Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes! And a huge thanks to Bill & Austa for the amazing handwoven blue silk wrap (currently adorning the sofa in the "office" as a runner) and to himself for my new toy - a Canon Powershot SX210 IS!
It has 14x optical zoom - even more than my old Sony - and a fake "miniature mode" which seems to involve not only blurring the top and bottom of the shot to make it look like it was taken on a macro setting but also intensifies the colours. We've both been having a play with it and have got some really good shots (well, his more than mine). I'll post some pictures soon!
Other than that, the cakes went down well although most of my German class didn't show up and I made myself popular with strangers by giving them out in one of himself's office break rooms. We had a nice evening out, eating at Okara where they had tables set up outside.
On Friday I took the (late) afternoon off and headed into Zurich to get some photos. The initial plan was to go to Grossmunster and get some views down onto the city from there (particularly for the miniature mode) but I was distracted by Tram 4 which runs to Dammweg, near a viaduct I'd been reading about. So, I hopped onto that and ended up walking around an under-construction shopping arcade, getting some nice miniature shots of tram stops and generally having fun.
Saturday was a lazy at home day, but we did get out to the nearby Wildpark Langenberg, which houses deer, wolves, Alpine wildcats, wild pigs and more, although some animals didn't seem to be viewable as they're rebuilding part of the park. Photos to follow from there too!
On Sunday our washing was slightly disrupted by the dryer in the building being broken, but I headed to the Swiss-Japanese Friendship Society's softball tournament and managed to give away some more cake - this time matcha muffins and chocolate-chip blondies. The blondies are incredibly nice and stupidly calorific, so himself was given them to dispose of in the office today.
And someone in that same office had three tickets for Yamato in concert - their last night in Zurich - and was unable to go, and himself snapped up the tickets! We went with Sachiko and barely got there on time after missing a train and getting confused about where to go after coming out of the nearest train station. A car shunting another one onto the tram tracks didn't help the situation, but it turned out we were just around the corner and were able to run up to the seats in the balcony area.
Although I've seen Kodo in concert several times, their tour schedule is a bit strange this year - several cities in Israel, nothing in London although doing one night in a few other places in the UK, nothing in Ireland and nothing in Switzerland either although they're doing several dates in Germany. Yamato were full of energy, very performance oriented a bit more modern/fusion than Kodo, but all immensely strong and superb musicians. There were drums of every size, flutes, cymbals, koto and even rock shamisen. One act involved three heavily muscled men, three sets of cymbals and a "ball of sound" being thrown between them, and it had the audience in stitches. They do the same as Kodo in that they also play clapping games with the audience and involve them in various ways. Would definitely go to see them again!
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