Would you like butter or jam...boree?

Sunday morning walk

Are ya well, cuz you're looking well! ;)

Here we are again, at the cusp of something happening...probably my tangible grasp of reality slipping imperceptibly. But something anyway.

As we stand I am the proud survivor of another weekend. And it's been a pretty good one! Saturday was a big challenge for me- being alone for an entire day with the children. I was so scared I'd mess up...but I was also super determined to prove my critics wrong that I could do it without any help. And I did.

There were a few funny moments on the day. I was chuffed that they downed huge plates of the sausage and mash I made at lunch as they are usually pretty meagre eaters. Must have been good. Who am I kidding...I'm practically a professional masher. It probably helped that I did an amazing interpretive chipolata sausages song and dance while I was cooking. Yep, that one went down well!

Para-para-paradise

I had a nice time mid afternoon when we went up to Mariastein to see the end of the vintage car rally which the parents were competing in. I enjoyed a momentary reprise and had a lovely chilled glass of Feldschlossen (the lovely local beer) and then my friend came and met me there and we did a geek-tastic tour of the huge monastery in the village. I had a paranoid moment when my shoulders were uncovered in the church so had to drape my cardigan but nobody seemed to care. The confession booths had a light on top which lit up when there was a booth available- really made me laugh! Also went to a very scientific and interesting exhibition...just a shame the explanation was all in German so I had to make an educated guess at most of the content of the exhibition. Seen lots of pictures of poor Jesus- why is it always the saddest moments of his life portrayed? I'd love to see a picture of him laughing with villagers or talking to the disciples, you know?

I made the colossal mistake of making Willy Winky funny near to bed time. I asked them the very philosophical question that was 'You know the way Willy Winky comes to the houses at 8 o'clock? What happens if he really needs to do a stinker at just that moment?' It resulted in an explosive round of shouting Stinky Winky and raspberry blowing which had them very hyped up before bed.

It's France!

 Sunday morning I went for a stunning walk out in the country. The weather was just perfect, so warm and dry but not yet scorching like the rest of the day was. I found myself standing on the top of a hill, with France and Switzerland laid out before me side by side and I had such a giddy moment of 'I'm in two places at once!' One of my life goals fulfilled :)

Next up, sand on a beach...

After my walk, I felt very chilled, I put on my jazzy new green trousers, and I went into the city to meet up with BB. We were going to do the whole tourist thing because sometimes when you first arrive at a place you just don't go exploring straight away until you find your footing. Safe to say, we've well and truly found our feet now. That's one of my favourite things about BB. He really likes to be daring and spontaneous. He lives life a lot closer to the edge than I do. He doesn't get worried or scared by rules, or fear of getting lost, or anything like that. He does things with the utmost conviction that somehow it'll all work out, no matter how lost you get. He's a cool guy.

New present...for me??

We saw some really funny sights while we were there. While walking down a random sort of back street (spontaneous short cut...edgy) we happened to stumble into...a scout jamboree. What?? It was mega cool, with stalls and cool wooden dens, and stalls of info and a bbq. Completely wacky! Next up, we stumbled down towards the Rhine. We came across this weird sort of party storage thing where there was loads of crates and chairs and, much to BB's delight, a box of fine looking tall beer glasses. He took one. Daring. Oh, the vicarious adrenaline rush! Meanwhile, I had my own adrenaline rush when I slipped on some wet moss and nearly fell into the fast flowing Rhine. Stupid flip flops!

Stunning, no makeup working photo, with the pretty Healey in background :)

We also went and geeked around another church and admired the archictecture of the Munster and all the general old buildings- things were made so much better then. We went to McDonalds for lunch- I was loving it, haven't been there in aaages so it seemed all fresh and new. Got my classic order of McChicken Sandwich with chips and coke. Classic. Did consider the happy meal...but the toy wasn't up to much!

In the afternoon, we headed to Paddys as usual to meet the gang to watch some sport. This week's new sport for me: Hurling. I loved it. Wish I'd seen more of it before. It's so fast-paced and engrossing, I couldn't believe it when we reached half-time, and when it ended, went so quickly. We were all cheering on the underdog team and they ended up tie-ing with the other team so it was really cool to all be cheering together and feeling like part of something. There's talk of the Basel lot forming teams for GA, Hurling and Camogie. I'm really considering giving Camogie a go. From what I can gather...it's like hockey but you can sometimes use your stick as more of a weapon, and you barrel into people in true rugby tackle style. And if you knock someone out...it's not always a yellow card. Fantastic.

Today I went to a lovely swimming pool place behind the beautiful castle in Bottmingen with the children. It was really cool. I only got to go to the kiddies pool but across the bridge there seems to be an epic swimming pool with a water slide and everything...maybe someday I'll go back while I'm not working and give that slide a whirl.

Also, I totally ordered mince at a meat counter in Coop entirely in German...I'm like a pro now. Except for when I try to set up a bank account and an entire post office have to join in to help with the translation.I swear my life is sometimes like an Indie European subtitled movie. Deffos getting a bike with a basket next to ride down all the cobbled streets. And to put a baguette in.