical for the season: a lot of rain in spring and automn, the humidity in summer and foggy winter days that bring no sunshine for days, sometimes even weeks. That can be quite depressing.

Some people say that chocolate helps for depressing, foggy winter days. I love chocolate and apart from 30 degrees hot summer days I could eat chocolate any day of the year. But it doesn’t really help to get a better mood. It only helps to become a size bigger – and that brings me back to the depression…

But now I found the ultimative solution for depressing winter days! The magic word is ZUMBA! Zumba is a Spanish word for “movement, having fun”. Zumba is big time fun and let you forget any depression immediately! Zumba is hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves to create a one-of-a-kind fitness program that will blow you away.

I only started Zumba two weeks ago, but I am already an addicted. My day can be boring, furstrating, depressing, annoying – one hour of Zumba does the magic. I feel great, I feel fit, I feel like dancing! There won’t be any more depressing winter days!

Zumba – Ditch the workout, join the party!

Instructions for Life from the Dalai Lama

You might have seen these instructions before. I think there is big value in these advices and it can’t harm to read them again…

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, and Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Live Laugh Love

Today I received a belated Christmas gift from a very good friend of mine: Three cups and each one of them said one word: “Live”, “Laugh” and “Love”. It was love at first sight. How simple those words are, yet how serious they are. If we use these three words in our daily lives, things will be easier to battle. I will definitely put these words on my positive word list.

The other day I read an article where the writer asked: “If you would die today, could you honestly say you lived your life to the fullest?” I didn’t have to think for long, the answer is easy: “Yes!”. I love my life and I give my best to live it – every single day!

Have you ever noticed that no matter how uptight or low you feel that when someone starts to laugh even if it is as silly as a laugh button on your computer, your body automatically changes and sends good vibrations to your brain which turns into a smile, even a laugh. There are times when I am feeling low, sometimes even very low – but they don’t last long. I love to laugh!

Love – If you don’t know love, you don’t know life! But before we are able to truly love anyone or anything, we must love ourselves!

LIVE like it is your last day!

LOVE yourself like you want to be loved by others!

LAUGH like you have never laughed before!

Start living, laughing and loving – you only have this one life!

Christmas cards by email?

When I was traveling around the world, 20 years back, I used to write a weekly letter to my parents – manually! And every month I went to the post office to gather my collect mail. There was no internet. Apart from the phone, this was the only way to stay in touch with family and friends at home. “Mail day” was always the highlight of the month. I loved getting mail from home.

While I was in Costa Rica in 1996, studying Spanish, there was one PC at school that could be used by students. I never used it, because I did not have an email account and by that time I did not know anyone with an email address either!

One of my friends is now traveling through Australia for three months. She has a blog where she keeps us posted with photos and stories. How did this ever work 20 years ago, when people at home had to wait for more than a week, until they received the latest news??

I know exactely the year, when I first discovered internet. It was in 1998, I was working in a Swiss bank and one of my colleagues introduced me to the internet. Five women were standing around a PC (no flat screen, of course!) and looking at the homepage of “Annabelle”, a Swiss publication! We were all very excited and thought this must be the 8^th world wonder! Very quickly I got used to internet and email – like everybody. Today I can’t imagine what it was like without internet and email. Today, if somebody doesn’t have an email account, you are wondering how that person communicates.

Today I am kind of addicted to email: I check my emails several times a day, the ones at work as well as the ones in my personal account. I have two blogs, I have two homepages and I am using internet every day. I can’t imagine a life without internet. When I am looking for a train connection, I check the internet. When I am looking for a phone number, I check the internet. When I am looking for a good movie, I check the internet. When I want to buy books, I am ordering them in the internet. Whatever I am looking for, I first check the internet.

Last week I received my first Christmas card this year – by email! I have to admit, I was disappointed! There are certain things, that just don’t work per email. Sending Christmas cards is certainly one of them. Every year I am writing at least 30 Christmas cards to my friends all over the world – manually. It is a hassle, yes, but people do appreciate it. And I am appreciating it as well, when I am receiving a hand written Christmas card. It means that the sender really took some time to think of me and not just sent a mass email.

Email is fantastic and I don’t want to miss it, but don’t forget what it feels like, to receive a hand written letter or card!

My first Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general.

Every year I am hearing a lot of stories about Thanksgiving from my American colleagues. They all sound great and like a lot of fun. People even tell me that they like Thanksgiving more than they like Christmas. I was always wondering, what it was like, to be part of a real Thanksgiving Dinner. Although I am travelling to the US at least once a year, I never had the chance to travel during Thanksgiving time (4th Thursday in November).

But this year was special. This year one of my American colleagues, who lives and works in Switzerland for two years, invited me to the Thanksgiving dinner. He and is wife couldn’t celebrate with their families at home, so they decided to invite some friends over. What a nice idea! I was very excited!

For starters we had some pies, snacks and beer. Before dinner we all came together with a glass of wine and everybody said thanks for something special. That was one of the traditions Bob introduced us to. Bob said thanks to his friends for coming over and celebrate Thangsgiving with him and his wife. Olivia said thanks for expecting a child. I said thanks to Bob and Karen for inviting me to Thanksgiving. After each thanks we had to drink a sip of wine. Good for us we were only 5 people, after 20 thanks you must be drunk before dinner even started…

And then finally Thanksgiving Dinner started. Kared had worked the whole day in her kitchen. Although this was her first homemade Thanksgiving Dinner (normally she is invited to her and Bobs family), she did a fantastic job. We had a huge Turkey (according to Bob and Karen this was nothing compared to what they eat in the US), stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans. Bob started to cut the Turkey. It was also his first time, at home this is his fathers job. The leg is dark meat and the breast is white meat. I tasted both and couldn’t decide what I liked better… The Turkey was delicious, but what I liked most was the stuffing! It is made of bread, vegetables, bacon and a lot of butter. Apparently Bobs Mum makes the best stuffing, but I have to say, Karens stuffing couldn’t be much behind! For dessert they usually have pumpkin pie. But Karen in Switzerland couldn’t find the canned pumpkin she was used to, so she brought a cheesecake – not a bad alternative!

All in all this was a wonderful evening. I love Thankgiving! Now I finally now what it tastes like! – Thank you, Bob and Karen!