Happy Birthday Murphy

C2 and I have been married for 15 years and for 11 of those years, we have been blessed to share our life with a dog. Not just any dog, but a very special yellow Labrador who has contributed to the quality of our lives with her unconditional love, unfettered acceptance, and pure joy in ways that I cannot even begin to articulate. Murphy is a constant. She is woven into the fabric of our everyday lives; a continual background presence that we would be lost without.

Today she turned 11, getting up there in dog years, and as every day with her at this point is a gift, we celebrated with a cake that she could eat (vanilla almond with a cherry sauce center), sang her happy birthday and smothered her with hugs and kisses. Ya ya, I can hear the groans and the "oh puhlease's" being uttered. Whatever! You have missed something very special in life if you have missed sharing your love with a dog.

Murphy was born in Kingston, Ontario and we had her flown to us in Calgary when she was 8 weeks old; we were smitten and imprinted on each other instantly. From then on, she was our constant companion, accompanying us everywhere, and slept pressed against one of us every night; a comforting presence.

In her youth, she mountain-biked with us enthusiastically, though I could have fallen off a cliff in her haste to stay close to C2's wheel. We eventually had to stop biking with her when her knees began to wear and tear. To this day, she is a fantastic hiker and rambler, rarely tiring, and approaching every climb with the enthusiasm and vigour of a puppy; her heart full as long as she can keep an eye on all of us.

She vacations with us, provided we don't have to take an airplane, and has travelled happily from Geneva to Genoa, Lago Maggiore to Levanto, Lugano to Locarno, Burgundy to Provence, and throughout the Haute-Savoie. She loves ski holidays and chasing J up and down the tobogganing hill adjacent to our chalet. When we do fly, she is back in the loving care of her godparents, Marc and Nathalie who cared for her with such love when we business-travelled for years in Calgary.

Perhaps nothing has endeared her more to us than the relationship between her and J. He adores her and as an only child has depended on her for companionship, comfort, and security for all of his 6 years. The summer J was a newborn, the three of us walked to Annie's restaurant in Fish Creek Park religiously everyday. We would share a blueberry muffin and listen to the prairie dogs squeak at her. I have wonderful memories of that first summer.

She has taken ear-pulling, tail-pulling, toddler squeezing, teasing, and chasing with good humour and great patience. She has helped to teach J empathy and a love of animals. He is the first one to throw his arms around her during thunderstorms, and to throw a tennis ball for her outside.

I wouldn't trade all of the vacuuming, inevitable blond hair on my black clothes, muddy paw prints on my white floor, sock stealing, or poop-picking-up for a dog-free household for anything in the world. She has made our lives richer and our hearts bigger.

Happy Birthday Murphy-Murph!

A Saturday in the Life of the Swiss Family Hendricks

This past Saturday was a rare one with absolutely nothing scheduled. We took advantage of this rarest of occasions by indulging in a few spontaneous activities.

We finally cashed in the 30 CHF bon, J received from promotion last June at a bookshop in Plainpalais. He chose a book on planet earth and the solar system.

Then we went to lunch at our favorite pizza joint, Da Paolo's on rue du lac facing the jet d'eau, sheesh, feels like only yesterday, J and I were sharing a pizza margarita....clearly no more.

We saved the crusts to feed to the swans

After lunch, we spent a couple of carefree hours at 'Baby Plage' on Lake Geneva. It's a bit of a misnomer, but Baby Plage is a charming beach/playpark right on the lakeshore. Its' main attraction is the original swings, tree climbing apparatuses, and bridges all made from recycled bicycle tires. J has never tired of exploring all of it.

This is the old chap that makes all of the swings

We capped off our day with a pot of mussels in our back garden, cooked the way only C2 can and a crisp bottle of Sancerre. It was a really good day.

A Weekend in our Swiss Village

One of the greatests parts of our Geneva experience has been living in a typical Swiss village. One of the greatest ironies of our Geneva experience is that within the last couple of years, our Swiss village has become populated with increasing numbers of anglophones. Funnily enough, rather than inhibiting integration into village life, this fact has facilitated it by making us all feel a little less isolated.

This new reality was never better demonstrated that this past long pre- la rentrée scolaire weekend (back to school) which was spent attending back-to-back aperos, dinners, and brunches without ever starting my car. So in detail...

Thursday was another hot day with temperatures peaking in the mid-30s. At the end of the day, J heard his name being hollered over the high hedgerows in our back garden and we wandered over to our neighbours, recently returned from summering in Romania. J spent the next couple of hours in their pool while Ioli and I caught up. I must admit, my French language skills have somewhat suffered in the last couple of months.

A couple of hours later, I made my way over to my South African friend Leigh-Anne's for a ladies-only champagne evening under the stars. Lots of lively conversation and lots of laughs ensued between we Canadian, American, South African, British, Swiss, and Finn women - it was a great party. Cindy and I staggered home together around 2:00 am.

Friday was the last day of a weeklong football camp for J, and Cindy scooped him up for the afternoon to play with her guys. She called later in the day to invite us over for a pizza and red wine evening. It was a gorgeous warm evening, and again we had lots of lively conversation and lots of laughs. C2 was in Zurich for the day but J and I meandered home under the stars around 11:00 pm.

Saturday dawned bright and warm again and I spent most of the day working in the garden. My geraniums are spectacular this year! Around 6:00, the three of us walked down the road to Jawahara and Bijoy's house for an amazingly prepared Indian dinner. Mmmm, my mouth is watering remembering that meal. Yet again, lots of lively conversation and lots of laughs. We wandered home admiring the stars in a clear sky around midnight.

Sunday morning, I dragged myself out of bed at 8:00 for a 12k run. I would not normally be quite so motivated quite so early on a Sunday but I'm training for the 16K Paris-to-Versailles race in late September and am adhering to a training plan. I could have run later but...wait for it..yep at 10:00 am, C2, J and I walked down the road and around the corner to our new American and Romanian friends, David, Lavinia, and their little son Dacian (see earlier blog about Kentucky, Transylvania and a Bottle of Palinka) for a champagne brunch that went on for several wonderful hours. Needless to say there was much lively conversation and lots of laughs.

All in all a pretty terrific weekend in a pretty terrific place with some pretty terrific people!

The Best Love in Life is to Live a Great Life

Or so was our collective assessment after a wonderful day yesterday spent in the company of our Swedish/Dutch friends Elin, Ard and their two kiddos Thomas and Julian.

Early in the day, we drove up to the village of Bernex in the shadow of the Dent d'Oche mountain in the Alps of Haute-Savoie, France. It was a really hot day in a very hot August this year in Geneva and the sun beat down on us from a sky absent of clouds. We started our hike around 11:00 following a twisty rooted shaded track along a river.

Close to 2 hours later, we had gained about 350 meters in elevation, reached the top of our climb and were greeted by a fountain flowing with icy, fresh, delicious Evian water. Bernex is just north of the town famous for its' pricy bottled water, and we were gulping it in by the mouthful. We also had an amazing view down to Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) about 13 kms away. We lingered for a while, enjoying the views, eating wild raspberries, watching the kids and Murphy play.

Eventually, we began our descent and about an hour later arrived at an auberge near the trailhead that beckoned us like an oasis in the desert. Hot, thirsty, hungry, and tired, we were seated at a table under fragrant baskets of flowers and protected by broad leafy branches.

Glasses of ice-cold beer were quickly delivered - heaven! We spent a delightfully memorable 3-hours in this garden paradise eating fluffy omelettes prepared with French perfection, spicy boeuf tartare, and chevre chaud salads. All the while, our kids connected with other children at the stream that bubbled alongside the restaurant, and Murphy snored under our table.

We eventually and reluctantly left around 5:00, returned to Elin and Ard's house in Anthy-sur-Leman and cooled off with an early evening swim in lac Leman followed by a late barbeque. We spent the day in the company of our family, our dog, and good friends. We explored part of this magnificent region we are blessed to live in, and we ate with gusto surrounded by splendour. What else do you need in life?

The Best Laid Plans

I just knew it was too perfect a summer, something just had to go wrong. The whims of fate are funny that way, they lull you into a peaceful sense of security that all is well and then WHAMMO! I know, I know I sound ungrateful and I'm sure I will sound more moany as you read further on but humour me, I'll get over it in a few days and I need to vent.

It has been an idyllic few weeks, long walks with J and Murphy, strolls into town, swimming in Lake Geneva, our Italy trip, a few wonderful days last week with Sheila and her family at their house in the south of France, and looking forward to a couple of weeks reuniting with our good friends and my much-loved family at the end of August in Calgary and Victoria. J and I had spent lots of time picking out the perfect gifts for his Grandma, his cousins, aunt, uncle and friends.

So I hate to fly, so it's a long trip, it's worth the effort. J and I actually have a really good time on the 12+ hour plane journey, we eat smarties, watch movies, fight over the childmeals, and talk about all that goes on at an airport and on an airplane. He's a great and seasoned traveller and loves his far-away family to pieces. He adores staying at Grandma's apartment. He throws the garbage down the shute and accompanies her 16 floors down to the laundry room. He redecorates with gusto, everyone knows that wooden horses belong in the bedroom not the hall! He loves Uncle Phil's waffles and Titi's pizza. Adores being teased by his cousin Justin but not his cousin Jordan. Worships the ground Nee-Nee walks on but hates mean old Leo the cat. All the things, little and big that make up a family and family connections.

So you can understand my concern when last Saturday night (4 days prior to departure for Canada), J developed his first-ever ear infection. Otitis externa, the pediatrician at the emergency room advised us Sunday morning. Bad case but should clear up within a few days. Fast forward to Monday night, and hours of screaming in pain and little sleep.

First thing Tuesday morning and a visit to his regular pediatrician confirmed diagnosis and severity and issued new antibiotics and pain meds. Last night more hours of pain-filled screaming. I've never seen J in such agony, and me caught up in concern for him, leaping to my usual worst-case scenario of mastoiditis, and begging the whims of fate for a fast turnaround. 8:00am this morning, it was make or break to leave for the airport and J was on my lap writhing and crying in pain.

Bottom line, we didn't get on the plane. I'm so disappointed I could cry, he's so disappointed, he did cry.

Summer Sojourn to the Sea

I am still floating along in an Italian reverie, so lovely was our annual holiday in Levanto. This time, we invited our friends Marc and Nathalie to join us on our summer sojourn to this most perfect of Italian Rivieran towns. Marc and Nat are fellow native-Montrealers though we only met after both couples had relocated to Calgary and discovered our mutual love of yellow Labradors. I have previously blogged about how thrilled we were when they moved to Geneva with the Royal Bank of Canada.

Still for all of the years that we have known each other, we have never holidayed together. Factor in one high-energy 6-year old (J), one anxiety-ridden Labrador (their Ben), one Labrador afraid of Ben's red collar (our Murphy), two previously self-avowed non-beach people (Marc and Nat), and it would be difficult to predict the success of the holiday. Well it was a smash success!

It is hard to put into words why we are so passionate about Italy, and so particularly attached to this part of it. It's the soft ochre tones that cause Levanto to glow at sunrise and sunset, it's the passion of the small restaurant owners who take such pride in their seafood, and who delight in offering limencellos at the end of a perfect meal, it's the easy days spent on the beach, wondering through town for a foccacia lunch with an ice-cold glass of white wine, it's the gelaterias open until the wee hours of the morning, it's the coconut man on the beach hollering 'Allo, coco bella coco' and rinsing perfectly sweet crunchy slices of coconut in fresh water before handing it to you with a smile and a 'grazie'. This year it was also the glass of champagne shared with old friends on the balcony of our apartment watching the sun set over the Mediterranean.

I like this picture though blurry because it captures some of the colour of Levanto

We hiked Cinque Terre again for our 4th year, and I experienced one of those perfect life moments. The temperature was well into the 30s with little breeze, and we had walked from village #5 Riomaggiore to village #4 Manarola. We had eaten a fanastic lunch at the same restaurant in Manarola that we had with my family last year. We were not far into our walk to village #3 Corniglia when we really began to heat up, the dogs were panting heavily and our energy levels were waning.

Manarola

All beach access in the villages prohibits dogs so on we soldiered. About 10 minutes later, we encountered a small cove with cliff divers and a small path that wound down to a ladder into a little grotto. Well we sprinted down, Nat, Marc, and J stripped down to their skivvies (clever me was wearing a bikini under my clothes), and we threw ourselves into that amazing water with abandon; Murphy and Ben were in close pursuit. The water was utterly delicious and we frolicked for a long time. That perfect moment was only marred when Marc stepped on a sea urchin and received multiple spears into his foot...he is still removing them.

The little grotto we discovered outside of Manarola

Together we 5 also explored more of the coastline near our own beautiful beach by boat, and we found another lovely little grotto at which we spent two long leisurely afternoons swimming and snorkling, and feeding bread to fish. At times it felt like we were swimming in an aquarium.

The little grotto up the coastline from our beach

J was in heaven indulging in two of his favorite Italian pastimes, pesto and puffo. Pesto, of course being the dish which traces its' birth to Levanto's region of Liguria. Puffo, on the other hand, is the most vile blue flavour of gelato, sigh a waste, when he could have been having strachiettella or bacia flavours. His cousin Jordan would have been proud.

Me and Nat

Marc and Nat got our passion, they understood it, they shared it, and they were as enraptured. So reluctant were we to bid goodbye to each other at the end of our trip that we all trouped back to our house in Geneva late Saturday and C2 whipped up a seafood risotto that would have made the restaurants in Levanto proud.

Related Posts:

Leaving Levanto

La Dolce Vita

Summer Means Pesto and Lots of It

Drying the basil

We're preparing to leave this Saturday for a week of fun and sun in our favorite Italian beach town of Levanto. Levanto is in the region of Liguria, perhaps most well-know for it's port town of Genoa and the spectacular heritage site of Cinque Terre, but for us, it's all about being in the birthplace of pesto!

The Hendricks family are serious pesto afficianados. No jarred pesto for us! I first discovered its' pungent deliciousness in my early 20's at a small italian restaurant across the street from my apartment on rue St. Mathieu in Montreal. After C2 and I hooked up, we made regular summer pilgrammages to the largely Italian Jean Talon market to buy armfuls of fragrant basil. We would spend the rest of the day lovingly picking and rinsing the delicate green leaves before making enough quantity to freeze and enjoy all winter long.

We carried the tradition through our years of living in Calgary routing out basil wherever we could find it, and passed our love of it onto our son J. Fortunately, Geneva's markets are full of basil beginning in early July, and this past Sunday, I picked up several bunches at the Ville-la-Grande market. We spent part of a hot afternoon that day making and freezing a couple of months worth. For the record, years ago, we used to be more purist and made our pesto using a mortar and pestle, but now use a food processor which cuts production time dramatically.

Here is our recipe for pesto:

Ingredients:

Several bunches of fresh basil, picked from the stems, rinsed and dried

Several handfuls of pine nuts toasted in a dry pan

6-7 cloves of garlic

3-4 large pinches of coarse sea salt

good olive oil

Add all ingredients except olive oil into a food processor. You may have to do several batches depending upon quantity. Work in small batches if using a mortar and pestle.

Add a little olive oil and pulse food processor a couple of times. Press the on button and add more olive oil from the top feeder until mixture resembles a wet paste. Stop as necessary and push basil stuck to sides of food processor back into mix. Add more salt to taste.

Freeze pesto in ice cube trays for about 8 hours then remove cubes and freeze them in a freezer bag. One or two cubes will do for a dinner for 4-5 people.

Personal Tips:

1. Pesto is best served on a pasta with ridges which better hold the sauce such as penne rigate or farfalle (bows). Add a little of the hot pasta water to the pesto in a large bowl to thin the pesto a bit and mix the cooked pasta directly in same bowl.

2. We do not add parmesan cheese to the original mixture as many recipes call for but rather in copious fresh amounts when serving.

3. Serve with grilled chicken on top.

The Boys of Summer

Here are a few photos depicting some of our early summer experiences so far...

Well, if you're going to give me a hose...

Why bounce on it when you can read on it?

There has got to be a way to make money out of all those cherries we keep picking!

OK, well if I can't sell them, I might as well share them with my best pal.

Sunflowers, June 20

We are literally surrounded by sunflower fields this summer, they are on every corner in our village.

Same sunflower field about 10 days later.

Sunflower heaven!

Promotion 2009

Another year living in beautiful Geneva, and another Promotion. Promotion is an event that the Swiss do so very very right. At the end of June, each village dresses itself up in flags and prepares for an evening celebrating the promotion of each of its' students from one grade to the next.

The Mairie, which in essence is an executive of village elders, had bestowed a gift on each of the kids during the last week of school; a very generous 30 CHF coupon to a bookstore. Then at 4:30 on a hot afternoon last Saturday, all of the school children lined up behind their respective teachers and marched behind two bands, the aforementioned village elders, a group of ladies in traditional dress, and the local volunteer pompiers/sapeurs (firemen). They proudly walked the length of the main street through our village to the claps and cheers of the local population.

Following the parade, we all gathered on a village green crowded with bouncy castles, mini-roller coasters, barbapapa (cotton candy), popcorn, candy, and drink stands, tents lined with tables, benches, a dance floor, and a live band. The pompiers/sapeurs supplied barbequed saucisses, frites, salad, wine, beer, and ice cream.

It was an incredibly convivial and communal atmosphere. The kids scattered to play on the rides and games, and the adults mingled, chatted, and caught up on each other's summer plans. This year, we even had a well-attended anglophone table populated by Canadians, Americans, South Africans, Romanians, Finns and Norwegians. We are a slice of the international flavour of Geneva.

Promotion has been one of my favorite Swiss experiences, particularly in our small village. It has been a wonderful way for J to bid adieu to another year of school, to dwell on the friendships, and important moments achieved during the year, to be reminded of the importance of school in his life, and to build excitement for the next chapter.

Related Posts: Hurrah, J is Promoted from 1ere Enfantine

Transylvania, Kentucky, a Barbeque and a Bottle of Pálinka

What do you suppose the odds are in a tiny Swiss village outside of Geneva, of finding and celebrating a Transylvanian-Kentucky connection? Ha! Well not only did we find it but we turned it into a new tradition - the Transylanian-Kentucky Summer Barbeque.

Ok, to connect the dots...the first dot are my wonderful neighbours Gilles and Ioli who clearly never received the Swiss instruction manual on maintaining a cool reserve toward all foreigners. They are Swiss and Romanian (specifically Transylvanian) and speak French, Romanian and very decent English.

The second dot are a recently-arrived-to-our-village-from Louisville, Kentucky family who moved into the old farmhouse formerly co-occupied by J's favorite clutch of chickens. David is the native-Kentuckian, Lavinia is Romanian (specifically Transylvanian) though she spent many years in Kentucky too. They speak English and Romanian - no French. and have her Romanian-only speaking Grandmother living with them. With me so far?

The last dot are our friends from around the corner Bijoy and Jawahara who are American not-too-recently arrived from California but who were both educated at the University of Kentucky and still have family living in Lexington. They speak only English (plus several other Indian languages). Bijoy has a hankering to go to Transylvania to dig into the history of Vlad the Impaler AKA Dracula. Bijoy's interest was the trigger for our party.

So, last Saturday night, we invited the 3 families including kids, the Romanian-only speaking Grandmother, and Lavinia's Romanian free-spirited father visiting from California over for a barbeque to make merry in 4 languages. We sat outside in the garden sheltered as much as possible from La Bise which was making an unwelcome early summer appearance. We ate classic American/Canadian barbeque including a cherry cobbler made from cherries from our tree and the wine and conversation flowed freely. All that was missing was a Gypsy folk band or a bluegrass banjo.

Gilles introduced a bottle of Pálinka late into the evening. In short, Pálinka is a double-distilled plum brandy and considered the national drink of Transylvania. It is vile, throat-burning, gag-inducing, tongue-loosening, laughter-causing plonk. C2 had 4 of them.

The only downside to the evening? All Romanian eyes rolled when any attempt to discuss Vlad was made. Apparently Romanians view discussing this part of their popular history as distasteful and tiresome. Who knew?

Heaven is My Corner Cherry Tree

Our cherries have been utterly magnificent this year. Sweet, juicy, plump and not a cherry worm in sight (unlike previous years).

The tree also doubles as a perfect shady picnic spot on a hot day. J, Murphy and I have passed many an hour under its' leafy umbrella.

J and I polished off this entire bowl after school today. Next on the menu: cherry crisp, cherry ice cream, cherry pie...

And Now He is 6

I'm sitting in front of my computer with a glass of wine, watching the sun set over Mont Blanc with the satisfied feeling that today I was a good parent (those positive parenting moments occur so infrequently). J turned 6 today and we celebrated with a party attended by a dozen of his classmates in our back garden.

Thankfully and unlike last year, the weather was perfect - sunny, hot and around 26c. C2, was unable to take the time off to assist as he had some long-standing important meeting scheduled today (a likely story - coward!), fortunately, my mum more than took up the slack.

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This year's theme was Disney in keeping with our visit to Disneyland Paris a month or so ago. C2 rendered a perfect life-size Mickey Mouse face in support of our 'Colle-le-nez-sur-Mickey' game, a variation of the Canadian classic 'Pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey'. Sounds simple enough, but explaining the game in detail entirely in french is not so simply done. However, they got the general idea and the game was a hit.

Popping the kids champagne - always popular

The game 'Statues' went over well too (thank you Hannah Montana and your 'Hoedown Throwdown'), as did wacking the heck out of the packed-to-the-brim 'Pirates of the Caribbean' pinata. Still, the bulk of the time was joyfully spent by this group of six-year olds on the trampoline, the swings, and at the sandbox; nice that the classics still have appeal.

I don't know how my darling boy got to be 6 but he is beautiful, thriving, confident, well-adjusted, assertive, and healthy, and I am one grateful and happy mother.

Not much Happening

I haven't posted lately as there hasn't been much happening of particular note. So here is a brief stream of consciousness with some goings-on.

There have been 5-year old behavioural shenanigans that I am attempting to deal with somedays more effectively than others. J is going through an argumentative stage where he debates every decision to death and adopts a defiant position seemingly for the rise it gets out of us. I'd like to think that our family thrives on the democractic principle of meritocracy but lately we've been teetering between banana republic and autocratic rule. I'm working on it and Mighty Mom's new blog 'Creative Parenting' is helping.

Otherwise, the weather in Geneva has been sensational. Last weekend, the temperatures never dipped below 30c though this week has been a far more tolerable 25c with brilliant sun. During my run today, I actually had to pause and drink in the spectacular views of fast-growing sunflower fields and sky-stretching cyprus trees in my foreground framed by crystal-clear Alps in the background. Roses are in perfumed full-bloom and it's not even the end of May yet.

We spent the afternoon and evening yesterday with my friends Lisa and Arthur and their kiddos whom I haven't seen in ages. It was really really good to catch up with them. And, you can't go wrong sitting around a table outside drinking champagne and eating barbeque. It was a good day.

My mum's 3-month visit with us is fast coming to a close - bummer! She returns to Canada a week from tomorrow. It's hard to believe how fast her visit with us went. On the up side, I just booked tickets for a quick 2-week trip to Calgary and Victoria for J and I. It will be good to visit Canada in the summer after the miserable weather we had last Christmas. J and I have a date to decorate my dad's memorial tree with Christmas decorations as it was too bloody cold to venture into Fish Creek Park last December.

Four weeks of school left, then school promotion and summer is officially upon us. Woo hoo! We're heading to our usual piece of heaven in Italy in July. This time we're bringing Marc and Nat with us. Shortly after, we plan to join Sheila and her gang for her birthday at their house in the south of France. A week after that J and I head to Canada.

So that's all that's new for the moment. Oh that and I finally ordered a Mac powerbook. I'm hoping that having a computer that isn't two long floors above the main part of the house will help me in my quest to find more time to devote to writing. Watch this space.

2:01.20

Well, it's done and I'm happy...happy it's over that is, to quote Cindy. Seriously, the half-marathon was a great experience and overall lots of fun. The morning dawned slightly overcast and cool with no wind - perfect! Cindy, Leigh-Anne and I took the tram to the start on the Quai Wilson as much of the downtown core was closed to traffic for the race. We met up with several other acquaintances and chatted to lower our nervous energy.

But at last the start gun fired and we thousands were off. It took a while to get through the start and to navigate the throng of runners and into a stride but eventually I did. The course wound down the Quai Wilson, across the Mont Blanc bridge, through downtown and then headed south into the Vernets area crossing the Arve river a couple of times. Eventually we wound our way back up the river toward the jet d'eau and followed the Quai Gustav Ador as far as the village of Cologny to the turn-around point which by then I was desperately seeking. The turn-around marked approximately 5K back to the finish.

I followed my plan pretty well and really only began hurting around the 16K mark. The 2-hour pace-setters were always in my line of sight but I didn't have anything left to give as I neared the finish. Those last 3K were the hardest I have ever run but run them I did and crossed the finished line exhausted but ecstatic.

So, I'm happy that I ran the race, proud of the accomplishment, pleased I achieved my goal time and now that it's over, bugged at myself for not breaking the 2-hour mark. Errgh, guess I know my next goal!

Leigh-Anne, Cindy and me post-race, post-shower, tired but toasting our accomplishment

YES I CAN (I think)

Two days to go and here's my plan for the Geneva half-marathon this Sunday.

Find the 2-hour pace setter, take the first 5K to find a comfortable rhythm and stride, hold that pace for the next 10K. For the last 6.975K, hang on for dear life, keeping the 2-hour pace setter in my line of sight.

My nagging hamstring and achilles strains are no worse, in spite of a day walking around Evian-les-Bains today in pretty but not practical shoes. The weather forecast looks ok, sun/cloud with a temperature around 21c.

Much of the race takes place around both sides of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) and lucky for us, the Julius Baer Challenge regatta also takes place this weekend which includes the Swiss team Alinghi, training in their defence of the America's Cup next year. Cool - stuff to watch while lamenting my burning lungs and screaming knees.

My iPod is updated with a longer playlist and I've started carbo-loading. I've also put a bottle of champagne in the fridge to toast the occasion with my fellow competitors and friends, Cindy and Leigh-Anne whom I've invited over with their families for a post-race apero on Sunday afternoon. Okay, I think I'm ready...

Guilty Pleasures - Tag You're It

One of my favorite bloggers happens to also be a really good friend, a literary phenom, and an intellectual giant. So it was really satisfying to discover that even Jawahara indulges in the odd guilty pleasure.

Jawahara tagged me in her latest blog, to 'fess up to one of my recent guilty pleasures. Ok, here it is. My friend and young-adult novelist, Katie, lent me the book Twilight a couple of months ago. For those of you living under a rock, the Twilight series written by Stephanie Meyer is a New York Times bestseller and the first novel was one of the best-sellers of 2008. It sat on my shelf for quite a while, though, while I focused on books for my book club.

Last weekend, I found myself between books and picked up Twilight on a lark. Suffice it to say that for the next 48 hours I largely ignored my family, the news, feeding my animals and pretty much anything else that begged my attention as I found myself completely absorbed in the romance between the vampire Edward and new girl Bella. I finished it Monday morning and headed straight to the DVD store to rent the film which I watched in solitary delight that night (C2 being in South Africa and my visiting mum being in the U.K.).

In the final analysis, the movie was disappointing, seriously wooden acting, though Edward was divine. Is that a little on the 'ewww' side, given his age? Ah, tant pis, hence the guilty pleasure. Tag you're it!