My business

We take the trotinettes everywhere now. Today we took a jaunt to 'la Coop' for provisions. Toby has the really irritating habit of trying to hang back and just standing there when one wants him to get moving. We played for a while going up and down a ramp before going home, and it went on a little longer than I had planned. He was getting rather tired and hungry. The upshot of the whole situation was that he stood in the street screaming at me. It's very hard to move Mr. Big as a 5 Year Old, so I just went and sat on the fountain and waited. During the next 4 minutes one old lady told me off- "Your child is too noisy", one woman told Toby off- "Why are you hurting your mother" and another woman went into her house, tried to get him to go in too (she knew I was there), then brought out a stuffed toy for him! People here aren't afraid of getting involved when your child acts up. One day, quite a while ago, Allie wouldn't come in the house, and stood on the porch screaming. A woman actually came up the stairs and started talking to him. When I came out she ignored me until I told her we were OK and she could go now.... Maybe it's more the norm. in smaller, closely knit places. I should also say that no-one's been mean, it's just weird after coming from a place where not much interaction happens between other people and your children. I mean, they could be child molesters, right?

On other topics:
Walter wanted to watch the rugby while dinner was on. What better way to do it than a nic-nic (in Toby's words, or pique-nique in Allie's!) with pizza on a blanket, in the living room:



There are apparently a lot of zoos here. Not necessarily the ones with exotic animals. There's one just 10 mins away that our neighbours took us to,in an area that no-one speaks any French in! We could ride our bikes there. It was a lovely place, complete with peacocks, monkeys, giant albino snake and a cage with what seemed like a 100 cats. They were all asleep too.

Fiona and Anne by the monkey cage.


There was a giant slide that the boys really enjoyed. Toby went with Fiona quite a few times.


In the middle of it all was a nice little park.


The boys rode on a very old looking carousel.



The zoo is beside a canal that feeds to Lac de Neuch. There seems to be some art on it, including the 'transformer' below. Hehehe.


More lake fun!


On Monday, we're off to Bonny Snotland for 10 days of rain fun with the MacDonald G'parents.

Small blessings

For the last 3 nights, the 10pm "wake 'em and bake 'em" bells haven't chimed. Either the church is trying to save money, someone's forgotten to wind the mechanism or the vicar has decided to do us all a favour. Hurrah (then snore) I say!

Eurovision Rocks my World!

I love the Eurovision Song Contest. The first ever record that I owned was "Making Your Mind Up" by Bucks Fizz. It was the British entry that won in 1981. What a year. This, then a royal fairytale wedding. It was enough to make a girl's head explode.

They were saucy too. This is probably the reason that they won. Skirts off!














Last night, the best and brightest of European popular music gathered in the beautiful city of Athens to find out who has the BEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD. Sadly, I didn't get to watch the whole dealy, but Switzerland's offering "Six4One" were first up. What a performance! Six beautiful young people, with voices of angels, sang the haunting melody "If We All Give a Little". And if we had all truely given a little, they would have come away with top honours, instead of being 16 out of 37. That beat the UK's Daz Sampson with his cheeky, cheerful little ditty "Teenage Life". Quite a departure from the usual with rap, but only enough to get 19th place. The biggest departure of all, and the winner of this important and groundbreaking event was the Finnish entry by the popular (and for good reason) band Lordi. Almost nixed from the event by crazy anti-satanists, this awesome group of loveable monsters rocked everyone's world.

"It's the Arockalypse"

I think they should be the next big thing in the US. Move over, so called Linkin Park.

Ohhh will next year's competition ever come??????

A few photies that I need to get off the camera

I'm writing this now because Allie is sick today. He made it through 'school' this morning then promptly came home and lay on the couch. He's watching "Wiggles" again. Toby the insane should be getting his daily run right now, but is instead fixed to the telly. He's getting too big to physically manipulate now, so we're stuck with the current situation. Mr Antsy bugging Mr Sicky. I think Allie's illness is a culmination of being in classes every morning now. We have him in a preschool that's 2 mins walk from the house, two mornings a week, then he goes to the creche at Walter's work two mornings a week, then he has a 'circus class' for 4.5 hours on a Friday morning. He seems to like it all, especially the circus class. They really do learn circus stuff... as much as a young kid can. They do all kinds of other things too, but the main theme is circus. There's also another (gasp) AlIsTair in that class, from the UK no less. The cheek of it! The teachers have trouble with both of their names all the time. I think Allie may sound a bit too much like 'allez' too, so that's rather confusing. His French seems to be improving too :) Actually, a couple of days ago we got his enrollement comfirmation in the local 'ecole enfantine'. In 3 months, #1son will be going to school. Albeit for only 5 mornings a week. We have to go to our first parents evening in mid june! There are 5 girls and 8 boys in his class, and our French teacher knew most of them, or of them. Very exciting (sniffsniff).

What with the improvement of the weather, we've been oot n aboot a bit, with some mixed results. I thought I'd try to meet Kim halfway at the Bern zoo. I'd been there, could find my way back, knew what to expect. Vero and her kids came to see the zoo and hang out with us on the train. We made it to Bern, met Kim and proceeded to get the bus to the zoo. Unfortunately, we had to go all the way around the big station to get to the correct bus stop. We finally found the right bus and went in the wrong direction! Lucky for us, just as I realised it was the wrong way, Kim saw a nice park, so we stopped and had a play instead. All the way to Bern for the park. There. I've come clean. I did fleetingly consider not telling Walter and mumbling something about the cute animals. To add insult to all the rest, I didn't even take any good photies of the cutest kids en Suisse all together. Next time, and there WILL be a next time.

This photo was taken at a place called "La Courte Echelle", which means "the short ladder"... It has a soft room (shown below), car room, doll area, general play area and reading area. On Friday afternoons it's used by the International Club for their playgroup. Allie's gotten very friendly with a couple of Irish/Swiss boys, a German/Italian girl and a New Zealand/Canadian boy. Toby runs around like a Wild Thing! The kids are running from a 'monster' below.


OK, it's a picture of the wee men, but I couldn't resist. They're sitting still, beside each other, smiling and not fighting. I predict the next photo op. like that will occur in ~4 months!


I'm not very knowledgeable about butterflies, but the blue ones are stuck in my mind. In the 70s a blue British butterfly became extinct. I can remember seeing them at my grandparents, then not seeing them a few years later. They seem to be going strong here.


The boys were practicing fishing. They sat still for quite a while with sticks hanging in the water! Toby isn't remotely bothered about being next to the water, or scampering around the rocks.



The big thing with the wee boys is the 'trotinette', also known as Razor scooters in the US. Every child in this village has one. They go to the park, school, round and round in circles on them. Allie and Toby have taken to them too, which makes going to the park ten times as fast. They bomb along saying bonjour to all the other kids, giving them knowing looks! I'm in the market for a pair of quad roller skates to keep up with them. Any recommendations?

Pitiful

Some may have noticed longer periods between posts. Or not. Well, there's a rather shameful explanation: Sudoku. I am addicted.

"Can I have my lunch please, mummy?"
"Hold on till I finish this sudoku"

"Toby's eating the playdoh again"
"Hold on till I finish this sudoku"

"Allie's beaten me to a pulp on the floor, mummy"
"Hold on till I finish this sudoku"

"We need to do our French homework, Emma"
"Hold on till I finish this sudoku"

"Do you remember the last decent conversation we had, Emma?"
"Hold on till I finish this sudoku"
etc......

Walter got me a sudoku book for my birthday :) The puzzles are never ending :( I actually enjoy doing the puzzles. What I don't enjoy is having to stop in the middle of one. And really, when does that not happen? I have to finish the book. I must. Then I'll never look at one again. Ever. Unless it's in a newspaper.....

Downward Dog

We met our friends Vero and Herb last weekend. It was a lovely warm day and the whole village was down at the 'lake park'. There's a little cafe/restaurant right beside the park, where one can sit out, supping a wee coffee while watching the kids playing, or getting dirty, or fighting or whatever it is they do. For some reason, the children were standing on their heads:

What yoga masters!


Vero, Julia (2) and Alec (10 months).



Big News!

Mr Toby has been very motivated to wear big boy underwear, since his brother does. In fact, he wants to do everything Allie does. If Allie takes off his sweater, Toby wants to too. Even if he's blinkin' cold. Anyhoo, he's been having the occassional poo on the potty. At the same time as doing that, he's learned to put his thumbs up. Can't get too happy, that's countered by laziness on his part ;)

Nouvelle Star!!!

Yes, it's an international phenomenon: "Pop Idol", "American Idol" etc has come to France, and ofcourse Suisse Romande, as "Nouvelle Star". Out of 14 potential candidates, there's a Neuchateloise. And she's still going strong. After 10 weeks (out of 15). Now all she has to do is win, just before Switzerland wins the World Cup in June ;) Then this'll be the best place in the World...hehehe.

Vote for 'Cindy' from Neuchatel, folks, if just for her cool 'weave'.

Easter and whatnot

It's a little strange being in a land with 'religious' holidays again. Last weekend was Easter and everything shut down. Not a shop was open on Friday, Sunday or Monday, so we had to plan carefully. Especially since our freezer only holds a couple of packs of butter and some fish fingers. On Saturday I decided to go to Migros when it openned (8am), arriving at 8:30 actually. The parking lot was packed and the store was busier than I've ever seen it. It was insanity. Everyone was shopping like the end of the world was coming. Having made it out alive, we spent a nice, quiet few days with Walter who hasn't been around much. Friday saw more bike practicing by the lake, stone skiffing and sunbathing. Yup, it's very nice weather at the mo'. Saturday we dyed eggs, and Sunday the Easter bunny came, ate some of his carrot and left a couple of chocolate rabbits for the boys. Toby ate the rest of his carrot when he got up and we let them loose on the choc. I think they poisoned themselves on it- can one really get chocolate poisoning? They became all lethargic, saying they didn't feel well and moaned a lot. I don't think they've gone off chocolate, though, so we won't be doing the whole pack of fags thing if they ever try smoking. The village of Saint Blaise had an egg hunt on Sunday. By the end of the day it was egg carnage. A bunch of wee snits had pelted them against every hard object they could. What a waste.

Here's a visual of some of the stuff we've been doing:

Round Eastertime, it rained and rained. That was coupled with a warm up that melted the snow. The water at the port went from 8ft down to flowing over the sidewalk! Some boy entertainment included fort building:


We tried walking around the lake in Marin. Apparently, Lac de Neuchatel is famous for having walking access all the way around it. We got stuck, as a lot of the paths had been overrun with water. Behind where the boys are swinging there used to be a big beach, not water.


Yup, that's a roundabout. Allie and one of our neighbour chidren, Fiona went on it during one of our 'bog' walks.


When the weather started heating up we took a little stroll:
This is a low tunnel that goes under the railway tracks to the lake park. It also carries the stream that runs through StB out to the lake. I don't think i'd like to be there when a train goes over.


One of ALL the boys' favourite things to do is chuck stones in the lake. Walter has perfected his skiffing to more than 8 per stone! Toby has perfected his throwing to getting the rock in the lake and making himself wet at the same time.


The neccessary stop for refreshments on a warm spring day.


This is a view of our house from the church yard. Walter is standing under the 3 living room windows. To the left of those are the kitchen windows. On the nextfloor up are our bedroom on the right and the spare room on the left. The top floor has Toby's room on the left and Allie's on the right. Our house basically occupies the side of the building. We also have the first windows round the side. It's a nice set up, as the house has sunshine all day.... when it's sunny ;)



Last week Walter had to go to the US Embassy in Bern to get more pages for his passport. Since it's only 40 mins by train, the boys and I came to see what it had to offer the wee men. The embassy is 10 mins by bus from the center, and it also turns out that the zoo is right beside it! We left Walter at the embassy and sauntered along the river side (VERY green, fast moving and full) to the zoo. I'd just like to say a little about the embassy. It is ofcourse surrounded by men with guns and barricades. When I went to the embassy in London (it was ~14 years ago) I was very impressed with the giant marines in their cool uniforms standing gaurd. It left an impression on me. These days, security it seems, is farmed out to private companies (men in black uniforms with 'Protectus' on their hats). Not nearly as impressive and not leaving me with a secure feeling..... Sadly, the building that 'The Borne Identity' led us to believe is occupied by the US embassy is not the same ;) Anyway, the zoo is very nice indeed. It's not the exotic kind- horses, alpaca, nutria (!), pigs, goats. Further along are native bird and other native animal enclosures. There was a very nice restaurant and park to play in. It was a very successful trip (meaning we did something the boys enjoyed and there were no melt downs) and Walter got to take the train with us.

The boys enjoy a hot chocolate break beside the river.


Allie and pelicans?

I love raclette, and I love raclette.

As part of our "Swissimlation", we went out and bought a raclette machine the other week. This is a piece of pure joy on many levels: hardly any food prep, really tasty cheese, hardly any clean up, can be set up at a moment's notice, must be eaten with pickled goods.... endless reasons. The machine is a kind of grill with a 'hotplate' on top for doing veg. You put slices of cheese on wee trays and put them under the grill till the cheese bubbles. You then bung it on some boiled potatoes.

Emma demonstrates cheese melting in its 'tray'
This is the best way to experience it, but here's us digging in:

The boys watch asthe cheese slides onto the potatoes...mmmm...


My parents also visited for a couple of days in between getting ready to move house. While they were here, Allie made himself a cheese, apple and orange sandwich. He ate the whole thing:


We went into Neuchatel one afternoon and my dad spotted the tram to Boudry, so we took a ride to Auvernier (with a nice coat of arms. All communes have one). We walked along the beach and had some swans following for a while.


During one of the sunnier weekends recently, we took the stabilizers off Allie's bike. When he concentrated he did rather well. The rest of the time, he was looking around too much.

I just put away our winter clothes....

Yesterday it was 21degC (70F) and sunny. Today it's 0degC (32F)and snowing. Yesterday, I got sunburn at the park. Today, I got an earful from Toby, walking up the hill with blizzards hurting his face.

April 5th, 2006. 3pm. oyvey.

We're not in California any more, Toto

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that said: " Tobacco man and darn proud of it". For those of you who don't know, Philip Morris has it's only European factory in Neuchatel. I think they employ ~2000-3000 in Switzerland. All I know is that our health insurance is at least twice that of the rest of Switzerland.

California's cool

Maybe it's because everything's made in China now, but all the chidren's clothing here has English on it. Usually with an American slant: "Rockin'", "I'm Cute", "Boyz Rule" etc. I came all this way to have my children look European... da*#it! Califoria makes a big showing too. There's a California bike for kids, a line of haircare products and the most recent one I've found- 'California Sun' scent washing up liquid. I bought it on sale (introducing a new scent), and it's flourescent pink with a weird fruity/institutional smell. There's a picture of a woman in sunglasses, laughing on the front. Walter has also pointed out the graffiti. All the curse words are Engish. Plenty of 'F*$# la police'. I guess we're exporting something after all!

Jerry Springer

Is it really so wrong to learn one's French from the Jerry Springer show? We're getting valuable insight into colloquialisms, pop culture and slang.... that's our excuse.

ciao ciao, mecs!

You can tell it's spring by.....

....the smell of the dog poo! Now that it's warming up, all the petrified poop is thawing. People here aren't very enlightened about their dogs. They let them poop all over the place. It's disgusting. Morons. There are special bags and bins everywhere for the disposal of 'ca-ca de chien', and even when people use the bags they leave them in the street, making a nice poo bomb if one perchance steps on it... while chasing a running child down the hill....

On to nicer aspects of spring- Walter's birthday!!!!!
Sadly, he was travelling all last week (on his birthday), but it gave us a chance to prepare. There was a "hot and cold' treasure hunt for his presents, suggested by Allie. We had a nice walk in the countryside near Hauterive, followed by beaucoup de birthday cake, then birthday fondue......mmmmm.

It started so nicely, pottering along together.


Poor Toby got very tired and had to lie down a few times.


By the 'lake park' there's a cool, steel sculpture that all the children play in and climb on. They regularly scale up the 12 ft to the top and Allie is on his way too.

The Meat that we Eat

The Swiss are good at meat. The 'charcuterie/boucherie' section of the big Migros up the road, has the following on offer:
beef (for humans and pets), veal, lamb, chicken, pigeon (and all those wee flying animals), turkey, duck, goose, deer, rabbit,horse, pork (for humans and pets), goat, a HUGE selection of sausages and dried meats. I found at least 5 'different'ways of curing and drying pork. When we first arrived, we thought that 'civet du cerf' had something to do with the civet cat (big in the news in Asia at the time)and thought the Swiss really were exotic. Civet actually means stew. I have developed a taste for rabbit, but it took a while to get used to preparing those little haunches. Just shows how far removed we are from our food now. My mum learned how to skin and prepare rabbit when she was young...... I've noticed that the meat also has a more intense flavour here, more 'meaty'. It's also really expensive, so we eat less of it- a good thing. I think animals are treated a bit better here, although I haven't looked into it.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Gig

On Wednesday we watched the sun go down over LAX with Norm and Helen, then got on the plane to Zurich... What a sad bunch we were. On the up side, the flight was pretty uneventful. Our baggage weight came in under the maximum- no charges this time! Allie slept on the floor, Toby slept, cried and fidgeted and people around us were nice through it all. Next time I swear I'm drugging him. Any suggestions? We arrived a good half hour early, picked up all the bags (before some business class people..hahaha) and made the train to Neuchatel. The poor wee boys only lost it half an hour before we got in. The house was even in one piece with no bad smells! Apparently, for a couple of days before we came home there was snow "the likes of which had not been seen in a long while". It was rained away before we could see it, but it's been snowing off and on since. The wind's not biting any more and the temp's above zero ;) The jet lag is a real bugger going in this direction. The boys were up from midnight to 4am last night. Walter and I finally went to sleep at 5, and we all woke at 11. Hooray for TV I say.

We're watching the movie "Chocolat" at the moment. I've never seen it because the hype put me off, but it's actually very entertaining. The village reminds me a lot of Saint Blaise! We need a chocolotarie with a saucy wench.

So, here are some last pics of an absolutely fab trip. Thanks Helen and Norm, for everything. The boys and I feel like totally new people :)

Toby loooves cats, especially Sangi, a Laffery cat.


Drew celebrates his 14th birthday. Toby is really the one who blew out his candles.


The boys on Redondo Beach pier, scene of many an "O.C" episode.


There's a really cool aquarium called SEAlab beside the 2nd street beach (Hermosa Beach) that Helen likes to take the boys to. It's a super place, with plenty of hands on stuff (sea slugs feel revolting!).
Allie beside a pool of native California fish.


Walter and Tobe at the pool


Grandma and the boys enjoy a last trip to the beach

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.