Weeks 25 & 26 - All as quiet on the western front as it gets with 2 boys

I realise I’m in danger of posting for the sake of it at this point, but I want to continue the blog to the end of the school year for two reasons:

1 So when I’m old and decrepit (next year) I can look back and laugh at my worries
2 Because who knows what has yet to happen that is new and unusual and will send me running either round the block in frustration or straight to the wine cellar …. ?

Well, very little to report in terms of our household and anything new with school. Our routine continues busy and at times manic, but hey. I think that’s life with kids.


Two things of note elsewhere in the gemeinde, however.

The first is that a 16 year old girl is shot dead in the car park at the local shopping centre, on a Saturday evening. The most gist I can glean from the paper coverage is that it’s something to do with Balkan drug gangs. Apologies for my ignorance – but the paper’s gone out for recycling now so difficult to check. This is pretty shocking for Switzerland, I know, but before here we lived in Manchester; in broad daylight, I used to drive through certain areas not far from where we lived, as fast as possible and with the car completely locked. It's not like that here.

The second thing is that we have now had 2 or 3 letters about some sort of sexual incident involving a 15 year old girl at the local secondary school. Obviously this is of more immediate concern. The letters are rather complicated, though, and we haven’t seen the neighbours to try to get to the bottom of the story. However, OH has managed to work out that the letters refer to the accused’s nationality (ie not Swiss) and are trying to explain that not everyone of certain nationalities (whatever they are....) should be tarred with the same brush. Seems an intelligent and pragmatic reaction.

And the third thing, on a wider note, is the business about Lucie the au pair from Fribourg who was found dead in Baden. You just don’t hear about these things as often as in the UK, so it’s really shocking – and of course devastating for her family and friends. A stark reminder to tell the kids that they mustn’t talk to strangers. Difficult when they’re taught at school to greet everyone they see with “Gruezi” – I guess it’s a question of teaching them boundaries.