Monday morning’s commute to my daily grind was a real bitch.....I flew in from Switzerland! While my head is still spinning from the fact that you can actually do that over here, I thought it was about time to give you an update on the last few weeks which have been pretty busy. I have moved into a flat at the hospital which means I can get out and explore the city a bit more. The 5th of November is known as ‘bonfire night’ over here, when it seems the entire country lets off a vast array of fireworks to celebrate the foiling of a terrorist plot to blow up the house of parliament in 1605. The celebrations seem to last for many days before and after the actual date, so for about a week I was treated to fireworks displays as far as I could see in every direction over the city. My flat is in a high rise of which there are very few in London so the view out the window of it all was pretty spectacular.
Last weekend I hopped aboard a train and went out to the little town of Leominster near the Wales border to visit Kate and Blake for the weekend. The rugby club has got them sorted with a nice little house in the countryside. We did some exploring around the little English towns in the area and had a pretty nice catch up. It was great to see what life is like out of the city, as London can be pretty full on.
Finally managed to catch up with my old CSL buddy Jane, who has been over here for about 3 years now. Turns out she works in the same hospital and lives practically across the street! The world really does seem very small sometimes. Good to know that there is a friend nearby for a quiet pint now and then, or a big night out if that is necessary! Speaking of night’s out, I saw the French group ‘Air’ last Thursday. It was intense! The experience was only so very slightly tarnished by two idiots: 1. Me for forgetting my glasses and having to squint the whole night, and 2. The venue operator who left the seating in place from an earlier concert, who wants to see dance music sitting down? Had to race home afterwards to get some sleep (which was almost impossible being still on a buzz from the concert, and all excited about the upcoming trip) so I could get the first train to the airport. Richard my best mate from high school is living in Switzerland with his Swiss girlfriend, so I decided to go and see them for the weekend.
What can I say, Switzerland is everything you would expect it to be. Beautiful countryside, quaint villages, spectacular mountains, beautiful traditional buildings and cheese, cheese, cheese! I have never eaten so much cheese in my life! I still have a bellyache but it was so worth it! The first night, we had a traditional dish called Raclette. It is sort of a grill/hotplate that you put on the table and cook the meal at the table. Onions and bacon etc go on the grill, while big slabs of cheese go under the grill until it melts. You then get a big plate of boiled potatoes and pour the whole lot over the top, just right for warming you up in the subzero weather. It is awesome. But so is everything else too, the beer, the baked goods, the chocolate, the dairy products.....I just couldn’t stop eating!
We did quite a bit of touring in the three days I was there, visiting some castles and beautiful traditional towns, Rhine falls, the largest waterfall in Europe which makes up for in volume what it lacks in height, and the Pilatus mountain hotel. Holy crap is that thing high!
You have to take a gondola and then an aerial tram to get up there and then you can explore the tunnel system cut into the peak, which opens up here and there to incredible views. There is even a church perched on the edge of the mountain. Susanne tells me that the Swiss refer to this as a ‘toothache church’. If you have a toothache then you run around the church three times and your toothache will no longer bother you!
When it all got a bit chilly we went inside the restaurant for a ‘cafe schnapps’ which is coffee with a big shot of schnapps in it. Yum! And what a place to enjoy it. Damn I wish I had my ski gear!
I will have to come back in summer too, I was delighted to find that inline skating is so big over here that they have three dedicated trails which span the entire country! I am also now very good at doing the old ‘smile and nod’ maneuvre! Speaking virtually no Schwyzerdutsch, I have to say I was pretty embarrassed to open my mouth at all, even if it was just to buy some groceries. You really feel like a bit of a schmoe being limited to one language in a country where most people speak at least three. Lucky for me that Richard has gotten a pretty good grasp of the lingo in the year he has lived there.
I managed to sleep through my alarm (that would have nothing to do with the copious quantities of yummy beer from the microbrewery down the road, which were consumed the night before) and we had to bust-a-move down the autobahn the next day to the airport. Technically, the flight was closed but with a cheeky smile I told them I have no checked baggage and they were kind to me and re-opened the flight. Sometimes you are lucky!
Had a pretty cool night out last night. Wanted to go and see ‘Sons and Daughters’, an awesome Scottish rock band, I have seen them at Meredith and I knew it would be a cracking show! So off I went on the tube, I had left it too late to get tickets and the box office was closed but having been to a few gigs here and seen how aggressive the scalpers are, I figured I would find a ticket somewhere. Well first I couldn’t find the venue and it was pissing rain so I got totally drenched wandering around, then when I finally did find it there was not a scalper in sight. So there I was thinking I had missed it all and just about ready to go home but I thought I would ask at the counter if there were any tickets on the door. Things started to look up when the girl at the counter handed me a ticket and said don’t worry about paying, some people left it here earlier as their friend could not make it! Must have felt sorry for me standing there dripping wet. A couple of pints and a shot of vodka later I was having the time of my life, dancing so hard my glasses kept flying off into the mosh, and having long and interesting conversations with strangers. Right on!
PS. For more Switzerland photos, click here...there are just too many to choose just a few!
