I can see clearly now (officially)

It's only taken us 8 months but we finally got round to sorting out our Swiss driving licences this week. We've had the "forms" for a while now (December probably) and we sort of understood the process despite the instructions having some odd translations and being for the wrong canton. You see here the licence is issued by your canton and not the country and each canton has different forms and requirements. The only consistent part is that if you exchange your UK licence for a Swiss one within 12 months of moving here you don't need to take a Swiss driving test. The only test you need to take is an eyetest and yesterday Claire and I were officially declared as having perfect (for driving) eyesight! Now all we need to do is await the licences and our Gemeinde hasn't had the best of records in being prompt.

The Strange Old Swiss - #1 Sitting on a Train

Even in rush hour you can still find the odd seat on a train to Basel with people standing up in the aisle. On a packed tram many stand with seats to spare. Why is this? It certainly seems that the swiss (even more so than us Brits) like to keep their personal space personal. The rucksack over hee is not designed to carry stuff but is your personal seat keeper. You place next to you in a gesture saying, "don't sit here". Of course, when it gets busy they will be polite and remove the bag to allow someone to sit there but you have to ask or make it obvious you're going to sit down anyway.

For a 100th Post?

Apparently this is my 100th post but I often post-date my blogs so how accurate a statement that is I'm not so sure. Today I tried to discover more about tax and renting homes out in the UK. Apparently, we can register as non UK landlords and get a better allownace on tax but I need to call HMRC tomorrow to really try and understand this. Any advice would be helpful????

The contrasting Skiing photo from Saturday

Yep it was slightly different on the Saturday!

Yet Another Ski Weekend!

We will eventually get used to this I suppose but 2 skiing weekends in a row seems a wonderfully new experience for us at the moment. Claire had spoken to our friends, Paul & Jo, just before Christmas and they had mentioned the fact they were coming over to Davos for a weekend skiing in January. Now all we had to do was look up the train times (easy) and book a hotel (difficult due to an excess of Saga (German Branch) holidays in the resort). Anyway we managed that and me tup with them both (& young Sam, of course) for a great weekend with a very snowy Saturday Ski followed by a wonderful sunny Sunday in fresh Powder! Now - where to next!

Skiing in the Black Forest

After all these years I'm finally able to go for a days skiing from home! Today we borrowed a car and drove over to Feldberg in the Schwarzwald - a distance of abut 60km, taking us about an hour. Arriving at 9.30 and on the slopes by 9.45 was a great feeling even if the early morning weather was a combination of fog, snow & rain! However, it brightened up and we were able to spend 6 hours on each side of the Feldberg resort for a great day out. All this and back in time to watch (the recorded) match between Arsenal and Burnley.

Silvester in Basel

We had a great New Year's Eve yesterday when we visited (and stayed) with our friends Jim & Beth. Taking the bus over to their house at 10.00pm (the good old Swiss public transport keeps going as regular as ever) and watching fireworks from all over Switzerland and Germany from their rooftop apartment. In fact at midnight we were able to see display after display all along the banks of the Rhine before the impressive Basel fireworks at 12.30 (till 1.00am).