Preparations for my trip to Zürich on Tuesday morning has started. Picking up shirts, things like that. In that particular environment, my regular uniform consisting of jeans and t-shirts is a bit out of place. Adding a jacket doesn’t cut it either.

I’m doing some photo stuff this time, so I’ll be traveling with a lot of gear. Here’s hoping I won’t have to check anything, because I hate that, something regular readers know.

The sunshine is inviting. I’ll go for a walk later today. Right now, my mind is elsewhere, and words will get written. That’s a wonderful feeling, one that I haven’t felt in quite some time.

Here’s a photo of my dinner last night, because why not?

Yesterday was the first time this year that I didn’t write here, in the journal. I didn’t mean to skip a day, I just missed it. Too stressed, didn’t see the todo, and a bunch of other things slipped my mind too. It happens, apparently.

Failure is always an option, and it happens to all of us at one time or another. Habits break, things that you promised yourself you’d do, and then you don’t, for whatever reason. The question is, what do you do after you’ve failed?

Let’s say you want to cut down on sugar (most of us should). No more candy on weekdays. But one Thursday you eat a Mars bar. Fail! Might as well eat candy every day now, right? Well, obviously not. That day is lost, Thursday is lost, to your habit or yourself or whatever, but it’s also in the past. There’s only today, and today I’m writing in my journal again.

I have this friend who’s hell-bent on believing me to be some kind of health nut, that believes that I won’t eat anything that’s bad for me. It probably stems from the few times I brought in bean lunches to the office, to my dislike for pipless olives, and to me not eating breakfast. Or maybe it’s the fact that I rarely eat carbs, sugar, drink soft drinks, and have a little knowledge about what’s in various kinds of food. I don’t like unnecessary additives, nor processed food as a rule. So maybe that’s it. The thing is, she’s seen me stuff my face with so many unhealthy things, so many times. It just doesn’t stick. I’m picky with what I eat in her world.

In reality, I’ll eat whatever I want. True, I do avoid sugar and carbs overall, but if I want candy or, more likely, bread with some olive oil and sea salt, then I will. The same goes for meat. I don’t eat a lot of meat, but if I feel like it, I will. That happens very rarely these days though.

I try to eat healthy as a rule, and that’s had a positive impact on both my mind and body, but that’s about it. And yet, I’m forever the health nut in that particular book. Go figure.

Wrestling with neck pain today. This is what happens when I don’t exercise. Luckily there was an impromptu next generation stand-up desk in the kitchen today.

Another Monday, another train. It’s a routine, much like driving to the airport is a routine when I’m down south. All roads, and tracks and airstreams, lead to Stockholm for me, it would seem.

Have a great week, everyone. I sure intend to try to enjoy myself. I might even send an issue of my newsletter, if y’all behave. We’ll see.

Two shots of espresso, a few minutes of writing and contemplating, and that’s where I am at the moment. My third espresso is sitting here, the fire is being built, and Paazu will soon want his morning walk. Life in the summer home is simple, quite the contrast to my days in Stockholm.

My body tells me it’s old and weak. It’s complaining about two hours of badminton yesterday. That’s not true, actually, but it is what I expected. Losing some weight proved to be a good way to get some more energy on the court, despite not having played for a year. Great fun. Now if I could just get back to the gym too…

Traveling north again today, from summer in Stockholm to SHIT THERE’S STILL ICE ON THAT LAKE! I’m not sure if I like that or not.

My body is confused in the morning. For the longest time, I didn’t have breakfast, just coffee. There’s this thing called intermittent fasting that’s been really good to me, and to my brain. I’m not doing it hard-core or anything, but as it turned out, my intake matched it naturally, and it was a positive thing. The last couple of months have been something of a rollercoaster, with lots of breakfast meetings and the like. This has now officially gotten my body so confused that it expects breakfast, but usually only every other day. Today is such a day, I just hope I have time before the first of several meetings.

Have a great Friday, people. Remember, it could always be worse, like being Thursday or something.

There’s only one way to put it: This week is getting the better of me. Things are just stacking up, they happen, and there’s not enough energy nor time to handle them. It’s not tasks per se, it’s, well, stuff.

Barreling through.

On a lighter note, remember to waste paper (from a bin at Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan).

The sun treated Stockholm yesterday, and I managed to enjoy it both during my lunch break, and somewhat during a walk in the evening. Wrapped it all up with a glass of Lagavulin on the small patio outside my apartment. No sun there unfortunately, but the warm weather made it nice nonetheless. It’s the little things.

It’s been so crazy the past weeks – or months perhaps, I keep losing track – that I haven’t had time to brew a decent cup of coffee at home. Well, my aching neck and back (shitty bed over the weekend, I’m not getting old, shut up!) woke me up early, so today was the day. Beside me is a hot and bitter cup of black coffee of unknown origin, because the beans were not in their original packaging anymore. It’s really good, I’ve missed this.

Heading back to Stockholm, all but rested. There are so many things going on now, it’s exhausting. I don’t want to whine, but… POOR ME!!!

Seriously though, these are not easy days. I try to stay on top of things, to breathe and take one thing at a time, but it’s not easy. Just something I need to do, to get through, and make mine. On the plus side, times like these tend to force some hard choices. I’m sure there’s an essay in there somewhere. For now, I’ll just concentrate on doing nothing on the train south.

The snow is still very much a thing up here, and it’s very peaceful in the sunshine when you get out of the sorry excuse for a town I’m currently in. I wish I had a photo to go with this, but I don’t, and this is all I’ve got today. Other things are, quite frankly, more important. Take care of yourselves, tomorrow’s another day and week. It all starts over, all the time, until it doesn’t anymore.

I’m heading north this morning, for a quick visit. The morning train is an older model, the ones that were state of the art a few decades ago. They upgrade them with wifi (that performs worse than my mobile connection, obviously) and seats that are already uncomfortable, but other than that, I kind of like them. Not that I’d want to be stuck on these every day, but for a Saturday morning after way too little sleep, this is fine.