Tag: daily

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The Birthday Show…

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:

Camera 360Here’s the stage, not huge but enough, i was very amazed at how the stage can be transformed for all the different acts:

Camera 360All 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.

i also like how they weave in a theme (Diamond Illusion) had the comedians (Rolf Schmid, Irene and Roland Hofer) and singer (Evelin Suter) carry that throughout the whole show.

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.

*Happy* Thank you my darling husband *muah*

syc

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Goodbye, Our Little Nox…

We (the son & i) came home from church today and found our dear little Nox (one of our Gerbils) had passed away. She came to live with us in September last year and we had thought she would be around with us for at least a couple more years.

We don’t know what happened or exactly when she died. She did have a bald spot and a small growth on her belly which didn’t seem to bother her. We had debated whether we should bring her to the vet but she was active, her coat was shiny, her eyes bright; she showed absolutely no signs of pain or discomfort. Maybe we should have gone to the vet – sigh!

So here we say a fond farewell to Nox, who leaves behind her beloved sister, Puddles. We said a little prayer for her and buried her downstairs by the bush in front of our apartment block, where we can see her all the time. We will miss her.

Goodbye our beloved Noxy…

Now we have to decide if we are getting another one to keep Puddles company. Gerbils are community and social creatures, they should not be alone. But gerbils of different litters do not necessarily get along. Husband is still away, will wait for him to come home and make the decision. i may pop down to the pet shop and ask them what they recommend.

Sad.

syc

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1st Judo Competition…

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):

syc