Spring has sprung

Some more signs of spring - bulbs on sale in the local supermarket.

 And some slightly healthier eggs.

An antique Ford on my way back from my walk along the river.

Calzone creature!

Some sweet Cailler gift boxes.

Of bunnies and Buicks

More Easter nonsense and tat at Migros!

Because Kitty is the symbol of Easter! On yer bike.

Cutesy bunny clothes pegs.

Felt bunny shapes.

Felt chickens!

The weather is even better than last week, so I went walking by the river again and spotted this beauty.

There were quite a few old cars around today - not sure why. There are classic car shows on every now and again.

I even picked up a tiny hitch-hiker! It looked like a ladybird, but with a very dark shell.

Out and about

Some subtle reminders that Easter is the next big holiday, and that it's all about chocolate rabbits.

Great if you a) want to spend 60 Swiss Francs, and b) make a child scared of rabbits for life.

Chocolate rabbits and eggs as far as the eye could see.

It's enough to make you diabetic.

March of the Lindt bunnies. (Or a primitive cubic array of bunnies, as I keep seeing them now that I'm revising chemistry.)

I'm not sure "secret police" is really something children aspire to.

Horse chips!

We made it out of the house and down to Fribourg on the Sunday, mainly to meet up with Dawn & Simon. This beautiful stork sculpture was in front of the town's famous funicular. Which was closed, and had a toilet inside the front door. Hmm.

View down towards the old town. My calves are still recovering from the steps.

The walking route around the town - apart from the steep drop at the funicular, it's all very pleasant.

Spring seems to be here, and I've been trying to get out for a walk every day. This was taken crossing the bridge at Leimbach - there's no zoom on the phone, which I keep forgetting, but that's an articulated lorry with an open top having wood chips spat into it by a tree chipper that also has a grabbing arm to feed itself trees. The lorry drove off just as I got to it.

Switzerland is fairly relaxed about health and safety. The lorry driver and wood chipper operator didn't seem to care that children were walking off the path and going around them.

The ridiculously large self-feeding wood chipper.

And plenty more where that came from.

And temptation this week at Tchibo in the form of baking goods - sorely tempted by the big gugelhof tin and set of tiny silicon ones...

I got notification of my exam centre yesterday. Yes, I knew we were 2/3 of the way through the courses, but it was still a shock. I started revising the chemistry course (my weakest one) yesterday and am pleasantly surprised at how much I remember. It's still going to be a so-called challenge to demonstrate nine months of learning in just three hours... none of the course work done during the year counts, unfortunately. (Although you have to get a minimum mark to be allowed to take the exam.) And having three exams in two days (chemistry am, analytical science pm, cell biology next am) doesn't help either. At least next year it should be a bit more spread out!

Backlog

Well, it's been crazy with Japan, Christmas, New Year, going to Dublin, falling behind on study, trying to get our new place ready in time so we're not homeless between moving out and moving in, showing people our current place, catching up on study, catching up on all the work and admin that had piled up while I was studying... all that.

So I have a backlog of photos. Here you go.

A cheerful robin I saw in Malahide.

The wonderful Martyn Turner is never short of ammunition.

We started clearing things out. I didn't think it had been quite that long since I'd last looked at these.

I think this is an ad for a Green Party candidate. Or a gay uniform dating service.

We went to Ikea to get boxes. And then again to get more boxes. This is a geometrical design, but I can't help but see antibodies when I look at it.

I somehow didn't buy these to go with my plush fruit and vegetable baskets.

I was thinking of getting some of the 'antibody' fabric, but the pattern on the per-metre fabric is a bit large.

The pillowcases are nice though.

Cell curtains, anyone?

The referendum on Sunday was a surprise. I think it was like the vote on the minarets - nobody thought it would go through and not enough people turned out to vote against it. Hopefully it won't affect us renewing our permits, but I'm sure all the international businesses are tearing their hair out.

Not much else. It's mild, bright and breezy (but still cold) and feels like spring is already on the way with everything budding. Work. Move. Study. Sleep. Other.

Bits and pieces

We had some friends over for dinner last night, so I moved all the 'floating' stuff that doesn't have a place - mainly things we're trying to get rid of or odds and ends I brought back from Japan that I haven't figured out if I'm going to keep or not. A few of them were just to remind me of where I got or saw something nice, so instead of keeping all the scraps of paper, packaging, etc. I'm just going to find the websites.

Kume Co., Ltd. make awesome Hiroshige Project t-shirts, including the beautiful crane one I got at Narita airport on the way back. (English site/日本語ホームページ)

Pagong are a small company in Kyoto who happened to have a temporary stall at Narita when I was going back. They make modern clothing using traditional designs. (English site/日本語ホームページ)

Dinner went very well indeed, with lots of different Japanese condiments and three types of sake being tried out.

I also finally threw out my salt crystal experiment, which had grown some nice chunky crystals while I was away.

Japan London

Green tea roll cake at the wonderful Necco in Exmouth Market, London.  ^___^

To a T

The Christmas madness continues, this time with super pretty Christmas Hello Kitty at the local supermarket.

The trend for bath products still seems to be for them to look as much like food as possible.

One of my reasons for taking a day trip from Kyoto to Fukuoka this time (the main reason was to meet someone doing one of my courses!) was to stop in to the amazing Kurenai-ya branch in Fukuoka's Canal City shopping centre (which is otherwise depressingly full of Western shops). I discovered the shop a few years ago, and bought some t-shirts there for himself and myself that are about to fall apart from loving regular use. I excited wandered around the shop looking at all the stuff that I would happily buy given half an excuse, then went to find the t-shirts. Except there weren't any. After going around the (small) shop twice, I asked the staff and it turns out they were switching from their short sleeve to long sleeve range and didn't have anything in stock. Noooo!

But I remembered that I'd found one of their t-shirts at Narita a few years ago, so I made a note to look there on the way back, and got lucky! I got one for himself, a Mount Sakura one for me (the active volcano in the bay of Kagoshima City, I nearly got it two years ago but they didn't have it in my size), and an amazing "Hiroshige Project" one from another manufacturer that I hadn't seen before. The embroidered back is just amazing. ^_^ I also splashed out on a top made from modern materials but with traditional kimono designs, made by a small Kyoto company who had a temporary stand at the airport.

The back of the Sakura-jima t-shirt on the left, the front of the Hiroshige Project one in the middle, and the kimono-inspired one on the right.

The back of the gorgeous Hiroshige project t-shirt. It's a bit hard to see, but there's also red embroidery around the cranes.

And we're back

Arrived back in Zurich last night, picked up some food at the airport and came home to call parents, have a long bath and triage my email. Today was 3°C with some desultory snow, it wasn't even close to sticking when I was out earlier but is getting heaving and starting to gather on the ground now that the light has gone and the temperature is dropping. (The forecast for tomorrow is 0-2°C with 2-5 cm of snow. Next Wednesday, 10-20 cm...) Spent the day clearing emails, catching up with things that need to be done in the next week or so, chasing overdue invoices, catching up with bills that arrived while I was away, food shopping (there are still pumpkins!) so I wouldn't have to go out again, and having the very interesting experience of a Doppler ultrasound.

The truth is out in Sihlcity - Santa belongs to Coke.

Interesting light fittings.

Horse is still on the menu.

And Christmas is most definitely here. Workmen all over the airport, Sihlcity and Adliswil putting up decorations.