Although I no longer have fixed working days, some weeks my whole life is focused on the weekend.
It’s been a few years now that I’ve been self-employed and can organize my days and working hours freely. Nevertheless, I have stayed true to the weekly rhythm that has defined my life since the beginning. Monday to Friday feels different to Saturday and Sunday. Somehow it’s not so easy to erase this from my subconscious, like so many things that have nested there and ultimately make up my personality. And so there are often weeks in which the days from Monday to Friday are unspectacular and only at the weekend is there anything worth remembering.
Little things to enrich ordinary days: blossoms and architecture
Celebrate mundane days
Nevertheless, I celebrate every single day and wake up looking forward to it and go to bed at night with gratitude. It’s the many little rituals and habits that turn every day, no matter how mundane, into something beautiful. Flowers on the table, classical music for breakfast or enjoying an aperitif on the balcony after work and reading a book.
A pot of spring flowers
The gift of true friendships
This week’s photos were mainly taken at the weekend, because this week was another one of those with 5 days of everyday life and two days of highlights. The highlight consisted of the visit of old friends and this is where another ingredient for a good life comes into play: good friends. There are friendships that are part of everyday life and those that you sometimes cultivate only marginally for years, for example because you live far apart and simply can’t see each other regularly. But when you do manage to meet up again, you can pick up where you left off years ago and are just as familiar with each other as you were back then. I had this kind of reunion this weekend. A friendship that began 40 years ago on a Greek ferry between Athens and Samos, which was cultivated in various places in Holland and later continued in Milan and Bologna. Then came a phase in which we lost sight of each other due to distance, until we met again ten years later. And then exactly 20 years passed before we saw each other again this weekend. I have to admit, I was a little nervous, as I generally always worry too much. But it only took a few minutes for it to become clear that we both tick just like we used to and so it was a totally relaxed weekend with lots of conversations, memories and lots of laughter. That’s how it is when you’ve found a friendship for life. I feel blessed that I have been able to go through life with so many people for so long.
Enjoying a Saturday in the Jura hills
Ingredients for a great time
As my friends come from the Netherlands and are very close to nature, the mountains and hiking were high on the wish list of things to do. Unfortunately, hiking in the Alps is not yet possible. That’s why we opted for the Jura, which offers a beautiful view of the Alps. And we enjoyed it on a hike on Saturday. Despite the mixed weather at the weekend, we were lucky and it mostly only rained at night, so we were able to spend a lot of time outside on Sunday and explore Basel and the surrounding area. So a week that began rather monotonously was crowned by a really wonderful weekend of friendship and nature that made everything worthwhile.
Inspiring places in and near to Basel
