Easter Break has Arrived

Easter Break has begun and it began in style as Jen and Hayes hosted a fabulous party yesterday afternoon/evening/night/early this morning.  There was plenty of chat, loads of food, plenty to drink, and even a mini dance club in the living room (I think most of our students would have loved to have been a fly on the wall, watching us busting a move).  It was a great night and what I hope is only the beginning to great and eventful holiday...

Picnic, Poker and a Tiny Bit of Prosecco

As yesterday was meant to be one of the nicest days of the week a group of us decided to have a picnic on the Rhine.  After a lot of food, a lot of chatter and a bit of prosecco the picnic made the natural progression  to a poker match at the Weir's flat.  Ellie was the big winner of the evening but Maria should also get a special mention here for her excellent poker face, it must have taken her years to perfect it!

Mexican Mess

Well it was never gong to happen, preparing two good meals in a row... Last night I attempted to prepare a Mexican Fiesta for some friends (Madonna concert crew), something that I cook often, and it just went wrong.  Suzanna came to help and after putting together the enchiladas we put them on the stove top to wait for guests before putting them in the oven.  After a few minutes, we began to smell burning, I had left the stove top on, creating very crusty slightly charred enchiladas... But all smiled and politely ate, at least my pudding (desert) was yummy, you can never go wrong with store bought lemon sorbet :)

Getting Better

I think I would have made Scott proud last night.  It was my second attempt at the grilled veggie dish he made for me and Babs on their vacation here, and it was so much better.  Of course, it is not to his standard just yet, but it is getting there :)

Brian, Prego and baby Amanda (well I am pushing for the name)

Looking yummy, if I do say so myself :)

Super Sunday

Super Sunday use to be my favourite day of the week in Bruton, especially in the summer.  It was a day spent in the pub garden usually relfecting on the weekend, arguing over politics and religion and taking the piss out of eachother.  Later in the evening we would go indoors for some pool and on an extra special Super Sunday wind it up with a little dancing.  So as we seem to be skipping spring and going straight into summer I really wanted to start some sort of Super Sunday here in Basel (although it will never be the same as it was in Bruton, I think possibly the rest of the world is not quite ready for it).

Starting with some Sunday lunch

As we headed to an outside bar, Lola was not convinced (she hated Super Sunday)

A walk over the bridge to meet some friends on the Rhine

A lovely day, a lot more tame then the old Super Sundays, but I think that may be a good thing :)

1977

It seems 1977 (possibly the best year in modern history) is a popular birth year at ISB and the first birthday (happy birthday Nicola) was celebrated in style last night. After a great start at my favourite sushi bar, I then headed to a music festival in Basel where I was lucky enough to watch one of Switzerland's most famous hip hop artists (I am dying to pass judgement on this but feel like that would be a bit unfair). Had a brill night and have come up with a good birthday plan for the next 77 baby next month...

The Importance of the Letter B

My father made a speech last year at his 70th birthday party about the importance of the letter B in his life and also our family.  I could never attempt to say it the way he did but a short summary is as follows: He was born in Brighton UK, raised a family in Brookville ON, his wife was from Bridgetown Barbados, his daughters both lived in Bruton UK (where he made this speech and a place he loves), his youngest now lives in Bristol UK, I now live in Basel CHF and his girlfriend is from Boston.  This speech was so effective that when I was thinking that I may go to South America one day to teach I actually looked up cities that began with B.  Anyways, when I first moved here I was not totally convinced that Basel was worthy of the 'B' status.   Probably because it was a big change for me, and I felt a bit out of depth.   However, I was wrong and I now realise how much I love the city.  I am not sure when this happened, possibly when I was walking Lola yesterday and wandered into France, or the other day when I was on a similar walk but ended up in Germany. Or the trams, or the surrounding mountains, or the fact that every time I walk in the city something different is going on, or my school, or my kids, or my great friends.  Or the simple fact that it is Spring and beautiful (happier in the warmth).  My guess is that it is a combination of all those factors and probably more, either way I can now say for certainty that Basel is more than worthy of the honour of starting with the letter 'B'.

Awesome Asa

After way too long, Awesome Asa finally makes another appearance on the blog.  I attempted to make her this delicious supper that Scott had made for me and Babs when they were here. I even called him in Cornwall for detailed directions, I went and got all the ingredients (never do that), but still even though I tried very hard there is definitely a reason he is a chef and I am a teacher...

But lovely Asa still ate it all!

 

EU Meal

So what I thought was going to be a fairly quiet dinner with Maria last night, turned out to be a bit of a European Union meal.  Two phone calls at 5pm and all of a sudden ten people were coming to dinner. They came with plenty of food, drink and chat (in German, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and of course me in English).  We ate, we drank, we laughed, they cleaned, they left, it was a perfect evening.

My new roommate as of May!

Check out Lola's eyes

In fact I would never even known they were there last night
except the fact that they left it cleaner than it was before!

Background

For those of you who check my blog regularly you may have noticed I am having a bit of an 'identity blog' crisis.  I am trying to get the best Swiss Spring background I can.  I shall stick with this one for a bit, but I imagine in a few days I will try to top it.  You do not even want to imagine the time I have put in changing it over the last week, fairly ridiculous really.  On the plus side all this time trying to create ultimate background is keeping me out of trouble ;).

Happy Mothering Sunday

I want to wish all the wonderful mothers in the UK a Happy Mothering Sunday (well all mothers really, but know many others celebrate in May). I hope you are all being spoilt rotten and/or spoiling your mother rotten. Also a very special first mothering Sunday to someone I know will be as wonderful a mother as she is a friend. African Queen Manning-Thomas, I hope you are enjoying your day with your beautiful baby girl, I am so happy for you.

Nadia and Saba (born two weeks ago), I cannot wait to meet her.

Happy St.Paddy's Day

First...

BBQ of the year. A beautiful day followed by a beautiful evening and night, spent on the river Rhine sipping wine, guzzling beer and eating from what I could see burnt sausages (as I am veggie I just compensated with drink).

The 7 P's

I grew up always hearing my father recite a version of the British Army's 7 P's 'Piss Poor Planning Promotes Piss Poor Performance' and at some point I would like to claim that these became more than just words to me.  But sadly no.  Today is parents day/night, interviews from 8:30am-7:00pm, and most sensible teachers would have had a quiet evening last night in preparation.  But not clever me, instead I decided to have some people over for dinner, people that did not have the same day as me to look forward to.  And now I am paying the price of not listening to my Dad and am a little bit tired, but I am sure I will have learnt my lesson this time..

Camera Shy or Difficult?

As you may have noticed, I changed our background picture a few times in the last week (I am determined to get at least an 80% approval rating!).  So over the last few days I have been trying to get the perfect spring picture to use (it has been beautiful here, very warm and sunny).    I thought it may even be a good idea to get a picture of Lola for the background...  But I did know that this maybe a difficult task (for those that do not know Lola has always been terribly camera shy, in fact even the sight of a camera makes her shake uncontrollably).  However,  over the last few months, she has gotten much better, so I thought I would give it a go.  But apparently she had different ideas, and you know I am not sure now if it is a phobia or just her way of being difficult....

She would look at me smiling..

and then quickly turn her head (about 50 times).

Only picture I got that vaguely had her face but thought not great as background