After Oz

Just as pre-Spring buds on trees in Australia were starting to make themselves known we arrived back in Switzerland to the occasional lazy yellow autumn leaf drifting to the ground.

However, we did managed to have a solid week of sun, during which we visited nearby Oberrieden Badi, where I sampled a tasty but slightly odd (i.e. with canned sweet corn) Thai salad; after-school activities got into full swing; and DS and I took a Schiff (a boat which thinks it's a bus) on the glassy, turquoise Lake.

The week was hazy and tropical, and ended with the birthday party of DS, a very Swiss-German affair involving about ten sweaty and excited six- to ten-year-olds and several soccer balls.

Actually no; it ended with the Hausfrau heading into the city to see a movie and eat Malaysian noodles with a friend. Not half bad.


A few observations after returning to Switzerland from three weeks in Oz:

DS can eat ice-cream with chopsticks and enjoys playing 'Bidmanton' with 'Hottlecocks'.

Canberra is cold. (This from the Hausfrau who had braved the Jungfrau.)

Sydney is big. Well, bigger than Zürich.




Both of my offspring refused to speak more than a couple of words of German while we were on holiday.

DD got the giggles on the plane from London to Zürich when she realised she could understand the air steward's German announcements.

Both of my offspring appear now to speak only Swiss-German in our apartment playground.


Friends are friends even when you don't see them very often.