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Howzit, Bonjour,

So, where to to start? I abandoned the blogging soon into starting the blog. The excuse was we threw a lot of money at a 3 month intensive french course while Janet was booked off of work. Janet at some stage soon will attempt to be certified at a B1 level, the language requirement for citizenship. Not the only requirement alas, us Africans need to be here 12 years before applying.  Of course the overachiever will waltz off with distinction, despite her current panic.
My French is a lot better, I went from class 9 to class 26. Janet went from 26-40, I have a way to go.

Talking to a good friend in December, she said to me she gave up reading my whatsapp missives because they were too long. Fair cop. I will be trying more frequent posts, possibly shorter 🙂

Healthwise we are better, a lot better. Both of us take several pills each day. One of the bonuses from the health calamities last year is that we both were shortlisted for the Covid vaccines, and had both doses of Pfizer in February.  Quick and efficient, I love living in an age of science. I really cannot understand the people wish to be back in the middle ages.

Janet is back at work. I have yet to win the lotto, so have not stopped the glamorous life of an international money broker.

Paige is still in digs in Neuchatel (Neuch to her, Newcastle to me) Live classes start this week after months of Zoom.
Cleo is itching to finish her apprenticeship, the 4 years end in July, she has done well, getting up at 5.00 a.m. most mornings. The child is not mentally stable, planning now to study law! we will have a dishwasher packer for the next 7 years.

We have bought an apartment, very similar to the one we have been renting for the last 7 years. With help from Cleo (the advantage of making a child doing an apprenticeship save instead of charging board and lodgings), The promise of a loan from my sister in NZ, who was prepared to dip into her bond to help. The commitment from a good friend to fund us while negotiating the Excon and tax brambles of SA to extract Janet’s inheritance and my cashed in insurance policies.
In life Janet’s folks seed the deposit of our first house, saying it was the money they saved by her staying at home while studying instead of funding res fees or digs. Our first house cost R196 000.00 about Sfr 12 250. The garage we have bought with our apartment is Sfr 30 000.00. Our first house was about 300 sq meters, our bond rate was at 20%. We have bought 130 sq meters at 1.10%.
We get the keys on 28 may, and need to be out of the current apartment by the end of June.

We are currently on the third floor of No 8, we have bought the fourth floor of No 10. The lifts battle to hold 3 people, so basically all the big stuff is going down 3 floors and up four flights of stairs. I have hired people to do this, neither of us are young enough to do it all anymore.

Rambling on and on as usual 🙁

The whole purchase still feels surreal, and not expected at all. Janet’s inheritance making up the bulk of the 20% deposit along with our proceeds from the Parkmore and Vaal properties. The 5% fees plus the small renovations funded by borrowings until the cashed in policies are converted in Swiss francs.

Janet received a message at about 3 p.m. on 27 feb that the apartment was on offer. She contacted the agent straight away. She made a big spiel about living in the block for seven years. She was told we could view on the Thursday as the viewing calendar was full until then.

Monday she was told there was a cancellation, we could view at 5 p.m. that day. Cleo joined us, the agent said an early offer was often accepted. Janet tendered an offer at the asking price within an hour. This was done more in hope than expectation.

During Janet’s convalescence she had taken to walking with J. J and her husband JC are proper Swiss, and have been very kind to us over the years, despite ignoring for the first two years. “there are so many expats that pass through here, it was not worth knowing you until we could see you would stay”

After posting our offer J told Janet that she hoped we would be accepted, but that it was unlikely as her cousin who was swiss had also bid at the same price. Another neighbour, my beautiful Ursula whose husband Francois died 2 weeks ago, and was buried on what would have been their 60th anniversary, said that the Swiss preferred to sell to Swiss, and that M. Rytz was a very conservative Swiss man. Her apartment is next to ours – the third floor of No6. She has always been a ray of sunshine to us and the girls, one of the bubbliest people at our aperos, or meeting her when walking to recycle our bottles and peelings.

The agent then called a week later and said we needed to confirm funding, as the seller favoured us despite a receiving a bid 10% higher.

The funding scramble went into overdrive, Sally got on board – Cleo revealed she could help. A chance remark over dinner resulted in a very kind offer from a friend. Hopefully, the way things are going only Cleo will be getting the 2% interest we are paying for the interim funding.
Funding secured the bid was finalised with backing of Janet’s bank. Once we had the 20% in her account, they issued the guarantee.

Sfr 10 000 of Cleo’s money was in cash. I imagined a shopping bag full of notes. Instead it was a mere fold of paper, never have I been more worried about losing paper than the day I need to deposit that money to make the 20%.

Funding secured on my birthday 18 March, the agent called Janet to say we had been successful, and then asked what did we do at the start of Covid. A puzzling question as Janet the girls and Cheryl* all were locked down from March 2020.  Janet said she taught her classed by Zoom, teams and stayed at home.

He the asked what we did for the building. At the start of Covid, before Janet’s cancer, and my hypertension fright we viewed ourselves as the youngsters of the block. Not unreasonable given a lot of our neighbours bought off plan  in 1970. Wanting a flat with a garden for their kids to play in. Of course estate agents have to put their special BS in, the garden is referred to as a private park. Creating images ofa lord hunting deer and shooting geese, it has a nice braai area.

We put a letter into each letterbox at the start of lockdown offering to do shopping, collect pharmacy orders etc. Not one person ever took us up, several thanked us for the gesture, but we did not have to help anyone. M. Rytz remembered this, and decided we were the people to buy his apartment. We have, and his family have been unbelievably kind about giving us keys to store stuff in the garage, the ability to bring tradesmen in to measure up for the renovations needed. A small gesture has gone a long way, almost as long as my rambling blog.

Love you all

 

 

 

Not Mad Easter in Afrikaans, but not bad in French. I know that Easter is paas in Afrikaans, but it was a convenient hook to hang the start of this blog. Mal is bad in French, but mad in Afrikaans. Sometimes these similarities help in remembering words, other times… well I struggle to learn French.

This is an explanation why this blog will be even more sporadic for the foreseeable future. I am studying French through https://swissfrenchschool.ch/test/en/placement . One of the better language schools, there are plenty. Janet is booked off until January, as such decided to use the time off to level up on French. They offered a discount if a spouse signed up at the same time.

I have cashed in my SA life policies to pay for this. I can get a job as a shelf packer speaking reasonable French. I cannot live here for more than a year on the proceeds after 30 years  of paying premiums to Liberty and Sanlam.

Well to the nub of the matter, I am rather short of time, but want to maintain this discipline.

I want to, for myself, write once a week. I know some weeks will be weak.

So brace yourself for a scattershot of thoughts, hopefully mostly cogent.

On the health front, Janet getting stronger each day. She needed to switch medicine for the headaches, ahead of the hormone treatment. She still walks ferociously, shedding inches. The sunburn has receded    The hormone treatment will stop production of hormones, but not initiate menopause yet.

Work is what it has been for too long, trying to grab some of the winnow of the few trades going through.

I ache at times with my love for South Africa and missing the people. However I am scared about the level of corruption. However, it still produces tremendous people. Possibly you are all aware of Master KG, and his song. If you have seen too often, I apologise. We hear this many times on the French randio station we listen to on weekends, Champagne FM (try streaming if you have uncapped data).

A topic I hope to have each week, and eventually a list and photo’s is things that give me joy. This will follow as time becomes more free.

First and foremost is Janet, ’nuff said.

Time has run, out. Love you all.

 

Week 3 of blogging, not sure if the weekly commitment, to me only, will survive.

As mentioned last week we have thrown a lot of money at a French course. My heavens, what a lot of work, after 2 hours this morning I asked Janet if we could get a refund.

Janet is a hoot, I hope to do 16 classes in the next 12 weeks. If successful I will be where Janet is now. In earnest this morning, when we where each battling our language classes, she asked me for help. Needless to say she figured it out by herself.

My problem when writing fluctuates between what to write about, and then stop running down every rabbit hole.

I have several themes I will expound (bore you shitless) on in the weeks while creating filler between cramming French. Expect a very visual blog on things that give me joy. Photo’s will only be inanimate objects.

Family news, I managed to row 4 times this week. When the alarm goes off at 4.55 it is unusual, as some delivery person starts delivering something between 4.20 and 4.40. He now uses an electric scooter which is far less noisy than the Moto X bike he used before. It possibly would not make any noise if he did not mount the pavement with the bootbox unlatched. This gets me into the games room 2 buildings along, where  I have a borrowed concept II, by 5.00 am.

Thank goodness it is so early, I wear a sweatband as  I need to keep both hands on the oar. I wheeze and sweat through 6.5-6.8 km for 30 minutes, not a pretty sight. Poor Cleo is the only one that sees the sweaty mess afterwards. She starts early in Lausanne, so she is leaving as I pour myself upstairs.

The exercise, I do it at least twice a week, with the medication all seem to work. My blood pressure is all very good now. Weight seems to have plateaued at 94 Kg after a bottom at 92. Much healthier than the 106Kg this time last year.

Janet is walking up a storm, between the end of radiation and start of hormone therapy. Her migraine tablets may clash with the hormone tablets, so those have stopped, the tablets and hopefully the headaches as well. Janet is dreading the weight and mood changes associated with the hormone therapy. I am sure we will survive this as well.

One of the side effects of the radiation is sunburn. Janet has been battling with the pain and the itchiness of the peeling. Our young Swiss booking clerk suggested cannabis infused oil. I asked him to buy some. Apparently it sits on the shelf nestled between the canola and almond oils alongside the sunflower and olive staples. It appears to help, either that or time actually heals in this case.

Went to Neuchatel yesterday, again, took Paige a coffee table, toaster pot and microwave.   The departure of one of the flatmates led to a gap in equipment.
There are rituals that would have made no sense living in SA, on our way back from the delivery run we stopped at the brits grocery mecca https://jbmarket.ch/ to order our Christmas turkey. Most of their imported stuff is expensive, however free range turkeys from them are the least expensive in Switzerland. They are are super tasty, best of all we can collect a few days before Christmas, avoiding having to use limited freezer space.

Next door is a branch of Lidl, so we popped in to get some veg and milk. Well…. there was a freezer with geese, it has been my ambition to have roast goose since moving to Europe. Next Sunday I will realize that ambition. Much more exciting to look forward to than all the French lessons I have to do.

I would love to pour out more but the candle is fizzling, love you.

 

 

I am not sure how long I can sustain these terrible franglais puns.
What an eventful week, here and across the world.

Some housekeeping, Storm has relaxed the security ( I appreciate the diligence) enough to add photo’s. I added the autumn photo to the previous blog, I need to learn how to place pictures in the blog. It may not happen this week, as I have a lot that needs to be done.

Another bit of cleaning up from the previous post. I wrote about us having roast lamb and potatoes, not to boast about Janet’s legendary tats, but about the talk of favourite dishes. We thought Steven’s best was our potatoes, turns out it is a noodle dish that Paige makes, after we all were blown away by how good it was at a wedding we all attended while still new in Switzerland.

Steven’s english is most probably as good as my french, if not better. He prefers to keep it to himself, so dinner conversation is generally in french, it does stop me dominating the conversation 🙂 The point I forgot to mention was that Cleo said something I thought was kind and insightful. She said my favourite meal was one that had the dining room full. So very true, changing countries meant no other family apart from the four of us.

Over time we have a network of friends that we love to share a dish with, plus a glass. Among the blessings we have, for all that we live in a 3rd floor apartment, we have a communal garden with a braai area. One that we have had many friends to share with us. I also braai the Christmas turkey down there every year to the bemusement of our neighbours.

Covid19 has changed a lot of things, R.I.P. my uncle bubble that the virus claimed this year. His death has left my mum bereft, and there is not much we can do from so far away.

Another loss to Covid19 is Janet’s birthday party. Janet hates a fuss about her, not sure why, I adore her. I am not sure how many glasses of wine inspired the idea we would invite our neighbours to a party on Janet’s birthday, without mentioning the birthday. Given that her birthday is 20 December, they all assumed it was for Noël (Christmas.)

A part of Swiss life is the apéro, a small cocktail party. People are invited, arrive promptly. Have two, maximum three drinks a few nibbles. Usually starts at 6 and ends by 7, in time to go home and have dinner.

Needless to say an African cannot have people disappear in 60 minutes. We have in the last few years had about 20 neighbours arrive. We serve cheeses, fruits, crudités and  quiche. What blows them away are the sausage rolls, mini boboties’s and Ellinor’s fruit cake. The star of the show is a baked cheesecake that my American friend Dwight taught me how to make. We have invested in a party pack of champagne glasses (24 of them) because every one arrives at the same time. We have 20 glasses of bubble loaded at 6 p.m.

That is the only thing that resembles a Swiss apéro. These 20 plus people squeeze into our salon, and are still there at 10 o’clock. not everyone speaks english. The weirdest moment was when two ladies who attend the same Tai Chi class, and had been for several years, realized they were neighbours. In their defense we are 4 apartment blocks sharing the same communal garden, administrator, concierge(cleaner) and gardener.

It is a joyous occasion that will missed deeply this year, not only by us. The evening ends in typically Swiss style, at about 10.30 0ne of the old folk. I have not mentioned that most of our neighbours are 80+ . One person bids the group goodnight, and the entire group decamps, no one hangs on for a last drink.

Well that was a long introduction. Apologies for any spelling mistakes, I need to find out how to change to UK English rather US English as the default.

Sunday lunch was eventful and delightful.  I found the 1999 Methode Champenoise JC Le Roux I should not have bothered. tasted like vermouth, looked like sherry. We normally finish the duck on the balcony gas braai, which ran out of gas right as we tried to finish up. The pan did the job in the end, not sure what Cleo and Steven did but the sauce was the best ever.

That last picture has a Nguni cow on the beach in the background, Janet is creating a cross stitch pattern that is emblematic of Switzerland in black cotton on a white background. Hopefully will be done by 2025.

Janet finished her radiation on Thursday. She took some chocolate brownies to the crew. The result of the radiation is that her boob is sunburnt and very itchy. As mentioned before dreading the consequences of hormone therapy. Still in good spirits, marched a 10 km walk by my estimates on Friday. Her school support areas, bookshop and I.T. department, have closed down due to the Miley (Virus = Miley Cyrus) So very apprehensive about going back. She is getting skinnier by the day with all the walking.

We planned on having dinner out on Thursday to celebrate the last radiation treatment.   A treat as we seldom eat out in Switzerland, it is really expensive. However new lockdown regulations came into force on Wednesday, meaning all restaurants are closed. It must be terrifying to be in the hospitality business at the moment. We had a lovely dinner at home of rösti, chicken schnitzel and mushroom sauce.

Paige is having to wade through a legal morass of student digs as she signed up for a year and one of the girls is bailing to shack up with her boyfriend. At 24, with better french than her parents she needs to work it out. It’s not easy for any of us.

I am cashing in some pension policies to pay for an accelerated french lessons to hopefully integrate better, and deal with Paige’s type issues better

I really hate certain aspects of my job, especially certain dullwits, as such I will need better language skills to find another career. Wow, at almost 56 to think of a career change and relish the thought.

That’s me this week, an unsatisfying finish for me, however run out of time,

love you

 

 

 

That is franglais, meaning my first post in a mixture of French

and English. A play on the French language teaching app Duolingo that initially used the phrase “mon premier vache” , my first cow, often in the initial version. Eight years later still using Duolingo, French is still a work in progress.

I think of my life as a work in progress, as a son, a husband, a father, a brother and a member of society. Mistakes are made, shit happens and hopefully I can do better next time.
Apparently this writing thing gets better with practice, so I will dive in.
I am aiming to share the news I have been sharing via WhatsApp for the last 18 months, with better integration  of media and links to the text.
Thanks to Storm and the team at Crowded Igloo, who host this. It means I have a tidy url to send to each of you.

I am sure you are accustomed to the haphazard order I spill things out, so many things I would like to share, but no thought of the order.

So here and now sitting in the lounge pounding out this missive, grey outside listening to Mixfm. Specifically listening to Sean Brokensha (the Music Guru) A DJ who provided one of my best radio memories ever. We were  driving to our Vaal river college on a Friday afternoon, listening to JCW on 702. The music Guru was an occasional slot that played songs, with the Guru explaining, the context and story behind each carefully chosen song. That afternoon he deconstructed Paul Simon’s and Ladysmith Black Mambazo  Graceland  album. I have been a fan ever since.

The original 007’s death came out before the show, and Sean played this version of in my life, I admire the Beatles for writing the song, but our favourite version is Bette Midler’s from for the boys.

Janet is sitting reading, I am counting our blessings, Janet being my chief blessing. We have a lovely “salon” a large lounge dining room area with a lot of windows and two balconies. The fact it would fit into one of the lounges we had in SA is now a joy. Outside looks like this now (actually no photos this week, Crowded Igloo stops me adding media, I will get this fixed)

Janet has four radiation sessions this week, then that part of the journey is finished. The cancer is hormone receptive, which is why no chemo was needed, this means the next step is hormone treatment. In short, accelerated menopause. Janet not looking forward to all that it implies, however it means the feedstock for the fucking evil cells is removed and if some dormant tosser wakes up it will die of hunger.

Cleo turned 21 on 14 October, but was in Germany for a two weeks doing some intensive learning. Learning to drink Jagermeister as well by the sounds of things. So we’re having a small family lunch, banquet actually by the time Janet had been through the Asian markets freezers. Covid regs mean no chance of a party with all her mates.

I think for at least the last 9 years her requested birthday meal has been Crispy Duck with Hoisin sauce. Cleo wanted to learn how to cook it for herself, so as it involves marinating, she and Stephen came to dinner of Friday. To make the marinade and prick the skin.  Janet did roast lamb and roast potatoes (sweet and regular) a real Friday night treat. Tomorrow we will cook the duck, make pancakes on the crepe party. I found a magnum of JC Le Roux sparkling pinot noir in our cave. I thought it was 1999 vintage, Cleo’s birth year. Turns out it is a 1989, I have staff younger! Hopefully it is good as we drink to Cleo’s birthday and Janet’s last week of radiation.

The security setting stopping me from posting photos is irritating me, so will finish up with last few snippets.

We walked down to our friends Tina place on the lakefront this morning, Janet had forgotten some knitting kit there from lunch on Thursday. Tina has breast cancer as well, went through a double mastectomy. A failed reconstruction meant a 6 hour operation, grafting skin from her back to make boobs. A tough road. She is on the mend, and had a supply of Blackcow   vodka. Being the cheeky person I am, I asked for taste, so at 11.00 am this morning we were sipping on a half tot of vodka, yes it tastes creamy.

On Thursday Jan had an early session, so I took the day off to drive her up the hill. We bought a second hand laura star  from someone in  Avenches,  we then walked through the Roman ruins, very well done. After a cold windy 90 minutes, we had a splendid fondue.

Until next time, à bientôt