A stitch in time and other stories …

I have realised that this blog is part new adventures and part 80s brain dump from me ‘little miss nostalgia’. Anyway, another full week for us and you can tell that the seasons are changing as we are enjoying the first few days of Autumn, though some days have still been super warm, it still feels like summer. I had a quick overnight stay in Dublin with a meeting at Trinity College, which is very lovely and right in the middle of the city.  It was my first taste of Ireland and I would love to go back and explore some more. I hate being away from home on my own, so after my meeting it was an evening with room service and good book and a bath (I know how to live).

We’ve also had our first taste of the Swiss Health system, hence the title of this week’s blog. These were not the sort of adventures that we envisaged so soon, but when our youngest ploughed his bike headlong in to a metal post one quiet Sunday afternoon leaving a big hole in his shin, it was straight off to A&E or Notaufnahme as it is called here. Again, my German was pushed to the limit but we got there in the end and everyone was super helpful, in fact the first Dr we saw spoke 5 languages so we were given a choice, I was going to have a pop at French, but given that we weren’t going swimming or looking for the town hall I stuck to English 😉 There is no NHS over here and everyone has to have basic health and accident cover so it was fortunate that we had got ours sorted out only a few days before this. As you can imagine the system is great and efficient (isn’t everything here) and the care was second to none, but I’m not going to go on about it because to me we owe so much to the NHS in the UK and all those who put their hearts and souls in to making it what it is. I could get political here, but I won’t, but those who know me know where my allegiances lie. Anyway, said child is fine and has skipped off for a week in the Black Forrest with school returning to have his stiches out next week (winces).

I’ve tried really hard to keep in touch with friends and family since we have moved. Social media is a fab way to do this. We got my parents all ‘technologied’ up before we left  so we now regularly Facetime them, well I say them, I actually mean my Mum, I have only seen my Dad’s forehead since late August, I don’t know what they do with their ipad, but this is really comical and has us in stiches. Bless them, I am impressed that they have got the hang of it though and it’s great that they can at least see us.

Something that I am having to get used to, is the different attitude at the supermarket checkout here (and I’m not making a sweeping statement and saying that eveyone does), I have tested this out at two different supermarkets and at different times of the day and with different volumes of shopping (stay with me here) when in the UK we pack our shopping as it is being tilled up, there is a fevered frantic sense of urgency to get it packed and finished before you have to pay – not here, it is waaaay more relaxed, they start packing (and I have seen this happen a good fews times now) once they have paid!!!  This has started to freak me out, I am chomping at the bit to get my things packed away. One time the person in front of me was pillocking about with just two items and then faffing about putting a receipt in their purse and then fiddling in their bag, whilst my entire shop was being swiped and starting to pile up at the end of the conveyer belt! I was tempted to do a Bowdie and Doyle like jump and roll across the counter to start packing; and have had to be restrained on a number of occasions from shouting ‘schnell’ to get said person moving, but I kept well buttoned. As this sometimes seems to be the norm and is not done to irritate at all, it’s just the way it is, and to be honest there isn’t any real reason why I should be getting my shopping packed as if it was an Olympic sport if no one else is bothered (it’s the way I am programmed), this week I will try and keep myself in check and adopt a more relaxed packing technique!

 

So what else have I been up to when not having to be muzzled at the supermarket?

What I’m reading: I love an easy read at the airport and Dublin airport was amazing – they had the top 100 books which kept me happily browsing for over an hour. I picked up ‘Did you see Melody’ by Sophie Hannah, it was a proper page turner about the supposed disappearance of a teenage girl, but I did think that it could have benefitted from being about 60 – 80 pages shorter, do you ever get to what you think is the conclusion and then you realise that there is another 120 pages left??

What I’m dipping in to: My thoughts have turned to more autumnal cooking as the seasons they are a changin so I have been looking at my Ina Garten collection, love her and was fairly addicted to her Food Network Barefoot Contessa programme. This week I have been leafing through ‘Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics’

What I’m listening to: The Radio 4 News quiz is back – hurrah, I love it, Jeremy Hardy is one of my fav panellists, it’s like Have I got News for You (but on the radio) and presented by Miles Jupp, well worth a listen.

What I have discovered:  Some gorgeous walks. We usually head down to the lake for our walks, but explored a new route this weekend and even though it was a bit hilly (as you might expect) the views were stunning, we were quite high up so had a view right across to Lake Zug. After one particular steep climb we found a lovely café (that one has been stored away for next time).

A trip back down memory lane; This week I have been remembering the good old roller disco; this is with part excited nostalgia and part childhood humiliation! I love, love, love a disco and one where you are mobile is the tops. I coveted a pair of yellow and blue roller boots (see below) my friend had a pair and they were gorgeous, but, and this still pains me to type now, my Mum vetoed the idea because my feet were still growing and it made more sense to have a pair of the ones that you put over your shoes and that you could adjust – yes, I know, tragic! So whilst everyone was zipping around the roller disco that was held in a nearby leisure centre in their amazing boots I was being humiliated at the tuck shop in my practical but embarrassing pair. Do I still want a pair? Oh yes and bring back the roller disco, I’d be there in a flash. I think that this thrifty attitude was of the time then though, I had the same Brownie uniform for the entire 5 years I was in Brownies, ankle length when I joined  and slightly obscene and worn with thick tights when I left. I had the same netball skirt from Year 6 to when I left secondary school (more an A- line maxi when I started) but that was how it was (and apart from the roller boots I didn’t care) and to be honest we could do with going back to being a little less disposable now; though if I was offered a pair of roller boots now I would snap them up, and my feet have stopped growing 😉

 

 

 

 

That’s all for me, for the next couple of weeks we will be thinking about Halloween costumes for the up and coming parties and looking forward to some Autumn Fairs especially in the nearby gorgeous town of Luzern, I will report back next time.

Again, thanks for reading

 

Sarah-Jane xx