Elephants and wee boys oh my...

We got an excited call from a friend today, saying the elephants were in town. Well, in sleepy Neuchatel who wouldn't jump at the chance of seeing them. The Knie Circus is visiting, and as part of a tradition they bring the elephants out for a walk through town to the Place des Halles, where they 'say hello' to the public. It would have been nice to see them on their walk, but we got to see them pretty close in the square.

6 large elephants facing you is quite awe inspiring. Especially when they each have their own handlers with (what look like) cattle prods.


A handler gave out fruit, then walked an elephant around. As I took this pic Allie was right at his foot!


I'm not keen on animals in circuses and it was quite sad to see the elephants, especially when they were doing tricks. I've been close enough now to say they really do have 'intelligent' eyes.

Allie's Favourite Game.
Alasdair likes to set up 'snack time' and 'tea time'. He needs a wee place to sit, a wee place for his toys (or Toby, depending on who's available!), a table and a bunch of stuff to eat.
At my parents' house. Look who gets the comfy chair!


On our porch with his teddy.


Walter's in Istanbul (not COnstantinople) this week. It's rather hot there, so he and the wee boys got haircuts this weekend.
You can't tell them apart!


Walter can do push ups with at least 40 lbs on his back. I won't show the after shot...


This week is the last week of school for the Swiss till the middle of August. Allie's 'jardain d'enfants' ends and the circus class. What am I going to do?????

Hopp Suisse!!!

Well, the Swiss hopes of World Cup glory have been shattered. In a rather dishevelled and uninspired way. Before the previous game, the streets were full of very excited and noisy people (something rare). Horns were honking in an irritating way into the wee hourrs, and claxons were going off when there were goals. Last night was subdued from the beginning, and it almost seemed as if Switzerland was expecting to lose. And they seem like such nice boys :) None of those silly footballer hairdos and attitudes.

The super thing about our varied nationalities and location is that we still have a couple of teams in the running. England are tops, then Germany and France for some of our friends. Better not be seen in a French shirt around here, though. I noticed they were all on sale in Migros. I will not be supporting Brazil. They're too good and have plenty of people after them.

Out of the mouths of babes....

The other day I drove to a friend's house with the boys in tow. This was the first time we had visited, so naturally I got lost. As I was driving around I was muttering "crapping crapcrap crap". Allie's voice piped up from the back: "Shouldn't you say Dammit, Mummy?"
Aaaww. How sweet.

Zurich!

I'm playing catch-up with all my posts. We're onto our day trip to Zurich a couple of weeks ago. Kim and I thought it would be nice to go to a spa for some (belated) Mother's Day fun. She organised a package at the Hamam Spa. Sorry about the language, but the pics show what it's like on the inside....mmmm.... steamy. We were well and truely steamed, pummelled and mudded. It was faboo, and I highly recommend it to anyone with time in Zurich. I have a few pics of the day, but most of mine was spent inside, and Walter didn't want to be bogged down with the camera.
We met Christian at the train station, then walked through the beautiful old part of the town, up to a park area with a lovely view. This was also one of the first hot days.

The view down to the river from the park.

Loic's still ceeeoote, although blurry.

Toby is a very different animal to his brother. He wanted a bucket that Loic was holding, and this pic captures the moment of Tobe pushing the poor wee man over because he wouldn't give it up.

Kim met us with Starbucks all round. Hoorah for Kim! We walked down, and along the river to a lunch place,complete with sausages, music and beer. Kim and I girded our loins with a stein for the grueling afternoon of spaing ahead of us.

On the train home I was remarkably calm with the wee boys.... which hasn't lasted. I need a good spaing every week!

For Father's Day poor Walter got a fried breakfast and a lie-in..... and a couple of bottles of Absinthe from the Absinthe Fair. We tried it after looking up how. It's not all that...
The sugar lump and water have been added... the tasting will now commence.

The Saint Blaise Foire (not to be confused with the 3rd February celebrations)

In the summer time Switzerland comes alive with all kinds of fetes, events and outdoor activities. Each village has some sort of 'Welcome Spring' weekend, where there are stalls, food, competitions and weird old rituals. A few weeks ago, Walter took the boys to Enges (pop. ~300) for their "Course des Oeufs" (race of the eggs). Here's his account of the 'spectacle':

Everyone stood at the side of the road to watch. Clowns gave out candy. A procession came up the central, main st. with the commune flag. The village girls lay out piles of sawdust every metre and put an egg on each one for ~ 100m. They had a measuring stick to make sure the eggs were evenly spaced! A man dressed in a white chef's outfit, carrying a huge basket of sawdust, stood at one end of the line of eggs. He will be known henceforth as the 'egg catcher'. Two village boys actually did the race. One had to run 1 km in each of the 4 cardinal directions, pick up a huge, cardboard number and bring it back to the line of eggs. He was followed by a girl on a horse. The other boy was the 'egg thrower'. Once the race started, he just went up and down the line, picking up the eggs off the piles and throwing them to the egg catcher, who would try to catch them with the basket of sawdust. As he worked his way up and down the egg line, the girls would come down replacing eggs, giving him more to throw. It didn't seem to matter if the eggs were caught by the egg catcher. Eggs went short, eggs went long, eggs went into the crowd. The egg thrower had some set number of eggs to throw before the boy returned with all the numbers. Walter was told the running boy represented winter and the thrower represented spring. In the end, the thrower won the race by a matter of seconds before the boy returned with the last number. That's why we're very hot and bothered at the moment. Allie and Toby watched the whole thing. They were remarkably interested yet non plussed. The photos are rather small as they were taken on Walter's phone.












That contrasts with our 'foire' (fair). The commune main st. was very crowded with the ubiquitous stall that seems to be found all over the (western) world these days: Incense, candles, knockoff sunglasses, jewellry, trinkets, crap toys at childrens' eye level, crafty geegaws, knitwear... These were interspersed with tasty cured meats and other gastronomic treats, plenty o' wines and dried fruits. The Saint Blaise marching band had us rocking out to the 'Rocky' and 'Police Academy' themes (they played really well), while they walked up the main st. The frites were extremely tasty, and we even sat with some neighbours and had (somewhat of) a conversation. Something they mentioned was the 'tradition' that most of the local youths have now. If you can picture this, the area around our apartment is quite open and devoid of traffic. The road up to it is a dead end and the church owns a huge piece of unused ground. When we went out in the morning, there were a few teenage boys dressed in hoodies, sitting around. When we returned at lunch time, there was a full scale battle going on outside our front door. Boys with huge backpacks and replica guns (pellet style) were hiding, shooting and telling us we couldn't come up the street because they were fighting! Very few of them had protective eyewear on, and we certainly didn't. Apparently, last year was even worse, so a police man was assigned to watch our area. We saw him enjoying the raging battle. I took a couple of photies, which seemed to alarm some of the youths... hehehe. Imagine seeing this in the US....



The StB marching band.


Today, we went to the Fete d'Absinthe in the lovely commune of Boveresse in the Val-de-Travers. I thought it was nice here, but the scenery is stunning there. That's why I didn't take any pics. I can never capture the beauty of the surroundings. This site does a good job of explaining the festival (although last year's) and has some nice pics. The boys weren't that interested, but there was a little train and some Llamas to keep them somehwhat occupied. We didn't try any, but we did procure a couple of wee bottles to taste. THere's a specialized way of drinking this stuff, which includes special spoons, glasses and decanters. We didn't have time to look. On the way home, Walter wanted to stop at the Cherry festival in Chez-le-Bart. Sadly, we were too early. No cherry pie for us :(

I have no idea what fetes are on next weekend. Maybe we'll just go for a swim in the lake. It's clear, clean and warming up nicely, BUT all the ducks that occupy it have some kind of tick that's best washed off when one exits the lake. You must always remember to take a shower at one of the many there when you're done.

Dog Day Afternoons in Scotland!!!

Yes, we got to experience the few days of summer that Scotland has. That's the first time in 20 years for me, and the first time ever for Walter and the boys. I packed no summer clothes for the experience, so we spent a lot of time looking like "po' white trash" (as my mum loves to say now) in the garden.
The only direct way to Scotland from Switzerland in the summer, is with EasyJet from Geneva to Edinburgh. Unfortunately, my parents just moved much closer to the West coast, and EasyJet rankles with me. Why can't they be just a little more Southwest??? On sunday Allie got himself a nice fever of 104.5 and we had to leave early on Monday morning... without Walter. It doesn't seem to be coincidence that one or the other is always ill when we travel, and when I'm alone with them. Having said that, they were both angels for me and the plane was actually on time. Allie's fever lasted 4 days and never fell below 100 on the drugs. Apparently, all the children we know here were having exactly the same thing. It's bloody June already! Can we have a break?

My parents have moved near to Kilmarnock, which is near the lovely holiday town of Ayr. The beach is 20 mins down the road and is very pretty. You can even see the isle of Arran on a good day. They're also much nearer shops now (not quite so much in the country), so the current thing is 'popping' out to get stuff :) Another new experience is neighbours. They're close to a big old house that's been converted into flats, with 6 families. Three of the families are really nice, three are turning out to be obnoxious and are called the 'Darkside' by my family now. There's a story about that, which ofcourse involves money..... We visited Dean Castle, just 5 mins from the 'rents. It has beautiful grounds and (more importantly) a playground and 'zoo'. Toby sang BaaBaa Black Sheep to the sheep and serenaded the peacocks. Allie watched the big kids very keenly and tried to copy them in the playground. Trips were taken to the beach, where awful ice cream was consumed.

Toby serenades the sheep at Dean Castle.


Allie leading the pack in the playground at Dean Castle.


Walter and Toby skiff stones.


Allie and G'parents take a break.


More skiffing.


Susan (Jamie's fiance) and Allie in the foreground and Gparents in the background.


The great British beach occupation.


Traipsing through fields near the new house with my mum and Jamie




While we were away, Neuchatel suffered a cold spell (hehehe), and we returned to summer finally starting here. People are already swimming in the lake, and we plan on visiting the cool swimming pool next week.