Tuesday 9 December

What a lovely day I've had today! I raced around like a mad thing this morning, icing cakes, doing dishes, cleaning bathroom, etc and then RACED to the train station to meet Jan who was coming for a visit. Jan is in Germany for 3 months and is a missionary in Madrid, Spain. We connected via a mutual friend. Well, the time past all too quickly and I didn't want her to leave so soon, so I invited her to stay for a yummy mug of my Cock-a-leekie soup, which was well received. What a precious lady Jan is and how blessed I am that you had time to spend a couple of hours with me.

Then Roger arrived home so it was chat, chat, chat to him before I had to leave 20 minutes later to catch the train to Riehen where I was catching up with another friend. I even managed to find my way there without her meeting me at the station, so I was pretty proud of myself. We had a lovely couple of hours together.

Now I am home alone. I should actually be in Basel attending Roger's Christmas Choir Concert "English Seminar Choir" but I went on Sunday and I really don't want a late night. Plus it's absolutely freezing outside and any time soon it is going to start to snow.

So, a quiet night for me tonight, but I would love to finish off the Christmas mail and then I can breath a sigh of relief (I shouldn't say that really - I love writing letters). Also I love keeping in touch with my beautiful friends in this way.

See, I'm trying to be good and keep you up to date with what I have been up to!

MONDAY'S HIKE

Roger and I woke up bright and early this morning ready to charge out the door for Monday's hike. Jack Frost was all over the place!! It was bitterly cold!! Quite a picture though.

We arrived at our designated destination about 20 minutes before everyone else. No fun waiting in the cold! When our fabulous leader Kevin hadn't arrived by 9.30am I suggested we hide from him so when he got off the tram he would get a little surprise!! There were 7 of us waiting for Kevin.

So............ Kevin got off the train! "Well, it looks like I'm doing the walk on my own....."

"Surprise......!!!!"

"And who's idea was it to hide", Kevin asks Roger!

"Who do you think", says Roger!

We had a wonderful 3 hour walk, walking up through Riehen and the vineyards and then along the ridge. The sun came out, and although still rather chilly, it was a beautiful walk and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Even more so as we were able to stop at a Cafe after 2.5 hours and have a nice warm drink.

We were home by 2.15pm

Our Busy Life!

Jocelyn reminded me on the phone on Saturday that it is a while since I have blogged so I thought I'd better get cracking and do something about that. I have so much to tell you, but little time to do it. Would love to post a photo of the 2 of us from last Monday's walk, but don't know where it has disappeared to!! When I work it out, I'll post it (that can be Roger's job!!).



So, we've been up to all sorts of things. I'm trying to get all our Christmas mail done and posted to various places in the globe this week. Roger has been a great help as well. So, that's taken up a bit of time.



We've had lots of dinner parties on and these are always loads of fun. In fact, we are both feeling a little weary tonight after a hectic week and then out late on Friday and Saturday nights. Roger had the first of his 2 Choir Concerts at 5pm today which went really well.



We had a lovely friend Dudley visit us from Adelaide, Australia for 24 hours last Thurs. week ago and we didn't stop talking. It was great. No photo though. Must get the camera out!



One of the 'downs' of winter is that most people hibernate. We haven't seen our neighbours properly for about 3 weeks now and I do miss our little chats, smiles, waves and Guten Tag's! It has been bitterly cold here and I'm not sure I'm fully prepared for the long, long winter.



Rog had a full medical check up on Thursday morning which went really well and he is so much happier (relieved) that all is well. He does go back on Tuesday to get the results of blood tests, so hopefully this will all be good news.



I had a trip to Solothurn, about 80 km's on the train from Basel going further into Switzerland on Tuesday. When I was on the train I was thinking to myself "Am I really on the train in Switzerland". Sometimes it still seems like a dream. But then I get off the train, walk to the Weibel's home and I know I am in Switzerland. My little Jakob is growing so quickly and I don't like the thought of not seeing him for at least a month for he might forget me or be shy. When I go to Solothurn I just take over - feed him, put him to sleep, even took him on a 2 hour walk in the freezing cold. He's 9 months old and oh so cute.



So this week we begin with our usual hike tomorrow morning. Tuesday Roger is busy all day and I will be catching up with a friend in the morning and also in the afternoon. Wednesday we are going with a group to the Freiburg Christmas Markets which should be loads of fun. I know this time to rug up well and truly as it is always freezing cold and we will be outside for several hours.



Thursday I hope to spend the day cooking various delicacies to give to friends for Christmas. Also, I have some orders for various cakes and biscuits, so that is good.



Oh, a lovely Aussie friend gave me some S.R. Flour today at the Concert. She had been into France and thought of me. Isn't that just delightful? People are always so very kind to me.



Okay, so that's enough, otherwise you will give us reading. Who knows when I will get a chance again, but you never know, so stay tuned!

Sommer Freizeit Denmark 2008

Wow, look what I can do. Better late than never! I like it! Shame you can't see all the pictures, but it's pretty cool. I will have to work on my skills! It was sooooooo..... easy!

TODAY

Looking out our front door to the hills and railway line

Looking out our loungeroom window


Out our front door after the snow plough has been through

Yes, we've had our first snow today and we are loving it. Very special for us Aussies living in Europe. Sure is a treat. We are snug inside and preparing for a wonderful Aussie dinner party tonight. Roast chicken and vegies and Lemon Meringue Pie. Yum

OUR THURSDAY

We've both been rather busy these past few days so today we have been trying to catch our breath. I haven't felt like doing much of anything, so needless to say I haven't achieved much!

The past couple of days I have been cooking for an Apero (supper) we had at Centrepoint last night. It was an information night on "What the Banks don't tell you" and it was all rather scary listening to what Herr Kurt Kamber had to say. Greed is a dreadful thing and there sure is a lot of it in this world. Here I was thinking that the Reserve Banks were owned by the Government, but this is certainly not the case in the USA or in Australia!

Roger and I went shopping today at one of five of our local supermarkets. What a happy experience it was. Not only did we manage to get a whole small turkey for 10 euro (about $15 Aussie) but the lady on the check out was quite priceless. We don't shop that much at this supermarket because it is rather expensive compared to Aldi, but the staff are always so polite and friendly.

They have this great system here in Germany for the return of bottles and plastic bottles, also glass yogurt containers. You put them through a special machine which then prints out a docket (say for 1 euro or whatever the bottles come to) which you present at the check out and they take this amount off your shopping account. We did this today, but forgot to give it to the lady at the check out, so I went back and waved my little docket in the air. The lady just laughed and immediately attended to me and gave me my 1 euro 1 cent! We always have a smile on our face when we come away from shopping.

We love living in Schopfheim, needless to say. Sorry, no pictures of us venturing out with our 'Rolls Royce' shopping trolley (in Australia we would call it a Granny trolley, but my goodness, have we got some use out of it).

It's freezing here. I really don't want it to be Winter. It was dark at 4.30pm. Not nice at all. Plus we are being invaded by blow flies (YUK) and we have no idea where they are coming from. We killed about 30 today. Usually we never get flies inside. They must be coming in from the cold as well.

S I S T E R S

I had to wait 2 years and 2 months to see my darling sister Irene again. Irene and George were travelling in Europe for 2.5 months from August and we had a little rendezvous for a week at the end of their travels this past week. What an absolute delight it was for us both to catch up and do lots of talking, eating, playing Chinese Checkers (we're both as good as each other ! ! ! ) and of course cups of tea. Twinings Prince of Wales for Lady Irene and Twinings Earl Grey for Lady Gaynor !

A silly little highlight was racing up the 4 flights of stairs to beat the boys who insisted on using the lift in the apartment we were staying in. Once the light went out, and we were gropping our way to the landing to find the light button and could hardly contain ourselves with giggling. Needless to say, the boys beat us that time!!

In the kitchen enjoying.....yes, you guessed it TEA

(and cheese and biccies of course)

Cottesloe Beach ? ? I don't think so

Have no idea what this was all about, but it looks fun ! I love it !