In a Swiss valley

It seems there must be a cow loose in our village. On Wedensday we had snow, lots of snow. It snowed and snowed, all night. The next morning there was a lot of snow outside, the trees and bushes were bent, and one of the plants at the front of the house had been ripped up.
Last night my husband asked me if I had heard bells the previous night? I had not heard anything, I always sleep better when it snows.

This morning the plant had been ripped up again, and there was a large puddle of cow manure nearby.
This is very strange, as we do not live near Cows. But I read today that all the snow caused fences to collapse, and herds of cows escaped from fields

So I guess at least one made it to our village. The thing is that Cows are pretty hard to miss, so I just wonder where it is hiding out in the day

My daughter had texted me when I was on the train to tell me she had made up her mind, and wanted to go to Gymi, which is Gymnasium, sort of A level college, but 3 years, with no choice of subjects, you just have to take them all. It is pretty tough, and she would need to do an exam to get in, plus can't start until next August, so i am not totally convinced.
So I told her, no decisions today, let us try and extend the trial period

So that is what we did. Edna was very understanding and supportive, and agreed to extend the trial period by another 3 months, which gives us breathing space for my daughter to decide what she really wants, and to check out options. Edna wants that her people are totally motivated and love the job, so only Rebekka knows if this is true for her.

So it was a good meeting, took an hour, with no food, so I am rather hungry now, but it was worth it.
And on the drive back to the office, it was sleeting! Must get my winter tyres fitted.

Today I have been on a self coaching day, designed to give me more energy and motivation. I was the only person who registered so it was a one to one course, which is pretty intensive. It was useful though, although i think not everyones cup of tea. The coach is quite a spiritual person, so some of the ideas took some getting used to. However, we looked at balance, the yin and yang of everything I guess, like if you breath out, you need to breath in again, the waves come in and go out, etc, and so if we work, we need to rest, to build up energy again, and the importance of fitness.
We did some physical exercises, and exercises designed to energize at the beginning of the day, which were good. I just need to stick at them. I am terrible for meaning to exercise more, buy gym membership etc, and then not sticking at it.
We also did a good exercise in analyzing situations that maybe did not go so well, and looking for the negative statements, feelings and prejudgments we tend to make, which contribute to the situation not working out, and learning how to turn the negative thoughts and comments into positives etc. Do not judge and give positive feedback is what I took from that.
So let us see if I can put this into practice at work tomorrow.

In other news, my daughter has reached the end of her trial period in her hairdressing apprenticeship and tomorrow we meet her boss. She is feeling under challenged at the hairdressing school, and stressed at work due to the need to find 6 models regularly for different treatments, some of which cost money. The next lot is for a toning colour, costs about£15, and her mates have no money, so she has no one so far. Last night she was in tears, and saying she would give up the apprenticeship, but I think I she knows it is not worth giving up what she enjoys just because of models. So tomorrow the goal is to get the salon to help out with models, or get the requirements reduced.
wish me luck ( her boss is a bit of a dragon, reminds me of Edna in The Incredibles! )

since I wrote my happiness post, which I admit was yesterday, and I postdated it to get  a  lolly  things have gone a bit awry

yesterday evening, taking loads of junk to be disposed of, I managed to reverse in to a metal goalpost, scraping the side of my car and denting it too. Apparently I am not the first, and probably won't be the last, but I am very annoyed with myself for doing it.

And then today I trundelled off to Church to sell some toys and clothes, and made all of a Tenner for 3 hours hanging around, so that was a waste of time.
While I was there I got  a call from work with a minor crisis, due to someone not having done what I suggested 2 weeks ago, and now it was the last minute., He is renouned for leaving things to the last minute, so I should have known I suppose, but as I hadn't been in all week it was hard to check. So I spent the afternoon at the office, and will be there tomorrow as well.

I had read a horoscope this week that I need to guard against overdoing things, and it seems it was right. I am feeling rather exhausted and tearful this weekend.. So I was feeling rather sorry for myself, until I visited Kevs blog and spotted the headline about the Queen losing £37 million due to the financial crisis, and then I looked at the news site and saw all the typical bad news stories, and realised that a prang to the car, and having to work the weekend because of somebody else, is pretty minor in relation to what a lot of other people are going through right now.

in the hope of one of La spices lollipops

This week has been a great week off. I had a great handyman to help me - Paul. He is much more of a perfectionist than I, so we did lots of Prep. Prep is good- I don't enjoy it, but the results were well worth it.
First we cleaned the walls, and filled the holes, and sanded, and masked. Removed the skirting board, and the window, and the socket covers. Finally we painted. 2 coats of white to cover all the colours I had used before, and then 2 coats of yellow. it looks great.
Okay, no Ikea furniture has arrived, or will arrive until Monday, but it still looks great.
And I had luck with selling off the old furniture. On the Monday someone called, wanting to buy the high bed immediately, and they showed up in a Golf, and took it away. So that was one less thing to move out of the way on Tuesday. A bookcase is sold, and now, just when I was thinking, I need to take it to the dump today, someone has rung for a futon I have.
Sometimes things just work out fine.

And Paul himself has an amazing story to tell. He is from California, and has had a very mixed life. He has done many jobs, been married 4 times, beaten alcoholism, lived on the streets, helped other addicts etc. He is the sort of person who has hit rock bottom, and come back to the top, and is one of the calmest people I know. He has found himself and an inner peace. That has to be good news.

I have a whole week off. The sun is shining, the leaves are golden, the new multi complex has opened in Bern. So what she I be doing with my week of freedom?

1. Take cat to vet
2. get Birth and marriage certificates translated for Swiss citizenshop application
3. Clear everything out of youngest's bedroom
4. Clean all walls etc in said bedroom
5. Paint said bedroom, 2 coats white, 1 coat yellow
6. Hope fervently that the Ikea order arrives by Thursday
7. Assemble ikea furniture
8. Paint her desk white
9. put everything back in her room

Hmm, I think that is the week pretty much accounted for

Oh, and 10: Pop on the blog every so often for a little light relief

see ya, wish me luck

my 16 year old has just found the chocolate supply I "hid" in the kitchen cupboard. Maybe not very well hidden.
Or maybe she has a chocolate radar, which actually could be a good female friendly feature for the phone in my last post.

I saw an ad today for a mobile phone from Samsung being marketed in support of the breast cancer charity appeal. It is very pretty, nice colour, sort of pinky purple, with a tattoo of a flower of something.
it also has "female friendly features"
What might they be I wonder?

Unlike the UK, here the autumn is wonderful at present, and today was sunny and clear, with gorgeous colours everywhere. So we went out in the car, to take a walk in the hills.
On the way back we passed a cafe with lots of shiny motorbikes lined up, and lots of hefty bikers supping beverages on the terrace.

Then we pulled into the garage, filling up with petrol were 5 of these:

and to park we had to squeeze past one of these:

and then on leaving the garage, we followed 2 more of them up the road.

so seems to me, that when the sun shines, it is time to get out there on the open road, either on your Harley D, or in your classic car. I wonder if we should get a Sunday car?

the telly that is. Ours is behaving badly in that it does not show a complete screen, and what it does show it bends at the corners, which is unusual to say the least.
So we are agreed we will get a new flat screen high definition TV.
I will be happy with 82cm (32"). Hubby however fancies a whopping 94cm (37").
So i did a deal today. I told him he can have his bigger telly, if I can keep the picture

He is at a loss for words now

Today there was a chocolate festival in Bern, to celebrate 100 years of Toblerone, and I FORGOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sent to me by Email, and I thought I would share it with you all
click on each image to get the pop up version