December

December 19-January 2: Canary Islands

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Sunrise in Corralejo

Buenos Dias señoras y señores. Feliz año nuevo!

Ok, all that came from Google Translate but my wishes are hearty and authentic, even if my methods are somewhat dubious!

We had a wonderful holiday in the Canary Islands, where I faked a Spanish accent while ordering dinner and found two new Latin lovers. Leo isn’t concerned.

Our base was in Corallejo at the north of Fuerteventura and we travelled all over the countryside, leaving the island only once for a day-trip to Lanzarote to visit the impressive and Mars-like Timanfaya National Park.

Lonely Planet map of the Canary Islands. West Africa is less than 150km to the east

Lonely Planet map of the Canary Islands. The north west coast of Africa is about 150km to the east

Three days in a hire car were enough to see a fair whack of the island, especially the impressive bottom western tip, and one day we rode 44km on an unpaved, rutted coastal path on bicycles. We’d hired the bikes for two days but couldn’t face another day in the saddle.

My favourite moment was watching brave kids in El Cotillo jump in and out of the rough surf.

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Love this shot – captures the moment perfectly. I had heart palpitations watching them dive in and out, doing flips and being crazy

We ate and drank like kings and queens, lazed in the sun, were impressed by the kitesurfers, windsurfers and stand-up paddleboarders and I caught a cold at 2pm on New Year’s Eve. Woo me.

So here are some “wrap of the day” photos from the trip:

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Day 1

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Day 2

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Day 3

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Day 4

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Day 5

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Day 6

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Day 7

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Day 8

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Day 9

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Day 10

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Day 11

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Day 12

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Day 13

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Day 14

At first I was worried I wouldn’t like the arid landscape, but even though it was sparse with barely a tree around, the old volcanic mounds were beautiful and changed dramatically with the moving sun. We’ll definitely be going back. I might need to re-learn all that Spanish I forgot when I moved to Switzerland!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

December 11-18: Another adventure and Season’s Greetings

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Sunrise 18 December 2015

The days of having hours to prepare and plan for holidays have gone, so I’m frantically trying to stuff too much into a suitcase for our holiday to Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands, which starts … in a few hours! This trip we have the luxury (or hindrance, I’m still not sure) of having check-in luggage, so the temptation is to just pack it all.

I finished work yesterday in a mad rush, and now it’s all about getting the house and my suitcase ready. Leo had saved all his holidays for the end of this year, thinking we would be going to Australia for a month, but I went and did a crazy thing like getting a job :), and such a long break was no longer viable. But luckily my work said it was quiet over Christmas, so we could still take some time off, which is great as Leo needs it. Going to Australia for two weeks would be crazy and cost prohibitive (especially with the pending house move February 1) so we found a cheap package holiday to a place where the days will be warm. It’s been unseasonable warm here though too.

The plan is to read some books (unfortunately I won’t hit my target of 52 books in one year … by a long shot), do some day walks, eat some seafood and generally unwind. I’m looking forward to being surprised by the island, as I haven’t had much time to research what there is to see and do. We might try to do a few day trips to other islands. It will be too cold to swim, but the swimmers are in, just in case! Wishful thinking perhaps? 😉

Ok, enough writing. Here are some photos from the past week.

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Another lovely clear day

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Icy cobweb outside our house

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The Christmas market in Bern

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A nice sunset on our way to pick up my cousin Anna from the train station

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Anna had been at COP21 in Paris and stayed with us for three nights. She’s such a good egg

I don’t know if I’ll write while we’re on holidays, but as a fan of never saying never, we’ll see what unfolds.

Here’s to a sensational festive season, however you choose to celebrate, and a healthy and happy 2016!

And of course, as always, wishing you a wonderful day.

December 8-10: We have a new place to live!

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One from the vault – where we currently live, with our little house on the left

As sad as we will be to move away from our beloved little Stöckli, from February 1 next year we’ll be right in the “thick of the action” in the village of Wohlen.

We’ve found a very large apartment in the town centre, which means no more forest on the doorstep, but also no more walking with a safety vest at night in the dark on the way home from work.

Our new place is large – 5.5 rooms, compared to the 2.5 rooms we currently live in – and while it has a definite 80s feel it has SPACE. It lacks the Stöckli ginger-bread house charm, but it does have convenience – a two minute walk to the bus, two minutes to the shop and three minutes to our favourite place to eat, Restaurant Kreuz. And there’s a pot-belly stove in the loungeroom! And we can still see the Alps from the bedroom window! And Leo now has a painting room. And and and …

Our good friends and neighbours Liliane and Rene will live just a 15 minute walk away, so we’ll still see each other often, which makes us very happy.

Half of me can’t wait to move in and make it ours, and the other half wants to hang on here as long as possible. The time will come soon enough when I’ll be firmly in the “move now” camp. Since finding out yesterday that the place will be ours, it’s almost all I can think about. We’ll have enough space to allocate one room as a chillout zone, for want of a better phrase. We’ll hang the hammock, have a nice rug maybe, the stereo with tunes and enough space to leave the yoga mat always on the floor. 2016 could be the year of reading and yoga. Oh wait, that’s what 2015 was supposed to be! 🙂

My minimalistic tendencies will be put to the test with all that space, but I think it’s still going to be a wonderful place to live and thrive. Just like it has been here for the past four years. I’ve been in Switzerland for four years. Can’t believe it. My arrival anniversary was December 5, and I totally forgot to celebrate!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

December 1-7: Sliding out of the year

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In German, when people wish you a Happy New Year, they wish you a good slip or slide into the new year. Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr. I’m wishing you all a good slide out of  2015.

It’s been a great year. We’ve done a lot of travelling, I’m enjoying my job and fingers crossed we’ve found somewhere to move to next year (more on that soon hopefully!). We’ve seen some great tv shows, I’ve read some (but not enough) entertaining books, we’ve done some lovely walks and I managed to spend a lot of time by the pool in summer. Nothing to complain about at all.

As we wind down for 2015, have you thought about what might be in store for you in 2016? I have no idea what to do with the blog. I really should have thought about the name a bit harder, but fitfor15in15 had a good ring to it. Fitfor16in16 could be an option, but who am I kidding? I have fallen off the fitness wagon with a lard-arsed thump!

Maybe I need a new focus for 2016 … hmmm …

Until then, I’ll try to write more often – for a proper send off to a wonderful year where I’ve made some lovely internet friends, and read wonderful words from people around the world. If I had all day, I’d read blogs, I know it. Years ago I couldn’t see the point of a blog, and maybe it is a bit of self indulgent waffle sometimes (I’m looking squarely IN THE MIRROR when I write that), but I’ve had so much fun. Just wish I’d had much more motivation! Short attention span, me.

Here are some pics from the first week of the last month of fitfor15in15.

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A clear sunrise made Leo and I head for the Wohlensee lake one morning

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One side of the bridge looked quite dull …

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But on the other side of the bridge, the view was breathtaking!

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Looking from the bridge on the Wohlensee up to Wohlen bei Bern. If all goes to plan, we will live 100m past the church by March 1 next year

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Dinner at Liliane and Rene’s

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The sunrise this morning over Bern city

It’s not my last blog for the year, but I want to get in early and say thank you. Thank you for making me push myself in the first half of the year to do what I set out to do, and thanks for sticking by me in the second half when I totally failed to keep going. It’s only a semi-failure, because (and this is going to sound sooo cheesy) I’ve gained so much more than a few lost kilos.

Wishing you a wonderful day.