since i'm up and posting anyway, i'll do some backblogging (this backdating function is so handy.) i want to tell you at least a bit about the rest of the trip, and what happened after.

on friday (the last day) i went to basel while the rest of the gang went to geneva. there had been some mildly tense and frustratingly arbitrary decision-making process the day before that left me a bit at odds, and i changed my plans at the last moment. as i wrote in a postcard on the train up north, passing some upstate-quality foliage colorage, it was good because • it's always nice to take train trips (especially in europe) • it's nice to be spontaneous • i like doing things by myself (such as exploring cities.) it was definitely the right choice, not least because i was up bustle and out long before the geneva crew.

and, basel is a swell city. actually, i didn't get to spend much time in the city proper, as i took side trips to two museums on the outskirts, the suburban foundation beyeler, which is basically an impeccably ideal paragon of a modern art museum in every aspect (now showing: more klee), which was a cute tramride away, and the austere vitra design museum, which turned out to be just over the german border (so i got my change in 'oyro.' they even came on the bus and checked our passports on the way back), and was i guess pretty germanly severe and intense. i really enjoyed their exhibit on breuer, especially the way they presented his architecture.

apart from figuring out how to navigate the public transport system (and a hairy moment when i was trying to get back to the train station quickly and kept finding myself in the middle of unexpected superhiways), i did get to walk around the old heart of the city a while, and check out the marketplatz, and the tinguely fountain, etc. great record shopping too.

back in cortaillod, we ate at le bufet du tram, which had been built up the whole trip (the folks went there before we arrived, and kept talking about how good it was.) unfortunately, i was struck with a fluke stomach diseasiness (i attributed it to too much late-period rothko in the morning. those pieces are so intense; they make me pretty upset for some reason.) right after our appetizers arrived, so i basically didn't eat very much and didn't enjoy what i did eat.

but that's okay, because it was almost vindicated by my lunch (or something - what meal is it that they serve on a seven hour plane flight that takes off at noon and lands at 1pm, before they dim the cabin lights for a few hours and then serve something like breakfast right before you land?) the next day, which was without question the best airline meal i've ever had. it was a good day for a travel day: some weirdly blissful moments in the early morning - bss on the deserted autobahn to zurich at 4am, and sitting in the departure lounge listening to loop-finding-jazz-records drinking rivella red. and, inflight, i finished both ulysses and lord of the rings.

homecoming was a bit rocky - first our baggage took forever to turn up, then i was locked out of my apartment (and i even had my key), so i had to break in through the kitchen window. there was nobody here, and my motivation to do a bunch of things disappeared somewhere. i'd had some designs for the evening, but i went to sleep instead. oh well.

my office glows all night long