Been A While

Sorry folks I know it has been a while since my last update and of course so much has happened I am not sure how best to share it with you all!! Firstly my second exam has passed a couple of weeks ago now with a dissapointing result but still a good pass and we are now into our second week of hairsprings which is a very intense subject leaving us all very exhausted at the end of the day. At long last sleeping well again, had a couple of weeks where I kept waking during the night which as we all know can leave us feeling very tired in the morning. I have started writing some job application letters and distributing my CV to the companies I would most like to work for. We have the Basel Fair on next weekend which is a massive international watch fair and alot of company developements (including staffing) are hindering on the result of sale level etc at this fair.

So outside of school I don't have too much of a life with having only Sunday not at school but this is what I am here for and what I paid to come and do so I am enjoying soaking my time and energy into this. A group of us from school went to the Geneva car show last sunday, Hakan (from Sweden) drove. It is the biggest car show in the world, can't say I was overly impressed but there are alot of people and anything really exciting you want to see so does everybody else. It was a nice day outside of Champreveyre and Neucatel though and it was great to see a little bit of Geneve again. The picture shows one half of the show. It was pretty big.

Backing up a little, a couple of weekends ago a group of ten of us had a FEW drinks and headed on into to Neuchatel city for a bit of the night life. We had a fantastic time dancing the night away, can't remember exactly what time we got home but then sat around the kitchen having cups of tea before bed. An American has a fantastic bed time tea which I NEED to get for myself. It is a herbal tea of course and after drinking this I had only 4 1/2 hours of solid sleep and woke up feeling fantastic!! But all round a cheap night for me having only spent 5FR on bus there and taxi home as I had had enough to drink at home and it was far too much fun dancing to require more liquor only H2O required.

I have been in touch with another kiwi watchmaker over here that went through WOSTEP with my tuitor in NZ Richard Burgess in 1993 doing the complicated watch course. Robert and his wife Beatrice (also a watchmaker) live in Le Lecle which is 40minutes by train from Neuchatel. They invited me over for dinner on friday night and we had a fantastic time talking about watchmaking and life in Switzerland. They both work for fantastic companies Renaud & Papi and Vaucher respectively. Whilst I was there another kiwi watchmaker Dean (also former WOSTEP student) phoned, it was weird to hear a NZ accent. I have been speaking to friends and family back home of course but it is not the same as hearing a stranger talking. Hhhmm does that make sense or am I just weird??? I also have the contact details of another family friends friend but unfortunately have not made the effort to visit yet. She is alot further away and it would not make sense to only go for dinner and of course with working saturdays this posses as a small problem. It is not a very good excuse and I should really make more of an effort as it is very generous for people to offer hospitality to someone they have never met before.

I also had the wonderful experience of having authentic Italian rissotto cooked for me on wednesday night by a fellow Champreveyrien which tasted absolutely devine and is much better than the food down stairs. It was fresh and hot which is an improvement right from the start! Last night I was also spoiled by a different Champreveyrien cooking us authentic Bangladesh food, which was also very devine. He was slaving away in the kitchen for quite some time and made us four different dishes using wonderful spices that add flavor but not heat!!

Once again it is Sunday and with nothing open it is a great oportunity to catch up on Blogs (been very slack), letter writing and the all important study. Hope everyone is well, keep in touch, love hearing from you all. Best wishes very tired but inspired watchmaker Donna.