Ah, back from Basel! Ein Wünderschön Stadt!
It was beautiful, 33 degrees C every day, so I melted, but enjoyed every minute.
I also got slightly smarter, from the whole workshop aspect, that was really the point of getting to go to Switzerland in the first place. It was great to explore a new city and with my excellent map-reading skills, I managed to walk up and down and around one street I wanted to find three times before realizing I was there! A good workout, indeed.
It is a town full of hills and hidden staircases, which I can handle now, without too much huffing and puffing. I was especially aware of the older Swiss folks, who are remarkably fit and spry. Sure, some of them need a snazzy umbrella-style cane to help them wander about the twisty lanes, but they don't let a little balance issue affect their ability to get where they want to go.
I hope to be wandering about with gusto 50 years from today.
In the evenings I went a little crazy with the Japanese food... good, not too heavy, clearly visible vegetables (i.e. not buried under cheeses or sauces). The first night, as I tried to find a shady place to stop sweating, was a delightful noodle house: my choice, a cold ramen meal with chicken and fresh veggies. Delicious and immensely satisfying... though hard to stop myself from eating all the ramen noodles.
The food at the workshop was a little harder to handle. When faced with cheesy veggie lasagna or nothing, you eat the lasagna. I had a little panic about the missing protein, the overabundance of non-PCP items in the meal, but at some point I started breathing normally and moved on with my life.
Moments like that are helping me to cope with the 'what happens next' question. Next being the rest of my life. What happens being, trying to stay healthy, muscley and at a weight near my present one, not my former lifestyle that meant I was carrying around an extra 7 kgs. I'm still feeling a bit angsty about this one. I guess I've got 13 more days to figure this one out.
Oh if only someone helped you through the transition. Oh wait THAT'S ME!
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