Mrs. Maria's Aladdin

... will probably go from ISB straight to Broadway.   Last night was the opening night of Aladdin at the Junior school.  The kids gave an amazing performance, which was always going to be the case with the very talented Mrs. Maria as their director.
It was fantastic and I am so proud of her.

One in Eight

The year before I came to Basel, the spring started in early March and by May it was full on summer, as it had been year after year since all seem to remember. While last spring (my first one) did not see the best April and beginning of May, it certainly picked up by now and spring had turned into summer. But not this year, this year there seem to be one or two beautiful days (like today) followed by a week of rain and cold. It is beginning to drive every one a little bit crazy. And you know it is really bad when I would love to go to London for a few days just for the weather...

Klein Basel...

Is just that much cooler than Grosse Basel. When I first got here I was told that Klein Basel was slightly dodgy, the wrong side of the tracks (or bridge in this case) and possibly it is, but that is probably what makes it that much better...

Last May Bank Holiday

Yesterday me, Suzanne, Chris, Pia and of course Lola used the last bank holiday of May to hike up our first mountain of the year. It was a lovely healthy way to spend the day, especially if some of us had over indulged this long weekend...

At the top, highest in Basel land.

Yippee!!

Yippee, Suzanne is finally here, of course it is a fleeting visit but nonetheless she is here! Giving us the chance to finally celebrate her birthday. We started with a little party at ours..
Great to have her back, we miss her when she is gone!!!

New Wardrobe

Last night Claire hosted a swap dinner, people brought things that they did not want anymore, clothes, books, movies etc.. Most people brought a bag with a few things, but not Maria, Maria had about eight bin bags full (I wish I had taken a picture!), and now thanks to her I am already for next winter! Two new winter jackets, ski outfit, leather coat, bag, I love Maria! And on top of all my new things I also got a fabulous chef Claire dinner and spent the evening with some great friends :)
And today promises to be another great day as finally Suzanna is home (albeit for a couple if days!)

Another Expensive Lesson Learnt

Well today I can check off the list another very Swiss, must be unique to Switzerland thing, taking my car for its annual (I assume annual) check up.  I have really never experienced anything like it, totally efficient (no surprises here) and completely thorough (guess no surprise again).  They took my car through at exactly 8:40am, I by passed the cars that were queueing ahead of me as that was my time, it went through rigorous tests with the wheels, under the car, in the car, the bonnet, testing of the brakes and then a race around at high speeds testing whatever.   I am quite positive most cars in most countries would fail this and explains why you see no 'old cars' here.  Oh and I failed, not because of any engine problems, brake problems, lights not working, steering issues, but due to the fact that my tires were dirty (never mind it was pouring rain all week) and my lights blinked at slightly different speeds...

And to be fair the car is actually pretty clean!  Anyways, now to pay the garage a massive bill to do these things (apparently 700 Euroish) and then back to test again..

The Hopkins

On the way to the airport on Monday night I spoke to my friend Shelly about the Hopkin family, about how they are the kindest, nicest family in the world. We agreed that even when we try to explain this to people we get annoyed as we could never possibly get across to them how genuinely fabulous they all are unless they took a trip to Lock island to meet them. I am so proud to be considered to be part of this family and happy that I could be with them at this time.

The entire day was incredibly moving. Saying good bye is never easy, it is especially hard when you have to say those good byes long before you should. To be there and see a family pull together so tightly was so special and I am so honoured to have been a part of it. Lee you will be missed by all.

Meat vs Sunshine

It has been a great weekend, Salamanca is truly a beautiful city and on top of that, it was sunny and hot making it the perfect destination. I think we all had different highlights, I could hardly appreciate the meat feast that went on and most could not appreciate my need to melt in the sun, but I know we all had a fantastic time and this trip will be remembered fondly.

Thanks Mark for taking us to this place, I had a fabulous time and I cannot wait to visit you in Quito.

Salamanca by Night

Crazy

Fun

Salamanca by Day

Historically

Beautiful

Cheap cheap

One of the best things about living in Switzerland is it makes almost everywhere else in the world cheap. Possibly, a few years ago I would have thought Madrid was expensive, but compared to Basel this place is dirt cheap. Although this appears to be a good thing you do end up shopping more, eating more and drinking more...

So while the rest of the team went to a bull fight, I spent the night shopping (also dangerous the shops are open forever). And I slowly changed my clothes till almost everything I was wearing was new.

After the bull fight, we met back up and wandered around the fantastic city of Madrid.

Madrid

You gotta love a four day weekend, and you have to love it a little bit more when you head off to Spain to give Mark a send off to remember.

Fabulous flat to stay (thanks to Jens lovely friend Emily). Something tells me we are going to have a good night before heading off to our main destination tomorrow.

Wonder ladies

I feel very funny about writing a blog at this time, I guess I feel like it is possibly disrespectful, that life goes on for me when time has stopped for people that are very close to my heart right now.  Basically, there is not too much to write, as a large portion of my weekend was spent thinking of these people.  But on Friday night I did go to dinner at Karen's (new friend and newish to the blog) for dinner and I was given this water glass and happened to take a picture of it.  Not only do I love the women on it, but also thought it was an appropriate picture today, as today many many people will be gathering to remember and talk about Donna.

Also today, another Wonder women was taken away from us, far too early and Dad and Nicola I am thinking of you both today as well.

Me and Karen (imagine you will be seeing quite a bit of her on here too)

Lee and Donna

I have woken up to a very dark and gloomy morning and two pieces of information I was dreading. Two very close and special people in my life were taken by cancer last night.

Lee, a man in his early forties, leaving two gorgeous children and family behind. A man that I was fortunate enough to spend many Christmas's and Hopkin family events with. A kind, caring, artistic, gentle man who was clearly taken far too young by this terrible disease. To the Hopkin family and particularly Jake and Frankie all my thoughts and love are with you.

Donna, a women who had a huge part in raising me and I consider one of the closest members of my family. Living next door and being one of my mothers best friends, we spent many Christmas's, thanksgiving and Easters together, she was a huge support to my family and was truly a wonderful lady. She leaves behind 6 beautiful grand children and a huge network of very devastated family and friends.

The world has lost two tremendous people today.

Loud and Possibly Abnoxious

I had to feel a bit badly for the French couple, who came out for a nice, probably quiet meal and were sat in the same room as thirty plus, loud, possibly tipsy English speakers. But if they knew the person and reason behind our celebration I am sure they would have joined right in. It was Aunty Em's 35th birthday dinner and to be honest the people beside us were lucky that this dinner only represented a tiny sample of all the people that love her and would have liked to have been there (bloody Chelsea vs. Basel!).
Another French meal, another pound away from bikini season!

The Amazing Race

What an amazing bank holiday I had today (except for my devastating morning finding my birthday Moët exploded in freezer), participating in the first ever Basel Amazing Race. For those who do not know the TV show it is a world wide race with clues and challenges competed in pairs, a bit like a scavenger hunt.

Claire was my partner and there was a teeny bit of pressure on us to win after I went on and on last night at wine club about destroying every other team (but of course was only kidding as know it is of course not all about winning ;)).

We killed the first challenge, bundling newspaper, Swiss style, which would have given us a big head start had we not run the wrong way...

The view from the clock tower, which we had to sprint up after falling even further behind on clues two and three. This lead us to

the Rhine and boat crossing where we annoyingly found Jeff and Ginelle already waiting for the boat and

two teams actually on the boat.  But we made it on and across the Rhine and ended up gaining loads of time by running across the bridge (rather than most other teams who returned on the slow boat) and

by Claire mastering the boat challenge, definitely best boat of the day.

We finally found the last challenge and clue at the zoo and sprinted (well more like an awkward looking limp jog at this point) to the finish

where we came a joint third with Chris and Pia, who were originally fourth but after a lot of sulking to Tess got bumped to joint third with us(reckon they felt sorry for them;)).
It was a great day and a big thanks to Jen and Tess for organising.