Moved -- in many ways!

Hello again

This is my first post as a hopefully "true" Obadian, someone who lives, works, breathes, laughs, eats etc in Oban. :)

The move went swimmingly: soooo many helpful people -- I am amazed and grateful and happy. When I got here, I found loads of mail: greeting cards and flowers from friends wishing me a good start. I am deeply moved.

Same goes at this end: lots of helpful souls lending me things, making my beginnings here a joy. Broadband internet access, however, is not in place yet -- the BT people messed things up and it'll be May 19 until I can really get going.

At least Oban has a great pub, The Lorne Pub, which offers free WiFi access from opening until 5 PM. It's not an ideal working environment, but at least it gets me out of the house.

The weather here is absolutely gorgeous. No pix just yet -- battery on this thing is running low so I must go.

Ciao for now!

Moving...

Hello again!
Saturday evening and it’s a gorgeous day out there, with some cloud but the evening sun lighting up the old part of the city. I’ve been soooo lucky with everything in the last few days. Bar the internet hookup hickup last week everything has gone very smoothly so far.
I’m in a rush to get everything ready for when my relatives come tomorrow morning to collect my big old wardrobe and two bookshelves as well as my old stereo. The flat will feel really empty then, with almost all the furniture gone except what I’m taking with me to Scotland. But it’ll make life much easier for the removalists.
Keep fingers crossed that all will go well with the big piece (the wardrobe is really much too big for the staircase, even in its individual components) tomorrow. And that I’ll be ready when everyone arrives.
It’s been a fantastic experience. One should move house and relocate at least every five years or so. That way it would be much harder to accumulate too much stuff.
But I've had fun letting go of many valued possessions -- hundreds of books have found new homes, and pots and plants and dishes and pieces of furniture. My friends and companions have been exceedingly generous: I've been able to send a nice little sum to each of my favourite human rights NGOs, i.e. pbi – Peace Brigades International – and ask! – Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien. (For anyone wishing to donate: go to their websites:
http://www.peacebrigades.ch or http://www.peacebrigades.org and
http://www.askonline.ch -- thank you!)

I've lost weight in the process, grown muscles on my legs and arms, feel totally fit and healthy, have been sleeping better than ever -- this is an adventure that seems to agree with me. I must be one big adrenalin junkie...
Mind you, not all is easy. I went to say good-bye to my writing friends today and that was really hard. Almost as hard as saying good-bye to my parents and brothers and sisters-in-law and niece and nephews. I will really miss everyone! But many of them have promised to visit. And anyway, it's not as if Oban was on the other side of the globe. But it will be too far for some of my older, frailer friends to come and see me out there.

Here's hoping the last few days will go well.
Finally, guess what this photo shows...

Catching up...

Empty sunning planks at Marzili, Bern.

Hiya
It's been ages since I last wrote here. So just a few thoughts on packing up and moving house. Interesting process. Liberating. Letting go of old habits, old objects, old places, old friends, family. Strangely, I feel that we are reaffirming relationships, many people around me -- myself included, of course -- are reconsidering what really matters in life.
Only a few days more than three weeks to go until my departure day. Most things are in place. The old flat has found a new tenant; the old office as well -- two young part-time dads who share their office work. Finding them was a breeze, actually, but a major headache until contracst were signed as I'd have had to pay rent until end July -- really glad this has been resolved.
Most of the furniture I'm not taking with me has also found new owners. One of my favourite pieces, a beautiful 1918 dining room cupboard/sideboard is going to a good home, and for a good price, too. Does that make me sound mercenary? Hope not. I do want to sell off as much of my stuff as I can as I have pledged to give 1/4 to two of my favourite human rights NGOs -- ask!-Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien and pbi-Peace Brigades International. So the more people pay me the more those NGOs get. Simple, really.
I've had two trial runs at "garage sales" already but still lots more stuff to flog. A few pieces -- big posters in good aluminium frames, a fabulous handmade glass dish -- seem to please only me. It'll be a drag to just give them away.
As my flat is on the top floor and there's no lift, I've used the stairs to display some of my objects. Works pretty well, but setting everything out is quite a lot of hard work. Free gym time, so to speak. :)
The upside of being in such a period of upheaval is that my appetite is down and I've actually managed to shed about eight pounds without even thinking about it. Very nice indeed.

The Marzili on Monday, 24 March. Aare temperature: 6°C!

I'm inserting some totally unrelated photos here -- the only tenuous link being the weekday on which they were taken: three weeks ago exactly (Easter Monday). The natural world still looks almost as bleak as then -- the cold and wet weather we've had has blighted what blossoms came out on what have been maybe four lovely, warm days since Easter. Our magnolia trees are struggling, some of them already going brown, yet their blossoms hardly opened. Shame. But that's the way it is.
Today we've had some hail and torrential rain and lots of low-hanging cloud -- pretty miserable but great weather to be sitting at the computer all day.
Saturday and yesterday were quite sunny, if breezy and still on the chilly side. A taste of spring. At least the kids could run around outside...

The wide expanse of the sunning lawn at Marzili is empty. The Marzili has been one of my favourite summer haunts in Bern.
But it's fine not to be here this summer or next summer or whenever...

We were four or five hundred taking part in this year's Peace March on Easter Monday, March 24, 2008.
This is the head of the cortège going across the little hump-back bridge at the lower end of Marzili.