29 March

I had a wonderfully quiet weekend this weekend. Or it felt that way, even though, in retrospect I suppose it wasn't. On Friday after work I had a glass of wine with the secretariat, headed home for a quick bite to eat, then out to Pickwicks where there was a band playing. The band which was great, finished up at about 1.30am and I headed home. I couldn't sleep until I had had a good soak and gotten rid of some of the cigarette smoke, but I was abed by 2.30. In the morning I woke up early (dammit) and went and had my hair done. It cost me less than I had guessed, but was still a scary amount of money... $170.

I wandered around the old town shopping and bought some strawberries which are in season right now, so very decently priced, and Brazil on DVD. Its an old favourite and will add nicely to my growing collection.

In the evening I went to the birthday party of a new friend of mine, which was a really interesting and eclectic bunch of people from all over the place.. some fellow CHR workers, and bankers, and bits of the local lebanese community. She bought a karaoke machine (you can buy home versions here) but I was saved by the fact that she only bought french songs, so I knew neither tunes nor words for them. I did since La Rose Envie (sp?) because the tune is so famous even I knew it, and the words were on the screen. I was complimented by someone on how well I sung French which made me laugh out loud. They were most surprised to discover that I speak almost no French at all.

Today however, was blissfully quiet. I slept in, got up and did my washing. (4 loads; I was seriously running low by the end of last week!), wandered around the lake edge, and read a book. I even had an afternoon nap, before whipping up a risotto, to experiment with the purple stemmed mushrooms I bought at the markets yesterday.

25 March

Work has been very busy indeed, but I am enjoying it hugely. The hours are long, but I just remind myself of all the flex time I am gaining which I can use to go visit Australia. Last weekend I had my first visit from Australia; a work colleague of mine from AFFA (now DAFF) was in town for some negotiations. By the end of a week in Geneva, she was delighted to be hearing English, and I of course, was thrilled to have a visitor. What's more she brought me a pressie... lots of jars of vegemite and some jelly snakes. What a woman!

On Saturday she and I met up with a new friend, Sarah, and hit the town for some shopping. We started with the Old Town and the designer clothes and jewellry strip. With the bravery of numbers, we even went into Cartiers, where they ignored us firmly. Perhaps we needed an appointment or something. Most of the designer garment shops didn't really appeal to me, though for the fashion conscious out there I will note that those 80s shades of watermelon, lime green, and orange are back in fashion. We decided against the blouse that was only $1389, as the extra frill down the front was just too over the top. After that we walked down the parallel strip of shops that is far more reasonably priced I bought a new jacket (fire engine red) and workshirt, which you will probably see in future photos.

After shopping till we dropped, we headed back to our respective homes for a respite. Julia from work had invited me to dinner, and was very happy to extend the invitation to my friend. It was an interesting evening indeed. The dinner itself was lovely, snails followed by gorgeous duck and asparagras, with a yummy crumble-y sort of tart for dessert. I got to meet Chris Sidote who heads up one of the human rights NGOs (Non Government Organisations) here, and also to meet Brian Burdekin.

Brian was really interesting and entertained us all with tales of his time working for Gough Whitlam. Ihave to tell you, he does a pretty mean impression. {grin} In the morning I met up with my friend again, and after a wander through a Sunday market on the waterfront I hired a car and we headed for the mountains. Even though I have been here for a while now, I am still gobsmacked by the amazing views, and, as we wound our way around the lake's edge, I was a constant source of oohs and ahhs. We were heading for snow, and that was a bit more challenging than you would think, as it has really started to warm up here. But snow we found, and a chalet restaurant where I was able to introduce my friend to her first fondue.

17 March

Well, here are the views I promised you. Pretty awsome huh? I even took a photo showing the window frame to prove that it really is the office.

15 March

Well today was a very exciting day, being the first day of the Human Rights Commission. I simply must take a photo from the Palais, the view is truly extraordinary. If you saw the news you might even have seen me, though I probably didn't get into view. In the evening I went to the Swiss reception for the opening of an exhibition at the Palais. Some very interesting installations.

14 March

My weekend was kinda interesting. Because of the big do my work is hosting next week, we ordered a rather large amount of Australian fish to be sent over. It arrived in Zurich on Saturday morning. Because I haven't been to Zurich before, I put my hand up to drive up and pick it up.

What was going to be a lonely trip ended up being a bit of a great girly adventure. I picked up Tania and two interns who are working for us for a few weeks and we all headed off together.

Here are some photos taken in Zurich:

The famous Munster	The Chagall stained glass windows	views across the bridge

On the way back we went to a place called Yvedon. We thought it was a little tiny village, but in fact it was quite a large town. Our timing was good though, as they were celebrating the arrival of spring. There were five different brass bands wandering the streets, all in outrageous costumes and all playing different music. They seemed to be doing a sort of musical pub crawl. You can see in the last photo white stuff that looks like snow. In fact it is confetti. The town of Yvedon looks like it might be worth a visit even on non-celebration days, by the look of the chateau.

Merry making band members	alien heads!	The aliens in movement
What looks like it might be the town hall	The chateau central to the town	not snow... confetti!

Then this morning the day was gloriously sunny so I went for a walk around the block. If you click on the first image, you will get a "wide angle" view of the lake's edge. Its compiled from a number of shots, please forgive the edges of overlap.

Yep, this is what I see when I walk one block from my flat. The last two shots are standing at the lake looking back towards my flat.. the arrows show you where I live.. well the apartment block anyway, since I am on the other side of the block with a lovely view of a concrete courtyard.

6 March

Tonight I went out with Janet, my new workmate Tania for dinner at a mexican restaurant. The service was deplorable but the food was quite decent. Afterwards we went to a new bar just around the corner - it was very well hidden, a plain blank door. But the decor was great, orange walls, candles all the way down the stairs. The drinks were expensive but most drinks are expensive in Geneva.

After being joined by "Oggie" and Donna, we ended up going to a bar which was even more hidden. The bar is a bit of a karaoke spot for the local philippino population. I managed to avoid singing. The evening confirmed something I already knew. I am not a bar sort of person. Its simply not my idea of a fun time.

5 March

Tonight was my work happy hour. I invited my friend Janet along, and we had quite a good time. I got to meet some people, and had some really pleasant conversation.

I have had a crappy week though. Work was ok, but I got a bill from the Australian Government. You see, even though I had gone on leave without pay, they mistakenly kept paying me for three months. I let them know, and they want the money back. Now that is a reasonable thing. But what seems a bit unreasonable to me is that I got around $6000, and they want me to give them $10,000. Seem rude to you? Me too. What it is, is that they paid me around $6000 but paid the taxman the balance. But they can't get the money back from themselves.

So... I now have to pay the extra out of my pocket, and since I don't have it, I am going to have to put it on my credit card. That means that I have to pay 17% interest on that money until I can claim the original amount back from the taxman at the end of the year. All because the government stuffed up my pay and I was honest enough to tell them about it.