You look like a band

Do you have friendships which are a miracle to you? Like too good to be true but very true and you enjoy every second spent together?

I met these 3 guys in 2012 and was their group-leader for a trip organized by their university. I loved that yearly job: 3 days in a city, a group of fun first year students which chose your offered topic/angle to explore the city, a very cool salary (as I have the teacher diploma at uni-level) plus travel expenses. I did this for 10 years and each year I met great people who became my friends. 2012 I was triple lucky as these 3 gentlemen and I connected somehow magically. The age difference didn’t matter, they met my husband and then little 2 year old girl and it just clicked and the magic was here to stay.

Our group chat is 11 years old and contains lots of texts like: “Sakataaaa, let’s go out!” Or “Let’s have dinner together!” “I’m in Zurich in this café, are you around for a beer?”

When we walked up the hill to one of the threes birthday party, I had Mika riding on my shoulders and another of the guys looked up to her and said: “Mika, you have a really cool Mama!” : ) and she replied with a smile: “Yes, I know and a really cool Papa too.” A double compliment, I was swooned. At this party there were so many kind and fun people, all the babysitters played with endless patience with my bossy director child “You say this and then do this…!” with her toy unicorns… and I could just enjoy the food and drinks and company. My friend’s grandfather Benny was still alive and he was the star of the party. All the friends knew him very well, I met him for the first time and loved his young soul and cool jokes.

I could go ooon with loads of stories BUT the one I really want to tell you is about our wintery weekend in my family's mountain cabin.

I walked up into the valley with gentlemen No.1 who carried up a mug from a “take for free box” down in the village and consumed his beverages exclusively out of this cup. See the pictures… “The ugliest mug ever which will remind you forever of our weekend” he said : ).

You know when spending time with friends who just have endless fun in their minds and silly ideas which make you laugh or smile just pop up like alllll the time? Ken is like this too. Not half an hour without something out of the box or weird or funny… It's such a gift to spend time with humans like this!

Gentlemen No.2 arrived when the living room was WARM (it’s freezing in winter when you arrive…but my grandfather invested in an oven which heats up the room by approx 10 degrees per hour so after 2 hours it’s cozy), water buckets filled and dinner ready. I don’t like board games and games in general but it wasn’t a question that I had to join for the classic memory game. With these guys fun is guaranteed AND we have the deepest conversations about the world, humanity and the environment. They all graduated in environmental engineering.

When doing the dishes in bright sunshine the next day they found a bottle of schnapps and everytime one of them shook a little cowbell that they found in the wood chopping shed, the in that moment invented rule was: Stop doing the dishes and have a sip of schnapps. They promised to confess to my daddy that they were the schnapps thieves :)

Gentlemen No. 3 and his girlfriend arrived and we went for a walk to the little village in tha sunshine. Our personal photographer (thank you T!!) took loads of fun pictures of us four and her comment stuck with me: “You look like a band” That’s how this friendship feels. Like we would know each other since 10 years old when we decided to form a band and become famous someday. Well, we have the CD-cover sorted out then : ).

Fondue for dinner and of COURSE the salad-server-spoon-test (we invented that silliness about 15 years ago when my mum bought this gigantic plexiglas server set) had to take place… Yes, they confirmed that it’s ok to share these pics : ).

When our neighbor who runs a farm in the village with land and barns in the valley dropped by in the afternoon for a beer and a chat he casually asked-slash-informed us, that tomorrow when we walk back down we will/can/shall help him to bring the cows and calves down to the village's stable.

Warning - Farm-nerd me tells you informations you didn’t know you want to know: Farming up here worked for hundreds of years like this: Fill the barn with hay in summer, let the cows eat the hay in winter until it’s gone and then move them to your next stable where there is more hay in the barn upstairs. That’s why every family still owns several barns. Since they have big big barns in the village with a ventilation system where you can bring in even a little damp hay (when it rains too much…the danger of a fire was a big risk with damp hay which can start to burn after a biological reaction), the hay usually gets transported down in summer every hay making day. Our neighbor put some hay into that next door barn sooo in the beginning of December his herd was still up there.

We agreed on a time so that we can catch the train at 4pm. We got instructed how to do the job and off we went. The house was picture perfect, we were packed and dressed for a hike down with cows in the rain. The young cows ran off like devils, the farmer and 3 of us ran after them. Gentlemen No. 1, a stubborn calve who DIDN’T want to walk, the farmer's daughter and I got stuck pushing this poor animal over the snow… after 40 min of pulling and pushing we were still seeing the cabin above… no improvement at all. She called daddy and he said: “Well, just leave her and walk down to help with the old cow (22 years old!!) and the others on their way.” The teenage cow ran off up to get into the stable again. He’ll get her later or tomorrow he said…

Well. The 4pm train left without us. Also the 5pm. I don’t remember if we missed the 6pm too…. Hahahaaa… After we’ve done our job (can we please acknowledge how versatile and extensive farming is…??) we got invited to a drink at the bar of the farm and got to the station. What a great weekend with my favorite band. What a great bond and friendship.

In my next email I’ll tell you about how I like to celebrate my birthday (compared to Ken it’s a little tiny difference) and these three gentlemen outdid themselves with their costumes and their present. 11 years don’t fit in one email but you get the vibes I think. We had dinner a few weeks ago in a vegan restaurant in Lucerne together and I was once again just overflowing with gratitude for being on this journey for so long already.

So you can guess that when people say, men and women can’t be friends, I highly disagree. I’m very thankful that the wifes and girlfriend of these three are wise, wonderful women who have no problem at all when their gorgeous men spend time with a married woman who is 10 years older than them 🙂. My man certainly doesn’t have a problem with me spending time with my male friends. One of a million reasons I married him.

I’ll have to say a lot about relationships and communication in relationships in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Clear and kind and considerate communication is the key to thriving relationships. Let’s uplevel our way of talking to each other to bring more peace to this planet. If you are interested in this topic, I have a new free workbook you can download to improve difficult situations in your relationships. Click HERE to get it.

I’m sending you loooove from wintery Zurich from my cozy bed :) I love to have my office in bed. I hope you are doing life YOUR way today too.

Big hug,

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This is a story from my weekly Joy-Letter that goes out every Sunday. Do you want to be the first to hear my personal scrapbook stories? Then sign up below.

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