trippingdifferently

It’s 2nd Oct – 11 months ago – oh my, just 11 months ago, i started on NaNoWriMo 2008!
Now it’s only another 29 days till the start of NaNoWriMo & already my plot wheels are turning & my fingers are itching to type!!

Anyone else wants to join me this year??
Come on – it’ll be fun – stress over plot jams, get frustrated with stupid characters, throw your hands up at writer’s block etc… i promise it will be the time of your life – so hop over to the website & sign up & then leave a comment with your username so i can bubby-up with you during NaNoWriMo.

syc

That’s what Tobias likes to sing since we went to Liverpool at the beginning of September. So after all that moving & new school business, we took a short 5-day holiday to Liverpool – 3rd – 7th September 2009.

We took the opportunity of Walter’s University’s Alumni event & made a holiday of it. We deserved it after a tiring summer packing, moving & unpacking.

Here’s the famous Liver Building with the Liver Bird on top of it:

Here’s the real reason why Walter loves Liverpool so much 😉 (To my old friend Gordon – if u are reading this, these are just for you!)

Tobias completely enjoyed himself this trip – he loved it enough to ask to go back again – one of the reasons i believe is cos he got to sleep on this bed with the TV in front of him (of cos no TV when it was sleep time)

We’ve been to Liverpool a few times before (never for more than a day stopover) but have never met with such strong winds (i think if i remember it correctly was more than 50miles an hour). We had such fun walking against the wind & letting it blow us back :p

While Walter went for his uni alumni thingy, Tobias & myself headed to Underwater Street – thinking it was some sea/water creatures discovery place – but it wasn’t – it was a mini science centre – not great but interesting enough for a morning. It needed to be better maintained but as Walter informs a lot of things in the UK need to be better maintained.
Here’s Tobias trying to get himself "wrapped" in bubble:

There was panning for gold, optical illusions, physic-type experiments, art & even dress up:
Here’s Tobias & myself as Little Miss Sunshine & Little Master Sunshine 😉

Here’s Tobias the Bobby (Policeman):

Now this is the reason why Tobias sings Duckmarine & not Submarine:

We went on the Duckmarine tour – it was really quite fun – i had great difficulty understanding our very funny & sweet guide’s accent – but still it was a good tour. Tobias of cos loved the parts where we went into the water & came out of the water.
We were there just in time for the 40th Annversary of the Beatles! So there were a few events (we did not go) & a lot of TV shows about it. i learnt a fair bit i must say.

Oh here’s my favourite English street sign:

i like how camera is illustrated!

We ventured a little further out as we rented a car – so we went to Chester – it’s a lovely little town – lots lots of history with many buildings still preserved & the walk along the walls of the city is also very interesting with lots of info provided along the way.
Here’s a street in Chester:

We also went up to Southport – the beach resort town. Very nice. Very like the English beach resorts i used to read about in the story books.
This is the famous Southport pier – it’s a lovely walk out there.

This is our favourite shop in Southport – it sells traditional English sweets – you know, the fudge, the hard-boiled sweets, the lollies etc… :p YUMMY!

This is our only family shot of the whole trip ;D

Oh & Tobias had enomous fun at a miniature Rail/Train park – he kept running up & down following the trains. The people who run the place even made a little quiz for visitors – where u had to spot things like "What colour is the tractor in the red barn?" etc…

Another highlight of the trip was the food! We got our English pub food (at Chester) – delicious! Also our take-away Chinese as well as Chinese at a proper Chinese Restaurant. We even got a sampling of Tesco Express – not great but good when u are in a fix.

What has made this trip for me is the goodies we came away with – of cos lots of food: English sauages, chips (in flavour u can’t get here), English pies, Chinese food etc…
i spent £42 on myself & got 3 long-sleeved tops, 1 dress, 1 pair of Crocs. Tobias got 2 pants for under £10. So all in all it costed us less than CHF150 for 5 items of clothings & 1 pair of shoes – it would never be like that here.
The highlight for Walter was simply being there & showing off to his son when he had the best time of his life 😉

So it looks like we will be returning there soon … might even make it an annual thing…
syc

The 1st New we have to shout about is our NEW PLACE!! That’s right we have moved FINALLY!!
It took 8 friends & the 3 of us 2 days to completely moved everything from the old apartment to the new one. Then it was another 3 days of cleaning & cleaning & cleaning the old apt. Here in Switzerland when u move, u have get the old apt clean, clean, clean otherwise u have to pay for repairs or additional cleaning etc… We passed 🙂

Thank you all who came & helped out & special Thanks to Sally for looking after Tobias while we cleaned!

Our reward for all that work is this view:

On a clear day u can see the Alps just behind those cranes but there hasn’t been a super clear day since we moved here. Even without seeing the Alps, the view is great 😀

Photos of the inside of the new apartment will come soon… once i’m done with putting up the pictures & deco stuff.

2nd NEW
The 2nd New we have to announce is that our not-so-little baby boy, who is now 5yrs 2mths 3wks old, is now a Kindergartener!!!
That’s right he goes to Kindergarten 3 mornings & 1 afternoon a week. He LOVES it! He has been waiting & waiting to go – ever since our Introduction Day in June, he has been asking weekly, "Is it August yet? In August i go to Kindergarten!". So excited to go…

Here’s him setting out on his 1st Day at Kindi, 10th August 2009, Monday, a rainy summer morning:

Here’s him on the 1st day getting his fish cushion which was stamp-printed by Tobias on Introduction Day, the teacher, Frau Imhof, sings a little song about fishes in the ocean as she gives out the cushions:

Here he is with his 1st "Bring-Home" craft from Kindi, a little black fish called Swimy who apparently saved all the fishes from the Tunas (a story told at Kindi):

So how’s mummy handling all this growing-up?
i’m ok, happy & sad all at the same time – i’m sad cos i know my baby is growing & soon will be very independent of me – i’m happy that he’s so into the whole going to school process – even morning routines are no longer a chore – he wants to go & is happy to go get ready in the mornings 😉
i’m still trying to work out timings such as how long it takes to walk to school, which is the shortest, safest route, how much time do i have between walking him there & walking him back etc…
At the moment the start time at Kindi is delayed – for the 1st 3 weeks, they are starting at 9am instead of 815am – this is to allow the kids & parents to adjust to the new routine. So we are trying to work ourselves towards being in school by 810am, for this week we try to be there between 830 & 845. Next week, we’ll try to be there between 815 & 830. & hopefully by the 3rd week we’ll be there between 8 & 810 :p

You may think that with him going to Kindi i’ll have more time on my hands – i don’t think i will – i no longer have a full day to do all my chores & business stuff – i used to have 1 full day & another half day to get all the errands & chores & my book biz stuff done – now he’ll have to come with most times. i’m still hoping to do all the household chores while he’s at school.
How is this so u may ask? Well cos he only goes for 3.5hrs (when they switch to actual start time) in the mornings & for that one afternoon, it is only 1.5hrs. i walk him there & come home, do the housework or run errands & then have to go walk him home again. Also now he’ll be in for lunch everyday so that’s a new thing for me – it used to be he was fed at his pre-school & daycare so that’s 2 lunches & we normally eat 1 or 2 lunches out – now it’s all different – but all good – i’m hoping to have a routine for both him & myself fall together within the next couple of weeks.

Ahhhh… New Adventures!!
syc