Yesterday was a public holiday in the city of Zürich and one of the most unusual festivals in Switzerland took place over the long weekend. Knabenschiessen translates roughly as boys’ shooting day and it is what it says it is – a shooting contest. All children are given the day off  school, and teenagers aged between 13-17 take part in a traditional target shooting competition using Swiss army rifles.

Anyone can turn up and shoot, as long as they are the right age and either live or go to school in Canton Zürich – no experience required. Since 1991 girls are allowed to shoot too – and actually this year the winner, and the only person to shoot a perfect score, was a 15 year old schoolgirl. It was only the 3rd time a girl has won.

The competition is always held on the second weekend in September and has officially been held since 1889, but actually dates back to the 17th Century, making it one of the oldest festivals in Switzerland. This year over 4,000 kids turned up to shoot and many thousands more to enjoy the huge funfair that surrounds the competition.

My son – who is 12 – is desperate to be old enough to take part and we’ve already had a discussion along the lines of:  ‘Mum, when I win the giant flat screen television next year, can I have it in my bedroom?‘. No ifs or buts, my boy fully expects to win. Life could get exciting round here!

I can’t imagine something like this happening anywhere else -but maybe I’m wrong. Here, with a few exceptions, all men do military service and they all take their rifles, pistols and ammunition home with them and keep them once their service is over….just incase they need to defend the country in a hurry… It took me a while to get my head round the whole idea. This is not something that would ever happen in England!

Helen

Before you ask, I did not have the best of wedding anniversaries, although it may be one that I won’t forget in a hurry. But I’ll come back to that later. The upshot was that I needed to spend time knitting to sooth my nerves – so my new project has made some progress. This is the back of a cardigan that I’m making using Lang Donegal yarn. The patter doesn’t have a fancy name and you probably won’t find it on Ravelry. I saw the cardigan knitted up in one of the wool shops in Zurich – it was one of those rather mean ‘you only get the pattern if you buy the wool’ deals – but then at least the pattern came for free. It’s called Damenjacke mit Zöpfchen im Oberteil – loosely translated  – ladies jacket with little braids in the upper part. I think it should turn out to be pretty. We’ll see.

So why did the nerves need soothing?

Well for two reasons really….

I should tell you that we very often go for a family run in the woods early on Sunday mornings. I was up with the larks and raring to go, all the more so because I’d been resting my hip all week. However, the pain had been completely gone for two days, so I really thought that there shouldn’t be any problems. All it took was 5 measly steps and the pain was back. 5 steps. I have a doctor’s appointment for Wednesday, but I think the half-marathon I’m signed up for on Saturday is probably out of the window and it may well also be the end of the marathon. After months of training, moreover training that was going really well, I am as the young people say ‘gutted’. This is SO frustrating. I’m tearing my hair out and having to face up to the fact that my body may realistically be too old to ever actually manage a marathon. Some of you may find this hard to understand, but I feel like I’m on the verge of having to say goodbye to a life goal. OK, so maybe I’m over-reacting, but I’m really not happy.

Hence knitting while everyone else was out running.

Now we come to the second reason…

In the afternoon as the weather was nice my husband and I took our motorboat out on Lake Zurich and went swimming. It was beautiful weather, the sunny was shining, the water wasn’t too cold and the views of the mountains were magnificent. After a couple of hours the wind started to pick up and storm warnings were flashing on the lakeshore. Big black thunder clouds were heading our way – and fast. We got changed and started to make our way through the choppy waves to the shore. I sat in the front of the boat on a big old rubber boat that we sometimes tow the children along in, my weight stopping it from blowing away. (We’d been too lazy to take it out and put it away before we’d left). The wind picked up and I kept telling my husband to slow down as the wind together with the speed of the boat were lifting the front of the rubber boat…..being a typical man, he didn’t slow down.

Then quick as a flash the wind caught the rubber boat, lifted it up in the air, threw me FULLY CLOTHED over the side into the waves and then blew away. Don’t laugh. It was AWFUL. I swallowed half the lake and feel like I pulled a load of muscles.

Of course my husband rescued me and was very shamefaced….but it only took a couple of hours before he was cracking flying saucer jokes.

In the words of Queen Victoria: ‘We are not amused’.

So I found solace in a hot bath, lots of knitting, two episodes of Downton Abbey and refusing to do the washing up.

I’m a little fragile today, but at least I can knit. What do people do who can’t. Drink gin I imagine!

Helen

One of the few days where I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing on that day in two particular years:

• 1993 My wedding day
• 2001 At home watching CNN as the twin towers fell

Somehow it will always be a day of sadness though and I rather wish it wasn’t also my wedding anniversary.

Today I will be celebrating 18 happy years with my husband, but I will also be full of sadness remembering those who died on that day in 2001.

Two days that changed the world I live in.

Helen

otherwise known as bliss with Bliss….

Enjoy your weekend,

Helen

Last night was an adventure. We took 5 teenagers  to Blindekuh in Zurich for a birthday dinner.

Blindekuh is no ordinary restaurant. It’s the first dark restaurant in the world.

Let me tell you more…

In 1998, there was a exhibition in Zurich called ‘Dialog im Dunkeln’ – Dialogue in the Dark. It was very successful and during the exhibition the blind priest Father Jürg Spielmann and the partially sighted psychologist Stephan Zappa got to know each other as they were both employed as guides. They decided to work together on a project based on darkness, which they would exhibit at EXPO ’01 in Switzerland, and at the same time they would develop the concept of a dark restaurant in Zurich.  Together with blind singer, Thomas Moser and blind social worker Andrea Blaser, they created a foundation called ‘Blind-Liecht’ to raise money for the project.

Blindekuh opened in 1999 in a former Methodist chapel, followed by a second restaurant in Basel. Many others have copied the idea – and today there are blind restaurants in Cologne, Berlin, Paris, Hamburg and even Moscow.

The teenagers were excited to visit Blinde Kuh, but I think also a little spooked when we were lead caterpillar-style with hands on the shoulders of the one infront into total blackness by our blind waitress, Rita. Some things weren’t so foreign – cutlery was where it usually is, water glasses too, but the darkness took some getting used to. There were other people in the restaurant, but we had no idea who they were (which certainly stopped in their track any rude comments about teachers), or even how many, and if they were old, young, cool and trendy or grannies secretly knitting in the darkness? Who knew?

We ordered our meals, drinks were delivered and then the hilarity began. Trying to guess what was in a mixed salad, when the only description my son could come up with was ‘slimy’. Things only went downhill from there with some people (ie.said son). I am 99% sure he ate his tagliatelle with chantarelle sauce with his fingers and judging from some very strange slurping noises and a lot of giggling, he may even have licked the plate. Of course this was vehemently denied and I have no way of proving anything.

We all noticed how food tasted more intense and how we were much more aware of sounds. There were comments from the teenagers as they realized that this was the view for many blind people for the rest of their lives. Inhibitions broke down. When we sang happy birthday, many voices joined in and clapped when we were through. I don’t think that would happen often in a normal restaurant here. Our waitress was a delight – super-efficient and fun, Rita was totally blind and had worked at Blinde Kuh for 9 years. She clearly enjoyed her job.

Not only does Blinde Kuh provide an insight into how it feels to function in a blind world, it also raises awareness of blindness and provides worthwhile jobs for blind people. I think there should be a restaurant like this in every large city.

Helen