I was grounded this week. No day job. No blogging. What felt like a bad cold was diagnosed as otitis media, a severe infection in the middle ear, which can lead to meningitis or can rapture the eardrum or cause hearing loss. It is – may I add – somewhat painful. But I’m back online. And feeling much better.
Just a note on the sideline, it’s great when you have a doc that cares. My doc has been very caring. Yes, I know – that’s what doctors get paid for. But it’s not the norm. It’s the little things that count like explaining the medication or offering telephone standby after hours. And judging by the very few encounters that I’ve had so far (and may they remain few), the Swiss medical system is more patient-friendly than on the northern side of the border.
Dogs
Here’s my contribution to keep blog content more balanced…
While traveling back from the doctor’s, I sat next to an elderly lady holding a poodle-like dog in her arms, which had obviously just been to the hairdresser’s… The dog, not the lady. I made one mistake: I commented on the dog’s appearance. Too late. The lady seized the opportunity to tell me all about the dog breed.
“It’s isn’t a poodle”.
“There’s only 2 Bedlington Terriers in the whole of Basel”
“No breeder in Switzerland. We had to go all the way to Germany.”
(much shortened version)
Hmmm – well my idea of a dog is somewhat different and looks more like the one in zkoo’s excellent photos [1] [2] [3]. Needless to say, dear readers, I politely listened. Thankfully our common journey was only a couple of stops long. After the lady had disembarked, another woman sitting opposite said that nearly everyone on the bus had heard the story at least once! Well, that’s one bus to avoid.
Nyambadwe Hill
Found a photo of Nyambadwe Hill in Blantyre. I used to scramble up this hill with all of my dogs. There’s a splendid view of Blantyre and the surrounding Michiru, Soche, and Ndirande mountains from the top.
NZZ on blogs
I just saw that another article about the recent blogger meeting in Basel has been published at NZZ online (in German only). There’s a summary at blog.ch.
