A visit to a beautiful cafe full of treats - and not a member of staff in sight!

We found a gorgeous little cafe on the edge of our village which is full of scrumptious things such as cake, ice cream, fizzy juice, tea, etc but amazingly it is un-manned. You just pick what you desire and there are cups, glasses, cutlery and anything else you may need - pop your money in the slot and take a spot on one of the lovely little benches outside and enjoy!

And this had me quizzing big time. As an English girl so used to everything being locked and bolted down incase of theft or vandalism back home, I find this staggering. So what is it that is just so different about the psyche of the Swiss and the British? From what I can see the babies are all brought up roughly the same - some breastfeeding going on but mainly bottle-feeding, and plenty of dummies (the latter did actually surprise me) The people are very similar in many ways - they like a drink (and many more smoke!)

But then I began thinking about bigger issues. People seem better looked after here. Everyone is paid a very good wage, no matter what the vocation. And the way we have been treated as immigrants has been incredible. Very friendly people - and the local Gemeinde has provided incredible financial assistance with a language school for our eldest.

And then there's the school thing, which varies hugely - the school day begins at 8.15am. Children don't start school here until 7 years of age, and then only do two afternoons a week. At 5 they begin Kindergarten (mainly just mornings) and are responsible for getting themselves there and back. And then, the biggest thing that sticks out for me - every child shakes hands with their teachers and says 'Good morning Frau Whatever 'when they enter the cloakroom and the same happens again 'Adieu Frau Whatever' when they leave for home. Teaching contact (teachers are scared to touch children in the UK) and above all - RESPECT for each other.

I may be scratching the surface of why you can have an unmanned cafe in Switzerland (a preposterious idea in the UK) but I hope it will all be revealed as our life pans out in this wonderful country.

Whale Ride

I've found a wonderful little shelf on the Children's floor at Winterthur Library which is full of more unusual books full of weird and wonderful illustrations and many tackling the bigger issues of life and death. There was a picture in one that inspired me to create the collage below which I have entitled Whale Ride, featuring my two girls. They love it.

The Canton of Zurich - in the midst of a Tick Attack!

On Saturday evening, after a lovely day out in the Swiss sunshine in Zurich visiting Zurichhorn park, we found we had brought back a rather disturbing visitor on the upper leg of my 7-year-old daughter. It looked like a tiny black dot behind which her skin had reddened furiously. Thank god her dad was there (I'm embarrassingly squeamish) as we slowly realised that this black dot was moving and he grabbed it with tweezers and pulled it out of her leg cleanly. Ugh.

So it was a meeting with our first Tick. Really nasty little creatures which can cause Lyme disease (which can affect the nervous system) and encephalitis (a form of meningitis) Worst of all it seems that the Canton of Zurich is in the centre of an endemic - see map here. So I am watching my daughter with bated breath, desperately hoping that we don't see any rashes or flu symptoms develop. And avoiding woods (and wild vegetation) until next Winter...

Swiss mums rock

　
Wow, got to see the amazing Swiss democracy in action at first hand today. I was invited to a meeting of parents - read mothers - about the class teacher who has taken over maternity leave for our Grade 1 children. She's at a major disadvantage as the previous teacher was excellent and is sorely missed but she seems to be struggling to settle in at all and establish any kind of position of respect.


But there was no bitching or back-biting here, much to the astonishment of a parent used to the drawn out, tedious, bitchy path that parental meetings seem to take in the UK.




As this ordered, respectful meeting of nine intelligent mums quickly developed, it was soon clear that they just wanted the best for their children and to establish a line of communication with the teacher which is currently lacking. Each mum put her point of view forward and a general discussion ensued, before the meeting was wrapped up with the decision that a meeting would be set up between the teacher in question, the head-teacher and a parent from each grade applicable.




A meeting, without an agenda, that concluded with a firm step towards an agreeable conclusion within an hour. In all my years of experience of parental meetings in the UK, I can comfortably say that nothing like this has ever happened!

Ringing in the Spring

My 4-year-old enjoyed 'Ringing in the Spring' around the village with her Kindergarten class on Friday. They rung little bells and gave out posies of flowers as they travelled around. Yet another lovely tradition the Swiss have. They sure know how to celebrate the seasons. I created a little watercolour of my Spring posy from Bebe.

Easter egg competition at Franz Carl Weber

The Franz Carl Weber toy shop in Winterthur (and probably Zurich too) is running an Easter competition and the girls have this week really enjoyed decorating their paper egg pictures (see below) with the promise of receiving a little Easter surprise when they return their works of art to the shop. The closing date is 19th April when three eggs will then be picked out for their lucky owners to receive a voucher worth 200 CHF!

Easter egg by Poppy, aged 7

Easter egg by Bebe, aged 4

Libraries must never die

I love books.  I can see the benefit of Kindles but I will never, ever own one. I love the tangible thing about books. I love turning pages. I love smelling them. I love to imagine where they have been and whose lives they have touched.

And of course, I love libraries. I have so many fond memories of them. And so have my children. How else can you find all those great books that you’ve never heard about? Perhaps because they are older or maybe never even written about, such as Quacky Quack-Quack, Princess Smartypants, The Giant Jam Sandwich, or The Rascally cake, to name just a few of our favourites. All ‘classics’ that I have just happened to come across at the library (and we now own our own copies)

And now living in a new country, trying to get to grips with a new language, our village library has become a lifeline for us. My middle daughter (aged 6) is enjoying the comics (of which of course she can follow the pictures easily) I am learning Sweiss-Deutsch from Barbapappa (!) my eldest son (15) is hiring out the action movies and my 4-year-old daughter is enjoying the games.

Because libraries here are a few steps infront of many British libraries which are struggling to compete with the modern era (200 libraries closed in 2012 and campaigners predict 1000 will have gone by 2016) which is why the UK is forced to run an annual campaign which this year takes place tomorrow.

There are village libraries which hire out a huge variety of games and provide a huge service to the local schools and the city libraries can have four floors or more, crammed with books, music, films, computer games, etc, etc. There are rooms just for teens, rooms to listen to music, watch films, imaginative areas for the children to read. You pay a yearly membership (around 50CHF) but everything else (apart from current films) is free. This I think works much better than UK libraries where membership is free but you have to pay £2 for each film, CD, etc, which probably adds up to far more over the year. And of course generates much more of a guaranteed income for libraries.

In addition, there are the fantastic campaigns such as Winterthur’s latest in the run up to Valentine’s Day – ‘Where was your first kiss in Winterthur?’ providing a map for you to mark it on and postcards to write about it. I love libraries. And I especially love Swiss libraries. UK take note before it’s too late.