Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

read it over the weekend and it was pretty good. a good end to the series, definitely. having read the reviews, i didn't think quite as many people died as they had said. sure, some people died throughout the book, and some at the end, but i was expecting a bloodbath, and thankfully, there wasn't any. i had expected some things to happen, and was glad they turned out as i'd predicted. others were totally unexpected. all in all, good stuff. now i just have to read the half-blood prince again, as i can't remember half of what happened in it and i was a bit lost here and there...

Geneva by night

near full-moon in Geneva last night...

yesterday

despite forecasts of rain, we had this amazing weather in Geneva yesterday. what a day to spend in the park!

bag country 2

it was only between the train ride from the airport and the place i was staying at that i notice i'd forgotten my handbag at home. so i had to go and buy one. no big deal, except i'm not a bag person and wish i could live without. why don't i? my wallet doesn't fit into my back pocket.

i bought the cheapest bag i could find, which happened to be the least safe type of bag anyone could walk around with, it being wide open most of time, unless you spend your life clutching it closed. but in Japan, that's a total non-issue. i remember thinking about this while i was sitting on the train, bag on my lap, contents mostly visible to everyone standing up near me. wallet, mobile, you name it. but at no time did i feel even slightly anxious about it. unfortunately, that is not true here, so i suspect i will never be able to use that bag again.

lunch

the good thing about there being less lessons during the summer is that i practically don't have any lunchtime lessons, which means i can have lunch with my friends. and i've really enjoyed seeing them during the daytime and individually instead of being with a whole group of people. and with the weather being so nice at the beginning of the week, it was fabulous to spend time outdoors.

summertime

when the weather cooperates, summer evenings are WONDERFUL!

last night i met up with a friend and 7 others for a light picnic on the beach. and it was amazing. i didn't swim (no, water's only around 20C, not for me), but it was fun to be a small group of people sitting there, eating, drinking, sharing jokes and experiences. dusk passed and we went blind. luckily, one of us had done her homework and took some candles out of her bag. life was sweet again.

back to reality

got home late on Sunday night. started work a few hours later. luckily, there wasn't that much work to go around, so the week's not been too hard. getting up Friday morning was horrible, though.

i have now spent the weekend doing absolutely nothing, so as to get over my holiday, and also because every weekend from now until September is fully booked. doing nothing is wonderful!

sunrise

it was not yet 6am but i was awake. nature was calling. i couldn't put it off any longer, so i got up. on the way downstairs, i noticed the sun was just rising. i went upstairs again to get my camera and then outside to take pictures of the surrounding beauty. the low mist on the fields. the sun breaking through the trees. it was really amazing. so peaceful. the only noises came from the birds (including a very insistent woodpecker). the dew carpeted the grass, so that my feet got soaking wet, but it was well worth the bother...

the summer house

i'd been waiting for this for weeks. 3 days of uninterrupted peace. and then i got there. amazing. once more, the total lack of anything around us, other than forests and fields, put me right back where i needed to be. total bliss.

football world cup for the homeless

i'm not going to tell you about how SAS lost my luggage. instead, i'll tell you about what was happening on the main square at the same time. Copenhagen was hosting the event this year.

obviously, the point was to get a team of street football from every country, the team-members being homeless. every country obviously has its own criteria on how these people are chosen: some teams were mostly made up of youngsters, others were made up of people who'd obviously been on the streets for twenty odd years; some came with 25 euros for the week, some with just the clothes on their back. in the same way, while there were girls on some teams, some never got to play (like the ones for the Indian team), whilst other teams gladly lost by letting theirs play.

my friend was taking care of the Portuguese team. that's how i met them. and their trainer, who apparently was a great footballer in his days and the guy who discovered Cristiano Ronaldo (or whoever). great guy.