Basel - home of the basilisk

Hello everyone,

firstly, eruopean keyboards are really confusing me, so i will not be using capital letters as that will give me a headache. secondly, brie. thirdly, swiss chocolate. Mmmmmm.... (*that* warrants a capital letter!)

I am now in Basel, Switzerland, hanging out with my sister at her very cute cosy flat which has the shared bathroom in the basement. also, we leave the flat to go out. we went to the zoo yesterday, which was most excellent but exhausting walking around all day and there were lots of noisy yelling sprogs which was not so fun. the novelty of cute little swiss children has worn off.

on my first day in europe (first proper day, as my "technical" day was half spent in frankfurt airport reading douglas adams and sleeping badly on the airport seats and wishing i was back on the lovely singapore airlines plane watching hitch hikers guide - hold on, there`s a theme here - and doctor who - what more could i want? oh yes, british film Millions (nice, feelgood but not too slushy), and an ep. of the show Coupling.) so anyway where was i? oh yes, first full none-exhausted day in europe, i went with nadia (my sis) to watch her do Kyudo (japanese archery) in a place called Bülach, then we went to Zürich and were given a guided tour by N`s friend Brigitte. i like Zürich muchly... one afternoon is not enough. All the little cobblestoned lanes .... Brigitte treated us to coffee (i have yet to have a decent swiss coffee) and cake at a place that is almost exactly how i imagine the coffee shop that Harry takes Cho Chang in Hogsmede in, is it the 4th Harry Potter book? for Valentines day. except that this one is in Zürich and the other one is in Scotland and fictional. it was covered in multicoloured fake flowers, pretty much, everywhere, lots of small tables packed in together, not so many couples kissing (as in HP) but a nice (er, yeah) swiss man serenading a couple of other Aussie sheilas (not us) with a version of Skippy the bush kangaroo. Not what i expected of switzerland, but amusing nonetheless. Cakes were very rich and very yummy.

Summer is touch and go here at the moment. Here today, but we have had a bit of rain and it`s not really all that warm. ah well, can^t have everzthing. let alone keyboards that make sense to me (rachel and dan, what is the secret magic trick to turning the keyboards into aussie ones??!) What else? I have been eating chocolate - so that i can make an informed decision about what chocolate i should bring with me to Berlin (next stop!) and, if there`s any left by then, Scotland and the UK. To share with you lovely folks I will be meeting up with at those places.

Nadia took me to her favourite bookshop, like a Basel-version of Book Affair for you Carltonites. They had an english section - luckily not too large or else i would have spent all day in there. And i bought "Fingersmith" for 1 swiss franc! (julia, are you proud of me?)

And Basel is home to many fountains with basilisks on them - i have drunk out of a number of them (the one^s youre meant to drink out of) but i have yet to meet a real basilisk so i can^t confirm if JK Rowling has got them right. But hopefully i will not be turned to stone.

I feel like i am writing in broken english (i wonder if that means my german is improving?) ... this keyboard ... anyway, sorry about that! I will try and be more witty and sparkling next time. Hope everyone is well. Take care.
xxx