Winter Pictures of Neuchatel and Environs

No pictures are complete without the Alps! They look glorious at this time of the year, and ofcourse it's impossible to really convey what it's like.


While we were at the Saint Blaise port park, the sun set behind Neuchatel. The colours are not enhanced. That's pretty much how intense it was, and it changed from minute to minute.



Toby saying "Look at the beautiful sky. It's beautiful."


A freind who lives on the other side of Neuchatel took us to a huge 'park' to run around one cold day. It's actually where the army trains and has 'houses', fitness courses and 'hummocks'. The boys loved it and I can't remember the name.



La Tene (something about the reason for the name) is the area around Marin and the lakeshore. It's great for swimming in the summer and beautiful in the winter. We took a walk to get the cobwebs out one weekend, and it froze them instead, hehe.

This is the land of banking, after all.

Is there a GE (General Electric) Bank in the US? There is here- "GEMoneyBank". That's what they're doing with their heaps o' money....

Can you tell Walter's not here? I'm posting up a storm!

A ThanksGristmas Story

Kim, Christian and Loic came for some festive season 'debauchery' last weekend. Poor Loic didn't get much of a nap and was getting over a stomach bug, but he had fun watching the boys... and learning bad habits. We had traditional dinner, with delicious pumkin pie a la Kim.... mmmm... champagne...mmmm wine.... mmm pie and so on ;)

French turkey!


TaDaa!


Cheers!


Three blokes chillin' after the party.


While getting ready for the arrival, Allie got sassy. Mr RockNRoll.


Naturally, he wanted his ear pierced. Who were we to deny him?

The many days of "Father Christmas"

Not only do we have Sandy Claws visiting on the 25th, but we also have the celebration of Saint Nicholas on the 6th of December. It seems to happen in every commune around here. Saint Blaise pulled out the stops and it seemed like the whole village was here, in the 'Temple' next door. A couple of weeks before, pictures were mailed to all the children to colour in and bring to Saint Nicholas. The boys did a lovely job (ofcourse I didn't take a pic) and we duely got in 'line' (more of a life threatening crunch) after the children's choir sang a couple of French Christmas ditties. We quickly realised that we would be there for at least half an hour, so we went home for dinner (raclette in honour of the evening) and watched everyone around the church, through our living room window. It's great being so close to everything! We went back and got into line with 2 people in front now, one of whom we know, so we had a wee chat. Saint Nick wasn't looking too good. He huffed and puffed his way through the boys and looked relieved when they didn't say much. They got the goodies, though. A bag of peanuts, a tangerine, and apple, a wee chocolate santa and a "pain d'epice". It's rather like spongey gingerbread, but with other spices. Yummy with tea. Toby doesn't like waiting or trying to open the nuts by himself, so he eats them shell and all. I wish he was potty trained.

We finally got to see the inside of the church, which was full of choir and children. The bedragled chap beside St. Nick is Père Fouettard. If a child has been bad, he gives them branches.... I think he's supposed to beat
them with them.


Allie says a lot of "Oui" to Saint Nick.


Toby grudgingly holds out for the bag o'goodies.



The weekend previous to this, we went to the NIC Chidren's Christmas party. Hosted at beautiful Pierre-a-bot (again), we had a super time. I had to 'work' a craft table, though. Children could paint plastic baubles to take home. Very cute idea. It replaced mine of sno' globes in baby food jars (thanks to Evro for that one), because 'the glue would be too messy'. It turned out that the paint stained and it was more fun to paint the table. It was an interesting look into parent/child interactions and such. Parent #1 became very impatient when other children were 'hogging' the colour their child wanted, Parent #2 completely left a very young child , who then ate a bunch of paint and smeared the rest on his Christmas frock. Parent #3 got really quite angry when I accidentally smeared a bit of the bauble that he had meticulously painted himself. And so on :) After crafts, it was time to meet Father Christmas/Santa Claus (as it was on the form). We had a from to fill in for each child to meet Santa. We had to write something about what the child had done well on and something about what they 'could improve'. I couldn't think of anything to put in the 'improve' category ;)

Given the right pointers, Allie yabbers away happilly.


Toby is a little more... skeptical


After Santa came, some games helped get the children down from their sugar high.
Musical statues, an old favourite, which Allie won!


We took a little walk and saw the sun setting on the alps. Sorry, this pic has a crane in it, but it was just before the sun left them.



I had to put this up:
Bedtime!


Sadly, we missed another visit with Santa today as Allie has an eye infection. Poor boy. Just as long as FC brings us the Laffertys on Christmas eve.....

Anyone remember Smokie?

They were a British band from the 60-70s who had the hit "Living next door to Alice". I remember the song from my childhood. They apparently had a comeback in the 90s with one of the more awful comedians Roy Chubby Brown. Sadly, I remember him too from my childhood. They remade the 'Alice' song as "Who the F*#K is Alice?", becuase when touring, the audience would shout out "Who the F*@K is Alice?" after the line: "for 24 years I've been living next door to Alice". It also turns out that this happened in Ireland mostly... which brings me to why I'm writing about Smokie. I have an Irish friend who was shopping in la Coop recently. That's the 'step up' from Migros grocery store. The piped music wafting across the store that day was Smokie.... with the remade Alice song and no bleeps! Even in America, I've never heard piped in music with the 'Eff' word. All the Swiss house wifeys were singing along, and so was my friend.
I've found the complete story in Wikipedia.

La Chasse!

A couple of weekends ago, we went to a 'Chasse dinner', and I forgot my camera. This Autumnal event is based around game (of the meat variety!) in many guises. This particular dinner was organised by the International Club, and was held at an old restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We're lucky we found it. The room was completely covered in branches, leaves and shrubbery! As we sat looking around, we began to see all the stuffed animals lurking within: badgers, stoats, rabbits, deer (ofcourse), owls, baby owls(!), birds and birds, everything that can be killed in the canton of Neuchatel. It set the stage for a really, really tasty, multicourse meal. First course: (Trois Terrines de Chasse) a selection of cold meats and pickled veg...mmmm gamey. Second course: (Feuillete aux Champignons des Bois) a light millefeuille pastry with wild mushrooms and the booziest cream sauce I've ever tasted. Third course: (Filet de Sanglier, Nouilletes, Garnitures de Chasse) tender wild boar with all the trimmins'. Fourth course: (Selle de Chevreuil, Spatzli, Garnitures de Chasse) the pinnacle of the experience. Deer (female- apparently the best) with a Swiss speciality of Spatzli and preserved pear in more boozy gravy. This was topped by desert of Myrtilles et Parfait Vanille. Myrtilles are a little like bluberries, but they are really quite tasteless. I was completely replete. Yes, a tad guilty for comsuming all those cute animals too. But hey, I've never eaten Macdonalds.....

Thanksgiving The Second

Happy Thanksgiving to all and sundry!
We celebrated with fish and a trip to Coop. The boys, especially Allie have been floored by the dreaded lurgy. A succession of sore throats and high fevers have left him rather tired and crabby. He even had a trip to the hospital for an ultrsound on his giant neck lymph node. They are now on the mend, and I am fielding advice from French speakers: "Start feeding them properly", "Give them vitamins", "Never let them go out without a hat", "keep them away from the swimming pool". I am following it all studiously. Sometimes I get the feeling they think it's because the boys are American ;)

Sadly, Kim, Christian and Loic won't be coming for the feast this weekend as Walter is heading of To Copenhagen to get a preview of the weather to come here. They'll be coming closer to Christmas, so we can roll it all together and have a bash to make the neighbours jealous.

My parents 'dropped in' for the weekend and got to experience the apex of Allie's illness. There was one sunny and mild day where Toby and I showed them the 'Collegial'.

The cloisters there are small and beautiful. Nearly all the old buildings in the Neuchatel area are constructed using a warm yellow sandstone, dug up from Hauterive.




Guillaume Farel was big in Neuchatel. When I first saw the statue, I thought it must be John Knox....



Where's the top?



The walk up the very steep hill to the Collegial is through the older part of the town. There are a couple of very nice fountains with blokes on them. Who they are, I don't know yet.


A viaduct on the way down.


Sick kids and (soon to be sick) Grandparents on the couch.





Allie is interested in cameras, so time was spent during recuperation:











































Autumnal fun with Daddy.... while Mummy watches TV and eats chocolate. hehehe.


Mummy felt guilty and came up to run it off.

Brrr It's Cold

The view from Allie's window.


We're well on the down hill slope to winter. Hats and gloves have been bought. Many hours have been spent trying on boots and we have missed the local "trocs" again. Since skiing is such a big deal here, every commune has a troc during the first week of November. It's rather like a rummage or jumble sale. People bring winter sporting goods to sell and most of the proceeds go to the local schools (usually). People can also take a little money home with them (nice). As an aside, did you know that the Swiss are paid in 13 'monthly' installments every year? They get an extra pay check in December. A good idea since every commune and church has a Christmas market all through December. I've also noticed that every shoe shop we have visited has a big TV and seating area for children. The boys watched some of Ice Age, The Wild and French cartoons while I ferried boots over to try. What a tops idea! We didn't make it to the trocs because both boys were sequentially sicksicksick for 3 weeks. They both had high fevers that lasted ~7 days, and they were really tired. The silver lining of that was me having a clean house and many cups of tea while reading the paper. However, I also killed the old, workhorse laptop that resided in the kitchen. It was great for email and radio.... and storing all my photos from the last year.... that I haven't backed up..... blahblah silly me blahblah... I'm learning about the insides of a computer, though. Something rather related to this is our TV. It was the most expensive thing we had ever bought (barring a car) and we treated ourselves to this nice flat screen TV when we moved here. A couple of months ago, Allie was launching toy cars off the couch. He launched one into the TV where it left a star shaped dent, but the picture was watchable. Days later, Toby launched a car AT the TV and since he is such a good thrower, he got it bang in the middle and made it completely unwatchable. We had been without a TV up till a week or so ago, and it was really nice. I would recommend it to any of you non-pseuds who would want to try. But then I caved. I got a tuner to put in the computer, so now in Swiss style, we have everything in one place, saving space and energy ;) It rocks. We still don't watch that much TV, since someone's usually on the computer...hehehe.

The farmer's market still goes on through the winter. The boys get a free carrot every time we go. I get the stinkiest cheese in the world. You can watch it disintegrate before your eyes. Walter and the boys are in there somewhere (in new hats).


We were all set for the International Club halloween party this year. Toby was going to get Allie's old dog costume an Allie was going to be a robot. Toby was sick that weekend, so Allie came with me. I had to help out by painting faces and the children were nice. The weekend after that, our friends Herb and Vero had a wee Halloween party. Again, Toby was sick and Allie got sick that evening.
They even got to carve pumpkins. Allie drew the face and Walter cut it out. Very menacing. No pic due to computer death. Here's a pic of Herb and Vero's do: L to R- AllieBot, SherrifBigHat, FairlyJulia and Jordan (a neighbour friend).


I'm still in the middle of sorting how to do photies on this computer and other minor details.... I'm also trying to recover the minutes of a meeting that I had nearly written up and left on the laptop.


Something to mark the start of Autumn in Saint Blaise, is "Epouvantails" or scarecrows (closest approx.). People make funny and interesting scarecrows for the month of October. Why, I don't know, but it brightens the grey days. I found a link
to the 2004 ones, but none more recent. I forgot to take photies, and by the time I had remembered my camera, they had been taken down..... but these are good. It's also "Chasse" season. That is, hunting! The shops are full of (I have to admit) tasty deer..... from New Zealand!!!! There is a scarcity of local fauna due to regulations on how many deer can be hunted. It's one per house or something like that, so anyone who catches one keeps it and doesn't sell to the restaurants. Walter and I are going to a tradtitional chasse dinner next weekend.... mmmmm.

The boys are both well now, and have enough energy to make a lot of noise and fight. Toby is in a big boy bed, and pleads every night to go back to his crib. I sometimes forget there's a sensitive wee boy in the solid exterior!

Speaking of Madonna...

I have a German friend who lives here permanently now. She adopted her 3 year old daughter from Chicago when she was a baby. She has now gone back there to adopt another baby.

Maryland in Pictures

We just got back from a trip to Maryland to see Walter's grandparents Marion and Nels. We also saw Walter's brother David, Aunt Carolyn and cousins Mark and Rachel. Everyone was in fine form and we had a really super time with them. Toby got to meet the MD family for the first time and Allie had his first ever sleep over (with his great g'parents!).

Nels and Marion live beside the Chesapeake. As soon as we arrived, we took a walk down to get some sun and excercise to beat the jet lag.


When waking at 4am, the boys passed time by:


Allie and Toby settled right into the routine.



Allie got to visit the library with the Great GParents. He and Toby spent many hours reading with them.


Nearly every day, the boys got to visit the local playground in the Quiet Waters Park. Somehow, Allie would get together roving bands of boys to chase stinkbug monsters (from one of the library books). The weather was beautiful except for one day, and the leaves were changing.

Walter and Nels enjoy a quiet moment.

There was a cool, big swing (probably for people with a physical handicap) that the boys could both fit on.

Allie is very good at propelling himself on the swing now.


One day, David came to the park too. Before our trip, Allie got very excited about seeing his uncle.
From LtoR: Toby, Walter, Nels, David and Allie in the Autumnal sun.


At the weekend, Carolyn had us all over for the afternoon. She did this, even though there's a huge upheaval going on at the school where she teaches: Gallaudet in Washington DC. The last few weeks have been stressful. If you're interested in the story, I would try to read past the general news, which hasn't done a very good job in capturing the real issues.

LtoR: Rachel's friend Veronica, Rachel's boyfriend Casey and Walter's cousin Rachel herself!


Rachel's brother Mark and his friend Amy.


Amy's children Lauren, Alexandra and Joey, playing with the wee boys. They spent the whole afternoon playing happily and running around the garden. They got on very well.

We also met Amy's dad, John (here with Alexandra).

Barb (a long time friend and co-worker of Carolyn) and Carolyn.


The following photos are of the night before we left. This was the night Allie slept over. We left him playing games with the G G'parents and Great Aunt Carolyn! Apparently, he went off to bed with no problems and didn't surface the next morning till 8am! I think a night not sleeping with Toby did him good. He was then treated to a cooked breakfast :)
Carolyn and boys.

Marion, Nels and boys.


The afternoon of departure.



Flying to the US (esp. DC), then flying back to Switz. via Heathrow, we got to sample the latest in Security techniques. What a polava! We went Zurich-Brussels-DC, where I took water bottles through, but wasn't allowed children's tylenol or lip balm. I was allowed a lipstick, which they didn't even look at. We queued to board the plane and were then told to go back to the gate desk to be asked those stupid secuity questions (after waiting in a long line again with 2 boys who had to get up at 4am). Why they couldn't have put up a sign to direct us there in the first place is beyond me. The only impression I have of Belges right now is that they are snits.... On the way back there was a sign saying small quantities of toiletries were allowed, but people were having them removed anyway. David had given some squishy ball toys to A n T, which had brought hours of entertainment. They brought hours more because apparently the gel substance in them isn't a concern (?!?). I think all of this is a cunning plan of the government to make it look like chaos and keep the terrorists on their toes. Here's Allie demonstrating the squishy ball:


Thanks Marion, Nels et al. for a really nice week. The boys are still talking about it, and Allie is learning to say "Grandparent en arriere" meaning great grand parent.