Our sofa has returned, (see sofa-choice tag) newly re-upholstered, and it looks great. It looks like new, black leather arms and back, with a rust ancantara seat, and swirly cushions. The lady who did it has given me a bag of offcuts in the hope I can turn it into a collage. Wendlane has inspired me to try collage, and I even signed up for a one day collage course in October. If I manage to create anything good, I might put a piccie on here.

All bids have closed as well on the model show final tickets that I auctioned off following my daughters cheekiness. I got one bid, for both tickets, and that is all i needed
So i meet the buyer in Bern tomorrow to hand over the tickets. Of course my daughter has actually been really nice since last Sunday, apparently having to be nice to everyone at the hairdressing salon means she just carries on being nice outside the salon too.
But no way was she going to apologise for her behaviour last week, so I had to stick to my guns. Shame really, but then again, it would have been a late night.

A few months ago I blogged about the Madonna concert here in Switzerland that is coming up, and how the ticket touts had bought up lots of tickets to try and make big gains

Today I read in the paper that they have come unstuck. Ebay is awash with Madonna tickets apparently, with prices below the originals
Serves the touts right in my view, and I hope they learn from this that people are not dumb, we will not pay just any price.

Another article in the papers was about a party that had been planned via Facebook to meet in a Geneva park, and get drunk. Apparently this comes from Spain, where they had such an event with 70'000 young people attending. The sole purpose seems to be to drink.
There was a similar event in the same park in Geneva recently, and the park was wrecked. So this time, the authorities got wind of it, and the gates were padlocked and the police were there.
The main movers behind these parties are Spanish students here, and they seem to think it is only a matter of time before these events are regular occurrances in the main cities in switzerland.
I don't get it, I thught the UK was the land of binge drinkers, and those on the continent were held up as people who knew how to drink sensibly. It seems that is changing, and over here the young people see getting drunk as a fun activity as well. In the same paper I read about the number of young people in Britain who were unable to function at work because of excess drinking and partying, and now that will come here as well.
Seems such a senseless waste of youth and money to me

well I have been back from my hols for a week now, and what a busy week it has been. Back to work Monday, then up to Germany for 2 days hasn't left me much time for coming on here.

The holiday was just what I needed. Madeira is a lovely island, and as soon as I have time I will post some pictures.
One downside of the holiday was that I put on weight, about 1.5 kilos, which may not sound much, but i was already a bit over. So this last week I have been doing my best to eat less etc, and have shed a whole kilo

and today I bought some padded bike shorts, and have just been for a 30 minute spin which has really energized me. I should have bought cycle shorts years ago, and for sure when we did a week long cycle trip round Ireland many years ago. My bum hurt like crazy that week.
So if I can just keep this motivation going, I might get below 60kg this week. my target is 55, although 56 would be acceptable too.

I need energy to cope with my 16 year old at present, she started her apprenticeship last week, and we have seen a fair few moods last week. On Sunday she was bickering with her younger sister, and generally being nasty. I just had enough, and told her to pack it in, and to clean up the kitchen. Her idea of cleaning the kitchen was to pile as much as possible into the dishwasher, so nothing really had a chance to get clean. Then she was rude to me, now she has moved to insolent.

the joys of teenagers . Needless to say I have now put the tickets that I had bought for a Model show final next week onto Ebay, as she does not deserve to go. Hopefully they will sell, although she is threatening to buy them with her friend who has an account.
Answer for everything that one