Friday 30 May 2008

Happy **th Birthday


Hi Janatha,

Happy Birthday to you.
We hope you have a great day and the pressie arrives soon.

Lots of love
Catherine and David xxxxx

Thursday 29 May 2008

Tomorrow evening- a wine tasting


Saturday evening- a birthday party....... when will it ever end? I will definitely be out and about on my bike on the weekend to try to keep the damage in check. After a few days of quite warm weather, we are having a bit of a thunderstorm tonight. It is very spectacular to look at although it hasn't brought too much rain yet.
It is just over a week until the European Football Championships start- I am helping someone move house and then joining friends for the opening match next Saturday evening. As hosts, the Swiss play the first match- fingers crossed that they do well as they could then go through to the knock-out stage. I still need to take a photo of our new football shirts- hopefully I can get that done on the weekend.
p.s. Should be eating more of this sort of stuff --> and not drinking so much........ then the weight would fall off. Life might not be so much fun though

Happy Birthday Helena


we hope that you have a great day and also hope that we can speak with you a little later. Have fun whatever you do and enjoy your special day.

much love,

Uncle David and Aunty Catherine xxxxxx

Tuesday 27 May 2008

Happy Birthday Caroline


Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday dear Caroline
Happy Birthday to You

Lots of love
Catherine & David xxxxxxxxx

Monday 26 May 2008

Nice 'fin Stevie


Thanks for the pics- it looks as if you guys had a great day out. I look forward to hearing more about it on the weekend.

Sunday 25 May 2008

Slow, left-arm over the wicket


is what most people think of when you mention India :-) Last night I was thinking more along the lines of tandoori lamb leg steaks with naan, bananas and coconut, tomatoes and onion and of course, a little mango chutney. It was a seriously enjoyable dinner and Catherine did a great job of cooking it on the bbq.
After a mixed day yesterday, the sun has come back today and we will be off for a ride shortly. It will be good to get that done and then be back home with plenty of relaxed afternoon in front of us. I am looking forward to having a day off on Monday- London and New York both closed and I will take advantage of that.
My photography has started to move in the right direction again- after a little break I am really enjoying taking photos and hopefully getting some that are worthwhile. I will try to get some more today as I am sure that we will take advantage of the nice weather and go for a walk again in the evening.
Steven was out fishing and managed to catch a good yellowfin (about 40 kg)- and hopefully I will get to see a photo of the fish. If the worst comes to the worst, I might get to see a photo of a plate of sashimi :-)

Thursday 22 May 2008

As much as I dislike


penalty shoot-outs as a way of deciding football matches, they are certainly a better alternative than playing for two days waiting for a goal. Congratulations to Man U for winning the Champion's League Final last night against Chelsea (who had a home ground advantage) and completing a great season.
Catherine and I have been invited to dinner this evening to celebrate a birthday which should be nice. The birthday is not until tomorrow so I won't say too much about it!
The days are getting longer here and hopefully they will start to get warmer again soon- we can keep things rollling with our bbq season. Fingers crossed that we can fire up on the weekend.
I went shopping last night and bought myself a new Italian football shirt (ready for the Euro 2008) and also bought a Swiss shirt for Catherine- pics to follow.

Tuesday 20 May 2008

Happy Birthday Georgette


It was a lot of fun to speak with you all on Sunday and I hope that we can do it again soon. Happy Birthday- we know that you will have a terrific day with all of the family and look forward to seeing some photos.
Have a great day.

much love, Uncle David and Aunty Catherine xxxxxxx

Sunday 18 May 2008

It's official


our new bbq really works. It passed the acid test last night with flying colours (not that I had any doubts) and turned out a great meal for our guinea pigs (eerrr I mean guests). The roast beef and potatoes were delicious even if I do have to say so myself and the wines were also great. The only bad news is that we realised that our Moscato has only 5% alcohol!! We had a fun evening, celebrated long and hard as per normal and even dashed across the road for a cleansing ale at 1 o'clock. The local race team WiDi and Sanna were celebrating a successful day out and the place seemed to be hopping.
Catherine and I spoke with baby brother Steven, his wife Lisa and Georgette, Angus and Jacqueline over Skype (with video) this morning. It was a blast and lots of fun to see the kids playing up again. It will certainly become a regular part of our keeping in touch.
I don't believe that we have any plans yet for next weekend but Catherine is already thinking about using the bbq again. If the weather is half-reasonable it might be a fun idea.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

The mother-ship has landed


and we tested her out this evening. The spareribs were great, the Moss Wood Pinot was superb (and might have been a little over-the-top but hey we were celebrating) and all in all it was a successful bbq evening on our terrace. We are now looking forward to the weekend and have invited some people around for a bbq on Saturday evening- fingers crossed that this great weather holds out until then.
Tomorrow is Walter's birthday and we have been invited to join he and Masi for dinner which will be very nice. They are having lunch with a bunch of friends (it must be great to be retired) and then have kindly offered to cook again for us again in the evening.
Best wishes to the Moose Clan- hope that you can get the blogging sorted out. Lots of great content so far and I would really love to see Noodle banging away at the keyboard too. I am looking forward to seeing lots more photos from your part of the world (including plenty of pics of food) and will be pretty excited when you can share a laksa with us :-)

Sunday 11 May 2008

Only 2 more days to wait


until the "Weber from Hell" is delivered and we can start our summer bbq season in style. "She who would like to think that she must be obeyed" has organised to be at home for the delivery on Tuesday morning and seeing as our current stretch of nice weather looks like continuing at least until then I would guess that Tuesday evening will be the christening. It will be nice to be able to take advantage of our great balcony and hopefully we will have a good summer so that we can be out there on a regular basis.
I have been getting back into my training routine and hope to continue by going for a bike ride this afternoon. If Catherine ever decides to get out of bed she might even join me. Slightly better news when I stood on the scales in the gym yesterday (but I'm sure that my good work was undone last evening with all of my eating and drinking).
Tomorrow is a holiday here but I am going to be in the office anyway. These are the worst kind of days- not normally a lot going on and it makes for a very boring time. I should ride to the office but I am so out of shape at the moment that I would still be on the way there at lunchtime :-)

Thursday 8 May 2008

Normally when one achieves a personal best


it is something to be excited about and perhaps even proud of. I went within a bottle of wine of my personal best on the scales in the gym earlier in the week- it didn't excite me in the least! After another visit and a good training session this evening, I came home to a great salad for dinner and I hope to be able to continue in this vein for a while at least. Our days are getting longer, the sun has been shining and I am going to be out on my bike over the weekend.
Things in the financial markets seem to have settled down a little- every time that Trichet speaks, silly things happen but I guess that is only because he is French. The appetite for risk seems to be improving, but it will certainly be a long while (if ever) before things return to the way that they were 12 months ago.
We received an invitation in the post today from one of the importers of Australian wine here in Switzerland. After buying some wine from them last month they have kindly asked us to come along to a tasting here in Zurich towards the end of May. Sounds good to me.

Sunday 4 May 2008

Servus Wien!!


Congratulations and many thanks to Marion, Cornelia and Catherine for putting together a terrific Austrian dinner last night for our "Cook Club" get-together. The food was great, wines were very good too and the company was perfect, as always. I took a few pictures but sadly they can't convey the taste sensation that we experienced at Club Schenkel!
It is another beautiful day here today and I will be heading into town soon to check out a Watch Market and visit the gym. We have been invited to a bbq later this evening, which should be great fun too. London is closed for a Bank Holiday tomorrow so I am going to take the day off and hopefully get a few things sorted out around home.

Thursday 1 May 2008

May 1st is a day to celebrate and remember


many things. One of the things to remember is not to leave your expensive car parked on the street in Zürich. There was the usual large police presence and an even larger bunch of people looking to let off some steam and have a little (or perhaps even large) riot in the city today. I am looking forward to seeing some pictures of the action and reading about it all in the papers tomorrow.
It was something of a relief to wake up this morning and know that April was over. My month-long photo project was a disaster: lack of motivation, bad weather, a sore back and general lack of time were some of the excuses that I plan on using :-) Hopefully now I can get back to taking pictures just for the heck of it and really start to enjoy it again.
A friend in Montreal sent me an exciting e-mail earlier in the week- he has the watch that I want to buy and is willing to part with his example! Just trying to sort out shipping details and then (fingers crossed) the Inge will be mine.
We have the next edition of our Cook Club on Saturday evening- the girls are taking their turn in front of the stove and I am looking forward to it all very much. Come on ladies- cook us up a storm!!