Hairdressers in Switzerland

My biggest worry before we moved to Switzerland was who was going to do my hair! (And it still is.) I had lots of highlights. Lots. My hairdresser spent about 4 hours every 5 or 6 weeks to keep my hair looking naturally blond.

I started going to Dalene when I was 8 years old. That's 21 years at the same hairdresser! And I never had to sit there worrying what my hair would look like when I walk out of her salon. She's good. If you're ever in Table View/ Cape Town area and need a hairdresser, ask me for her number. But try to book ahead, I'm not the only one who thinks she's the best. Here's a picture of us in her salon. She's doing my hair for my wedding here. *sigh* I miss those wedding days... And the blond hair...

There are so many hairdressers here in Switzerland. Today I counted them walking back home from the grocery store and I counted 9! Nine! And the grocery store is not far. Only about a 5 minute walk. There's a coiffure on every corner and more in between. Here's the newest addition, Tessie's Coiffure, which is just around the corner from where we live, the first one I pass on my way to the shops.

But even though there are so many to choose from I still have not been to a hairdresser since we moved to Switzerland. It's been 4 months now... Oops.

But don't worry, my hairdresser back home did some magic before I left and my hair still looks good enough. I said good bye to half of my highlights before leaving South Africa and Dalene replaced them with darker streaks, actually the exact same shade of my natural colour. So even after 4 months you can hardly see the re-growth, it blends in really well.

Dalene said I must not worry. Swiss hairdressers are very good. They are known to go through a lot of training. But neither of us knew then that most of these many hairdressers aren't Swiss. Tessie on the corner here is Asian. And at the place André went to they're all Turkish. Not that I mind where they're from, but does it then mean they're as good as the Swiss? And as good as Dalene?

If I had the kind of money where I could just fly anywhere, I would fly to Cape Town to go see Dalene. So she can do my hair for me. I really really don't want to go to anyone else. But I will have to. Eventually. Soon. Very soon. My hair is getting quite long now and one of these beautiful summer mornings I know I'm going to wake up and it's going to be too long. It's going to bother me. And then I'm going to cut half of it off. And keep my eyes closed while they do my highlights and pray that it turns out well.

I will let you know after I've been. I'm thinking maybe next week. (But I said that a few weeks back too...)

André's Birthday

Yesterday was André's birthday and we went for dinner at Zeughauskeller, a restaurant in Zurich. It's not far from the Hauptbahnhof, a nice stroll down Bahnhofstrasse.

The building used to be an armoury (where weapons were kept) and was rebuilt in 1487 after a fire destroyed it. Many old weapons are still on display in the restaurant and according to an inventory of arms dated 1644, even William Tell's bow was on display here.

The food was really good. They have a very big menu with one whole page filled with different sausages. I had the smoked sausage from the Engadine valley and it came with potato salad, my favourite salad! André had the spicy beefsteak tatar and he said it was really good too. Then of course we had dessert too since we were celebrating his birthday! André had the "Walnut Parfait made with sugar-roasted walnuts and frozen nougat-crème. Topped with real walnut liqueur (a rarity!) and garnished with whipped cream. Highly recommended!" And I had Tiramisu with vanilla ice cream.

I was surprised how full the restaurant was on a Wednesday evening. It's quite a big restaurant with tables outside too. Outside was already full when we arrived so we sat inside. Most of the tables are big so you might share a table with other people. They have these trolleys which they use to serve from and clear the tables which I thought was very clever.

The service was really good and your food comes out very quickly after you've ordered. Usually we don't ask for English menus in a restaurant, we manage to understand the German. But last night I got a bit frustrated because the menu is so big. In the end André got me an English menu which helped! Our waiter spoke a good English and we heard a lot of English spoken in the restaurant by the other people there. The owner is around all evening, dressed smartly but with an apron over, checking on everything and helping where needed which I thought was nice too.

It was such a perfect evening. Even when we left it was still warm outside. We walked back to the station with a quick stop at the apple store (André can never resist!) and with over full tummies!

Swiss National Day at Murg, Walensee

André and I drove to Murg this weekend. It's a small village on the Walensee in canton St. Gallen. At first we missed the turn off because it's such a small place! We stayed at the Loft Hotel which used to be a spinning mill, but was converted into apartments and the hotel a few years back. It's very modern. There are even two biker rooms where you can drive your motorbike into your room! We stayed on the first floor where we had a beautiful view over the lake. The lake is stunning with the mountains right against it on the opposite bank. It's amazing waking up in the morning and seeing this view when you open your eyes.

I've made a short video of our pictures from the weekend. No descriptions with the pictures in the video so I'll tell you a bit more here first. The pictures start with our drive to Murg. We set the navigator to avoid the motorways so we had a really scenic drive through all the small towns and right along the Zurich lake. I still can't get enough of all the GREEN here!!

Then there's our room at the Loft Hotel and the view from our room. We had a little reading corner (or TV watching corner) and I loved that couch/ bed!

Then there's lots of pictures down by the lake. There's a camping site which looked great. We used to enjoy camping back in South Africa so maybe next summer we'll try the camping here. So with all the campers there was great atmosphere on the beach. A pile of wood was there since early on Saturday which was lit when it got dark.

For lunch we went to the hotel's restaurant just down the road, also on the lake. This restaurant was booked for a wedding that evening so I'm glad we got to try it for lunch. Before dinner we tried the hotel's other restaurant which is a more casual place, selling pizza and salads. We had some cocktails there before going to the beach where the fireworks were going to be. There were stalls selling food and drinks. I got a pizza and burnt my mouth terribly because I couldn't wait!

We sat on the beach watching the fireworks display. Beautiful! And we had perfect weather too. André had a swim in the lake earlier in the afternoon. Apparently it is one of the lakes with the cleanest water in Switzerland and André reported that he felt really clean after his swim!

Ok, watch the video now and enjoy the fireworks!

Swiss National Day at Murg, Walensee from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Oh, I just noticed for some reason the video is not playing here on the blog. Don't know why. You can go see it here on vimeo.

On Sunday, before heading home we drove up to Flumserberg. We're looking for places to go skiing this winter and I've read about this place. Any other skiing recommendations Swiss readers? I've never tried skiing and am even scared of going in a ski lift so it must be a beginner friendly place!!

Flumserberg

Today

I haven't done any school work today. I usually do a bit of planning, preparing, making resources, reading or researching for my English classes every day, but not today. Yesterday I was reading the UK curriculum for KS 2 & 3 after reading and making notes from the South African RNCS document for grade 4-6. I've got two older kids starting English first language with me soon. I'm looking forward to it, something different to cutting and colouring with the littlies!

I don't feel too bad for not working today. I did clean the house. Then I went to Ikea, firstly to get away from the chocolate cake in our fridge (I don't trust myself alone with a chocolate) and secondly because I know the way to Ikea and can drive there myself. I know where to park too. And I can do it without the GPS. AND I didn't knock my left hand against the door to change gears today! Ha! I'm getting good. I even had the radio on loud and the window down!

But sometime I had to come back home and the chocolate cake attacked me after lunch and forced me to eat a piece. Oh I went for a walk this morning too along the river so I feel slightly better about the cake. Or was the walking for yesterday's cake?

What else... did the washing, should do the ironing next, painted my nails for the weekend :-) We're going away for the night tomorrow. Not telling you where, you'll have to wait till after the weekend!

Oh we got new neighbours this week. Looks like a young couple. We should invite them over. Maybe we can be friends. First need to invite the landlord and his family over though. They hinted when we moved in, but we didn't have any wine glasses then! They are really nice people.

We're STILL waiting for our permits. It's been 3 1/2 months now.

Ok, I'm going to see what's on TV. Enjoy your weekend!

xx

Uetliberg hike

Here are some more photos taken by André from our hike on Sunday from Uetliberg to Falsenegg. He went up a tower, a really high one, and that is why I didn't go with him. It was too high! But he got some stunning pictures from up there of Zurich city and the lake.

My feet hurt!

We just got back from a hike at Uetliberg. It was great. Amazing views over Zurich and the Alps, the weather was perfect and the hike was just enough to say we did some walking without it being too hard! We did the 1 1/2 hr Planet walk from Uetliberg to Falsenegg. Then took the funicular down to Adliswil and the train back to HB. Walked around a bit in Zurich, had some great apfelstrudel... mmmm! There were so many people out. The grass was covered with bodies!! What a beautiful summers day.

In other weekend news: I tried to bake my first milk tart on Saturday. You can read about that here. Didn't turn out exactly as I wanted it to, but it's still good enough to eat!

Here are some pictures I took today on our hike. Will see what André has on his camera and if there's anything better I will post that later.

Have a great week! :-)

xx

Zurich Lake

The Alps

Bikini bodies in the sun at Zurich lake!

And cooling off in the lake.

Summer camp

Here are just some pictures of the summer camp I did with another teacher this week. It was a bilingual camp and the theme was The Jungle Book. We had lots of fun with the kids :-) Another one in two weeks time!

The board game the kids made with pictures of the Jungle Book animals and questions about the animals.

Origami wolves and paper mache tigers:

Spiral snakes: