OH, GLORY

We have a big, fat ASDL connection.

I am beside myself with happiness and relief.

Swisscom: I take it back.

Vegetable of the day: butternut squash. Baby rating: -10000 out of 10. Mother's mood: crushed.

v.v.quick one

hello friends. Apologies for another long delay between posts. In case any of their employees are doing a web search, ****SWISSCOM ARE RUBBISH***, and that is why we still don't have email at home after 7 weeks of being here, hence I am still being furtive at R's workplace. the minute I have email i will be all over you all like a rash.

I had a great birthday, thank you. Emma is huge, like a giant pastry. She looks a bit like Les Dawson these days, and that is a worry. She is refusing to eat vegetables, and i am trying not to have a sense of humour failure about this. Still haven't got the healthcare thing cracked, she isn't up to date with her injections and hasn't been weighed for 2 months. But then I catch her gurning, Les Dawson-style, and my guts tell me she's OK.

Must be off. Going through a bit of a homesick moment, generally, but otherwise tickety boo.

doggies

Still no Internet access. But in ten days time, apparently it'll all be sorted. So I am doing this at R's office, clandestine style.

Switzerland is full of dogs, especially small ones, and owned by ladies of a certain age. They even make the news. The headline of today's local paper: Dogs Killed in Local Park. And there are horrid little signs outside supermarkets that say things like "Mistress says I must wait outside while she buys my dindins," underneath a picture of a dachshund. This is really funny, as the tone of many signs aimed at humans here is "Do this immediately or go to prison."

I am enjoying myself more, though, generally. We went up a mountain at the weekend and saw marmottes. So I am quite partial to small furry creatures myself.

Emma seems to be enjoying baby rice, what bits of it manage to get in her mouth. Making a big mess is the fun part, at any rate.

milka mountains

A window of opportunity, and this time without the intrusion of a thousand eyes. Still no proper Internet access though.

We're all still at this conference thing in the Jura mountains. The bad news is that I have loads of time hanging around while R has back-to-back meetings, the good news is that I get to wander round the countryside, which is impossible to get lost in due to the Swiss zealotry for good signposting. Another Good Thing about Switzerland!

I still have issues with cows, though. They might seem benign, lazily chewing the cud and the Alpine bells add a cutesey charm, I admit, but in my universe they are to be feared. They might bite. They might stampede. They might be bulls. An intrusively loud "moo" and I might startle and burst into tears. So it was unpleasant finding myself in a field full of them yesterday, with an infant strapped to my chest. (the infant was Emma. Not a foundling, or anything like that.)
What made it worse was the fact I was with a very lovely, totally fearless Dutch woman, also with two young children, only she kept going up to them (with the kids) and saying things like "Komm! Nicer kuh!." Then she invited the children to pat and stroke them.

So i felt shame and cowardice, quickly followed by jealous rage.

Better go now as La Maitresse has just filled her nappy. She doesn't know this yet, but we are starting solids this weekend. She has started filling the air with owl-like screeching an hour after the last feed, and it is a sound neither my heart nor ears can withstand.