One Moleskine later

I have now filled my notebook with sketches and thoughts, all of which are published on this blog. It’s time for me to take a break while I wait and see if I find the money I need to go back to England soon, or if I’ll have to stay in Switzerland for another year in order to put a large enough sum aside for my PhD. If all goes well, I’m sure I’ll feel the drive to buy a new sketchbook and will be back on Scones&theQueen for a another round. It’s been a great year; thanks for following me, and I hope to get back to you soon!

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Miniature cakes

Souvenirs are strange objects indeed. You try to find comfort in stereotypical representations of the place you’re visiting, in spite of their having very little to do with your own experience of the place, or that of the people who live there, for that matter. And yet, they do say something about local culture, or an ideal version of it. So I say, who wouldn’t like a country where you can buy tiny miniature cakes? They’re absolutely useless and, I have to say, quite ridiculous, but I like these cakes. They remind me of the little details I loved as a child when I first discovered England and, well… I just wish I could eat them.

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A week of simplicity

It hasn’t been very easy to be back in Switzerland this summer. I have been unable to get funding for my PhD and am running out of options. I need a consequential bank loan and the assurance of finding a job if I want to go back to Canterbury in September. Thanks to my new status as officially unemployed, I can also choose to become an alcoholic and start betting money on horses in seedy bars (or is that not how it’s done nowadays?) Instead, since I can’t really leave the country, I’m staying at my aunt’s while she’s on holiday, trying to put my mind on something else (i.e. great food and good books) for a while. I do appreciate the change.

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