Basel - on the way to the Old town - our first impressions ... - The 30th and 31st of December 2018

Our hotel room at Ibis Styles, though not exactly in the centre of the town was sufficently well located and besides was exquisitively decorated. The black and white city picture covering one wall gave it a whole sense of expansion and the small "decorative" details spread around the room were rather impressive, I must say.

 

Having decided to hop onto an tram (free for anyone staying at any city Hotel) we ended up deviating ourselves from where we were supposed to head to. The strolling around revealed a part of the city we might have not walked onto otherwise and it wasn't uninteresting.

We finally made it to the main train station before finding our way to the old town. We briefly stopped at the Neo-Gothic church Elizabethenkirche, said to have been built between 1857 and 1864 and become the first "Open Church", whose concept I had never heard of. The truth is that within the church premises there were several modern wooden sculptures, that one would not expect to find inside many of the average churches. They were particularly beautiful and despite being rather simple, as far as carving is concerned, there was something very special about them that touched one's heart.

Right close to it the Tinguely's Carnival Fountain said to have been created in 1977. We stood there admiring the 9 sculptural machines in permanet movement. It was the first time I heard of Tinguely and wish I had read about him before, once I felt he was a particularly creative artist.

 

 

It started to rain as we continued making our way towards the Markt Platz. The day was grayish but we were nevertheless positively impressed by what we had seen until then. Modernity seemed to cohabit with the old in a magic sort of blending and we were looking forward to further exploring the city with or without open umbrellas.

 

 

Meeting Marie Helène ...

Meeting Marie Helène following a number of years in which we had just been in contact by e-mail was a very important moment for me. It allowed me to meeet her little boy for the first time and get to see Aly again.

 

 

Mia was arriving from the UK in the evening, so I ended up spending the entire day at Maria Helène's and enjoying the presence of the rather creative  4 year oldyoung man. 

 

 

 

For future record ...

As I was looking at my legs the other day, despite the fact that I have always accepted my body irrespective of the way it looks, I somehow realized I had never before taken a photo which highlighted how firm my legs used to be and the potentially sensual-like side of me ...

 

 

Now that I have turned sixty three, decided to have a photo session at a photographer friend in "lingerie" (which I have not used very often, to be honest) for future  record.

 

Christmas oriented dinner gatherings - The 7th and the 10th of December 2018

I am not normally into Christmas oriented dinner gatherings unless they are organized by my family members. Amidst a few invitations which I refused I ended up showing at one organized by Carla, my hairdresser for her employees, family members and some of her "best clients" at Klara's and actually participated in another one organized by Klara for her employees and four of her client friends (I included) at Manel's. 

 

 

 

At Klara's

At Manel's



















Lena and Pauli (on the left) and Tiago (right).

Leta (left) and Tânia (right).

Klara and I (on the left) and Petrika and Rafael (right).

The highest moment was the exchanging  and revelation of the "secret friend" behind the presents as they were being handed out. There were some useful and a few sex oriented presents which had some of the older clients present at the restaurant blush but

 

Presents for some of my Iranian friends

I have been looking at some photos sent by Saba after she handed out some of the presents I left for the Nomad children, a couple of siblings who are actually friends of hers, her mother and her aunt, as well as some handed out to Moji and his family by Hamid in the name of some of the tour group members who travelled with him across the Iranian Azerbaijan.

 

 

I spent precious moments with these people over the last year in entirely different circumstances. Getting a smile out of them or finding out they were satisfied with what I sent them made me really happy. 

 

 

 

The Iranian restaurant 1001 nights, Lisboa - The 26th of November 2018

Having missed our Iranian food Klara and I decided to venture into the Lisbon night in search of an Iranian restaurant everyone had been speaking about - The 1001 Nights, whose name seemed perfect for our "night dreaming" adventure. And what an adventure it was because due to wrong directions we were provided we ended up walking for hours on end looking for something we had been dying for and didn't seem to find. We stopped at a bakery's to have some tea and use the GPS to locate it.

 

 

The overall atmosphere was rather simple with just a few photos hanging on the walls, some sparse minakari and caligraphy cards and printed table cloths. The Iranian music being played set the scenario and once they brought the food we felt like being at "home" in Iran.

 

Memories surfaced with unstopable sequencing ...  mingled with the soft voice of the Iranian servant and the smell of the tasty food. We spent hours talking about potential trips to Iran in the future and by the time we left had already determined we would come back sometime (soon).