Geneva rush hour

Now the winter break is over, the normal rush hour has already begun. It is already 6 pm and the rush hour doesn't appear to be abating. I took this pic minutes ago from my office window. This is the reason I would rather stay in the office and avoid the rush hour as I might end up sitting in a car for an hour when I can normally reach my house in less than 10 minutes. If you suffer from bad back, that is the last thing you would like end up doing.

Vevey

If you drive up about 50 mins from Geneva to the northern tip of Lake Geneva, you will find a small town called Vevey. Take a stroll along the lake, you will come across many beautiful sculptures one like this shaped like a giant steel fork standing stuck in the shore of the Lake. Close to Vivey is a city of Montreux which is famous for its summer jazz festival. I will post some pics of the city.

Swiss tabby

Last evening I took the kids for a walk around our village. It was freezing cold but I wanted to make it a regular routine for us here just like how we used to do it in Laos after dinner to keep a bit of the fat away. When we crossed the park where we normally went for our weekend ice skate, we were followed by this little tabby out of nowhere. It was quite a strange coincidence as my kids were just talking about how difficult it was to see cats here when it suddenly appeared. The cat followed us almost 1 km on our track up till we reached our home. The cat appeared tame and used to human contact so my first thought was it must have an owner. But it was clearly looking for food. My two little sons were begging me to keep it. I told them their mum won't like the idea of keeping pets in the house. When we reached home, I told mrs about our encounter and I took some leftover crab pate in the fridge and fed the cat. Obviously it finished it very quickly. I told the kids we can't keep the cat in the house and told them that the cat must belong to someone and he or she must be frantically looking for it by now. My kids obviously didn't buy that as I wanted to let the cat out and it refused to go. I told the kids the cat could stay only for one night. So last night the cat slipped into the duvet and slept with my two kids. I took this photo this morning when my boys were still asleep.

Our first ski trip

On Boxing day, we went to chamonix-mont blanc. The place is about 50 miles from Geneva. A very well known ski resort. It is located at the foot of mont blanc or the white mountain. I was so thrilled to make this visit as I have never skied before. But it ended with some pain as I twisted my knees when I fell down the slope. As I had previous surgeries on the cruciate ligaments, the thought of having them torn again had somehow reminded me that I am just too old for any form of dangerous activities. The kids nevertheless had so much fun and they didn't want to stop...I will definetly come back again.

Frolicking in the snow

The winter break for the kids began a few days ago and thankfully the snow began to drop. My kids spent no time immediately playing in our back yard and enjoying the snow covered compound with snow ball fights and rolling themselves down the gentle slope. The snow does bring back old memories of my time spent in the UK living in a beautiful countryside in north yorkshire in a village called copmanthorpe. Winter would be cold and we would often get snow a few inches thick which was a lovely sight to behold. That was some 24 years ago when I was doing my A levels and now I am back in Europe, in Geneva to be specific, on a different mission-as a wandering and wondering dad trying to understand if he could be part of the process in convincing the world if there's anything worth fighting it's fighting for peace and equal rights for everyone on this earth. Salam

fun in the snow

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First snow ball fight in geneva