Weds: We (Carol, Kooky and me) returned to Lausanne from Paris. I had arrived in Paris the previous Friday and stayed for a week. Had a cracking time especially on the Sunday when we visited Bercy village and had just the best lunch! Had a massage at Lancome - despite my initial reservations it was really good and my back felt wonderful!    more »

Jack and Bekka, his girlfriend of some 8 months, visited for 4 days (They had to arrive on a Monday and return on a Thursday so that Jack didn't miss one day of playing cricket!). Put them up in a lovely little hotel over looking the lake, which was a real win, win for everyone. I avoided having to stay up until the early wee hours as well as trying to get them moving in the morning! All in all a great time was had by all; we went to Gruyere for the day by the spectacular panoramic Golden train; across the lake by boat to a small French village for dinner; swimming at my favourite spa (which surprisingly was a real hit!); Montreux to Lausanne by boat followed by dinner at the local Curry restaurant in Lausanne which was excellent.   more »

Today the sofa and armchairs have arrived along with the dinning table but not the dinning chairs; they have to come from Italy and apparently if you have won the World Cup you never have to do anything again, ever!!! Jack and Bekka came to the apartment having packed for the off and we are now off to the Olympic Museum (a request by Jack).   more »

Pretty hot this morning in Lausanne, so I bought the Sunday Times at the station and headed off for the mountains - Martigny, which is a 40 minute train journey. It's a nice spot for lunch, located in a valley surrounded by seriously high mountains all around and the starting point for the Mont Blanc Express and the St Bernard Express trains, of course they are anything but express, being a 90 minute trip but to be fair they are climbing upwards all the way; that will be for another day! Arrived back to Lausanne and went to the lake side area of Ouchy, which is just a 10 minute walk from home and shock, horror, they had a Line Dancing music festival in full flow!!! Always reminds me of the film Mars Attack, where the only thing the Aliens were afraid of was Country and Western music and who can blame them - aren't we all!    more »

Saturday pitched up for dinner with the McGregors and met Rod's Dad, Peter and his wife Marion -- who are MacGregors. The Gregors are confused KIWI's - we have exchanged emails on the subject - the poor man's ancestry hails from Scotland and back in NZ he drinks in an Irish Club! Had a great evening - nice people!   more »

Tuesday - 4th July! On arrival immediately met up with Jack and went of to the Oval for a 20/20 game - Sussex murdered Surrey! Weds evening went to Godstone to watch Jack play in a 20.20 semi-final - Godstone were murdered! Thurs, Carol and I visited the Tate for just the best Kadinsky exhibition followed by a great lunch at Sweetings fish restaurant. Had sufficient wine to face my new Pension advisers - Wolanski! Fri; Met up with Gary for cricket at the Oval, Surrey murdered Middx. We were both intoxicated but still managed to meet up with Carol and Katy at the 3 Monkeys for more booze washed down by a Curry! Sat: Carol went off to Manchester and I joined the Genealogy Society and had a pint in a pub that my Great, great, great Grandfather probably drank in! Sun: Returned to Lausanne   more »

Off for a whistle stop visit to the UK whilst three of the four bedrooms in the Lausanne apartment revert to their original Parquet flooring. This involved the Parquet Terror squad producing a dust cloud that the Israelis would have been proud of followed by a choking chemical floor sealant that a Hezbollah chemical factory would have been hard pressed to match! So to avoid losing a decade off of my life expectancy, I am off to semi polluted London to avoid the "Axis of Evil", which I now know to be Parquet floor operatives - I guess President Bush has the same problem in the White House as poor Condoleezza Rice must be asthmatic like me, given she has to travel all the time and is always mentioning the old "axis of evil", yep those Parquet boys have a lot to answer for in this bad old world!   more »