One more trip this year

On Sunday we depart for Switzerland, returning via Liechtenstein / Austria / Germany, England, and Wales, by various means of transport. I have worked out our itinerary which should remind us where we're going and when. It's been a hectic year.

This month our daughter went to Monte Carlo to make a bid, and won it. Nothing to do with gambling, really; she's not sure if she's pleased about winning or not, because it will mean a lot more work for her and her colleagues. Our son is doing something astronomical in a place called Nanchong, in Sichuan, China, a fairly small city by Chinese standards, with only 6 or 7 million inhabitants. It's a two or or three hours' drive from Chengdu. My 99-year old mother is in hospital in Cardiff, Wales, being revived by kind medical people from a battle against pneumonia. She is doing marginally better today, apparently, no longer in such pain when she tries to swallow or takes a breath, and being fed yoghurt and icecream to supplement her intravenous drip. My sister and brother-in-law keep sending us news of her; they're also expecting a new grandchild to arrive at any moment.

My thoughts are all over the place. I look forward to standing on the shore of some Swiss lake next week and letting my mind rest, shall try to do this somehow, whether the mountaintops be visible or not, I don't care.

Switzerland is an interesting country, where I have stayed from time to time, with 26 cantons, each of them different, with its own legislature. Yesterday I was with my German conversation group (one of whom, Ursula, is Swiss-born), reading and talking about the canton of Graubünden / Grissons / Grischun where Romansh (in German, Rätoromanisch) is spoken. We discussed that language and other dialects for a whole hour.

Earlier in the week I was at a meeting of a French conversation group watching a documentary film that our hostess had directed in 1989, about a family of stuntmen (cascadeurs, and stuntwomen, cascadeuses) from Montreal. Lois works for the National Film Board of Canada. She also has an interesting collection of puppets, which she showed us as well.