So it was my birthday 5 days ago and God’s gift to me was getting Wesley over that US$1000 mark and i still have people asking if they can donate even though the Giveaway is over. Praise the Lord!
Well, i had planned to celebrate with my family by going to an orchestral performance of songs from Pirates of the Caribbean. We love the movies. Unfortunately, the only tickets left for the date we could make were single seats in different categories. So that was out.
i sobbed to poor Husband who then brilliantly found another show we could go watch. Not a musical performance but a variety/circus type show, with magic and acrobats and comedians. It was the Swiss Christmas show in Zürich.
i only had my handphone with me, so have very poor pictures and have no pictures of the performances as photography was not allowed.
They had built a great big tent on an open ground, near the theatre in Zürich. There was is a coat check at the door (if you don’t mind paying CHF2 per coat). A corridor then leads into a great big foyer, elaborately decorated in white and purple. There was a dining area for the people who paid for the evening Dinner and Show. You could also have food and drinks and of course popcorn there. See pictures of these areas on their website here.
Here we are in our seats before the start of the show:
Here’s the stage, not huge but enough, i was very amazed at how the stage can be transformed for all the different acts:
All the acts were great but we each have our favourites. Tobias liked the magician’s acts (Peter Marvey), which were big numbers and quite spectacular. Walter liked the Swedish group (Balagans) with the acrobatic see-saw act. i liked the trapeze act (Shulman Group), such precision.
The show runs till 31st December so there maybe time to still catch a show if you are interested. They have family prices for the afternoon matinée which is the one we went to.
This past Saturday, 10 November 2012, Tobias had his first Judo Competition/Tournament. And i think i was more nervous that he was 😉
We were there at 12.45pm to get ready. All the kids were weighed and divided by weight into the different categories. Oh, i forgot to mention this was an internal competition within his club only.
They did warm-ups for the next 45 minutes or so. Then the competition proper started. It lasted for a good 3 hours or more. There were 27 participants/competitors. By the end of it, my jaw ached from being so tensed up on behalf of the kids 😉
i learnt a lot about the different terms they used. When the referee shouts “Yuko”, it is a quarter point (not entirely accurate to say that but that’s how i got it worked out in my head). You have to watch which side he points to after he shouts to know who was given the point. “Waza Ari” is a half point. “Ippon” is a full point and you win the match. “Hajime” means to begin. “Matte” means stop and “Yoshi” means resume. “Shido” is a minor penalty. There are so many more terms but these are the basic ones which i heard most often during the tournament. Here are a couple of websites where you can learn more – JudoInfo.com and JudoChannel. And in case you are interested, here’s the website for his Dojo: Judo und Ju-Jitsu Club Solothurn.
Tobias had 5 matches all together and he won 3 of them (i am soooo proud!). He was awarded a bronze medal. Boy, was he chafed about it. It was not without tears that he won the medal. In his last match (by which time i think he was really tired out), he was pinned down and was struggling to get up. The referee didn’t realise that he was in pain and unable to breathe and when he finally broke off the pin-down, Tobias was in tears and had a big bruise on his left collarbone. He moped in a corner for a bit while the last few matches carried on. i had to go talk to him and give him some water before he would come away from the corner. He said it really hurt. Poor boy.
But by the time they were awarding the medals, he was fine. Here he is with his medal:
Right: on the podium. Notice how tired he looked. Left: close-up of medal.
Here’s the whole group of competitors together:
Here are all 27 competitors. One of them had to drop-out early because of injury. Another, like Tobias, also suffered breathing difficulties from being pinned down.
And i leave you with a video of his very first match (unedited):
On Tuesday, 6th November 2012, at 9.15am (roughly), i shouted all over my Facebook page that i PASSED! That’s right Step 5 of getting my Swiss Driver’s License, the final step – DONE! i was so happy – still am!
i have not blogged about it till now because… well, life got in the way (so to speak) and i wanted to do an accurate total tally of the amount of time and money spent to be able to legally drive in Switzerland. (Read here for how all this started.)
So first let’s go back to Tuesday – Practical Test Day:
My test was 8am in the morning, which was good because then i would not have to spend the whole morning pacing and worrying. The day before i had my last driving lesson and on the morning of the test, we did a short review about half an hour before the test.
My tester (is that what you them?), Herr (Mr) Niederberger was friendly and greeted us (me and my driving instructor) with a nice warm handshake. i had a good feeling. ( i also had lots of people praying for me – thank you guys – you know who you are 😉 )
So we drove out of the parking lot, down some familiar roads, then into a 30km zone (Switzerland has lots of these, especially in residential areas) where i did parallel parking, which i did well due to good training with my instructor. (i was never so confident about parallel parking before.) Then we drove a little further and he asked me to stop and then reverse along the road (in German: fahren rückwärts entlang der Strasse). i wasn’t sure what he talking about, so i assume it was a 3-point turn (in German: wenden). He stopped the car and i gave him a confused look. He asked what i was doing wrong. More blank looks from me. He asked if i learnt this at my lessons. i said no. Then he heaved a great sigh and proceeded to teach me how to do it there and then. At this point, i thought i had failed the test.
It turned out that in Switzerland, if you have to reverse more than 10km on a stretch of road, you have to switch to the opposite side, so you are going in the right direction of the traffic, then reverse slowly. Now i know.
Anyhow, since i thought i failed, i said to myself, “Might as well enjoy the ride.” So i drove in a quite carefree manner but still keeping to all the rules though.
We got back to the test centre and my driving instructor was waiting for us in the carpark. i parked the car and then we sat in the car and talked. He asked my driving instructor about the reversing part. She said we did do that but only once and near the beginning of my lessons with her. Then he said that besides that incident, everything else was good and congratulated me! i could not believe my ears and you can imagine how my heart leapt.
Sigh! A huge relief!
My instructor was so happy too. And right here, i would like to publicly thank Ms Fiona Croci for being such a wonderful and patient teacher. If anyone living in my area needs a driving instructor, i highly recommend her. (Visit her website here – she has really helpful links and explains clearly all the steps needed to get your license, in German though. Plus she speaks English, High German and Swiss German.)
Now how long did it take me from beginning to end? (Read about the 5 steps here.)
It took me almost 11 months from the start of my first aid course to the day i passed the practical. But it can be done in a shorter time. My problem was that i had to wait till husband was around to look after the boy before i could go attend all the classes. And sometimes the class times just didn’t work out for me.
i’m actually still not quite done yet – i still have to do what they call, “Zweiphrasenausbildung”, second phrase training. You have to do 2 sessions within 3 years of passing the practical test (my current license is provisional and i only get the permanent one upon attending these sessions and of course not committing major offences in those 3 years.) My friend said it is basically like a practice session and they also teach you to be environmentally friendly and a few other emergency techniques. Sounds interesting but it is going to cost more money – sigh!
So how much did it costs in total?
First Aid Course = CHF 140
Eye Test = CHF 20
Theory Self-learning CD = CHF 59
Theory Test = CHF 30
Learner’s Permit = CHF 60
Verkehrskundenskur (Additional Theory Classes) = CHF 200
Practical Test (paid to Traffic Department) = CHF 120
Practical Test Day (paid to instructor for her time waiting & car usage) = CHF180
Provisional Driver’s Permit (valid for 3 years) = CHF 50
TOTAL COSTS to date = CHF 2219.80
This is not including the 2 sessions of the Zweiphrasenausbildung which can costs up to CHF 700.
So to get a final, permanent Swiss Driver’s License (after the 3 years provisional period) would cost me CHF 2919.80 (almost CHF 3000). And this is taking into account i already knew how to drive so did not have to start from scratch when taking practical lessons. If you are starting at the very beginning, i would most definitely add a few more practical lessons to that equation.
i hope this detailed account and costs breakdown helps someone.
Here’s the stage, not huge but enough, i was very amazed at how the stage can be transformed for all the different acts:
All the acts were great but we each have our favourites. Tobias liked the magician’s acts (Peter Marvey), which were big numbers and quite spectacular. Walter liked the Swedish group (Balagans) with the acrobatic see-saw act. i liked the trapeze act (Shulman Group), such precision.
trippingdifferently 