Neighbours - what are they good for?

We have the most excellent view from our apartment. Or maybe not so much excellent as ugly. Let's just say that we didn't get to live on the side with the alp-view. We got the side with windows facing towards another building. One that is significantly uglier than the ours. So even though, when I see it from the outside, I can be pleased about the fact that I don't live in the trashy grey house opposite, but in fact in the much nicer mustard coloured one, our opposite neighbours are in a way the winners here, since they have a much nicer view than us. Tidy balconies full of plants and predominantly non-white-trash tennants.

I don't mind starring into another building so much though, since I like spying on people. So when we first moved in, I was actually a bit pleased with having such a great opportunity to observe the lives of our swiss neighbours. My very first observation, only minutes after we'd moved in, was an old, fat, topless dude, who had taken a seat right in front of the window, and just as I turned my head to check out the view, he got up from his chair to show off is naked torso properly. All of it. This was my first meeting with the opposite neighbours, and turned out not to be a bad introduction at all. In fact, fat and middle aged seems to be a rule rather than an exception in that house. That is a fact that I find highly fascinating. Perhaps it is a result of the careful choosing process of the house owners here in Geneva. Somehow, the tenants in that building seem to match the architecture and its fading exterior so extraordinarily well.

The thing that annoys me most now is that 80% of them close their window shutters as soon as they come home from work. Cowards.

Healthy living v alcohol and cigarettes

My ambition for the past weekend was to have a great time without alcohol, coffee, cheese, or chocolate. After last weekend's ATP + London trip, i figured that was just what I needed.
It worked remarkably well, thanks to great location and beautiful scenery. Nothing can inspire a healthy lifestyle more than a trip to the French alps or a visit to the botanical garden. I did both.

French alpine landscape was great. It looked like this:


And sounded like this:




Makes you want to indulge in spring water and raw vegetables, doesn't it?


Went to Botanical garden yesterday, and saw a small boy ride a gigantic ant. Freaky.




Anyway, like I said: it went remarkably well. Until yesterday evening, when a friend called and announced that she'd just been dumped by the love of her life. She was obviously devastated, but found a certain amount of comfort in the fact that she'd found a way to 'deal with the situation'. This way of dealing turned out to involve drinking a lot of wine and starting to smoke (also considering smoking weed). The reason for this being that the boy who crushed her heart is in AA, and can do none of the above...

So, what to do? Naturally, I told her to come over. When she said that she was going to bring a bottle of wine, I couldn't really tell her 'sorry, but I'm not drinking this weekend', especially since that is something her ex would have said. So, hence, my healthy week and a half (this is for how long I had planned to avoid alcohol) had come to an abrupt ending after almost 5 days.
It turned out that the smoking thing was a serious and carefully planned idea. She'd bought a pack of cigarettes on the way, as well as a lighter. So last night I witnessed her having her first ever cigarette. In order to guide and accompany her, Matt and I shared one too. This was the first time I'd touched a cigarette in about two years (gave up being a social smoker 4 years ago). Unfortunately, I enjoyed it much more than I wanted to.
Not sure that the drinking or the smoking will help her feeling better, but being self destructive is sometimes a great pass time.

And I don't know if it's because of the alpine air, the healthy food, the walking, the pints of water and the 9 h of sleep a night, or if it's because of the wine and cigarettes, but I'm feeling remarkably refreshed and energetic today.

Blogging again! Yay!

So, I decided to start blogging again. Or rather, I'm making another attempt at starting a blog. 2 posts does is more like an attempt than an actual blog. So this is my third.
Writing anything in more than 140 characters could prove difficult nowadays though, now that Twitter has made an entrance into my life. Wonder how long it will take before people actually start talking in the same confined way. Like 'stay home because ill' or something. It would be so much easier to learn new languages! Like French.