To Bake, or not to Bake...

...that is the question.

This particular question could reasonably be re-phrased as "to burn the flat down, or not to burn the flat down", given my lack of baking experience and general uselessness in the kitchen.

My past attempts at MasterCheffery have seen me make such gaffs as setting fire to oven gloves, melting a spatula into a wok, and burning rice (complete with actual flames). This coming from someone who's proudest culinary creation is chocolate scrambled eggs, a concoction borne from a fridge with nothing but eggs and chocolate milk whilst backpacking around Australia.
 It's not that I don't want to cook; in fact, I quite enjoy having a go at a new recipe and new techniques, or new foods that I've never cooked before. I'm just not very good at it.

Every now and then I manage to make something edible, and on rarer occasions something quite tasty. Such examples include Gordon Ramsay's Shepherd's Pie, and Jamie Oliver's vegetable stir fry. I also once made a big meal of Indian food back (see Her First Mothers' Day) and cooked Christmas Turkey Dinner (see I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday), so I do get it right sometimes.

The reason I'm thinking about baking is because Lydia's 2nd birthday is coming up this weekend. Last year she was too young to really understand anything about what a birthday actually is, and in fact cried when we brought out the birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. That took some of the gloss off the celebrations, but you can't really expect a 1 year old to be ecstaticly excited about a birthday party.


This year, she is probably still too young to really grasp what all the fuss is about, but hopefully she will be a bit happier on the day. We won't have a big party with 40+ people this time, so she shouldn't be too overwhelmed, and we've been practising singing happy birthday with her for the last few weeks in preparation for the big moment.

Having worked on steeling Lydia's nerve for her birthday celebrations, our thoughts now turn to the centre piece - the birthday cake.

There are a lot of people out there know how to bake, but I am not one of them. My culinary "skills" stretch only to main courses, or occasionally starters, and bakery has never really grabbed my interest. I prefer salty snacks (like crisps and nuts) to sweet treats, but I don't think the candles would stand up properly in a pile of Walkers cheese and onion flavour crisps. A good Shepherd's Pie would probably hold the candles well, but not really appropriate for a child's birthday party.

And so, a cake must be baked, and there's only two people who can do it - me and my wife, Chris.

We've got a general theme for the cake, based on a kids' TV show she likes, but we lack the know-how to actually put it together. I've found what is supposed to be a foolproof sponge cake recipe on the Internet, and I have no doubt that the "foolproof" claim will be strongly put to the test this weekend.

Chris has gone in search of food colouring in the right colours, while I have researched how to decorate a cake. It all looks very complicated, and I honestly have no idea if we will be able to pull this off. The sponge cake base seems straightforward enough, but certain items like self-raising flour don't seem to be available in the Migros supermarket chain here. Chris has substituted this for normal flour and a raising-agent called "levure", which is typically used in baking here. It'll mean adjusting the recipe and keeping our fingers crossed.

It could go either way: it might be a stunning success that we'll look back on in years to come with fond memories, or it might be a complete disaster that results in stomachs being pumped in hospital.

My parents will be flying over tonight so they'll be here for the birthday girl's big weekend, and it'll be their job to keep her busy while we get cracking with the cake.

We will know by tea-time tomorrow if we've been successful or not. Please, everyone out there in Internet-land, keep your fingers crossed for us this weekend.

If all else fails, the local bakery / patisserie is open on Sunday mornings so we do have a backup plan.

World Radio Switzerland

I just found out that my blogs ("erniemcpeck - Adventures in Switzerland" and "Swiss Red") were mentioned as part of a broadcast by World Radio Switzerland last Thursday.

As part of their regular feature called "The Connectors", presenter (and blogger) Catherine Nelson-Pollard discussed the My Big Geneva website with Michael Shevlin (another blogger and local teacher), and as a side note also mentioned my own blogs. What an honour!

The My Big Geneva website is a fantastic source of information, and quite rightly the focus of a programme discussing expat experiences here, as it has a ton of articles on what to do in Geneva. Before talking directly to Emilie and Carla of My Big Geneva, Catherine mentioned my blogs as an example of a British expat who blogs about life in Switzerland.

You can listen to the programme through the WRS website, or download it directly through this link.

I always find it incredibly flattering whenever anyone mentions my blogs, as with my recent interview on the Expat Dads Who Blog series on the Geneva Family Diaries website. It humbles me just to know that people read what I write, and I sincerely hope that what I blog about can help other people in some small way.

I would like to express my thanks to Catherine and WRS in general for mentioning my blogs, which are also linked from their website. In return, I would like to encourage others to tune in to WRS, either through 101.7 FM in the Geneva region or by streaming through their website. Listening to shows such as The Connectors can help you find information from other expat sources that could be interesting or even helpful to you.


Below is a list of websites and blogs run by other expats here in Switzerland:

Geneva Family Diaries
- I've mentioned my appreciation for this website in past articles, after they first came to my attention when they asked me to do an interview for their series on Expat Dads Who Blog. Michela runs a very tidy and information-packed website that is mainly focused on Geneva but also stretches to the surrounding areas, and is a great source to check if you want to find out what's going on in the coming days or weeks.

Know It All Passport
- The Know It All Passport is a guide book for English-speakers in the Geneva and Vaud regions of Switzerland, and this website supports the book with expanded information and articles. As you would expect with a guide book and an accompanying website, it is absolutely jam-packed with information on what to do and where to go in these areas of Switzerland. Having read some sample pages, I think this just might be next on my list of books to read!

Lausanne Mom
- A brilliant website written my Meta, an expat mother of two who lives in Lausanne and blogs about very wide-ranging subjects related to daily life in Lausanne as well as things to see and do in other parts of Switzerland. She also has loads of great ideas for things to do with kids, with many articles on craft ideas that will come in very handy during the winter months when the kids can't go outside!

Linda - Lost in Switzerland
- This was a cracking blog by Linda who moved to Switzerland from her native Sweden. She blogged about her views on things in life, which were often unrelated to Switzerland, but amongst the articles about fashion or movies she liked there were some real gems, such as "Sweden vs Switzerland", where she compared the pros and cons of the two countries (Sweden won). Sadly she no longer blogs here as she moved back to Sweden earlier this year, but historically it's still a good read.

Living in Nyon
- This blog is written by The Connectors presenter Catherine Nelson-Pollard herself, providing a view of life in Nyon from a British expat. Lots of information about life in Switzerland can be found here, as well as articles for tourists visiting the area and upcoming events. It's another website that I wish I had found out about sooner, and this is now firmly in my list of sites to follow. Catherine also runs a blog about life in Switzerland called "The Perpetual Expatriate", giving her view on life here.

Mamizeit
- This is a web magazine written with expat mothers in mind, that aims to share information amongst international women living here in Switzerland, with topics ranging from daily life to fashion tips. It's an interesting read, even from a male perspective!

Mr Shev
- A blog written by Michael Shevlin, who was part of the WRS The Connectors broadcast that mentioned my blogs, on his views on life, which are written with a kind of humour that strikes a chord with me (quote from his Snow Driving Tips article in January: "...the motherland has had a couple of inches of snow so the whole country has come to a complete standstill and people have started eating their pets..." - funny stuff!). A good read that will make you chuckle.

One Big Yodel
- Written by an American living in Switzerland, this is a useful and often humorous look at life in here, albeit in the German part of the country. A good read and full of useful info, it's a good place to go for English-speaking expats.

Your Swiss Life Line
- A website dedicated to helping people who are moving to Switzerland, with helpful info on orientation and how to settle in and adjust to life here - why have I only just found out about this site?? It has loads of useful blog articles that would probably have come in handy to me had I read them over three and half years ago! If you are in the same situation as I was - i.e. about to move to Switzerland - I sincerely recommend this blog!


A useful list of blogs from expats here in Switzerland is also available through the Expat Blog website, here.
If you've come to my blog from the WRS website then thank you very much for your interest in me, and feel free to browse my blog entries! :)

Pigtail Princess

Lydia's hair has never been particularly long. She wasn't one of those babies born with a luxurious full head of hair; with dark hair round the sides and a fairly sparse covering on top, she actually looked like she had styled her hair on the typical image of a monk.

We have had to wait what has felt like a very long time for her hair to grow - she's nearly 2 years old - and now that it's finally long enough to play with my wife is taking every opportunity to do just that. Ponytails and pigtails are the fashion of the day in our house now!

Unfortunately, and probably fairly understandably, Lydia doesn't like the process of tying her hair up, as yanking on her hair is rather uncomfortable. She therefore objects whenever we try, and it's not really fair of us to force this on her. The problem is that she looks so damn cute with pigtails, it's hard to resist!

This is her with pigtails:

...to me, she looks really cheeky and yet unbelievably cute at the same time, although this is coming from my biased, proud-father viewpoint.

She is just starting to like the concept of a princess, so hopefully this will be the beginning of a long phase of wanting to wear pretty dresses, tiaras (plastic ones, of course), etc...

Allez Lausanne!

Back in May 2010, during my first twelve months in Switzerland, I travelled to Basel to watch FC Lausanne-Sport play against FC Basel in the final of the Coupe Suisse (see "Following FC Lausanne-Sport to the Final"), in what promised to be a great day out.

As it turns out, FCLS were on the wrong end of a serious spanking, losing 6-0 in what was truly a dire performance. Having spent 120.- CHF for a round trip train ticket, plus the cost of the match ticket, then sat for the duration of the game with a headache in torrential rain, I can honestly say I was not particularly impressed with Swiss football.

I wrote in my blog entry afterwards that I doubted I would attend another FCLS match unless they made it to another cup final. On 27th February, FCLS were scheduled to host FC Sion in the quarter final of the Swiss Cup, and an invitation from my brother-in-law Pascal tempted me to go back on my words.

La Pontaise starts to fill up with hopeful supporters...

It was a bitterly cold evening, coming a few days after most of the Canton of Vaud was covered by a few centimetres of snow, and the match was only scheduled to start at 8:30pm. I met up with Pascal and a few of his friends, and we quickly bought our tickets and went inside to warm up.

I'll admit I was a little surprised by the price of the ticket, forking out a whopping 50.- CHF for my seat in block J of the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, the home of FCLS. Granted, my seat was well placed in row 22 slightly to the right of the stand with a side view of the pitch, a viewpoint that would let me see all the action regardless of where it happened on the pitch, but I honestly found the ticket price to be rather high considering it was FCLS.

The other side of the stadium has cheaper tickets, at around 30.- CHF, but it is more open to the elements and on such a cold night a little wind protection was a welcome bonus. Still, I wasn't impressed at the dent this made in my cash flow, and hoped that the match would be an open, entertaining affair to at least make it worth my money.

Sadly, this hope was totally misplaced.

Insipid, dire, dreadful, dull. Plenty of words come to mind that would describe the match, but none of them are positive. Both sides played some truly awful, uninspired football of a standard that would be unacceptable at even a fourth division team in England.

FC Sion scored a goal in the 28th minute of the first half, and that was practically the only effort on goal. In an attempt to keep some level of interest in what was a terrible display of half-arsed football, we spent the first half counting the successive passes by each team to see if either side managed to string more than 5 passes together before losing possession. FCLS managed this just once in the opening period, and FC Sion not at all.

On such a cold night, the shivering supporters searched desperately for a reason to applaud their side, if only to generate a bit of much-needed heat through banging their hands together. These occassions were few and far between, aside from the solitary goal.

When the referee's whistle signaled the end of the first half, there was a sense of huge, collective disappointment amongst the FCLS fans. We headed to the bar and grabbed a beer; at least that gave us something to be happy about.

The second half, unfortunately, was full of the same tripe as the first, with very little to cheer for either set of supporters. To their credit, the FC Sion fans entertained themselves with songs and the occasional flare, and they actually looked to be enjoying themselves despite the shockingly bad game they were witnessing.

The only real move for the FCLS fans to cheer was when a shot from distance crashed back off the crossbar. At that moment, the supporters might have sensed a small hope that their team might be about to wake up and suddenly start playing some actual football. The hope died shortly afterwards as the match reverted back to being the equivalent of watching paint dry.

Right at the death, FC Sion won a penalty that they duly converted with the very last kick of the game. The ref whistled the end of the match, with FCLS on the wrong side of a 2-0 defeat, exiting the Coupe Suisse with little more than a whimper.

I headed home after the match (where a hot shower helped to warm my semi-frozen body) thoroughly disappointed and a little angry to have spent so much money on such a terrible, terrible game.

This brings me back to the same sentiment as the last time I watched them play in 2010, as I really don't think they are worth my money.

It's a shame as I enjoy the experience of watching a football match, with songs ringing around the stadium and flags being waved from passionate supporters. If the ticket price was cheaper I might be tempted to go more often, but at 50.- CHF for sub-standard football, I think my wallet will be staying firmly shut.

Dashing through the snow...

This weekend we decided to take advantage of the good weather to take Lydia tobogganing at Aminona, near Crans-Montana in Valais. Having barely seen the sun in the last couple of weeks, it was a good opportunity to get some fresh air and do something fun.

The timing of our trip was perfect weather-wise with glorious sunshine and clear blue skies, but unfortunately it was also a Sunday during half-term break, which meant a lot of other parents had the same idea as us. Parking near the tele-cabin wasn't too bad, as a free multi-storey car park is very nearby. Sadly, getting a ticket was much harder.

There was a large queue lined up en masse in front of the ticket office, with only two guichets open to serve the waiting throng of people, and doing so at an incredibly slow pace. I'm not sure if it was due to language barriers - I heard all sorts of different languages in the mass of people around us - but it often took up to ten minutes for some people to buy their tickets, in what is normally a pretty simple process.

This meant that we waited for about an hour to finally buy our tickets for the tele-cabin and sledge rental, which meant we had to keep Lydia busy the whole time. You can't realistically expect a nearly-two year old child to wait patiently for this length of time, although she did well to last about twenty minutes before getting a bit grumpy.

I managed to keep her occupied for most of the hour, before the eventual bout of tears (possibly tears of boredom) just before we got to the front of the queue and bought our tickets. For information, our total time in the queue was sixty minutes, and only two minutes at the desk to actually buy the damn things.

We quickly grabbed two sledges and jumped in the tele-cabin to get up to the top of the mountain. We only purchased one trip in the tele-cabin, reasoning that we didn't fancy doing the queue again.

Lydia enjoyed riding in the tele-cabin, looking at the view and pointing at various items of interest such as trees and people skiing down the mountain.

Picnic lunch at the top

When we arrived at the top we made our way out to the piste, and sat down out of the way of the skiers and tobogganers for a picnic lunch. Eating our fill of bread, ham, cheese and crisps - washed down with a chilled beer - we lapped up the sun's warming rays in preparation for the ride down.

It took us a couple of minutes to work out exactly where the sledge run starts, as the beginning of the trail is for both skis and sledges, and we certainly didn't want to get stuck going down the wrong one. Having found the right path to follow, we negotiated some particularly steep descents on our sledges, Lydia sitting with me while Chris (very slowly) followed behind.

Although Lydia enjoyed the speed and the sensation of going fast downhill, she was definitely not a fan of having snow sprayed in her face. Some of the trail was very steep indeed, and I had to really dig my heels into the snow to try and stop us going too fast, fearing slightly for Lydia's safety. This lead to snow being flung up in front of the sledge, most of which went straight onto Lydia.

Despite being well protected in her ski combination, hat, scarf, gloves and sunglasses, the snow managed to get on every available patch of bare skin on Lydia's face. After one decidedly scary downhill slide, I stopped and looked at Lydia - her entire face was covered in bits of snow, she looked almost like a tiny snowman! Naturally, she did not appreciate this, and she cried for most of the time wanting to stop the downhill snow showers.

Unfortunately, you can't really stop halfway down a mountain, so we had to keep going. I would stop every couple of minutes to try to calm Lydia's tears, but she really didn't enjoy it very much.

Pit stop with a view!

We came across a little kiosk/café after about 2km of the track, and stopped for a rest and a glass of mulled wine. The friendly barman told us that we still had around 4km to go before we reached the bottom, but that we had already gone past the worst of the descents. This cheered us up, and a little bit of chocolate eventually made Lydia cheer up as well.

When we restarted the course, Lydia's tears restarted as well. She really didn't enjoy the sledging, and on several occasions she tried to stand up and turn around, leading me to have to restrain her while I stopped the sledge to be able to comfort her. For the final 3km of the course I managed to avoid spraying any snow on her at all, but this didn't stop the crying.

We finally reached the bottom, with me carrying Lydia in my arms for the last few hundred metres just to stop her near-hysterical screaming. I instantly stood up and carried Lydia back to the car, feeling her calming down with each step. By the time I got to the car, she felt completely relaxed in my arms, and I'm pretty sure another five minutes like that and she would have fallen asleep (I should point out here that it is incredibly rare for Lydia to sleep anywhere other than her bed or occasionally her car seat)!

I eased her into the car, covered her up with a blanket and then drove off. After only two minutes in the car, Lydia was asleep. She slept the whole way back to Bussigny, and promptly woke up just as we arrived at home. Think the little munchkin tired herself out with all the crying!

Thinking back to the sledging itself, I quite enjoyed it (if you remove the screaming child aspect). The trail has some very steep parts and some sharp turns, but we managed to negotiate the entire course without falling off the sledge.

The views from the top are stunning, and on a sunny day such as this one the trip to the bottom is very nice indeed.

The downside for us is that the next day it was clear that Lydia has picked up a cold, most likely from getting snow in her face so often. It seems that every time we go tobogganing with her she ends up with the sniffles.

I think this is the last time we will go tobogganing this winter. We'll see how we get on next year - hopefully Lydia will like it more than she did this time.

I would definitely go back to Aminona as the course was fun, but try to avoid going during school holidays.

For anyone with Swisscom TV

We have Swisscom TV at home, giving us a larger choice of channels to watch that a typical cable connection (although the vast majority of those channels are in German).

The main reason why I wanted to have this was because it comes with a selection of English-speaking channels, including BBC, ITV and Channel 4 from England, and I thought being able to watch shows from my homeland would help me keep my sanity after making the move to Switzerland.

In fairness, my wife and I generally end up watching the same shows, so having a larger choice of channels doesn't really make much difference, except for the fact that I can watch English shows.



Swisscom TV's iPhone application

One excellent feature of Swisscom TV is the digital recorder box - much like Sky Digital that I had in England. It allows you to record your favourite programs onto a hard drive to watch later. This has been particularly useful to record episodes of T'Choupi, a cartoon that Lydia demands to watch while she has her morning and evening bottles. We don't generally have the TV on when Lydia is around, but she refuses to drink her bottle without T'Choupi... Think our Swisscom TV box now has every single episode of T'Choupi ever made saved on the hard drive!



I recently stumbled across an iPhone application for Swisscom TV that I think is really worth getting - it's completely free, and allows you to browse the channel listings for every channel that you receive.

But that's not the best part - you can use the application to tell your box to record programmes, meaning you needn't be worried about forgetting to set the box to record a programme as you can do it on the go!

And, as an added bonus, you can watch many of the shows through your phone, so you don't even need to be watching your TV at home!

I have made fair use of this feature recently to watch football matches - we only have 1 TV at home and my wife is not a footie fan, so Swisscom TV app spared us an argument or two.

As it's free and has lots of handy features, I recommend this to anyone who has a Swisscom TV subscription and wants to make sure they don't miss their favourite shows!

I should point out that I am not affiliated in any way with Swisscom, nor am I benefitting at all from advertising their products on this blog. I am simply happy with their offerings and want to spread the good word! :)

Balloons

This weekend we decided to head over to the annual Festival International de Ballons, held in Château-d'Oex. The "ballons" in question are of the large, hot-air variety, so you can expect the sky to be filled with colourful balloons of various interesting shapes.

We made the 1 hour trip from Lausanne to Château-d'Oex for the same reason last January, but unfortunately the bad weather meant that the balloons could not take off. On that occasion we had to make do with looking at balloons being inflated on the ground for a short while, and then deflated so that the next balloon could be blown up.

Luckily this year the weather was much kinder to us, and the festival was able to go ahead as planned.

Balloons fill the sky over Château-d'Oex

As we approached the town of Château-d'Oex, we could already see many balloons in the sky, and Lydia excitedly shouted "Ballon! Ballon!" repeatedly as we arrived in the town. Having parked the car in the town itself (the festival car park was not open at this point as they wanted people to fill up the Coop car park first), we walked towards the grounds.

A short distance from the entrance we were stopped by some of the festival workers, who informed us that we had to purchase tickets for 10.- CHF just to get in. I was surprised at this, as I didn't remember paying for entry when we went last year. Perhaps they waived the entry fee last year as the weather was so bad and no flights were expected? In any case, we paid the man (fortunately Lydia got in for free) and entered the festival grounds.

Inside there was a band playing Güggenmusik, a type of music with loud drums and brass instruments, typically associated with the carnaval season in Switzerland (see "Carnaval"). Lydia loves music in general and although she seemed a bit scared of the loud Güggenmusik, as she pressed her head against my arm, every time they finished a song she repeatedly shouted "Encore!".

Aside from the band, a large number of people were gathered along the gates lining the field where the balloons are inflated, while an announcer described certain balloons over the PA system. At one point a partially inflated balloon laid itself down over half the watching crowd before lifting back into the air, much to the amusement of those momentarily covered by the colourful material.

Also in this area was a booth where you can pay for balloon flights. Out of curiosity, Christelle checked how much a trip would cost, and the answer was 250.- CHF per person. That meant it was a bit out of our price range, and in any case they said the day's passenger list was basically full. Maybe next year.

Near the inflating field were some assorted stalls selling such goodies as hats and scarves, as well as others peddling pizzas, churros and various other typical festival delicacies. Chris and I decided to have a glass of mulled wine to help warm our chilled cockles, and stumped up 5.- CHF per glass for the honour. To be fair, they were large cups (possibly 300ml) and the mulled wine was delicious, so we certainly got our money's worth there.

Afterwards we headed over to a hill on one side of the grounds, partly because of Lydia's insistence to follow the band who had disappeared in that direction. We made our way up the slope and picked out a good spot to see the balloons being blown up. At the top of the hill were some more food stalls, so I bought a bowl of macaroni du chalet for Lydia (macaroni with ham, cheese and cream). It was 10.- CHF for the bowl which I thought was a bit on the steep side, but I put this down to everything being more expensive at festivals.

Lydia really liked her lunch, as she managed to eat probably two-thirds of the bowl (which is a lot for her, as she isn't a big eater). The other third was happily finished off by yours truly. Yum yum. At this point Chris' friend Sandrine had showed up with her son Matys (see "Ah, Young Love..."), so they joined us on the snowy hill to watch the balloons.

I guess Lydia had absorbed some energy from her pasta lunch as she jumped out of her pushchair and started walking around in the snow. After a few steps she laid down on her back in the snow, so we rolled her over to her sheer delight. She giggled as she rolled around in the snow, occasionally standing up and trudging around before dropping down and laughing as she began to roll again.

This was actually brilliant to see as Lydia had never really seemed that comfortable with snow, not wanting to touch it or play with it and barely tolerating walking in it. So to see her enjoying herself in the snow was a wonderful moment for us. Her happy relationship with the snow lasted for until she tried to run and tripped, landing on her knees with her glove-less hands in the snow (it's impossible to make her keep her gloves on), at which point she whinged and didn't want anything more to do with the white stuff.

That, along with the fact that it was round about the time that Lydia would normally have her nap, signalled the time for us to leave, so we made our way back home. That afternoon Lydia slept for two and a half hours, so it looks like the combination of fresh air and playing in the snow tired her out - might have to remember that!

All in all, the Festival International de Ballons at Château-d'Oex is good to see, and at night (weather permitting) they have a "Night Glow" with illuminated balloons, which is probably something spectacular to witness. The main downside for me was the fact that we had to pay to get in, even though all that entitled you to was to stand a bit closer to the balloons while they were grounded (as everything else involved additional charges, such as drinks, food, rides, etc.).

We might go back next year, and hopefully we will get to see the Night Glow next time, although it might be more economical to watch the balloons from the town itself instead of paying to get a bit closer.

Tip: if you fancy going to the festival you should make sure to check their website the morning of the day you plan to go, as they post information about what to expect that day. This will tell you if the weather is too bad for flights, or if the Night Glow is cancelled.

Independent Playtime

Just how do you get a toddler to play on their own?

I'm told that some kids will happily sit in their room and play with their toys for ages, often more than an hour at a time. Lydia has never been like that. From a very early age, she seemed to crave our company, although she wasn't a big fan of contact (not a very cuddly baby).

We used to put her on a playmat with a mobile of dangly toys hanging above her, but she would only slap the dangly things for a couple of minutes before starting to cry out of either frustration or boredom. This made it quite frustrating as it meant we couldn't get on with our daily tasks because we had to try and entertain a grumpy baby.

People often say to me, "you should have left her crying for a while, that would teach her to keep herself busy". Believe me - we tried. We left Lydia crying on her playmat for well over 30 minutes, praying that she would realise that her screaming was getting her nowhere, but she always managed to outlast us. There is only so much high-decibel screaming that a person can stand, so Lydia won every time.

She never really had a problem with sleeping on her own - that's always been one of the blessings we've experienced with Lydia, as she started sleeping in her own bed at 4 weeks old and was sleeping through the night (8pm until 7am) by 6 weeks old. Even her naps have generally been OK, with only small patches of disturbance to the rhythm along the way.

But playing by herself has never been part of Lydia's character. As I mentioned above, she seems to need interaction with others to be able to play. We tried giving her a wide variety of different toys, from gadgets that make noise and have flashing lights, to puzzles and building blocks, but she has just never played with them on her own (or certainly not for longer than a couple of minutes). She will happily play with me or Christelle, but whenever we walked away to do something else Lydia would inevitably follow us, whinging all the time.

For Christmas last year we bought her a nice wooden kitchen set from IKEA, with a load of pots and pans, plates, cutlery and various plastic or felt toy food items. She loves playing with this when we are in her room with her, as she constantly offers to make us a "cup-o-tee" or give us a slice of gateau. A couple of weeks ago I laid out the quilt that my sister had made by hand last year, placed a couple of cushions on it to act as tables, then invited some dinner guests - Lydia's teddy bears - to sit down for dinner. I showed Lydia how to ask everyone what they wanted to drink and eat, and then to prepare it in her kitchen and serve dinner to her guests. She seemed to really enjoy this, and it made me smile to see her playing nicely.

Unfortunately, the dinner party ended when I left the room to do the washing up from our actual lunch things, as I was followed by a toddler who was grumpy at my departure. It seemed as though I had found a game that she liked, but for it to be fun I would have to play along. Sigh.

We continually try to encourage Lydia to play in her room for a few minutes, and I have read articles about how to do this. Some suggest placing a timer in the room and telling her that she has to play on her own until the buzzer goes off, and then we will do something together. Other articles suggest putting up a stairgate in the doorway and closing it when leaving her in her room to play, maintaining a visual line of sight to the little one while they play so you can encourage and reassure them from afar. This option won't really work for us as it is not possible to maintain a line of sight to her room, unless we stand in the hallway the whole time (which isn't really the idea here).

We discussed what we could do to try and help Lydia gain confidence to play on her own in her room, before giving the timer idea a go. We thought about what games we could encourage her to play, activities that would be fun and absorbing enough for her to not notice we were not sitting next to her. We mentioned the tea party as she really seemed to enjoy that, but how could we get her to do this on her own?

Then we thought about music. Lydia LOVES music, dancing and singing along to children's nursery rhymes and tunes aimed at the young ones. It is how we manage to keep her calm during most car rides, although it almost costs us our sanity at hearing the same songs repeatedly.

Anyone for tea?

So, last night we set up the tea party table on the floor, then my wife put her iPod on a shelf in Lydia's room and left it playing one of Lydia's favourite CDs. Then, we left Lydia in her room and backed away to the living room with our fingers crossed. To our amazement, for the next 30 minutes or so we only saw Lydia once or twice as she came out to offer us some tea and gateau. It was a miracle!

Could it be that music is the key? Have we stumbled across a solution to our problem? Will it work every time?

I guess only time will tell. But at least we got 30 minutes of peace out of it, and that's already a great start.

Sticking to the Routine

I know kids love routine as it gives them a familiarity that allows them to relax and feel comfortable, feeling safe with the day to come.

But from a parent's point of view, some of it can get a little repetitive.

It's up to us to fill the child's day with as many different activities as possible, trying to introduce new ways of spurring their imagination and creativity while educating them at the same time. This, for me, is great. I love drawing with Lydia, building towers and other objects out of Duplo bricks or wooden blocks, reading books and so many other activities. This is the interesting bit, where we break the routine by doing something different to the day before.


The Very Hungry Sodding Caterpillar



When it gets a bit less interesting for me is Lydia's bedtime routine. Not because I don't enjoy saying goodnight to my little girl, because I really do cherish those moments together (last cuddles before bedtime). What I don't particularly enjoy is the fact that Lydia always wants me to read the exact same book and sing her the exact same song before I put her in bed each night.

I must have read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" over 100 times by now. I know every page by heart, to the point where I recently couldn't find the book so recited it from memory instead. I have tried suggesting other books, asking her if she would like to read some of "Cinderella" or "The Jungle Book", but Lydia repeatedly demands "Capatiller" until I cave in and read it to her.

I would love to be able to read something new, but she never lets me.

The same thing applies to her goodnight song. For roughly 4 months or so last year I had to sing "You are my sunshine" before putting her down in her bed. I don't sing the whole song, just the first four lines, but these four lines become so mind-numbingly repetitive that by the end of those 4 months I had almost no pleasure at all in singing them.


That's what I imagine it must be like for Vanilla Ice or some other one-hit-wonder who has to repeatedly perform the same track.

Just recently, around a month or so ago, I managed to change bedtime songs so now I sing her "Pure Imagination" (from the Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory film). This is accompanied by spinning and dancing around the room, which she really enjoys.

The problem is that this song has now stuck as the only song she will let me sing her before bed. I even resorted to attempting the first line of "You are my sunshine" last night in a bid to change things up a bit, but Lydia stopped me after barely 3 words. The little lady knows what she wants.

I'm constantly on the lookout for new songs that she might like, although they would have to have an excellent opening if I am to get her attention within the first few words. Until then, I'm stuck with "Pure Imagination", which is made worse as I end up getting the song stuck in my head after singing it to her, meaning I spend the rest of the evening absent-mindedly humming it to myself. Until now, nothing else has worked.

I have tried nursery rhymes and songs for babies or young children, but Lydia's only response is to order me to sing "maginashun".

If anyone has any suggestions for a new bedtime song please let me know. It would need to be something a little bit uplifting - Lydia loves the spinning-dancing bits - but ultimately ending with a calming note as I lower her into bed. I realise that narrows the field somewhat, but any ideas would be very much welcome.

Please, for the sake of my sanity, help me!

Holiday Planning

Dear Readers,

In this article I'm talking about summer holidays. That yearly tradition that the vast majority of us take part in, the exclusion of which is deemed almost as a deprivation of one's rights.

I think it goes without saying that everyone loves to go on holiday. A little trip away helps to break up the monotony of our daily lives, giving us time away from work or studies, a little time to recharge our batteries. It's also good to have something to look forward to as well, the knowledge that you'll be heading off somewhere on holiday in x weeks' time giving you that extra drive to get through the daily drudge.

Lydia's first beach holiday

Last year we were lucky enough to spend our family holiday in Cornwall, England, combining scenic countryside with beach-side fun, although it was somewhat dampened by the torrential rain for half the time we were there. Still, it allowed us to experience something different, and Lydia was able to play on a sandy beach and dip her toes in the chilly sea for the first time in her life.

This year, unfortunately, money is a bit tight, so we are looking at simpler options. Rather than splash out on flights or expensive hotels, we are looking at staying somewhere in Switzerland and finding something that is both relaxing for us and enjoyable for Lydia.

One potential option springs to mind - Switzerland has a plethora of camp sites dotted around the place, near lakes or in mountain villages. This, to me, seems like a great holiday idea. Cheap enough to be affordable whilst still having that sense of freedom to do what you want. I haven't been camping since I was in the Cub Scouts many years ago, apart from a brief weekend staying in a tent at the V Festival in 2002, and have some pretty happy memories of those trips. I've long fancied going camping again somewhere and really doing it properly - putting up a tent, building a camp fire, etc - but I think this might be a bit beyond Lydia for the time being. She would be a little over 2 years old this summer and that's simply too young for that kind of holiday. It's an option I will keep in mind for future holidays, but probably not for this year.

Precluding camping trips means one of the cheaper holiday options has to be left out of the search. Instead, we could perhaps focus on holiday camps that have lots of children and activities for the little ones to busy themselves with. Something like Center Parcs would be ideal, but sadly they don't have a site in Switzerland.

The perfect holiday would be a little holiday home (like a villa or a chalet) in the grounds of a holiday camp that has at least a small terrasse and/or garden, located in a nice, scenic area and possibly near a lake. Oh, and not too expensive. Think that might limit our options somewhat!

I have tried searching on Google to see what's out there, but it seems quite difficult to actually find something suitable. This might be partly because things in Switzerland are a bit on the expensive side, but possibly also because I'm not entering the right search parameters. Either way, I'm struggling to find what we could do and where we could go for this year's family holiday.

There is another limiting option that also hinders this search - the language. I'm a native English speaker who has picked up French since moving to Switzerland, and my wife is bilingual (French and English). Lydia, growing up in a home where both English and French are spoken is naturally picking up the two languages. I'm focusing my search on Switzerland to try and keep costs (such as travel) to a minimum, but the problem is that two-thirds of the country is in areas where Swiss German is the spoken language, such as Zurich, Basel, Bern, etc.

From our point of view, it would be much preferable to stay in the Suisse Romande part of Switzerland, as it's French-speaking and therefore won't require me to take a crash-course in Swiss German or Swiss Italian (or even Rumansch!). This is not just for our benefit, but also to make sure Lydia can communicate with the other kids she meets without too much frowning or reliance on hand gestures. As I said above, this is further restricting our field of search and therefore reducing the options available. It means we are looking at the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Valais, Fribourg and Jura. It would be nice to get away from Vaud though, as it would feel more like a holiday if we were further from home.

My searches have so far been fruitless, but that's partly why I have written this article. I'm calling for suggestions from all the helpful people out there in Internet-land who know of a holiday idea that just might tick all the boxes.

Any hints or suggestions would be greatly welcome - either leave a comment on this article or drop me an email to:  erniemcpeck@gmail.com.

I will follow up this article with future updates on any ideas that come to me from the good people out there, plus any I think of myself, as this just might help others who are in the same situation as me. Of course, any suggestions I receive will be fully credited to the kind person who suggested it!

As a back-up option, if I can't find anything suitable in Switzerland then I might consider expanding my search to include places in France, in case the ideal holiday is waiting for me in our neighbour country. Therefore, if you have any tips for great holidays in France then please let me know! That being said, it would still be preferable to stay in Switzerland.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help an expat out!

Kind regards,

Paul