An allergic reaction to national anthems

Hiya again

Isn't this a quirky title for today's post? It could be me saying this, because I think nationalism is an obsolete concept, but it's actually the title of Scottish author and translator Donal McLaughlin's 2009 collection of short stories.

According to his wordpress page, it has
"been longlisted for the inagural Reader's First Book Award of the Edinburgh International Book Festival
"it is already longlisted for the 2010 Cork City – Frank O'Connor Short Story Award – for which the other longlisted authors come from the USA, the UK, India, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Iraq & the US Virgin Islands."

Please note that
Donal will be reading at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
at 4.30pm this Wednesday, 25 August, 2010.

I met Donal back in 2004 when he was visiting author in Bern, Switzerland. Here's keeping fingers crossed for him!

Edward Burne-Jones – The Earthly Paradise at Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland

Hiya
Sadly, I had no hand in the English translations to this magnificent show. But I'm not one to bear an old client a grudge, especially not when I wouldn't have been able, time-wise, to do the work, anyway.
If you're anywhere near Bern, go and see this exhition. It looks to be a stunner.

[image from www.practicalpainting.com]

Edward Burne-Jones – The Earthly Paradise
19 March - 25 July 2010

From the museum's website:
"In the spring of 2010, the Kunstmuseum Bern will be totally under the ascendancy of the London painter and draftsman Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898). This leading protagonist of late Victorian art – a hitherto largely neglected epoch on the European continent – will be presented in Switzerland for the first time in a large-scale monographic exhibition. Organized in collaboration with the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and its collection of major Pre-Raphaelite works, the show will bring together around one hundred paintings and drawings, furniture and glass windows of this fascinating master of English Symbolism."

Kindness

Hello again

Thank you, everyone, for all your notes and e-mails and letters and cards -- just so, or for my recent birthday. I am deeply gratified by your comments and compliments on my blog. What a wonderful circle of friends! Thank you!

I've not had time to process the few photos I've taken recently: too much work everywhere, too many projects started and not completed, although a couple are coming along very nicely, thank you. And one reason why I've not been doing much blogging is because I've been wonderfully busy developing a social life here. More about that some other time.

Today, three plain but nice new tall bookcases arrived and are now ready to take the books that have been languishing in boxes.

Also today, my light and airy "workstation" arrived -- a fancy computer desk with glass shelves and metal tubular struts and legs. It's on wheels so with a bit of caution and quite a bit of force I can wheel it from one room to the next depending on where I am happier to work. The fact that all the surfaces are glass will mean I'll see no end of dusting, but it also means I have a very good idea of where everything is. Very pleased I am. Photo will follow soon, I hope. The only fly in the ointment is the fact that one glass shelf is rather cloudy and I can't seem to get the residue off. And there are -- despite the glass being tempered and supposedly unbreakable -- a couple of very small chips off the edges, and one very nasty-looking scratch that runs parallel to the underside of the main tabletop. A real shame. I called the supplier and they'll have replacements in for me next week. But it will mean that the whole thing has to be dismantled and I'm sure that's not very good for it. Oh well...

Despite lack of time I attended a book launch this evening, which was very pleasant indeed. As I recently joined the local Book Club -- we meet once a month -- there were one or two familiar faces there and it was lovely to be included in the friendly chit-chat. What a difference from similar events in Bern where I often attended without speaking to anyone, because -- I don't really know why. It's just the way it is, and one of the reasons why I no longer live there.

Finally, I simply must share the following with you -- I was so chuffed at receiving this message tonight:

"Hello,
I too am a translator (Hebrew to English).
Recently, I came across your translation of the history of the "Hotel Wilden Mann" in Lucerne. I was struck by the fluency of the English, and the fact that it was almost impossible to discern it as a translation - so rare in Germany and Switzerland. I did not see the original German, but your name appears on the document as the translator.
May I say how impressed I was by your work!"

Needless to say, I wrote back to J.D. in Tel Aviv, and I also wrote to my client in Lucerne -- without them, and without the excellent original text, I could never have produced this translation -- which was a joy to do, by the way.

Nuff said, must get back to work.

Looking back: New glass covering of Station Square in Bern

Hello again

I've been working so hard and so much that I've scarcely had time to get out of the house, let alone take a lot of photographs.
But it's ok -- at least it keeps me housed and fed and watered...
My computer supporter in Bern, however, has installed a webcam that shows some fabulous shots of the Bahnhofplatz (station square) in Bern. I'm thrilled to see the wavy glass "dome" that protects public transport users from the weather.

Check it out: http://www.bahnhofplatz08.ch/webcam.html

More soon, I hope. Cheerioh!

Looking back -- hot-air balloons!

Hello again!

Now that I have almost instant online access again, I'm all fired up to feed this blog with a few photos. Here's a short series of a wonderful surprise on my last Saturday morning in Bern, when a flock (?) of hot-air balloons drifted past in perfect weather just as I stepped out onto my little balcony. Needless to say, I rushed back indoors to get my camera.
The fewest I had in one shot were twelve, the most were 27, but all in all I counted at least 35 hot-air balloons airborne in a beautiful, light-hearted procession up in the air.

Bern, Switzerland: contemporary art scene at 'Progr'

© Artwork: Eveline Feldmann; photo: MP-J, March/April 2008

Hello again
Still in the mayhem and upheaval of packing up, sorting out, leaving my Bern life behind me and preparing for my new life in Oban, Argyll, Scotland. Soon! I can't wait. http://www.oban.org.uk has more on that great little city.
Things are happening here, too. One of them was the Museum Night last Friday/Saturday. Some friends and I went to see a few exhibits, one of them being a video by a client/friend of mine, Stefanie Klemm of http://www.blueboxfilm.ch
A kaleidoscope of interviews with young second-generation immigrant women tells of their current situation, their hopes and views. Fascinating! Hugely successful -- the little projection room at the City Archives was packed every half hour. I was delighted to see that Stefanie used an art installation of Eveline Feldmann, one of my great artist friends, to focus her views.
Sometimes life feels like beyond coincidence, because that same evening, ArtCanal (Kunstkanal) celebrated their 20th anniversary at 'Progr', Bern's progressive centre for art and culture in the heart of the city, formerly an upper secondary school or Progymnasium (hence the name 'Progr'). Eveline happened to be in town from New York City to put up one of her gorgeous installations. See also http://www.progr.ch -> Progr_amm -> Archiv

© Artwork: Eveline Feldmann; photos: MP-J, March/April 2008

Later that night she played her trombone during the 'Melomane' concert. The next day 'Melomane' went on tour in Germany and Switzerland.
I didn't take my camera that night but have since gone back to take a few snaps when there were fewer people and a bit more light.

© Artwork: Eveline Feldmann; photo: MP-J, March/April 2008

PS: Eveline's material are (dis)coloured tissue wraps used for teabags. Our colleagues and friends at Hallerstrasse and of Halle 58, the architects, collected most of the ones used for this piece! Eveline painstakingly picked them apart and sewed them together again to create this sculptural, architectural piece.

Bern, Switzerland: Toastmasters Conference, 19 April 2008

Hello again

Today I'd like to plug an event I won't be able to attend but that might interest people living in and around Bern:
It's the national Toastmasters' Spring Conference in Bern, due to take place on Saturday, 19th April 2008.
For more details, go to http://www.toastmasters.ch/ -> TM Club of Bern, or click on the link hidden in the title of this post.
:) Way to go, Marianne!

Spring's coming to Bern

Hello again
I'm rushed off my feet with all kinds of things and one major project, of which later. For now, just a couple of photos to share with you my gardening joy, well, my window-box gardening joy, actually.
The chives have been back on grand form for some time. What really surprises me is a lovely blue mini-hyacinth that has decided to flower again. It was a gift from a kind neighbour last spring, and I didn't think it would survive the hot summer and icy winter in its rather exposed balcony box.
But it has, and I'm very pleased.
Luvly, innit?

Yellow on Leap Day

Hello again!
It's a very driech day out there, and wet, so these photos are intended to brighten things up a bit. I'm inspired by a friend who is part of an on-line photo group – 7 Days of Shoothing – that works to a different theme each week. This week it's yellow. :) Lots more very bright and sunny photos to be found there! (Just click on the header of this post -- the hyperlink will take you there.)

Photo here: a clump of tiny crocuses greeting the sun (taken during a family walk, Münsingen, 17 Feb 08).
Creeping cinquefoil - a splash of sunlight on a very dry bank (photo taken on a lovely Sunday walk, 24 Feb 08, near Borisried).
Above: an older photo, from 16 July 06 -- Verbascum nigrum (?), taken during a walk near Montana, Valais.
Finally, more than yellow in this photo taken Easter Monday, April 9, 2007, during the Berne Peace March.

Peace!

No new photos -- laid low with a virus

Bern skyline on January 11, 2008

I know I promised, but there will be no new photos today, I'm afraid -- am at work just now but actually feeling really poorly with a tummy bug that's been making the rounds. Hope you all are spared the nasty effects of this.
Also hope the flooding that was announced in southern England hasn't hit anyone too badly -- I've been too sick to follow the news at all.

More asap.
Cheerio and take care!

Switzerland: Bantiger, views from the communications tower

Hello again

As promised in my previous post, here are a few photos of the views from the Bantiger communications tower. The link concealed in this blog's title takes you to the official Swisscom info document on the tower (technical data, specifications, history). Below: view from half-way up the publicly accessible part of the tower, of the historic "signal" indicating an important geographical location.
It was a windy day and very changeable. On the way there, we had a bit of drizzle, then the sun came out and when we were back in the car, it began to rain. Half an hour later, Bern was lashed by a rainstorm with very high winds which lasted over an hour. Later that evening, I enjoyed a spectacular sunset from Zentrum Paul Klee -- sorry, no photos -- and after a fantastic piano recital there the stars were out.
View of Bern, with the Wohlensee reservoir (a sky blue patch right of a dark band of woodland just left of centre).
Above: view southward, with the snow-covered Alps partially concealed by the clouds.
Below: view northward, the blue band below the sky is the Jura mountain range. Far left, a glimpse of Lake Neuchâtel.
Mist rising from the woodlands below the Bantiger: view north-eastward, across the hills of the southern Oberaargau. Somewhere in there is the notorious Thorberg, a high-security prison.Another, sunnier look at the hilly countryside northwards.
The Niesen almost becomes visible in the photo above (upper right in lower quadrant).
The sun managed to peek through the cloud -- the sky is wide up there.
The Bernese Alps (Niesen etc.) just barely visible beneath the clouds; Belpberg and Belp lit up by the sun (extreme right in upper quadrant right).
View of Bern and Ittigen (?), with Lake Neuchâtel in the distance (upper left).
Faraday's cage at the foot of the tower, with public toilets and some office facilities (lower right).

A closer look at the structure -- my one previous visit to the tower was to the old version, where the steps wound up and the view was much less obstructed by fine wire grid. One needed a really good head for heights. This feels a lot sturdier and more solid.Looking back towards the tower from the woodland below.

The final photo was taken at the foot of the tower. The inscription reads:
"Invisible to the bare eye from this point, at an altitude of 186 m on top of the Bantiger communications tower, a 140 cm sewing needle made of stainless steel is as exposed to the raw forces of nature as were human beings at the time of its invention. When lightning threads its way through the needle's ear, it joins prehistory with the present.
The needle's inventor is drilling a hole into this tool, making communication technology a reality, a technology without which this tower would not exist.
Please consider this miracle of technology as a pedestal, such stands before you the MONUMENT TO THE SEWING NEEDLE – one of humanity's most important inventions."

pbi Switzerland, Bern Regional Group: baking day for Human Rights

Hiya again

Last Friday afternoon and evening, three women from pbi's Bern regional group met at the ancient bakery of Buempliz, a suburb of Bern (once an independent municipality), to bake Peace Doves. We enjoyed the assistance of the "Oven Team", Kathrin and Hanspeter. Very many thanks to you!
Here are some visual impressions from the baking. Our "oven master" prepared the oven (and took some of these photos with my camera).
We used a very traditional "Zuepfe"*) recipe to mix the dough (from 10 kgs of flour) in the old-fashioned way: eight hands worked in a big trough made of beautiful white sycamore wood.
(*Zuepfe = traditional tressed loaf made of white flour, butter, milk, yeast, and painted with egg yolk)
It was great fun to knead all the week's frustrations into the mix of white flour, butter and yeasty milk.The big lump of dough at the end was almost too heavy for any one of us to lift. We shaped the doves by rolling small lumps of dough into a "sausage" and twisting it into a simple knot.

A snip with a kitchen knife cleft the little tail in two to give the dove a more birdlike look.
Above: the freshly tied doves; below: after about half an hour the doves have risen and rounded out. These are ready for painting and adding the currant-eyes before they go into the oven. Two currants marked the eyes, a brush of egg-yolk made sure the doves would turn out golden and shiny.
We baked them in the wood-heated oven -- that was probably the quickest step in the whole process, which lasted about four hours. (Above: the glowing embers before Hanspeter scraped them out of the oven)

The next day, a couple of days before the actual International Day of Human Rights (always on December 10), we sold the delicious doves to appreciative supporters of human rights. The count isn't in just yet, but we did manage to augment the pbi coffers. :) The sale went well, despite people already being stressed out with Xmas shopping. It was a cold, fairly wet day but six people sold some 140 doves within about three hours. Shame I didn't take photos of the finished product.

Peace!