SWING THAT BY ME AGAIN?

OG and I just spent a very pleasant week in Switzerland with our two great grandaughters. It had been our intention to view new build chalets in the Valais but that proved to be impossible with two lively little girls in tow, so practically every day was spent at the swimming pool. No hardship there though! This particular pool is a series of natural 32C mineral pools and very child friendly.

Switzerland has no concept of "Health & Safety". The children are left free to roam and enjoy. Imagine a slide like this in England!



And this suspension bridge is over a 750M gouge. To give you an idea of how scary that is it's like slinging a suspension bridge between two structures more than twice as tall as the eiffel tower with a raging torrent running in the valley far below. Added to the fear factor is the sensation of terror you feel as it sways in the wind and rocks from side to side as you walk. We thought that it would be a great scary experience for the girls. It was, but scared? Nah. They deliberately rocked the bloody thing, howling with laughter as OG and I clung on for dear life.



And then we did a very silly thing. We re-visited Villar, the area where we used to live and fell in love with it all over again. Unfortunately it is a very expensive area and way, way beyond our reach unless we care to take out a mortgage again, which we have no intentions of doing.

Now the plan is to do nothing until next spring for various reasons including-

1. We should know more about the status of OG's cancer. He goes for another CT scan this month, with results on 4th September. I must say that he hasn't been feeling too great and is not extremely optimistic at the moment, although he looks very well.

2. The house renovations and a commitment that I have will be finished, giving us more time to sanzy doodle about.

3. Maybe our flat in Scotland will sell giving us the additional funds to afford an apartment in Villars again.

When I first mooted this as an idea the two girls got over excited at the prospect of another visit to the Alps in Spring. They don't quite get the concept of us needing to be child free so that we can concentrate on the task in hand. To them every day is an adventure. They absolutely love it there and have never forgiven us to selling our apartment.

And finally .... this comes compliments of DogLover -

The Highest Human Position In The World

Do you know who holds the highest position in the world?

President Barack Obama? Nope. Pope Benedict? Nope. The Dalai Lama? Nope.

Do you want to know WHO that person is? It's Babu Sassi, a fearless young man from southern India, and the cult hero of Dubai 's army of construction workers.

Known as the "Indian on the top of the world", Babu is the crane operator at the world's tallest building, the 819-meter burj dubai (http://www.burjdubai.com/ which, incidentally, is just a tad higher than the suspension bridge that we were on.

His office, the cramped crane cab perched on top of the Burj, is also his home.
It takes too long to come down to the ground each day to make it worthwhile - although, when the building is completed, its elevators will be the world's fastest.

Stories about his daily dalliance with death are discussed in revered terms by Dubai 's workers. Some say he has been up there for more than a year, others whisper that he's paid 30,000 dirhams ($8,168) a month compared with the average wage of 800 dirhams a month.

But everyone agrees, he's worth it - because nobody else would have the courage to do the job!