A quietish weekend ahead: I haven't got enough money to do anything! Did read an interesting news article about a 12 year old girl who was doing a school science experiment and discovered that the water out of the toilet bowl in fast food restaurants is cleaner than the ice from the same restaurants!

Last weekend though, I got to have Yum Cha! I was stunned to find that even in Geneva it is very reasonably priced, and because the guy organising it was Chinese, we got the pick of the menu. It was strange ordering from a menu rather than seeing the food come past on trolleys, but it was all good. A few days till payday... damn but I hate that wait. Most of the time it is ok, but I am still paying the price for a new laptop and my trip home at Christmas. The really bad news is that this means that I won't be updating my page with too many exotic destinations for the next few weeks.

I am making progress on the Christmas plans; I had found some prices for places but they are all in ski resorts and hideously pricey. But tonight I found a few options on the Jura for more reasonable a price, so we shall see how they work out. If you haven't already contacted me to confirm that you are coming, please do email me, so I can make sure I get the right chalet!

16 February

Well, its been a busy old week. Friday night I went out to meet up with some of the GOLers. GOL is GenevaOnLine (www.genevaonline.ch) and is a social network for "young professionals" in Geneva. So I rocked up to Alhambar to meet up with 30 or so complete strangers. After an hour or two we went on to l'Usine. Usine was certainly an experience - very very crowded. It was an odd mix... but the mood was very up. Good strong beats that I could feel through my bones. Mind you, I have never been fondled in passing by so many people before - the funniest being a swayingly drunk young swiss man who just kept crying out to his friends "enorme!" and grabbing (gently thank goodness) at me. You just have to laugh in situations like that; no point in getting angry with someone that drunk as they will just turn nasty.

It was still a good night, and I figured out that the best way to deal with the fact that in Geneva transport pretty much grinds to a halt after 1am is to just keep dancing till they start again at 6! Of course I did rather pay the price for it with horrible pain in my knee, but considering that I get horrible pain in my knee for no reason at all much of the time, at least I had a reason for it this time!

After a sleep I went out to do my grocery shopping and then met up with a friend for a coffee. Sunday morning I had brunch with friends to celebrate my friend Danijela's birthday. In the evening I had a fit of baking and ended up making coconut cakes until 2am. Big mistake because Monday night I was just not able to get the energy to go to Choir. Tuesday night I stayed home to fix up the flat for last nights extravaganza. Ok so maybe it wasn't an exciting way to spend Valentines, but <shrugs> its not like I had a flood of valentines.

Last night 6 people came over to my house and I gave a bit of a sushi making workshop. I had a great time, although my little table barely fit everyone around it. We chopped and cooked and rolled the night away.

9 February

Here are the lovely buckles and fittings I photographed on the weekend.

8 February

I had a great success on Saturday: I found my lipstick! Strange thing to feel elated about perhaps, but you see I found THE perfect lipstick for me. Then, in typical fashion the shop that stocked it closed down, and I was bereft. I trawled the internet trying to find somewhere that stocked it and had given up hope when I stumbled across it in a shop. I bought 3. Its not an expensive lipstick by any means (around $10) but it is great.

I also returned to the Museum of Art to see what was new, and to retake some photos that hadn't worked too well last time. I was delighted to discover that there was an exhibition on renaissance art, but for some reason the guard would only let me photograph one of the paintings. I still can't figure out why. I did sneak in another shot, because it is a painting which has someone wearing spectacles, but only got a partial shot. I am going to try and go back when there might be a more sympathetic guard around.

I got some decent photos of a 15th century pavise. A decent distant shot so you can see the size, and a few details; the little metal flap to peek out form behind and the bolts where I assume the straps are attached. Sadly I can't see the back.

I got a few photos of the faced helms (1600-1620 Savoyard) and a 1591 painted banner. Also some more photos of a set of brigandine armour dated 1480: its rather stylish front, close up of the top, and photos of the inside right side.

For the textile fans, I took some more photos of the 15th century italian linen sleeves. The closeups of cuffs and armhole mostly worked although because of the dim light, you can't see very well that they are actually quite white. I am better with my camera than I was, so have managed to get photos of various belt accessories that I wasn't able to get good shots of last time.