Zürich Horse Racing

Racing was brilliant! Racing people are the same the world over no matter what language they speak. I had one bet on a tip from one of the local journos - unfortunately the jockey had extremely bad navigational skills - you don't sit third on the rails on a bog track and then give up your position 600m from home to be third last and then run on for fifth - in Australia there would have been a coronal inquiry. Rotten little short people!

The racebooks are more or less designed the same way, well the form is, so learnt a whole stack of new words - all race related. They had so much rain there was a moat of water running along the track. The hurdles were called off because it was too dangerous but in between the flat races the trotters went around and they threw up so much water it was like 'surfs up!'

It was so cold. It snowed in Bern yesterday and the sleet in the afternoon in Zürich took the locals by surprise, they said it's unusual for this time of year, certainly for Zürich. You don't say.

Afterwards (we had 9 races) they had an auction of horses that would qualify for a 2yo and 3yo race next season. It was great listening to the auctioneer and working out how much each one went for. I could have bought 17 only 4 actually sold all the others were passed in.

Average lot 15,000 CH - very cheap horses. But then prize money not up to much here. Racing is really really small.

And now I want to go to St Moritz next February for the first week. On the Sunday Jan 31 (or last Sunday in January) is the really huge international Polo comp and then it's skiing for the week (!) and then St Moritz racing on the weekend - in the snow! It would be such a good week.

Swiss honesty

I like a wally left my purse on one of the lake ferries yesterday - it had everything in it, money, cards, you name it. I was slightly panicking as when I went back the boat had already gone to dry dock for the night and the crew had gone home - and I had 70Pfenigs to my name (that's about 35p!)

I had to sweat through a long evening and night (thanks to Sue and David I got through it easily actually by being propped up with lovely text messages!!)

Went off to the boats this morning and after a few phone calls, a long bus trip and a walk to the docks I found the office and there was my darling little purse, all waiting to come home.

If that had been in England, Australia or Singapore the chances of me ever seeing it again would have been odds against.

Thank you to the Swiss boating crew, you're an honest lovely bunch of people!


In the afternoon before the drama unfolded I went climbing - using the auto belayer. You go up come down go up come down etc - excellent workout!

Really looking forward to the advanced course with Christoph in a fortnight's time.

New enclosure for the bears?

Have been moving place over the last couple of days and could not get on here to post to save my life! Still back in one piece now and hopefully will have the internet at the house all sorted tonight - mind you at 3CH per hour I won't be loitering!

Had an animal weekend with the Zoo on Saturday and the Bear Pit in Bern on Sunday - both weren't the best places to see. A lot of the enclosures for the small animals were OK but the Elephants and Black Rhinos were in concrete jungles and all exhibiting signs of mental distress - not very good at all.

As for the bear pit in Bern - enough you Swiss - pack it up, close it down, this is 2008 and a concrete pit for brown bears is totally unacceptable.

From 12 or more bears they are now down to two 27 year-old females who have been there since they were two - what an existence.

Things could be looking up for the two females in their twilight years however with news that a new enclosure will be built in 2008 - to be finished, well that's anyone's guess, although 2009 is being muted.

At night, the bears are locked in their cages but at their new stomping ground in a 6,000 square-metre park they will be able to gambol outside to their heart's content - well as much as 27 year-olds can....... The new riverside reserve is costing CH9.7 million (Approx £4.7M) to build and will extend along the Aare.

"The money is there and construction work will continue throughout this year. The re-opening ceremony is planned for summer 2009," said Berne's head of tourism Markus Lergier.

"Nevertheless we are looking forward to next year," said Lergier.

So are the bears.

Zürich Zoo

This isn't a bad zoo as zoos go, but still at what price do we imprison these animals? In particular here the Elephants and Black Rhinos were in distressed states.

The matriarch elephant never stopped swaying the whole time and the solitary Black Rhino paced up and down his enclosure, again without stopping.

Some of the smaller animals looked and behaved as though they were happy, the Harbour Seals in particular were playful, had a good environment and appeared healthy and robust.

But as far as zoos go in general, do we really need them?

Do we need to keep the big animals locked up like this when we cannot or won't provide them with much larger and more natural habitats?

Say NO to sharks finning

Switzerland can be an idyllic place to be in with its mountains, meadows and clean fresh air but it too would be drastically effected by a change in our oceans - even without a coastline.

A pet hate of mine is - shark finning.

A totally and utterly unnecessary act - apart from the obvious barbarism involved, without sharks the oceans will change so dramatically life on land will never be the same again.

The shark has for 450m millions years, been the apex predator of the oceans. They play a critical role in the evolution of other species but due to an insatiable appetite in Asia for sharks fin soup, a so called 'delicacy', since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%.

168 sharks are killed EVERY minute just for their fins.

Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark's fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea.

The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water).

Their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate is pushing many species to the brink of extinction.

Due to the clandestine nature of finning, records are rarely kept of the numbers of sharks and species caught. Estimates are based on declared imports to shark fin markets such as Hong Kong and China.

StopSharkFinning.net is campaigning to achieve a worldwide ban on shark finning. That means that all sharks caught must be landed intact - their fins must not be removed while the shipping vessel is at sea.

If you are concerned about the plight of sharks - an animal that has been around since before the dinosaurs - there are plenty of things you can do to help. So go to the campaigns page of Stop Shark Finning and take action now! STOP SHARK FINNING NOW

Klettern - at last!

This is the wall on the right where I was climbing to warm up. Ranging from 4c to 5c

I had a fantastic nights climbing! Two of the four dropped out late but I climbed with Markus a local Swiss. He's been climbing for about a year so it was good as he knew the walls well.

There are lots of different grades and overhangs like you wouldn't believe. I did a 5c lead climb without the top rope!

The quick draws are all about 1m apart and the one I was on to start with had about 8 quick draws to clip into and then the final one which was a bit of a doozy and needed 2 hands to get it to work!

We climbed for 2 1/2 hours so it was a really good workout.


They also have an auto belayer. It's on a pulley at the top of one section of the walls and you can move it along to about 8 different climbs. So it's brilliant I can go along everyday if I want and climb by myself after school.

It's very good but at the top you have to literally have a leap of faith because you drop about 3 feet until it steps into action! 3 feet might not sound much but it is up there!


Had a really great time with Markus and the lead climbing was very useful, especially as I have the course with Christoph Schaub lined up in a fortnights time.



Something to aim for......

Week 1

Well week 1 has been completed and I think my brain is still intact - although I'm not 100% on this....

Now all we have to do (all) is revise the entire weeks work in readiness for exam nummer eins on Montag - Oh blimey, I never was any good at exams.

Moving to my new place on Samstag morgen. It'll be in Dietlikon which is near the river but north east of Zürich. It's much closer to the klettern wall though which is excellent!

Went climbing last night... full report up next!

The Eiger - Switzerland's No: 1 Mountain

Eigernordwand

Eiger - Western Flank approach to summit

The Rote Fluh - is where the Hinterstoisser Traverse is and where the Toni Kurz team of 1936 met their untimely death. In the valley below is a plaque on a rock that says - 'The Eiger doesn't care'

Climbing indoors in Zürich

Trying to climb here has been reminiscent of trying to get booked in for courses at The Edge........... Yo Yo Climbing school have moved (twice) but before I knew that I took hundreds of trams and trains to locate the places they used to be! I really do know Zürich like the back of my hand now...

Finally fell into Kletterzentrum Gaswerk (largest indoor climbing centre in the world .... so they say) after walking for 2 hours trying to find it from Christoph's instructions.... I hope he never navigates on a mountain, he has no chance ..

Couldn't actually climb as there was no one I knew and it is a very big place, not nice and cosy like QE in Wimborne and no climbing buddy like David to hang out with.


So have emailed Christoph and said 'yes'! will do the advanced course on 22/24/26 September - I have to improve for when Roger gets back.

I was then wondering what on earth will I do in between times? My muscles will go to flab....

Then luckily the Zürich climbing lot suggested a group to go next Thursday - yayyyyyyyyy so I emailed Andrea and Nick and asked if I could tag along too and meet people and climb.

Phewy this is all a bit nerve wracking I have to say. I miss David, I wish he was here!

Nice climbing there RS

Class of 2008

There are three of us so far!

This is Natasha and Svetlana (L) both from Russia and Marco - our teacher from Switzerland who is great fun and can speak several languages - show off


.. and this is me with them.... well down there.....


The morning lessons are very good and intensive as far as grammar goes - I had no idea there were so many verbs and ways to say things in other languages - who said English was hard? It's easy!













The first morning Marco brought us all a Schoggigipfeli - which is a lovely chocolate croissant!

..and when he asked 'Mochtest du Schoggigipfeli ?' We all naturally said 'Ja gerne!'

Sunday in Zürich .............

The empty streets of Zürich on Sunday August 31st

All is quiet on the Zürich front..... nothing and I mean nothing happens in Zürich on a Sunday. So I naturally went for a boat ride around the lake.... just for a change!

Then I was part of an historic event in Switzerland (so I'm told) - the train stopped......


It did!

Half-way between Wadenswil and Zürich we ran over something (not anything living I hasten to add for the squeamish) it must have been a pole or branch or something like that. Whatever it was it was enough to grind to a halt the grosse Zug.

We sat there and sat there and sat there, for about an hour and a half and it just got hotter and hotter. We finally crawled into Zürich and we all tumbled out breathless for air. No complaints at all, except for the children and babies in our carriage of which there appeared to be about 38.....


Finally staggered back to the flat at 9pm, starving and hot.

Who said nothing happens in Zürich on a Sunday?