out and about
The Swisscom technicians did turn up! Albeit at the rather early hour of 8.30am - so I probably misheard 'dix' instead of 'huit' for the timing, but oh well, at least they did call ten minutes before they arrived so we had some time to finish breakfast. After almost two hours of fiddling with wires and two cups of Singapore-style 'kopi' (premixed coffee my mother brought along with her) later, they declared that there was 'un probleme' with the wiring and they needed another piece of equipment to check where it could be, so they would return on Monday morning to try again. And of course, this being Switzerland, they are only the fibre optic guys and by no means will even have anything to do with bringing along our modem, wifi router, and (obviously) our cable tv box set. Those will have to arrive in the mail, which really means that it will arrive at the post office, where I will have to stand in line and pick it up.
J had the day off and since the technicians were done early we had the rest of the day free. Today it was cold and rainy, so in the end we decided to all pile in the car and drive to Aubonne, thirty minutes away, to check out the factory outlet shopping there. The shopping was pretty uninspiring, though - I only picked up three shirts for The Bun and that was it.
There was nothing to eat at the outlet either so we headed for McDonalds in Etoy, a five-minute drive away. My mother is convinced that McDs is much better-tasting here than it is in Singapore, where she can barely bring herself to touch the food. If it really does taste better, it's worth a pretty penny - three adult meals and a Happy Meal set us back about 45 francs, or S$62. Bao ate baby rice cakes, bopped her head happily while watching other kids, and was generally very cute. I love this age she's at.
The good thing about our lunch detour was that we accidentally discovered the Etoy 'shopping zone', as they call it, basically a stretch of the autoroute with lots of huge big box stores and furniture shops. After lunch we crossed the parking lot to check out a toy store, then visited a pet shop which had lovely, comfortable enclosures for all the pets on sale. We then ended up in Pfister, a furniture shop, and made a quick decision to buy a Philip Starck Ghost chair for our entranceway. I had tea in the cafe with Bao crawling and squealing all over the sofa with me while The Bun explored the rest of the store with my mother and J. It was a nice break.
Kids at the cafe at Pfister.
Since it was still rainy we decided to drive to Carrefour across the border to do a quick supermarket shop. Somehow we never manage to leave Carrefour without a full trolley load. Everything is so much cheaper there compared to Swiss supermarkets, though, so I'm glad we live only ten minutes away from it. Crossing the French border is quick and easy, and best of all, the supermarkets are open till late on weekdays.
The sun came out just as we got home so J took the kids downstairs to the playground to run off some steam while my mother and I cooked dinner. I'm so going to miss her and the extra set of hands (and eyes!) when she leaves. Bao is very mobile and very curious and it's hard to keep an eye on her while I'm busy in the kitchen. From the kitchen door I can see the playroom where the children are, but when Bao is playing The Bun is usually in there with her, running interference or endlessly tattling on her. She actually plays quite well on her own if her brother isn't bothering her.
We have a long weekend up ahead but the weather looks like it will be a dampener, at least for tomorrow. I'm plenty busy enough at home anyway, unpacking the last of our boxes and organising all our stuff. Our apartment is finally coming together! I keep saying this, but I'm really glad we got this place because I feel so comfortable and peaceful in it and I can already tell I'll be sorry to leave this place and return to our smaller and (much) noisier place in Singapore. Maybe I'll do a post about the apartment soon.
J had the day off and since the technicians were done early we had the rest of the day free. Today it was cold and rainy, so in the end we decided to all pile in the car and drive to Aubonne, thirty minutes away, to check out the factory outlet shopping there. The shopping was pretty uninspiring, though - I only picked up three shirts for The Bun and that was it.
There was nothing to eat at the outlet either so we headed for McDonalds in Etoy, a five-minute drive away. My mother is convinced that McDs is much better-tasting here than it is in Singapore, where she can barely bring herself to touch the food. If it really does taste better, it's worth a pretty penny - three adult meals and a Happy Meal set us back about 45 francs, or S$62. Bao ate baby rice cakes, bopped her head happily while watching other kids, and was generally very cute. I love this age she's at.
The good thing about our lunch detour was that we accidentally discovered the Etoy 'shopping zone', as they call it, basically a stretch of the autoroute with lots of huge big box stores and furniture shops. After lunch we crossed the parking lot to check out a toy store, then visited a pet shop which had lovely, comfortable enclosures for all the pets on sale. We then ended up in Pfister, a furniture shop, and made a quick decision to buy a Philip Starck Ghost chair for our entranceway. I had tea in the cafe with Bao crawling and squealing all over the sofa with me while The Bun explored the rest of the store with my mother and J. It was a nice break.
Kids at the cafe at Pfister.
Since it was still rainy we decided to drive to Carrefour across the border to do a quick supermarket shop. Somehow we never manage to leave Carrefour without a full trolley load. Everything is so much cheaper there compared to Swiss supermarkets, though, so I'm glad we live only ten minutes away from it. Crossing the French border is quick and easy, and best of all, the supermarkets are open till late on weekdays.
The sun came out just as we got home so J took the kids downstairs to the playground to run off some steam while my mother and I cooked dinner. I'm so going to miss her and the extra set of hands (and eyes!) when she leaves. Bao is very mobile and very curious and it's hard to keep an eye on her while I'm busy in the kitchen. From the kitchen door I can see the playroom where the children are, but when Bao is playing The Bun is usually in there with her, running interference or endlessly tattling on her. She actually plays quite well on her own if her brother isn't bothering her.
We have a long weekend up ahead but the weather looks like it will be a dampener, at least for tomorrow. I'm plenty busy enough at home anyway, unpacking the last of our boxes and organising all our stuff. Our apartment is finally coming together! I keep saying this, but I'm really glad we got this place because I feel so comfortable and peaceful in it and I can already tell I'll be sorry to leave this place and return to our smaller and (much) noisier place in Singapore. Maybe I'll do a post about the apartment soon.