Summer tobogganing

While away in Canada Switzerland developed some new ideas on how to attract tourist. One of the things that became very popular is summer tobogganing. So, we became tourists for a day, tried it – and loved it.

Tobogganing with Joelle

Never fast enough for Niklas

Hiking the Swiss Alps

Work Contract Extension

Again I got an extension on my work contract with NeoVac. Now I can work until the end of December 2010. However, I will only work four days a week in order to spend more time with Niklas and Joelle. Additionally, we'll soon need time to prepare our assignment for PNG.

Holidays in Elm, Switzerland

Last week was spent remembering the past. At least Madeleine did so. With her side of the family (her parents, siblings, aunts, oncles, cousins and there partners) we spent a week in the mountain village of Elm. This is the place where Madeleine often went for vacation as a child (while her class mates went to the beach in Spain as she is never tired to remind us). The idea was to revive old memories, read the old guest books, and redo old hikes.
Well, one or two hikes were actually done – at least by some of the relatives. With Joelle in a backpack and Niklas slow on foot, there's not much point in doing hour-long hikes up steep mountain slopes. Ten minutes on flat ground were more than enougt and usually got us to the next play ground. This also suits Dady, as the play ground has a restaurant and free wireless internet access. So, we spent most of the time driving go-carts, playing in the sandbox, digging for gold, jumping on the trampoline, surfing the Internet, and eating ice cream. Now and again we walked a little further and roasted some Cervelats (kind of a thick Wiener) over the open fire to introduce our Canadian kids to some Swiss culture.

The village of Elm

Joelle eating healthy snacks

Swiss Culture Class: Cervelat-Roast

Niklas on the trampoline

Gold digging: We found enough to pay for two Chupa-Chups

Financial Support

Going into missions doesn't come free, and that's why we have to raise our own support. In order to keep you up to date on our current support level without having to write a new blog entry each time, we changed the layout a little bit. You now find an instrument in the side column which is used with turbine aircraft. It shows the actual rotating speed of the low pressure compressor or fan in relation to the maximum rotating speed allowed. The instrument is used to set the throttle e.g. for take-off. If we are close to 100% we're good to leave for Papua New Guinea – the analogy is, I suppose, quite obvious.