Summer Pics

Our neighbour Matthieu is a Tri-athlete, so he rides his bike all over the area. On the other side of the lake in the town of Portalban (near Cudrefin) are some sandy beaches, and he had found a small, secluded one. We all drove over and walked ~2km, through a green swamp to the beach. It was as he promised- lovely, quiet and full of sand.

Anne looking for frogs.


Walter and Allie take some time to sunbathe. Allie wasn't his best as he was getting sick that day :(


Collum and Fiona get stuck into sand castle building.


Oh to be a 2 year old on the beach.


Claire found some charcoal and painted herself!


Activities in the sand.....




The following weekend we went again to Portalban, to the big beach which didn't require a hike to it. The rest of all the surrounding cantons were there too. It was nice afternoon anyway.


Saint Blaise has a selection of beaches. We've migrated to a little inlet that is shallow and contained (for Allie the now mad swimmer, who'll keep going till he's out to sea!).



The cloudiness is a very fine sand, so it's not 'dirty' as such. I have to say, the sea is still my favourite.

We went to a local pick-your-own raspberry field, and put the boys to work. If you look at the bottom picture of Allie (tries hard, does good work)you'll see Toby's bowl. He had picked a few out of my bowl, put them in his, then skipped down the row spilling them all (could do better).



My brother Jamie gave Allie a wee gardening kit when he and Rob came in January. It included sunflower seeds that Allie planted and watered (less often recently. That answers the getting a pet question ;) ). They are now 3, eight ft plants with big flowers!

My first visit to Istanbul

I took a trip to Istanbul for business. I ended up being there for three nights. This was my first time in Turkey -- a very interesting visit!

I arrived Tuesday just in time for rush hour. The international airport is on the European side of the city, and I needed to get to my hotel (and meetings) on the Asian side. Istanbul doesn't have a great train system, so I got a taxi. I showed the taxi driver the hotel and address (all in Turkish) . . . he thought for a bit . . . then said "OK" and off we went. Istanbul is HOT. Hot and humid. I was told specifically to get a taxi with AC. Now I know why. After driving for a bit I asked to have the AC on, and the driver put it on. Much better. We "chatted" a bit as I tried to get him to tell me how long it would take to drive to the hotel, how to say "thank you", "yes", "no", etc.

Istanbul is one of those places where traffic laws are treated as suggestions only. We wove in and out of lanes.

Lanes? Another suggestion. People drove wherever they could fit. Somehow, with lots of honking, no one actually hits anyone else, but it's all very exciting in the meantime.

As we drove, I saw a bit of the city. It's a bit like Los Angeles. LA with no zoning, apartment blocks instead of houses, and mosques scattered throughout. Hills, freeways, people everywhere. The mosques are interesting because they are everywhere and they all seem to be built to the same design. They all have the same domes and minarets with loud speakers.

Here is a picture of a mosque near my hotel. What you can't see is that there were businesses under the mosque. Food, newsstand, and a laser hair removal service. (Note all of these terrible photos are from my mobile phone.)


The taxi ride ended up being two hours because of the traffic. The driver stopped chatting about halfway through. After that he just drove. We went over a bridge across the Bosphorus. My first time in Asia! (Well, I guess Moscow is in Asia?)

After all that, the ride ended up being about $45 including tip. My hotel was new, very nice, and had wireless internet. Staff everywhere, trying to help and carry things, so you have to keep some change around for tips.

I spent the next 2 1/2 days on meetings. I was taken out to some nice lunches and dinners. One unifying theme to Turkish cuisine is grilled sheep. Sheep in all its forms -- chops, sliced, meat balls etc. I remember Kerem, Kia's husband (from Turkey), talking about how the Turks love to grill. I can report it is true. And all tasty. They also have very good watermelon there. Other notable foods included special Turkish beans, in a kind of chili sauce; red carrot juice (sour, salty, quite a shock at first!); raki, an anise-flavored spirit drunk with dinner. I asked about pork. My hosts, Turks but not practicing Muslims, said no one eats pork. They said they had tried it, but didn't like it. It was too greasy and heavy in their opinion, not like lovely lamb.

My last night there I moved to a hotel on the European side, in fact in the center of the historical city. This was a little hotel right by the Hagia Sophia. (only $55 per night for a queen size bed ensuite, air conditioned!) I wandered around a bit to get a snack for dinner (after 2 days of large lunches and dinners.) While wandering, I went to look at the Blue Mosque. A man started speaking to me. I knew he was trying to work a line on me, but I figured I just be careful and see where this led. He took me over to the Mosque, and offered to show me the inside. But we would have to hurry as it was almost time for prayers. Well, we got there and they had a sign up saying "No Tourists -- Prayer Time". My guide said, no mind, just get your shoes off and come in. So in we went. You take your shoes off outside and carry them in a little plastic bag. They have shelves inside to stack up your shoes.

The inside is amazing. A huge space, entirely covered with rugs. The rugs are marked with person-sized rectangular patterns so everyone has a little space to kneel on. As we looked around, people were streaming in and lining up at the front. No one hangs back. You just fill in at the next space, right across the front. Eventually the Imam started the service, and people were standing, bowing, kneeling. My guide said it would be OK to take a picture . . . it seemed strange, but what the heck, so I took a camera phone picture.


We wandered back outside and he mentioned he had a family business selling carpets. I said I was not going to buy anything, but he wanted to show me anyway, so OK, I'll go and see some carpets. We wander past many many shops and eventually get to his. I am shown upstairs to a "showroom" and handed off to the real salesman. Very organized and professional, this getting people into the shop. I repeat that I will not be buying anything, but they jump in anyway. I end up liking the most expensive, nicest carpet (silk on silk). The price is $2500 for a 5'x3' carpet. I say I could possibly spend $500 maximum. Looks of disbelief abound (I realize later I am still in my work clothes, so I look like a good customer.) The price comes down to $1500. Still no from me. They show me how if you spin it around the colors change. I feel the soft silk. They show me how it is made, with double knotting.

Still no sale. $1200. $1000. At this point I feel bad, and insist on leaving since I really do have no intention of buying. My guide walks back out with me to the mosque and makes a final offer of $800. I again refuse and leave him to look for another mark.


Now I look for a kebab stand. Along the way I get snagged by another carpet salesman. This one is very friendly, tells me he lived in Alaska, and begs me to see his store. Well, ok, it will be interesting to see prices in one more place. So I go in, have some tea, sit and look at some carpets. Again I am handed off to the real salesman. But after I make it clear I will not be buying, he loses heart. So I look some and leave. On the way out, I run into the ex-Alaskan. He thanks me for giving him respect, and wishes me a good night. I mention I'm looking for a quick meal and he knows just the place! So he wisks we around the corner to a place that specializes in "meatballs". He orders some meatballs, bread, beans and vegetables for me. Shows me to a stand outside for drinks -- a 1.5 litre bottle of water and a yoghurt drink. Total food cost about $5. He then gives me a card and email address and says goodnight. No attempt to get a tip or pickpocket me. These Turks are really nice! Yes, they want to sell you things, but friendly even when you don't buy. So I march back to my hotel to eat, shower and get ready for the next day.

The next day I finish up my meetings, then have some hours before I need to get to the airport. So I march off to the Hagia Sofia, a basilica turned mosque turned museum first built in the 400s. It was burned down, and rebuilt in 516. When the muslims came they turned it into a mosque by adding some minerettes. It already had the big dome, and is suspiciously aligned with Mecca (what's the required accuracy?) The inside had been covered with mosaics and crosses. When the muslims came, they frescoed over everything, but didn't actually destroy the mosaics. So they have now uncovered some of the mosaics. Amazingly detailed mosaic work, very beautiful. And everywhere that is not frescoed or mosaiced is paneled with choice marble slabs.



After some time there, I marched over to the Tokapi Palace on the promise of finding swords. This was a seasonal palace for the Ottoman emperors. This is a large complex, with and inner and outer courtyard. Many rooms around the courtyards. They have artefacts said to date back to the Prophet himself! Including his sword (now unusably encrusted with jewels), his bow, some letters. Many other swords, jewels, thrones, water flasks. The emperor always had someone nearby with a water flask. The Ottomans hold their own against the other empires in terms of wealth collected.

Finally, I march over to the Grand Bazaar. I had no idea what it was, but saw signs and it sounded interesting. It turned out to be the grandfather of our shopping malls. It is a HUGE covered maze of shops and stalls. I only spent 15 minutes inside because I quickly realized I had bitten off more than I could chew. The stalls stretch off farther than you can see in every direction. Worth a longer visit. I marched back to my hotel to pick up my bags and get a taxi. While I'm marching up, I run into another store owner. He has a little store right next to the hotel, and I had blown him off the night before. So he insists I come in, though I swear I'm not buying and about to get in a taxi. Sure enough, my taxi comes, and as I am getting in, he is offering his $1200 kilim (silk on cotton embroidered) for $250 cash. Just keep saying no to get those prices down.

A note about the climate and marching around. As I said, Istanbul is HOT and HUMID. As you walk around, you sweat. You notice that everyone, natives as well as tourists, are carrying water bottles. Each evening I would find myself soaked. In fact, I discovered salt stains on my shirts and socks from sweating so much. So it is a must to drink water. Luckily, the Turks don't believe in ripping you off for water. A bottle of cold water costs about $0.40, even in a tourist area like Tokapi. In Switzerland the same bottle would cost at least $2.50.

I did end up buying some things -- a necklace and a picture. I probably paid too much, as I only talked them down 50% or so, but they could tell I liked them and was ready to buy.

This was a great trip. Successful on the business side, and very interesting on the personal side. A very unique place to visit for this American boy. Next time I'll try to take Emma along to look at the carpets. That's why I say this was my first visit.

Le Spectacle!

Wee man number 1 had a milestone on Friday last. He had his first 'school performance'. Well, it was a creche perfomance. His teachers had been planning it for a good 3 months, and to their credit Allie kept everything about it secret. It was also the Saint Blaise Fete de Jeunesse (young person festival). The festival loving Swiss have a lot of 'spectacles' and fetes for all of the young folk at the beginning of the summer vacation. They precede a week of sports, then the holidays till the middle of August.
Anyhoo, at 4:30pm I dropped Allie off at the music room of Walter's building, while the teachers were screaming at me not to come in. We had to wait for half an hour before being allowed in. The first out were little 'hippos' playing drums. Very cute, but no Allie... they went back and out came a bunch of penguins and what looked like chicks.

We stood at the back and Toby asked to be picked up. He kept asking "Where's Allie?" I would say "He's coming out soon". Toby got impatient and started shouting "Alleeeee" very loudly. Then who should start waving at us but Allie the chick! Actually, he was "un petit canard" or a duckling.

He and his friends did a lovely little dance and sing along.

Allie was the cutest canard of all :)


After the performance, we all repaired to the creche (just up the street) for "repas canadien". When I saw this on the invitation I didn't pay much attention. I just saw 'repas' and thought "great. They're feeding us too." Lucky for me, one of the teachers had explained that we would be bringing a dish to share, as a repas canadien is (Swiss) French for a Potluck meal!!!! What did Canada do to earn that? We met other parents and got to watch Allie with his friends. One strange thing was seeing some of the teachers smoking! Poor Allie's used to it now. When we first arrived, he would ask (whenever he saw someone smoking): What is that person doing? Why are they doing that? I'm trying to work out why the Swiss now have the second longest, average longevity in the world....

Vero, her Belle Mere (mother in law) Evelyn, baby Alec, julia and the boys.


Julia always wants to hold Allie's hand and play with him. Toby always wants to hold Julia's hand and hang out with her. Is this a taste of the turbulent teenage years?

Fun on the 4th, while watching footie.

Well, we were supposed to go to bed, but the footie's in O.T. I was tring to read the Swiss Anthem and translated it in Babelfish. Naturally, it didn't really compute. I then tried the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner, translating into French, then back into English. This is the result:

Can the word of Oh see you by the first light of the paddle
what so much proudly we hail with the last to shine of the twilight?
With which broad band and luminous holds the first role, by the perilous combat,
O' er the ramparts which we observed, let us run so much valiantly?
And the red gleam of rockets, the bombs bursting in air,
provided evidence by the night that our flag was always there.
Does the word of Oh make that banner however vague
O' er to hold the first role-spangled the ground of free and the house of facing?

Merry 4th of July to one and all!!!!

Us poor saps got to celebrate the occasion of America's birth on Sunday last. Kim, Christian and Loic came all the way from Zurich to partake of feasting and cake. Walter wants to make it clear that we bought a proper, American style of grill with chimney lighter (on sale at Migros), especially. It's quite amazing the number of people here who like to bbq, yet who are really bad at it. We had BBQ ribs (some of the finest Walter has ever had....mmmmmm... mountain raised pig), chips, salsa, salad and StarsnStripes cake. Kim even brought sparklers and bombs, which made Allie scream with delight every time they went off.

Loic eating Cheerios.


Christian tries to get Loic to eat something more appropriate.... like ribs. Photographed by Allie... along with bezzillians of others.


A scrumdidlyumptious cake made by Walter.


Kim with her bag of (freely available at la Coop) sparklers and bombs.


I hold one for her to light.


Whatever they were made of, it was blinding.


Christian keeps Loic back a little....


It was a lovely day and it made us miss the good ole US :)

Today, Walter taught me and the boys "The Star Spangled Banner". We plan on knowing all the verses by this time next year. What's the Swiss National Anthem? We'll be singing it on August 1st, the national day of Suisse...Although, we just listened to it and it doesn't quite have the memorable umph... Walter said he'd rather hear "Zurich is Stained" by Pavement.

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.