I'm rushing through the Ruhr valley at 300kph on the German high speed train network, on my way back from our yearly company ski trip to Austria. After weeks of mild weather and little to no snow, the weather decided to drop all snow all at once with 8-9 BFT wind and some rain to go by. So I had one day of wet snow skiing, and one day of braille-skiing as my colleague called it (visually impaired, all white, and only being able to trust your extremities). But it went pretty darn good! My skiing lessons have definitely paid off, and I have made some damn good progress in these two years.

We had a 40 minute transfer time in Zurich today. I couldn't help myself but spend my first time in Switzerland buying a new watch that I've been eyeing for forever now; a small Mondaine watch in the SBB station clock design style. It fits my incredibly small wrist well (I recently found out my wrist diameter is a notch smaller than my girlfriends' wrist), and I not only love the design because it signals my love of trains but also because it's incredibly easy to read the time on quickly.

Yesterday the skiing weather was so sucky (not only iced up pistes, but also severe avalanche warnings and even more rain) that I finally got around to finishing up the submission details for my academic paper and handing it in to the journal. Fingers crossed! I kind of expect it to be thrashed, but let's see. I have something I'm proud of and that's what matters.