02/10/25 Small Adventures

- October 06, 2025

Yesterday I got all excited and went to do some washing in the tea/laundry room. Then I got all distracted eavesdropping on a couple who were loudly complaining to management about ghosts pooing in their toilet (I kid you not, it was enthralling) and missed a step, executing a quite impressive charging stumble with a roll/somersault finale to end up on my back by the washing machines thanking my lucky stars that my trajectory had propelled me perfectly through the open doorway and not the glass walls on either side. Now the ghost poo couple make jibes about diving into furniture whenever they pass me in the hallways. As if they have any high ground to occupy! At least the furniture I crashed into was undeniably real.

I got a nice bruise out of the whole adventure.

I didn't end up paying for the washing either: a small matter of me and the washing machine app not speaking the same language even though we were both allegedly using English.

Anyways, up I got in the morning and headed out to get breakfast and lo and behold the Coop was still shut at 09:30 in the morning. What's more, slow old me began to realise that the shops were all shut and the only people in the streets were tourists like me, peering forlornly through the Coop windows in hopes of breakfast.

There were 3 possibilities here:

1. A zombie apocalypse and everyone else was zombies in which case I was soon going to be zombie breakfast.

2. The Rapture happened and tourists were omitted from the fun. After all, the vibe of Heaven would be somewhat spoilt by tourists running around taking selfies, wouldn't it?

3. It was a public holiday in Lucerne and no one told me.

Thankfully a little bit of Googling reassured me that it was number 3, St Leodegarius Day. St Leodegarius was the patron saint of Lucerne although it was unclear what, if any, direct connection he had to the town. Google also assured me that the Coop at the train station was open so I wasn't condemned to a diet of tea and biscuits for the next 24 hours. That was a relief, I was getting tired of tea and biscuits.

With that all sorted I spent the morning on administration and then walked to the hospital to visit Roger. The good thing about these forced marches to and fro was finding new routes to walk: Lucerne had lots of little alleyways with steps and hidden corners that made the walk shorter by going over hills instead of around them. Of course I could have caught the bus but where's the fun in that?

It was steeper than it looked. It always is.

Roger was much happier and he and Steve had developed a beautiful relationship aided by many slow walks together up and down the hallways. Having a room mate who was facing a life-altering and potentially life-ending health issue kind of put things in perspective a bit, too.

I did more exploring on my way home from the hospital. The morning's bitter cold cloud cover had all gone away and the sun was shining.

I found a pathway through a secret little forest,

And went back to visit my friend the old town wall.

The mountains came out to say hello as the day gave way to evening. Roger had a particularly good view from his perch on the 12th floor of the hospital on the hill.

Down on the waterfront floods of people were heading to the Hofkirche to celebrate the Saint. Out on the lake white sailboats slid across the blue water and a squadron of swans came sailing past to complete the picture.