I just want a plain cup of coffee.....

T adores school, and we had our first parent night last week (and they also provide day-care and pizza for it!), and we think it is a Good thing. She especially adores the English day on Wednesdays, of course, but they will be teaching her to read and write in English (well, American). The lunches here are also a battle, but she accpets that she will starve otherwise (which she frequently does, but I hope that by the time she is 18, she will bend to my will (I wish)). Her timetable is much different - only one playtime for 30 mins just before lunch, and then just lessons. Saying that, I suppose they have "organized play" in the form of PE each afternoon. She comes home knackered.

The teachers are all around the 30 mark, and all very enthusiatic, and, quite frankly, youthful, so very animated, and non-shouty. The teacher is getting her to speak whole sentences when she asks for things, but I saw her skipping in class the other day (her, not the teacher. Not quite that young), which is a good sign, possibley.

JB wants us to be a Host Family for some of the stagiaires. As they are all French, female and 20, I have said "Mmmmm, not sure about that". (unless of course it is someone called Pierre).I have a started a gym. It's close by with a great pool. It will off-set all the junk-food. Alas there is lots. Rubbish coffee too, unfortunately. I will have to get a Nespresso (although you have to get the coffee via mail-order).

I am organizing wood to be delivered, and also someone to clean the drive-way from snow next week. It hasn't started snowing yet, but I reckon it will be soon. The house is toasty though. Apparently, the bloke who does your lawn in the summer, does your drive in the winter.

I have found somewhere which sells Boots face-cream and Birds Custard. In the same aisle (not really).

I will be going to TJMexx next week (TJ, not TK, note) for a winter coat.

I am having very strange experiences here where I speak to a shop assistant, and then realise they didn't understand a single word I have said. It has happened here several times now - YET NEVER OCCURRED IN GENEVA! Damn t' Northern accent. However, it is probably my own fault, as I am linguistically, slowly turning into Mary Poppins, or on a bad day, Dick Van Dyke, using lots of phrases like "Heavens above!", "That coat looks awfully jolly, do you have it in my size?" etc.

Home Sweet Home

We have finally moved into our house (it smells like an old person's home), in Minnetonka.

The weather is brilliant - freezing cold mornings and baking afternoons. I've spent up at Super-Target....all the supermarkets here are great....I feel as if I've come from a third-world country, and just stand in the aisles gawping at the choice.

I tried to ring Australia last night for work, and misdialled as I didn't know the international code AND A REAL WOMAN CAME ON THE PHONE!!!! It was like TV - "hello, this is the operator, which number do you require?".

I did my theory driving test today...a bit of a cheat, as bridgjo did his first (and did all the studying), and, we were told you can only do the test once a day, as they only change the questions each day...so I asked him the Qs and went in the affie - tee hee. Been doing loads of driving since I got here. Think I'll do one of those driving in the snow courses agin. I did one in England, and the bloke kept throwing inflatable sheep at my car so I'd swerve on the oil.

Now got cable (no TeeVo yet), and a phone, and internet. And a funny smell in the basement.

Bridgjo came home at lunch-time and we both ran upstairs and in and out of the house, as we kept hearing this banging sound, seemingly really close. When the cable bloke came in he told us it was the ice-machine on the fridge (never had one before!).

Where are my Knickers?

We arrived at the hotel yesterday, aiming to spend the night there and then move into the house this morning. The cable was booked for 10. Furniture was being delivered between 9 and 11. So we popped round to check it all out. And found it hadn't actually been cleaned. Seemingly ever (they had had a rather furry husky-type beast). Not keen on cleaning out someone else's fridge when only 24 hrs previously I had cleaned out my own thinking "God, if I moved here, I'd think this was pretty disgusting...". JB told me that there weren't gutters at all, "but just a run-off, see"...but it turns out that they are in fact gutters, but have turned into run-offs, see.

So we have holed ourselves up in the hotel until Tuesday now, trying to have everything rescheduled, which isn't easy as the TV needs to be there before the cable man (why wouldn't he have a min TV to test with?), and the furntiure after the cleaner, and the cleaner following the carpet-cleaner.

I'M NOT COMING OUT! And I'll be blowed if I can find out where I've put all my knickers....

Doomsday Approacheth

Whilst the world's eyes rest bewildered on Geneva and potential black-holes, we are more concerned that we have had to eat spaghetti and Dolmio sauce for the second night in a row. Although tonight we did have strawberry tarts too.

B went out for a walk and just felt as if he was in a foreign country...lots of bars, places and streets he doesn't recognise, and even managed to get lost. He also crept into McDo for a clandestine cheeseburger. Humph, Dolmio not good enough for you, huh?

I spent the day avoiding the cleaning, by meeting lots of people for coffee, and wandering about Troinex completely convinced that I will spy my lost wallet out of the corner of my eye (at which point I will smile to myslef and say "Oh, of course, now I remember...").

I have said good-bye to my neighbour and exchanged e-mail addresses. She said I was very nice (a very high Swiss compliment), and could she have my olive tree?

Tomorrow we will be cementing our relationship by cleaning the house together (with some extra help in the afternoon from the Troinex Ladies Cleaning Army).

I wept as I mowed the lawn.

The Last Supper

We are shortly on the move yet again, meaning of course, that not only must we, alas, have to drink all the wine in the cellar, but I am not longer allowed to go shopping for food, as everything we need, according to Mr Kitchen, is available to us either dried (pasta) or frozen (something brown in a box). I suspect that by the time Monday night rolls round, we will be left with spag and Birds Custard.

The weather is dreadful, so we are spending the day arguing about doing the cleaning and packing. We have achieved lots (in the falling out areas), but not much actual physical "aren't our suitcases heavy?"-type areas.

And then I lost my wallet. Which ironically followed the day I lost my car-keys. Meaning I had to swallow my pride and go around exactly the same shops I had done the previously day, asking practically the same question. And what did I have in my wallet? No idea, I'm afraid. Certainly not much money, but probably the kind of cards it is a real pain to replace, for very little worth eg Co-op and Migros cards.