Pastora

August 28-31: Last of the summer sun

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Have been very lazy with the blog recently! Got to get back into a rhythm soon!

The last of the summer sun blessed us all weekend, which was fabulous! A last lie on the sun lounge, the last swim. I say last, but maybe we’ll have some ok weather again, just not at the moment!

Friday, I worked, then had a quick beer at Cafe Pyrennes with Pastora – we hadn’t been there for more than a month! Then Leo and I had dinner in Uetligen with Liliane, Rene, Lotti and Fritz.

Saturday morning Leo and I went for a five-hour walk, which I’ve calculated would cover my 15 minutes a day for a few weeks! Doesn’t work like that? Oh, ok then …

We walked to a village called Schupfen and home again, on a slightly different path. Then we had a barbecue with Liliane, Rene, Lotti and Fritz for dinner and enjoyed the full moon. Poor Liliane was bitten on the lip by a wasp (we’ve had plague proportions this year), and ended up going to emergency on Sunday morning because the left side of her face swelled overnight. Poor thing.

Sunday we were very lazy, watching episodes of an Australian series called “House Husbands” and then Liliane and Rene came over for an early dinner.

Monday I spent at home, enjoying the last warm sunny day, with a swim and reading by the pool. Liliane cooked too much dinner, so we joined them again!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

July 15: Close encounters

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No, not on the bike! With the camera! 🙂 (I can hear my mother breathing a sigh of relief from here!)

Today, after work, Iva cooked a barbecue lunch for Pastora and I on the terrace at the office. And then Iva and I jumped in the Aare. I need a waterproof case for my phone so I can take some action shots as it truly is a wonderful experience I want to share! The water was a gloriously refreshing 19.5 degrees.

My 15 minutes of exercise today was walking along the river and then swimming back to the office. We were gone for about 40 minutes, and I think 10 minutes of that was swimming.

Here are my afternoon ‘close encounter’ snapshots from the garden. I enjoy the results of the olloclip we bought in Strasbourg for my birthday and should use it more. Several of the cacti have flowers at the moment. What a treat.

Wishing you a wonderful, colourful day.

July 10-12: Weekend wrap

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Sun, sun and more sun this past weekend. Combine that with not much inspiration to write, and you get another weekend wrap!

Friday I went to work and then for a quick drink with Iva and Pastora afterwards. Claudio, our regular waiter at Cafe de Pyrennes, was amazed we only stayed for one drink, but we all had things to achieve in the afternoon.

Mine was to mow the lawn for Rene, but the lawnmower is having petrol flow issues, so we canned the idea. That night, we went to dinner with The Usual Suspects (minus Eve, who is in Finland for a gymnaestrada event) which was very lovely. Leo and I ordered a tower of food, literally, which was a nice summer change to what we would normally choose.

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I almost caught Rene smiling!

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Lotti, Leo and Paul

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With Fritz and Liliane

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Leo and I shared a tower of cold food. The gazpacho was delicious

Saturday, Rene spluttered the lawnmower into life long enough to do the job and I cleaned the pool. We then spent the afternoon and evening by the pool with The Usual Suspects again, playing cards and enjoying a delicious barbecue. We watched a little bit of the women’s Wimbledon singles final but mainly we were outdoors. Congratulations Serena!

Sleep and repeat. Sunday we spent time by the pool again, but without the combined dinner. We watched pretty much all of the men’s Wimbledon singles final too. Poor Roger. I feel so disappointed for him on his quest to become the first man to win eight Wimbledon singles titles. Maybe next year? Djokovic was just too good.

I started and finished a sweet book on Sunday too – Waiting for Doggo. I’ve written a review here.

All up it was a very relaxing weekend. Very quiet. Not a lot of exercise, just some light swimming. But plenty of socialising!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

June 19: Work and play

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I didn’t write the blog yesterday because I was having too much fun! 😉

Work went well, I was there for four hours and played around on the ‘back end’ of the website, learning what does what. I’ll go back again on Monday to learn about the email orders.

Afterwards, Pastora, Iva and I went to Cafe Pyrennes, our favourite bar, and had another excellent afternoon which turned into early evening. Sandra and Kanjana joined us as well, and we saw Marion, who we’d met there a few months ago, and met Werner, who at 70 is still fighting fit and working as a stage designer in European theatres. All very interesting people!

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On the way to the bus. I think that’s potatoes growing?

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So many slugs and snails on the walk!

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Looking back at the steps down to the Dojo. There’s another set this long at the top, to the right. They’d make a good workout

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Recent rain has made the Aare brown again

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Can you see the patterns in these pieces of wood embedded in a fence?

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Iva and Pastora on the footbridge over the Aare

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Sandro with Pastora. I forgot to get a photo with Kanjana, silly me

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Werner, the theatre stage manager/designer

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Pastora and Marion

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Cows on the way home

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Corn and lovely light over Wohlen

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

April 29: What a great afternoon!

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Enjoying the intermittent sun with Pastora

It feels like Pastora and I have a good-time angel or a fairy godmother or something/one looking out for us. Every time we go to Cafe Pyrennes in Bern we always meet entertaining people.

We’ve met the Everton Football Club fans, a famous Swiss sculptor plus many more. It’s a hub of activity. Today we sat near (but didn’t talk to) the Swiss singer Polo Hofer (you can just see him to the side of Pastora in the photo) and shared a bottle of wine with his friends after he left.

My exercise today is a bit of a cheat – I had to run for the bus this afternoon before meeting Pastora. It took me 12 minutes to get to the bus, instead of 20 minutes walking, and I wasn’t puffed when I arrived early. I also walked 20 minutes home again.

Normally I don’t count walking to the bus and back as part of my fitfor15in15 but today I’ve been blessed with other kinds of fitness – mental fitness. It was a classic afternoon chatting and laughing with new people and that’s always good for my soul.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

March 10: Five-hour walk to Bern

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Well, that was a turn of events. I thought I was staying home today to study but Thursday’s plans with Pastora and Iva switched to today so we could also catch up with Kanjana. It’s not often the four of us get together (we’re all from the same German school).

Kanjana wanted to meet in the city at 3pm, after she’d finished work. Iva suggested we three should walk from my village into the city to arrive in time, and finally complete the plan we’d made in January, when the weather gods were against us.

So, full of the joys of spring, Iva and Pastora arrived in Wohlen bei Bern just before 9am and we started walking along the Aare river, direction Bern.

It was a beautiful day, sunny but cool – perfect walking conditions. When we’d been walking for an hour, I stated as much, and both of them groaned in disbelief, thinking we’d been walking for at least two hours. By the time we made it to the restaurant at the halfway point, I think Iva was ready to kill someone. By the end of the walk, she didn’t have the energy! 🙂

But for people who don’t walk often, both of them did really well. Iva said she’d like to buy walking shoes for next time, rather than wear her sneakers again. And she has a feeling she might be coming down with something, because she couldn’t believe she could feel so poorly just from walking. Pastora said she’s lying on the sofa right now, and joked she’ll probably sleep there too, because it’s too hard to get up.

Hopefully they’ll want to do another long walk again, but maybe we should do some shorter training walks first before we hit the harder stuff?! Today was about 22km, so a very good effort. We’re all proud we made it to Bern … now we just have to see how we feel tomorrow!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

February 20: A 4km run through the forest

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Sandra ready for her run. Alas we weren’t running together, only in spirit!

After seeing this photo my friend Sandra sent me this morning, I was inspired to go for a run/jog/shuffle too. The weather is amazing – all the windows are open in the house to let the fresh air in, and our jackets are hanging on the clothesline getting an airing. Sandra stepped it up a notch and ran 8km, whereas I settled on my usual 4km track. Maybe when I’m fitter, we’ll go running together?

Seems like quite a few people had the same idea to enjoy the outdoors; I came across three couples and one man out for a stroll. So sweet, seeing the oldies holding hands as they walk in the sunshine. If they’d been eating ice creams on a bench together, I probably would have burst into tears (not sure why, but that gets me every time).

Unfortunately, the icy sections in the forest still haven’t melted. I felt a bit foolish tiptoeing through the dangerous parts (it must look hilarious from a distance) so ended up walking quite a lot, for fear of doing another learner-on-roller-skates impression. Pushing off with the back foot was always the slipperiest part.

And, of course, taking photos slowed me down! I found it hard to get into any kind of rhythm but still managed the 4km in 29 minutes 32 seconds. That’ll do me I say! My third fitfor15in15 run of the year. One bad thing though – as I set off, I realised not one drop of water had passed my lips this morning. I’m making up for it now, guzzling a few litres … in a ladylike manner.

Listening to all the birds and the snow melting has filled me with the joys of spring. It’s supposed to snow again tomorrow and early next week, but today, you wouldn’t believe those weather predictions could come true. Are the seasons changing where you are? I’m feeling for all my Australian friends on the north and east coasts at the moment, suffering in the cyclones. Hope the damages aren’t too bad.

And for something totally different, the sleepy capital city of Switzerland, Bern, came alive yesterday afternoon, thanks to the visiting fans from the Everton Football Club. Their team played Young Boys last night (yes, the football team from Bern is called Young Boys; so odd) in the Europa League and in order to prepare themselves for the match, thousands of fans took over the city. Drinking beer.

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Not sure how they got up there to hang those banners, as I think it’s an office! But they did!

I was meeting my friend Pastora in our favourite bar and we ended up having a hilarious afternoon talking to some of the more refined fans from England’s north – all totally out of the ordinary and very good for the soul. (It was a sad result for Bern and a good one for Everton: 1-4.)

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Pastora with the afternoon’s entertainment – the Everton lads!

Wishing you a wonderful day.