Time Flies

We're winding down our whirlwind visit to Cali. We didn't see nearly enough family or friends, and yet are totally knackered from all of our comings and goings! We're sad that we missed a lot of people, but hey, it's more incentive to come and see us ;)
Here's a snippet of what we've been up to.

Cousins Drew (14), Brendan (16), Toby (2), Allie (4) in Redondo Beach.


Grandma Helen and Grandpa Norm enjoy a beautiful day at Veterans' Park in RB


Friend Kim and her adorable son Loic (8 months). They'll be on the same plane back to Zurich!!


Grandpa and Tobe- what a team!


Cousins Wini (5) and Anna (11) in RB. Wini just lost her first tooth :)


Bathtime for wee cousins.


Helen and babby Elliot (4 weeks) enjoy some Berkeley sun.


Two Witort men.


KyeeeeeeOooot!


Elliott tells a stunned audience what time it is.


Soccer with Allie.


Allie's new girlfriend Kate.


Matt and Ranas' new dawg 'Zinc'. Trop cute aussi!


A jaunt up Indian Rock. The pinnacle of a lovely day.


We return in 3 days. I'm very sad.

A long day's journey into.... yet more day

That's what makes me a little queasy when we fly multy time zones. The whole flight west was in daylight. Anyhoo, Walter saw us off in Zurich on Tuesday last. When we checked in we found out that the flight was unbelievably empty. Since I've been travelling with children, I've always tried to make it easier for us with bags. I thought I'd topped my best this time: 1 month abroad- stuff for me and 2 (dirty) boys- carry on for me and 2 (must be entertained) boys. This came to 1 quite large case and 1 carry on... and maybe my purse with a laptop in it. The (not enough to do) woman behind the counter told us we'd have to pay and excess baggage fee for the case as it was too heavy, and check the carry on because it was too *heavy* also. I think my expression made her reconsider, and she said we could stuff some of the carry on into a plastic bag if I could fid one! I pretended to do that and then put everything back. No-one asked anyone that I could see about carry on 'weight' when we boarded.... Do Iook like I invite officiousness from people? The excess baggage came out to CHF 40! I plan to take the maximum number of bags on the way back ,with nearly the max. weight each (sorry Walter)!

We got a whole row to ourselves, and settled in for the 12 hours. Swiss air must have some money to spend. We were on one of their new A340s, complete with personal entertainment center for each seat, special reclining seats in coach, wider seats in coach and super friendly hostybirds. 2 of the 4 video screens weren't working in our row though... esp after Toby was through with them. The boys should have been asleep 6 hours into it, but they weren't in the mood ofcourse. Then with 4 or 5 hours to go Allie threw up all over himself and his seat. Lucky for me (with no spare cothes of my own) he missed me. It turned out to be some kind of stomach bug as he kept it up every half hour until we landed, and he had a temp. :( Our section cleared right out then. Nobody seemed too judgemental, though. Better clientele than United. Since I was travelling alone with the boys, I thought I should get some help at the airport and asked the head hosty. She said she would arrange it and told me to wait until everyone had disembarked. We duely did, and there was a woman waiting there from the airline, talking to a Swiss family. There was also a wheelchair that was whisked away before I could get it. The woman marched off with this family (man, woman, 2 kids in strollers- what was their problem???) and we traipsed behind. Allie really needed to be carried. I eventually shouted at her to stop and had a go at her for not helping us. She got us to the front of the line in customs and passport control, and she helped with the bags. Not so bad after all. The best part was seeing Helen (Walter's mum) waiting for us :)

Since we arrived, we've all had the stomach bug and colds. Is it just me, or is it a bad year for bugs? We've watched a lot of TV in the middle of the night and generally hung out with family. The boys are in their element. They're really enjoying the half naked trips outside. It's a rare treat these days. There's not much planned, just grandparent, aunt, uncle and cousin time :)

Cousins Drew and Anna take a swing with Allie


Grandma swings with Allie and Tobe


Aunt Sherry looks on while Toby waters... stuff


The photo doesn't show Anna up to her knees in mud with Mr Allie who's now as tall as her.


Grandma Helen and Grandpa Norm had a birthday party for Allie and Toby. Drew made cookie cakes for both... lucky wee boys.

Good Day Sunshine

A sample of what the Stockwells are up to at Redondo Beach. I'll follow up later with a review of Swiss Airlines and a summary of the (always it seems) 'exciting' trip over!

Date Changes

We've set definite dates for being in the Bay Area: Arrive Feb 23 evening and leave March 2nd morning. That means we'll get a weekend to visit friends and family :)

They just seem to have had some kind of siren test here.... we know where our fallout shelter is too ;)

"Oui" Boys

I picked up Allie from creche today, and heard him understanding French! His teacher asked him to do something, he said 'oui' and promptly did it. He seems to be finally settling in well and we may have him in another morning. It would be nice if it was with older children. Either way, in August he's getting totally immersed at the Ecole Enfantin every morning, and Tobe will take his place at the creche. Any suggestions about what I can do with this new found "free" time? I was thinking- faff around, look at the clock, then go pick him up ;)

The boys have been fighting a lot recently- wee baggers. I walked into our bedroom one morning, wondering why it was so quiet (and quite nervous about what I would find) and thinking they were up to no good. What do you know- they had sat themselves down on the rocking chair and Allie was telling Tobe stories. I even got some pics, which will not be repeated for at least a year I reckon.









Walter took Allie to the snow a couple of weekends ago, as he hasn't seen Les Bugnenets yet. They played, but no skiing was "faired". He noticed a lot of parents teaching chilldren on the bunny slope themselves. We might start that way. Walter ofcourse took pics of the jollity:

Allie gets ready for a spin.


Allie goes.


Allie rests.



If I ever get peeved with the state of cleanliness in our house, I've found a good TV programme (in french) which elevates my mood: "C'est Du Propre"
There are some really manky French people out there ;) It's rather helping my learning too.

So, we'll be stateside from the 8th Feb. Walter's joining us on the 22nd and we're up north from the 27th to the 3rd March. Much ethnic cuisine will be consummed, and sweatshop clothing bought during that time......

Sick Puppies

The wee boys have picked up a nasty, coughing, sore throaty, maximo snot cold... just in time for Allie's birthday (yesterday). He openned his presents before creche (luckily) and when he came home at lunch, we decorated his cake. Then he went into a sharp decline, falling asleep at 4pm and sleeping through the night! Since Walter was travelling for the rest of the week we had his cake this morning..... mmmmm... breakfast cake ;)

See the chocolate round his mouth? That's why he wanted to decorate!


Intense concentration on every detail. Allie decided on a worm motif.


I've been avoiding the (numerous) pharmacies around here. Inside, the shelves are full of useless 'young forever' creams and such. One must ask for anything necessary. It seems to be at the discretion of the pharmacist too. Now, I could be more understanding about cultural peculiarities, but all these places tout homeopathy... big time, and this is the land of pharmaceuticals. Maybe that's why people here are into homeopathy, as a reaction to all the big pharma. Anyhoo, I don't trust pharmacists or doctors selling it (nice mark-up on water too). A couple of days ago I finally went into one as we had run out of children's ibuprofen. The girl behind the counter told me (seeming shocked that I had asked)that ibuprofen for children can only be sold with a prescription. What???? This seems to be the only country in the West that won't let you buy it otc. She had plenty of Tylenol (paracetamol), which is much more dangerous. I am particularly p%**@d off about the pharmaceutical situation. Costco here we come in Feb!

Uncle Gummy and Uncle Rubbup

That's what Toby calls my brothers Jamie and Robert. Actually, he was calling them John (my other brother) while they were here! They were here for a week, at the end of which they were more exhausted than after any night out. Each morning I held the wee boys back till 7 am when they would run up, throw the door open and jump on their beds shouting 'wake-up'. A few times Jamie and Rob also got to go skiing- at Les Bugnenets (near here) and Les Diableretes (in the Alps). They were suitably impressed :) I took the wee boys up to Les Bugnenets with the big boys one day, with the hope buried in the back of my mind that I might get a couple of runs in.... oy vey... Toby has this weird attitude that ultimately makes him mad the whole time. He doesn't like the cold, but he hates wearing gloves and hats. He hates the cold but doesn't like bright sun (and won't wear glasses). He really doesn't like being inhibited by clothes. If he had Allie's cold stamina he'd be fine naked in the snow. We got a sledge for them on the way up. It's a little squirrly (a round tea tray with brakes on either side) and their reaction swung between glee and utter terror. We'll have to rethink mode of transport a bit. I think we'll have Walter take Allie up for lessons (only on at the weekend now) and I'll take Tobe to the swimming pool.... maybe we'll alternate ;)

So, mementos of a fun time below:

Robert and Allie about to take a run on the saucer.


Emma at Les beautiful Bugenets.


See that layer of fog? Saint Blaise is blinkin' under it!


The wee boys enjoy a pre-snow snack.


Jamie and Robert enjoy Les beautiful Alps.


Non Snow activities: Allie plays soccer at minus 9 degs C.


Toby uses some nails from his toy tool box in a much more interesting way.


The fog has been dauntless for the last few weeks, so the trip to the sunny snow was very welcome. We really need to do it more often. The weather was broken a couple of days ago by a few inches of good snow. We ran around in it, then last night it turned to rain and it's now blowing an absolute hoolee out there. We've got even better weather coming when we go to...... LA!!!! I'm taking the boys at the beginning of Feb (after the Feast of Saint Blaise on the 3rd Feb, when the whole town will be out partying.... Swiss style) for a few weeks. Hopefully, Walter will join us and we'll get up to NoCal. I believe when I looked at the temps. the other day, there was 20 degs. difference between here and LA! I used to complain to my Mum about our winter weather. Strangely, she wasn't very sympathetic.

Walter's currently in Madrid and then Munich. He might be in Moscow next week, where the temp. is now minus 28 degs C.....

Baltic New Year!

We had a few days of balmy weather when my parents visited (zero and above). Now we're back down to the minuses again. It's petrified the now dead Christmas tree on the porch! They arrived late on Hogmanay and we "stayed up" for the new year. We had all just been in bed for a wee while when the local yahoos let off fire crackers in the building site next door. Buggers. That was the first time since wee boys that we've been awake :)
We made it out and about a bit, to show my Dad some sites (he was mainly interested in the site of the grandsons performing). Plenty of walks were taken, and not many pics. Here's what I have:
Down by the harbour.


At the Latenium.


Pretty much, they got up to this kind of thing:


They went home yesterday and we've gone into a decline. My brothers Jamie and Robert are arriving tomorow night, just in time to pull us out and send the boys into utterly bad behaviour. I'm especially looking forward to Allie and Tobe getting them up at 5:30 every morning ;)

I've had the boys painting. Allie has taken a shine to mixing colours to make all kinds of hues. I set both boys up at the table yesterday, they got down to business and were nice and quiet. I thought "ooh i can vacuum the kitchen for a minute". It's a tiny kitchen. It really was a minute. This is what I came back to.


That boy!

Today is Twelfth night (Epiphany), and the Swiss have a custom that is shared by New Orleanians- King Cake! Walter got very excited when we saw it on the news. The cakes here are more puff pastry filled with marzipan or apples and a very nice little metal trinket hidden inside. Apparently, one can collect whole sets of 'scenes'. Ours is a brass milk maid. Walter found it and will be hosting the party next year ;)



The king enjoys his pie.


Maybe we'll be galvanised into skiing wile the boys are here. There's a wee 'resort' near here- Les Bugnenets that supposedly has the best snow ini the area right now. Walter is due to start travelling a lot next week, but we could fit in an afternoon as it's only 20 mins away :)

Car Trouble

Yesterday, we bought our first tank of gas since buying the car! Woohoo! 52 CHF for half a tank. Doh. Gas certainly ain't subsidised here. The temp was -9 degC, we pulled up to the pump and Walter got the gas. He found a window squeegee in a bucket, pulled it out of the ice and set about cleaning the window. As soon as he did, all the water froze. He ended up cleaning the window off with our heavy duty ice scraper (required by Swiss law). Today, it's +5deg C and raining on the 5 inches of snow that fell last night. Tomorow, we'll probably have a hurricane.....
My mum and dad arrive tonight, just in time to see in the New Year in our new home. We'll be toasting all our friends and family around the world :)

Happy (belated) Boxing Day!

And Happy Birthday, Nick :)

We've been so full of the merriness of the "Holiday Season" that I haven't had a chance to post about Paris.... what of it there was....
We took the TGV last Saturday. It snowed on the way to the station and blizzarded through the Jura mountains. Very exciting! We discvered that the train actually doesn't go that fast for most of the trip. It needs high speed rails, which are nearer Paris. Silly me also thought that there's only one TGV (duh)- when we pulled into Gare de Lyon I saw all platforms chock full of glittering, new, double decker TGVs! I reckon ours is the oldest one working! I shouldn't put it down, as it got us in, bang on time :) To make it even nicer, Grace was waiting for us! We took the metro to Vaugirard, and on the way Allie got to look out the front like a driver (we were on a new line with un-manned trains). Toby decided to lick the poles,which is pertinent to the rest of our 'story'. We all went out to look at the Christmas windows at Galleries Lafayette. Since it was the last weekend before Christmas, the rest of Paris was there too! On Sunday we walked around the neighbourhood. Vaugirard is a really nice area. There are little squares with all the different kinds of shops one could need, and plenty of cafes and bistros. It felt far removed from touristy. Sunday night my parents arrived and Monday morning we braved rain to see the Musee de l'Armee
Walter wanted to see a new exhibition of Ancient arms. It was enjoyed by all :) My Dad and Walter went to see Napoleon's Tomb too. On Monday afternoon, my parents did tourist stuff and we went to a local....park! Grace met us and we just let the boys wander. Walter and I got to go out that night and walked arouond the Eiffel Tower area and river. We had a tasty crepe dinner with plenty of cider. I guess cider is big in Brittany (it was a Breton crepe shop). On Tuesday Walter had to work, and toby had to get a really nasty stomach bug (remember the poole in the Metro?). I stayed in the hotel with him all day while my parents fed Allie hot chocolate and paraded him around to the Parisiens. With Toby recovering on Weds morning we walked around Vaugirard some more. We know it very well now, and I like it more :) Walter finished up work and we jumped on the TGV home in the afternoon- seen off by Grace! It was lovely to see her and my parents, and to see a little of Paris. It is a magical city, even for a little taste. I can see why Grace wants to stay.
Sadly, I didn't take many photies. Here is my series of 'Landmarks Growing out of Allie's Head'




We stopped at a carousel:


We had a spattering of snow on Christmas. The temp. has barely been above zero, with -10 C expected by the end of the week. It's a good reason to eat a lot of rich food and watch the telly. Sadly, James Bond wasn't on the international BBC channel for our Christmas dinner. I'm not sure what the Swiss traditions are on christmas, but when we went for an afternoon walk, there wasn't a soul around... anywhere. The boys got nicely over excited with all their presents and signs of Father Christmas' visit and Walter and I got nicely tired. The tree decorations are slowly migrating to the top of the tree as Toby tries to eat or throw them ;)

Here are a few bonus pics.
DinasourBoys!


A good way to watch the snow.


I couldn't really get the essence of Toby sucking his whole jaw into a glass.


Can you see the snow covered Alps?


Next stop New Year (Hogmanay)!!!

Back to the fun stuff

Last weekend was social bliss chez Stockwell. Friday night we put the boys to bed with monitors and popped next door for Fondue fun! Matt and Anne are really nice and eccentric. He's Irish originally, but grew up in France. He has many, crazy Irish relatives who he regaled us with funny stories about. Anne is Breton- 'q-celt' born and bred. It's funny to hear them talk about the Swiss from a french perspective. Firstly, the bread and patisseries are rubbish compared to France (I've heard that from another French too!). Secondly, Swiss children have too much freedom, which is probably truer these days as more women have to work, and daycare and schools haven't caught up yet. Lastly, they're not the friendliest of people. I don't really agree that the Swiss aren't friendly- they're more reserved. I llove the breads and sweets too, so I ain't having any in France. I don't want to ruin it! Well, it was a lovely evening and hopefully we'll have them round for some festive cheer on Christmas Eve :)

We hhad grand plans of going to Ikea (45 mins away ish), but after faffing around we decided to the beautiful village of Valangin at the opening of the Val de Ruz. It's higher than us, so there was plenty of cold, crusty snow (much to the boys' delight). We walked up to the Chateau and took a look inside. It turns out we were visiting on the last day of opening before winter closing, so admission was free!

The boys enjoy the toddle up to the castle.


All the rooms in the chateau had heaters like the one below. They're huge, and all have different tiling, and I just wanted to hug them :) The castle was rather cold.

It was full of beautiful, old furniture, a nice gun and sword collection (Walter and the boys spent a while there) and a really nice lace collection. I'm going to try my hand at the Neuchatel style of lace (when I have time and can read French really well) as I bought a pattern book.
After our culturalt visit, we stopped by a patisserie for lunch. I've remembered something that the Swiss do really well- sandwiches! Really. They're flavourful , have all kinds of ingredients and breads and are always fresh. Now my mouth's watering. We sat in the nice warm cafe part, the boys tucked happilly into their sandwiches and we read the paper! What a joy :)


Saturday afternoon at 3pm I got a call asking if we would like to come to the International Club party, as someone had gotten sick. We made it (thanks to Anne and Matt) and enjoyed a truely sumptuous meal and interesting company. We met a man who's in R&D for Philip Morris. He wouldn't talk about his job :( Actually, he wasn't that nice either. I got the impression that I was 'just the little woman'. We also met a man from my neck of the woods. He grew up in a town called Symington, on the eastern edge of sunny Lanarkshire..... what a small world. He's also a physicist... oy vey ;) His wife commutes between Zurich for work and Neuchatel to see him. I don't know the laws about gambling here, but the club also put on blackjake, horse racing and roulette, all run by members. It could be turned into a regualr thing. We missed gambling due to a crying Toby that was frightening his babysitters!

Sunday afternoon, Herb, Vero, Julia and baby Alec came for Tacos. I found everything I needed for it (for huge sums of money- 5 flour tortillas for 5 CHF!!!).

Herb, Alec, Julia, Tobe, Walter, Allie, all replete with taco goodness.


Vero, Herb, Alec, Julia, Toby, Walter...where's Allie? He Took the pic!


Allie and Toby love the Sheas, and Allie really like splaying with Julia. She's Toby's age and I think she's more amenable to his 'directions' hehehe. It was a really nice afternoon.


Yesterday evning, Walter took Allie to see Pere Noel at the church. He came home with a goody bag. Peanuts in their shell feature a lot in goody bags here. I think it's a winter delicacy. Walter reminded me they're bar snacks in the US ;)



The best is last. We went to the port yesterday to find the man who saved us. He's the "Cantonnier du port" for St-B. I think he's in charge of running it day to day. I was so happy to see him- there were mercis, swiss kisses and hugs all round. He's a big bear of a man (lucky for us) and chatted away in French. We understood most of it and (hopefully) conveyed what we could. He said he fished a woman out at this time last year, dead. the port closes tomorow for a month, so there'll be no workers there at all. I'm thinking we may not go to the park for a month.... Anyway, I got a couple of pics of our hero with the wee 'bagger' Tobe :)




Just to the right of Jean-Claude's shoulder, where there's a big, white boat, is where Toby fell in.

Now, we're looking forward to Paris on Saturday :) Woohoo!

We took a dip in Lac de Neuchatel!

Well, I was going to talk about our faboo weekend, but Tobius McWobius put the kibosh on that. Walter read this and we decided to say that this entry is a departure from my usual as it's rather serious. Just remember that we're all OK and whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger!

Yesterday we took a walk to the 'down park' at the harbour. It was lovely and sunny, even if it was a degree below zero outside, and the boys were raring to go. We got out the house with a minor fuss and ambled down. I've been getting Tobe to walk as he's too big for the stroller and won't walk anywhere unless you make him, so it takes a very long time to get anywhere. He's taken to walking behind us and stopping if we stop. That's relevant to what happened to him. Looking back now, I can remember as we walked through the port towards the park, seeing a couple of men next to the port building working on the boats that had been pullled out for the winter. We had a lovely half hour playing on the commando slide and running around, and I decided we should head back since it was getting really cold and there was a chicken in the oven. We set off with Allie running ahead and Toby moaning about having to wear his gloves on his now freezing hands. He kept shaking them off and I kept putting them back on. He did his usual lagging thing, so the way that I've made him keep going is to walk ahead towards Allie and look back to make sure he's following. This is where I start kicking myself- he's not even 2 and I let him walk that far behind me. He's not Allie with his careful, thoughtful manner. My Mum says he's 'thrawn' (meaning perverse or contrary), but it's my job to keep him safe.... I was walking along, past the remaining boats, when I looked round to see where Toby was. I can't remember hearing a splash, but as soon as I turned round I could see that he was definitely not on the road. I ran back to where he had been and looked in the water. There he was, floating on his side, kicking his legs with a look that I never want to see again. He was barely above the water. I think his big, puffy coat (2 sizes too big) helped keep him afloat. I remembered to take my bag off, annd immediatelly looked to the area where I had seen the men. I started screaming 'help' (not m'aide) and I saw them start running towards us, so I jumped into the water. I think I would have jumped if there hadn't been anyone there.... I don't really know. As I jumped I also heard Allie screaming in a way that utterly petrified children do. I took a life saving class in school and had remembered to do the jump where you're less likely to sink, but I didn't take my snow boots or coat off.....ouch. I sank. Luckilly, the lake is very clear, so as I surfaced I could see exactly where Toby was (the red coat helped). He was starting to sink and I tried to push him up out of the water. When you see people fall into icy water in films you hear them shout and wave around. It's not like that at all. As soon as I surfaced I couldn't breath. All I could do was make weird gulping noises and kick my legs as hard as I could to get above the water. I had grabbed Toby and was trying so hard to make sure his head and as much of his body as possible was above water, and realised we had to get over to the side (an 8ft drop down vertical sides). There was a man at the top saying something about leaving to get something and coming back. He returned with a boat hook. I think he hooked around me and Tobe and moved us ~15ft around a corner to a ladder. By this time, I had my voice a bit. All I could say (in French) was "get a doctor" and "where is my other son". In between I kept telling Toby to keep screaming (I guess I didn't want him to 'go to sleep') I don't know what the man was saying back to me. He came down into the water, grabbed Tobe and pulled him up one handed. Walter and I think it was at least 80 lbs, one handed in the cold. I got myself up the ladder with him pulling me. I couldn't move my arms or fingers, and I'm pretty sure that if it had taken me longer to get Toby elevated and us moved to the side that there's not much I could have done. At this point I don't remember getting into the port buiding. We stripped Toby and wrapped him in a blanket and waited for the ambulance. I wanted so desperately to call Walter, but my phone was in my pants pocket and the man who rescued us didn't speak any english. When the ambulance arrived, one man checked Toby and the other gave me a blanket and told me to strip and put it on. Then we had an exciting ambulance ride through the neighbourhood to Hopital Pourtales ( new and excellent!) where the now screaming Toby was whisked away to have his core temperature raised. It was ~88 F on arrival. They kindly moved me into the his room to help calm him, and there he was, surrounded by heating blankets with a little, mad face poking out. So what was poor Allie doing? He was quietly waiting, drinking juice that the nurses gave him and drawing pictures. Later, he told Walter that he liked the ambulance ride. The policeman (and most of the staff) spoke good English, so he went to get Walter from his work. When Walter arrived Toby was much improved, not screaming anymore, playing with the nurses, wanting to get down. He took Allie home and left him with our super neighbours and came back with dry clothes. The boys went to bed late and we all slept badly. Toby's not doing so well tonight either. I think it's finally hitting home what happened. We had a very close shave, and I keep thinking about all the 'what ifs'...... the man who pulled us out is the real hero here. If he hadn't been there, I don't think I would have had the strength to get us out. Our neighbour said the water was ~4C..... I haven't seen him yet, and don't know his name, but I want to go find him to say Thank-you. How do you thank someone for something like that? I owe him my and my son's life.

So there you go, a potted history of our lives being saved yesterday. I've learned never to turn your back on a toddler, but I knew that anyway. Walter was going to take the day off tomorow to go see Kim and her family in Zurich, but we've decided to stay home with the boys. Hopefully we'll see them soon and definitely next Chritmas season there :) I'll do our weekend in the nest post. Paris is next weekend too :) That'll take our mind off 'stuff'!

I should also add-

We've been sick as dogs for the last week. Walter has been hardest hit (poor Cali. thin blood) and both boys had fevers, general malaise, coughs ....the usual. I think we're starting to develop our immunity to EuroBugs. Hopefully we've passed something on to someone going to the International Club party on Saturday....heheheh.....

Some Swissiscisms

I've been trying to compile a wee list of some "Swissicisms"- things that seem to be quintessentially Swiss. I keep forgetting some(I'm being swallowed up by the culture, man), but here are a few. If anyone has any other insights, feel free to share!
1) I think I've moaned about this before, but the shop opening hours are driving me insane. Most (nearly all) stores,including big ones, are closed on all of Sunday and Monday morning. Maybe Walter and I aren't typical, but Saturdays are slow for us. We're knackered from the previous week and want to lie around. Comoe Sunday morning, we have some energy and ideas about any shopping that may need to be done. If I forget to stock up (our freezer is beyond teeny) then Monday is harsh (a stick of wilted celery and something that looked like polenta in the packet, but turns out to be rather different). The post office, banks and a lot of stores close for lunch. Thursday is late night shopping everywhere. ie closing at 8pm.....maybe 9. I'm moaning about all this, but there's an upside. I have to plan my days and dinners a bit better. On Sundays we'll get out together exploring the area, or see friends. This country seems slow to change, but maybe thhat means they get more right. There was a vote last month about sunday opening. As it stood, one train station food market and one pharmacy in a town could be open. There were a few different measures- allowing everyone to open, some stores or no-one. Apparently, carried by 51%, any store in a train station or airport can now open.

2) Shopping brings me to money in general. People here don't have cheque books and work mainly in cash. Credit cards aren't used much either. So what does one do when one orders something for delivery? COD, or an enclosed bill (versement virement) which can be taken to the post office to pay. There's a big element of trust here, or maybe talking about money is distasteful.... Walter has the example of his office. It's located in another institution's building. When he first moved in, it was already 3 months later than he had planned, and they held the office for him. Walter lived in it for 2-3 months before signing the contract and paying. The man he was dealing with was very casual about the whole thing. We just received some calendars from a website here. There was no need to enter a credit card #- they came with a bill! Walter has also mentioned that legal contract here seem to be more towards "the spirit of the law" rather than covering all the loopholes. The Swiss legal and justice system would be interesting to look at... after learning French.. and lots of other stuff...

3)When we first moved here, I knew about the different languages, but I didn't know about the other divides that go along with it. German is the most common language here, but it ain't yer average, run of the mill German. It's known as Swiss German for a good reason. Germans really can't understand Swiss German speakers. This dates back to WWII. They were different before, but the war provoked the Swiss into make sure they didn't get confused with Germans, and change their language further. The French is of the typical variety. In school, the French speakers learn German and the German speakers learn French. After school, the German speakers would rather speak English than French and the French speakers would rather speak French (I think it's part of something translated into "the Swiss/Romande Ditch"). That's a good thing for me, as I can't get blasé about speaking the language (hehehe blasé). The Italian speakers stay out of it.... There are other aspects surfacing, but I can't remember them right now. It's just interesting that the French and German areas have more than a divide than I realised.

4) For such a clean and health oriented country, why do so many people smoke and throw the fag ends everywhere? One good thing is the trains become smoke free on the 11th Dec! Huzzah! That doesn't bode well for the platforms. We'll be on one of those platforms in a week waiting for the TGV to "Gay Paree". Allie's busting a blood vessel about that one. He gets on his bike these days with a silver cape and pretends he's the TGV. Any running also means he's the TGV. He also pronounces it the French way- TayGzhayVay hehehe. That reminds me, he's much more into the lingo now. When he goes to school, Walter's noticed the teacher says things to him and he does what she says! He and Tobe like to talk about the grand and petit chiens when we're out. They say bonjour to everyone too :) It's a blinking relief.

5) There's a marked seasonal delineation in stores. I went looking for a sand box recently and got laughed at. There's also SaurKraut EVERYWHERE right now. I've never seen it here and all of a sudden it's what's for breakfast,lunch and dinner. All of the shops also had Christmas stuff way before Thanksgiving, but no-one puts their tree up at home till the 24th.

6) We're finally having our French lessons (I know, Frenchh in Action is rad), 100 mins once a week. It's great and awful. In a class you can dissolve into the background, but since it's private, I'll look up from my complete incomprehension to see the teacher and Walter looking expectantly at me. She reminded me of a couple of Swiss French language differences. Seventy is septante (not soixante dix), eighty is huitante (not quatre vingt) and ninety is nonante (not quatre vingt dix). Much more logical, and it makes the Swiss shop keepers smile when the foreign chick says it :) Breakfast is dejeuner (not petit dejeuner), lunch is diner (not dejeuner) and dinner is super which is pronounced soopay (not diner). The Swiss also have petite tartine for breakfast (toast and jam or honey).

Hopefully we'll have a photo laden weekend and maybe a vid..... Friday is fondue with our French neighbours, Saturday is the International Club Christmas party. We're on the wait list for that, and there'll be poker (no splitting, push or insurance, though)! Sunday, Herb, Vero and baby Alec come over for Swiss Taco Night.... that should be interesting. How do I include SaurKraut on the menu?