A grey day in Zurich
I look outside the window and the usual gray of November in the Zurich region of Switzerland stares back at me. It is cold, but not too cold yet. I don’t mind the cold too much if I’m home, going outside with a migraine when it’s very cold is different.
What I miss the most is sunlight. I grew up in Rome, Italy and in South East Asia: sunlight was a given. Sunlight can be difficult on my eyes, easily burn my skin, but this grey sits heavily on me. Here people call it the Nebelsuppe – the fog soup.
During autumn the sun was splendid and today I want to think about good things. I have started yet another therapy for my migraine and until now – I know, it’s early days still – I see no improvement… The pain is here and it is staying, so let me indulge myself and think of a better time.
An Autumn Memory
I woke up with a migraine the other day (should I say night? It was barely 4AM) and after my injection, as soon as the pain subsided a little – many hours later – I decided that I had to go outside and enjoy the nice, crispy and sunny weather for a stroll along the river. My goal was that of reaching the football field where my son was playing for his league and my husband was watching him.
I put on my polarised sunglasses – I can’t stand the glare of the sun otherwise -, took my Nikon and started my stroll.
As soon as I went down the stairs I saw a beautiful flower in my garden. I had to take a picture!
I left the street where I live, I walked down a path in the woods and after an underpass I was on the river bank. I looked around me at the beautiful colours of autumn. I couldn’t concentrate on the beauty because of the pain so I sat down on a bank and when I was able to open my eyes again I started paying more attention to the people around me. Some, both young and old, were running. The thought of the additional pain that I would suffer if I were to try and run took my breath away. But still, good for them. They were surely appreciating this day, knowing that soon the weather would take a turn for the worse.
Other people were spending time with their dogs, some parents were strolling with little children, all enjoying the day. I made a pause looking at girls exercising their horses at the horse farm, and chatted with an older lady playing with her little dog. I started walking again towards my goal and took a couple of other pictures.
I stopped for a while and admired the little pond, smiling at a toddler that was eating an apple voraciously. He was so cute and so concentrated on his apple, I had to smile at him. He must have liked it very much.
A silly rhyme
As I was strolling, the migraine a dull throb in the right side of my head, tears in my eyes from the pain, a memory popped up. I was in Australia, in primary school and together with the other kids in class we were chanting this simple silly rhyme:
Autumn:
Autumn leaves
Come floating down
Red and yellow
Green and brown
A large smile broke on my face. Migraine or not, it was a beautiful day, I was walking along the river, glorying in the colours around me and my son and my husband were waiting for me to show up at the football field…
Life is good, you know?
Yela