Sunday, July 20, 2014, 11:50
Posted by Natalie
After a very long journey, including two nights in Edinburgh to catch up with our house swappers, me flying down to London, to have lunch with my parents and “hand over” the children who would be spending a few days at the beach in Kent, one lovely and calm night on the ferry to Amsterdam, and many frustrating hours in traffic jams all along the German motorways, we arrived well in Wil on Thursday night. Posted by Natalie
(us with Mim, just before we leave, and us on the ferry enjoying the beautiful evening)
Then we had set three days aside for unpacking and reorganising our house, but, luckily we also had some lovely visitors including my parents and my sister and brother and family. So it was not all work!
Also, I went shopping, which I found quite an unfriendly experience. I knew nobody at all, nobody chatted to me and nobody smiled at me! What a difference to Orkney!
Also, we have not emotionally quite arrived here yet, sometimes we can’t find things we’re looking for or they are different from what we had expected (either because it was changed by M&J, which is ok, because we changed some things in their house, too! Or we thought it would be the same as in Orkney...)
Tonight we are invited to our neighbour’s party, which will be a good opportunity to meet all the neighbours again. But everyone we see here says “Isn’t it lovely that you’re back?!!” - and the honest answer would be “No, not really, we would have loved to stay in Orkney for a while longer!” But, of course we smile and nod!
BUT I must admit, there are some things which are nicer here! First, of course, our wonderful family! It’s great to sit there and receive mudcakes from my nephew and chatter to my sister-in-law or my sister, while her son drives our cars all over the terrace. And we are also looking forward to seeing our friends again. But, there are also some material things we’re looking forward to:
Gipfeli (which are Swiss Croissants) and about a hundred times better than any other in the world!
Our automatic hoover, who will work, while I have a cup of tea
Our other hoover, which gets all the dirt when hovering the first time!
Mohrenköpfe, which are sweet delicious chocolate cakes
Delicious Swiss Pasta, which we missed dearly in Orkney
Our Pizza Takeaway - and the Chinese one, too! We do not use them often, but it’s great to know we could - and on very stressful days we do - and it’s great!
A long hot soak in our big bath!
The skylight in our bedroom! Lying there, watching the house martins is amazing!
Our figs! Yesterday we ate the first (of hopefully many) figs growing on our tree and it was absolutely delicious!
But, the list of things we will miss is equally as long:
Everyone having time for a blether, whether I’m zooming past on my bike or popping into the village store for a pint of milk
The smell of the sea
Seeing the sea
walking along the sea
making hot chocolate by the sea
collecting shells by the beach
(plus fifty other things connected to the sea, which I will now not mention no more)
buffalo burgers
Bremner’s chickpea burgers
walking through the field of buffalos for a cup of coffee and a chat
watching the Bremners in their every day life through our windows
baked tatties wherever we go
really good chips
flap jacks
going into a pub and ordering a cup of tea, well, actually, going anywhere (including a friend’s) and getting a good cup of tea...
BBC iplayer
But, I am sure we will get more adjusted to Swiss life again - and find many more things we had forgotten about and which we really love! So there will certainly be one or two more blogs letting you know how we’re adjusting...
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