I’m long overdue for an update to the blog. Since my last post, I’ve been to Hyderabad once and Mumbai twice, plus a week in the mountains in Switzerland on our off-site.

We’ve also finally moved into our permanent apartment. The move itself was uneventful, aside from a few breakages. Apparently, the French definition of good packing includes putting books on top of china and glass. With my heavy travel schedule, it has taken a while to get unpacked, but we’re finally settled in. The wardrobes are built (a task I vow I’ll never repeat), the bookshelves are up, and my study is the only part of the apartment that remains a disaster zone.

Aude & Daisy in front of the fireplace

Our neighbours’ houses, covered in snow

Looking out onto the hills behind our house

We’re beginning to get ready for Christmas. The weather has turned much colder this week, and we’ve had our first snowfall of the season. We’ve got the fireplace working (just about – the engineer is on his way for another technical visit today to try to solve some problems with the smoke drawing out properly) and we’re ready for the winter.

 

I returned from India on Saturday morning, had a few hours of sleep, and did the laundry in preparation for my next trip – this time, to the mountains of Switzerland for a three day team-building event. What a difference!

Complete silence and tranquility, beautiful mountain landscape, and plenty of crisp, clean air.

Swiss countryside

 

Plenty of mountains and even a little snow!

 

Swiss chalet

 

Not that I got to see much outside the hotel, as we were trapped in sessions all day and dinner events each evening. I might have well been in Basingstoke.

The winning pumpkin

 

It was a Halloween-themed event, and I was lucky enough to win a box of chocolates in the pumpkin carving competition. I was accused of having an advantage, since I was the only one who comes from a country that actually celebrates Halloween, and therefore was the only one who had ever carved a pumpkin before.

Drunk pumpkin, sadly disqualified

 

I was particularly disappointed that they disqualified my “drunken pumpkin” on the basis of using non-pumpkin props. I thought it was a good effort.

It’s taken me a while to get my camera hooked up to the computer to import these shots, but here are a few shots of downtown Basel I shot in early October.

Basel Mittlere Rheinbrucke

Matthew in Basel

Basel Mittlere Rheinbrucke

Basel fountain

A reminder for our French visitors

The competition!

Unser Bier - the local brew

I’ve put the camera away now, as the weather is turning more grey, but it will come out again when the sun is shining…