I've not been posting for the past couple days because I was in travel mode. I am now on the East Side of The Pond, back in Switzerland, and have been getting the apartment here functional again, catching up on collected mail, and principally getting over jet lag. The last doesn't seem to get any easier with the passage of time. But it is passing, although I still keep nodding off even when I believe that I am fully awake ... and I keep wanting to stay up past midnight.
Although I had arranged for some bill payments to be made each month during my absence, others managed to arrive after I left and I noticed that the collected mail contained some rather frantic overdue payment notifications. The ones that most concerned me were a) Romande Energie, the utility company, and b) Swisscom, my telecommunications source, including my DSL line, in other words - my link to The World. Both entities had threatened (probably too strong a word considering the genteel language actually used) to cut me off. In fact, Romande Energie was actually planning to interrupt my electrical current altogether on 4 September! I am not sure what happened in the meantime, because it is now long past that date. But happily, I arrived to discover that everything in the apartment was functional and functioning even though the digital clocks were flashing madly, as they do when there has been an interruption. Either someone somewhere put in a good word for me, or the individual charged with implementing the interruption was actually on vacation. These notifications inspired me to hie myself to the bank ATM yesterday to ensure that payment transfers would be made first thing Monday morning. Hopefully, that will happen before any service interruptions and I will once more be reinstated as a customer in good standing.
In the meantime, the biggest problem was indeed an electrical one - and there is no one but myself to blame for it. Apparently, in my frantic dash to complete all my errands before leaving here in June, I managed to leave a small lamp on inside my car. Thus, when I went to get my car from the underground garage shortly after my arrival, in order to make a quick trip to the shopping center for groceries, I found to my dismay that my battery was as dead as it could be.
Up to that time, all had gone well with the trip back. There were no delays with either flight - and that's always a big deal when I travel through London Heathrow which I usually do because British Air consistently has the best fares for my particular journey. Heathrow also has an excellent duty-free shopping area where I never mind spending time. Both flights were filled to capacity, but the service was good - even the food is edible and there was a decent selection of movies that I hadn't seen before as part of the flight entertainment menu. I watched Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Letters to Juliet. I thought that Prince of Persia was great fun, primarily because I like to watch Jake Gyllenhaal who obviously relished the role of video game hero and there was lots of action that kept me awake to watch it. Letters to Juliet had two things really going for it: Vanessa Redgrave and the Italian city and countryside, primarily Tuscany, where most of it was filmed. The plot device evidently also has a basis in reality: there is apparently a group of women who actually do respond to letters from the lovelorn sent to Juliet in Verona. The problem with the film was that the plot was very predictable. I would also not have chosen the guy that the heroine did.. I would rather have chosen to spend my time checking out the wines, cheeses and restaurants in Italy with the "guy that brung me" instead of taking off on a quixotic quest for someone who might not even exist with someone I didn't even know. I guess I just don't have a romantic soul - or at least not the same kind of romantic soul! Instead of wasting away, I would have thrived there. I would also need Weight Watchers even more than I already do!
Anyway, a friend met me at the airport in Geneva. We had a bit of time to catch up on the way back to my apartment, although I can't vouch for my own coherence at the time, since I really hadn't had much sleep. I was delighted to find the apartment still OK and got a couple telephone calls right away to get caught up even more. But then reality hit. I discovered that the car battery was dead and it was during full rush hour on Friday, so I decided not to deal with that until the next day. Fortunately, the shops in town were still open, so I rushed down to pick up a few essentials to hold me over until the next day, regretting that I had not accepted the kind offer of a neighbor to pick up a few things for me. Of course, it's just a matter of a few minutes' walk to the little downtown and the weather was absolutely wonderful. I literally gloried in the lack of humidity. So it was more fun than not.
Ah - these little hiccups in daily life that are reminders that this most recent stay Across The Pond was the longest time I've spent inside the United States since 1994.
If I ever away stay for as long a time again, I'll have to make sure either that Romande Energie and Swisscom are included in the automatic payments or that they are aware that I am out of town and will resolve matters ASAP once I'm back.
Anyway, I Am. Now. Back. Ye-e-e-ss! And loving it! Even though I do miss the loved ones who can't be here with me right now!
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