The perfect finish to the month of August was a visit by my friend Helen. Helen and I have been friends for many a year, although we have not seen each other for an age. She was living in Holland but is now living in Germany yet somehow we failed to actually get to see each other until now, when she was en route to a concert in France. But oh, it was so lovely to see her! She hasn't changed a bit, and is still as funny, and intelligent and gorgeous as she ever was and we had a really fun couple of evenings together. I do hope we can catch each other again soon. It can be a bit of a challenge with her schedule, but fingers crossed!

August

8 August, and the warm and lovely weather made a great excuse to meet friends for a very civilised afternoon tea. Doesn't it look simply delish daaarlingk?

The free concerts in the park began... there is so much to love about August! A picnic in the park on a hot summer night, followed by a great concert (this was the Commitments - with some of the original band!). The bottle of champagne we opened was absolutely gorgeous - it was only afterwards when I saw the same champagne in a shop, I realised why!

This particular park is lovely, with a rose garden, ponds, glades and wide sweeping lawns. It lies just next to the lake, so you can wander across the road when it closes (which it does, far too early!)

One of my newer colleagues had his birthday and invited some of us over for afternoon tea. It was lots of fun: he has kids as do some of my other colleagues, and so there was lots of noise and mayhem. He was given a funky sprinkler for the hose and as the day was stinking hot, the kids ran around through the water shrieking madly. It didn't take much to tempt me, and I soon joined them, barefoot but otherwise dressed. It felt like being a child again back home in Australia, in the days when you could actually have the sprinkler on in your garden:

August is also the time of fireworks in Geneva, and the fete de Geneve. I didn't go to the fete much, but I did go to a lovely party to see the fireworks. The people have a lovely apartment with fantastic views, and while a bit distant from the action, that just meant the ringside seat was less crazy than down at the water's edge, and the company was much better:

Phew! So the month was almost over and there was just enough weekend to go for a trip to Martigny. The intent was to take a gorge walk, but in the end we only made it to this roman amphitheatre, and then had a swim and a massage at Lavey les Bains.