May

May 27: Five hours in the garden

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Today was a busy, do-it kind of day, as opposed to yesterday’s nothing kind of day.

First off yahoo, the sun came out!!!! so it was time to scoop the leaves out of the pool to prepare for summer fun. In the next few weeks, it will be cleaned with a power hose, old water out, clean water and chlorine in and then final ingredient – just add people.

Rene kindly ‘made’ me a pair of gumboots from an old pair of fishing waterproofs, which came up to his thigh. They’re really old and he never uses them anymore, so he cut them off just below the knee. Because they were about five sizes too big, I wore a thick pair of socks and a pair of slipper kind of things as well. But I was dry and clean, and in this mess, that’s all that mattered …

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Gumboots at the ready …

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… let’s clean this thing!

The leaves and algae/gunk on the bottom were quite think and the smell was pretty foul too. Leo came home quickly on his way to a meeting, so he snapped some pictures to prove I stood in that cesspool.

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Had to block my nose!

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Dumping the leaves and getting a little sunburnt

I forgot to take an after photo, but all the leaves are gone and plenty of the gunk/gunge is still floating on the bottom but at least it will flush out easily with the jet hose.

Then Rene mowed the lawn and I whipper-snippered a large section behind the garage, where the forest is creeping closer and closer.

It’s amazing how fast the time goes when you’re working outdoors. I definitely gave my arms a good workout, scooping and snipping. And there’s a bit of colour on the back of my neck and arms. Oops!

Speaking of colour, here are my little garden photos at long last.

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Pinks and purples and one red one

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Lots of colour in the pots

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In the corner near the herb garden

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Geraniums and snapdragons on the kitchen window …

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… and geraniums on the unused, north-facing balcony

Wishing you a wonderful day.

May 26: A nothing kind of day!

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Well, rain and more rain. It seems the more rain that falls, the less motivation I have!

I finished The Goldfinch today (thank goodness! My review is here) and watched some French Open Tennis. I hardly stepped out of the house all day … and ate a lot … not good.

But tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya … it’s going to be sunny apparently. A rip roaring 18 degrees (I’m currently wearing my winter slippers), woo hoo! It better be a long, hot summer when it finally comes around … brrr … or should that be grrr.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

Here’s a photo of a Fire Salamander I saw near the garage in June last year. I wonder if he (or any of his family) will be back in a few weeks’ time.

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A friendly Fire Salamander

May 25: No Monday Runday

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It rained pretty much all day today, so not much to report. We didn’t put the tent up near the pool and there was no chance for Monday Runday. Doesn’t look like it’s going to be much better tomorrow either! I’m taking it as an opportunity to recharge my batteries.

I had a terrible night’s (lack of) sleep with hayfever, and didn’t wake up til about 10am. I did finish potting the geraniums (photos to come when it’s not raining), we watched silly programs on television, I read my book and Leo cooked dinner.

We ended the night watching Samuel L. Jackson and Emilio Estevez in National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, which I’d pretty much forgotten existed (odd, because I love that sort of humour). Hot Shots, with Emilio’s brother Charlie Sheen, is one of my favourite films.

Lines from Loaded Weapon which stand out for me for their cheesiness include a heated conversation between Estevez, who wants to find out who the bad guys are, and Jon Lovitz. “Give me a name!” “Weren’t your parents supposed to do that?” 🙂

And I also chuckle when Jackson is showing a t-shirt, which has a photo of a woman (Whoopi Goldberg) on the front, to a guy. Jackson explains they’re looking for information about her. When he sees the t-shirt, the guy asks, “Is that her?” “No, that’s a picture.”

And on those bombshells, I wish you a wonderful day!

May 24: Exercising my confidence

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It’s been quite a few months since I’ve been on the Vespa, because of winter and so on, so this afternoon we went down to the local gardening store and I did a few refresher laps of the carpark.

I did three days of lessons last summer and rode it quite a few times around our neighbourhood (haven’t ventured into the city yet) but I lost some confidence in the last session when I dropped the bike coming to a slow stop.

No fitfor15in15 physical exercise today, but I mentally exercised my brain and nerves. I’m sure it will all come back to me (not that I ever had it in the first place!) and a few more lessons would be good as a confidence booster.

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Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

Leo was very patient, standing on the sidelines watching me do figure-eight moves. I have real issues with tight right turns. Tight left turns, no problem, but being right handed and turning sharply right causes some problems – the nerves come and I don’t have enough speed and then I get the wobbles, and the nerves come and so on and so forth in a circle.

But hopefully I’ll master it. I’ll never be Valentino Rossi and that’s fine! Leo asked if I wanted to ride home with him as the passenger – no way!

We finished the tv series Luther tonight. Unfortunately, I have to say “don’t bother”. We then started watching more of Derek, by Ricky Gervais, which is a comedy about the title character working in an old people’s home. How can a show be so funny and make me cry from sadness in every episode?? It’s brilliant. His mate Kev is really starting to annoy me, I love how blunt and honest Douglas is and Hannah holds it all together. Well worth watching.

Hopefully the wind stops enough tomorrow so we can clean out the pool and get the communal outdoor area set up. It’s a public holiday here tomorrow too, so Leo will be in charge!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

May 23: Eurovision Song Contest, yeah baby!

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Well, the extravaganza that is the Eurovision Song Contest delivered once again. Australia’s first entrant Guy Sebastian has a new legion of fans. The whole show went long but it wasn’t too tacky and I actually liked quite a few of the tunes.

After all the build up, Eurovision 2015, live from Vienna, Austria, is over. I think this is the second or third time I’ve watched the whole show (normally in Australia I’d watch just highlights). I won’t give anything away but I will throw out my favourites.

Obviously Australia, because Guy was great and he did himself and the country proud. Australians have been massive fans of Eurovision for over 30 years, watching the bright lights and strange songs with a mixture of bemused appreciation, disbelief and wonder.

So, in a very sporting gesture, Eurovision extended an invitation for an Australian to perform at this year’s 60th anniversary. If we won, the contest wouldn’t be held in Australia but a country of our choice. I think the experiment worked very well. Big shout out to #guysebastian for being a great ambassador (like I know him!?! 🙂 ahahahaha)

Second favourite was Sweden, then Latvia, Belgium, Norway and Montenegro. Least favourite Albania and the UK.

The wind was mental today, so plans to be active outdoors were blown away. But it was a great day, eating good food and generally recharging the batteries. I hope you’ve had a chance to do that too.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

Here’s a photo from the archive – while my friend Gabby was in Switzerland last year, Pastora and Leo invited us to their house for dinner. Pastora can’t stand olives, even looking at them used to make her feel sick, but she went above and beyond to produce these amazing ladybird hors-d’oeuvre/fingerfood munchies for our visit!

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Ladybird’s waiting to fly into our mouths. Pastora’s handiwork from 2014

May 22: Late post after a great night

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Oops, I didn’t write yesterday because we went to visit friends Leonie and Bjorn, and their two kids Maya and Sebastian, and got home at midnight, way too tired to write.

I spent a few hours with Pastora in the late afternoon then caught the 5pm commuter-crazy-hour train from Bern to Brügg, near Biel. (Wow I do not miss that kind of commuting. In Sydney, in the last place I lived, it was a 20 minute walk or short bike ride to work!)

Leo picked me up from the station at 5.30pm and we drove to Leonie and Bjorn’s traditional Swiss house, which they’ve been renovating over the past few years. Six hours later we left – those hours just flew! I feel bad as they would have had to be up early this morning with the kids. Oops!

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Maya and Bjorn preparing the garden room for dinner

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Leonie and Maya

Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of Sebastian. At first he was shy, but after our discussion about whales and sharks, he was very entertaining. It was the first time Leo had met the family and the first time I’d met Bjorn and the kids.

Leonie is a friend of a friend in Melbourne, and she’s been living in Switzerland for nearly five years. We’ve enjoyed our weekly Tuesday lunchtime catch ups for about two months now. Thank you for a great night guys and we look forward to you coming over in summer!

Will write more, for today’s post, tonight.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

May 21: Running around without raising a sweat

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Today was an on-the-go kind of day – I should have worn my running shoes!

My phone died this morning (Leo says from overuse – can’t argue) so I borrowed the neighbours’ car to go to a nearby shopping centre with a phone store, hoping they could fix it. No luck – it’s been sent away for a week, like a naughty kid suspended from school – but at least I have my old phone to use in the meantime.

This is one time I’m glad I haven’t been a minimalist and gotten rid of the old phone as soon as the new one arrived. The old one feels like a brick in comparison, and the photo quality will be pretty average, but I’m contactable, which feels more important than it should be. I’ll carry my compact camera around in case I see Betsy and friends again.

Amazing things, cars. I even managed to do a grocery shop AND go to the nursery for more plants and soil. I wasn’t going to put planter boxes on the upstairs balcony but hey, I needed geraniums. It wouldn’t be a Swiss house without geraniums. I was trying to avoid conforming, because it seems like it’s compulsory to have planter boxes overflowing with red geraniums in Switzerland … so I chose pink ones instead. Still a rebel.

Couldn’t plant them this afternoon because it was raining so much, but hopefully I’ll do it on Saturday … if the weather gets any better. It was five degrees Celsius this morning, and 10 degrees at 3pm. Come back spring, we miss you already.

I really, really, really have lost my exercising mojo. I feel worn out, and I look it too, but really, I’m not worn out, I’m just being lazy. Which is a shame because the fitfor15in15 six-month mark isn’t too far away and I want to look and feel my best. (I blame the mammoth book, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, that I’m still reading. What a sorry sack that whole story is at the moment – it’s leaching into every pore).

So, banishing the book and with the halfway mark as my motivation, I’m off to do 15 minutes of squats with hand weights, push ups, sit ups, lunges and all that kind of malarkey.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

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Here’s Betsy’s hairy Scottish cousin, Beryl, who lives in the north of Switzerland

May 20: Tulip season is over – with a bull…dozer

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My fitfor15in15 exercise today was to walk to the shops and back. I’m counting this as 40 minutes of exercise because I could have borrowed the neighbour’s car. Cheating?! No! The weather was pretty average again and also cold, so walking instead of driving was a torture of sorts. 🙂

What was even more torturous was seeing the tulip field. It’s gone! All gone! Bulldozed! And they’ve taken away the little shelter where you wrapped the flowers and paid the money into the honesty box. What the?

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Walking to the tulip field. These clouds were ominous but cool. Corn growing in foreground

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And there it was – the bad news

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Blumen zum selber pflucken …

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Is no more … totally flattened

But it’s not all doom and gloom, because …

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A new flower field is across the road

No tulips, but soon there’ll be gladioli and … other flowers that I have no idea about. It’s a smaller space but hopefully it will yield as many colourful blooms, and make me as happy, as the original one. (A neighbour said it’s being rested after years of flowers, so the soil can rejuvenate. Next year it will probably be sprouting corn, sunflowers or wheat.)

But it’s the end of an era. Sob. I loved that field! Especially when the Alps were in clear view – you could take a photo of the flowers in the foreground with the mountains behind. This new field faces the other way. Oh well … that’s nature.

If you would like to see photos of the tulip field from this season, starting from the green shoots, click here, here (first blooms), here (at sunset), here (the best gallery), here (the pink and green one) and here (the vases at home). Sob. Now, they’re just memories … 😉

So you don’t feel sad too, here’s a happy cow.

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I shall name thee Betsy. The buildings in the top right are where we live

Wishing you a wonderful day.

May 19: Feeling flat … and new nutrition guidelines

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It’s amazing how the weather affects my moods. It’s raining, grey and the sky feels like it’s only a few feet off the ground. Do you feel weird when the weather’s less than appealing? Especially when it comes hot on the heels of a lovely day?

Of course, it could also have something to do with the book I’m currently reading, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I’m halfway through the story of Theo and it’s quite depressing – a life going, or possibly already gone, off the rails. Maybe I should listen to more of Cary Elwes’ audio book As You Wish, which is his behind the scenes account of the movie, The Princess Bride. I love that film – maybe I should watch it to lift my spirits!

I feel like I’m here, but not here. Know what I mean? I’ll snap out of it when the sun shines again, I’m sure.

My friend Sandra sent me this very funny article yesterday about living in a foreign country and trying to speak the language. Sandra has German, Swiss German, English and Spanish under her belt, so she’s on fire. I’m making limited progress with German and have really no idea what’s being talked about 40% of the time when I hear Swiss German, so I can totally relate to the problems in this story. I had a good laugh … and then gave a hefty sigh, because unfortunately it’s so damn true!

We finished season one of Luther last night, the BBC series starring Idris Elba. I’ve been told seasons two and three are better, thank goodness! That whole storyline with Alice was laughable.

Do you remember growing up seeing posters of the food pyramid (that put fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy and grains etc into a graphic) about how much we should eat? If not, have a search on the internet because there are a hundred versions. Actually, no don’t bother with the old one because the new one is more important. Here is Nutrition Australia’s new healthy eating food pyramid. What do you think about the new weightings for foods? Less grains (used to be the bottom layer) and more veggies seems smart, and there’s no section for treats anymore – is that achievable? Maybe only for the dedicated! It’s printed out and stuck on the fridge, as a friendly reminder.

The more research I do, the more I keep seeing/reading that diet is more important than exercise and maybe, just maybe, it’s slowly sinking in. There was definite success on the 5:2 Diet, about 2kgs in four weeks, but I hate counting calories. What a drag! I have to stop eating chips or chocolate biscuits as an after-dinner snack … and don’t get me started on the Berliners! I had just one on the Swiss Camino, on the horrid third day, walking on busy roads. (I suppose one benefit/problem of walking on a busy road is the shops!)

So tonight we’re having couscous with vegetables for dinner and I’ll make a vanilla chia seed pudding for breakfast. The fitfor15in15 exercise today will be 15 minutes of bedtime yoga – my butt injury isn’t fixed, so I’m taking it easy after yesterday’s 4km run.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

May 18: Monday Runday – 4km

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I didn’t think I’d be able to do Monday Runday today, because of that pain in my right butt cheek, which has been … well … A RIGHT PAIN IN THE ARSE!

But after reading in the hammock and finishing off the rest of the lawnmowing in the furthest part of the front lawn, I was itching to do more. Because I was covered in grass clippings and grotty already, I thought, c’mon, why not go for a run and test out the injury?

Worried the 5km would be too far, I did the 4km loop and surprisingly, it went ok. It wasn’t a record-breaking time, at 28 minutes, but that included some jumping of muddy puddles on the trail path through the forest and stopping for three photos. I didn’t have to walk at any stage because of pain, so I’m happy! Six hours later the bum/thigh is still happy too.

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A last glimpse of the fields before heading into the woods

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A cool trail path, literally and figuratively

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Nice to see hay bales near home after so many on the recent Swiss Camino

It was about 24 degrees today. Lovely! Still haven’t taken photos of the new garden plants. Maybe I’m not that inspired by them? I’ve gone for a different planterbox filling  – no geraniums this year! How very un-Swiss! Maybe that’s why I’m not feeling the love?

Wishing you a wonderful day.