Red or Black

The question of the moment, and she knows what I mean!!!!

I am constantly inspired to do things with the house, but then am overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. Room by room is the answer, but by tidying one room another becomes messy. Hmmm!

Enough procrastinating, on with the bin bags!!!

Red / Black?

You need a hint?

Moving along

Yesterday was relatively successful. Moving forward with the kitchen (hotte man coming friday am! and meeting with kitchen guy next week), bought new Dyson vacuum cleaner, fun fun.

Stocked up on beer and wine, in preparation for xmas. Need to think what I can get for the chalet that i can take up now - carrying a frozen turkey up across the snow is no joke. Oh and kids, we are doing xmas at the chalet this year, do not be surprised!!!!

Still buying xmas decorations, after all these years, but they are so tempting :)

This photo is from November last year, looking after two little yorkies for a friend. Memories.

Oh, and my dad called last night to let me know he is in hospital. As normal we had a weird conversation, but I think he is ok, you never know. It is his 81st birthday next Monday!!

So little time...

This is the new chalet kitchen, almost finished.....

Every wednesday, my official day off work, I set myself a list of things to do. This is always longer than the time available, and as I am daunted by it I delay starting for as long as possible. Yes, I know that doesn't help, but its what I do.

So here i am again, on wednesday, procrastinating. From his FB posts, my son thinks he is the only one who does this, but it is quite obvious where he gets it from, bless him!

So off to do battle with the geneva kitchen suppliers. Wish me luck!

Mwah!

time to play

I am exhausted today, not sleeping well twinned with unresolved personal issues. I should be doing housework, and I have done some, but am procrastinating by updating my blog!!

My first photo on the blog!!!

This is from the summer / autumn. After the chairlift closes by the chalet and the mountain bikers have gone, the farmer lets the cows out onto the slope outside our kitchen window. I love the babble of cow bells.

We now have snow on the piste, but it may not stay!!

(proud of myself, to have posted a photo. Little things...)

Off to hoover etc...

Snow?

Yes, here I am sitting in the chalet looking at the snow laden trees outside. Yesterday it did not stop snowing, gentle drizzle all day and its only October. Break out the fondue and tartiflette!!!!

We have a new dishwasher, and it works. We had brought up our old one from geneva, but it went schizo on us. Firstly it would fill up and not drain, then a week later it would drain but not fill up. Very strange. The new one is a very similar design, which is a help as I don't need to retrain people how to use it. You know the people I mean, the ones who claim they don't know how to load the dishwasher, so leave dirty plates etc on the side by it. Pff!

It is time for changing bedclothes on the chalet beds, ready for the new ski season, tis fun but back breaking. And I have discovered that the bunk beds will come apart into single beds. This is a definite plus for me. I will seriously have to plan the rooms now. :D

More soon......

Growing up

Both the eldest children (children being a term used loosely to describe a 19 and a 20 year old) are safely back at their respective universities, York and Durham. Neither have internet in their houses. Liam because it is the first time he has rented and is waiting for all the house mates to arrive before finalising things. Katie because the landlord decided to drop the connection because his son is no longer living in the basement, this at the end of August with about two weeks notice. So both are entering the real world and sorting out their lives. They are so grown-up now, proud but scared mother :)

Still dragging last child into the real world though, and convincing her that criticism is positive not negative. She is getting there, it will be a slow and sometimes cruelly painful process!!

I just love being a parent.

Oooo, went out to friends last night and had an excellent curry, with strictly come dancing as a side dish!! Fab time :) :)

Housework today to bring me back to earth, bleah.

its been a while...

I have just realised that i haven't posted since the beginning of summer. Its not surprising really, it was quite a busy and emotional time.

Holidays.......two weeks in not so sunny Ireland.....ideal for us as we were suffering from 30+degrees here in |Geneva. Liam came out of himself and took himself for walks of discovery, coming back with a camera full of photos. He mainly stalked herons, but he def had fun. Sarah enjoyed herself, especially the spa treatment we had together. And the last week in Kinvarra was heaven on earth. People are just soooo friendly there. I am sure living there instead of visiting is different, but still we had a blast and now know all the counties of Ireland and their car number plate codes (struggled with the K's a bit but got there in the end...Kerry, Kilkenny, Kildare, and hohum I forget).

Katie, the eldest daughter, ended up having a mare of a summer. Very emotional and exhausting. Still not quite resolved, but hopefully will be soon. She is my rock when she is here and motivates me to be a better person. She does like shopping though, and I am now on several missions for her, mainly involving clothes from Kookai. :)

Both the older children went back to uni this last weekend, and both have to organise Internet for themselves. They are so grown up now, its scary. Liam of course left his computer charger behind and managed to take a pair of his fathers jeans with him. Strange boy!

The rush of back to school is almost officially over, and I will soon have time for myself. I seriously need a haircut, and more highlights, or something different.....

ciao H

dog sitting

We have the pleasure of dog sitting for a few select friends. The dog has to be small and well behaved generally. On our list we have Poppy, Lily and Snowball.

Poppy is a Staffordshire bull terrier, black and looks like a seal. She is extremely nervous and not well trained to heel, but loves the freedom of the mountains, and adores snow. Whenever we give her back she sulks a week, this is to tell her family off for not being there for her.

Lily is an adorable Westie, and she barks at anything that moves. During the ski season she sits on the chalet terrace barking at the chairlift, and the passing skiers. In the summer she barks at the cows, the walkers, the vtt bikers, anything. We looked after her for a month last summer, and after a week at the chalet she had lost her voice and sounded like a squeaky toy. Funny!!

We now have Snowball, a bichon frisee, i think. Very well behaved. He has seriously gained weight since we last had him, and we are putting him on a diet. he has a way of looking at you to ask if is ok that he does something, usually going up or down the stairs, or jumping on the sofa. He also has a little grunt, which means he wants something. We are ignoring the grunts for now :) He is however the only dog we sit which tolerates our cat, which means that the cat is not locked up in the computer room and we dont have to go around shutting and opening doors to facilitate the moving of animals without one seeing the other.

Have had a lovely restful weekend, braced for the week ahead.

Katie home soon, she will teach me how to link and upload photos, if i havent worked it out myself by then.

ciao

New car!!

Yay, we have our new car, and two days ahead of schedule, almost unheard of but then this is switzerland, home of the clock-makers. Anyways, hubbie was pushing me (me!) to get a quote for the insurance on Monday, because he was in a meeting all day (pfff!). The agent was uber friendly, but when he asked for details about the car, I knew the make, that it may be diesel, wheels at each corner and it would be light brown (cafe latte to be exact). I giggled like the blonde I pretend to be when it helps, and he said he would ring the garage for the details. Then his email with quote, he suggested we ring the garage...........thinking that this meant the car would be delayed :( we rang, no hubbie rang, I had managed to pass the buck, and surprise, surprise, the car was there and ready to collect, wednesday and not friday. WOW!!!!! Huge panic getting money and insurance organised. But we are now the proud owners of a brand new Qashqai +2. Tis infinitely quieter than the terrano :)

Now just have to resolve the love-life of one of my colleagues....

Back at the chalet, it is the weekend after all, and enjoying the sunshine and relaxation. This week was a bit "flou" for me. Sort of crazy, not according to plan with the car and two meetings at school during my off time, and not very productive me wise.

Hmmm.

Off to the sun.....ciao!

cars bah humbug

we were a family of five with four cars :o The sporty MGF (summer use only), the 4x4 for going up to the chalet, and two volvos.

we are now a family of three (the older two children are at uni in the UK) with two cars. We have sold the volvos, sad to see the ultra powerful S80 go, but that's progress, and it was too expensive to keep. Now we have the 4x4 and the MGF. We are replacing the 4x4 with a Qashqai +2 at the end of the month (soon) and it would seem that the terrano knows what we are doing. It always had a few problems with the electric windows, one of the back ones never opened. Now the shocks have gone.....not too bad. But the small hole in the flexible hose connecting the exhaust to the engine just grew and grew and grew, so that now the car sounds like a B52 bomber. It is embarrassing to drive, and I am now at the point where I will just wait until the new car is ready. This means that the car we can use is the MGF, which is so much fun (now the battery has been replaced) and very pose worthy. :p

Wanted to write more but small child (16 now) is dragging me off to fitness dance!!

BBQ success....

Yay, bbq sausages with mash and gloop! The bbq uberheated all of last years fat and crap off and then ran out of gas, only we did not notice the running out of gas bit as we were trying to cool it down anyway. So the sausages took a little longer to cook than anticipated, but all was good and tasty. My gloop is a variation of ratatouille, this time aubergine (egg plant) cubed, fried and mixed with chopped tomato, garlic and balsamic vinegar. Simmer, simmer, simmer and there you have it :) All washed down with the obligatory red wine......yummy.

I will chat about the car tomorrow, too much wine for now....

Busy day

Four years ago, we bought a chalet in the mountains. This was sort of planned, but not quite right timing-wise. The chalet is on the piste in our favourite ski-resort, Portes-de-Soleil (I bet I could link this but dont know how), in France, and it is a 90min drive from our house in Geneva. We go up at the weekends for skiing in the winter and walks/bbqs in the summer. It is beautiful up there, but a tad isolated at times.

I am there now, and we have spent a super-active day pottering around in the chalet and in the garden, just doing stuff!! I have sanded and stained the handrail on the terrace, helped clear branches that Mike chopped off the tree with his extendable chopping machine. He also has a new circular saw which he used to cut the last piece of floorboard for the storeroom.

And now, the big question, will the bbq light??? sausages and mash tonight, I am always a bit scatty when it comes to meals up here and we tend to make do.

too much to do

My daughter who blogs posts something almost every day. Its usually not much, but she uploads photos and it is interesting. Even though we have fb and msn, her blog is my way of keeping in touch.

I, however, am on my third post in two months. It must be a generational thing.

I do have lots to say, but so little time. I will try harder. :D

Got to go pay for darts meal, buy clothes for said daughter, and ring kitchen designer.

Laters...

Long time no blog...:(

My last update was the day before my older two children came home from uni. I am uber happy to see them again, esp as son did not have any luggage to mislay this time (why he brought so many clothes home, and a towel, last time is anybody's guess, he only gets through one pair of jeans, couple of boxers and a t shirt a week).

in the week and a half since my last blog i have:

- been to work for three days, i dont work wednesdays and took friday off

- dragged boy to hairdressers and left him there, always frightening as living in geneva you have to tell them what you want in french, and he never knows what he wants, hehe.

- visited the IB art vernissage at school, not as good as previous years, one or two good pieces but otherwise no depth.

- went to the mountains, 15cm at least of fresh snow, but too heavy to ski in for me, walked up to the restaurant for lunch in hot spring sunshine, walked down in a snowstorm.

- contracted sore throat from youngest child, or could blame snowstorm!!

- am now looking after dog for a friend, she is adorable, dog not friend, although friend is sweet too.

I am now on a mission, as my husband has given the go ahead for a new kitchen. I need to get my head round what i want, with many little voices in my head. Saw two very different but very tempting styles today, am now confused, and tempted to curl up as i often do when confronted by tough decisions, but no, will force myself to battle on and conquer the kitchen demon. A bit too dramatic, but you get what i mean.

Day 2 of the experiment

Yay, I have mastered (pfff)how to get back on to my blog. Huge step forwards! Yesterday was soooo busy. Work started slowly, then kaboom, one of the cleaners whose French is heavily accented came in again. I thought this was the continuation of the holiday incident (we had lost three of her days, how this is possible I don't know, but I have a better idea now) but no, we got down and dirty with her divorce and her tax papers and the ex is a shit (but I think she still has feelings). Anyway she has problems, and we had to sort them out before she has a chance of getting back to some sort of normality. I managed to navigate around the swiss tax website and organised the deadline for her tax return to be put back to the end of June. Breathe. Today she is going to want me to find for her a solicitor, this is going to be tricky, but hey-ho!

Other stuff during the afternoon ranged from the new swiss rules regarding child seats, now obligatory for children under 12 and shorter than 150cm, to the usual "where is my coffee delivery". I googled some sites to try and find the actual law but found more frustration and some casual responses. One parent whose child is 12 but is 2cm off the limit was concerned until someone pointed out that the police were unlikely to be going around with a measuring tape......and it seems that teachers cant survive without coffee. Actually its more us the admin staff that can't..

Had a darts training session in the evening. we always eat beforehand. I have been avoiding the steak because it has not been good in recent weeks, but I tried it again last night. Big mistake, so my stomach says. Training was fun, but my mind wasn't in it.

Enough for now I think, more thoughts tomorrow.

First post :)

Sitting doing FB and reading my daughters blog....putting off doing the housework for as long as possible. Impulsively signed up for my own blog and now realise that this may be an excellent excuse to not mop the floors OR it may turn out to be something else I avoid doing :S. Only time will tell. Breakfast, COFFEE, cleaning!! Back soon, if I can find my way back.....