Hanami and pole dance

Konnichiwa! I'm in Japan right now for 8 days. It's been 1,5 years since my last visit so it was high time to come to meet my friends and relatives, to shop and to do hanami (= cherry blossom viewing).
Unfortunately, this year the cherry blossoms started blooming earlier in Tokyo than usual so I missed the full bloom...
However, yesterday, one of my oldest friend organized a big hanami event in Yoyogi park nearby Harajuku and we enjoyed the last sakura trees that were still blooming and even some pole dancing! My friend's girlfriend is a pole dance teacher&owns a pole dance school so she invited her best students and they performed pole dancing in the park! When the half-naked girls (brrr!) started to climb the pole, all the random people around us stopped by and watched them performing.
We should have collected money - everyone was gazing and taking pictures!
I think we were the biggest and loudest crowd of all in the park... Even the security guys stopped by several times. But it was peaceful. No troubles. Just lots of drunk and funny people. ;-)

P.S. I love you

On weekend I watched "P.S. I love you". It's such a nice but very very sad movie... I've already seen it several years ago and also read the book from Cecilia Ahern.
Losing the person you love is such a dreadful thing. Losing your child, losing your mother or father, your sibling, your husband, wife or partner, your best friend... I don't want to imagine a life without my sweetheart...
When my father passed away of cancer 8 years ago I was devastated. It was so hard for my mother, brother and me. We couldn't believe when he was gone - just like that, from one day to the other...
I had always thought that those tragic things only happen to other people, in sad stories or movies. My mother was not only sad but also angry because she had been taking care of my father during his sickness and had fought with him against the horrible cancer. She hadn't had time for anything else, she gad given up her 'life' to help my father - her life at that time had been consisting of helping and supporting my father. She had fought so hard but lost in the end. My father lost the fight, my mother lost the fight and in the end her beloved husband... I can only imagine how she felt at that time. I knew that she was suffering a lot but when she told her sister months later that she doesn't see any reason to go on with her life anymore, I was so shocked... How could she say things like that? What about us? My brother who was only 14 at that time needed her. I needed her, we are still here, we are her children - she as our mother has to go on with her life for us!
Around 2 years after my dad's passing my mother's condition got better. She wasn't that devastated anymore. We all got used to the fact that Papa was gone now. But we never got used to his absence completely. I can't forget him. We will never forget him. Even after 8 years, I still miss him a lot.... I still get tears in my eyes when I think of him.
I just wish I could see him and talk to him for just one more time. Thank him for everything he has done for me, for us all. And tell him that I love him. I never told him that when he was still alive... But I'm sure, well, I really do hope so, he knows that now.
It is so important to live your life to the fullest, as if it's the last day. Don't do anything that you will regret later. Tell your loved ones that you love them...

Spoiled and unhappy Zurich?

Zürcher - meaning people who are originally from Zurich, who are living in Zurich, who grew up in Zurich, whose parents are originally from Zurich... - are often said that they are arrogant, snobs, unfriendly, egoistic,... well, not so nice things. A lot of Swiss people who are not from Zurich itself, say that about their fellow citizen.
Is that true? Are people in Zurich unkind or are the people living in the city in general just busy, stressed out and appear to be unfriendly? I've been living in this city for 2 years and 11 months and I can't really tell... Yes, I do hear many complaints, I see unhappy or rude faces, a lot of people here are impatient, lose their temper easily - but I don't think these are all only Zürcher. Aren't a lot of people in Switzerland in general like that? I don't want to backbite too much about them because I am also Swiss but sometimes I wonder, why there are so many Swiss, who are unhappy...?
I grew up in a much bigger city than Zurich - in Tokyo to be precise - and as you can imagine, people there are insanely busy, they have a lot of pressure at work or school (some even already at pre-schools because their parents want to send them to the best school..), they are always stressed out, aren't paid that well and don't have many vacations.
BUT still, I don't think I've EVER heard any complaints, you don't see angry faces, they try their best to stay polite and friendly no matter how bad their day is. And when you are used to that persistent politeness - especially in stores and shops where you are treated like GOD as a customer - you'd be damaged forever when the cashier at MIGROS or COOP in Switzerland is having a bad day, looks angry and doesn't say 'hello' back to you.
I think, when I first moved back to Switzerland as a teenager with my family, I suffered cultural shock. I was so offended when people on the street or the cashier from the supermarket or the lady from the kiosk were rude or unfriendly - I just couldn't understand their behavior... Of course you get used to it after a while but even now, after so many years, I still can't understand their rudeness and it makes me sad and angry.
What is wrong with them anyway? Having a bad day? Well, everyone does! You hate your job? If it makes you miserable, then quit and find another one!! Switzerland is one of the richest country in the world, we have one of the highest salary, we have a good education system, the unemployment rate is very low, nobody has to die of hunger, if you are poor, you can get social welfare benefits from the state...
Your salary is not high enough? What about our neighbors in Germany? Their income is much worse! And what about Spain and Greece, where the unemployment rate is ranked as the highest in Europe? People in Switzerland should be grateful, be happier and stop complaining too much about little things like about the bad weather or delayed train or tram! Think about our neighbors, they are really in a bad condition and they actually have a reason to complain! I guess we Swiss are just way too spoiled... They should read the book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. Being thankful is the alpha and omega and it would change their 'unhappy' life completely... (I'm sure you'll hear about that wonderful book in my future blog...)

Small but beautiful Zurich:

Howsham Hall and the princess room

Do you know Westwing Home & Living? The online shopping club for interiors, docorations and furnitures; anything that makes your home look fabulous.

This week, there is an article about the English interior designer called James Perkins who was instructed to do a makeover on Howsham Hall which used to be a private school for boys in North Yorkshire. The palace looks amazing. Like the small version of Hogwarts, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter. ;-)

I love the pink flamingo room. (No. 3 on picture below or No. 20 from the homepage gallery) So gorgeous!!!

Aargh, I don't know how to add the image properly so I could click on the picture to see it bigger...

www.westwing.ch/magazin/hausbesuche/alter-palast-in-neuem-glanz/

www.howshamhall.com/#/gallery/4547412657

Swiss luxury watches

On Sunday I went out with my sweetheart and went window-shopping. Like last weekend, we looked at the ridiculously expensive luxury watches at the Bahnhofstrasse and yesterday, I fell in love with two very pretty Rolex watches. They were from the "Datejust" collection, one was with a silvery mother-of-pearl and diamonds and the other one with pink mother-of-pearl without diamonds. Price: CHF 11'900.- and CHF 9'700.-... Man. Do I really want to spend THAT much money on a watch? ...Of course not, even if it's a Rolex and might be an investment... I wouldn't wear it everyday anyway. My sweetheart said, I should keep in mind that in a few years, I might have a different taste and would have had enough of that specific style and would want something different. Hmmm...

My brother told me I should buy a Longines watch. They aren't that pricy and make very nice women watches. Aha. I should check it out.

My mother on the other hand said I should buy Cartier, they were affordable....

Huh?! Err... mother, I think you are mixing here up something. I don't think Cartier is 'cheaper' - some of their watches are even more expensive than Rolex! Or am I wrong?

Sigh, I can already see it coming. Next weekend, I will be walking along the Bahnhofstrasse and will be looking at all the luxury watches again, searching for a very pretty but not-that-expensive one. Will be agonizing the next few weeks or months or even years, if I REALLY need such an expensive watch or not...
And in the very end, I decide not to buy it. :-/

 

Insomnia and doubts

It's 2:54AM in the morning and I can't sleep... I ate too much and feel a little sick of too many glasses of sparkling wine and red wine from dinner last night with my family at my relatives' place. Lots of fun but now it's not fun at all... I hate it when I can't sleep. So many thoughts are buzzing in my head, too, like how I could change the layout of my blog, what I should write about next, if I should really stay anonymous, if I should write it in German and English or just in English, if people who find my blog accidentally would ever come back to my page and read my further entries... Doubts. I shouldn't think. I should stop thinking and then try to sleep - but I can't. Why do we sometimes (thank God, I don't have that too often) have those sleepless nights where we have to think about lots of stuff, ask questions and keep thinking about more things even though we are actually very tired and want to get some sleep? Why can't we tell our brain to STOP thinking and to go to sleep? Is it because the body is tired but the brain is not? Do we only get good sleeps when BOTH are tired? Rubbish. I should stop writing rubbish and really go back to bed... SLEEP, my brain, please go to sleep!

My first blog ever

So, this is my first blog ever. And I'm still trying to figure out how everything works... It's not my first time blogging - I already have another blogger-account but everything I write there is not for public. I only share it with my best friend and we used to write about everything and anything (well mostly about our crushes, boyfriends, relationships, love,... ;) ) but we don't use it anymore. I don't remember the last time I wrote anything there. The idea was to be up-to-date what she or I am doing even we are living so far apart. However, I came up with this idea of blogging for public, but still be anonymos because I am a HUGE fan of Gossip Girl. (Yeah, I know, that TV-show is over - how sad...) I ADORE Blair Waldorf... God, I miss her... I'm sure she'll be mentioned now and then in my future entry. ;) In addition, I also started watching Sex and the City a few months ago. Many years ago, when the show was still on TV, I wasn't interested in watching it. I was still young and innocent and thought the show was too erotic and had too many dirty scenes. haha. A few months ago, I downloaded the whole seasons and ever since then, almost every single night, I watch 1 or 2 episodes while eating my supper. And a few weeks ago, I came up with the idea of writing a blog anonymously... I also had doubts about this blog like, if anyone would ever read my blog, if I could keep it up or if I would stop updating my blog after a few entries... But I had this "urge" to write about my thoughts and feelings and ideas and you should always listen to your heart and not to your head. My head was saysing: "Nobody would be interested in your blog". "There are SO MANY other people who are blogging, who are even talented in writing and you don't really have writing-skills." "You'd get bored and would stop blogging after a few entries, so don't even bother starting." No, I shouldn't bother what my head is saying! I should just do it! And there you go, THIS is my new blog, from me, The Secret Blogger.