ready? set... Champagne!

We'll get there earlier than you, who are on the north american continent ;)! And tomorrow morning, I'll start the new year enjoying a "staying in bed late" moment! So I won't be up on Internet to wish you all the best for this coming 2010!

Enjoy! Be happy! Be healthy! Be wise (but not boring!)!!!!

And take care!

xoxo

In between...

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, some time to reflect on all the good things of the past year....

Thankfulness for good health, a nice family, a beautiful place to live, with cool people around (which doesn't mean that I/we don't miss you all around the world!!!!!). A satisfacting job for V, sports for him and me, good school for the kids. We're very thankful as we count our blessings!

I hope that you also had a good year, a nice celebration for Christmas, or Hannukka, and I wish you all the best for 2010! Come and comment this blog, as it's what makes it living!

PS: Let me tell you the story of this Christmas tree. I confess that I still regret the "fake" one that I had bought at Goodwill's for a mere 25$... I should have taken it along when we moved, but well... I hope at least that our followers in the house enjoyed it as much as we did!

So ours, this year, is a rented one! It's a real tree, with dirt around its roots, and it's in a pot! Funny, isn't it?

But still... it looses its needles a lot, and I'm not that fond of its look. So I'll bring it back to where it was born, and it will be replanted for the next 350 days! At least it's a positive thing... But I bought today an artificial on sale, with the (nice) decoration for next year.... And I'm glad i did it!

Winter's here!

Although it's not official yet, Winter has arrived! We had an amazing fall this year, much too hot, and all of a sudden, on Monday night, some nice snow coming. To be honest, I love snow, always did, but I'm really happy that it came this year much later than last year! I enjoyed working around the house without freezing my hands (or else!)

On Wednesday, the snow had quite melted already, but it was really cold. Hubby walked the kids to school and then took a ton of pictures of early morning colours in our area. I love living here!

Puss in boots in the old City

Every year, a local artist (also humanist!) prepares something special for kids in the old town. He works with unemployed people, and sets up a "witches path", or "fairy village", or this year, a walk through the old town in the steps of Puss in Boots.

We decided to discover this part of the old town of Fribourg, at the very bottom of the town, surrounded by the Sarine river.

This part of the old town was built in the 16-17th centuries. Most of the houses are still up, and have been restored over the time. Some are really neat, and even their "modern touch" is well integrated in the landscape.

As in any old town the streets are very narrow, and I don't really enjoy driving there with the Sienna! But then I remember that busses use them as well, so they're not that bad! The wooden bridge was built in 1250!

Seen from down there, the Cathedral looks built up a hill. But when I ran next to it the other day, I realized that I still had a good climb past it, to make it to the finish!

This little chapel is part of the old walls.

Beginnings of fall

This morning, I went for ... a nice run with my (Texan) friend April. We enjoyed the colours of the early morning, right after dawn. We had seen this little chapel (Chapelle Ste-Appoline)* a few weeks ago, and all we needed was a camera in order to share the landscape with you!

Here it is!

*The bridge St.Appoline, over the Glâne river, documented as far back as 1243, is right behind the chapel. The chapel St Appoline was first mentioned in 1147, and was newly erected in 1566.

It's on the "Way of St.James"/Via Jacobi, which goes across Switzerland's far eastern part (Lake Konstanz) to the most western part (Geneva).

And when I think of it...

it's really weird! All the aches that I had have disappeared, I ran today, OK, only 30 mins, but it hurt nowhere... Did I really take part in this race, Sunday?

I have a T-shirt as "proof", as well as the picts that my father-in-law took.

But hold on, my friends! You want a good laugh?

Then watch this, the finisher-clip. You see Vladi and me arriving, and then sprinting for the last 20 yards... what a joke!

And if the video doesn't cooperate, you simply click here!

It's been a long time...

...since I wrote here for the last time!

The summer has gone by, faster than I thought, and I must say that I was carrying on a long-term project: a running event, scheduled today, October 4th:

The "Morat-Fribourg" race, commemoration of the victory of the Confederates over Charles the Bold in 1476, after which a man ran the 11 miles to Fribourg in order to carry the good news.

I've been training since May 20th, every Wednesday evening with a group preparing for this race, and ran another 2-3 times a week.

And today was THE day...

We arrived at 9h15 AM in the beautiful little city of Morat. The sun was shining, the air not very warm, but it would improve. The landscape beautiful, and the lake of Morat dark blue in the middle of the wineyards. Just gorgeous! There were hundreds - no, thousands! - of people gathering in the same time, with the same goal: running! The atmosphere was nice, you could notice by the queue at the ladiesrooms (and mensrooms!) that it was an important business for everybody: run as light as you can!!!

At 10h39 the start was given for my group (the slowest one, with a predicted time over 1h45!). We started slowly, through the old town, out of it, through villages where people were cheering us on both sides of the street. Some with "guggenmusik", some with a huge stereo installation, some ringing huge cowbells. It gave a very nice feeling!

The landscape in Switzerland is not only mountainous... it can be hilly too! And the denivellation between Morat and Fribourg was very important. Mainly uphill running, as you can see...

Anyway...

After like 5 miles, my right knee started to hurt, and din't stop until I arrived. I'm not that used to run on asphalt, for one, and second, the roads are winding enough not to be really flat. They either have a right, or left incline, or in the best case, are sort of "convex". Then I ran in the middle of the road, with a foot on each side of the white line!

After approx 6 miles, my left leg started to hurt, and I really wasn't comfy, but I decided to still try as hard as I could to finish.

There in the last third (after mile 7) there is this long, abhorred uphill climb. You know what? it did'nt even seem that bad, as my hurting legs forced me to keep to small steps! I couldn't even make longer ones when it was flat or slightly downhill!

Once I was up there, there were only 2 more miles to go. Oh, did they seem long! At a while, I was just hoping for it to be over. But Hubby, who ran all the time along with me, encouraged me. Yeah, we were almost there!

There was a last climb, starting from the Cathedral, and I felt like giving it all in a small sprint to go through the arrival door!

I was done, I did it, and I'm really happy and proud of myself!

It took me 2:04:54

In the last clim... Arrival in in 200 yards probably...