The year 2023 was neither particularly good nor bad for me, but it was undeniably exceptional. It was a tumultuous year. Our honeymoon in the Yucatán was stunning, filled with adventure, yet equally challenging and stressful. A beautiful spot, Father Timofei’s East-West Peace Church in Munich, one of my sanctuaries, suffered partial destruction in a fire. Friends faced tough times. COVID-19, during midsummer, took a toll on both my fitness and nerves, leading me into an mental crisis that resulted in canceling my Athens marathon. The direct and physical exposure to weather forces like storms, heat, floods, mudslides, and snow made me acutely aware of climate change in 2023. I’m currently fatigued from the year’s events and hoping to regain strength.
Pictures
Mental Health
As the year concludes, I find myself exhausted and burned out due to both professional and personal stresses. I fell ill twice, each time slipping into short depressive episodes. Viewing the maintenance of routines, such as running, photography, neurofeedback, and self-measurement, as indicators of mental fitness, I noticed a decline in the second half of the year. Despite this, I managed to stabilize myself to some extent, but lacked the mental strength for planned adventures like the Athens Marathon or SUB-cycling on the Würm river.
Diagnosed with ADHD in 2022, the initial revelation proved helpful. However, looking back is less crucial now; looking forward, I realize an ongoing challenging journey with ADHD. Recognizing the influence of ADHD, I became more aware of its negative aspects this year. While I’ve long acknowledged the positive sides of ADHD, achieving a balance between the positive and negative has proven challenging. The ADHD brain tends to focus on the new and interesting, and this year, it leaned toward the negative aspects. The focus may shift next year, making it less of a concern.
Yucatán
My feelings about our honeymoon in the Yucatán are mixed. On one hand, it’s not a feel-good destination for me, on the other hand, I’ve never experienced so much on a vacation
Snorkeling with rays and turtles – tourist rip-offs – a pink lake – stinking cenotes – a lagoon in seven turquoises – a burning cross – climbing Mayan pyramids – guardian iguanas – mosquitoes – arrowhead crabs – constant truck noise – pyramids in Becan – ghost stories – cocktails in a rainstorm – guardian iguanas – mosquitoes – arrowhead crabs – constant truck noise – pyramids in Becan – ghost stories – cocktails in a rainstorm – magic halo – sunburn – starry sky – bloodthirsty Maya – power cut – topes and potholes – jungle luxury – colorful birds in cenotes – boring jungle – stromatolites – business class
Sport
2023 wasn’t a particularly active year for me, and I unfortunately gained weight. I engaged in some running in the first half of the year but stopped entirely after COVID-19. Despite not running, I maintained the healthier mindset from the previous year, realizing that „being able to run“ isn’t the sole measure of my mental health. Although I had hoped to run the Athens Marathon, circumstances, including COVID-19, a bladder infection, and a mental crisis, left me physically and mentally unfit for the marathon. It was the right decision, I believe.
Friendships
My wife and I were quite self-focused this year, leaving little room for friends and family.
Beautiful memories all mixed up
Big ray on the beach – Japan flashback with Suntory Whiskey – Sudden sandstorm – Acorn storm – Full moon over the Secëda – Halo over Chichen Itza – Sharp turn while sailing – Turquoise storks – Treacherous reflections – Super starry sky at Uxmal – Glow-in-the-dark shoes in the snow – Secret staircase in Becan – Silver sweater full of feathers – Buddha-cookies – Starlink Train – Longboarding Berlin – Time travel: Woman with curlers – Lake Blindsee in a thunderstorm – Abandoned cuddly bunny rescued – In the net over Lake Reschen – Door to the Neugerriemschneider Gallery – Strange hole architecture – Pineapple Cocktail – Hula Hula Bang Bang – Potato carpaccio with religious chants – Best strawberry year – Flaucher – Best parking lot off Holbox – Prince Regent cake after the dengue vaccinations – Eye to eye with a boxfish – Rickshaw in Coba – Always paint first – Bumped by a sea turtle – Blond pelican – Spending the nights in a hammock – blue spectre in St. Ulrich – Causing a stir with snowshoes in the summer – Parking at the relay in Baden-Baden – Building sideboards and robots – My wife is in the secret Shin Hati – Lightsaber – Secretly sneaking out of the „Raft of the Medusa“ and stumbling over sleeping stage crew – Spaghetti stracciatella – Ghost stories with ChatGBT – Partner look – Zombie choir – Icicles – Garbage can and lounger as two-in- One – Striped appetizer – Lost ship – Bunny lamp – A Sith Lord goes to the hairdresser – Snowy Lake Starnberg – BUMS BUMS VOLL – Winter barbecue – By car across the cathedral square – Red croissant – Werksviertel – Tofu skewers at the city market – Celebrating Mezzi’s marathon – Eros parking – Scavenger hunt with Invader – Open church gates – Floating futuro house – In the footsteps of the „Last Generation“ – The unicorn gets fluffy – Demolition with a robot arm – COVID-19 with Star Wars Ahsoka – Chanterelles – My surfer girl cycles – Greek Frappe Coffee – Helping the water spirit – Here only Small-Mini-Cars please! – Bee sting plaster really works – Eating cornettos with the unicorn after COVID-19 – Rainbow colors in the parking garage – Surf Barbie’s Vespa – Heart tomato – Negroni with lavender madeleine – Taiyaki – Pink milk – Sprizz in heavy cocktail glasses – Paddling around the church tower – Stuffed Pani Puri – Museum of the Moon – Partner look – My wife swings across the lake – Evening atmosphere on the Bismarck Bridge – Moon over St. Ulrich and Afra – Company run with Thor – Strawberries in the Hirschgarten – Mammatus clouds – In search of bioluminescence – Pink Schickeria Glitter BMW – Exploded cycle valve – Germknödel – Old tractor – Energy oxygen – Spraying cats – Christmas tree dino says „enough“
I would have gladly done without it
My wife and I had contracted COVID-19, seemingly out of nowhere, in the middle of the summer. Everything about it was atypical, the time, the symptoms or even the source of the infection. But that didn’t change anything, the antigen test and the better molecular test were clear. The illness itself wasn’t that serious for either of us, but it was still stupid to be sick in the middle of summer in an apartment that was getting hotter every day. I myself had 12 days of consistently positive COVID-19 tests, far more than the typical short week. Although I didn’t feel very ill, COVID-19 had a strong impact on my fitness and somehow I’ve had slight (imaginary?) breathing problems ever since, as I still sometimes have to gasp for air in stressful situations. But maybe it’s just my subconscious wanting to buy new gadgets, like the Minidoc or sports gadgets for respiratory caliometry.
Father Timofei’s East-West Peace Church burned down in the summer. Fortunately, „only“ the church burned down, but the remaining buildings, the house and the chapel are still standing. The little church was a ten-minute walk from our apartment and was always a haven of peace for us in the middle of a wasteland in the south of the Olympic site. The church itself was built in the 1950s by the two hermits Natasha and Timofei (later, at 110 years old, the oldest person in Munich ever) from World War II rubble. We often went to the East-West Peace Church on New Year’s Day to welcome in the New Year in a similar way to the Japanese Hatsumōde (初詣, literally: first visit [of a temple]). We hung kitschy decorations in the surrounding trees, just as Father Timofei had done throughout his life. In summer, you could relax there in the shade of the trees and the wind coming off the wasteland. I have many memories associated with the East-West Peace Church, which is why the fire hit me hard. The East-West Peace Church is to be rebuilt, but I think it will be incredibly difficult to revive its old charm.
A gas leak at my neighbors‘ added stress, but swift action by our janitor prevented further issues.
An unexpected encounter with a violent street riot in Berlin-Neuköln was also unsettling.
Cappuccino
During a SUB tour at Lake Reschen, we found an abandoned cuddly bunny sitting helplessly and lonely on a park bench. After all the plant remains in his fur, the cuddly bunny must have been waiting a very long time to be rescued. We took him home, washed him, cuddled him, my wife sewed him a warm overall and we are sure he will never want to go outside again.
Art
While we encountered impressive art in 2023, it often felt like something was missing, that final spark. Highlights included the War Carpets by Rose Stach and the Museum Frieder Burda painted by Nicolas Party.
Rose Stach: War Carpets · Botanikum · Museum Frieder Burda · Diözesanmuseum · Ai Weiwei · Heraklut · Invader · Museum des Monds · Nationalgalerie Hamburger Bahnhof · Haus der Kunst · Sammlung Götz · Graffiti-Tour in Berlin-Friedrichshain · Fotografiska · Sammlung Boros · A-Museum · NODRESSIONROOM · Kunstlabor 2
Ganzfeld
Surprising findings
Two surprising discoveries in the Yucatán were that cenotes, while beautiful, often had an unpleasant odor, and private tours were not significantly more expensive than group tours, offering a much better experience.
Further findings are:
- Bee sting patches really work (if necessary, moist sugar on the bee sting also works)
- There has been a dengue vaccination since the beginning of 2023
- The space in Business Class is huge
- Noise canceling headphones have their limits, but still help
Climate change
2023 was a stormy year for me in the truest sense of the word. I, or rather we, have never been so directly exposed to the forces of weather so often. It wasn’t even the intensity of the weather forces, but the sheer frequency with which I or we were surprised by the weather. I still remember the many thunderstorms in 2023 in which I had to seek shelter soaking wet because the weather changed so surprisingly quickly. Also the frequent, never-ending heatwaves that you couldn’t escape. But there were also three really extreme events that we had never experienced before:
- Mudslide near Seefeld, which we only narrowly escaped
- Milan flooded with water and mud
- Heaviest December snowfall in Munich since weather records began
On the way home from Lake Garda, we ran into bad weather and shortly after passing Seefeld, an hour later, a mudslide came down behind us, burying the road and railroad line. We were just lucky not to be hit by it. When my wife arrived in Milan, she had to fight her way through mud and flooded streets, as a storm had raged shortly before and caused an overbuilt river to overflow. On the way to the AirBnB, she trudged through centimetre-deep mud and the subway station nearby was under several meters of water. Munich was overrun by the heaviest December snowstorm and simply stood still for several days.
Less bad, but still adventurous, was a short sandstorm on Holbox, which quite literally wiped me and my wife out. The sandstorm came out of nowhere and subsided just as abruptly after five minutes. Even after several showers, I still had grains of sand on my body, almost as proof that I hadn’t imagined the sandstorm.
Wild animals
I had numerous encounters with wild animals, setting a personal record for the number of species I hadn’t seen before.
Profession
My major project this year proved stressful as I struggled to find my way into the topic.
Best food & drink
The Piedrasanta restaurant on Holbox stood out as the best culinary experience in 2023, despite being almost empty due to a sudden rainstorm.
Gadgets
Regularly measuring body values can promote a better awareness of your own body. The problem is the word „regularly“. The actually great new scales with body fat measurement were almost never used, but maybe I’ll manage that in the new year 2024.
I think I’m „absolutely resistant to advertising“, but somehow an Insta ad managed to sell me an eye-catching silver shirt. It’s perfect for admiring light installations.
The inner child in me has always wanted a glow-in-the-dark jacket, now I have one, but it only glows slightly bluish … I like it, even if I briefly believed in ghosts when I was startled by a ghostly blue shadow in the pitch dark, which was actually my jacket on a coat hook. I also have a Star Wars laser sword to go with my futuristic light-up jacket to portray my wife as Shin Hati.
For my (honestly pointless) Twitter debates with Flat Earthers, I now have a plastic sextant, a cardboard quadrant, an Erastosthenes shadow projector and a €260 leveling device … unfortunately, in typical ADHD fashion, I haven’t actually used any of the measuring devices.
For the honeymoon trip to Machu Picchu I had planned, I bought a continuous blood oxygen measuring ear clip and a can of oxygen. However, the blood oxygen ear clip app is stupid, otherwise I would use it much more often.
Finally, I upgraded my apartment with four new gas alarms for different gases to provide more security after the gas leak incident at the neighbors‘ house.
Movies & Streaming & Music
I didn’t see a good movie in 2023, rather I was so annoyed by „Barbie“ and „Asteroid City“ that I dropped out of both. „Oppenheimer“ is still on my list. The few cinema films I’ve seen weren’t impressive either, more like socializing with my colleagues and still enjoyable.
At least by streaming „Star Wars Ahsoka“ I had a little consolation in my COVID-19 illness and the realization that my wife resembles Shin Hati.
There was no new music for me this year either, I hope my taste in music and myself don’t get old.
Events
Attending a Danger Dan concert and the oratorio „Das Floß der Medusa“ were enjoyable events, though more politically charged than anticipated.
Cooking & baking
I didn’t engage much in cooking, but my photo album captured some memorable creations. The most exciting was the One Pot French Onion Pasta, which was wonderfully creamy just from the starch in the pasta (no cream or cheese used).
Books
Delving into science fiction, I enjoyed books like „Murderbot: System Collapse,“ „The Kaiju Preservation Society,“ „Monk and Robot,“ and „Dungeon Crawler Carl.“ „Digitaler Humanismus: Eine Ethik für das Zeitalter der Künstlichen Intelligenz“ explored the potential effects of AI.
Done for the first time?
I flew Business Class for the first time and indeed the space around you is huge, I could stretch out fully but also do little character studies on my fellow passengers (and they probably on me too).
Done again after a long time?
I went snorkeling again for the first time since my childhood, seeing turtles, manta rays, boxfish and also the deep cave abysses in cenotes.
Insane actions
Thankfully, there were no truly crazy actions in 2023, aside from some futile Twitter debates with flat-earthers.
Good deeds
Supporting my wife and friends during challenging times, along with helping a water spirit and rescuing a cuddly bunny, contributed to positive deeds.
Plans for 2024
I currently lack explicit plans for 2024, but have some half-baked ideas that I’m eager to explore. Let’s see how the year unfolds.
René Rössig 