• Zürich half marathon: I survived! 1:43:30. Pretty pleased as it was my longest run ever and a bit faster than I had intended. Lucky that didn’t backfire, really. My knees didn’t collapse and the weather was much better than forecasts suggested. The only thing I’d improve on is, uh, gastrointestinal training as I spent a couple of minutes in a portaloo.

    Big L hung around for 3 hours watching me and later Nanda running and was a little hero. Lots of high-fiving people and generally being a good sport.

    Marathon next year???

  • Everyone was healthy again this week!

  • After little L’s platelets thing we decided she would be better off with a nanny at home than at nursery. Nanda works from home and we feel more comfortable keeping little L nearby in case this health thing (from which she is so far recovering well) worsens. The nanny started this week and it is quite a relief for both me and Nanda to be able to focus on work without also juggling kids.

    Childcare in Switzerland is incredibly expensive and the combination of a nanny and daycare is eye-wateringly so but it’s the only way Nanda and I can feasibly work. It’s extremely stressful to try to do a job well while worrying about who’ll look after the kids. One of us could not work and stay with kids but I’ve already spent a couple of years doing this and my brain needs a change. We just need to accept that until they go to mandatory schooling we’ll be spending a small fortune on childcare. (And then a smaller fortune once they go to Kindergarten.)

  • Big L is excited that now she can say some words in Swiss German: gruezi (hello) and tschüs (goodbye). I am trying to get her to say en guete (have a nice meal) before eating as it’s practically law here.

  • Work is getting more interesting but I am definitely reaching the “knows enough to be dangerous” (or at least “knows enough to know he knows nothing at all”) phase. Lunch continues to be nice and I have mastered the espresso machine. It’s a hard life.

  • My permit arrived! I celebrated by switching my cruddy Aldi pay-as-you-go phone tariff to a Digitec Connect Handy-Abo.