Week in the life ~ Tuesday

Tuesday, 2/08/2011. I'm all confused about the days of the week because yesterday, Monday, was a holiday. Today, it's back to work, and I'm at the train station again, though 2 hours earlier than yesterday. We have an excellent public transport system in Switzerland and we are a nation of commuters - over 25 % of the working population uses public transport to go to work, and many people, including me, prefer to commute from one town to another rather than move. Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich Main or Central Station) is the biggest and one of the oldest train stations in Switzerland and with almost 3.000 trains running departing and arriving every day, it is one of the most frequented train stations in the world.

It's the holiday season and the trains are half empty, and so I find myself a quiet corner to read my book. Though I'll probably be sleeping most of the time, as so often. Up till now, I've always woken up in time - which is a good thing because if I don't, I'll find myself in another country, in Germany, as my stop is the last station in Switzerland.

My bicycle is at the library so I have to walk ...

... which gives me the opportunity to notice the little things on the way, such as the spider webs on top of the hedges, which sparke in the morning sun.

At work I need my cup of Earl Grey tea first thing. I have to leave home at 6.25 in the morning, so breakfast is not an option...

I was just thinking of a friend of mine who's expecting a baby. I resolve to write a long overdue e-mail to her today when I see a message from her on my mobile - she had her baby, a little girl, last Friday!

I'm alone at the library this morning, so I'm having lunch on my own, reading the newspaper. There's a short article about Nella Martinetti who died last Friday.

Nella Martinetti was a singer, songwriter, composer and actress from the Ticino. In the last years, she was often in the tabloids, mostly not because of her work but because of her scandals etc. What I didn't know was that she had written the lyrics of one of my favourite songs from my childhood (it's a long time since she was in the news because of her music), Io senza te, which was performed by the Swiss trio Peter, Sue & Marc at the Concours Eurovision de la Chanson, as it was called back then (now Eurovision Song Contest), in 1981. It's a bit soppy, and the pan pipes... well, it was the 1980s... But apart from that, I just love the song. It always touches me, and makes me go all sentimental. Ah, those were the times...

We are not a lending library, but we have a small lending service for the staff of the company to which the library is attached. One of the books has been returned, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, and I take a few minutes to look through it. I'm often asked if I have read all the books in our library (yes, sure, all of the 40.000...) and there still seem to be a lot of people who believe that a librarian's job is to read all day. It isn't. All we read are reviews, blurbs, table of contents and maybe a few pages of the introductions - just enough information we need for buying the right books for the library and to catalogue and index them correctly. But once in a while, we steal a few minutes... :)

Sitting at the train station waiting for my train. I've been working late today, and I won't be home until almost 8.30, just in time for another episode of Terry & June - and too tired to take any more pictures for the day.