Mamco Gallery

My English travels have now ended.  I am back in Geneva till June's next excursion home.  I was not ready to leave home this time, coming back was hard to do.  I hadn't had enough time to spend with my family whilst I was home over Easter.  In three and half months I will differently be ready to be returning home.  Yes, I only have three and half months left!  It's crazy!  There's a bunch of stuff that I would still like to do and see while I am here.

This week was still the school holiday's for the boy's.  Lucky for me though I only had one to look after The younger one (Raphael, who I have to say I do prefer...there not my kids, I can have favorites!), because the other one was visiting a friend in England.  We hung out and did a few random things to pass the time.  We went to the cinema one day and watched 'Le Tableau', a French cartoon about a painting with unfinished people in it who wish to be finished.  It was in French (obviously) but I understood most of it (it was for kids after all), and I liked it, it was an interesting idea for a film.

Another day we went to a Modern Art Gallery in Geneva called the Mamco.  It was a really good gallery, full of ideas and work that made you think.

Some photo's to give you a feel for the place.....

My favorite piece...........

My incredibly lazy weekend is now coming to an end.  It's back to work as normal starting tomorrow.

Night!

An Afternoon in Annecy

It's been a great week so far, just as I said I thought it would be!

I had a mission to get a present for my sister (Ashley), before going home to my beloved England for her birthday weekend this evening. It's her BIG 30! I knew what I wanted to get, but just hadn't had the chance yet to get to Annecy to get it. Lucky for me though Chelsea was able to come with me last Tuesday afternoon to fulfill my mission!

As we drive to Annecy the sun came out......

 Bridge of love.................

The usual stop for crepes........

Canals....................................

A painters work room.....................

Chelsea and me..........................

I got what I went for, and a little bit more!  Haha!  It was really nice to go somewhere different for an afternoon between work.

I was actually supposed to post this a few weeks ago now...but better late than never I say!

LINK Film Fest

I have had another great weekend!  It's been a pretty good week actually, and I feel that next week is going to be even better!  Today is Mothers Day though, so a shout out to my mum is needed (who has been left childless today)....HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

That LINK Au Pair film fest weekend that I said I was going to got (unfortunately) shorted down to just a Saturday event.  The reason being that not enough people had signed up to at the time...but on the day were about 20 of us in the end.  So either way it was still pretty good!

Chelsea picked me up after getting a couple of other girls (Alison ans Alice) on the way, and dove us to Nyon.  We were meeting up in a room of a building (we got free use of it for the day) that would have made a pretty swanky apartment.  I met a load of new people from the area, plus Becky and Paul (who organise the activities were there too of course).  The plan for the day was to watch three films throughout the day (which had picked hoping that we hadn't seen them before...so nothing mainstream) and discuss them, do some kind of outdoor activity and eat pizza!

After we all got to chat for a while as people arrived, we all officially introduced ourselves to each other and played a name game...I am Abbie Avocado.  We then got ready to watch our first film which was 'The Diary of a Mad Black Women', this was to give us an incite into Black American culture.  It was chosen because Whitney Houston's funeral wasn't too long ago and Becky and Paul thought that it if any of us had seen that (because it was a bit different to the 'norm') then this film would enlighten us more.  It was alright, it was funny, but a bit too cheesy maybe.  As a group we all had a discussion about the themes and the hero's journey afterwards.

After we all ate our packed lunch's (just like a little school trip!  Haha) we split up into three groups and headed out into the city of Nyon for a good old scavenger hunt!

Nyon harbor................

It was fun, and I defiantly know Nyon better now.  We had to collect information, a couple of random items and take a bunch of photos that had to be creative at times.  I was with a group of girls I didn't know, but I did a bit better after the scavenger hunt.  We had a laugh together, especially with creating some interesting photos. 

Human WC on top of the WC........

Be the man..................

Hey Sailor........................

 Hail be to Rome......................

The fingerless Caesar............

Re-creating the town..........

You had to be there..........

All in the box................

When it came to adding up the points later on though, my team came last...think we may have been concentrating on the fun photos rather then the questions!?

Having burnt off some energy we sat down again for another film, the 1945 version of 'The Picture of Dorian Grey'.  For some reason I was really eager to watch this! A good black and white film based on a novel (especially one by the ever so witty Oscar Wilde) is gonna be great!

It does look pretty good......

The Au Pairs.............

We were all on a roll with the discussion after this film, I was in my element with!  There was so much to talk about because the morals and ideas portrayed through the changing picture on Dorian grey himself are so interesting.  Still need to actually read the book that it's based on though!  This was my favorite film of the day, and I would recommended it to any one!

Paper remnants.........................

It was then pizza time.............

Lastly we watched 'The Ultimate Gift', which I had actually seen already...but hey, the fact that I had only seen one of the three films they showed was pretty good going.  Another good film, yet everyone was very glad for the day to end...because we were sooooo tired...despite siting on our bums all day!

Chelsea ended up staying at mine that night after we dropped off Alison and Alice and grabbed some cloths from hers.  Chelsea came to church with me again today (a very rainy day I might had....I was missing the rain, so I felt at home).  We then chilled out at Liz's this afternoon to finish organising the little road trip around England at Easter!!  I am really excited for that road trip!  I love England!

Good night!

Easy Sunday

I haven't been up to anything of much interest lately.  That doesn't mean that I haven't been enjoying life though!   Ive been seeing friends, hanging out and keeping myself entertained.  I've had a bunch of surprise post, which is always much appreciated.  I think receive posts from friends and family is one of the simple joys in life!  I do my best to keep the tradition going.

The job is still great!  I am so happy to be with this family who treat like another member of their family.  Sure the boys will be boys and wind you up some days, but that's to be expected.  I can still drive on the wrong side of the road...they havn't been any mishaps....YET!!!  French classes are....well....their french classes!  Lets just say that I can understand what somebody says but I can't talk back to them.  My words get all mixed up because you have to think of all grammar being backwards, and I can't pronounce anything.  But I get by...and everyone speaks English anyway!!!  Hahahaha!

Last Sunday was a perfect Sunday!  Chelsea came to church with me on Sunday to see a bit of what the Mormons get up to, and seemed to find it interesting.  We then chilled out at mine with a film while we ate lunch, but trying to avoid being too lazy we did go out for a lovely Sunday walk by the river near my house.

This remind s a bit of home.....

You have to pose wherever you go.......

Chelsea just trying to prove that being with me wont make her do something silly like fall into the river (I am known as her bad luck charm).........

After a little walk we felt justified in watching another film...although I am pretty sure I fell asleep at some point.  Either way it was a blissfully spent Sunday with a good friend!

This weekend I hung out with Shelly Saturday night and have been doing the long awaited catch up of blogging today!  Life may well get a little more exciting next weekend.  I am going on that Au Pair Link film fest with Chelsea.  Maybe watching films all weekend isn't that exciting to you, but I will be meeting a load of new people, so that's always interesting.

I have actually been trying to save some money lately (even doing some extra babysitting on the side for parents at my boys school) because I am going on a road at Easter with Liz around England.  I am sooooooo excited to show Liz around my home, that I love a ridiculous happy amount!!!  I am also going home in a couple of weeks for a long weekend because it is my sisters 30th Birthday!!  Hahahaha!!!  So I am being spoiled with some good doses of England overt the next month.  Bring it on!!!

But for now.........I'll write soon!

Sssssssssssshaking!

Half term week I had to find some things to do to entertain the boys during the day.  One of those days Caroline (my host mum) came up with a place to take the boys for the afternoon that they would enjoy having a look around.

The Vivarium.......................

When I told the boys that I was taking them there, they joked around saying that I wouldn't want to go because it would be full of snakes.  If you know me well you will know that snakes CREEP ME OUT big time!!!  The way they slither and slide......uuurgrhg....my skin is crawling just thinking about them.  The boys know that I don't like snakes and think its hilarious to tease me about it.  I just brushed it off as them trying to scare me again.  When I saw the handle on the door of the Vivarium I started to get a little nervous that they weren't joking after all...........

The crocodiles I could handle........

Even the dragon like lizards are fine.....

The turtles are just cute......

 Snakes!!!!!!  I just want to walk away.......

The boy's were actually really nice about my whole snake phobia.  They would go ahead of me as we walked around and tell me which cabinets not to look into.

Raphael and Nathan pretty pleased to be there......

My one consolation was that I found Pascal.......

We also went to the Natural History Museum of Geneva that same week.  It's an alright place to spend a couple of hours wondering around, but it has nothing on the amazing Natural History Museum in London.  Yes, I am a bit proud to be English!

The Museum...............

One of my favorite sets from the museum..........

After a week of looking after two boys all day, who are used to playing sports everyday to burn off some of that energy I was very glad to have a chilled out weekend at a friends watching films and baking.

Chow!