Jody and John Hammond visit Anzere

John and Jody Hammond are long time friends and work colleagues from our Balloon Aloft days.  They are visiting us in Anzere.  We have had a fabulous week, if not frantic!  We have been out Alpine walking, sight-seeing, Glacier Expressing, climbing mountains, etc.  + eating and drinking well every day for the past week.  And to put things into perspective, even though we have been eating and drinking, I have lost over 2 lbs, i.e. 1 kg. due to all the wonderful exercise we have been having.  Weather has been wonderful, Alps are magnificent, and cheese, bickies, and wine on the balcony in the evening has been a joy.

Tomorrow, our guests leave and I am off to Gloucester, England on a 10 day meditation retreat.  Peter will have to fend for himself, alone, in Anzere until I return.

Beautiful Alpine Walks

We all went for a 2 ½ hour Alpine walk today.  ‘All’, being our guests, Asbjorn and Janet Damhus and their child Shanti .  At 7,000 feet, it is usually an easy walk around a lake, but this time it was challenging!  The official summer season doesn’t open until next week so the alpine path hadn’t been cleared from winter snow, snow slides, trees, boulders, etc.  We had to cross ice and snow slides no less than 6 times.  It was difficult holding our footing on the ice.  Shanti slipped down one of the ice flows and we all held our breath as we watched her slide on her backside down the hill.  She got to the bottom, picked herself up, walked around the base of the slide and climbed up the other side, all smiles, saying ‘That was fun!’ 

We had a wonderful picnic in an Alpine meadow…  all in all, a fantastic day and we all felt we had accomplished something.

Asbjorn, Janet and Shanti.  Notice Shanti's backside...  where she slid down the ice flow!


By the way, Asbjorn used to work for us in Australia as a balloon pilot.  He is now teaching physics and mathematics at an international shool in Wales (located in a Hirst Castle).

Shanti

We had visitors in Switzerland.  Asbjorn and Janet Damhus and their 8 year old daughter, Shanti.  Peter and I were entranced by this child.  Well mannered, polite, intelligent, fearless and above all, full of joy and love.  She speaks English, Danish, Spanish and Welsh.  (Father is Danish, mother born in England but worked in Spain, and they live in Wales.)  The parents' attitude is the they were blessed with the care of this ‘child of the world’, and it was their duty to give her the best all- around education they could before they ‘give her back to the world’.  They are succeeding!  They practice Sahaja Yoga and the child is about to go off to an international accredited school that practices Sahaja Yoga in Italy (where she will learn her 5^th language).

So now I am reading all about Sahaja Yoga.

27th Annual Yodeling Championships

Had a wonderful day in the village of Haiffaisen, Canton of Friborg, which is about a 2 hour drive from our apartment.  We attended the Festival of the 27^th District Yodeling Championships.  And also in rounds of competition were Alp Horns and ‘Lancers’..  those that have routines to music with flags on poles.

The yodeling was fantastic.  It seems that yodeling in the mountains was a way to communicate with the next village, and also was a way of telling the history of the village through songs.  Yodeling Clubs from around the SW corner of Switzerland all had a group in the competition, around 168 clubs in all.  The competition was held in 4 different areas, and in rounds.  We sat in a church and listened to one of the rounds.

A Yodel is somewhere between singing and ‘making’ a noise, by vibrating sound bouncing up and down between the top of your mouth and the start of your chest.  All songs started with a chorus and then broke into a yodel, then chorus, then yodel, etc.  Some groups sort of mimicked the ‘yodel’ by singing it…  but when a group or a person really ‘yodeled’, my God you knew it.  It is a very different sound.  One club was represented by one man who ‘yodeled’ his way through a song and brought the house down…  a most unusual noise vibrating between high and low.  When he hit the high notes…  you knew if he was standing in the mountains, it would reverberate all over the place.  Peter and I thought he must have been castrated…  otherwise how could he do those incredibly higher notes.  But he was wonderful and had a standing ovaction.  He had the ‘true’ yodel and we had a great education as to what yodeling was all about!

Alpine Walks

Peter and I took a 2 hour alpine walk yesterday.  It was good weather and we enjoyed our picnic in the open air with a fantastic vista.  We vowed we will do more of this!  And even better...  we both slept for 6 hours without waking up!  There is a message here somewhere...  something to do with 'exercise'.