Emergency Survival Kit

 

Here are the bare essentials:
Large milky coffee
novel
knitting
Gimble- essential for knitting whilst reading
Scrabble
Sudoku puzzles
Relocation information

Believe me, dear reader, when I say that these are things which make a six hour (yep, SIX hour)stopover at Luton bearable... Fying with budget airlines is all well and good, but as you will probably know if you miss a connecting flight it's too bad, so sad. Hence the four hour stopover going, and the longer one coming back. All in all, not too bad - I even managed without any diazepam - yay!! And that was even after I reported an unattended bag (I know, Iknow, the bag was in the airport, not the plane....but when you are scared witless by flying like I am, these little hiccups really matter).

So, where was I last weekend? You mean you really have to ask? I was here, of course. This was the first of our days with a relocation agent, looking at properties -we saw 10 in all and have so far said we are interested in 4. Now we have to wait for a week since in Zurich the landlords are very particular about tenants. We have chosen two houses and two apartments.

Whether a flat or a house, there are things common to all: underground parking space, cellar space for storage, nuclear bomb shelter, open wood fire...Sorry? What was that? Nuclear bomb shelter? Yep, you read right. They are mandatory. Most of them have been divided up into compartments for storage. They make great wine cellars, it would appear.

Of the 10 places we saw on Monday, only 2 were rejected out of hand. The others were all great but the commute was just too bad for Number Goy. It isn't really the time - he wants to do no more than an hour door-to-door - but the way some of the commutes would be organised. eg 15 minute walk, bus to station, train to main station then tram for the final stage.

The Swiss aren't keen on discussing money, but let's just say that some rents seem to be the equivalent of the GDP of a small country. As people who are used to mortgages it is a little painful to part with lots of money for rent instead.

Before we had our day with the relocation agent we spent two days travelling all over the city to get an idea of places we did and didn't like. Will it surprise you to know that I stumbled upon one of the best yarn shops I have ever seen? Right up the street from an organic food shop :0)

Due to the season, we saw lots of this: I explained to the chap that since men in kilts in Scotland have to put up with tourists taking their picture, it was only fair that I got a shot of Mr 'Marroni' And since we had just bought some chesnuts, he seemed happy to oblige. But you know, roast chestnuts are in the same category as honey - I was about 18 before I had my first taste of honey (deprived childhood) and although I love it now, at the time it was such a disapointment. Nothing at all like I thought it would be. Same with roast chestnuts - they were great for keeping my hands warm, yet.....hmm, just not what I was expecting.

Now I'm off to strip - wallpaper, that is. Now that we are leaving, we are doing all those things that we've been putting off for the last decade - typical, eh?