An entirely free Sunday, starting morning shifts, and ridiculous sandwiches

27/06 - Today we woke up with nothing whatsoever to do, which was a lovely feeling. We had taken some leftovers home from dinner last night, and with these we cooked up an amazing chorizo and potato frittata which we took to the park around 1 o'clock along with wine, panachées, cheese and leftover dips. We lay in the sun for a good couple of hours, then strolled down to the Festival de Foot at the hockey stadium - this is a free festival which is on for the duration of the world cup, with loads of bars and food stalls surrounding a big screen and a stage. We smuggled in a couple of cans of beer (it was CHF 7 for a can in there, so I think we were justified) and bumped into Alex, Jody, Aimee and a few others just in time for the second half. It was an awful match, England lost 4-1 and we were surrounded by German supporters, outnumbered by a ratio of about twenty to one. After this Kelly and I left the others to their commiseration (I am pretty glad that I early don't care about football) and ended up at La Barje, a bar in a stripy caravan on a little spit of land in the Rhône. We sat for a while, drinking wine with our feet in the water, then came back about 8 o'clock and cooked a sort of chicken katsu/schnitzel for dinner. Suddenly it was 2330 and, considering that we had to be up at 0445 for Kelly's flight in the morning, we decided to call it a night.

28/06 - Well that's it - Kelly has gone home from Geneva for the last time. I walked her to the bus stop then went back to bed, setting an alarm for 0730 which I completely ignored, awaking instead at 1130 - oops. I used more leftovers to cook an enormous nasi goreng which turned out to be all I ate all day. I had a meeting at 3 pm which I prepared for (somewhat insufficiently) on the tram, and I ended up leaving at about 1730 to try and make it to the supermarket to buy supplies for tomorrow's shift. The trams were all terminating at Balexert, about half way home, so I ended up walking for a few stops with Sara (the same one we bumped into on Friday) and going to the supermarket at Servette. On my way out I was approached by a man with a petition - it had the words 'horaires' and 'supermarché' on it, so I assumed someone was trying to extend the ridiculous opening hours here in Geneva. On closer inspection, however, the petition was against extending weekday opening hours to 2000 and Saturdays to 1900 - there may even have been something about opening on a Sunday. I took issue with the man when I read this, exclaiming "Quoi? Pourquoi non? La seule chose que je deteste ici à Genève est les horaires des magasins - on doit quitter le travail une heure tôt si on veut acheter quelque chose pour manger a la maison!" I am pretty sure that is some dodgy French there, but I think he got the point.

I got home and toyed with the idea of going out to lie in the sun before getting an early night, but instead I ended up clearing up the flat and chatting to Clare while I made my sad little packed lunch for tomorrow, setting three different alarms for 0530 and getting to bed about 6 hours before this time.

29/06 - I actually got up on time, contrary to Kelly's expectations/worries. I bumped into Clive waiting for the 0555 bus, and I have now been on shift for 5 hours. It seems to be going a lot quicker than last weeks evening shifts, possibly because I was not really awake for the first couple of hours. It is an incredible day, the sun was just rising over the hills and the lake when I came in on the bus, and it was already about 18º at dawn. I have since devoured two Milky Way filled croissants, and have managed to stave off eating my lunch until noon - I have a massive carton of iced coffee to see me through the afternoon.

Well, I had half the coffee and immediately felt sick. This was my busiest shift so far, during which I had to point various people at various graphs on my screen. My replacement turned up half an hour early, so I got to run away - I have since been sitting at home pottering about, trying not to fall asleep until a decent hour tonight.

I was really disappointed with my sandwiches today - I had two smoked salmon and philadelphia ones on 'toast mediterraneenne', or white bread with herby bits in it. Consequently I have made two exquisite sandwiches for tomorrow, as well as an adequate dinner for tonight - see below.

Not a good start - Rösti from a pack, came out looking like astronaut food (if astronaut food was made of sick)

Improving - four rump steaks from coop (half price!)

Steak in a baguette - Café de Paris butter on one side, a little truffle carpaccio on the other

With the addition of lettuce and a little mayonnaise

Sandwich two was less opulent, just as delicious - that is creamy goat's cheese on the underside, and red pepper pesto on the other - attempting to recreate Kelly's amazing dip from Saturday night.

My actual dinner - after a while the rösti turned into a pleasingly crisp fritter, and the steak was awesome.

Tomorrow I am going to try and make tuna mayonnaise exciting. I am as yet unsure how, but I have high hopes.