Day 36 & 37

Tuesday was relatively uneventful. Weather wasn't good enough to sunbathe and due to a late bedtime, I was too exhausted to travel far for nothing in particular. I spent the day making my new dress . It might sound like wasted time when I'm in such an awesome place, but there's only so much I can see in a short space of time when I have to ensure I'm home in time for Zoe's arrival. When she came home from school, we had a little swim, but the water has gotten colder!

Lutry

I took a brief trip to Lausanne for some munchies! It was nice to get out of the house and have a little walk from Lutry. The most exciting thing to happen to me all day was that the hot guy from Zoe's judo class rode past me on his bike and gave me the most smouldering smile.

Vines & the lake. Taken in Lutry

Wednesday.
Whilst Zoe was in school, I chilled and sunbathed a tad. We had a swim when she was home for lunch, then Eta came. She gave me a hug when she left as it's the last time I'll see her. My flight is next Wednesday morning. I've been thinking a lot about the fact that I'll be home in a weeks time. I'm excited about the prospect too! I'll be making the most out of the next few days for sure! I took Zoe to judo and sat in the park whilst she was there. Cully is famous for it's Jazz festival in April and I inadvertently stumbled upon their 'classique' festival which was a nice surprise. I sat and read my book and listened to the band play Stong - "Englishman in New York" in French!

Unfortunately I struggled to enjoy it to it's full extent. On the way there, I'd gone off a kerb on the scooter and fallen face first onto the road. Grazed my hand pretty badly, so it's super painful now. Sounds like I'm being a pussy, but I don't care. It hurts like fuck!

Rizla - Makeshift plaster

There was a bbq for the kids and parents after judo, unfortunately the hot judo guys weren't in attendance. I kind of sat there with Zoe for company. All of the kids were running around, generally being children. I asked Zoe "So are these all of your friends?"
"No..."
"So which ones are your friends?"
"None of them."
It's not from not wanting friends, but it seems she's really anti-social. I don't know whether she's too shy to speak to other children. She's 7 and she never goes out to play with her friends. It's so sad!
Zoe went off to play not long after though and she made a friend! I didn't want to disturb or tell her we had to go, even though it was past her 8pm bed time. I sat where all the parents were, in silence, sipping wine that I'd helped myself to. I've become accustomed to not feeling awkward in these situations now. After about 10 minutes, the judo instructor asked me "Ca va?" when he noticed my silence and I said "Je ne sais pas parlez Francais..." To which he replied "I no speak English too!" And that was the end of that! Oh how I wish I was bilingual!
I got a call off Valerie (who's away on a business trip) saying that David was worried as it was after Zoe's bed time, so I begrudgingly dragged her away from her newfound friend.
When we got home, I heard David swear for the first time when he was shouting at Zoe to get to bed.
I can't wait to go home.

Day 35

The weather was awful this morning, so my whole day was spent at home, finishing the design for my dress and watching Game of Thrones. I took a quick trip to Lausanne to get supplies too. When Zoe came home from school, we watched Mary Poppins - she's never seen it before, which I couldn't believe! It's weird watching childhood films when you're old enough to get them...
Halfway through the film, I made dinner of fish fingers and homemade chips. She tried to pull a sicky, forcing tears and saying her tummy hurt.
"Come on, I know you like fish fingers and chips," I said to her.
"Chips...? Where?"
She didn't know that chips were made from potatoes...?!
It was a struggle to get her to eat. She kept saying she was feeling sick and I could tell her tears were of the crocodile kind... I told her that she'd have to go to bed if she was feeling that ill.She said she wanted to carry on watching the film.
"Well if you're too ill to eat your dinner, you're too ill to watch a film, it's either bed now, or dinner and the film."
She ate her dinner.
After my shift, I went to the beach briefly to escape the house and have a cigarette. I came to the realisation that I'm ready to go home now.This place is beautiful  but lonely. I have Rosa and Iñaki and all of the other people that I've met, but that's on the weekends. I'm not used to spending so much time alone. It's time for me to leave now. The days are getting too repetitive and I miss my friends and family. I'm not so much home sick as people sick!

Double rainbow that I saw whilst at the beach!

Day 33 & 34 - Week-end ennuyeux (Boring weekend)

On Saturday, I awoke with no plans in mind, but completely forgetting that Rosa had no phone. It was gloriously sunny, so I took a trip to Lausanne for some new shoes - all of mine have fallen apart since being here due to the amount of walking I've done.
By the time I'd got back, Rosa had been in touch. I took a swim to cool down and headed to her and Iñaki's apartment with ice-cream. Rosa was too tired to do much. We watched Django Unchained (well... Rosa fell asleep...) which is such a good film. A quiet night was definitely on the cards though!

Sunday, I woke up late and spent the whole day chilling. I started designing a dress and watched a lot of TV. The weather was bad so I spent the day cooped up in my room, although I joined the family for dinner - Valerie's speciality of beef bourguignon, yum!

Day 32 - Fête de la Musique (Festival of Music)

After dropping Zoe off this morning, I headed straight back to bed. I needed to get napping ready for tonight. Zoe has a longer lunch on Fridays, so we had a little swim. When she went back, I sat in the sun. Such a change of weather since yesterday. When I went to pick up Zoe, I was introduced to a Swiss (?) tradition of wedding cars throwing sweets at pedestrians, when one hit me! We swam again, then whilst I was getting ready to go out, Zoe kept me company. Her dad had had a go at her about some mess she'd made, so when she started crying, I took pity on her. Luckily she likes my taste in music... I had to refuse her requests for Mika...I met Rosa, Iñaki and Evelyne at the apartment and we headed to Lausanne centre for the Fête de la Musique. I didn't really know anything about it until afterwards, but it's huge. An article I read said that 250,000 people turned up to watch 7000 performers at 500 different concerts. I had NO idea of all of this unfortunately. Rosa took us to the drum and bass van  - the music was great and we stayed until the sun went down... and longer. I wish we'd explored a bit more now, knowing that there were so many different stages.

Strangers at the back, Rosa on the left, stranger in the middle,
Evelyene on the right!

Rosa had her bag stolen which had everything in it: purse, iPhone etc. That put a bit of a downer on things, but we were pretty drunk so at the time it wasn't such a big issue. 
I don't remember the end of the night due to exhaustion and alcohol consumption. We said goodbye to Rosa who we left with some guy, then Evelyne and I got the train... Although we both fell asleep so I had to walk from Cully again. I swear it doesn't matter how much I nap, I always fall asleep on the way home on Friday nights!

Rose & me

Shock of the night: using a public toilet in Riponne, there was a bin for syringes. Foil all over the floor, was pretty grim...

Day 31- Jour de tempête (Stormy day)

Zoe was chirpy this morning. She even said "I'm different to how I was yesterday," referring to how grumpy she had been yesterday morning! The rain was relentless - or so it seemed- but as we ate breakfast, we could see the clouds pass over France and across the lake. It was beautiful to see the sun over the mountains, while we watched the rain hit the windows and caught flashes of lightning. 
By the time we got to the bus stop, it was blazing again. I took a brief trip to Vevey for a wander.
After lunch, my afternoon was spent decorating some denim shorts with patches of material - I've been meaning to start making/customising clothes for a while, so I finally got down to it!
When Zoe came home from school, we went for a swim. Even though it was sunny, the clouds rolled in again and it started to rain not long after we'd evacuated the pool! And it was a huge storm too. It was awesome to watch. Forks of lightning hitting the lake and the thunder made the house tremble.

When the storm had passed & the sun started setting, it left the sky with this pink haze!

We watched Pocahontas and when Zoe went to bed, I carried on customising clothes and started watching Game of Thrones (I'm hooked already!)

Day 30 - Grincheux Zoe... (Grumpy Zoe...)

Zoe was being a stroppy little cow this morning. She was tired, but so was I... and getting on my bad side when I'm sleepy isn't cool... First of all she shouted at me for opening the blinds in her bedroom. Then when she was getting dressed, she started putting on jeans. "It's a bit too hot for jeans" I told her - it was boiling!
"But mummy says it's going to rain."
"Yes, but look out of the window, maybe wear something else."
"No."
She was silent throughout breakfast, then when she went to the shoe cupboard, she put on her wellies.
"They're definitely not needed!" I said.
She turned around without a word and stormed off to her mum's room. I could overhear Valerie apologising for not telling Zoe that tomorrow will be rainy, not today. She came upstairs 2 minutes later with a tear-streaked face and all of her clothes and wellies in her arms "I'm going to change."
She's just like me when I'm tired; teary and grumpy.
When I dropped her off at the bus stop, I told her to be in a  better mood by lunch!
I had a nap and a swim whilst she was in school and luckily her mood HAD changed! Eta the maths tutor was ill, so after lunch we spent 2 hours in the pool, followed by finishing off her science workbook. She was so proud, it was super cute! The other day, she had been making wild guesses at all the answers when we were doing the exercises, but this time she really understood them, it made me feel pretty proud too!
After this, we took some snacks to the park (I invented sandwich cake! Nutella and icing sugar in between 2 slices of bread - culinary genius.) Zoe played in the playground until she went to judo, whilst I read my book.

At the park in Cully

She was so tired afterwards (I'm not surprised, the last 5 minutes I caught of judo, she was dropping some guy on the floor repeatedly!) We had dinner and after Zoe went to bed, I told her parents all about Juliette's behaviour. Hopefully things will get sorted. According to Valerie, Zoe has always been quite exclusive when it comes to friends, so doesn't have a big group to turn to. Sounds much like  her father, whom I've never seen with, or heard him talk about friends.
I hoovered up all the spiders in my room before bed tonight, but there were still 4 big 'uns by the time I clambered into bed, ugh!

Day 29 & 30

Yesterday was quite uneventful, so doesn't warrant it's own post! Whilst Zoe was in school, I spent the day in/next to the pool, topping up my tan. It's far too hot to do much else. The most exciting part of my day was lunch: epic pancakes. For all of those people that care about my pancake diet: Savoury; prosciutto, Gruyere cheese, tomato and (a surprise double yoke!!) egg. And sweet; apricot, grape & mango mixed with raspberry and strawberry jam.
When Zoe came home from school, we swam some more and that was it really! My bedroom is SO hot, so I had trouble sleeping.
Today went pretty much the same. I did the ironing in the morning whilst watching Freaks & Geeks. After lunch, I wanted to go to Lausanne just to get out of the house. I waited half an hour for the train, but as soon as I got on it, I came face to face with two train conductors, so swiftly turned around and got off. Not really up to paying a 100FR charge for the sake of 'getting out of the house.' It was way too hot anyway, so I went home and stayed in the pool until Zoe came home from school and joined me. The water was like bath water, it was so warm!

Things with Juliette in school had been bothering Zoe again today. After lunch, she'd told me that Juliette had pulled out Zoe's plaits, I can imagine her being quite upset by this as she loves it when I put plaits in her hair. A simple thing, but it's not nice! Then after school, she said that Juliette had hurt her by twisting her arm. Now I don't know if Zoe is doing anything to provoke Juliette, but I don't care! I told her that she needs to play with someone else and all she said, in her sad little voice was "But then I won't have anyone to play with. I don't have any other friends." The poor thing, I don't know what to do except tell her mum to have a word with Juliette's mum and hope that things don't get any worse. Although it might sound petty, it's still bullying. And the fact that it's getting physical (hair pulling and chinese burns) is not acceptable.
After I had 'clocked off', I took the 7 minute train journey to Lausanne, purely because I was craving chocolate and at 8pm, I think it was the closest place I could get some. When I got back, I sat on the 'beach' for a while, had a smoke and sat reading as the sun set.

By the time I'd got back to my room, it had been infested with spiders. 9 huge fuckers. I attempted to sleep in the spare room, but there were just as many in there. That, coupled with the heat saw that I didn't sleep until about 3am...

Day 28 - Festival de la Terre (Festival of the Earth)

Last night, Rosa and I had planned to go to the yoga session at the Festival de la Terre. By the time I'd got to Rosa's and we got to the festival, it was a bit late. We explored the festival properly, during the day it was a hub of activity. There were massage stalls set up, yoga and meditation workshops, clothes stalls, food stalls, activities for the children, such as making musical instruments out of household items, origami, puppet shows. It was really cool! Everything was free too! We spent some time watching people get massages. Weird kinds of massages too. There was one masseuse who just moved around the person and did what looked like some spiritual cleansing, but never actually touched them. And another woman that used some didjeridoo type instrument to blow onto the person on the table. It was odd! Rosa and I booked ourselves in for a relaxation massage on our neck and shoulders and a 'polarity' massage. We got a pizza while we waited, it was so good! All of the food being sold was organic.

Feta & rocket, mmm!

The first massage was really relaxing. I had a lot of knots in my neck and shoulders (I get told this every time I have a massage) and the masseuse sorted them all out! We were joined by Rosa's friend Evelyne(?), we got some ice-cream! Then Iñaki came not long after. Rosa and I went for our polarity massage which was a bit strange. The idea of it is to encompass emotions, spirituality as well as physical pain. She asked me about any physical pain. I've always had problems in my back so I mentioned this. She explained that I was carrying other people's problems on my back and she was trying to physically and spiritually remove them. I'm a bit of a skeptic about this kind of thing, but it was relaxing nonetheless. Me and Rosa couldn't find the others, so we wandered about. We watched a small puppet show which was impressive and some juggling clowns too!

The clowns were for the children,
but we were impressed!

We finally found Iñaki and Evelyne - Iñaki was pissed off because he couldn't find us. I just kind of sat there while they argued. We sat on the grass and watched the live music, had a bit of a smoke, then left about an hour later. I was invited for food with Iñaki and Rosa, but I was just so tired. I had planned to do something productive when I got home, but I was asleep by half 10!

Day 27 - Festival de la Terre (Festival of the Earth)

Continuing on from yesterday, we left the party at the top of the mountain at 6am. We started walking downwards and we could see the city of Geneva and the lake from below... and we were far away! I'd had no idea how high up we were.

This was how high up we were... we needed to get by the lake...

We were so exhausted, we were both falling asleep as we were walking, it was ridiculous. In the end, we found a spot in the sun on a grassy banking on the side of the road and took a nap.

Taking a nap!

We're not sure how long we were asleep, but we woke up around the same time and set off again. We reached the point that we were dropped off at the night before, but we still had a LONG way to go. We stuck our thumbs out to try and get a lift and it didn't take long for a really nice bloke on his way to work to pick us up! It's a damn good job as well. It took 20 minutes to drive, but the road was windy, it would've taken us HOURS to have walked. We got back to Lausanne at half 10, so the journey back had taken us 4 hours!
I got the train to Villette and fell asleep until half 4!
When I was conscious again, I met up with Rosa and some of her friends in Lausanne. We sat by the lake and although a barbecue had been planned, I got there too late. Isabel was there and we caught up. She asked me how I was doing with the family and we mainly spent the time gossiping about the parents. How we much prefer Valerie when David isn't around. Turns out that I'm not the only one who can sense David's hostility towards others. For example, David doesn't allow guests in the house. Not even friends of Valerie's. Yesterday, Valerie had a colleague around for lunch. Afterwards, she came up to my room and asked me if I wanted a cup of tea (she's never done this before) then asked if I would mind not mentioning to David that she's had a friend around. She later tried to justify with "We're always working away, so weekends are special for the family," but we both knew that she wasn't convinced by this herself.
After sitting in the park for a while, Rosa, Christelle(?) and I headed back to Lausanne centre to "Festival de la Terre." We met up with Iñaki and Marta and watched some bands play, they were pretty good. Sim's were a hip-hop/pop-rock band, then there was Hugh Coltman which was acoustic blues. It was a bit too slow for us though.

Sim's

Christelle, Marta and Iñaki went home and Rosa and I went to the train station to pick up. We spent the rest of the evening getting blazed at the festival and drinking beer. We got approached by two guys which was a bit intense (more so because we were stoned) who were trying to chat us up. One was getting a bit too touchy feely with Rosa. It was quite entertaining for me because the guy that was attempting to chat me up couldn't speak English, so we had this weird conversation which was us both using what little we knew of each others language. He also kept calling me "Bat" - No one outside of Britain can pronounce the "th" sound! Eventually they left us alone. We'd started to look for a club, but thought that just sitting down and smoking in the big park that the festival was being held was best. Favourite quote of the night from Rosa: She tried to say she had an apple in her bag "I am an apple." I cried with laughter!

I caught the train home, fell asleep again, GAH! But luckily woke up in time to walk home from Cully.

Day 26 - Saleve party!

I got a text off Rosa in the wee hours of the morning, asking if I wanted to go to a drum & bass party on a mountain, just over the border into France, so my morning was spent trying to work out how to get there... Not that I worked anything out... 

Zoe was really grumpy when she came home for lunch. Valerie was working from home today so at least I didn't have to bear the full brunt of it. She insisted she wasn't tired, but me and her mum made her go and rest. She's going to sleep over at Juliette's tonight, so she needed to get some shut-eye! She's getting quite worried about the bed-wetting situation that could occur. She's planned to wear pull ups, but she's frightened that the other kids might see them, poor thing!
After she went back to school, I was free! I took a trip to Lausanne to get some beer for tonight and some food shopping, then took a nap when I got home. Didn't want a repeat performance of the public transport debacle last week! As I was heading out of the door, I dropped my phone and the screen cracked. I didn't check it until I was on the train, but it's completely unusable, so I had no way of getting hold of Rosa when I got to her flat. I stood outside, not really knowing what to do. In the end, I stopped some people in the street and a guy let me borrow his phone to contact Rosa by Facebook. What a hero!
Rosa and I sat in her flat for a while, trying to figure out how to get to the mountain top. Public transport didn't get up there, so we had to get as close as possible. We just went on a whim. At 9.30pm, we left the house, then we got the train to Geneva. We didn't pay, so when the conductor came up the train, we pretended to be asleep. Fool proof! Once we were there, we asked loads of people how to get as close as possible. The taxi would've cost 100FR so that wasn't an option.

Rosa & Martin (The good luck charm!)

By this point, we were pretty drunk, so we didn't have a clue what was going on! While we were waiting for the tram, we went to use the toilet in a bar across the road from the station. The bouncer caught us just as we were about to walk into the bathroom and threw us out. Nightmare! We got the tram/bus (Can't really remember) and ended up in a place called St. Julians which is just over the border into France. From here, we stuck our thumb out and eventually a guy picked us up. Rosa communicated with him and I had a nap in the back of the car. He managed to get us pretty close... But not as close as we thought. We stopped a car on their way down who said that it was a half an hour walk up the hill... It was double that at least! We were just following the sounds of the music! Eventually, we made our way up a dirt track and found it! By this time it was 3am... It had taken 5 and a half hours... but we were there. There were probably about 25 people left and a couple of tents scattered around, but we danced! There was a small table set up for the DJ's and some decent speakers and lights!

We got chatting to a few people and danced with everyone, the atmosphere was really friendly! We were both absolutely shattered, but the music was great. We just danced until the sun came up, it was awesome. The mountain top was a really nice place to have it. By the time the sun had fully risen, we were both absolutely exhausted and everyone was starting to clear up. We did a runner! It was 6am when we left.... To be continued!...

DJ Rosa, when the sun had come up!

Day 25 - The Abyssinians!!

I woke up excited, I was going to see The Abyssinians today! I went to Vevey in the morning to get some nail varnish to paint my nails Rasta colours!

Rasta nails!

It was really hot again today so I didn't want to exert too much energy. Zoe and I had lunch (I nearly made her sick when I gave her rocket leaves...) and after she'd gone back to school, I spent the afternoon in the pool. Not bad this job....
After school, I made Zoe do some homework that Eta had set her yesterday and we did some work in her science workbook too. It was a fairly productive afternoon! We did some swimming too.
This morning, Valerie had said that she was going for an aperitif after work...I'd already make plans, but she said that I could take Zoe to the train platform in Villette, meet her off the train, then get on it myself. I got a text off Valerie asking if everything was ok to meet there, then when we got 3/4 of the way to the train station, I realised I had another text off Valerie saying that she'd missed her connecting train and could I take Zoe to Lausanne and meet them there. I had no credit on my phone, so I couldn't get in touch with her at all, she kept texting, asking if the plan was ok. She couldn't even ring me. I nearly turned and went home, thinking that I couldn't just take Zoe to Lausanne when Valerie didn't know what was going on! But then I realised I could top up my phone with my debit card... Don't know why I didn't think of it sooner... I finally got hold of Valerie and as I was on the phone, Zoe shouted "THE TRAIN" we very nearly missed the connecting train in Cully because the original train was late. Zoe ran as fast as she could bless her, my purse flew out of my bag at the same time. Luckily, Zoe was stood by the door of the train, holding on to the 'doors open' button. The hero!
We met Valerie in Lausanne and I made my way to the D! Club where the gig was. Steve (a couchsurfer that I met up with a couple of weeks ago) arrived at the same time as me and we went for a drink at Le Petit Central.We went back to the D! Club. When we got in there, I found Iñaki (Rosa's housemate) and some people that they both knew. They all knew each other through Couchsurfing! I never managed to catch their names though! We got inside, got a beer and not long after, The Abyssinians came on. And they were incredible. The vibe was just amazing. Reggae is just such calming, happy music to listen and sway to! There were people smoking sneaky joints all around me. I've never wanted a spliff so much in all of my life. Overpriced beer had to be my substance of choice unfortunately. The music was just brilliant, they played all of my favourite songs, I wasn't disappointed. We managed to squeeze ourselves quite close to the front too!
After the gig, the club stayed open with a DJ. We stayed for another beer and a dance. I even met one of The Abyssinians!

Steve, David Morrison(!!!) & me

I caught the replacement bus home - I had to force myself to stay awake.I didn't want a repeat performance of last Friday!

Day 24

Went to Lausanne to do some window shopping and have a bit of a wander this morning. By the time I got back, it was absolutely boiling! So I sat in the garden until lunchtime, topping up my tan!
After lunch, Eta (the maths tutor) came and I spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Zoe joined me when she was done. The weather was awesome. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind! I managed to burn my arms and the front of my legs though. Too much swimming, not enough sun cream.
I took Zoe to judo and sat by the lake in Cully writing until she was finished. Afterwards, Valerie, Zoe and I sat on the balcony for ages. We had dinner, then followed that with chatting, drinking red wine and eating cheese and bread, it was lovely! We were trying to teach Zoe how to eat cherries without making a huge mess, it was hilarious. I never considered that it was one of those things you have to learn - pitting a cherry with your tongue... I really like Valerie, I prefer it when David's not here. Although I feel bad for thinking that because he's not a horrid person. I just feel more comfortable when he's not around... 

Valerie went for a walk and I watched the sunset on the jetty. Not a massively exciting day, but beautiful nonetheless.

Day 23 - A mi-chemin... (Halfway...)

I'm halfway through my Swiss experience. It feels like I've been here forever as in everything is habitual, but it also feels like no time at all. I have so much more to explore!
I couldn't sleep last night so I spent the morning horizontal on the sofa. By the afternoon, the sun was shining, so I moved to the garden. 
When Zoe came back for lunch, she was acting strange. I'd asked her how her morning had been and she replied with "I don't know..." In response I said "Well you must know, you've only just come back from school"
"Well I don't know."
I couldn't hear her because of the traffic, so I told her this and said we'd talk in the house.
"That's not very nice, saying I can't talk and I have to wait until I get to the house."
"That's not what I said, it's just I'm finding it difficult to hear you."
She was just being really stroppy. When we got to the house, she sat on the floor with her toys and didn't say much. I begged her to tell me what was wrong and asked her to come to the kitchen while I was cooking just to chat to me as I couldn't hear her.
"It sounds like you're speaking really quietly."
Then she went a bit mad. "I'm not talking quietly, there's nothing wrong with my voice and everyone says there is." This shocked me a bit, as I hadn't said anything which would have provoked such a reaction. She started to run upstairs, but I called her. She stopped halfway up and started crying. There was obviously something up.
"The thing is Juliette [her 'best friend'] keeps saying that I think I'm the most beautiful, but I don't." - 7 year old problems!
So it turns out this Juliette girl hasn't been very nice to Zoe, snatching things from her, forcing Zoe to play things that she doesn't want to play and general playground meanness. I reassured her that we'd get something done about it and Zoe is more than happy for her mum to talk to Juliette's mum, so hopefully the nastiness will stop.
Zoe went back to school, glad that things will be sorted out soon enough. While she was in school, I set about making a pie. And my god was it good!

Delicious pie!!

We did some swimming, it's so warm here now! About time after all of the drizzly weather. So my day has consisted of sunbathing, making/eating pie and chilling really. All in a days work.

Day 22

Mondays are kind of my free day as I don't have to pick up Zoe for lunch. I spent the morning doing the ironing and watching Lie to Me. I've finally finished the series and now feel a bit empty inside!

:(

Afterwards, I went to Lausanne for a look around for some things to make clothes with. I wanted to take a look at places I'd never been to before, but I took the Metro to the end of the line (Croisettes) and it didn't look very appealing. If the weather hadn't have been so drizzly, I would have been more inclined to explore, but I ended up getting the Metro back to Riponne and leaving as soon as I'd found what I wanted. Boring I know.
Zoe's got an awful cough at the moment and is feeling a bit run down, so when she came home from school, we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and I wrote some postcards.
David has gone away on another business trip, I feel quite relieved when he's not here. Not that I dislike him as such, but when he's working from home, I feel like he's breathing down my neck a bit.
At dinner, Zoe confided in me about something that's worrying her. Her friend Juliette is having a sleepover on Friday and Zoe is really looking forward to it, but of course she keeps having little "accidents" in her sleep. She's so worried,  so we were trying to think of different ways she could go about tackling the issue.
Zoe: "I know, I'll wake up in the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep and put my 'pull ups' [like nappies for older children] on"
Me: "Well if you do that, why don't you wake up and go to the toilet?"
"Oh yeh... " she said, and pulled a sad face. The poor thing!

Drizzly day

Not a lot has happened since. The weather is really putting me off exploring further afield, but hopefully it'll clear up soon and I can do something a bit more adventurous!

Day 21

I woke up with the intention of doing very little. My throat was a little better, but the weather was rubbish. I'd got a message off a Couchsurfer earlier in the week asking if I'd wanted to meet up today, so I thought I may as well do something with my day. Plus he looked cute from his photos, ha!
Now I never pay for the trains here, it's too easy not to. But on my way to Lausanne, I saw some conductors doing their rounds. I ended up jumping off at the next stop and luckily I didn't get caught. It's 100FR fine if you do though. I'll have to be more careful!
I met up with Sylvain in Ouchy. He's French and has come to Lausanne at the end of his travels to work and maybe settle down for a year or two. There was small Thai festival taking place on the lakeside which I found out later it was the Khon Thai festival. There were loads of Thai themed stalls, selling jewellery, general bits and bobs, Thai massage and food, which looked and smelt absolutely incredible. It took so much restraint not to spend all of my money. We got a Singha beer, sat down and talked for a bit. It started tipping it down with rain so we (and what felt like the rest of Lausanne) all crammed into a tent for a while and watched a band (who were average at best!)We took a walk along the lake, but the weather was lame. We ended up getting a bus to St. Francois and sat in Starbucks chatting for ages about life plans, travelling, etc. We're into similar music and the reason he got in contact in the first place was regarding a gig I'm looking to go to on Thursday (The Abyssinians) so hopefully we'll meet up again!
I was still pretty run down and ill , so I was home by 8pm. Early mornings again tomorrow!

Day 20 - Je m'apitoie (Feeling sorry for myself)

So I left off getting on the train in the early hours of Sunday morning. Next thing I know, I wake up and I haven't got a clue where I am. As I'm pretty drunk, I decide the best thing to do is get off at the next stop. So I walk off the platform and, for some reason, assume that I hadn't even been past Villette. So I started to walk in the direction I think is right, along the lake: I can't get lost that way right...?
Wrong.
I must've gone way past it, but I was drunk. I kept walking and started sobering up a bit. But I still had no idea where I was, or whether I was even going in the right direction. Eventually I saw a bus that was heading to 'Vevey' - I recognised the name of the town and had been there in the week so thought I might be able to find somewhere familiar... I fell asleep on the bus... I think I must've been on the bus a while, because I was awoken by the bus driver shouting at me in French and pointing vigorously. I just got off the bus which was luckily in Vevey. Right by the bus stop was a train station, so I got on the little train that had stopped there. What I didn't realise was the train wasn't a train at all, but a shuttle bus/cable car thing up to Mont Pèlerin. I didn't have a fucking clue where I was going!

I should've guessed that this 'train' wouldn't get me anywhere near
where I wanted to go...but I was drunk...

When I got to the top, I got off, thinking maybe I could get a train back to Lausanne from there... Or maybe I could just walk to Vevey... That was until I saw a sign pointing down the hill saying "Vevey-1hr" - no thanks. By this point it was about 9.30am....
I got back on the shuttle bus to go down the hill...And fell asleep again. I ended up going up and down another 2 or 3 times until an old lady woke me up. I got off again in Vevey and finally had the sense to look for the actual train station... which was about 100 metres in front of me...
I finally got to Lausanne and onto Villette and got home at 11.30... So it took me 5 and a half hours to get home, when it could've only taken me an hour and a half to walk in the first place. Maybe going out on Friday nights without a nap isn't such a good idea...
I fell asleep when I got home and woke up at about 3pm. The clouds had settled by then and I had a throat that felt like someone was scraping at it with razor blades, so I settled on the sofa watching TV all night and feeling sorry for myself.

Day 19 - Soleil, BBQ & bières (Sun, BBQ & beers!)

School wasn't compulsory this morning because the school play is going on, so Zoe slept in a little (I didn't get the chance to though!) We fed the ducks some prawn crackers off the jetty and wrote a story about some of the ducks we'd seen (It was 3 drakes all trying to mate with one duck...) Because she'd missed school, I wanted to make sure Zoe did something productive, so we did some pages in her science workbook, she got really into it too which was great! She said "I wish I could finish the books." So I'm going to try and see how far we can get with them. This also impressed David, so a step in the direction of  being the best au-pair ever!
We attempted a picnic in the garden, but Zoe started complaining of sore eyes. She blamed the sun, but I have suspicions that she has hayfever (sneezing a lot, itchy eyes), which has fallen on deaf ears when I tried to tell David... I said to Zoe we should go inside and all she said was "But I don't want to ruin a lovely picnic in the garden" - bless her. I managed to persuade her that cake inside is more fun when you don't have itchy eyes!

Attempted picnic in the garden!

When Zoe went to school in the afternoon, I took the train to Lausanne to try and get the key cut again. Success this time! I did some food shopping and rushed back in time to get Zoe from the bus stop. (Managed to fall onto a woman on the train in the process, I was so embarrassed.)
I read Zoe a story and let her have a little rest before her show tonight, then sat in the garden. For dinner, she had chicken, beans and chips - on David's recommendation as he wants me to use up food in the cupboard before they move house. I wasn't happy with Zoe's exclaims of "This is DELICIOUS!" - I told her not to get used to unhealthy food!
I got a text off Rosa at about half 6, asking me to go along to a BBQ tonight, so I met up with her in Lausanne later in the evening. I met her housemate Iñaki and his friend Marta. We got the bus and went to find Iñaki's friends who were by the lake.  It was so busy and the atmosphere was really nice, there's a festival going on near where we were this weekend (but it's pretty expensive and we'd gotten there late.) I met all of the people at the bbq (for the life of me, I can't remember everyone's names) There was a Belgian girl, a French guy, 3 Italian brothers, a Catalonian guy and then Iñaki and Rosa who are Spanish and Marta who is also Catalonian... So there was a whole bunch of languages being spoken, it was really cool. I was a bit drunk and a bit high, so I just stood there in awe of everyone switching languages. And there was me again, the ignorant Welsh girl!

Iñaki, Marta & Rosa, drinking in the street!

We had some food and beers, then got the metro to Lausanne. We sat in the street for ages, drinking our own beers, it's so expensive to drink out here. Eventually, we went into the Bleu Lezard, where Rosa and I had gone last week. We did some dancing there, then moved onto the next place (I think it's called Jaggers) I remember shots and some dancing!
I was really tired though, having been up since 7am. At 6am I got the train home... 

Me, Rosa, Marta Iñaki & some randomer that started dancing with us...

Day 18

Zoe was well enough to go to school this morning. After I'd dropped her off at the bus stop, I went to the "beach" while I waited for my train to take me to Lausanne. I had to get the key that I'd lost recut. I'd looked up 2 different places that I could get it done and the directions on Google had seemed simple. I still managed to get lost and go in every other direction to the one that I was supposed to. Eventually, I finally found the first shop where he told me, in French, to come back at 4. I think he said the guy who cut keys had gone for a swim(?) I have no idea... I found the other place too, but he didn't have the right type of machine for the type of key. After the wasted trip, I went and sat in the garden until lunchtime.
After Zoe had gone back to school, it got too hot for me to sit outside. As it was the first night of her school play, I decided to make her a chocolate & orange cake - I'd bought a little plastic rabbit today for it. She's a rabbit in the play and her favourite animals are rabbits!

The promise of a surprise was enough to ensure Zoe ate all of her dinner. She LOVED the cake, she was so grateful! She's so cute when she enjoys something! Plus David liked the cake too, so hoping to get on his good side, even though we still don't really converse unless necessary...
I watched the sunset on the jetty with a cup of tea, lovely!

*Racial slur from Zoe this morning. When we crossed at the zebra crossing this morning, we waved to thank the drivers.
Zoe: "I think someone who was black, and smoked and wore a hat wouldn't say thank you."
Have to find out what those skewed views are and call her up on it...

Day 17 - Congé de maladie (Sick day)

Zoe was still ill when she woke up, although according to her dad, she's always "ill" when her mum is away. After speaking with her dad, we'd agreed to send Zoe back to bed. Today is only a half day at school and (as David keeps grumbling about) all the school work is being replaced by practicing for the school play. I told Zoe to call me if I was needed and sat in the garden. She woke up an hour later for something to eat, then went back to bed until lunch time. I just sat in the sun all morning and wrote postcards and letters.
I gave Zoe some plain food (weetabix and toast) so as not to upset her tummy any more. David insisted she continue her day as normal and not go back to bed. We went to the end of the garden, which leads directly onto the lake, to feed the ducks. I had to give Zoe a telling off: I'd asked her to stay with me on the jetty and wait for the ducks, but she ran off to next doors jetty. It wasn't far, or even out of my sight, but I firmly said "No Zoe, stay here with me." She kept saying "no," and ran off. I never shouted, but told her we'd go back inside if she didn't listen to my instructions. She kept interrupting me with "but normally I'm allowed there." (She often uses the term ("but normally I'm allowed..." - this generally means her mum/dad has let her do something once...) I had to try and explain that it wasn't where she was going that was the problem, but the fact that she had decided to ignore me. It took a while, but eventually she understood. I always worry I'll end up making her cry, then apologising to her so she doesn't tell on me - not that I'd be doing anything wrong by telling her off. But I managed to assert my authority, which I need to ensure I do so that she doesn't walk all over me.
We carried on feeding the ducks and she had no bad feeling towards me, it was really pleasant!

I sat in the garden again while Eta (the maths tutor) was here. After she'd left, I read a story to Zoe and left her to rest in her room, but her dad sent her down about 20 minutes later, armed with a maths workbook. We did some times tables, but she started to get teary after a while. I thought it was all a bit of an act if I'm honest, so I insisted she finish the page of work before I made dinner. Which was a disaster. Packet noodles are apparently her favourite, so to make it more substantial, I added some veg and chicken - a basic stirfry. But the whole time the meal was in front of her, she made a fuss. "But I made noodles because they're your favourite" "They're only my favourite when they're on their own..." - You really can't please everyone.... She kept "crying" (I suspected crocodile tears!) until I eventually gave up. She was crying for her dad, but I could hear he was on the phone for work, so I took her to bed, read her a story and left her to sleep.
When David was done with work, I went to a little "beach," but the view wasn't as good as it had been last night, the evening was a bit too cloudy!

Day 16

After I took Zoe to school, I went home and fell asleep for about 3 hours. Not sure why I was so exhausted, but it did me good. Zoe and I had lunch and by that time, the clouds that had completely covered the sky this morning had cleared and the sun was blazing again!
I went to Cully briefly to exchange Zoe's school show tickets (Valerie couldn't make it on the date that I'd bought the tickets for. Not sure if this means I can still go as I don't really want to pay 18FR myself to go... harsh as that sounds, I'm here to make money.) I sat by the lake, but hadn't anticipated the heat, so went and sat in the garden in far less clothes, with good music and a cold can of coke to keep me company. It's not like the view from the balcony is any less beautiful.

When Zoe got home from school, we had a swim in the pool in the garden. We were probably only in there for 20 minutes, as Zoe soon began to feel really cold. I gave Zoe some nutella on toast when she complained of being hungry, but I blame this for her not eating her dinner. When her dad came down from his study, I thought that was me done for the day. David sent Zoe to clean up some mess she's made, so I went and skyped my friend Alex. David went for a swim, but when he was done, he called me into the living room where he was sat with Zoe. The conversation went something like this:
"Beth, Zoe is unwell. She has been sat here for the last hour [it had been about 25 minutes, half of this time she was cleaning] while you've been on the phone to your friend. You're supposed to take care of her until I take over, but she's been sat here on her own."
Me: "I'm really sorry, I thought that when you came down from your study, that you had taken over..."
David: "No, I take over at 7.30, I was  having a swim."
I just apologised loads. I had assumed that David had taken over when he'd finished work. I felt terrible for Zoe too. She'd said "hello" to Alex on Skype, and then I assumed she had continued with her tidying/playing. She hadn't mentioned that she was ill.
"I'm taking over now," said David.
I felt like a fuck-up again. I waited until David had put Zoe to bed and apologised again, he thanked me for my apology and we talked about other stuff, namely Zoe's upcoming show.

I fell in love with this boat that passed by the house!

I've noticed we don't talk a lot unless it's about Zoe. Instead of the "big sister" that I'd intended to become (which is the relationship that many au-pairs have with their families), I'm more of a live-in childminder. It's a strictly employer-employee relationship, bar the odd, awkward conversation about walking or something. Rarely do we talk about our personal lives. Valerie and I have had a few nice conversations; but the friendship with the parents just hasn't blossomed as I'd hoped it would. 
The fact that I'd got the chance to chat with Alex meant I wasn't too down. He's also Welsh, so I got to drop my put-on accent that I have while I'm here, as no one would have a clue what I was saying otherwise.
I made a flask of chamomile tea and made my way to the little "beach" down the road to watch the sunset. (In Aberystwyth, Tuesday nights are usually spent drinking copious amounts of cheap vodka, so chamomile tea and sunsets are a bit of a shocker!) I think I'll be making a habit of this, as the view was utterly breathtaking. 

Pictures can never capture the beauty of such perfection, but I tried.

Day 15 - Voyage à Vevey (Trip to Vevey)

Zoe had wet the bed again this morning and judging by the sheets hanging up to dry, it wasn't the first time in the last few days… It seems that she doesn't wet the bed when I look after her the evening before. Maybe the limit on drinks in the evening isn't being enforced by her parents.
But today, the sun is shining, so nothing can dampen my spirits (bad choice of phrase there…) Plus I had post this morning! A camera that my friend Alex is lending me (so I don’t have to keep stealing Zoe’s!) and a lovely little note accompanying his lucky charm: Martin the NIGHT RIDER! Which is just the sweetest thing! I'm going to take Martin around with me everywhere as a little reminder that I have lovely friends!

I got post! & Martin, my new travel partner & lucky charm!

I took the train to Vevey this afternoon, which is the opposite way to Lausanne. I've never been further than Cully that way before, but the view from the train is absolutely stunning. I’ll have to try and take a walk that way. In Vevey, I walked around the shops and got some more things to make clothes with. I soon got bored though. I don’t want to spend too much money and I didn't really have the time to explore in depth. So I went home and sat in the garden where it was absolutely blazing hot! I could see the heat rising from the floor!

I’d finished a letter to a friend at home, so Zoe drew a lovely picture for him. I bought glitter earlier too, so good luck with that Andy!…
I showed Zoe all of the things I’d gotten in Vevey and she fell in love with it all. “It’s so beautiful, I wish I could have one…” This is Zoe’s very unsubtle way of hinting that she wants something… If you pretend you don’t know that she’s hinting, eventually she will ask for whatever it is she wants. She hinted at some earrings I’d bought today, they were just a crappy multipack from Claire’s that were summery, so I gave her one for each pair. I love it when Zoe is grateful for something. She absolutely adored the piece of ribbon I’d given her with the earrings attached “Oh it’s SO beautiful, I love it, it’s absolutely amazing!!” I made a simple pasta bake for dinner and that was her reaction to that too! She’s in a good mood today. 

Sun, smiles & chocolate cake!

We danced on the balcony for ages in the sun, which was lush! Then we did some “gymnastics” on the lawn. The day ended with David and Zoe going for a swim, the water was freezing though so I took a rain check! Today has been really nice; good weather really does make a good day. 

"Gymnastics!"

Day 14 - Journée de farniente (Lazy day)

Again, the weather wasn't great when I woke up, but by 2pm the sun was well and truly out! I spent a few hours in the garden, before meeting up with Rosa in Lutry. We didn’t do a lot - which is what you should do on such a sunny day! We found a “beach" (note, these beaches are just little rocky shores next to the lake) and had a smoke. How I've missed that!

Rosa & me on the "beach"

The hours were mostly spent sitting in the sun and chatting. As I mentioned yesterday, I feel bad communicating only in English, but Rosa insists it helps her. She came to my rescue when I wanted to order a waffle at a little café though! (Je voudrais une gaufre avec du chocolat s’il vous plait?) She was pissing herself at my accent! I studied French up to A Level in school, but I'm really rusty now. I can listen to a conversation fine, but as soon as it’s my turn to speak, I get all flustered and fuck up. Being an English speaker means it’s too easy not to learn other languages and I hate that!

Sunset from the balcony

Everyone was in bed by the time I got home - back to work tomorrow!