Never rains but it pours

After a few really hot, sunny days we're having a downpour. It's lovely and cool! And at least I won't have to water my rocket and Asian greens back from a state of total wilted dehydration.

We went to Basel Zoo on Saturday in an attempt to see the new baby snow leopard cubs there - no luck, but we saw lots of other animals! And if you'd like to see what the cubs look like, you must have a look at the photos by a serious amateur we met at the zoo, Urs Witschi.

This week has been the usual nose to the grindstone, and me finding out the hard way that sleep is not as optional as I'd like to think. I'm also making an effort to eat properly during the day, so I've been cooking big pots of things and eating them for a few days afterwards. I've just made the "upside-down lentil shepherd's pie" from Appetite for Reduction, a vegan low-calorie cookbook that has already come up with some recipes we can't wait to try again. I also tried out the chocolate cake from the author's site, which smells amazing. It's very much not low-calorie though!

Warp speed, Mr Sulu!

I have a new desk!

I used to work here:



Now, I work here!



And after a day of scientific research (did you know they can breed mice with multicoloured brains?) it was time for one of these.

Alive and well and growing

I didn't realise it had been that long. I've been busy getting my new contract (translating from home, but a regular supply of work), getting through some other work, heading back to Dublin to visit parents, and now in the midst of upgrading the entire office - new computer (well, new to me, but as it's himself's video editing machine it's more than capable of doing anything I want and more), new desk (new to me, bought from a friend moving abroad), new monitors (two! I've wanted two monitors ever since working with two in Spain last year), a riser for the monitors (minor hacking with some Ikea feet and a shelf) and last but not least a new router to carry the broadband signal through to the office - Swiss walls seem to be made of Kryponite, so the minute you move out of line of sight of the main router you lose almost all the signal.

Other than that, a good friend from Japan is coming over to visit in July/August, trying to line up some other friends to visit and also to work out if I go to Japan in November. I have an offer for another three-month contract in Spain, but a) if the current contract gets extended I'll prioritise that and b) I really, really want to go to Japan.

I bought a Kindle, which I had to import from the US, and annoyingly I can't buy a case from the UK from Amazon (because it's in the Kindle section and therefore they won't ship it outside of the UK) or from Play (because it's in the Electronics section and they only ship those inside the EU). I got so fed up I ordered a pattern online, and even bought an iron and found and prepared my long-neglected stash of fabric, but I haven't got around to trying to make it yet. I decided to try an easier coaster kit that I got in Japan, but then found I couldn't understand those instructions either, so it's waiting for the next bit of free time I have. Not this weekend - that's going to be assembling the desk and computer, and possibly the Swiss Japanese Friendship Society softball game, where I will take pictures and stay away from the balls.

I leave you with home-grown rocket salad, round 2, and my so far unkillable rocket plants and ready to harvest 'Asian greens'. The packet wasn't any more specific, so I don't know what they actually are, except they're not shiso.