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We've had some super-hot weather lately - high 30's and even high humidity. We had two particularly hot days when it felt like Singapore on bad day. The trouble here is that there is no aircon in Switz - in fact aircon is illegal unless you have special circumstances (ie disabled). So the nights were very uncomfortable. But then it blew back out and the following day was early 20's, phew!
We headed to Margarethan Park for the relief of a splash in the paddling pool.
Flynn strikes a pose for the ladies
They have a couple of pretty cool playgrounds too
The boys are really enjoying playing with their train tracks and lego at the moment too. Everyday we have a construction site or two, and some train-action going on. Benjy is starting to play with the trains and lego, rather than just always trying to wreck it all. He does his best for a while anyway.
Benjy's other big news is that he can now drive his car! Who needs to walk when you can go by car!!
In the weekend, we headed to the zoo where they had pony rides!
Flynn seemed to enjoy it, kind of...
In recent news - we have a permanent place sorted! It's a big house with a garden in the town of Muttenz. It's about a 20 min tram ride from the town centre but has it's own village centre with lots of shops (phew!) and all the things you need.
It will be great to finally have a house and not be worried about the kids bashing and screaming, playing music loud, etc - after years of apartment living. Flynn and I are going to plant a veggie garden (Oli, Rach, we'll be looking for some tips). The town is a really beautiful spot, very old and picturesque, and close to vineyards and orchards and farmland. We can't move in until the end of July which is a pain but no choice there. We keep forgetting to get shots of Muttenz, but will do so soon.
Last Thurs we went to a school fair at the school we have just decided to send Flynn to. It was good but all Flynn really wanted was to play in their playground (didn't want to watch the "boring" kids' performances/show).
He was pretty happy with his face-painting though - a snake (or should we say 'slug')
We've been looking at bi-lingual (English/German) preschools for Flynn over the past fortnight and this one seems really cool and gets very good recommendations. He will go three days a week (9am - 2pm) Down the track we will probably send him to a Swiss local Kindergarten. (Kindy starts at 4-5 years old).
We have also joined a friday afternoon, english-speaking playgroup and I am keen to join a Swiss German one too, when we get to Muttenz. Flynn is enjoying racing around with Swiss kids in the park playgrounds and runs around loudly repeating snippets of what they are saying to him in Swiss German or just babbling gibberish (it's all greek to him). He finds it all quite hilarious. He also yells "NEY!" at the other kids, which he knows means "no" (don't ask me why he feels inclined to yell 'no' at people anyway).
We are picking up minimal Swiss-german through our ex-singapore friend Karin and through shopping/eating interactions, but mostly it's my rusty High German that's coming in useful - It really is vastly easier having that to draw on! We are all going to start High German language lessons when we move to Muttenz (everyone here learns and speaks High German from primary school, whereas Swiss German is the local dialect but not useful out of Switzerland).
The food here is great and our appetites are way bigger. We put this down to the climate - it's more conducive to enjoying food - plus there's loads of great stuff to eat. We are especially enjoying the bread, schitzel and cherries at the moment. Blake is also getting right into the cheese though the boys and I are still dairy-free (bugger!).
A market nearby offers all kinds of gourmet delights
We went to Germany and bought bikes with kid-seats last week. Looking forward to getting on the more sedate forest and farm trails with those - which are everywhere.
We also need to buy a car, and today will be swinging by some car yards to see what would be a good family wagon. Though I am not looking foward to driving on the right (wrong) side of the road and driving amongst trams (they drive on the road with the cars), it will be good to have our own wheels again after no car for years.
Stay tuned for another blog on our current surrounds...
