Page last Changed 28 Oktober 2009 17:13

Life never stops so……

December 2004
St. Anton ski opening, what a way to start the month.  We could ski all the way done to the village this year, more snow than the previous 2 years.  We even found some good off-piste skiing.  We had it all to ourselves. We didn't go to the concert this year as the snow was too good.  Christmas saw us skiing locally in Sörenberg,  great powder snow, poor Michelle is suffering with lack of fitness so we had to stop early on the second day.   New Years eve saw us back in St. Anton.  We enjoyed the ski show at night even if it wasn't as spectacular as last years.

November 2004
November the month of Birthdays. Duncan took Michelle out for a really nice lunch on her Birthday. The weather really wasn't up to much so we stayed home and enjoyed our fireplace most weekends. Sunday nights spent listening to the Flash back to year........ ( usually late 60's or 70's) on Radio Caroline.  Relaxing the weekends away.

October 2004
The work is finished (almost) the scaffolding removed. Duncan and I had a big clean up job before inviting our neighbours to a "renovations House warming" party.  We had been meaning to invite the neighbours ever since we moved in and finally did it. We have some great people living near. Everyone enjoyed themselves, but we are still eating the left overs. The last weekend in October saw us in Zermatt skiing, boy it was nice to be the skis again.

September 2004
Daniela went home after a great week here.  We did loads of touristy sightseeing. The middle of the month saw the start of the renovations outside.  The put up the scaffolding on the 10th and from then on it was non stop. The painter, the carpenter, and the roof specialists ( copper and tiles), all coordinated and working side by side.  The only unexpected problem was the hornets nest in the Bathroom wall.  Boy are those insects BIG!

August  2004
1. August is Swiss national day, so it is loads, of fireworks. We spent the day on the motorbikes, but at 31 C it was a bit too warm in the sun, the shady forest roads were great.   We had a lovely visit from Daniela (who we met in St. Anton) We managed to do lots things. On the 21st we went on the Hospital Motorbike day, the weather was mixed. We did a great tour through the Jura and managed to lose Michelle twice. Thanks once again to Hans-Peter for organising it again. A boat trip on lake Thun and walking along the shores, the Trümmelbach waterfalls, Schynige Platte with its fantastic views of both the Lakes of Thun and Brienz and of the Eiger Monch und Jungfrau mountains, and another Motorbike tour. She also did some sightseeing on her own as we had to work. 

July 2004
What a fantastic Month. We went up to Finland and Norway to see the North Cape and the Midnight sun. That was an amazing experience.  You could go walking at Midnight it was just like afternoon.  We flew from Zürich to Romanievi a distance of 2500km from there we had a hire car. We did a round trip of 2000+ km in 1 week.  The North Cape was very dramatic out on the cliffs, you really had the feeling of being at the end of Europe's mainland.  We saw loads of reindeer, and even 2 elks.  We spent the last few days in a Wilderness lodge in a National Park, loads of Husky dogs, they breed them, currently they have over 400, some just 3 weeks old.  The landscape was beautiful, rolling hills loads of lakes, dramatic coastlines, quaint fishing villages, fjords and gorges.  In July is the Sumiswald ( about 5 km away) Motorbike festival, they only hold it every two years. They  have some really good custom bikes. Both Duncan and I drool over the fantastic paint jobs. We both bought  some summer gloves, really necessary with these temperatures.. Helen a lady we met on our Lappland holiday came down from Basel, we had a great evening drinking beer and eating chilli at 2 am! We saw Simon and Garfunkel live in Basel. It was an amazing concert and the Everly brothers played too. It was a part of their farewell concert tour, but we will see. There were people all ages there, the atmosphere was great.

June 2004
Motivation high to finish our apartment. We have installed the fans in the bedroom and front room. Involving some very high ladder work. Duncan did and excellent Job. Michelle's nerves were finished by the time the second fan was installed.  That was the end of the high temperatures for a while, we enjoyed a series of wet weekends which helped us get more work done around home instead of spending all the time outside on the lakes or in the mountains.  Made the most of rare nice weather in early June with a trip up to Oschensee in Kandersteg, once the chairlift was repaired.

May 2004
The month of Maintenance between Painters Plumbers and Carpenters this place was like a building site. Not all finished yet, the outside work will be done in summer so we only need one lot of scaffolding. Duncan and I celebrated out 11th Wedding anniversary, boy time flies. We enjoyed a really nice day on Lake Thun on an old Paddle steamer.  May was lovely and warm, summer like with Temperatures over 30C.

April 2004
Easter Visit from Johny. We were supposed to go Heliskiing but the weather wasn't playing, we had high fog and snowfalls. So we went to Meiringen-Hasliber instead. Great powder and empty too. We guess the weather put most people off. Johny had hired a Motorbike so we did a tour around the Lake of Neuchatel. It was a cold day so lots of coffee stops. The last hour rained to we came home to warm ourselves in front of out open fire.  It was great to see that Johny's thumb has healed although he does need to take more care.

March 2004
Last time in St. Anton, it is kind of sad, but we really can't complain after more that 5 and 1/2 weeks of skiing here this season. We did a small ski tour with Alois and enjoyed a great pick nick in the mountains, what a way to end the season here. Again we made some great new friends (Hi Joya and Grant, not bad for a couple of Kiwi's, Daniela etc). Peter is incredible he is back skiing, only on piste and the easy stuff but after his accident this is incredible.  I guess skiing after a triple bypass, new hip and a new knee a cracked back bone isn't going to stop him. Bänz is an angel,  he bought back a red cross package from Oz, with Michelle's favourite chocolates, vegemite and beer, YUM YUM YUM. Can't convince Duncan that Vegemite is edible (all the more for Michelle though)

February 2004
Well it has now been 1 years since we bought our house. Guess we should finish unpacking. Johny managed so scare Michelle with some Photos of his Thumb exercises, it is amazing what you can do with digital photography, he really had her fooled for a while. We are back in St Anton Jürgen and Uschi are making for great après skiing and tobogganing. Now to work on Johny's motivation not to lie on the tobogganing track when the others are coming down. We missed the last bus home several times but it was well worth it. Fun nights at the Piccadily and the Underground bar. The snow was incredible too, thanks to Alois for yet another fantastic week with maybe the exception being the snow bridges (or 2 or 3) we had to cross. Michelle wouldn't have made if without Alois towing her across. The only sad moment the whole week was when Peter got hurt, he needed to be rescued by helicopter. No more skiing for him for a while, but he still came to the après ski.

January 2004
Wow we couldn't of had a better start to the new year. We went to St. Anton for Christmas and stayed until the 10th of January. The Christmas week we skied with Joshy and as of the 4th of January with Alois. We had fantastic snow and saw some old familiar faces. Some of which we had not seen for a while (Hi Renate) The first of January we had blue skies sunshine and new powder snow, wow what a way to start the year. In the Middle of January Bänz went to Australia to learn English. He stayed with Dan. Last week of January and we are back in St Anton. Alexandra came with us too, unfortunately it was a week of Injuries with both Alexandra (knee) and Johny (thumb) getting hurt. It was great meeting up with Olaf, Jenny and a lot of other friends.