Like a big pendulum.....

So they have this ingenious system of ferries here in Basel that you can use to cross the Rhine River. They have no engine, but they are clipped to a static cable that spans the river. When they push their nose out into the current they kind of waterski across magically. They have no engine and are half wakeboard half foofy-slide. They are very cheap and a quaint tradition. Very ecological too. Here's a little time lapse vid of the one that shuttles people to and from just below Meunster Cathedral: 

Of an evening you can see them candle lit and moored a little way off shore, and I am told that they are rented after hours to practice the secret Swiss ritual of  Fondue. Oh, my..... I look forward to that!

Yesterday my "coach" (as they call her), Martina escorted me out to Schonental to look at the old monastery there and stomp about in the snow in welly's looking at the collection of art in the sculpture park. What a dream venue to leave your work at. It being in the Swiss countryside there is a little farmstall with a coffee machine that you can buy local fair at; like mutton salami, cheese and preserves. It's in a wendy house on the road, but nobody mans it. It runs on an honesty system. You serve yourself, add up your own bill write it all down and leave the money in a draw and take your own change. Pah! 

Martina is turning into somewhat of a guardian angel, what with unforgettable trips like this and repeated fabulous meals with her and Rolfe in her extraordinary apartment. She makes sure I don't miss any crucial culture in the city and there's lots of it and also helps me access anything that is particularly of interest to me and my work... advice about glass artisans, carpenters, a stream of Jean Luc Goddard movies and the odd sneaky train-fare evasion lesson etc etc. She knows every single person on every single street and as she is a lecturer at the University she can be provoked into a very erudite address on the history of Land Art.....    of a ramble.... in a snowy Sculpture park. Lucky, lucky me. It's so nice to be this old, this interested and  this ignorant  all at the same time and suddenly get all this access. 

Take care all

j