Bloody Bluewin TV !!!! (2)

Very helpful teh people at Bluewin TV but still no solution - though apparently we have a really good ADSL line - think the problem is within the apartment somewhere..

Bloody Bluewin TV !!!! (1)

As the ADSL line loses signal every so often so I lose the TV picture - it's becoming annoying and so far no solution has been found...

Back for the Weekend to the Emirates

I always thought that I could manage around one visit to Arsenal a month and if this trip is anything to go by then it should be relatively painless. The flight was early, I caught a fast train from Luton to St Pancras and was in London by 11.30! A few beers and a scrappy 1-0 win over Man City was followed by an overnight stay and back to Stansted for a Sunday afternoon flight - back in Basel by 5pm on Sunday - it won't be as easy as this, of course, for the rest I'm sure.

English TV at last...

Today the man from Bluewin TV finally arrived to install our new TV via phone line system. The installation went relatively smoothly and we now have BBC 1,2,3,4 & ITV 1,2,3,4 plus some other bits & pieces. There is the option of signing up to German TV for sports coverage, including the Premier League, but I may just see how I get on with watching MOTD & MOTD2 plus the odd live game down the pub.

First weekend of the football season - in 2 ways!

being away for the first home game of the season was always going to be the point when I realised that I was definitely living a new life. So this Sunday I was more than pleased to merge the new PL season (on pub TV) with the chance to play football with a number of ex-pats on a Sunday morning. The group consisted of many nationalities and ages, with the game itself being friendly and informal - I hope to play on a regular basis now. With the morning ko of 10am I was finished in time to get back to Basel centre for the Arsenal - Fulham game (ko at the strange time of 12pm BST / 1PN CET). 2 late goals from us gave us a just about deserved game, though we were rather lucky. Certainly not the same as being there but enjoyable nethertheless.

Cycling to Work & German Supermarket

Claire finally decided to cycle to work today and got lucky with a tailwind both to work and back home in the evening! I cycled in with Claire so that I could pop into a German supermarket on the way back and buy meat / fish which is either too expensive/impossible to find in Switzerland!

Europa Park - Silver Star & a few thousand kids

Today we went with our friends Clement & Petra and the real reasons for the trip, their niece & nephew from the USA, to Europa Park. This is Europe's main theme park and is now in its 32nd year, the largest and newest ride being the Silver Star, sponsored by Mercedes Benz. This was handy as during the queue (surprisingly short - we got lucky) we got see the F1 qualifing for the Hungarian Grand Prix, though missing the Alonso/Hamilton incident. Claire is not a big fan of roller coasters but she managed all except the Silver Star. Of course, it's holiday season across Europe so the park was busy but we managed (by getting up at 7.00) to be there as the doors opened and that enabled us to get in a lot of rides before 11.00. My personal scariest ride was the Russian (the park is plit into "country" zones) with a wild descent completed facing backwards!

Swiss National Day (Aug 1st) - Fireworks and Friends

Hurrah we've just experienced our first Swiss National Day as residents of the country (despite still not having our permits - only about 2 months late!). As it fell on a Wednesday the main celebrations in Basel with over 100,000 people took place on the evening of the 31st with music, food stalls and fireworks. However, the crush on Mittelbrucke was too much for us so we only saw the early fireworks. We spent the 1st August at friends in Kaiseraugst. They held an open garden party that lasted from 10.30am to late in the evening with beer, food, Rhine Swimming and grappa!