Happy days

We went down to Geneva last weekend, to see my friend Dawn and to enjoy a little city trip. We stayed in Nyon, just outside Geneva, and enjoyed walking around the castle and the lake front.

The delicious Croix Verte restaurant in Nyon - best tagliatelle carbonara I've had in a long time.

The castle in Nyon, perched on the hill above the lake.

Another lovely building across from the castle, which I think is the town hall.

A charmingly crooked house near the castle.

Road not gritted.

Some plants on the way down to the lake that were being a bit optimistic about the best time to bud.

Beautiful old buildings down by the lake - and even some shops open on Sundays!

The lake with clouds over the French side.

David getting some photos of sea birds.

It was a very cold but clear, still day.

David found half a baguette, and chaos ensued. Ducks, coots, grebes, swans...

There was still plenty of snow on the ground, and on the piers.

Danger! A lovely patchwork shop that I avoided going into, as I knew I would probably go mad in the Japanese food shops in Geneva.

A scale model of the Swiss mountain train painted in the livery of the Hakone-Tozan Japanese mountain train.

A wonderfully clear view of the Saleve across the lake at Geneva, with the sun just starting to go down.

Dawn and me by the lake.

We found a fantastic place for fondue and enjoyed delicious moitie-moitie and mushroom fondue...

Followed by some amazing desserts, handmade meringues and Gruyere cream, and vin cuit (pear juice cooked for 30 hours until it's a thick, almost fig-like syrup) over ice cream.

Back in Zurich, the as soon as the Valentine's Day chocolates go on sale... it's Easter.

Clearly labelled - it's horse meat.

And I never noticed it before, but the local supermarket also has rabbit.

We went out to one of our usual haunts, Nagasui, on Tuesday night and I had an amazing chicken stir-fry with fresh shiitake mushrooms and dried black mushrooms, with dark soy sauce, chilli and pine nuts, all in a "dish" of deep-fried noodles.

And finished off with black sesame ice cream.

We got fortune cookies with our bill, and I opened mine on Thursday evening - just before receiving notice from the Institute of Translation and Interpreting that I had passed their exam and was eligible to become a full member! I also got the cute shiba-inu puppy card you can see in the background, from my homestay mother in Kyoto.

One of the joys of working from home is that you can take lunch in the kitchen if you need some emergency cake - I did my usual green tea steamed breads and decorated them with little sugar balls which melted during steaming, making them look like little green asteroids.

I also did a batch of cocoa steamed breads with chilli - and took one for myself for a little celebration!