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Sunday 30 October

Tonight my choir (that always sounds to me like I am directing or something, which I most definitely don't) performed at a local hall, in Collex. The day was a bit frantic for me. In the morning I got up ready to make my mandarin poppy seed cake to discover I didn't have baking powder. Luckily my friend Cathy did. I went over to visit her and spent three or four hours helping her pack, as she is moving home to Australia.

At 3.05 I left Cathy's house to go home. I was being picked up at 4.30pm by Janet, which gave me just over an hour and a half in which to make and bake a cake (whose instructions said it needed to be cooked for 50 minutes), have a shower and wash my hair, iron my clothes and pass on a hat for our local Melbourne cup draw.

I did it! Creaming the butter and sugar by hand, mixing the whole cake by hand and all!

The concert seemed to be a great success. There were a few flaws, but on the whole we sounded pretty good. Sadly my cake was not highly popular; I suspect most of them have never seen a poppy seed cake before. My friends had a piece (and were sweetly complimentary) and I noticed that most of the german members of the choir had a piece; maybe its just a more german thing.

Over the last few rehearsals I got to know a little of our talented organist Norbert. As I was leaving he told me that Laurence had told him that I was interested in renaissance music. Apparently he has some early instruments and asked if I would like to see them sometime, and maybe even play them. Would I ever!!! How exciting!

Tomorrow I leave for New York! woooohoooo.....

Thursday 27 October

Now I know you all want to know what I did for my birthday. Well, I worked.

But seriously, I did work. For lunch I went with some work friends to the Vieux Bois, which is a hotel school next to the UN. I had a Kir Royale, an amuse bouche, then for my main course I originally chose the de-boned baby chicken stuffed with Foie Gras, but they said it would be a 45 minute wait. So instead I chose filet de veau viennoise. It was a bit of a surprise when it came... I should have known, but really hadn't realised... wiener schnitzel!

It actually took 35 minutes to come... I should have gone for the chicken! But still, it was the best wiener schnitzel I have ever had. Dessert was a coconut mousse.

I headed back to work, in time to listen to some sweet birthday messages on my phone (thanks!) and then off to a meeting for the UN Women's guild bazaar. (I am organising the restaurant stand for the Mission) with the wife of the Ambassador of the Congo; a cup of tea and afternoon tea. I arrived back at work in time to have a glass of champagne with Bernard, who is finishing up tomorrow after 32 years at the Mission. He presented me with a bottle of pink champagne for my birthday, which my workmates persuaded me to open.

Then straight after work I headed out to a new restauarant called 'Faim?'. There I enjoyed a glass of champagne with my hosts; one of the EU Missions, who were kind enough to take me and some of the other assistants to the Ambassadors to dinner. Dinner was lovely; great food and really fun company. They had organised the dinner to be a revolving dinner, swapping tables between courses. A sort of salmon roulade for entree, perfectly cooked beef for main course, and chocolate mousse cake, home made strawberry icecream and a lightly lemony mousse for dessert. A thoroughly lovely birthday celebration.

My birthday present to myself is next week; a week in New York. Plan? See the sights, buy a laptop and a pair of boots... and a new butterfly of course!

Saturday 15 October

What a terrible girl I am! Its been an age since I updated last. Sorry about that. I have had a lovely visit from Tracey, who stayed with me for a week.

On Friday night 7 October we went to a book reading with the Geneva Literary Society, guest author Mr Colm Toibin. Tracey borrowed some of my clothes and my she looked lovely.

My friend Alex was kind enough to lend me his car for the weekend too. On Saturday morning we picked up the car and then drove to the Ferney markets, where we bought some pumpkin, fresh dates, and cheese. After that we hit the road to drive to Annecy. I am horrified to admit that I forgot to take my camera out of the car, and it was the most appalling mistake because we arrived to discover that it was the day of the cows coming down from the mountain! There were all sorts of interesting stalls, and a marvellous parade, mostly of people in traditional costumes of the nearby regions. There were also alpine horn players who walked with their enormous horns on their shoulders then stopped periodically to give us a wee concert. The sweetest things though would have to have been the geese, which looked so cute with little green bows around their necks. We sat and had tartiflette in a cafe, and watched farmers making fresh cheese and butter. We just had to buy a pat of butter... mmmm.

By the time we got home on Saturday night we were content to simply laze around. On Sunday we went for a drive to visit Perouge. Both days we had a great time and the weather was super. The drive itself was lovely, passing through pretty towns and lovely scenery.

Monday was back to work as normal, though with a glorious lunch break massage.. mmmmm. That night I had to desert Tracey for choir. But Tuesday night, she frocked up again and we headed off to a cocktail party at the Hilton, followed by dinner at my favourite restaurant, le Chante Clair. My friend Julia was kind enough to lend me her car for the trip to France, and Tracey and I both enjoyed our meal enormously.

Sadly we didn't manage to have a fondue, but that just means she will have to come back!

Tonight I am enjoying a quiet night at home. Maybe I am recovering from last night: I finished work and popped in to the work happy hour to sell some raffle tickets for the UN Womens Guild lottery. Then off to Pickwicks to meet with the manager to organise a Melbourne cup celebration. Then on to my friend Megha's farewell at Scandale (she is off to London) and then off to another farewell for my friend James, who is going to Afghanistan for a month, then to Cambodia! The final party ended at 2.30 this morning. Which was fine, but I was due to meet a friend at 9.40am this morning. Ouch.

But Kathryn and I had a wonderful morning - we started off by going to a big sale - a local theatre selling off its costumes; something they do apparently once every ten years. I bought a simple gown, which I will give to an SCA group somewhere as loaner garb, and a rather fabbo robe which I think I shall wear as a bath robe for a while, but may pick apart in the future for its lovely leaf patterned jacquard fabric. Then we had brunch at a local cafe, visited a nearby new fabric shop and then wandered along 'tramtrack' street. We argued about religion, talked about books and generally had a great time.

Sunday 1 October

I had a lovely weekend this weekend. Friday night I stayed with my friend's two children for the evening and had lots of fun running around giggling and squealing. On Saturday my friend returned from Mexico and I went off to two parties. The first was my friend Marika's housewarming; she has bought a lovely one bedroom flat for 390,000 chf. (thats about the same in Australian dollars). The second party was the last remnants of my friend Cathy's non-roof party. Apparently they had had a didgeridoo player and all, sitting up in the corridor between the storeage rooms in the top floor.

Today I went and picked up my friend and the kids and we drove to Zurich. To see........ Cirque du Soleil, Dralion! It was superb. The things that are made possible by the human body is amazing. I would never have believed that a person could twist themselves around so very much. The strength and agility of the performers was unbelievable, the clowns hilarious and the music gorgeous. If they ever come to a country near you, go see them!