It was a good holiday season here in Switzerland. The Wife and I went to London at the beginning of December and had a lovely time with our friend Bat. Our hotel was pretty swank, too, and I splurged on a mani-pedi at the hotel spa!
We also went to Portsmouth to visit a friend and potential business partner. It was lovely there, even though it was cold and rainy (go figure). I had proper fish and chips there, finally! OMG! Soooo good!
Christmas is serious business in Zurich, and Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets) are awesome. I went with a group that I volunteer with to the Einseideln Market which is in a plaza in front of an abbey cathedral that has a shrine to the Black Madonna inside. (Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the church.) I had a bit of Stendhal Syndrome going on in the cathedral. It was beautiful only like European cathedrals can be.
I also bought some beautiful beeswax candles, some spinning fiber, and cheese (OMG!). Then we stopped for sausage and some apple fritters with a vanilla custard sauce.
Have I mentioned that food here is amazing?
Our Yule and Christmas were pretty chill and New Year’s is looking pretty much the same, with the exception that New Year’s Eve (Silvester) will have loads of fireworks. Because Swiss (who love fireworks when they can set them off!).
The title of this post means, basically, “Have a good slide into the new year!” There’s many theories as to why this is said here, but I kind of dig the sentiment. Hope you all have had a good holiday season and a good slide into the New Year!
Writing:
- Unity: This is a military/hard/thriller sci-fi novel set in a future where humans have colonized several other planets. One of the main characters is a Religious Program Specialist and Senior Communications officer who has PTSD and works with the station’s Chaplain to figure out why the colonization survey they’re supporting isn’t going according to plan.
- Finished Draft Part 1 (Chapters 1-17!)
- Finished the first half of Part 2 (2nd Main Character’s story)! Now starting the 3rd Main Character’s story.
- Word count as of today: 94318 (not including the chapter I’m currently working on.)
- The Four Keys: A spiritual prose journey to the underworld and back.
- Needs final edit pass and cover for e-book version.
- Graphic novel version on hold for the time being.
- The Little Tarot E-book: This is a book started for my tarot class here in Zurich
- Still in draft. Need to finish Major Arcana and more spreads.
Travel:
- Belgium: Short road trip for business. Not sure exactly when.
- Florida: Going from January 7-22, 2020 to visit my parents. If anyone lives near the Largo/Tampa area and wants to do coffee, let me know.
- Crazy Trip to the Northern Most Point in Europe: Summer 2020?
- Rome/Vatican: TBD (Maybe Fall/Winter 2020?)
Fiber Arts:
Finished spinning a bunch of bamboo fiber for a special project. Found out that with the speed of the electric wheel, I need to be careful plying the finer fibers. I ended up with paper-cut-like cuts behind my knuckles from the friction. So, when I did the next round of plying, I used plasters on my fingers (aka BandAids) and that worked like a charm!
Still have another special project on my loom and two crochet projects on the go. Since I have some long flights coming up, I’ll have some time to work on them.
Photography:
Took pics in Portsmouth and at the Einsiedeln Abbey. I’ll be bringing my camera to Florida, so will have more pictures then!
Fountain Pens:
OMG! The Wife got me a Parker Sonnet pen for Yule, and I adore this pen! It’s my first British pen (my other pens are either Japanese or German). The coolest thing about it is that the cap is engraved to look like a topographic map! It writes like a dream, too! Then again, gold tips are really nice that way.
I also bought a new Leuchtturm1917 dated daily journal. My grandmother used to keep a journal, and I figure why not continue the family tradition? Leuchtturm1917 really make some of the best notebooks to work for fountain pens, too.