Subject: Belindaland: Travelling with Opa Michael and Oma Belinda
Howdy, I am currently in the middle of the
Mediterranean. But I will get to that in the next
edition....
Well, Mike is officially 28 and celebrated his
birthday in Zurich, Switzerland. It was a great time,
unfortunately my poor possum was not well with a
severe head cold and blocked sinuses.
The title of this Belindaland referring to Opas and
Omas is quite relevant to us at the moment. The
longer we've been married the more we have realised
and have got a glimpse at what each other will be like
as old folks. Mike will be the type to check that all
of his socks are rolled and arranged in an orderly
fashion and that he has checked that his shoe laces
are firmly tied and that he has used the bathroom and
had a drink then used the bathroom again before
leaving the room in a tidy and orderly manner:
regardless of the fact that at the beginning of the
process he was already five minutes late.
I on the other hand will forget everything, won't be
able to decide what to wear so try on every piece of
clothing spreading them across the room as I fluster
around, making it everyone else's problem, I will
forget to pack keys, passports, refuse to organise
anything in advance yet still insist on being ten
minutes early for everything. Between the two of us
we will have it sorted though.....
Upon arriving at Zurich airport I had one of those
experiences so embarrassing, that if I tell you, you
must swear not to tell a living soul. Agreed?
Okay...first, the excuses. Our friend Scott was going
to meet us in Zurich to do the marathon with Mike, he
had been in contact with us the day before and told us
that in all of his travels, he had never had language
problems like in Zurich. So being armed and ready
with the phrasebook Mikey packed (of course I didn't)
we headed off.
We like to get our passport stamped wherever we go,
some places don't do it automatically, so it is best
to ask. We went through passport control at the
airport and the man just looked at my passport and
gave it back to me. I handed it back and asked if he
would stamp it. He took it back and began looking
through it, eventually he looked up at me and said
words I never thought that I would here (something I
say to rude children!) he said, "You know in
Switzerland we have a magic word, it is 'please'."
Then he gave me my passport back. I was so
embarrassed, I had used hand gestures, as I thought,
you know, Scott had said, and well...... I could have
limboed under a piece of Gruyere cheese; I felt so
stupid.
Upon telling this story to Scott when we had met up
with him (finally after being lost and Mike REFUSING
to ask for directions, preferring to follow a map in
an foreign language) I looked through my passport to
find that the rotten cheese eating, cow hugging,
chocolate spreading Swiss Nasty man hadn't even
stamped my stinking passport! The weekend was spent
with Mike and Scott paying me out constantly for
having bad manners, I mean really! I have been so
damned polite since, you would not recognise me!!!!
Mike ran a brilliant marathon though, he came 49th in
his age group and in the top 10% in the whole race of
thousands of competitors. It was awesome, especially
after the disasters of his last marathon. It was a
sterling performance and I am so proud of him. He did
it against all odds, being sick really was hard for
him to take, but he is such a star and he cruised
through. Onya sweety!
Well, our time in Switzerland went by so fast, and so
much has happened. I am currently off the coast of
Italy on our cruise (as you do, climbed Vesuvius
today). But I will save that for another Belindaland.
But for a quick preview, I can assure you that I have
done lots of embarrassing things to give you some good
stories to tell your friends, stay tuned.
Lots of love,
Belinda
