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2012 ist ein Schaltjahr. (Thanks to Marathon Sprechen for my Word of the day!)

Today is consequently that odd day that only happens once every four years, and it was decided that today would be Digital Upgrade Day.

So, I'm now watching Switzerland vs Argentina on SF Zwei HD. As you can see, I have the subtitles switched on. Never one to miss a learning opportunity, me!

As I post, (83 minutes down) the score at the Wankdorf is 1:1, with goals scored by the star players of each team - Messi and Shaqiri. Die Schweiz gleich gegen Argentinien aus.

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Fastnacht is over. All that's left is the confetti that is still evident on Marktgasse. Admittedly, less than yesterday when I collected lots of it yesterday as I pulled my case along, but there are still remnants of the little coloured paper shapes that were thrown.

bunt - coloured
mehrfarbig - multicoloured
einfarbig - one coloured

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Böögg verbrennen mit grossem Feuerwerk (featuring Jude in profile!)

I arrived home just in time to see the fireworks through our wondow as we ate dinner then Jude went off with his Dad to investigate the fire.

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 Fastnacht part 2.

 Some people sleep through the noise; others need ear defenders!

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Fastnacht hits Winterthur whilst I'm away :o(

Over the next four days I'll post photos taken by my beloved whilst I'm on the south coast of England!

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Heute ist so ein schöner Tag!

(images supplied by husband as I was in England!)

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Ich bin erkältet. 

Ich habe eine Erkältung. Ich habe Kopfschmerzen und ich bin viel Niesen. Ich habe auch eine trefende Nase.

One of the challenges of living in another country is that you are unfamiliar with the makes and brands of products. Add to that a different way of doing things and a bit of a language barrier. When I have a cold in England I pop off to the supermarket or chemist and get some cold and flu tablets or just take paracetamol. In Switzerland you can't buy medicine in supermarkets - 'over the counter' means over the counter here - and aspirin seems to be favoured over paracetamol. Below is what I was advised to take by the Apotheke. The tablets are full of flower essences and the powders (right) contain aspirin. I'm not saying that they won't work - they may well do, and I have nothing against different approaches, but I'll still be stocking up on a few 'essentials' whilst in the UK over the next few days!

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Today at Deutschkurs we talked about sending and receiving letters and packages at the PostOffice or die Post so I thought we'd have a postbox or ein Briefkasten today. As in Spain, postboxes in Switzerland are yellow.

To post a letter to England you must buy eine Briefmarke (same in Swiss German) or stamp and it will cost you 1.30CHF or 1.40CHF. Our homework was to look at http://www.post.ch/  and work out how much it would cost to send a variety of things to places around the work. 

We also learned that a small parcel - ein kleines Paket - is called ein Päckchen or Päckli. 

 Words that end -chen in German are diminutives ie a little something, and in Swiss German they use -li for the same purpose.
zum Bespiel -
ein Brot bread- ein Brötchen a roll - Büürli/ Weggli

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Today is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day. It will now also be known in our house as Fastnacht which means eve of the beginning of the fast.
Today's photo is the advertisement in the window of Spikus (local toy shop!) for the Fastnacht festivities. Which I'm going to miss. Which is annoying. However John and the boys will take lots of photos and enjoy it for me I'm sure.
(more German tomorrow I promise - Ich habe eine Erkältung und ich muss schlafen.

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Today's photograph is a railway station sign taken by John.  One of the things we love about living in Switzerland is the names of places. In fact we've always been fascinated by names of bus stops etc (Isaac aged about 5 knew all the bus stops from our campsite in Interlaken into the town centre thanks to the announcements on board!)

 The boys were amused by Töss - even when the umlauts were pointed out -, we all love Pfäffikon because it sounds nice, and on Saturday a Twitter conversation began about what Rapperswil (rappers will) do.

However, this station, pronounced 'ow' has to be one of the best.

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This lovely chocolate house caught my eye today in the window of die Bäckerei in Obertor.
A heated debate was held as to whether it is actually made of chocolate or cardboard, but hard to tell at 9pm on a Sunday night...

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Two images today. 

This is my original, chosen for my youngest Jude who loves dogs.

We went to Rapperswil today and noted that it must have more opticians / optical boutiques than any other town we've ever visited (and Winterthur has many!)  This one was particularly noteable thanks to the doggy glasses. And they really do sell dog glasses - look!

Hundebrillen - Doggie glasses

Schutzbrillen für Hunde - Safety goggles for dogs

d'Sonnebrülle - sunglasses

 

And then we came across this potted tree outside a house by the Schloss. It's not so much the tree as the sign on the pot that caught the eye. In case the writing is too small, it says..

Ich bin keine Hundetoilette

(I'm not a dog toilet!)

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Kein Deutschkurs am Freitag but today's photo is a poster publicising Migros Klubschule.
Klubschule is, as my teacher Ute said last week, the biggest adult education provider in Switzerland.
I'm learning German but there are many other things I could do too - art, cooking, fitness, ICT, relaxation and much more. The poster lists some of the possibilities.
One question though - Klubschule is run by Migros so shouldn't I have got lots of Animanca when I paid my course fees... 47 by my calculations!!

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Following on from yesterday's post, THIS is more to my liking.
I favour a dark chocolate with high cocoa solid content and this particular Schoggi schmeckt sehr gut.
A present for Valentinestag from John.
Switzerland is blessed with many a wondrous chocolate maker - Vollenweider, Sprüngli, Caillor, Frey, Lindt Suchard and of course Tobler of Toblerone fame.

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Today was shopping day and I bought this. I was very sceptical about what Philadelphia and Milka would taste like and can confirm that it tastes just like chocolate spread. Not the same as Nutella or my chocolate spread of choice Nocilla - more like a very rich melted milk chocolate. And not a hint of cheesiness. It was yummy but not what I was expecting. I think I'll stick to unadulterated Philadelphia on my Zwieback and leave Milka for (solid) chocolate treats.

Also on my shopping list today -
Karotten - s'Rüebli
Kartoffeln - d'Härdöpfu
Zwiebel- d'Zwibele
Brot - s'Brood
Apfel - d'Öpfel
(Source - UTalk Swiss German app)

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This is the church I discovered on this morning's run to Seen and back. I love the blue of the steeple. It seems to be a very popular colour as the church in Oberwinterthur is the same colour. Think I'd like a dress that shade of blue for my Mum's wedding!

Today I learned a new word - trotzdem. So I'll practice using it here.
Ich bin sehr müde. Trotzdem habe ich meine Hausaufgaben für den Deutschkurs gemacht.

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This is the Schritte 3 / 4 family. I got to know them in Schritte 3 during my first Deutschkurs in November / December. I've had to wait until today to meet them once more as Deutschkurs part 2 began with Schritte 4.

Some introductions.
Susanne und Kurt sind verheiratet. Der Sohn von Kurt heisst Simon. Die Tochter von Susanne heisst Larissa. Susanne ist schwanger. Maria ist die Aupairmädchen. Sie komme aus Südamerika, aber ihre Mutter komme aus Deutschland.

Im not translating today so you can work it out for yourself. Ich bin müde auch 💤

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This is a very interesting book I purchased last week. Very helpful as it has three sections allowing me to look up words in English, German or Swiss German, depending on which I happen to know!
Not all the words are used around here - I tried some out on my friend Monika and she said she used different words for some of the ones I pointed out. That's the thing with Swiss German - there are lots of different ways of saying things depending on where you are!

Sadly my Büechli doesn't tell me the word in Swiss German for an earthquake but in German it's ein Erdbeben. As I live in Winterthur I wasn't scared - verängstigt or duuch - because das Hause wackelte nur ein wenig - the house only wobbled a bit! In Swiss German my Büechli suggests giigaagälä or gnappä instead of wackeln.
Glad I wasn't in Zürich or Zug!

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Today we bought a sledge. We somehow managed to leave Jude's sledge in England but this one is superior! And we went sledging on a hill I'd found whilst out running!

I realized today that, despite all the snow we've had, I have seen kein Schneemann - no snowmen here!

To go sledding - schlittle - Rodeln zu gehen / zum Schlitten fahren
Fast - difig / schnäll - schnell
Slow - langsam

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My beloved had a half day so off we popped to Tibits for Heisse Schoggi :0)

Tibits is the most wonderful vegetarian restaurant with a hot and cold buffet. You put as much or little on your plate as you want and you're charged by weight. This is quite common in Switzerland - pasta often gets weighed too.

So, some food words.
de Riis - der Ris- rice
de Fisch - der Fisch - fish
d'Pommfrit - die Chips - chips
Gmües - das Gemüse - vegetables
die Nudeln - pasta

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"Look at the sun!" said Jude this morning on the way to school. And it was worth it. Very red - shepherds beware! In fact, so pretty I couldn't decide which picture I liked best!

So today let's learn some colours!

Red      rot

Blue     blau

Black    schwarz

Green   grun grüen

White  weiss wiiss

Yellow   gelb  gäl(b)

Purple   violet

Orange  orange (oransh)

Pink       rosa pink

Gray     grau

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This article was in 20 Minuten yesterday. The Swiss are also rather fond of tea (not just Schwarztee mit Milch as you have to ask for a cuppa) but I'd agree that coffee seems to be very popular.
I'm becoming conversant with how to order coffee now.
Milchkafi or Schale will get me a milky coffee and Kafi crème will get me a coffee with cream.
I've also learnt from two lovely young ladies all about Milchschaum - milk froth!

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As I've mentioned before, my running habit has followed me to Switzerland. A combination of not having a job, committing to running 1000 miles on 2012 and a desire to keep fit (and not driven family potty too as I am likely to do if I don't run!) has led to be upping my weekly mileage. And then there are the lovely places to run around here.
It is a long running joke that I am usually vaguely lost for 80% of my running time although this is improving.
So how glad am I for the wonderful signs like this one that tell me where to run and how it'll be if I follow the arrows properly! I followed the yellow route today - took longer than normal in the snow but I didn't get lost and I I even managed to follow the signs properly!

According to my Büechli, this month is Februar in German but in Schwiizerdütsch it's Horner. Just proves I'm not a Besserwisser or Bhaupti (that's a man who knows everything!)
;-

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A bird carved into a (dead!) tree - rather pretty.

Ich habe ein Häppchen vor dem Schläfen (oder ein Betthupferl) gegessen. I've had a goodnight snack (cornflakes!) or as they'd say here, Bettmümpfäli and am ridiculously tired so... Gute Nacht! Guäts Nachtli! Schlof guät!

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Another day of well below freezing temperatures and beautiful sunshine. John and I went for a walk and amongst the wonderful sights was this bench, complete with delicate icicles.

Eine rote Bank mit Eiszapfen - a red bench with icicles.
Forstbetrieb = the Forestry organization.

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When I left Sutton Coldfield I knew I would miss Sutton Park and SEFitness runs. However, Winterthur has beautiful places to run as well and today I braved the well sub zero temperatures to run up to Römerholz and through the woods to the other side (I think it's near Reutligen but never entirely sure!) and home via the back streets of Oberwinterthur. This is the part of the run I like most - a mile of fairly flat track with the woods steeply rising to the right and farms, fields and houses down to my left. Didn't meet a soul today as I ran - so peaceful!

Today's words!
Rennen or schnell gehen means to run. Here you might say secklä or chaibä
And ein kaltempfindlicher Mensch or in Swiss German, Gföörli, is a person who is sensitive to cold.
I love the former and fortunately am not too much of the latter!

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What do you do when you've forgotten to put the beer in the fridge? Make use of the copious Swiss snow outside the door! Swiss beer at that. I currently favour Stadtguet Blond, Biertradition aus Winterthur; John is a fan of Feldschlössen, brewed in Rheinfelden.

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Kaffee und Gipfeli in Migros today (I needed a mid morning treat!) and I noticed this piece of art. Reminds me of Les Miserables.

My youngest is 'appreciating art and creativity' at the moment in PYP. Wonder what he and his friends would make of it? Last week they visited the Kunsthaus - art gallery in Zürich to see die Kunstwerken - the works of art. Seine Lieblingskünstler ist Van Gogh oder Jackson Pollock - his favorite artist is Van Gogh or Jackson Pollock.

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As I write, 13.30 is approaching, and across Switzerland people are getting ready to be deafened by sirens. Today is National 'Test the Sirens Day'

I knew about this as I read the article below in the Winterthurer Stadtanzeiger that someone thoughtfully delivers every Tuesday! John received an email and decided to forward it to me as he hadn't read the article and I forgot to tell him!

Every year, on the first Wednesday in February, all sirens across Switzerland are tested. The aim is to ascertain the operational readiness of both the ”General Alarm” and the ”Water Alarm” sirens. The population is notified beforehand through announcements on the radio, on TV and in the press. The general public is not required to adopt a particular behaviour or take protective measures, but simply asked in advance for their understanding of the inconvenience caused by the noise of the sirens.

Two alarm signals
At 1.30 p.m. the ”General Alarm” signal is sounded across Switzerland. This is a regular ascending and descending tone, which lasts for one minute, and is repeated once after a two-minute interval. Where necessary, the sirens can continue to be tested until 2 p.m. From 2.15 p.m. to 3 p.m. (at the latest), the ”Water Alarm” signal is tested in those areas that are in the proximity of dams.

So today's word and phrase  is ein Sirenentest - an alarm test
ein regelmässig  auf- und absteigender heulton von einer Minute Dauer - a regular ascending and descending wail lasting one minute 

Update - here's the noise!

listen to ‘Sirenentest 2012’ on Audioboo