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Twinkle twinkle

All over Zurich the fairy lights and Christmas trees have gone up. It makes so much more sense to have this kind of thing in Europe where in the long evenings, the twinkling lights emit such warmth and comfort.

Tonight after work, we caught the tram to the old city and wandered around, being enchanted by the Chrismas lights in front of or draped on every building and many of the large trees in the city centre. Everything that could vaguely be defined as a city square has a decorated Christmas tree with twinkling lights and baubles. And then there are the feature lights that have been erected on buildings in the Alstadt and over doors and arches tasteful fir boughs twined with red ribbon and bows. Oooh aaah!

The Christmas markets have started appearing and I think we are just going to be children again and go window shopping on Friday night and generally get into the Christmas spirit. Friday night does not seem to be after-work drinking night like it is in Oz - the main shopping street was more or less deserted by 7.30pm. Richard said they were all off skiing - which is a possibility.

Anyway I have decided that our "wintergarden" in the new apartment is the perfect spot for some twinklers and that we should have a curtain of twinkling lights to welcome guests - the ones that aren't going to visit because we have no friends yet. Aaaahhhhhh!

On the topic of friends - it's a good thing being forced to depend totally on your best friend. There is absolutely no point in being cross with each other because then you really have no other friends to turn to if things go wrong! So by and large we get along better together than we've ever done. Except when he cooks my socks and knickers on the heated towel rail! But what the heck - there's more socks and knickers to be had but not necessarily more friends. And hey, he's at least trying to be a good househusband. I get dinner on the table every night and the grocery shopping done when the stores run out. Which is every few days because typically kitchens here are pretty small.

Tschuus! (you can't say this word - you have to sing it)

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