29 November

We went for a day trip to Bern today. Paul, Sheila, the boys and I headed off at about 8.30am to do a bit of shopping. I didnt have much success - I did find a lovely waistcoat but a) it was too big and b) it was $158. Ouch, thats a lot of dosh for a waistcoat. Still, we drove through some lovely countryside and I got to wander through the Saturday markets.

27 November

I had a wonderful, blissful time in Portugal.

On the first night it rained... hard. I headed down to Baixa (pronounced sort of like Bye-ja) to check out the shopping.

It didn't take me long to discover an unsung secret of Lisbon. None of the travel notes anywhere mention Rue da Conceicao. It should be renamed "street of buttons". I found shop after shop of buttons and braids. I couldn't resist some braids and buttons. I wandered around the town and eventually found a sort of food hall, where I enjoyed a big bowl of soup. I was absolutely exhausted and crashed out at the hostel - I had been up every night till very late finishing a costume for the Geneva Amateur Opera Society.

On Saturday I went to Belas, Mafra and had lunch in Ericeira. After that we headed to Sintra, town of palaces it seems. I only got to see through the Palace Nacional, but wow, that was enough. Sadly we were not allowed to take photos in the palace, but I do have a few of the palace itself.

After a short shopping break (where I found my butterfly for Portugal) we headed back to Lisbon via Boca do Inferno, Caiscais and Estoril.

The next day was a very special one. I had been looking forward to seeing Obidos for weeks. Sadly the tour I was on only gave us half an hour in Obidos! I did have time to sample some Ginjo; a wickedly strong local drop. Lunch was in Nazare; a typical lunch of soup, salad, wine and fish.

	But this was more than made up for by our visit to Batalha. WOW. Gorgeous gorgeous Manuelian architecture. I could have spent hours there. Sadly our visit was all too short, and I have had to add this to my list of places to return to. There were some interesting sculptures there: although there is lots of marble in this general area of Portugal, these sculptures are actually terracotta and are built up in layers. The stone work was exquisite. We then headed to Fatima, where we had an hour and a half to play. We started by going to a religious items warehouse, which was kind of scary in its commercialisation of faith. The shrine at Fatima was surrounded by shops selling more of these rosaries and statues of Mary. But the shrine itself had an atmostphere of devotion, as people walked around the shrine on their knees. A moving experience in some ways, but for me, tarnished by the surrounding shops.

I think i will have to make a screensaver for you of Portugal. I didn't take as many photos as I wanted to, because I am missing one camera battery so ran out of power, but I still have some interesting shots you might enjoy.

16 November

Wow. What a day. This morning Paul and Sheila came and took away the rental car (Sheila needs it for the week) and I got to show them the apartment.

After they left I decided that it was time to face Genevan public transport to go into the city. It seemed like a good idea to do it on a weekend rather than Monday morning. Well it was all very straightforward really. I went into the old part of Geneva so I could wander the Art and History museum with my camera in hand this time. I have a real treat in store for the armourers; I took a heap of photos of 15th and 16th century armour. I will put together a screen saver for you, and and if any of you want a copy of the larger file for a closer look, just email me.

Here are a few tasters: (or will be shortly I promise)

On the way to the museum I popped past a stall selling hot chestnuts so I had something to munch on the way.

Oh, and I have a treat for the seamstresses too... some photos of a man's chemise... lovely closeups of the details and lace.

After the museum I wandered around to the Cathedral san Pierre, where I was absolutely blown away. Under the cathedral they have been excavating the previous hundreds of years of development. There have been more than 40 additions and changes to the site, which was even being used in pre-Roman times. I couldn't make complete sense of the whole thing a lot of the time, but I just kept being re-stunned. The archeological dig has been going for 20 years so far and goes all the way under the current cathedral, and under the road beside it. They are still working on it, opening up more areas over the years.

I so wanted to take photos here, but they wouldn't let me; I don't know why. The really early living quarters had all mod cons; heating and all. I wanted so much to get some pics for Blaeney... I might go back again some time and see if I can sweet talk them, as the man staffing it al....most let me. It was truly amazing, and worth the 5 franc entry fee.

15 November

On Friday night I babysat for Paul and Sheila. The kids behaved well (as in, slept), and I caught up on some Babylon 5.

Today I went to the Pay de Gex food and wine festival. I gave myself a generous budget for the day, and bought all sorts of odds and ends. A bottle of red wine, a sausage (that isn't as ordinary as it sounds), some sweets, a terrine, an onion confit, lunch, and some really interesting cheeses for my cheese review.

Tomorrow morning I give up the rental car and start my life on Genevan public transport. Wish me luck!

I might go into central Geneva to look at the museums, as I didn't get much time in them last time.

12 November

Well I found a place to live, and am now comfortably ensconced in a bedroom in an apartment in Meyrin. By Geneva standards it's a reasonable price; 800 francs a month. That does include furniture and heating, but translated into Australian dollars its $200 a week, which is a pretty expensive room! Geneva is supposed to be the most expensive city in the world, although I reckon London is more so.

The excitement in my life is that I am going to have a short holiday; 4 days, in Portugal. Tuesday the 25th of November is a UN holiday, so I am taking off the Monday. I am flying into Lisbon. I am debating about what I will get up to while I am there, but I have a few places in mind.

7 November

This evening is house hunting evening. I am looking at a share flat at 6pm and a flat for just me at 7pm. Wish me luck!

6 November

Great, my first foray into the Swiss medical system. Guess who got their wisdom tooth extracted today? I had a bit of an aching ear on Monday, but thought it might have been tonsilitis, which has been going around a bit. But I was far too busy at work to worry about it. Tuesday was also busy, and the pain had moved away from my ear to being a bit of a toothache in the front left of my mouth. Wednesday afternoon was horrid. Both my top and bottom teeth just next to the eye teeth hurt, and I had to take painkillers to get to sleep. I woke up a few times throughout the night because of the pain, which is unusual for me; I don't get to sleep easily, but when I do, I don't tend to wake.

In the morning I dragged myself to work, and immediately made a plea for help from my friend Debbi at work. She speaks French well, and was kind enough to ring around a few dentists before finding one that I could visit. Debbi warned me that Swiss dentists are extremely expensive but I was in enough pain that I would have forked over my entire month's pay if needed.

I drove to the dentists. Once there I had a confused conversation with a receptionist who didn't speak a word of English. We eventually sorted out that I should come back in an hour. I went for a bit of a walk trying to distract myself from the pain. I didn't want to take any pain killers because I wanted to be able to clearly point out the sources. I got back to discover a different receptionist on the desk, who spoke no more English than the first and who I could not communicate that I had already been in that day and filled in the form and now had an appointment. After much handwaving I got to sit in the waiting room for a half hour or so. Once I got into the dentists and told him where the pain was, (his english was excellent) he identified immediately that the problem was in fact my wisdom tooth. An xray confirmed his words that the tooth had crumbled (one of my other ones did that too) and had the nerve exposed; he was very sympathetic and said he could understand why I had been in pain.

In a flash he had stuck me with 3 needles, and very quickly got his plyers and removed the pieces of my wisdom tooth. I emerged with a hole in my mouth and a $175Ch hole in my pocket. Believe me when I say I would have paid 10 times that amount.

I went home via the shops and had icecream and yoghurt for dinner.

You know that dentist's chair was a pretty sophisticated number... all mod cons. But a dentist is still a dentist, the whole world over.

5 November

Time to try some more cheese.

Just discovered that my Department has been continuing to pay me. Nice of them eh? Sadly I strongly suspect that they haven't meant to, and will want it back. Very sad. I emailed them to let them know.

Saturday 1 November

Today the weather was gloriously sunny and bright, after a few days of gloomy skies. A grand excuse for a day trip to the mountains. Not that you need much excuse in this area!

Paul and Sheila bundled the kids up and we all hopped into the car and headed off. We drove up to Lausanne, around Lake Geneva. I was re-blown away by the amazing views in every direction. I took lots of photos, many of them had to be from the moving car as we were on the freeway. I will put together another screensaver for you to look at, but here is just a taste of the views.

At the top of the mountain we donned our warm weather gear and wandered around in the snow. Then had a lovely lunch at a restaurant in the town.. in my case it was a fondue aux fromage et bolet, followed by one of the most delightful creme brulees I have ever enjoyed.

Everywhere I looked around looked like a postcard.. cute chalets, snow covered hills, towering cliffs.