@ Bern

Since last Monday I have been in the Swiss capital, Bern. A new guest performance, new at least for me, brought me here after only one week in Basel since Zürich. Seems like busy May for me, but that's only good, giving me a chance to patch up my finances after quiet beginning of the year.

The performance I'm doing here now is called "Wann stören wir uns endlich" and directed by Andreas Liebmann. This is a fast take over thing to me, since the guys who'd done it before couldn't come this time. It feels always bit jittery to hop on the reins having only seen the piece on DVD. -Aka, not having any kind of first hand experience on how it need to be. Nonetheless, I seem to be doing all right, we had the premiere yesterday at Schlachthaus Theater and I didn't screw it up =).

After getting the show to the run mode, I have now bit more free time in my hands. That's actually great, because couple of my dear friends are visiting this city at this very moment. So today I spent strolling around downtown Bern with my friend Jari (Oulu, Finland), whom I haven't seen in past two years, give or take some months. He is visiting Bern because his lady, Eija (Glasgow, Scotland), is doing her university thesis on Robert Walser, swiss writer. So what are the chances exactly, to be in the same city and time with these two, be it Finland , British Isles, Switzerland or any given country for that matter? =) =) So cool!

With both of them I also visited the Kunsthalle to see their exhibition about animism. I found it to be bit one sided and scarce, but having yet some interesting ideas, mainly with the video installations. Mostly boring, anyhow. Not really recommended.

In stead I can really wholeheartedly recommend something else. A brilliant Asian restaurant called Mekong Beizli on Kornhausplatz 7. The place is pretty small and very popular, so be prepared to wait a moment in the evening time, if you don't have reservation. But, I promise you, it well worth waiting for. Personnel is friendly and the place is clean and not shabby. Prices are okay compared to the general level in Bern and the food is straightforward and tasty. I was sort of impressed with my portion of chicken with cashew nuts, since this somehow reminded me of the very first dish of such in Phuket some years ago. There is billion recipes for it and this first one in Phuket is always the reference to me. Most ofter I'm somehow disappointed because the versions served are not "quite right". But this one in Mekong was a real positive surprise! Highly recommended!!!

In the evening I hooked up with yet another friend of mine. Kati, Finnish dancer, is doing a student exchange project here in Bern now and we went to have this amazing dinner and then after wards to see a dance performance at Tojo Theater. ojo is situated in former riding school very near to the main railway station and the location has sort of cult reputation of being the hangout scene for the local youth. The show "Run very far to come very close to say very little" wanted to be very cool and trendy, but didn't impress me much. It was nothing compared to the Cathy Sharp choreography "Mr. Budhoo Resigns" I saw last weekend.