When only one of you is studying

Don't ever marry someone who hasn't a clue what it's like to study! And don't ever try studying in a house with wooden floors! And don't ever have wooden floors in a house where a man is living!! Grrrrh! It takes quite a bit for me to get into the mood to study and all of a sudden I have the bug! But getting my head down is quite daunting as there are always things (other) to be done: watering the new seeds I have sown, dusting when I realise I can write my name on the lid of the piano, making the bed which has happily lain unmade for days, writing my blog when I should be onto JStor looking up papers that I can crib from! Etc. But the minute I do get my head down OAP wants lunch, or tea and a scone, or my help replacing some wiring that our resident (but unseen) mouse has snacked on - plunging our whole house into darkness! This task I willingly participated in otherwise I can't watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire? tonight. But the other jobs I just ignored and every time OAP tried to converse I just muttered "Mmm Hmm" and carried on typing. With the result that he found all sorts of things do do up here in my sanctuary (our bedroom unfortunately!) and every time he walked past my desk the floor went bounce bounce bounce until I felt like pushing him down the stairs! I won't do it now that I have confessed that I was tempted because I know I will get found out! ANyway its now sundowner time and I am going to join him for a Bucks Fizz before making macaroni cheese and a huge salad!

Our last few days of a very short holiday

On Friday we went to our favourite thermal baths and listened to whales under water and Mozart. Every now and then we went outside to the larger pool seen here where we were swirled around in the jet pool and lay on the bubble beds, had our heads and necks pummelled under jets of water and stood in intense bubble pools to aerate our bodies. We both went to the Hammam and steamed ourselves into a coma then back for a last whale and Mozart refrain before hauling ourselves out and home for a late lunch. We are trying to eat all the food that OAP in his squirrel like fashion bought when we first arrived! We worked out that if we cook masses of food and consume it every night we wont have to throw anything away! He bought 46 eggs for God's sake - I never want to see an egg again! We are down to two packs of chicken breasts, a pizza and 500 gms mince - I shall be glad to go back on diet again would you believe - well, OK, I don't believe it either!! But I will try as I really enjoyed my smaller figure and the fact that all my clothes fitted better and nothing pinched. Only trouble was that I had just splashed out on larger clothes but I am sure that one day I will fit back in them (especially if I go on eating like this!).

Yesterday, after a huge eggy breakfast, we took the telecabine up to the top and walked up higher to see the "new lake". What a disappointment! There was no water in it! But apparently it fills during October and November and the water is used for making snow on the slopes. This last winter, we are told, it came in very handy as they had strange weather and very little snow in the middle of the season. They were able to make snow on the slopes every night and none of the visitors realised it wasn't God-given natural snow! Itwould be nice if it was full during the summer months especially as they apparently had one of the wettest June and Julys in years! Perhaps its just as well we couldn't come here earlier. After walking down through the trees to Taveyenne we found our favourite picnic spot and had bread, cheese and water for lunch then slogged back up to the Telecabine and back down to our car.

Today we are in "preparation for close down" mode. OAP is doing the paperwork which he always leaves till the last minute and I am packing clothes and bedding away. We had a 3 month let last winter and are hoping for one again this winter. I don't have to leave bedding out for them so am packing it all neatly into plastic bags and storing it. We have done a lot of ruthless clearing out this visit - OAP actually managed to go through a suitcase filled with his ex's and son's clothing. He, of course in true squirrel fashion, tried to keep the lot but after he left me alone in the garage (where the case was stored) I managed to weed out lots from his "keep" pile, then rushed it all off to the decheterie (the most organised, cleanest, tip you have ever seen! EVERYTHING is carefully sorted and put into special bins. They wouldn't even take the clothing until I had bought bags and seperated it: Mens and ladies, pants, shirts, socks, undies, etc.). We now have a bit more room to store stuff when we leave on Wednesday.

I can't wait to get back to Utopia to see how the garden is doing, I looked on the weather report and it showed rain but that doesn't really mean much as it can be raining cats and dogs in Utopia and not anywhere else and vice versa.

Swiss Autumn

After a weekend living in a cloud and with constant rain, this morning dawned sunny and beautiful and this was the view from our patio! A breathtaking picture postcard and the reason we come back here year after year (oh yes, we also come here because we only need one key whereas at home in SA we have a huge bunch each!)

Utopian Spring Garden

A tiny piece of our utopia garden.  I started out by sprinkling seeds a couple of years ago and was horrified to discover they were not indigenous to South Africa and have spent the last two years weeding them out of the garden and the surrounding bush where they absolutely thrive!!  This year I made certain I only sowed  indigenous seedsand this was one of the results.

Still maintaining weightloss

Amazing - I am writing this from the gym where I have just weighed myself and discovered that the 10 kilos I lost when ill is still not back! Yahoo! I am still about 5 kilos over my supposed preferred weight but I'm not complaining. And the funny thing is: I FEEL so much thinner! That's the best part of it. I have often looked at pics of women who are very obese and then lose about 30 kilos and are thrilled and the picture of them now shows them twice the size I was and yet they are happy! I couldn't understand that, but now I do! I am really happy to be the weight I am and even if I do put more on in the years to come I will still be happy because I am healthy. It's really hard not to gain as I have to really discipline myself not to load my plate up and then not to eat too fast. Also OAP loves his chocolate and eats it in front of me! Wah! Having not eaten any since April I thought I was over that but obviously not! Still, one piece after supper seems to satisfy the craving and he just has to hide his stash away or I will nobble the lot! This is not easy for him as I know EVERY square inch of our house and can happily search it for hours in anticipation of a reward. While Golden Boy was with us we bought a bag of marshmallows for him to toast in the evenings - there was half a bag left which I stuffed down the day after he left! Now I'm trying to stick to wine (whine?) gums but they give me belly ache if I eat too many. See a pattern here? NO self control, better not to buy the things. In 2 weeks time we will be in Switzerland where I will be tempted by brie and camembert cheeses and soft french bread to mention but two of the delights of being on holiday there.

Cousins

Cousins!

A week with Golden Boy

Golden Boy went off to Durban with his mom who took him surfing, skateboarding and to the rugby amongst other exertions. I met them at the airport last Monday when they came home and brought him back to our house in the bush for 5 days. We didn't do much - just chilled together. The most physical was walking the circuit of Utopia, and as walking is not his priority in life we did it in three stages! He rode his surfboard to and from the laundry - uphill holding onto the car (don't tell mom!) and he has SUCH attitude when he is riding that thing! I clocked him doing 25kph downhill - very scary! We took him to lunch at a local cafe called Kumquat that we love (it has free WiFi as well as Lemon Meringue Pie!) and he "drove" the car home once we got onto the dirt road (well he sat on my knee and steered while I worked the pedals and Grandpa made us laugh with his well timed comments. Much of the time he played games on the computer or Nintendo or watched TV. I hate most of the kids programmes he likes and got him hooked on Weakest Link and Who Wants to be a Millionaire! He is SO polite that there was never any moaning about having to switch off TV or bath or go to bed and the only time he complained was when I was watching Britains Most Scary Murderers or something and he came downstairs and asked me to turn the sound down as it was scaring him !!!!!! Bless! I had to hand him over to his dad at the weekend and boy did the house seem empty when he'd gone.