Performance anxiety

Now that I finally made the leap to start a blog, suddenly I feel immense pressure to be entertaining which instantly makes me freeze up and have nothing interesting to say at all…
My idea was that a blog would be a better way to keep in contact with friends and family since I don’t always have the wristpower to email everyone after all the translating typing and since Swisscom is exorbitantly expensive. Although the Swiss brag about the web having been invented here, they are incredibly behind in terms of ADSL/unbundling/free internet phoning etc. so chatting on the phone as much as I’m used to is now out of the question. And, Skype hasn’t caught on everywhere yet for reasons that bewilder me… hello, free calling anywhere in the world!?!? Get yourselves some headsets/mikes people!!!
http://www.skype.com/
So here’s the latest news:
Somehow I twisted my neck/upper back muscles a couple of days ago and am only comfortable lying down flat on my back or standing under a hot shower. This is not fun. I was supposed to go to the animal shelter for the first time yesterday to start my great new volunteer gig of walking homeless dogs (thanks, Mom, for that fantastic idea!) but couldn’t make it because of the pain. I dread that this is what it means to get old: sudden, inexplicable physical problems that hurt like the dickens.
I’m currently od’ing on ibuprofen because the Swiss pharmacists are so uptight (in Paris I could have gone into my local pharmacy, pleaded my case and batted my eyelashes and walked out with prescription-strength painkillers, but here the pharmacist just listened with moderate sympathy and then sold me Advil. A disadvantage of moving out of the most hypochondriac country in the world into one that follows rules like only Germanic peoples can…)
But don’t get me wrong, that is one of the advantages of living here too. There is no crime, people are very respectful of one another (I have only come across 1 piece of dog poop on the sidewalks since February, a refreshing change from France and the crottes partout!) and there is an overwhelming sense of peace and safety that is very relaxing. Although Lausanne isn’t as clean as other Swiss cities I’ve visited, compared to Paris it is spotless.
We just had another fabulous weekend in the Beaujolais with Antoine, and Jérôme’s parents and surrogate father, Gérard, came to BBQ with us and watch France miraculously beat Brazil. The photo is of the chateau where we stayed, one of our absolute favorite gîtes.
I’ll be heading back to Paris next week to make my annual trip with Emmanuelle to her family’s house on the Atlantic coast, a place and people I adore. Then I’ll be in Paris for several weeks in a row, and Jérôme and Antoine will be joining me there on July 29 for a week. I hope to organize another picnic with all my friends while I’m there and do some much-needed work on the apartment, and of course, catch up with all my Parisian pals.
The workers from Ikea are here again to finish putting up our armoires so cross your fingers that they get it right this time! Our love nest here is slowly but surely getting settled in and I hope to be able to receive guests here soon!