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Swiss Sunday

I think it was on our last trip to Switzerland back in 2015. It was just after dawn and the family was still asleep, so I headed out for a lakeside run. One part of the lake path gets really narrow and coming in the other direction was an elderly chap carrying fishing rods. We got talking, initially in German but then switching to English. I couldn’t remember ever learning any Fishing related German words 😂😂😂. Clearly the Swiss fisherman was more up on plenty of English angling vocabulary.

He was about to head off in his little boat to his favourite spot on the lake. He had been doing this nearly every day, in every type of weather for over 40 years . When he used to work he would go fishing before dawn.

I remember saying that was dedication. He smiled, shook his head and quietly said ‘No, it’s love’. He went onto say that he tells his family it’s all about the fish. But in reality it was an excuse, he just needed that time out in the lake, amongst the mountains. It was his HOME, where he felt at one with life.

As we parted I asked, do you ever catch and fish. He laughed and said very rarely but on the way home I pass a really good place that sells fresh fish catch…..

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Swiss Sunday

It’s after midnight and I’m sat in front of heaps of geography papers and notes, trying to summarise it into last minute revision notes that Hawklad can use. Saxon playing on the record player, trying to keep awake. Typing this as I desperately needed a break. We are both completely frazzled, definitely stressed out. Wow do I wish we were somewhere else, playing out dreams, relaxed and having fun. Switzerland, wish we were there right now.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 29 Comments

Fudge

Week 1 completed.

4 exams.

15 still to go.

Back to back exams on Monday.

Brain fudge level, OFF THE SCALE and that’s just me.

The high point (🤯🤯🤯) of the week has to be poor Hawklad having to stay in the exam room for an extra hour after the first exam had finished while IT tried to fix a misbehaving printer. National rules state that if you use a computer to complete an exam then the student has to stay in the exam room until each typed sheet has been signed and dated. The teachers were really apologetic but they had to follow the rules.

The other highlight has to be me printing out what was a highly rated article on ASPERGERS and then sat scratching my head why the article appeared to be a cooking recipe. I did find out how to make ASPARAGUS creamy parcels.

What a monumental MUPPET.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 29 Comments

Swiss Sunday

This week I came across my old iPod, stuck in an old suitcase side pocket. Unbelievably with a bit of that magic piped electricity, it still worked, hasn’t been used in maybe 8 years. When it had fired slowly up it revealed all the old movies and tv shows that Hawklad would watch on his Swiss holidays. Some classics

Old Scooby Doo

Wacky Races

Deadly Sixty episodes

Pokémon

IceAge

Monsters Inc

Madagascar

My wanders back to those Swiss family evenings. After the hotel meal we would end up back in the room. While Hawklad watched his iPod , we would sit on the balcony and watch the sun go down over the mountains and the shimmering lake. Wonderful, talk about being relaxed.

I wish I could be doing that tonight but failing that, I think it’s time to watch some old classic tv. Where’s that iPod…..

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 34 Comments

Swiss Sunday

Another random Swiss story today. One that to me is so very Swiss. One family holiday we had ventured to Zurich to visit the wonderful Dinosaur Museum and the City Zoo. A zoo sadly without BIG Jurassic Creatures.

Later in the day we returned to the city centre and we went looking to buy Hawklad a Schleich. Dinosaur Toy. The museums shop had been closed that day. We eventually ventured into a really cool looking Toy Shop but could not find any Dinos. So in very broken German, I asked a man who worked in the shop, where the Dino Toy Section was. In perfect English he told us that sadly his shop didn’t sell any thing like that, but there was another shop that did have. As it was quite hard to find and to make sure we found the rival shop, he walked with us for 5 minutes through the myriad of centre streets until we stood by its front entrance. Hawklad got his DINO.

That wouldn’t happen in the UK….

But it does in Switzerland.

I do miss this wonderful country.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 14 Comments

1000

The garden is still largely bereft of colour. Thankfully a couple of colourful characters are trying to buck the trend.

I was musing over a concert next year which happens to be nearby. Three old Rock Bands from my youth. Judas Priest, Saxon and Uriah Heep. One I managed to see a few decades back, the other two, it would be my first time. Maybe this time.

Following much friendly winding up from Hawklad, I worked out that the current combined age of those 3 bands was in excess of a 1000 years. Following on from his maths revision, Hawklad estimated that adding me into the mix takes the number closer to 2000 years. 2000 years ago the Romans hadn’t even got round to invading England yet. There’s a thought…

Another thought is that the first exam is less than 2 weeks away. Less than 2 weeks and some of the subjects are still teaching, still trying to get through the set curriculum. Hawklad ain’t getting through everything as it is, never mind adding to it. As Hawklad put it

Next week would be bad enough just trying to learn 25 love poems for English Literature which might as well haven been written in Vulcan, but I’m also supposed to revise six other subjects and all this new stuff. Actually I could do with being a Vulcan like Spock.

Deep sigh.

Is it time to go to my prehistoric heavy metal concert yet…..

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Rush Hour

Stood in the middle of the road, in the middle of the North Yorkshire Moors. It’s rush hour….

Who can spot the vital national security establishment which they haven’t really bothered hiding….. how did they get planning permission for that. Us mere mortals living in these parts struggle to get permission to build even a small coal bunker these days.

Coal bunkers, I remember them. As a child our outside toilet was built next to the coal bunker. The toilet always had a faint hit of black soot covering the seat, the floor, the walls and the toilet paper. Probably not the only things covered as well…

So Hawklad’s exams are fast approaching. In Maths, History and English Literature we have just about made it to the revision stage. For the other subjects sadly we are still scrambling about trying to complete as much of the syllabus as possible. Just need to keep reminding Hawklad that each day, more progress is made. Even if sometimes it just feels like one small step, it’s still helps, it’s still moving forward, it all adds up.

There is so much additional stress and anxiety that’s why it’s so important that Hawklad gets a chance to breathe, to enjoy some of each day. And that’s why we found ourselves stood on an empty Moors road . He fancied a trip out to somewhere quiet, miles from anywhere, miles from the EXAMS.

Job done…..

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 19 Comments

Swiss Sunday

Back to 2012, a very different time. As a fair chunk of the country went Olympics Mad, we headed to Switzerland. Our Games was an Olympic torch visiting Hawklad’s school and a quarter final football match featuring Brazil.

The train out of the country was so quiet for that time of year. A few returning french athletes who had completed their events. Such a different story on the trains heading into London, mobbed with athletes and spectators. Paris Gare de Nord was really chaotic but strangely fun.

Then it was time to breathe and have wonderful alpine adventures. Yes the Olympics are special but give us Switzerland every single time.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 35 Comments

Farmer

The Farmer has been busy. The Farmer in a seriously thick jumper. The Farmer who was complaining to me about it being so cold for Spring. The village has an annual walk to the Bluebell Wood usually this last weekend in April. This year it is currently on hold as even the bluebells have decided it’s TOO COLD to make an appearance.

Don’t blame them….

The Farmer reckons the plants are at least a month behind where they should be. Hawklad with just a tad of irony, said that he’d would happily settle for just being a month behind schedule. I know what he means.

Hawklad is ploughing on with his exam revision, mostly sat by the fire. So much to do and not enough time. Probably only in one subject, History, will he fully complete the course before the exams. The other subjects he will be playing catch up right until the exams. But he’s still giving it a go, he is trying. So proud of him.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 38 Comments

Butty

Do you think I would get away with this in my garden as a bit of a water feature. You don’t think that it might be a tad pretentious. My current water feature is me walking about with a watering can….. Imagine the fun Captain Chaos would have with this.

We were in the garden (without a water feature) playing table tennis and trying to lift Hawklad’s spirits after a demoralising couple of hours revising. He was frustrated and dispirited because we had picked up that he had been using the wrong method to calculate something in mathematics. He’d apparently been doing it the wrong way for a couple of years but as the teacher hasn’t been looking at his submitted maths work, it wasn’t picked up until we spotted it.

He had an Easter Egg, I had a coffee with a BUTTY.

I came from a family that survived on Butties… Dad would always say only POSH people called them sandwiches. Most items could be placed between two slabs of bread for a tasty meal. Family favourites included

Fish Finger butties

Chip butties (My favourite)

Crisp butties (Mum’s favourite)

Baked Beans butties (don’t wear a white shirt eating this one)

Sausage butties

Yorkshire Pudding and Gravy butties (a particularly messy one)

Mushy Peas and Vinegar butties

Fried Egg and Tomato Ketchup butties

Last nights Pizza butties

Pork Pie butties (Dad’s favourite)

At one stage I even started having Pot Noddle butties

All things butties. I even once remember a debate about whether a slice of bread sandwiched between two other slices of bread counted as a Bread Butty or just three Slices of Bread. Whatever the answer to this philosophical point, we had so many butties as a family for one good reason. Bread was cheap, it was a cheap way of padding out our meals.

Now a thought has crossed my mind. Sitting in our garden, it’s summer, after the exams, next to that giant water feature, having a butty. That works…