Perfect Sunday

After a beer festival, long drive and some rain, a day of crap food, wine, good friends and sad sappy movies is just what the doctor ordered.

I could only take a picture of our indulgences, I think a picture of me and Karen (well me anyways, think Karen always looks fabulous) would have shattered my camera (and by camera I obviously mean phone, not sure most of my pupils have even seen a camera)!

Stuttgart Beer Festival

I think the photos say it all...

Think it is safe to say I may return :)

Tuesday ...

seems to have become my new Thursday which was previously known as the new Friday. I have decided that one night sitting around doing nothing is quite enough. So to celebrate the start of my new weekend the girls came around for, you guessed it, Mexican.

Summer's Return

It has been a glorious weekend, as summer has made a return and looks like it will stick around for at least the next week. This was reason enough to spend a weekend out and about in Basel.  Starting Friday night, finally a night out with Suzanna :)  A good night out, to start off the weekend.  Saturday, a day watching Liam at rugby, and enjoying after game fun :)   Out again for Skyler's birthday
And today is another beautiful day.  Me and Lola went to watch Suzanna run the 10km race in Basel, she was absolutely brilliant (I am not sure I could finish 0.5km!)

The Newbies

It is hard to believe that now in my third year at ISB I am almost considered a veteran, a title that I think holds a lot of responsibility when welcoming the new staff. So last night I had a few of the 'newbies' over for dinner, I filled them full of the important crucial knowledge I have acquired over the last few years (basically that Klein Basel has better bars than Gross Basel) and enlightened them to the rules of an Amanda dinner party (no helping, no red wine and for goodness sake I am not making coffee or tea for that matter!). The rules were followed, almost, (Emily broke the helping one) and hopefully all enjoyed themselves.

Some proper veterans also came, have missed them!! Had a lovely night welcoming the newbies, and hoping they went away learning something new about Basel (or at least that there are way better places than Paddy's on a Saturday night!).

It's Over

Well there is no denying it, as much as I have argued (just randomly at the weather as I walk) that summer does not end until September 21st and I am owed a few more days, autumn has arrived. The leaves are changing, it is dark when I wake up and darker every morning when I take Lola out. So I have conceded and tried to embrace the beginning of the next six months that I traditionally despise by taking some lovely autumn walks.  Today going to a pumpkin farm hampering down and enjoying comfort food with friends (soup inspired by pumpkin farm)I am going into these next two seasons with positivity this year (if this lasts past the first frost I will be amazed ;)).

New Discoveries

The longer I live in Basel the more I discover (which makes total sense), and yesterday was one of my greatest discoveries yet, the annual drum and base festival/parade. Totally expecting an average overcast Saturday Chris and Pia took me to what now goes down as my best day in Basel. Reliving Crop Over behind the calypso/reggae truck (although rum and wee wee truck were missed).  We partied under the bridge, dancing and watching it all go by.

A new discovery and great day/ night in Basel, this city is just full of new surprises :)

Survived

A few days on, several doctor appointments later, it looks like I may survive the spider bite. I could think of no better way of celebrating what feels like a second lease of life then dinner with the Romanians and Claire.

 Delicious

 happy meal.

My Romanian girls, gotta love them :)

Spider Woman

For the past five weeks I have been complaining and dealing with a wrist full of torn ligaments that just will not repair. Well the pain of the wrist is now forgotten as I deal with an infected spider bite that had to be sliced open today. I will say it does make me realise how lucky I am to be in a country with brilliant health care. In two seconds of seeing me the drugs, anti-freeze, needles and knives came out. Now all bandaged up, barely able to move but on the road to recovery!

As my cousin pointed out maybe spider man will now finally get his spider woman!

Montreux Vino

We woke up worried, it looked dark and stormy but we remained positive and in the end it was fabulous.  Our task was to visit several vineyards in Montreux, having a course at each stop.  We were given a wine glass to wear around our necks, a starting time and we were ready.  

What a fantastic day!  We ended up on the bubbles stop and there we stayed for probably a bit too long!  This is a must do, everyone put it on your bucket list or whatever you call it.

Lausanne

I am trying to do something new and exciting every other weekend, explore new cities, mountains and vineyards etc. Did mountains last time and this weekend city and vineyards with Mark, Becky and their friend Dan. Have spent the day in beautiful Lausanne (5th biggest city in Switzerland) and tomorrow will tick off the vine yards.

So excited for tomorrow!!

September Wine

September wine club outside is a risk, could be cold and rainy or you could be lucky and beautiful and hot. Well this year we were more than lucky, at 8pm it was still 28 degrees and lovely. And even better we had a fantastic hostess and I came away having learnt a lot.
Lola just loves Asa, her first choice always to sit with.  Not that I minded at all ;) But she did realise eventually that mummy was a bit jealous.
A great informed hostess who introduced me to my new favourite wine, an American gem (hostess and wine). As always great company.  Lovely to have two out of the three Weirs (Ellie and the one that will arrive sometime in early January)
A lovely evening and a big thanks to Erin for a great night.

William's Gifts

Last night William very kindly had a few of us over to help him eat and drink all his birthday gifts from last week.  He put on a lovely spread of various cheeses and a few little bottles of wine (I had actually given him the year before). Raluca and Ellie came looking like movie stars, as always. And as always a lovely evening and I think we achieved Williams objective (as on my way to the shop to buy three diet cokes ;)).

Girlie Reunion

After what has seemed like forever, Suzanne has returned from work/holiday, I am back and it looks like we maybe in the same place for more than a week or two for sometime. To celebrate this, Suzanne invited me, the Romanians and Claire out for a long over due catch up meal.  She very very generously treated us to an extra yummy sushi meal. It was lovely to catch up and I look forward to all the adventures that we are bound to get up this year.