In a Swiss valley

I have been slowly plodding along filling in the forms for Swiss citizenship, getting the certificate from the tax authority to say we paid our taxes, certificates from the police to say we have no record, certificates from the Betriebungsamt to say we haven't been sued. Certificates from our Gemeinde to say we actually live there, copies of our passports, copies of our permits. Finally, i thought I had it all. I went to the Gemeinde and presented it all, signed off, sealed and delivered. One more piece of paper needed she said, and gave me another form, for the Registry office equivalent. I had to fill in one for each of us, send it off, they would publish that we were applying to be Swiss, and send us a confirmation. The confirmation is what we need to complete our application.
Today I had a letter back from the registry office. Before they can process our forms, they need originals of all birth certificates, our marriage certificates, passports and permits. Not only do they want the originals, the birth and marriage certificates may not be more than 6 months old and if they are not in one of the official languages of Switzerland, then they need to be officially translated as well

So, not more than 6 months old means I have to write to Somerset house for certified copies of our birth and marriage certificates, and then have them translated! Then I need to contact the community here in Switzerland where the children were born and ask for official copy birth certificates ( at least they won't need translating)
Trouble is, all the certificates I first collected cannot be more than 3 or 4 months old when we apply, and by the time I have all this stuff together they will be, so I have to start all over again, and pay out again.
I am seething

they certainly make it hard to be Swiss here. Even when we have finally completed the paperwork we will have to prove we understand enough of Swiss culture to be Swiss. Could be a long process

leastwise I reckon he doesn't. This morning we had a Service of the Word, which is a less formal service than normal, usually put together by some members of the congregation. The 2 responsible today had gone to a lot of trouble finding pictures of harvest and seeds and stuff, to illustrate the parable of the Sower. The pictures along with all the song lyrics were to be projected via a beamer on to the back wall.
It started well, but when we got to the songs, it got slightly confusing as lyrics appeared and disappeared, and verses we had already sung reappeared again. Then the beamer packed up all together, then it miraculously revived, only to fail totally soon after.
So our new Vicar had to improvise a lot, and we reverted to tried and tested hymn books instead.
It seemed to work, but may put us off these new fangled ideas for a while yet I think.
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Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

We have a week until we go on a 2 week holiday to Madeira. I did have a rather weird dream last night about too much luggage and having the cat with us, as well as a force 9 gale blowing. This is probably because we haven^t got anyone fixed up to feed the cats yet, and the weather is terrible here at present

In an attempt to save cash on airfares, we are flying to Madeira with Easyjet via Britain. This means leaving late Friday night, staying at Stansted and taking an early flight on Saturday. Coming back we land late at Bristol, and fly out Sunday lunchtime again.
Now it has save me a fair bit of money, but I am now wondering if it is really worth the hassle, especially as I don't think we can book the luggage through the whole way with easyjet, so that means fetching it off carousels and re-booking it in!
Ah well, at least we will have 2 weeks on Madeira to recover, and get to see family on the way back so I guess that is a bonus of sorts.
See you when I get back

Here in Switzerland we don't PAYE or pay as we earn, instead we have to save up the cash and pay tax in installments 4 times a year on account, then fill in a tax return and wait for the final assessment. my final assessment for 2006 has just arrived. They disallowed several things I claimed for
so now they want even more money!
I am not a happy bunny at the moment, although i will be calling them tomorrow in the hope that the Tax man might have a heart.

A while ago I blogged of my dream of buying the run down hotel and restaurant in our village - providing I won the lottery first in order to finance it.
Well naturally enough, I have not won the lottery, mainly through lack of buying tickets, or choosing winning numbers
Yesterday evening we went to the opening of the newly renovated Restaurant and Hotel in the village. The previous owners had finally retired after years of neglecting it, and only every cooking one dish, and then only if he could be bothered. I supposed it saved updating the menu,
The "Burgers" of the village have bought it. No, not the McDonald types, but something to do with original citizens who own land around here and have been in the village for generations. They have their own secret society, and have bought the restaurant, renovated it, and now it is open to the public with a management team in. It was very busy, and really nicely done.
There will be 2 guest rooms as well, which have to be better than they were when we put my brother in there.
So, now I have to think of another suitable investment for my lottery winnings, a villa in the sun perhaps

Today my eldest finished School. There was a ceremony where those who had passed the exams received a leaving diploma. 64 out of 88 had passed, so I was hoping that Rebi had passed, especially as I had not seen her do any work!
Not only did she pass, but she got called back up to get an extra award for having the best average in her class That was a surprise to her and to us. Mind you, English was one of the subjects she got top marks in, so that helped pull up the average. But fair dos to her, she had top marks throughout her report. I take it all back

Afterwards we spoke to her class teacher, who expressed disappointment in Rebi's choice of career - hair stylist. He hadn't told her this of course, which I was pleased about, but it echoed my husbands feelings as well. But I don't agree with them. This is what she wants to do, and if she wants to do it, and does her best, then she will be an excellent hair stylist. I was at the hair salon last week actually. There were 2 old ladies in, both thinning on top, one with great bald patches. This is bad enough for a man, but must be awful for a woman. The young women employed there did wonders with their hair. They chatted cheerfully the whole time, showed no distaste or judgement, and made both the women look like they had full heads of hair when they had finished. One of those women comes every week so she can hold her head up outside. Now, i don't know about you, but i think that is a wonderful job those young women are doing. They and all other hair dressers around bring pleasure to all their clients ( hopefully) and they stay cheerful throughout. Personally I think that what they do had a lot more worth to it than what I do, even if I do have more status attached.
I did point this all out to the teacher, and he was forced to agree with my point. Or maybe he was just being polite. But whatever, the next 3 years training will be a learning and growing period for Rebekka and after that she can choose her direction.