Business as usual

Quote of the day, from DS as he listened to me chatting to a friend:

'Mum! You're making me bored, so I can't do my sewing!'

I should take a tip from DS, who this week was home with a bad tummy and in that time has: sewn up a hole on his fuzzy lamb; built (assisted by DD) a car out of a cardboard box; made for me a 'jewellery holder'; voluntarily done 'homework' at his desk; painted (assisted by DD) his whole body with face-paints as Spiderman; and informed me that if he can't go outside he's going to explode. Well, that last bit is a moot point: I now have well-developed arm muscles from bathroom-cleaning over the past week.

But it's true that we have been getting creative in DH's absence - he returned from the Infotech Central Mothership last week just in time for the Hausfrau's Baroque concert. Once again, a sublime experience, though this time with an excellent orchestra to assist with Bach's Cantata 169.

We were lucky enough to be giving the debut performance of Jakob Wittwer's Chorale Cantata with orchestra, for which the composer (as the outgoing organist for the local Church With Spire) played organ. A real pleasure and an honour to sing someone else's creation.

As we did last time, the choir sang at the morning service a few excerpts from the concert, in keeping with the church service theme - for which I can only give you a ball-park (God; Jesus) because it was all in Swiss-German.

And, as he did last time, the minister swept up to the altar in his black cape. Only this time there was no thundering organ to call us to Draculan attention. The best I can offer this time is that, as we started singing the heavens parted and a deliciously golden ray of sunlight beamed in through a high window momentarily blinding the Hausfrau and other singers.

Not to worry. We knew the music well enough to forge onwards without missing a beat.

And, in keeping with sunny themes, all choir members were presented with a huge sunflower as they left the stage after the concert. I added mine to a fantastic collection of sunshine which the kids and I had reaped from the local pick-it-yourself flowers next to the soccer field up The Hill.

More in a couple of weeks after the Hausfrau, accompanied by children, returns from a road trip to Sweden with a Dear Swedish Pal and her three offspring.

This is the deal

Seems as though Summer has ended with a jolt as we plunged into rain and single-figure temperatures over the weekend.


Although I am loath to compare life to a game of Solitaire, I found myself having a moment of 'Well isn't that typical' when I was idly playing 'cards' on my mobile phone on the train this morning. The deal was superb - aces, kings and queens in all the right colours at exactly the right time. But then the game plateaued, and so did the train's progression. We sat waiting for another train to pass (not uncommon: freight trains sometimes come screaming past, late, one can only presume, forcing passenger trains to wait - very un-Swiss).

And just as the train started up again, my phone told me, 'It looks like you're not making any progress. Press OK to play again.'

Where am I going with this? I'm going to the land of 'That's what you think,' of course, because a) the train will always start moving again, and b) there are things you can do in Solitaire (as in Life) which the program thinks you can't.

I wasn't able to shift my 4's around so I could start feeding more cards onto the Aces, but - lucky for me - I don't generally believe in messages generated by computer programs (don't tell InfoTech Central), so I was able to move forwards with my day secretly knowing that the Hausfrau could've come up trumps.

And so it was with the past week, where people started grumbling and 'oohing' and 'aahing' about the weather. One person even said to me, 'Gosh, there's so much pressure in Summer. You feel like you need to have done something, because then it's cold again, and you wonder what you can say you did!' Indeed, I understand wanting to make the most of the weather, but not just so I can tell someone what I did. Oh, alright, you might notice this is a blog - read: weblog, where I (ahem) tell people about what I've been doing.

But the end of Summer isn't the end of All Things Fun. No, Sir. It's time to ignore the hype, play out the hand, stay on the train.

So stand by for the next chilly installment as we launch into the Autumn holidays and celebrate one year of living on a Swiss Hillside.