Feel the burn!

After leaving Costa Rica our first stopover was in Toronto and as soon as my phone picked up the airport's wifi I got a "pinged" message from British Airways - trouble was, it was in German! Really helpful that, when you've been up since 4 a.m! Still, I learned German many moons ago (forgot most of it) but I was able to decipher words to the effect that one way or another I was not going to be on my 15h flight from London to Geneva the next day. I couldn't tell if it was just me that was being kicked off or if the whole flight was being cancelled but what I could figure out was "we have, therefore, put you on the 18h flight. Click here to accept!" I thought bugger that, I get in at 06.30h and I am not hanging around for 12 hours in London (although better London than Toronto frankly, from my point of view) for my next flight with no guarantee of even leaving then. I knew Swiss Air fly from Heathrow so I decided that come what may I was getting out of there one way or another - and however much it cost!

Anyway, we landed on time so I trudged myself over to terminal 5 and thankfully made it to the BA desk before anyone else was awake. When I showed the nice BA chappie my phone message he said "but it's in German" so I said "wow, I didn't notice that, but from what I can decipher I'm not getting on my next flight am I?" He then went checked his computer and went on to explain that with the expected storm due to hit the southeast shortly, BA would be cancelling quite a few flights out of Heathrow that day, not because they couldn't  handle the volume of flights but because they didn't have the de-icing equipment necessary to keep up with that number of flights. Apparently you have 20 minutes after a plane is de-iced to get it off the ground or you have to start all over again. He then proceeded to tell me that they had booked me on the 18h flight but I said that I hadn't "clicked here" to accept it and was going to try my luck with Swiss Air, when the wonderful young man sitting next to him said they could get me on the 9.40h and would that suit me? I could have kissed him. It was already better than my original flight time and again in business. I have to say, considering they were probably going to be in for a helluva lot of complaining that day they handled the whole thing very professionally and with humour, although I'm sure that at the end of the day the perma-smile might have begun to wear a bit thin!

So I made it back early and seemingly one step ahead of the storm all the way along. I was well pleased. Until the next day, that is, where I went from +40°C to -11°C in one fell swoop - or from this:

to this:

and this:

Obviously if you travel in "your" winter to someone else's summer you  have to expect this kind of thing but even though I am used to the cold and don't actually mind it, this big of a change was quite a shock to the system.

And then of course there were the infernal traffic jams. Second day back I got stuck on the motorway behind this:

which managed to make my already hellish commute even more hellish, although thankfully no-one was hurt in this pile-up. But this morning some lunatic was racing down the motorway in the wrong direction (beats me how you can even do that) so my morning commute was again almost three hours! Ah the joys of the daily commute.

Still, I do love it here whatever the season, and last Thursday three of us went out for lunch to celebrate two birthdays in a yurt restaurant which is only available during the winter and which was shortly about to be dismantled. I actually got married in this little village and my husband and I went for a drink after our town hall wedding - just the two of us - in this same restaurant (although not in the yurt). And for once I was able to get a good shot of the alps - even if it was only with my phone. Usually they are in a "haze" but the heavy snowfall had briefly cleared all the haze away.

Of course I weighed myself when I came back (beerrrrkkkkk) and since I was as heavy as I had ever been I decided that I had better get back in the weight loss saddle. I was very good last week about exercising and even (seriously) got out the old Jane Fonda original workout and did those (nearly suffocated myself doing the shoulder stand), but this week it has gone to pot a bit so I have to get back at it. It's tough, though, when the weather is crap as it makes getting outside harder and we seem to have had non-stop rain since last week. So yet again, it's onwards and upwards for me.

In my dreams!

My reality! (Picture by Design Studio)

Although seriously where tonight's Chinese cookery class fits in with my weight loss goals is eluding me for the moment!