Still no communications at our house, so this will be short, as I’m using my iPhone as a hot spot and dread how much that’s going to cost! But what can you do?! The cable company is coming tomorrow to fix things (hopefully!).

Without a cost-effective Internet (or television) connection, I haven’t been able to search for new workouts. Not happy about that! So today’s fitfor15in15 exercise was 30 minutes on the little step machine with hand weights, looking out the window at the birds in the feeder and listening to As You Wish, the audio book by actor Cary Elwes. The whole experience was totally charming and only slightly sweaty.

In the book, Elwes gives a behind-the-scenes account of his time working on The Princess Bride movie. Have you seen the movie? I think it’s a classic; it has everything! Humour, fighting, fencing, giants, true love, pirates, witches, betrayal … oh the list goes on! It really is one for all the family. And listening to Mr Elwes read his own musings is quite an ear-opening experience – he has one heck of a jolly plummy accent and whatnot, I say old chap!

I took some nice photos in the student quarter of Bern today (will post them when we have wi-fi again) before meeting Claudia for lunch. We had piiiizzzaaahh and it was delicious! Not so good nutritionally but very good for the soul.

Claudia, from Dresden, is one of my former German teachers and has lived in Bern for over 10 years. We’ve continued to meet once a week to talk German for about an hour and then English for about an hour to ‘maintain’ our foreign languages. She’s become a good friend and has been my lunchtime restaurant tour guide in the city too!

Leo’s suffering from shocking hayfever at the moment, poor thing. Birch trees, be damned! My turn comes with the grasses in May/June. Can’t wait for that …

Wishing you a wonderful day, and bring back my Internet please, Mr Fix-It Man!