It's Spring?

Maybe it is......

La Ramé is just around the corner from La Tene. I took the boys to the same spot a couple of months ago, and it was completely foggy and still. How I wish I had brought my camera then. The ducks were floating around on nothingness. Yesterday, it was alternately windy, cloudy, sunny.


Some bits and pieces from the walk.

The week before the school holidays.

All kinds of goodies have been planeed for this week. Apparently the theme is "earth, wind, air and fire". Yesterday, the class took a trip to the fire station. All I got out of Allie was that the sirens were very loud. Today was a day trip to the Papilorama in Kerzers. Both classes of the Ecole Enfantine left by train at 9 am and returned at 3:30 this afternoon. I picked up Allie and his friend in the afternoon.

The woman in pink surrounded by the group of children is the Maitresse, Cecile. She is renowned for her calm, firm manner and sunny disposition. I think she rocks and so does Allie :) All of the children wore red baseball caps with their names on, and the pictures are of her collecting them, then sending the children individually to their mothers. The first picture has Tobe at the bottom, asking why he can't be in Allie's class. This has been a hard week for him, and it's only Tuesday.



This is James with Allie. He is the other English speaker in Allie's year, but luckily he's in the 'Koala' class (Allie's in the Pandas). Neither would ever speak French if they were in the same class.


Tomorow is swimming at the 'hot pool'.

Swiss Cheese.

Yup, the Swiss really are good at it. Except for missing some good sharp cheddar, all my cheese needs are taken care of. The latest permutation came to me at the farmers' market. I went to the "man of cheese" (i said that to my French teacher, who laughed at me!) and he offered me some tastes. Then I asked about a 'roll' of cheese in a wooden container. He told me how it should be eaten, and that it's very good for dinner (with a green salad, ofcourse) in the raclette manner. It turned out to be a cross between raclette and fondue...mmmm... nearly my favourite.

The cheese is "Vacherin Fribourgeoise" or some type of related, very soft Vacherin, with a moldy, stinky casing. I was told to make a bunch of holes in it, plonk cloves of garlic in and wash them down with white wine. Then wrap the whole caboodle in aluminium foil and bung in a hot oven for ~30 mins.


The melted, stinky result.


Walter spooning the result over his potatoes. I was told to use potatoes, but I think next time I may live dangerously and try bread.


I could eat cheese for dinner every night.

Swearing children aren't so bad in a foreign country.

I try to keep it clean, but some expletives still slip out. Really, all I say is crap and bollocks...the latter isn't that bad in the states... right?
Allie has been amazingly grown up about bad words, although I heard him say sh#@ a couple of times when he was smaller. Toby is a whole different kettle of fish (there's a surprise). Now ALL he says is "Oh bollock heads" while slapping his head with his hand. That's his take on the word. I don't feel so bad because people don't understand. That's going to come back and bite me, when he starts swearing in French. If anyone has knowledge of REAL French swearing (not merde etc) please pass it on :)

Fun with place names.

You can't beat foreign words translating into potty humour and such. We took the train to Berne today to renew son 1's passport. The whole experience was 'nice'. It really was. Walter had time to run down to the boulangerie to pick up elevenses. The boys were good in the train. There was very little queing to be done at the embassy. Every person working there couldn't have been nicer, and it even felt like we were in the good ole US a bit (the sign on the WC was 'restroom'...aaaw). We were done very quickly and home in time for lunch. We met one woman who had been denied boarding on a plane to S. Africa because they said she had no more room on her passport. Those 2 pages at the back saying 'endorsements' or something aren't supposed to be stamped (according to the SAfricans) and that's all she had left. Walter's are stamped willynilly! This just compounds my belief that we are all at the mercy of officiousness, and really, no-one knows what they're supposed to be doing. Especially in the travel industry. There was another woman who had had her passport nicked from right beside her at a cash register. She put it (it was in her wallet) down on the counter beside her hand, some chap on the other side started to talk to her, and woosh! it was gone. That was in France. Somehow, she made it back to Switz. sans passport.
So Allie will get his PP in time to go to the US in April (woohoo), but not in time for a trip that I booked to see my parents in March. What a bampot I am.

Anyway, here's a list of train stops (all in the Suisse-Allemande) that made me laugh:
Moos
Bumplitz
Worbdorf
Shoppyland (will go there before we leave)
Belp
Wankdorf (btw- dorf means village)

Walter likes to play this game in Scotland. My family retaliates by making him say 'squirrel' a lot.... and Drymen.... and tubular dude... and Jedburgh... and Greenock and Kilmarnock (laughing right now as he says them) etc to eternity.

News of the Swiss

February Sunset on the Lake


Feast of Saint BlaiseOur village is named for Saint Blaise, who's feast it was on the 3rd Febraury. Celebrations included little stands set up around the village by various associations and clubs, with booze and fondue. The Ecole Enfantine had a gauffre (waffle) and croq monsieur stand that Walter took the boys to. I was home sick. There he met our French teacher and her family. They gave Walter some wine and invited us over for lunch this weekend.... I'll be reporting on the inner circle of entertaining en Suisse! In the evening, the Musical Society of StBlaise hosted a wee party in the party room below us. I really like Guggenmusik(sorry it's in German). It's got a sound all of its own- very jolly and funky at the same time. Saint Blaise is also the patron saint of throats.... oh the irony, considering the high doe we've been up to with sore throats and coughing.
I hung out the living room window to take a quick snap of the band as they went into the party room.



Siren Tests
We had been primed by the papers for the past couple of weeks about the impending test of the emergency siren system, and the noise still made me jump. At 1:30 exactly last Wednesday, all the sirens in Neuchatel (all of Switz???) were supposed to go off. Our local siren is on the fallout shelter, which faces our house. It works very well, so when the Russians invade, or when one of the nuclear reactors has a wee accident, we'll know we're in trouble. After that, I'm not sure what we should do. I suggested we call friends to find out, but Walter pointed out that they would probably be in their shelters by then! Ever since the test, the papers have been full of the problems that occurred. Apparently, a bunch went off 15 minutes late in the town of Neuchatel and there's a stink about it. The Swiss take their sirens very seriously, which is fine by me. We're supposed to have 2 weeks worth of food squirreled away too, which I'm working on. We have left over earthquake supplies in the form of a complete first aid kit. When we unpacked it after moving, we noticed it still had our Y2K money! Oh the memories.....Although, thinking back, cigaretts and chocolate would probably have been more useful, if the s*#$ really had hit the fan. Maybe I'll load up our Swiss stocks with that.

Boys
Toby likes to make robots now.


Allie's getting out this afternoon to practice on his new bike. I think once Toby sees him, he'll want to do it too. Then we can all ride to Neuchatel one summer day for tea!

Toby made it to 3 years old.

Yes, it's a bit of a mile stone what with all the situations that boy gets himself into. The latest was last week. He was a few days from finishing antibiotics for the pneumonia, when he fell with a 'noise maker'(you get them at parties, and they can roll out when blown into) in his mouth. He was in the middle of harrassing Alasdair, so he didn't get much intial sympathy. I saw all the blood and he said his tongue hurt, but I couldn't find the cut. So he calmed down and went to bed. The next morning, by some chance I saw the roof of his mouth and there was the gouge....with a big bit of his hard palette hanging down.... and what I thought was a hole up to his sinuses. Walter saw the look on my face and asked if I would like him to call the hospital (our Dr's office was closed). At the hospital they gave him and antiseptic spray and said they couldn't do much else. Lucky he was still on antibiotics. Poor Walter got to take him for that trip. The hospital should give us a '10 for' card!

Anyhoo, his birthday was quiet, since he had a 24 hour fever and I had a major chest infection. Apparently it's raging its way around the canton, and Walter is most probably patient 0, having brought it back from Cali. At least we're contributing. He got a small trampoline, which he actually hasn't used yet. We keep wondering if he should use it. It'll end in tears.... or something. Here's a wee clip of the highpoint of his day. Listen out for him explaining that cake will make him all better.