Photo of the Week- William and Kate

I have not done a photo of the week for a while, so finally here is one, and it was taken last Monday in Zurich when I met a friend for breakfast. Afterwards we did a bit of toy shopping and we saw these  William and Kate dolls. Sorry about the reflection of the camera, I only took one and I really wanted to use it as the photo of the week.

I am curious, who would buy this for their kids?

August Books and Films

So I just realised that I had not posted the books and films for the month of August, so here goes.

I saw 3 films they included Total Recall with Colin Farrel and Jessica Biel. Remake of the film which starred Arnold Schwarznegger back in 1990, I enjoyed the new version very much and I always like to see Colin Farrell too!

I also saw Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott, it stars Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace. I have to say it was quite weird with some gory scenes too, certainly not one of my favorites films.

Lastly I saw The Dark Knight Rises - batman 3 which I really enjoyed. Christian Bale is very good as batman and all the other characters were also good. I also liked how you did not expect Marion Cotillard to be the bad person!


As regards to books I managed only 3 this month the first was called Death Comes to Pemberly by P D James. I liked this a lot, Darcy and Elizabeth live in Pemberly and someone gets murdered. It includes all the characters from the original book including the bad Mr Wickham and his annoying wife Lydia.

Then I read the final book in the Fifty Shades trilogy, called Fifty Shades of Freed, not as good as the other two, to be honest.

Then finally I read The Hidden Child by Camilla Lachberg, a Swedish crime writer this is my first novel by her I have another one to read. This is her 5th book so I have read out of order, I have a lot to catch up on! A thriller set in a Swedish town called Fjällbacka, it delves into Sweden during WWII, and Neo-Nazi stuff.

Anyone got some good recommendations for books or films?

Ciutadella, Menorca

My last post on the summer holiday with my family in Menorca back in July, this is the city called Ciutadella in western Menorca. I went with my sister for the day, it was nice to spend some time with Elena without having the kids around us.

Ciutadella used to be the capital of the island but now that is Mahon, once we arrived we found a place for a coffee. It was as usual a hot day, not necessarily the best for walking around a city, once we finished our coffee we walked around the market.

Then down to the port, where we saw some lovely views, it is much smaller than Mahon but still very nice and we stopped for a drink. There were definitely lots of expensive and fancy looking boats to check out! We also browsed around the shops and we both bought some jewelry.

We headed back into the city to an area we had not seen before and bought something small to eat and sat in the square next to the fountain. We saw lots of old and new buildings, I liked the old yellow building with the prints on it.

Since all the shops closed in the afternoon we decided to head back to our resort, it was a nice day and we were pleased to have visited Ciutadella.

Lake Zurich Trail - Section 9 - Meilen to Küsnacht

For the last two years I have been doing the Lake Zurich Trail which is walking around the lake, in all honesty I should have finished last year, as I only had one more section to complete, this one. Lots of excuses were used too tired, not good weather and other stuff, but finally I completed it. The other good thing is that Alessio also did all the sections which is pretty dam good for a small kid.

My parents also did some of the sections and were with us for this one which starts in Meilen and finishs up in Küsnacht. I used to live in Küsnacht many moons ago when I was a nanny so it is always nice to visit it again.

The walk is 12,2km which should take 2.5hours, I think we were good with the timing probably a bit longer due to a few rests on the way admiring the views of the lake.

Luckily the weather was cooler than the hot weather we had been having, we saw lots of interesting buildings, houses, views and flowers. This walk takes you through 3 ravines, the Meilemer, the Erlenbacher and the Küsnachter Tobel.

Once we arrived in Küsnacht we walked to the centre and awarded yourselves with coffee and cake, then hopped on the train back to Meilen where I had left my car.

Chamonix Words

Last weekend we spent it in Chamonix, I drove from Zurich my first major long drive and all went well. We had great weather which you will see from the posts, so the first one from this region is from the word series. There were lots of signs, bars, restaurants, street names that I liked so this is a selection from them. The last one is the the hotel that we stayed in called Croix Blanche, it was ok.

The highlight was seeing Mont Blanc and being really quite near to it, without actually climbing the summit. This weekend my parents return to Scotland but we will be going to see them in October for 10 days. It is always great to go back to Scotland!

Riikka and Ernst Wedding

On the 31st July I went to my second wedding this year, Riikka and Ernst, they got married on a farm called Lützelhof in Pfaffikon. It was a lovely day, the sun was shining, I was there with four other work friends Hannah, Lisa, Linda and Carmen.

We arrived around 4pm, the couple were already married and we joined them for the apero. We sat outside enjoying the delicious food, the sun and of course with some wine!

During this time we wrote on postcards, wishes for the happy couple, they were then tied to a balloon and the balloons were them let up into the air all at the same time. We later found out that all our postcards got returned to Riikka and Ernst, which was great to know.

Later on we went inside for our evening meal, everything was set out in a lovely way. We found names in a hears shape on our table, along with a finnish sweet. The evening entertainment spread out between the courses, which included singing and a play in Finnish, as the bride is Finnish.

After lots of drinking and eating we left around midnight, we all had a great time, thanks again to Riikka and Ernst!