Life is very quiet at the moment. My youngest son is in Brussels and will be coming home some time mid August. My oldest is spending two weeks in Italy on the coast and I am alone with Mr. Swiss. Almost a second honeymoon you may think. Not quite, we did not have a first one and now 40 years later who needs one.
Life is being spent looking after the garden. Mr. Swiss even planted some grass seeds as our lawn was looking a bit bare. After four days we now have a green shimmer where there was before just weeds and earth. My blackberries are now black and I have so many I just don’t know where to go with them. I don’t make jam so every evening it blackberries and cream. I at last bought my long wished for Adobe CS3 photoshop computer programme as Mr. Swiss had an offer from Adobe at half price so I jumped to it, money no object. The bill will come, but perhaps I might inherit by then. I had some book tokens so bought some literature to go with it and am now slowly but surely coming to grips with this programme.
I had an appointment at the dentists for a teeth cleaning job. My dentist found two holes to be drilled and repaired. I am still not sure whether he did not make them himself or whether they were already there. I never noticed them. Tomorrow is the last appointment. It would have been yesterday but I forgot. Yesterday I paid a visit to the hairdresser which was very positive. By coincidence it turned out that my new hairdresser is one of my neighbours. She understood what I wanted and we are all happy. She even knew my husband and my cats – strange world (how comes she knew my husband and the cats???).
Switzerland have a small problem at the moment. At least it was small when it started, but has grown a bit and now is getting somewhat out of proportion. As I prefer using my own photos, this photo is from Morocco as it is the only arab country I have ever visited. The next photo is Whitechapel market in London, which also counts as being in Arab hands.
Now we all know that Switzerland attracts money and unfortunately a few despots from other countries that like to enjoy the advantages of the Swiss tax system and something known as numbered bank accounts. Whether this is the reason that Mad Muammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal and his wife live(d) in Geneva I don’t know, but probably. This couple were staying in a hotel in Geneva and Hannibal’s wife is in the ninth month of her pregnancy. She wanted to have her baby in Switzerland (as if we did not have enough refugees here already). The couple are well known for badly treating their servants but it seems that they bodily attacked two of their private servants, a Moroccan and a Tunisian whilst they were staying at the hotel. This became public and the police were engaged and put Hannibal and his wife under arrest. Now Hannibal’s daddy found this not so good and the bail of 390,000 € was paid. The two culprits took the first plane back home after being released on bail. Hannibal was two days in one of our Swiss prisons and his wife in a hospital.
Mad Muammar Gaddafi was not happy, so what has he done. Switzerland is the biggest customer for oil from Libya, but it seems this is not a danger. Mad Gaddafi has decided to turn the tap off where it says oil for Switzerland, so I might have to learn how to ride a bicycle after all. The Swiss government has reassured us that there will be no queues at the tank stops and it probably means only the closing of 320 gas stations – no problem when I think of what our Volvo drinks on a normal journey.
However, it seems the company Nestle in Libya is now closed and its workers all expelled. ABB, a Swiss company, also have workers in Libya, but a couple have now been detained in prison in connection with their permission to stay in such a wonderful friendly country – well I suppose if Switzerland dares to put Gaddafi’s son in prison, they can do the same. Of course the company ABB in Libya has been closed. Actually all Swiss companies have been closed. From a nutcase like Gaddafi you cannot really expect more.
Our foreign minister Mrs. Calmey Rey has naturally protested, although as a woman I don’t think she makes a great impression on the Libyans. She has told her counterpart in Libya she is worried about the developments of the situation and would be searching for a diplomatic solution. I am wondering if Mad Gaddafi knows what that is. All flights from Switzerland to Tripoli have been reduced as Mad Gaddafi decided and there are reduced flights coming from Tripoli to Switzerland. All Swiss diplomats in Libya have been called back to Switzerland. Swiss tourists wanting to spend their holidays in Libya have been warned not to.
So life will just not be the same in the future for me. Riding a bicycle, not being able to spend my Summer holidays in a Libyan holiday camp and my colleagues who work there will all have to come home if they are still on free footing. I think I will have to write a letter to the Swiss government reminding them that France are quite pally with mad Gaddafi and have an atom contract with them. Perhaps the French could put in a few good words for Switzerland. We could, of course, drop charges against Hannibal and his wife, but we are Swiss and for once I am proud of it. On first August we have our national day, perhaps we might make a few pardons to honour the day.
So that is the news from Switzerland at the moment. I did notice that one of our best footballers, Behrami, who actually plays in Italy has now been sold to West Ham United. Behrami is a good footballer, a brilliant dribbler and I just hope he is the solution to West ham problems.
My 3 cats send their best wishes to everyone but said they are resting at the moment, being Summer holiday time. I just noticed that this week every morning I have a dead mouse in front of the window.
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