The seasons are changing, and the last of the winter snows seem to be behind us.  Actually, they were behind us months ago.  We had an incredibly snowy November and December, then almost nothing since.

The skis have gone back into storage, and after 18 months here, I’ve finally succumbed to Swiss peer pressure and bought myself a pair of hiking boots.  No self-respecting Swiss person would be caught dead doing something without the right equipment for the job, and I got tired of getting disapproving looks from all the passers-by as we walked in the woods behind our house.  Even the deer shook their heads and cross the path, lest they be mistaken as being part of our hiking party.

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to update my blog, partly due to a heavy travel schedule at the end of the year and partly due to a much busier work life with my new role.  I have lots of photos that I need to get edited and added to the blog, and plenty of dialogue to accompany it, but for now a short update will have to do.

After a beautiful white Christmas with my parents here in Basel, I flew almost immediately after New Years to Hyderabad and Mumbai for a series of meetings.  Then it was over to New Jersey for a set of meetings, where heavy snows meant I got stuck on the runway at Newark airport for seven hours.  I arrived home a day late, just in time to take a quick shower and head out the door for a week’s skiing in Chamonix.

Skiing isn’t really the best way to describe what we did, because the slopes were mostly covered with ice.  There hadn’t been any new snow since the end of December, and it was nearly February when we went.

Back from Chamonix, a quick overnight in Munich and then over to Newark again for more meetings.  I managed to squeeze in a quick visit with my parents in Washington and do a little shopping.

Our thoughts now are turning towards vacation – we’re off to Paris and the north of France to visit with friends and family next weekend, and a week after that we’re off for two weeks to Singapore and Vietnam.  Can’t wait!

The Swiss have a well-deserved reputation for being a nation of quiet, conventional, conservative conformists.  And by-and-large, they live up to this reputation.  They’re good neighbours, have 2.4 well-behaved children, a dog that never barks, and drive a silver Audi.  You could be forgiven for assuming that they’re all cloned at birth.

Until you begin to dig a little deeper.  Then you notice the (otherwise very conservative) women with hair died a shocking shade of pink, purple, or blue. 

Or some crazy lady with a pet pig, walking through the centre of our village.

After one of the coldest, snowiest Decembers anyone can remember in Basel, followed by a spectacular white Christmas, it comes as something of a surprise to find the weather over the past few days positively spring-like.

It’s nearly 60 degrees today, and I’m out on the balcony grilling chicken before we head out for a walk in the forest behind the house.

It seems my master plan has worked.  All of my global air travel has caused enough global warming to bring Floridian weather to Switzerland.  Screw ice skating, I’m gonna teach my kids how to swim. 

Just hope there’s enough snow in Chamonix that our skiing trip next week isn’t ruined!

Haven’t had a chance to write on my blog for a while, but I was looking at my TripIt account and saw the tally for 2010:

17 trips, 132 days on the road, 32 cities in 14 countries, and 136,123 actual flight miles.

A pretty light year, travel-wise.

Sometimes everything just goes right. 

For months, we’d been planning for my parents to come over and spend Christmas with us in our place in Switzerland.  I booked their flights on Lufthansa, connecting in Frankfurt and then onto Basel.

About three weeks before they were supposed to fly, I got a phone call from Lufthansa telling me their initial flight had been cancelled and that they’d been reaccomodated on a flight via Munich.  What a saving grace that ended up being.  Flights across Europe were cancelled due to the heavy snowfalls, and Frankfurt airport ground to a standstill, but Munich was open and operating as per normal.  My parents managed to arrive in Basel about 15 minutes behind schedule, but otherwise without incident.

We brought them back to the house and a week of gluttony began!  On the 23^rd, the snow arrived and it continued snowing until Christmas day, about 8” in total and the first white Christmas in Basel for many, many years.  It was the perfect setting for a traditional Swiss Christmas dinner – roast goose, spaetzle, and red cabbage.

The next morning, the sun came out and it was a spectacular day for walking, so that’s what we did, before heading off for two days in Germany to visit old family friends.

And then it was time to send them home again, this time via Frankfurt.  While the airports in the north of Europe were all buried in snow, Frankfurt was open again as the snow had melted off.  They got back home right on schedule. 

I should have such luck every time I fly!

Steamed pork buns with cabbage and chives

They can accuse me of a lot of things, but splurging just because I’m on expenses isn’t one of them.  Here’s today’s delicious breakfast from a street vendor, steamed buns with pork & cabbage (delicious) and pork & chives (good, but not as tasty as the first).  Cost of breakfast, about $0.80.  I’m debating whether to put these on my expense report or not, as a matter of principle.

So much good food in Hong Kong, so little time.  If I lived here, I would look like Buddha.  Only fatter.