Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

We tried one of our new wine purchases with dinner this evening and it was a winner! Dinner was a steak, roast potatoes, tomatoes and artichokes followed by cheese and pears. The wine was from John's Blend- a Margarete's Shiraz. A South Australian Shiraz and was most enjoyable.
We delivered our box of bits and pieces to Masi and Walter this morning- much appreciated and I am looking forward to their visit tomorrow afternoon too. Masi is recovering quite well after her surgery and we are happy to hear that!
Our 4yo God-daughter Jacqueline told me today on the phone that she had been riding her bike without trainer wheels. She was pretty excited and I am sure that it will allow her to go a little faster and maybe keep up with her big brother and sister. In any case, the squawky parrot on the handlebars will mean that she won't be forgotten.

Another notch in the diary (one week closer to Christmas)

and sadly, not too much more to celebrate at the moment. It has been a tough week in the office so far and I can't imagine that things will change for the better on a Friday. I am very much looking forward to the weekend- it will be a chance to sleep and hopefully get out on a bike for a proper ride!!
Caro Enzo celebrated a birthday yesterday- we had dinner together on Friday to catch up (but as tradition dictates here, there was no mention of the birthday before the actual date) and I am sure that he had a great day with his wonderful child-bride.
We haven't managed to sell the sofa yet, but I am sure that the BBQ Queen will want to order the "Weber From Hell" in any case. I can see her already using the "if we don't order it now, we won't get it before August" line. August would be good for me- it is still summer :-)
How were the couple of days up the coast, Gazza? D'ya catch a fish??

A nice, relaxing Sunday

after a pleasant Saturday in town and dinner at the Chief's. Not too much going on here today but Catherine has visitors coming soon to look at our old sofa- I have promised her that if she can sell it, the money can go towards buying the big bbq that she is lusting for. It will be interesting to see how she performs with the saleswoman's jacket on. I guess that I will go out for an hour or two and leave her in peace as I would hate to put more pressure on her than is necessary!
Steven and co are back home from New Zealand after doing a successful rain dance and Gary and the kids are spending a couple of days up on the water this week too. Lucky for some!
Greetings to Mike and Simone- good to speak during the week and great to hear that you are doing well. It was also good news that Brett is on his way to Canberra to join the team too- it will be nice to have another old friend on the job.

If the days are growing longer and summer is

on the way, why did we have sleet, rain and hail falling today? It was absolutely awful outside for a few hours during the middle of the day!
I have run into a "creative blockage" with my photo project. Still walking around with the camera almost all of the time, but at the moment I am unable to imagine any pictures that I really want to take and find myself struggling to capture anything at all. The obvious answer is to leave the camera at home and go out for a serious night on the booze- might be a good idea in the short term....... but I will wait and see how things turn out tomorrow.
Catherine is due back home from London later tonight- it will be interesting to see how much she has been able to boost retail sales in the UK during a very brief visit. They could certainly do with some help over there.
There is a 6 hour spinning marathon at our gym on Saturday week- sadly, I am not in any state to do the whole thing on my own and I'm not really motivated to try and find a partner to split the time with. Given a miracle, I may just manage to get organised.....

What a great weekend- sadly the end of our holiday

but at least today we are celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary. It has been a pretty relaxing day- early dinner and taking it easy now as we both have early starts in the morning. Dinner was a great slow-roasted chicken with garlic, onions and cherry tomatoes served with polenta. I am off to the office as per normal tomorrow and Catherine is going to London to spend a couple of days in the office there.
Had a good evening on Thursday with the young guys from across the way- ZSC won the hockey finals so we ended up celebrating in our local pub after dinner until late. Very glad that there was no school for me the next day!
My photo project is going well- I managed to get a few more shots in the bag this weekend and if I keep moving along it won't be a problem to finish 30 by the end of the month. These longer evenings are making it somewhat easier to shoot pictures after I get out of the office, so hopefully I will be able to take advantage of them.
Sächselüüte tomorrow- an old festival in Zürich. The bells are rung at 6 o'clock in the evening to celebrate the end of winter and an effigy of a snowman is put to the torch. A big day for all of the guildsmen!

After the disappointment of Basel, it was nice

to go to Geneva (SIHH) and walk around feeling like a King. The watch show has a completely different atmosphere and with only 14 brands showing, it is much smaller, intimate and soooo much more stylish. The new offerings from IWC were very interesting and it was great to be able to get our hands on them so early in the year. It will take a while for the new watches to hit the Dealer's windows which gives us all a little more time to save some cash :-)
I am enjoying my time off- another visit to the gym today and then some shopping for dinner this evening. We are entertaining a couple of the young guys from across the way and it should be good fun (again). A plate of antipasti, spaghetti and then a big steak before we tackle the cheese plate- all to be washed down with a bottle of prosecco and plenty of red....... mmmm.
Tonight in the 6th match of the Ice Hockey Playoffs ZSC have the chance to wrap up the title by beating Servette Geneva at home. A 4-2 series win would be a great result...... if they don't manage to do the job this evening, it will be very tough to try to beat Geneva at home on Saturday night. HOPP ZSC!!

After visiting the Basel watch show, my first impressions

have been confirmed and I found the new offerings to be, on the whole, quite disappointing. There is a new Rolex Superduperdeepdowndiver (which may set a record for the most text on a dial), a new Patek 5070 in Platinum (drooooool) and I even managed to find a new Zenith watch which appealed to me. The day was certainly more about catching up with people and making new acquaintances and in that respect it was a success.
It is a very nice feeling to be at home on a Sunday afternoon having already had a good exercise session at the gym, awaiting guests for dinner and knowing that I don't have to go to work in the morning.

Press Day At Baselworld Today

and what I have seen so far is fairly underwhelming. I have some buddies arriving in town from the States tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to check things out for ourselves properly on Saturday.
I have managed to bag my first couple of shots for the month long photography challenge- April Fools - and might even try to grab #3 in the morning before heading off to the office. Will be out on the tiles tomorrow evening, so there will be no chance to do any shooting after finishing work.
Only two more days of work before I get to take a week's holiday. Looking forward to getting lots done, getting nothing done, sleeping, staying up late, entertaining etc.

Spring has sprung

and what a great pleasure it was to change the clocks forward an hour this morning to signify the start of spring and the coming of summer! I am really looking forward to having more useable daylight hours in the evenings and I can hopefully take advantage of them. Today has been another beautiful day (although tomorrow will be wet and cool again) and we went for a walk for an hour or so and enjoyed the evening. It is almost warm enough to have dinner on the balcony- looking forward to that as well.
One more week of work and then our holiday. I have some mates arriving from the States and will be busy catching up with them, hopefully getting some exercise and certainly eating and drinking too much.
Our nephew and godson, Campbell, played his first rugby match on Friday evening. A big success by all accounts with a win for the team and a try for himself. I don't remember ever scoring a try.

It's Fight Night Tonight

or least a football match between the Swiss and our northern neighbours, the Germans. I think that the old joke was something along the lines of....... The definition of football- a game for 11 men that Germany always win. They haven't hoisted too many trophies lately, but with the European Championships starting here in June, I'm sure that all of the teams involved are starting to feel the excitement.
I have signed up today to take part in a month-long photography challenge in April (appropriately called April Fools) and it will be good fun and hopefully a learning experience too. I have benefited a lot from previous challenges and it is a good way to learn from your mistakes.
Club Moose is still on fire and it seems as if Dot has moved on to make other parts of the world uncertain. I'm sure that Singapore will bear the scars for years to come.
I hope that you like the view from my end of the sofa.

Happy Birthday Aunty Nancy.

We hope you have a wonderful day. We are thinking of you.

Lots of love, Catherine & David xxxxx

It snowed most of Easter Sunday and Easter Monday and it is still snowing. There is about 8 cm snow on the ground so we will have to leave earlier to get to the station this morning.

"Pass him up to me, Daddy!"

Memories of a great Easter break spent in Ireland with the Moose Gang in 2001....... Miss 3 (upon spotting a rabbit 30 metres away and diving through a hedge) came out with this classic request. We had some of the most amusing service that one could imagine in the hotel and restaurant (quite like Fawlty Towers) and really laughed for the whole week.
This weekend has also been relaxing- went to see a couple of movies and really enjoyed "No Country For Old Men". I tried to do a little shopping in town yesterday (with very limited success) and we have just been for an early morning walk. After a breakfast of warm bread with jam and a pot of tea it is now time to take it easy again and then get ready for our visitors this evening.
I hope to get out later to take some more photos and if we end up having a nice day I will probably lie on the sofa for a while and do a little reading too.
Happy Easter!

I, for one, am looking forward to the Easter weekend

and taking the opportunity to sleep a little longer and generally take it easy. As expected, the bad weather has arrived just in time and we are going to enjoy 4° and rain for most of the days off.
I hope to get to see a couple of movies, organise the wine cellar after another delivery (mmm), read and try to take some photos. We are entertaining at least once on the weekend and it will be nice to catch up with Walter and Masi on Sunday.
Thirsty Thursday tomorrow and I have arranged to meet up with Chef Enzo for a drink and a bite to eat in the evening. Looking forward to that very much and it will be a luxury not having to set the alarm for Friday morning.
Sadly our gym is closed for most of the Easter break- if we can we will get out for a walk about the village, but otherwise it might be almost an exercise-free weekend........
Reading a very interesting book about the Magnum Photo Agency - Capa, Cartier-Bresson, Seymour & Co certainly enjoyed some wild times in the early days and it sounds as if, even today, Magnum is a pretty unusual organisation.

The book was good, the markets are terrible

and I think that most people are glad that it is the weekend. The highlights of my week thus far have been reading "No Country For Old Men", drinking a bottle of Terrabianca with dinner last night and then getting a good night's sleep.
It was amazing yesterday to watch $/CHF go under 1....... it didn't stay there too long and I don't believe that it will stay down here forever, but I am also convinced that there is plenty more bad news to come before the sun starts to really shine again.
Today was a beautiful day and we have been pretty busy- shopping, running around and have just been out for a nice walk for an hour. I finally managed to find myself some new jeans and a pair of casual shoes- I don't think that I am too fussy, but surely there are others out there who are between hip-hop and 60 years of age!

Started to read an interesting book this week

and so far I am really enjoying "No Country For Old Men". Set in Texas, slow language but so far plenty of action and I guess that I will finish it off later this evening. The movie arrived in town here a couple of weeks ago and if things stay miserable, I will try to catch it on the weekend.
There seems to be a lot of activity in Singapore- might have to call the fire brigade as it appears that Club Moose is on fire down there! I hope that they are all having as much fun getting their blog up and running as I am having reading it. Great photos too.
Looking forward to holidays in a few weeks time- but first we have to struggle through all of these short weeks in the office...... I am enjoying the longer days and we will change our clocks to summer time at the end of March- then we will have the chance to really make something out of our evenings.

Happy Birthday Lou-Lou.

We hope you had a FUN day with Mummy & Daddy & Malachy.
Lots of hugs & kisses Aunty Catherine & Uncle David xxxxxxxxxx

Winter has returned

and yesterday morning I left the nest to find it snowy and cold outside. Today is foggy and miserable as well thus far. I'm not complaining (apparently there has been lots of snow in some parts of the USA) but I do need to put a jacket on before heading out the door.
Club Moose is officially up and running! I have linked to the Mighty Moose's blog and hope to hear more from Singapore in the days and months to come. I'm sure that it will be interesting and exciting (get the hint, guys?) and lots of fun for all concerned.
I was in the gym again yesterday and will be going back in there later today too. It does take a while to notice any real change, but at least I am motivated to get on and do some real work. It is only a few weeks until our next holiday and I would like to be able to get out and enjoy a hike or a bike ride without suffering too much :-)
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday