We went up to the French Alps this past weekend with some friends. All the guys skied from Les Gets over to Morzine and met Lesley and I (who drove over) for lunch. Then they skied back. The weather was ok – alternating between grey with heavy snow and sunny and gorgeous. It was a nice day.
Here’s the ski group after lunch, about to ski back to Les Gets.
And a couple of snaps out the car window during the drive home.
Matthew and Nathan’s school is celebrating World Book Day by allowing the children to dress up as their favorite book character.
Of course that means I have two Harry Potters today. Aren’t they adorable?
Battling your evil twin is hard work, isn’t it Harry?
One of the great things about traveling a lot and living all over the world is that you get to meet many interesting and wonderful people. One of the first families we met when we moved to Malaysia in 2001 was the Yigiter Family – Nuray, Burol, Dennis and Ege. Matthew and Ege are the same age, and they made friends quickly. When we moved back to Malaysia from Thailand in 2008, Ege and Matthew were in the same class at Mont Kiara International School. Last weekend we met up with the Yigiters in Geneva city center as they were here for the day on their way home from a mid-term break ski holiday. It was fabulous to see them and hear how life is back in England (they left Malaysia last year too).
Matthew has decided to learn the guitar. His school offers lunchtime classes for beginners on Mondays, but he’s starting late in the school year and is going to have to do a LOT of practicing to catch up. He’s cool with that though, so we took him yesterday to Nyon to buy a beginner’s guitar. We’re all really excited about his new hobby.
The kids got back well from Ski Camp. They were 12 lessons ahead, confident, a bit tired and happy to be home. But when we asked them Saturday afternoon what they would like to do on Sunday, they chimed, “ski!”. So we packed up the car before sunrise and headed over to the French Alps Sunday morning.
My main objective is really to ski, so I only brought our little Olympus U-Tough camera. I took a few shots from the moving car and then pretty much forgot I had the camera with me until we were through skiing. Opps.
We were surprised to see that the roads through the center of Geneva were not cleared.
The roads were much better once over in France. And the sunrise was beautiful.
Mike took some video of the skiing, but I have not connected that camera yet. I was busy skiing, but did remember to step out as we were repacking the car to get this quick snap of the cable cars coming up from the village.
And a couple Nathan took in the car on the way home. :)
Last month I bought our family’s first ever Christmas flower at the local DIY shop. The kids and I planted the enormous bulb into the tiny plastic pot that came with it and added some of our own extra soil. Then we put the tiny pot inside a bigger ceramic one for support, put it by our back French doors, watered it and waited.
We didn’t have long to wait before it began it’s rapid journey to bloomdom. We had a tall stalk with a bud in no time at all and then the bud unfolded and exploded into an enormous four piece firework of reds, yellows, greens, and pearly white. Gorgeous!
Of course life hurriedly swirled around our new beautiful flower and while I had intended to photograph it properly, all I managed was a few snaps one morning with the Canon point and shoot camera. Luckily for me though, this fancy flower has shot up a second budded stalk that is in the process now of unfolding. If it explodes into a gorgeous bloom before we leave next week, I’ll make myself find the time to shoot it properly. But for now, the snaps…
On Saturday, Matthew had an all day indoor soccer tournament, so Mike and I took Nathan skating. We went to the little sports center that our village shares with the one next to us and all three of us skated. It was only Nathan’s second time on skates, but he did really well. He’s not afraid to just get out there and do it. Thankfully after not skating for 37 years, I managed not to fall, but I am sure I’ll make up for that with lots of falling this weekend on the slopes. Ack!
Here is a little video of Nathan skating across the rink with me following him. And Mike sneaks into frame at the end. 
Nathan Skates
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Adding the verb aller – to go to some actual places to make sentences.
If you speak French well and find errors here, Please let me know. I am just learning.
Je vais à la poste.
I am going to the post office.
Allez vers le droite, puis vers la gauche et puis droit devant.
Go to the right, then to the left and then straight ahead.
Ils vont au supermarché.
They are going to the supermarket.
Je vais à la banque et puis chez l’épicier.
I am going to the bank and then to the grocer.
Les enfants vont à l’école au centre ville.
The children go to the school downtown.
Préférez-vous aller à pied, à bicyclette ou en voiture ?
Do you prefer to go by foot, by bicycle or by car?
Minarets are tall, thin towers attached to mosques from which a muezzin calls believers to prayer five times daily. There are presently four minarets in Switzerland, and they shall be allowed to remain, but in accordance with yesterday’s 57% vote made by a large 53% voter turn-out, the construction of new minarets is banned.
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) initiated the referendum by collecting 100,000 signatures from eligible voters, while other major political parties had urged the country’s citizens to reject the proposed ban. Many people both here and abroad are shocked today as they find out the resulting yes vote to change the constitution. Of all places, here in neutral and tolerant Switzerland.
Only four cantons voted against the initiative, Geneva (where I live), Vaud, Neuchâtel and Basel City (notably all in the French speaking portion of the country). The Swiss government has issued an official statement respecting the decision of it’s citizens, but affirming that Muslims may still build mosques (sans minarets) here and that they “are able to practice their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before.” Also speaking out against the referendum are the Commission Against Racism and many Christian and Jewish leaders.
The campaigning (see campaign poster images here) and the vote are now over, but what does this result say for Switzerland going forward? What will be the impact? Sociological, Political, Financial… Is a ban on minarets a violation of religious freedom? Of human rights? Will there be local and/or international backlash? Only time will tell.
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Last week’s tidbit was the verb aller - to go.
This week we’ll add some directions and destinations.
Next week I’ll try to put them together, which is not as simple as you might expect…
| la poste – post office | a droite – to the right | |
| le supermarché – super market | a gauche – to the left | |
| l’épicerie – grocery store | tout droit – straight ahead | |
| la banque – bank | à pied – on foot | |
| le centre-ville – downtown | en voiture – by car | |
| l’école – school | à bicyclette – by bike
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