January 28

Check out these photographs of Geneva in the Ice.

January 23

Friday night we had a happy hour at work and enjoyed a lovely glass or two of vin chaud, made by our inside expert Leonie. Saturday I went over to Paul and Sheilas... to their NEW home. They have bought a lovely flat in Gex. I mainly helped out by looking after the kids and unpacking boxes. The new place is lovely. There are a few... interesting... decoration choices left by the previous owners, but it really is a lovely place.

In the evening I went to a grand Bollywood movie, meeting up with various of my friends there.

This morning I woke up to a wonderful sight out of the window. SNOW! Here is the view from my balcony

Of course, then I had to go for a walk down to the edge of the lake, to see what it looked like coated in snow!

January 19

Quiet week so far... but one thing did catch my eye in the Australian News. The title of the sports article is *Kuznetsova, Serena cruise into third round*. Now this article is all about the female tennis. After talking a bit about Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova and Marion Bartoli of France and then goes on to talk about wins for Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Amelie Mauresmo while fellow seeds Shinobu Asagoe and Vera Zvonareva both lost. Blah blah then there was discussion of Kuznetsova contraversy over drug stuff... blah blah. but then comes the bit that really hit me... check this out:

"Meanwhile, Williams strolled into the third round by dismissing Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar 6-3, 6-0. Wearing a small white bib over a yellow and white top with transparent skirt and white shorts, seventh-seeded Williams was simply too powerful for her 67th-ranked opponent. "

Ok. So what's with that? An article about the top ranked female tennis players in the world and we are getting a run down of what they are wearing???!!!! How totally and utterly irrelevant is that?

I mean, when was the last time you read an article which said "and world tennis champion Philip Whatsisname was wearing a fetching outfit of white shorts with red side stripes, and a Lacosta shirt. Oh and he won." Not since Warwick Capper's skin tight shorts I suspect. I mean, I don't generally even read the sports section, much less care, but frankly this is offensive! What do you think?

Updated my cooking pages, with interesting vegetables I have come across. I am not very well so am off work. I have a tummy bug which truly sucks; its hard being sick at home away from my dearest and nearest. I can't even enjoy my favourite comfort foods of tomato soup and toasted cheese. My one precious tin of tomato soup will have to wait until my tummy is up to such rich and fantastic fare.

January 2

NOTE: I have done lots of updates in the last few days, for my entries about Christmas and earlier entries on Tunisia, go to my December Journal Page.

In the morning I discovered that although I had booked to have Ludwig drive me around for the day, he was unwell. So Saif was driving me instead. One small problem, Saif speaks pretty much no english. We hit the road to Kairouan. In my little (french) guidebook was a map of Tunisia with the larger towns and cities. The guidebook talks about all the places to see, and doesn't have anything to say about Enfida. So... I asked Saif to take me there. Perverse person as I am.

And you know what? Out of all the places I went this was, I reckon, the best. I was the only tourist in the town, and from the look of it, quite possibly one of only a few the locals had ever seen. They stared at me as we wandered around the souk. It was very cool; rather like being at the trash and treasure markets at Jamieson. Rather than the souk in Tunis, which was filled with finery, this one was practical. Mattresses, clothes (piled in heaps), sweets, incense, pots and pans, sheep... everything you want for your home comfort. There was even two blokes with microphones doing the whole "but wait there's more! With every dinner set you get not two, not three, not four but six free side plates!" spiel.

Saif bought me some sesame sweets and some incense (actually I will take a photo of the incense; its something I couldn't even dream of buying to take back to Australia!). It cost the grand sum of 1 dinar. ($1 or near enough). The guy a little scoop and different pots of "ingredients". He put together this interesting looking mix, which includes a slightly gluey pink mass, seeds, herbs and some chunks of what I assume is sap. Now I just need to get a charcoal burner to

I didn't take any photographs; it felt somehow rude to photograph the little old lady perched on her donkey-pulled cart piled high with carrots, and the family selling mattresses with the goat tethered beside them.

Saif and I had been talking music - we both enjoy a bit of house music. I had mentioned that I thought that the combination of techno beats and tunisian melodies would be very interesting. Saif popped into a little corner shop... a sort of hardware/tobacco/newspaper shop and bought me a tape of Tunisian techno. Sweet huh?

Next stop, Kairouan. On the outskirts of the city we visited Sidi Sahbi mosque, which seems to have been the house of a very wealthy man Sidi Sahbi the barber - apparently he was called this because he carried three hairs from the Prophet's chin with him. There I had my hand painted with Henna (assured by Saif that it would wash off when I wanted). I bought a little bottle of the paint, but sadly I can't find it among my things. Hopefully it will turn up some time - I would love to henna the hands and feet of my friend Danijela, who is very pregnant; its supposed to be terribly good luck. The tiles and ceiling carvings of Sidi Sahbi are gorgeous. The people selling souvenirs etc apparently all thought I was Saif's girlfriend and kept congratulating him on how lucky he was. He said something along the lines of "I wish!", which was sweet.

Next stop Kairouan mosque itself. Kairouan is supposed to be the fourth most important mosque in the world, and the most important in Africa. The massive structure seems to have been built partly from old Roman ruins, so the pillars have a random assortment of capitals. Of course, being a woman, I could not go into more than the courtyard of the mosque, but took a photo of the inside through the window, having been reassured by Saif that it was ok to do so.

I tried to take a photograph of the tower, but didn't end up with one. Firstly my camera decided to run out of power, and then when I got new ones, the day, which had been sunny and gorgeous, suddenly became utterly gloomy and vile. At this point I figured that the fates were trying to tell me something!

On the way out a man asked if I would like to see a carpet museum. Of course it was no museum, but a carpet shop. I hadn't had any real plans to buy a carpet, but Kairouan IS the centre for it in Tunisia... and the price was excellent, and the colour is just perfect with my new couch. What do you think?

On the way from Kairouan to our next stop, Sousse, we stopped for a late lunch. No fancy restaurants for us... we pulled over at a roadside barbeque. There were plates of raw lamb chops; we ordered 600g, and sat down. They brought us some soup, bread, a dish of oil and harissa, a low dish of a paste made of roasted vegetables and some olives. As we munched on those, they barbequeued the lamb.. A simple squeeze of lemon juice and oooooooooohhhhhhhh. Succulent and tasty, eaten with fingers. The most delicious food I had eaten in ages, and all for the price of 12 dinars for the two of us.

Next stop Sousse. This town was interesting mainly because of the perspective of Saif. He brought me here and showed me the Marina, with obvious pride at this modern resort. From my perspective, this was just a rich man's playground and its tourist shops and cafes held no interest for me.

I realised that the day was ending, and I had bought no souvenirs of my stay! (apart from my rug) I really wanted to get a few little things for some friends back in Switzerland. Saif drove me quickly to the Medina in Hammamet to pick up a few things. A small amount of bargaining (at the stall of friends of Saif I suspect) and I had my souvenirs; some necklaces and pottery bowls. Nothing swish, but little knickknacks.

Back on the road, and heading for the hotel, I realised that I was absolutely exhausted. Having had a whole day speaking french my brain had just had enough. It was a relief to find Norman and Linda (the English couple I met on New Years eve) in the foyer. Despite my tiredness I decided to join them for dinner in a nearby restaurant. Talking english was great. Dinner, however, was veyr ordinary; the fish with saffron sauce a disappointment after such a glorious lunch.

After returning to the hotel, Norman and I had a cup of The a la menthe in the coffee shop, and I sms'd Saif. We had talked about going out dancing and I thought I would see if he was still interested. I figured as I had to leave the hotel at 6.15am the next morning I could dancing till 4am. Like the logic? Saif was able to be persuaded and we hit a local nightclub. The club wasn't crowded when we arrived at about 11.30 but filled up progressively until there were enough people on the dance stage that I was willing to stand up and dance. in the end as both Saif and I were pretty tired, we left at about 2am. Still, a fun finish to my stay in Tunisia.

January 1

So... January first, the new year! Because I had rather a late night, I had decided to start the day later... 11am. But I waited for Ludwig and he didn't turn up. Eventually he called and said he had to do something else, and he would call me in the evening to take me somewhere. I decided to book another car for the afternoon as I didn't want to waste the day, and in the meantime spoilt myself by having a massage. (costing the grand sum of $30)

In the end, it was Ludwig who turned up. I asked him to take me to Bizerte. Bizerte didn't really appear in the tour book, but it was an easy drive away for an afternoon visit. As it happens, Ludwig has a friend living there, so when we arrived, his friend met us and showed us around a bit. There is a Spanish Fort, and a cafe which long ago was the slave market. You can still see a pillar in the marina which is white, with a red cloth winding around it, which was the symbol of the slave market.

I got to try a local speciality of Bizerte. It is called "Fricasee" which seems rather odd, but tell you what, it tastes great. It is a bun which looks to be fried. Inside is tuna, olives and harissa.

We then headed back towards the hotel. However, rather than going back there, Ludwig took me to meet a friend of his, who is a talented artist. His paintings are really rather fabulous. You can see some of them on his rather well done website, although it doesn't contain his newer stuff, which I liked most.

After that, we stopped at a cafe, owned by (you guessed it) a friend of Ludwig. There I enjoyed more of the beautiful food that Tunisia has to offer - a lovely dish of grilled meat and little thin spicy sausages, salad, and "brick". Brick is, I suppose, the Tunisian equivalent of Spanakopita, or Spring rolls, in that it is pastry containing bits, which is fried. A quite large triangular piece, which contained tuna and egg and was very yummy indeed.