Diana

Needless to say that travelling always was an important part in my live….although, I wish I had done it more often. Unfortunately, travelling is not for free and you also need some time between your working time….

I also enjoy reading, gardening (which could become less when living on a vessel), do handicrafts, painting…well, being generally creative, actually, and sometimes I join Patrik and his Harley on a ride.

Another very important part of my live are animals. I grew up with furry companions (from hamster, rabbit, guinea pigs, dog, cats….to cute rats) and went horse riding as often as I could. Therefore, it didn’t take long (I was 18), until I became a vegetarian. It just did not feel right. Eating animals and meanwhile, I’m more glad than ever that I did so, especially, when getting report about how badly animals are treated all over the world….Very sad! Of course, I’m trying to help whenever I can, but it just never seems enough, though….

Me – in detail…

Born on November 08^th 1967 in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland, I had a happy childhood as the oldest of three kids (I have two brothers). Nothing remarkable happened during the school years (since I was such a good girl) – we lived in Winterthur then, canton of Zurich. When I was 16, I started my two-year apprenticeship in Zurich City, as a vendor in a tiny porcelain shop. After that I did some extra commercial education for a year. Concurrently, I started working in a shop, selling motorbike safety gear, accessories and parts. It was a cool time back then, which certainly had to do with the not-plain-vanilla trade.

After three years though, in 1989, I decided it’s time for a change, quit my job and I went to New Zealand to learn proper English (my second trip there. The first time was almost a year earlier, for a six week vacation and I fell instantly in love with this beautiful country!) Five months later I came home again and started working in the metalworking industry – thanks to my English skills I succeeded in finding a job in a big company, as administrator in the shipping department.

That was more or less my occupation during the next years. The companies changed from time to time and I learned a lot about shipping and other countries! I always loved having contacts and working mates around the globe.

In September 2000 I decided to move to New Zealand for good (this was the fourth time I travelled to “Kiwi-land”). I gave up my apartment, sold most of my furniture, quit my good job and had a great bye-bye-party! Unfortunately, I never received a working permit, in spite of my (what I thought) sufficient preparations, desperate efforts getting a job and good contacts I had. So after nine months I had to return to Switzerland again – pretty frustrated, if I may say so…. Well, well, at least I tried !

Very soon after I came home, in November 2001 to be exact, I met Patrik, from Sweden (he was on a business trip in Switzerland). To be honest, I wasn’t very thrilled at the beginning, because Scandinavia was never my vacation destination – too cold in my eyes. I like sunshine and warmth (25+ deg. C and I feel comfortable). Nevertheless, after many emails and phone calls, we both realized that we love each other and want to live together.

Since I still didn’t have an apartment yet (I lived with my parents again, since my New Zealand “disaster”… *suck*) and I was used to moving around in the world (haha), we decided that I would relocate to Gothenburg/Sweden in April 2002. There I discovered what a beautiful country Sweden is and it even gets comfortable warm and sunny there! How glad I was! I began to learn Swedish and soon started working for my former company, who wanted to set up a subsidiary and thought, it was quite handy that I lived in Sweden – what a lucky coincidence!

We – and a dream…

In September 2006, though, we moved to Switzerland (canton of Thurgau), since Patrik got a tantalizing job offer. Leaving our friends and his family behind wasn’t easy at all and we shared many tears.

Since we (still) didn’t get tired of each other during all these years. We decided to get married in July 2009. After all, we’ve adopted two lovely cats (Thor and Odin) the year before as well as we bought our house.

Last week happiness

Well, and now? After soon 10 years living in Switzerland, we feel like we are ready for a new adventure in our lives. Considering also our age, we are (hopefully) still young enough to start something new, right?!

And by the way, the idea about “living on a vessel” came accidentally. When we met a couple, who wanted to sell their house, in order to travel through the world in a camper. It was a fascinating idea, which stuck with us, somehow. Although, living in a vehicle wasn’t so tempting, therefore we needed something else. Admittedly, it didn’t take very long to find a solution, since we both love the sea, Patrik used to work on cargo ships in the past and has therefore some experience and I….hmm….enjoyed the vacation in France on a houseboat very much! :o)

So here we are now, planning our future! Trying to learn as much as possible about boats and sailing. How to live on a boat – with our beloved Odin (of course we would never ever leave him behind! It’s tragic enough, that his brother Thor died in July 2015….), following blogs of different sailors (some with pets), who already succeeded in doing, what we are about to do….one day. Very exciting mainly, but also a bit scary…. But, I guess that’s one of the necessary ingredients we need, to fulfil our dream…