Tuesday 30 October 2012

Snowed in ...ish

The first snow of the winter season arrived for us on 28th October, which is much earlier than it normally would do. I think last year it didn't turn up until late November. Perhaps this is a sign of the forthcoming apocalypse in December this year? Or maybe it was just a bit colder than usual, turning a passing cloud's downpour into snow instead of rain. I'll let you be the judge of which is the most likely cause.

In our little corner of Switzerland - Bussigny - we are fairly low-lying, at an altitude of only 400 metres or so above sea level. That might sound quite high up to some people, but compared to some other places in the Lausanne area, such as Epalinges which peaks at a lofty 850 metres above sea level, it looks positively subterranean. Being at such a low altitude means most other location in Switzerland, like the aforementioned Epalinges, get snow before we do. Not this time.

The snow seemed to fall all over the Canton of Vaud this weekend, leaving a white dusting everywhere. Snow always makes me feel Christmassy. I don't really know why that is, given that I have never actually experienced a White Christmas that I can remember. Christmas in England in 2009 was the closest I ever came in England, with my brother's snowman still standing in the garden from snowfall several days before, although it didn't actually snow on Christmas Day. In Switzerland 2008, we went in search of snow by driving from Lausanne to Les Paccots, which is a bit higher up and therefore more prone to snow when it gets a bit chilly.

The snowy view from
our balcony
Despite these close calls, I have never personally witnessed snow on Christmas Day. I could be forgiven, therefore, for allowing our early blast of white gold to get my hopes up that this year's Big Day will finally buck the trend. It's not like we had a huge deluge of snow; as you can see in the photo, it was only a light dusting of around 1-2 cm.

In any case, it gave me that warm, Christmassy feeling that brings a smile to my face and warms my heart.

The warm feeling didn't last that long. My heart, and the rest of my body, were quickly cooled down when I went outside in the snow. It was seriously cold, with a blisteringly chilly wind blowing right in my face as soon as I stepped away from the entrance to our building.

World's Smallest Snowman?
I had decided to take Lydia out for a walk that day to give her an early glimpse of snow, so she could play with it and have fun throwing it around, or enjoy the feeling of it crunching under her footsteps. As mentioned above, there wasn't a lot of snow, so I wasn't expecting to be able to build a 6 foot tall snowman and have enough snow left over to make a similar sized snowlady and snowbaby.

All the same, I helped Lydia to make her very first snowman (see photo).

OK, so it isn't the biggest snowman in the world. It doesn't even have any eyes. It was more symbolic really, showing Lydia that you can do stuff with snow other than tread on it. By this time she had already given me quite a few puzzled looks as she tried to walk on it, and at the odd feeling of having these freezing droplets landing on her cheeks.

It's hard to say if she enjoyed the experience, partly because I had to cut it short due to the fact that it was so darn cold. It must have been very odd for Lydia to step outside and see white everywhere. She had plenty of snow experience last winter, even going tobogganing down hills at Chalet à Gobet, but she won't remember that now. I know in the years to come she won't remember this winter either, but my aim is to show her that she should enjoy it while it lasts.

...which will basically be until she is grown up and endures the frustration of traffic jams and flights cancellations caused by snow, or has to dig her car out from under a couple of feet of a substance she once thought of as fun.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Expat Dads Who Blog

My interview on the Geneva Family Diaries website is now available online:

http://www.genevafamilydiaries.net/expat-life/expat-dads-who-blog-paul/

This website is run by Michela and chronicles the life of her family as expats in Geneva. It is a fantastic source of information for events and life in general in Geneva and the surrounding region, with excellent tips on fun things to do with your family either at home or in the Suisse Romande region.

When Michela contacted me and asked me saying she had come across my blog through the www.expat-blog.com website and wondered if I would agree to an interview with her as part of their "Expat Dads Who Blog" feature, I jumped at the opportunity. She had already published an interview with another expat dad living in Vevey, and I liked the idea of sharing my experiences since moving here with a wider audience (that is the goal of my blog, after all).

The first part of my interview explains why I moved over here, what the move was like and how I felt before/after moving here.

To any new readers who have come here from the Geneva Family Diaries website, thank you for your interest in me and I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures! :)

Feel free to get in touch any time, drop me an email to erniemcpeck@gmail.com.

Happy reading!

Paul

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Normal Services Resumed

Happy moments in my life:
   - Lydia's birth
   - Done re-adding photos
It's time to give myself a big pat on the back and treat myself to a well-deserved beer.

I have just finished the arduous task of re-attaching photos to my old blog entries that had for some reason disappeared (see "Technical Difficulties"). I am no closer to knowing the reason why these photos had vanished, only that they did. Suddenly, and without warning.

Queue several hours worth of trawling through an unorganised external hard drive trying to relocate all my old photos and work out which one goes where in my blog back catalog. It wasn't much fun, to be honest.

To show you exactly how much effort went into this, here is a list of the blog entries that I had to sort out:

24-09-2009  Preparing for Moving Day
02-10-2009  Car Cleaning, a Farewell and a Haircut
08-10-2009  The Big Move
02-12-2009  Sixty Days in Suisse series (parts I to X)
16-03-2010  A Very Reed-Peck Christmas
28-04-2010  Finding Somewhere to Live series (parts I to III)
13-05-2010  The Job Search - Part III
23-05-2010  Buying a New Car - Part II
28-05-2010  Following FC Lausanne-Sport to the Final (parts I & II)
11-07-2010  A Quick Visit from Mum and Dad (parts I & II)
04-10-2010  12 Months Later
04-10-2010  12 Months Later - Continued

Basically, every blog in 2009 and 2010 that had photos attached. That's 24 different blog entries, with almost 100 photos. I guess I should count myself lucky that 2011 wasn't affected as well, as that would have meant twice as much work!

On the bright side, it forced me to read through my old articles from 2009 and 2010, and hence reminisce about what I've been through in the last couple of years. It also made me reflect on what my life was like before Lydia was born.

Ah, those carefree days... well, "carefree" might not be the most appropriate word to use, given all the stress and hassle I went through in moving from the UK to Switzerland, finding a job and an apartment, swapping my dodgy old Peugeot for a shiny new Mazda, moving to a new apartment and having an operation on my leg to remove a bit of bone that was growing where it shouldn't have been.

It's fair to say, it was an eventful couple of years!

Now I've got the photos back online to accompany my adventures, and hopefully give a better idea of what happened to me during this time.

With any luck, said photos will remain online. At least until Blogger decides to perform another magic disappearing act.

Here's some of my old photos, just to prove they are there:


 

  

Sunday 21 October 2012

Inflatable Fun!

An adult with a suggestive mind might get the wrong idea from the title of this article. Granted, there are plenty of inflatable "objects" that people would associate with fun, the kind that you wouldn't leave on display at home. But that's not what I'm talking about here, given that this is a family-oriented blog.

I'm referring to bouncy castles, and the joy they give to children, and not the other inflatable objects that give joy to adults.

Peppi Land
(courtesy of Lausanne website)
This particular bouncy castle was actually a series of inflatable bouncy castles with climbable objects, slides and characters, all aimed at letting kids run off their seemingly endless supplies of energy, while mum and dad have a rest and a coffee.

This was a temporary event called "Peppi Land", which travels around Switzerland during the warmer seasons, staying for a few days in an area before moving on to the next.

At the moment, Peppi Land doesn't have a website of their own (they aim to have one next year so I'll update this article once that's done), so instead you can find information about them through the official Lausanne commune website or through Peppi Land's Facebook page. Something to note when doing a Google search for Peppi Land is that you should not confuse this with "Speppi Land" - an adult website with absolutely no reference to bouncy castles.

From 19th - 25th October, Peppi Land was at Lausanne Bellerive, in Ouchy. This was actually the end of the season for them, as the winter will soon be here so they'll store the bouncy bits somewhere dry ready for next summer.

The weather this weekend was excellent (sunny and warm enough to leave the coat in the car) so we wanted to stay outside and make the most of it before the long, cold winter arrives. Peppi Land was in the open space near the swimming pool in Ouchy, right next to the large car park (free parking at weekends). The weather was a blessing for the organisers of Peppi Land, as the whole thing was outside - rain would have been a disaster and I imagine would have lead to the event being cancelled.

Another pleasant surprise was the fact that Peppi Land was free to those under 2 years old, so for us this meant an expense-free afternoon. For kids over 2, a fee of 10 CHF has to be paid, and that gives the child unlimited access to bounce as much as they want. One of the inflatables is only for kids under 6 years old, giving the younger ones a chance to find their feet without fear of being smashed out of the way by the bigger kids.

Lydia had previously been on bouncy castles at the Urbakids indoor play centre in Orbe, but she wasn't really a big fan of that. When you've only been walking for a few months it must feel a bit odd to suddenly be standing on a squishing floor that moves whenever you do.


Lydia in a tunnel
 We tried putting her on one of the inflatable play areas, but she didn't seem to enjoy it. She sat happily on the edge of one watching the other kids charging around, but didn't venture further to join in. A couple of smaller mini-slides were a bigger hit with her though, as she happily crawled over them and through a tunnel as well.

Overall, she was probably a bit too young for this kid of thing. I did see a couple of other young 'uns, Lydia's age or younger, who also looked a bit sheepish when faced with the prospect of bouncing around, so perhaps that's why it's free for under 2s (good from the organisers to recognise that the very young will not enjoy it so shouldn't have to pay for a 2 minute bounce and sulk!).

Peppi Land also had a food/drink stand, so we sat down to give Lydia her 4 o'clock fruits and have a coffee ourselves. One of my wife's friends bought herself a big Belgian waffle, so of course we had to get one for Lydia! After that she wandered happily around waving at people and talking her babbling baby-talk to anyone who ventured within earshot. In general, I think she enjoyed her afternoon out, which we finished off by walking along the lakeside in Ouchy and feeding some old bread to the ducks.

Peppi Land is something that kids will enjoy, judging from the looks on some of the other kids' faces as they threw themselves down the soft slides or clambered around in the bouncy tunnels. Definitely something to look out for in the future, maybe when they are back in town next summer!

Friday 19 October 2012

Expensive Toys vs Household Objects

Money makes the world go round.

It's a shame, but we all rely on money to survive. Almost everything has a price tag, and so most of us have to juggle our finances every month to make sure we've got food on the table, petrol in the car and suitable clothes on our backs.

Throw children into that mix and suddenly your bills sky rocket.

Rock n Roll Queen
Nappies, milk, cleaning products, medicines and a constant necessity to replace their ridiculously quickly outgrown clothes, all form part of a parent's monthly outgoings. On top of all that, you get the urge to treat your kid as well, to shower them with new toys, books and games. We don't need to do that, strictly speaking, but we want to.

What us parents fail to recognise, however, is that the kids don't need that either. They are perfectly happy playing with their current stockpile of toys, and new ones just make their day so much busier (they must ask themselves "How am I supposed to play with all those toys in one day?").

What I've noticed just recently, is that they often don't even need toys to be happy.

For years I've heard the old saying that all children need is an empty box to have fun, or that they prefer the paper the present you lovingly bought them was wrapped in to the present itself. I always took that with a pinch of salt, as my adult eyes see toys as far more entertaining (see Oh, To Be A Kid Again... to see what I mean), but it really is true.

Lydia has recently surprised me by happily occupying her time with household objects, that I personally find quite boring. For example, I moved her bean bag into the kitchen the other day while I was cooking (so she wouldn't get upset at me not being in the same room as her), and gave her some of her books to read. Lydia sat down with the books for a minute or two, then got up to start going through the cupboards. "Oh no," I thought, "That didn't last long", and fully expected her to get bored and start whinging at any moment.


Kettles are fun, Daddy!
Instead, Lydia found an old, plastic kettle in the cupboard, took it out and sat down on her bean bag. She sat there clutching the kettle for at least 20 minutes, occasionally getting up to try and wind the cable back in a bit.

Bathtime has traditionally been a bit of a handful for us as well, as Lydia has always wanted to stand up and move around the whole time, throwing plastic ducks and boats wherever she wants. This all stopped last week when she sat quietly in the middle of the bath holding onto a bottle of baby shampoo and a washcloth.

She sat calmly like that for the whole duration of her bath, and then repeated the trick for each bathtime since. The ducks haven't moved from their basket for a while now!

For me that just goes to show that kids don't need lots of toys to entertain themselves. They are perfectly happy playing with household objects, whether it's through finding some kind of intrigue in an old kettle or comfort in a soggy washcloth.

And this is excellent news for our budget as well, as it will help us keep our spending down.

I think for Christmas I might give her an old washing up bottle, an empty toilet roll and a shoe box (minus the shoes). Ho ho ho!

Friday 5 October 2012

Three Is The Magic Number

The 3rd October this year marked the 3rd anniversary of my move to Switzerland. Three whole years of life outside of England, adapting to new surroundings, learning a new language, and starting again from scratch.

I think it's fair to say, I've had a pretty eventful three years here, as you could see for yourself by reading through some of my articles from 2009-2011. I feel I've done a lot of growing up in a relatively short space of time, largely because I could no longer rely on the backing of my family if things got tough, as they were over 900km away.

Granted, I was fortunate to have the support of my wife's family, who always did their best to help me fit in here. Still, trying to build a new life for yourself in another country is no easy feat, and takes a lot of courage and a never-say-die attitude.

Without sounding to much like I'm blowing my own trumpet, I think this boy done good.

Although I won't be celebrating the end of my third year in Switzerland in any formal, party-esque way, I thought it would be worth continuing my tradition of writing a few points about what I've learnt since moving here, following up on 2010's "12 Months Later" and 2011's "Another Year Goes Past".

So, here is a little highlight of the last twelve months of my life on the continent.


Toddlers are much more fun than babies
Before you start typing a complaint, I'm not having a go at babies here. It's just that they simply aren't as much fun to have around as toddlers. The reason? Interaction. Basically, a baby is not the most interesting thing to play with. Up to the age of maybe 6 months old, they really just seem to cry and whinge a lot (at least that's my personal experience with Lydia). Younger than 6 months, you are never really sure if they enjoy life or if they even like you. They seem to smile and look at you with a little sparkle in their eye, only to then scream or whinge as they flap their arms and legs in frustration.

Lydia is now 17 months old, walking around like she owns the place, telling us what to do. Well, she is only in the fairly early stages of speech development, but she has a way of getting her directions across (such as wagging her finger at you saying "No, no, no!" if you do something she doesn't approve of). This is an age where we, as parents, can really appreciate our little ones, as they become really interactive.

Once they are walking and a bit more grown up, the kids can do more things for themselves and that serves to boost their confidence, turning them into little adventurers. We've also witnessed Lydia storming off into her room and slamming the door after being told "no", so you can see the kid's character coming through too.

Personally, I'm enjoying Toddler Lydia much more than Baby Lydia. Perhaps other babies are the most wonderful things in the world to their parents, but for us it was a very difficult stage. Lydia didn't seem happy being a baby either, as we often got the impression that she was frustrated by not being able to do something she wanted to do (be it walking, talking, picking something up, etc.). So, both parents and toddler are much happier these days!


1st Birthday Parties are more hassle than they are worth
The Birthday girl
(before she got
really grumpy)
Earlier this year we wanted to throw a big celebratory get-together for both sides of our families for Lydia's 1st birthday (see "Lydia's 1st Birthday"). Although it was nice to get everyone together for the first time since our wedding in 2009, it was a pretty stressful day.

First the birthday girl decided to have an extra long after-lunch nap on the big day itself, meaning we turned up over half an hour late to her own party. I know that might be seen as fashionably late in some circles, but I don't think that applies to babies.

As well as being late, Lydia also wasn't impressed by the sight of the family gathered in one place for her. On entering the forest cabin rented specifically for her party, Lydia cried as everyone smiled at the sight of her. Perhaps it would be a bit overwhelming for a little 'un to see so many people at one time, but it will still a bit annoying. She also cried when we brought her birthday cake to her with everyone singing "Happy Birthday to You", and when we tried to get her to open some presents as well. In short, she didn't really enjoy her day.

That meant we didn't really enjoy it either. It was nice to chat to everyone, but given that Lydia didn't like it, the whole experience just seemed like a bit of a waste of time and money. If we have another child one day, I certainly don't see us repeating this a second time.


I probably should have got out more in England
In the last three years I've been to so many different places in Switzerland, ranging from towns and cities (such as Geneva, Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lucerne, Sion, etc.) to mountain tops and beauty spots (including Santis, Lac Noir, Les Paccots, Rochers-de-Naye, Glacier d'Aletsche, and so many more). In the preceeding 27 years of my life in England, I had been to hardly any of the UK's big towns and cities, and - outside of Cornwall - had never really seen the beauty that the UK has to offer.

When I think about this now I realise that I should have done more. I should have gone out at weekends and had a look at what my country has to offer. It's kind of strange to think that I have been to so many places and seen so many things in Switzerland but I barely went outside Hertfordshire in England.

As Lydia grows up I think it's important for her to learn about her English heritage, so I will have to put a lot of effort into exploring my old country. So far she has been to Cornwall this year (see "Holiday in Cornwall"), so at least she has seen a bit of England!


I've achieved 40% of my life goals
Back when I was at university studying for my degree, I felt somewhat lost and unsure what to do with my life. I had no idea what job I wanted to do and in general I felt like I was lacking in direction. So, I set myself 5 life goals:
  1. Go to Australia
  2. Go to Antarctica
  3. Learn to play Guitar
  4. Learn another language
  5. Own a Mazda MX-5
Me at Seal Bay, Kangaroo Island
in Australia
OK, so some of these goals were more ambitious than others, but they were things I always wanted to do or have. After finishing my degree, I spent 8 months travelling around Australia, so that checked #1 off my list straight away. Whilst in Australia I met the woman who later became my wife, a Swiss national and French speaker. Slowly, but surely, I've been picking up the French language ever since. Now I can confidently speak French, and although I still don't consider myself fluent, I manage to get by in another language so can check #4 off the list as well.

So that's already 2 out of the 5 life goals I set myself over 10 years ago finished. When I was at university I bought myself an electric guitar that I tried to teach myself, but through a lack of commitment and preferring to go to the pub instead, I never really got very far. In 2009 I ended up selling the barely-used Strat to help raise funds for our wedding and move to Switzerland, so that dream looked dead in the water.

However, for my 30th birthday this year my wife gave me an accoustic guitar, to try and help me finally achieve goal #3. It's a second-hand guitar that was missing a string, but the thought was still there. I have not yet got round to getting it repaired, but plan to do this next year. I will then get some lessons so I actually have someone pushing me to learn to play, something that was lacking from my previous attempt. If I can learn the guitar in the next couple of years, I'll be well placed to finish the full list before I get too old.

A trip to Antarctica is possible but a bit expensive (think it would cost around 10'000 CHF for 1 person), so that'll take some saving up. I might not be able to chalk this one off the list until I'm retired, unless I happen to win the lottery between now and then. The Mazda MX-5 will definitely have to wait until I'm older though, as a 2-seater car isn't very practical for a family of 3...


Well that's pretty much all I can think of for now. Check back in 12 months time for the next episode in this yearly tradition!