I Am Not Your Friend. A Tale of Friendship.

Good night, my little friend (3). Have a good sleep.

I am not your friend.

What? I think we are friends.

No. You are the Au Pair and I am your kind (child).

Ok. Good night, my little kind (child). Sleep well.


No, I am not little.

Ok. Good night, my kind (child). Have a good sleep.

No! I am a big kind (child).


Ok!! Good night, my big kind (child). Go to sleep.


Good night.




MLF3's final words before bed.
Have been working on a blog of the Italy-France trip but it's taking a while, especially since Blogger deleted half of it today. (Scum!!) But it's coming....
Also, an excellent exciting birthday present was received (actually I had lots of lovely ones) but one in particular should show up in a photo or two sometime soon.

Little Blue Wax Crayon

Oh Little Blue Wax Crayon.
Where did you come from? And how did you return?
It was only 2 days ago that you took wrath out on me. I discovered you in the bedroom of a little girl, hidden underneath the special woolen floor rug. You had made such a mess.
Your waxiness was everywhere - the floor, the rug and for seemingly miles around.
I scrubbed. I removed your crayon-ness to the best of my ability.
I washed. That rug will never be the same, but it is on the path to recovery.

And now, it seems you will have your revenge. For although I surely threw you into the pit of despair, the rubbish bin, you have returned. In the same place. On the same floor, and your waxiness is everywhere, yet again.
Why did you choose me? And how on earth did you get out of the pit of despair.
It does not seem fair.

I will scrub. And I will wash. I will remove every ounce of proof that you were once there.
Oh Little Blue Wax Crayon. I will survive. You will not.
I have thrown you into the pit once again and this time you shall never return.
And you have only yourself to blame. I tried to warn you.

Farewell Little Blue Wax Crayon.

You Know You've Made It When...

So we're home from our Summer Adventure of Italy and France. And we survived. And had beautiful weather. And saw way too much stuff to fully take in.

And I got home to discover...

wait for it...

...

MLF3 has been including me in her pictures of the family.
Yes!!!

You know you've made it as an Aupair when...you're pencilled AND texta'd in the family portrait drawings.

This is what I've been working for. I think this is the top of the proverbial mountain. This is why I get up in the morning.

I think.

Anyone got any other 'you know you've made it when...' moments to share?

Oh - and blog of 'Kylie and Dad and Mum's Amazing Excellent Adventure soon to follow....

Esmerelda, Is That You?

Just in case you didn't know...the Eifel Tower is HUGE. I never knew it was so big. It towers (no pun intended) over the rest of Paris by a mile (or something like 300 something metres). Tomorrow I have the full intention of climbing to the top!

We're staying in a crazy quirky hotel in the absolute heart of Pareee. Unfortunately they decided to use jack hammers in the absolute heart of Pareee this morning.
Dear Construction Men, please do your thang in the outskirts tomorrow morning.

We have a wonderful view of the Notre Dame from our window, from the Hotel Esmerelda. There seems to be a old lady living in the reception room of our hotel. Last night she told me she owned the hotel.
She might be right....she is there all the time, sleeping in the chair. Sometimes I feel the need to go and shake her, just to check she is still with us.
And I think she may be Esmerelda. Even though the original Esmerelda was Victor Hugo's fictional character - somewhere back in the 1830's.....there is still a chance. This lady is rather old. And everyone needs an inspiration, even Victor Hugo.

Today we joined the throng of tourists and sat aboard an open topped bus and saw some of the sights this way. I had an overwhelming urge quite a few times to spit my chewing gum on the heads of people walking along the pavement. Would this be wrong? Why do I get these thoughts? Where do they come from? I'm not a bad person. It's just...tempting.

I saw the Moulin Rouge today. And a few locations for the film Amelie....I may have even seen Amelie running down the street. Still an unconfirmed sighting though. Again, a fictional character but....

I also saw some bad guys get chased by policemen on bicycles.

Exciting stuff. Paris.

Cheers Franceso!

We're in Rome.
And we just had dinner with a crazy man.
I was late. We were going out for a quick dinner.
He introduced himself and sat down with us. It was my fault, really. I caught his eye when we both clapped for the singing guitar man.
But I think he was a little crazy. He spilled Dad's Coke on his lap and threw Mum's fork at her white shirt. Or he just helped Mum and Dad do that themselves.
Not sure.
He wanted to swap addresses with us and we gave him a fake one.
He gave his compliments to Dad when he found out about the 6 children.
We also have an outstanding invitation to his house in southern Italy.
This may be taken back when he finds out about the fake address.
Not sure.
He bought us a lovely bottle of champagne though. He can't say cheers to himself.
I know a surprising amount of Italian when he can't speak English.
His poor cousin on the next table spent half her evening translating.
Got a great photo of him and I which I may perhaps share at a later date.
We wanted to meet Italian people in Italy. I guess that was him.
Not sure.
I ate a plate of mushrooms for dinner. I had my heart set on mushrooms AND Jerusalem artichokes but the were all out of artichokes. Something about it being Rome.
Not sure.
Thanks Franceso for a lovely bottle of champers.
And for wetting my Dad's pants and ruining my Mum's shirt.
Cheers!

One Big Giant Cliche

Craziness.

Swiss fam left this morning for their holidays.

Mum and Dad arrived this week on Tuesday and it's crazy that they're here in my little world over here.

Swiss fam has been lovely about having Mum and Dad here...and I was so proud of the girls for using the English with my parents and they have been so good at talking with my parents.

MLF3 even wanted to call them on the phone last night when they were out - to tell them to come home.

Have been showing Zurich to them this week and they've gone off exploring by themselves this afternoon (will they come back alive?!)


We're heading off to Venice tomorrow morning - (rather early, what was I thinking?!)


Had the most amazing weekend last weekend in the mountains. It was like one big giant cliche. Green hills, snow capped mountains, mountain huts, cows, cow bells....always cow bells....so many cow bells...



Seriously if I was a cow and I had to hear the bell in my face every time I moved I would want to hurt someone....




We cooked over an open fire, slept in the straw and didn't shower. Ahhh.
We had to apologize to the lady who had to sit with us on the train coming home...I learnt how to apologize for stinking in German!

We also went rock climbing - on real rock walls - out in the mountains! So crazy.
It's completely different to indoor rock climbing. You spend this time practicing at the climbing centres, but when you're out on cliff?! it's a whole other game.


You can't really prepare for it - you can try, but until you get out there and do it, it's hard to understand what it is like.


And it's so much better. The view is amazing - and it's worth it.
It's worth the effort, the sweat, the strength.


So much better!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

During a late afternoon game of Yatzee today I put a CD on. MLF1 really liked the song and turned it up rather loud. Half-way through the first song Mami came home.
Kinda looked like we were blasting music and playing betting games.
Alcohol, kids?

We're on School Holidays!
I finished The Little Prince today.
We made bread.
This bread ended up becoming 1 horse, 1 dolphin, 1 starfish, 1 cat, 2 turtles, and 1 Spanish looking guy.
Today I wore my shirt backwards.
This was pointed out mid morning by MLF3.
MLF1's friend (German-speaking only) understood what I said today.
Even if it's not perfect German, I can be understood. Yesssss.
The girl's friend is here visiting for the week. She speaks French.
I really like her. I think if we spoke the same language we'd make good friends. She's 12.
I had to rescue a butterfly, a lizard, and a mouse today from the cats. The butterfly will live to see another day. The lizard will find life a bit hard without a tail. The mouse - well, it probably saw better days and will not see anymore days.

What Is Most Important Is Invisible

Meine Schweizer Familie has been away for the last four days and whilst it's been lovely to have a quiet house and some unexpected time off, I think I missed them.

And tonight, when I came home and went upstairs to say hello I had a 4-year-old run to hug me because she was happy. And the rest who seemed genuinely glad that I was there. And this made me glad.

Cos there has been moments over the last four days when I wondered what on earth I was doing here...and it was good to be reminded tonight. And I'm glad I'm here.

I've been reading The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery over the last few days - and loving it.
And I wanted to share an excerpt that I read today.

"The desert is beautiful," the little prince added.
And that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...
"What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that sometimes is hides a well..."
..."Yes I said to the little prince. "The house, the stars, the desert--what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!"
..."What is most important is invisible..."

Tourist-ing it up with the Sound of Music! (Salzburg)

The hills were alive with the Sound of Music in Salzburg last weekend.

I probably should start this blog with a warning. I'm not going to pretend that the Sound of Music setting didn't form rather a large part of wanting to visit this Austrian city - it was.
I admit it.
And so I took the tour. Had I know about it, I would have also taken the Fraulein Maria's cycling tour of Salzburg where you sing your way through the city.
(Seriously, there is such a tour!)

And so, WARNING: Some Spoilers may follow. Also, some references to the Sound of Music.


We spent a lovely 33 hours in Salzburg and I took in the biggest gulp I could.
These hours included, but were not limited to:


Reinforcing my hardcore status. Rain with lighting bolt symbols was the forecast for the weekend. Undeterred, Steph (my accomplice) and I decided we would go hardcore and see everything anyway. We bought awesome yellow ponchos to support our hardcore status.



Climbing every mountain and fording every stream.


Visiting Mozart's birth house. He was born in Salzburg (but rumour has it that he wasn't too fond of the town).


Meeting Mozart. 'Cept he was the younger, more hip version of Mozart. He even had an IPod, and he juggled, did some interpretive dance, and fire-twirled to the music. He is pictured here with his IPod.



Following every rainbow, and searching high and low.


Embracing tourism and the Lonely Planet. I would just like to take a short moment to give thanks with a grateful heart to Lonely Planet, without whom I would have been lost on the weekend. (Oh, and for Steph - great map following!)


Eating Lonely Planet recommendations. Living in Zurich really limits my eating-out possibilities (hence the 'I could live off cheeseburgers' label) and on the weekend I got to eat.so.much.good.stuff. Who would have thought Italian Restaurant owner with credentials from the Love Boat could make such good Pizza? Who could have known that the all natural-vegetarian-vegan-organic-bio-healthy-kill-me-now Indian Restaurant would be so good?
Lonely Planet, I lift my glass of water to you!


Singing 'These are a few of my favourite things' whilst eating Italian ice cream x 3.


Smiling for Japanese(?) tourists in the Mirrabel Gardens. As featured in the Sound Of Music. We did not share a common language, and so when they gestured towards me with their camera I assumed they wanted me to take a photo of them.

However, it soon became clear that this was not the case. I was dragged into their photo (I still have the bruise marks on my arm to prove it!) and made to smile. Seriously. And then a line started to form....and a new bunch of people surrounded me and grabbed my arm held on tight. I saw my life flash before my eyes and knew I had to get out of there. I think maybe they thought I was Julie Andrews. My singing did kind of sound like her. And I was doing all the right dance moves in the correct places around the garden so I guess it was an easy mistake to make.

Uncanny resemblance.....?






Practicing my moves for the Sound of Music 2. Here I am doing my audition piece on the water fountain. Unfortunately, Steph cut me out of the picture, but you get the idea.



Listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack on the bus as we drove through the hills out of Salzburg. It was just one of those ironic moments in life where you just want to laugh at yourself. A year ago? - I never would have dreamt that I'd be living in Switzerland, on a weekend trip to Salzburg, on a Sound of Music bus, listening to 'How do you solve a problem like Maria....'


Seeing all the places from the movie was pretty cool. You may not be able to see it, but behind my head, Julie Andrews -aka Maria Von Trapp - and the kids are falling out of the boat and Gretl is almost drowning because she didn't know how to swim. You may not also be able to see it because it may have happened 45 years ago.




Biking along the Salzburg River during the late evening. We had to wait until almost 1AM for our train, and so why wait at the train station when you can ride along the river? I love the summer months when it stays light for so much longer!




And, at the end of the 33 hours, it was time for the train home. Rather unfortunately, a supposedly sweet older lady was sleeping in my reserved seat. (Unreserved seats are never mentally the same!) Also unfortunately, it was 1AM and, unfortunately, I was feeling too nice. In the spirit of the unfortunate I think she slept the whole trip. I know this because I didn't. She was also warm under her blanket. (Note to self: Bring blanket next time!)

So Long, Farewell Salzburg!

While Mami is Away, the Spaghetti Cats Do Play

'Twas a good afternoon. We went to the Library - the girls rode their velos and I rode the trotinet. (I think these are French words - no wonder my brain is so mixed up - I learn German in class and French in day-to-day stuff).
Actually I half rode the trotinet and half pushed MLF3 up the hills. I am going to be fit. I am going to be fit. I am going to be fit.

And! Victory! We finally found all the books and cassetes and CDs and DVDs that we had borrowed from the library and we could have a clean start with the Bibliotech. That is, until it was realized that we had left the cassette of Pingu in the Cassette Player. Nooooooooooo!
Darn Penguin.

MLF3 and I hung out in the kitchen while I made spaghetti and we learnt that you can use carrots as microphones. I asked her if she wanted to listen to a cassette and she asked for ABBA.
And so we rocked out to Dancing Queen with carrot microphones. And then I put a few holes in the carrot and she played her 'flute' to Voulez Vous.
I'm thinking of patenting the idea. Anything to help kids with their veggies eh?

Then we had spaghetti sucking competitions (how fast can you suck a length of cooked spaghetti into your mouth?) And MLF3 made some very cool pictures with spaghetti which I just have to post.



She told me that they were my pets from home (PussPuss the cat and Tessie the dog). She also keeps asking for stories of them with my sisters and brother. (Like I just can invent stories!) She also thinks that I liked these pets...Miscommunication.

She wanted to keep the cat on the table until Mami got home, however when I later cleaned it up there seems to residue imprinted on the table in the shape of a cat. Funny that.
Please be gone by breakfast, please be gone by breakfast.

And, in other exciting news (don't roll your eyes, having a clean slate with the Library is exciting!) looming is the possibility of Cuba and the Caribbean.
Kind of rates right up there with carrot flutes and spaghetti sucking competitions eh?