Getting started

I've just returned from a local restaurant (Swiss village equivalent of the proverbial "local") with my daughter, who is nine years old. One of the things that I love about this place is the tolerance for young children. We all know that young children grow up to become teenagers, along with all the attendant diseases this condition brings, but here the people all still see the young ones as an extended member of their own tribe of grandsiblings. Possibly this is due to the fact that I live in a rather rural little village where 99% of the locals sitting in the pub are over 60, but nevertheless, it is quite cute. For instance, my nine year old was drawing on a small chalkboard (used by the locals in the highly popular card game known as 'Jass', pronounced 'Yuss'). She began with a stick figure, and slowly it developed a head. The local old men, always intrigued by the little children's antics, began to peer over at the drawing, offering comments and advice. Translated from the local dialect the comments lose some of their potency, but nonetheless it went something like this: "Hey, Kirsty, that Paul you're drawing?" Paul is a rotund little dwarf of a man who drives a Harley and has a massive handlebar moustache. With a look of trepidation at Paul, Kirsty took the plunge and confirmed this gentleman's observation. "Well, put the stupid moustache on and lose the hair on his head," the bloke said, to a round of laughter. Paul, gentleman that he is, didn't bat an eyelid. "The hair might have slipped a bit, but it's still more than all these blokes have combined!" Here I must add that Paul is, from the eyebrows down, gifted with a profusion of long, wiry hair in varying hues of grey. The drawing progressed, until Kirsty had a perfect rendition of the proverbial troll under the bridge. It was shown proudly to all the old men at the table, to much approval and laughter, including from Paul, who as usual took all the ribbing perfectly in his stride with great applomb.

I think the point of this little story is that it is so nice to be surrounded by good hearted, old fashioned people with time for everyone. No rudeness, no impatience, just the comfort of down-home people. There is a lot to be said for these fine locals of this little village.

An introduction

Hello World.





It's been a long time in exile here in the land of cheese, chocolate and bank secrecy. I've often considered the idea of a running commentary on life in Switzerland, as seen through the eyes of an English-speaking citizen of this fine, eccentric little land. I've never had the time for it though. Too busy 'integrating'. However, just recently I had cause to return to the land of my birth, a place I haven't laid eyes on for almost ten years. The abrupt return to normalcy shattered my self-induced, iron-clad Swissness in the blink of an eye, and restored my resolve. I don't know how long I will be able to keep this up, as being back in the land of perfectionism brings with it a certain reinforcement of well-learned lessons in reticence. Well, we'll see.





I have, over the years, experienced uncountable situations that have been either eye-wateringly hilarious, breathtakingly ridiculous, or plain downright 'foreign'. I would like to share some of these with you all, for I'm sure there will be those of you who either live here yourselves or are living somewhere else in this small world of ours where the situation could be similar.





I hope you can laugh at the things that happen to me, or share an indignant snort of outrage, or a chortle of disbelief. The last thing I would like this blog to become is a Swiss-bashing forum. Enough of this goes on on various other blogs and forums here in our land of harmonious integration. Of course, the odd whinge may become a bit long-winded, but I trust that you, my readers, will alert me to this. I mention this because, when all's said and done, if one takes the time to get to know and understand them, the Swiss could be said to be a lovely race. Rather like a perfect little colony of Hobbits. No, really... I mean that in a nice way. Really.....



The name of the blog comes from the fact that many of the incidents that I will relate have already occurred back in the days when I first arrived and was struggling to come to terms with life over here (hence no time for writing blogs). That would be the "Yesterday" part. The "Today" part speaks for itself. The "Tomorrow" bit, well... maybe there'll be some philosophising about the future. My future, to be precise.



Well, I hope this project will reach some receptive ears around the world. Here's to lots of fun and laughs for all of us!



SASwiss