Back in the 80’s in Ireland there was a TV programme on RTE hosted by Marty Whelan called Where in the world. It was a geography based quiz show where two families competed. That was prime time telly in the late 80’s and early 90’s. People today forget how lucky we are to have choice. In Ireland we had only one television station for most of my childhood, and programmes didn’t run 24 hours…what did we do with ourselves?
Anyway, only bringing it up to create a segue to today’s topic, or at the rate I write, this months topic. International Sarahs! Today’s post is brought to you with inspiration from Brazil, Switzerland, and Canada. As you will see not only are these very different countries; geographically, culturally, politically, etc. They have produced very different Sarahs
Lets start with Brazil
Been watching The 3 Percent on Netflix so I realised that this email was from a female, and when I read these and when I say read I do mean that loosely – I don’t speak Portuguese, but it is a Latin language and I speak Spanish and French so I am always happy to have a go at Portuguese, I thought it was some sort of nonsense, a scam maybe?, however, when I read it today, after hitting the Google translate button (hands up who had noticed it?) I am thought to myself. Great idea, a community of women who are building each other up, learning to move in the business domain (which is built for men, by men), and learning how to stop procrastinating! Ha, I definitely need to learn to stop procrastinating! I have never been to Brazil, just saying the word conjures Samba, Caipirinhas, and Carnival. 2 out of three for me (Samba and Caipirinhas, Carnival with all the people? from the bar!) I thought Brazilian Sarah would be the furthest from me, but maybe, we are closer than I was expecting. Fair play Brazilian Sarah, go forth and conquer. Well done Marcele for initiating the group!
Heading north and then west from Brazil, brings us to Vancouver, Canada. Somewhere I have visited, and regularly vote one of the best places to live. My main memories of Vancouver revolve around eggs. Yes, eggs. We had just gotten off a train from Toronto to Vancouver, 3 days on a train, the absolute horror. You can imagine, young, vaguely smelly, hungry, lost. We were walking through a park and asked the first person we met where we could get a nice breakfast, you really cannot beat a good breakfast. We were pointed to what I think was a supermarket that also did fresh breakfasts. We had delicious eggs, toast, tea, all the good stuff. It was so nice to not be on the train! The train did have a dining carriage and food, but there is something about food on trains/planes/boats it is never as good as food on land. I have another Vancouver egg story, but I will leave it for another day. Always leave wanting more.
So, what does Canadian Sarah do? Well it appears she is very community minded and has signed up to complete market research surveys that give back to the community. Some of it appears to be standard market research, and some more community or province orientated. I imagine she probably works in IT – don’t most people? drinks protein smoothies instead of meals, is concerned about pollution and traffic, and probably cycles to work. From my limited time in Vancouver, way back in 2000 it seemed a nice place, full of outdoor healthy people. I am not an outdoorsy, active person person. Close, but still no cigar.
And this leads us to Switzerland, a place, precisely no one ever has said that they wanted to live, maybe apart from the people who are born there, or people who yodel, make clocks, and eat chocolate? Swiss Sarah signed up to emails from the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst; what pray tell is this? Well a Museum (pretty much a universal word) for contemporary art. This is where we splinter. I could definitely do a week/weekend in the mountains, eating sturdy food, Fondue is the food of dreams; melted cheese that you dip other foods into, count me in. Clocks are important, love being able to tell the time rather than guess by the position of the sun (I can’t tell the time by the position of the sun, I occasionally guess, and say things like ‘later’ which is not useful). And then contemporary art, what is it? That is a question I ask most times I encounter an exhibition. What is it? What does it mean. I could probably make that at home. How much? I am not a complete philistine, mostly I just don’t get the point, it doesn’t seem like art to me. I am not a Swiss Sarah
I am none of these imaginary Sarahs.
As Brian said ‘We are all individuals’. Yes, yes we are.
IJustHaventDoneItYet 