In a Swiss valley

Why is it that every morning when I come out of the station, the same street newspaper seller tries to stop me?
Every morning he tries to sell me a copy of the German / French language "Big issue" equivalent.
Every morning I say "No thank you" in English. You think he might have got the message by now.

I recognise him. In fact this morning, I even tried to steer a wide path round him, but he still came after me. He must have a very short memory, and forgets that I said No yesterday. or he is just persistent

I have nothing against these guys selling the Big issue type paper. At least it is honest. But I prefer "Surprise" as it is all German, so at least I can understand the whole thing, and not just half of it. I did try explaining this to the guy once, but he won't have it., or forgets what I told him.
Pity there isn't another way out of the station.

Ok, while I think of a title I will make a start. I might even try different colours out.

We are moving away from the idea of a party for Becky, as 16 is not that major here. She would rather have a laptop.
So there is me thinking I am spared the dangers of loads of 16 year olds together overnighting, and she tells me that she is invited to a party on Saturday, by one of the boys in her class, and they are overnighting!!!!!!!!!

Plus she also thinks waiting until she is 18 for a party is a good idea as I can't ban alcohol then

Apparently my one fault as a mother is I don't trust her enough. I keep telling her that it is not her I do not trust, but she doesn't believe me.

The final danger of this post, apart from colour blindness, is that I have discovered Facebook, and it is a bit addictive. So now I am having to spread myself a bit thinner. Fellow facebookers can message me though, and I will try and hunt them down if you like. I know Uncle Frank is one, I got an invite once. You need to invite me again Frank.
Henriette is one too, which is why we hardly see her here  anymore.

So that is it for tonight, Hubbie has gone to bed with a headache, so I think i had better join him, otherwise there is a danger he will be annoyed

Just got back from Church where we had a harvest festival service as well as pledge Sunday. It was really nice to see the Church filled with autumn produce, all of which is auctioned for charity. People get quite carried away with what they will bid for a pumpkin.
Pledge Sunday is when we promise what we will pay towards the running costs of the Church for the coming year, another time to think about thankfulness for what we have.

And on the way home the mountains looked gorgeous topped with snow, whilst in the foreground were autumn colours on the trees. Breathtaking.

A post from lonemum prompted me to write this one. Our daughters are the same age, although I think Tinks is far more adventurous than Becky.
Becky will be 16 in December, we have talked of a party. She wants to invite all her friends from her old school and new school as well as some others. Quite a lot of guests
She also announced she wanted that they could all sleep over afterwards
So I suggested we rent out a youth hostel, and then they can sleep over. Great idea she thought, until I mentioned that Girls and Boys would be in separate dorms.

Now Becky thinks I do not trust her, and why can't they all sleep wherever they want?
I do trust her, but I don't know all her friends, and I do know what teenage boys think about.
But she does not understand, and maybe I am being too protective, although I feel a responsibility to all those other girls. Maybe I am misjudging the boys as well. There will after all be no alcohol, as they are under age for that.

We are back to square 1, with nothing organized. A friend (male) suggested to me that I was being over protective, and must just trust them. Maybe he is right, it has been known

My oldest went for a walk at midnight last night. 60Km, cos her school is celebrating 60 years, and they wanted 60 kids to walk 60kms. I think Becky went cos she thought it was really cool to set off at midnight, plus they said it was a walk round the lake, so she thought it was flat.

needless to say, they made it interesting with a few hills
and she gave up at 45km. There were 19 left on the walk.

I couldn't have made it 45 Km. Last weekend we were in Stresa in Italy, and we did a 10km walk - downhill. I could barely move for 3 days afterwards

needless to say, Becky aches all over, and it will be interesting to see if she can move tomorrow

The purchase of the Wii is a great success. The other family members have been won round, the TV is now on more for the Wii than to watch the usual rubbish, and we all get to do something together.

i also bought the game Boogie, which is like Singstar, if we had a playstation, which we haven't.
The kids love it, you can dance or do karaoke to it, even I have joined in. The youngest has particularly enjoyed playing it whilst home alone, especially as she invites all her mates round to join in.

So sometimes, the impulse buy pays off big time.

It is still half term here, and our youngest is enjoying the freedom of being home alone for 2 or 3 days whilst big sister is doing a trial apprenticeship to see if she really wants to be a hairdresser.
Yesterday we got home from work to find the flat looking suspiciously tidy. The kitchen was tidy, dishwasher loaded, lounge vacuumed! i was impressed.
The youngest was out at her dance class, and the eldest yells from the bathroom, "there is something strange in the bath"
I went in, had the cat been sick? or our daughter perhaps? the bath seemed to be covered with wet rice crispies
When our youngest returned I asked her about the bath.
She became defensive, pointed out how tidy the rest of the flat was.
Turns out that she had been eating her breakfast on the sofa, watching TV. A cat had jumped up, upended her bowl of cereal all over the sofa. This had a blanket on it (thankfully), so she dragged that to the bathroom, and emptied the contents into the bath, dumped the blanket in the laundry basket! and then washed the cushion that also got hit.
Tonight I laundered the blanket, along with her dressing gown and PJ's, so I think they got hit as well

Tonight she sat down on the sofa with a bowl of cereal. I reminded her that she should be at the table, but she didn't think so. It wasn't her who had spilt them before after all.

for those who don't know why there is a sprinkling of nightmare poems today only there is a competition organised by La spice
http://mypoetry.blog.co.uk/

Child, you are a nightmare
my mother used to shout
your hair looks like a haystack
your clothes are inside out,
your coat is missing buttons
and what have you on your feet?

Why can't you be like Wendy?
always so sweet and neat -
you never see her scruffy
she always is upbeat.

My mother never understood
that Wendy was a fool
she tormented me every day
as I came home from school

She and her gang of cronies
would wait beside the path
and harry me and grab my hair
as I would try to pass

They made my life a nightmare
for 6 months, maybe more,
until I pushed Wendy in the swamp
Then i never saw 'er no more

I have gone all cold. An 18 year old girl from the town where I work has been found sexually assaulted and strangled in Ireland.
She only arrived there on Saturday to do a language course
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7037595.stm

It doesn't bear thinking about the welcome she received.

Well I would if I could, but she looks pretty comfortable

Bought a Wii on a local auction site. Still with guarantee.

My youngest and I both fancy playing this in the lounge, but my husband and eldest are not keen on the idea. So I have yet to mention my rash impulsive purchase

I hope it is easy to install, cos I think it will be me doing that bit

We also had a new Digital TV receiver box arrive yesterday, so now we can access all the UK channels again - BBC 1 and 2, BBC Prime, ITV 1 and 2

probably find there is still nothing worth watching, but it must be better than some of the stuff we get on the other 42 channels we have over here.
Our lounge is going to end up a haven of electric smog however, which is not so good.

I see we have a guestbook feature now, so presumably random visitors, and I don't know how many of them I get, can leave me a comment in the guestbook. HMM, I am not sure about this feature, but then again, why not?

So if you are random, and don't want to comment a post, feel free to leave me a message in the guestbook. click on my photo to find it, and then select the tab above labelled guestbook - pretty foolproof me thinks

And Neil, if you leave any rude messages, it will be edited out. I do have all rights you know

Just seen this item in a local magazine. 6 Pet bottles with their tops cut off, a cork trim, attached to a metal strip, makes a magazine or newspaper holder for the lounge apparently.
And the cost?
Fr 120!! That is £50 to the rest of you! Are they having a laugh

Tonight I am hiding away in the study because my 15 year old is sprawled on the sofa watching some crimi in German. Every night she takes over the lounge, and watches what she wants to watch. How did this happen?
The 12 year old is in my bedroom playing a PC game, I cannot go there and read a book, or in the lounge.
At one time I was against TV in the bedroom or computers in the kids rooms, but now I am having second thoughts. Just because they don't have them in their room is not stopping them wasting lots of time in front of them. I want my lounge back, where I can sit and read, or watch something I want to watch

so I am weakening, and will look into having a TV in the bedrooms, then I will get some adult space back.
Not sure what hubby will say though.

There has just been an article on the local news about the body of a man being found in his apartment. He has been dead for 18 months!
The reporter was asking the neighbours - and this is an apartment building, not a house, if they hadn't thought it a bit strange. Apparently they had, but they saw him so seldom that they didn't think too much about it. Someone did eventually notify the police that there was a bit of a smell coming from there, but the police didn't enter the apartment because they didn't have a warrant to do so. Eventually the large number of flies swarming around the apartment alerted the neighbours, and the police finally entered the apartment.

Not much of him left to identify now though!

Just goes to show it pays to be a bit more sociable when alive, cos someone might notice when you are gone.