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Well it's time for me to write something here, it's been a while, but I was kind of distracted. I'm now in Switzerland, first time for me, it's alright. At first it was a bit of a shock coming from Japan, I wasn't used to all these ugly white people walking around, there were only a few of them in Japan. Different from expectations, my memories of Europe were all these over dressed fashionites prancing around, but there are more than enough badly dressed freaks with mullets, maybe they are German's on holiday here. But I guess the Japanese hold the title for pretty boys of the world, but the Scandinavians aren't far behind. So what's been happening? Well I had an interesting 4 weeks in Australia during December, trying to sort things out there. It was a bit annoyed, because I was so busy I hardly got to catch up with my friends there, now I feel bad for not being there to help the family out in this harsh time. In a way being overseas is an escape, I don't have to face up to the things everyone else is dealing with, but then again I face my own problems alone.
So I went back to Japan for a few weeks, it was cool, hard to leave that place, I was shocked by the cost of things here. It was easy in Japan, before I went there everyone was saying how expensive it was, that's bullshit, never in my life have I worked so little and been able to eat out anytime without worrying about the price and still save money. But maybe I'm a freak, I don't really buy anything.
I also weigh now about 9kg more than I weighed 6 months ago, I never understand how the weight fluctuates like this, but I've put it down to the 12 minutes I had to walk everyday from the train to my work. I always walked fast, coz I didn't want to be late, and also I ate most of my food in the day coz I worked at night, strange. Of course this means some of my pants don't fit me anymore.....as they were getting tighter I was sure it was something to do with the weather, humidity or something making them shrink, or maybe I washed them too much, but no, it was my arse expanding. But fret not, I'm not too bulbous, still only 88kg or so.
So Switzerland, it's mostly cheese and mountains, so many types of cheese at the shop, and no cheddar. And the national dishes, such as fondue and raclette are just melted cheese. The mountains are pretty high, I slept the other day at 1500m, that was enough to give me mild altitude sickness, I didn't understand why I felt so weak and dizzy the next day, but as soon as we descended I was ok again. Strange that if you spend a few days there the effects disappear, how does that work? Does the body just accept that there's less oxygen and give up the struggle? Or does the bit of the brain that makes you feel sick die from lack of oxygen and everyone's cool? It hasn't been very cold here though, that was the story in Japan also, this greenhouse effect creates tropical winters in Europe, which is good in one way, but the snow sucks arse, I went snowboarding, but I wasn't impressed. Maybe I'd had it too easy in Japan, soft snow and mellow hills, it's way steeper here and icy, if not rocky. Which isn't good for my unexercised body, I tire rapidly, and don't have the strength to turn, so I just go the same direction. I also had my obligatory slam, it was pretty hard this time, ice is like concrete, and I hit it at a million miles an hour. The kind of crash which takes about 1 second, but feels like it lasts for an hour or so. I came flying down the slope, it was a bit hazy, and I didn't see the small mound in front of me, then I tried to slow down suddenly, but somehow I dug in and dove head first to the ground, this was the slow motion part, the first impact hurt, and I started to let out a loud high pitched groan as I bounced through the air, during this time I had was able to think of how to write about this incident while watching the ground get closer to me again. Then I hit it and I think I rolled over and felt that I couldn't breath, this took a while also, I sat up and saw Sonja(who I was boarding with) charging down the hill, then my balls started to hurt. So I lay back down and stared at the sky for a while before trying to get up again, but it was no good. Through the trees I could see Sonja away down the bottom sitting wondering where I was, I tried to wave, but I guess she didn't think to look right up to the top for me. After a while I managed to get up and slowly make my way to the bottom again. But I'm ok, maybe some more later this week.
So I went back to Japan for a few weeks, it was cool, hard to leave that place, I was shocked by the cost of things here. It was easy in Japan, before I went there everyone was saying how expensive it was, that's bullshit, never in my life have I worked so little and been able to eat out anytime without worrying about the price and still save money. But maybe I'm a freak, I don't really buy anything.
I also weigh now about 9kg more than I weighed 6 months ago, I never understand how the weight fluctuates like this, but I've put it down to the 12 minutes I had to walk everyday from the train to my work. I always walked fast, coz I didn't want to be late, and also I ate most of my food in the day coz I worked at night, strange. Of course this means some of my pants don't fit me anymore.....as they were getting tighter I was sure it was something to do with the weather, humidity or something making them shrink, or maybe I washed them too much, but no, it was my arse expanding. But fret not, I'm not too bulbous, still only 88kg or so.
So Switzerland, it's mostly cheese and mountains, so many types of cheese at the shop, and no cheddar. And the national dishes, such as fondue and raclette are just melted cheese. The mountains are pretty high, I slept the other day at 1500m, that was enough to give me mild altitude sickness, I didn't understand why I felt so weak and dizzy the next day, but as soon as we descended I was ok again. Strange that if you spend a few days there the effects disappear, how does that work? Does the body just accept that there's less oxygen and give up the struggle? Or does the bit of the brain that makes you feel sick die from lack of oxygen and everyone's cool? It hasn't been very cold here though, that was the story in Japan also, this greenhouse effect creates tropical winters in Europe, which is good in one way, but the snow sucks arse, I went snowboarding, but I wasn't impressed. Maybe I'd had it too easy in Japan, soft snow and mellow hills, it's way steeper here and icy, if not rocky. Which isn't good for my unexercised body, I tire rapidly, and don't have the strength to turn, so I just go the same direction. I also had my obligatory slam, it was pretty hard this time, ice is like concrete, and I hit it at a million miles an hour. The kind of crash which takes about 1 second, but feels like it lasts for an hour or so. I came flying down the slope, it was a bit hazy, and I didn't see the small mound in front of me, then I tried to slow down suddenly, but somehow I dug in and dove head first to the ground, this was the slow motion part, the first impact hurt, and I started to let out a loud high pitched groan as I bounced through the air, during this time I had was able to think of how to write about this incident while watching the ground get closer to me again. Then I hit it and I think I rolled over and felt that I couldn't breath, this took a while also, I sat up and saw Sonja(who I was boarding with) charging down the hill, then my balls started to hurt. So I lay back down and stared at the sky for a while before trying to get up again, but it was no good. Through the trees I could see Sonja away down the bottom sitting wondering where I was, I tried to wave, but I guess she didn't think to look right up to the top for me. After a while I managed to get up and slowly make my way to the bottom again. But I'm ok, maybe some more later this week.
posted by Brett at 06:09
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