can i borrow your cleaner too? does she have a kinky french maid outfit?

Portuguese, Spanish and Italian are closely related to French and German is related to English, so what ?

Ever heard of English Forum? It's an online bulletin board that seems to be a vortex that absorbs ALL of my time here in Switzerland.

?
You're suggesting sell my soul and go and find a job in a bank?!

How is that helping my community?
tho maybe they do like intelligent people guarding their pennies...


Phil mate....

now that you mention it, I do have something that might be your size for the next time you are out hunting men in kilts..

video games. become better at them than your children.

Well, somebody's got to do it!

Tom

Are you serious Ranga?
How a woman could ever get bored is way beyond me to understand or I don't understand what they mean when they say I'm bored.

Perhaps moments sometimes, yes,
of not being motivated nor have the strength to do anything and just turn in cercles but bored like not knowing what to do with one's own time?

Three dots.

take a German course at Migrosklubschule.

Go to www.meetup.com and spontaneously meet up with other English speaking people.

Get rid of your household helper and do all that stuff yourself.

Advertise to give private conversational English lessons (40 CHF an hour is fair)

ah c'mon Karl, this is such husband advice. can't you come up with something a little more ... you know ... freaky or spicey or something eh?

I can see my other half suggesting to take up pole dancing classes so I can show him what we do there.

OK, Sada, I will take off the gloves then:

- Find a beautiful quiet spot in nature and consume 2 grams of psylocybin mushrooms and talk to God
- Turn on private browsing on your browser and visit http://app.c-date.ch and have a discrete fling
- Go to Paradeplatz on Saturday and join the crowd with a big sign saying "to Hell with bankers, we are the 99%". Prepare for teargas
- Earn a little easy, legal money on the side http://www.caroljones.ch/index.php?id=13

Join Pottermore. Ok it's not open yet, but it will be in the next few weeks. By all accounts that will take up a lot of spare time.

Take an open university class.
Start an English*-speaking coffee morning in your area - advertise in your local paper or Migros/Coop notice board. (Sorry, think someone may have said that already).
Volunteer to clean the streets after Fasnacht/Carnaval, if you can find out who does it.
Watch out for baby boards in your area, and drop off a gift when a new one comes up.
Learn a new skill or brush up an old one e.g. knitting.

Things I do whilst trying to avoid housework:
- Wii Fit
- Browse internet for new recipes to try /crafts to do with kids.
- Get annoyed that so many recipes include ingredients such as "branded vanilla cake mix" or "a packet of baking powder" - like I know how much of what is likely to be in that where anyone else lives.
- Rearrange furniture.
- Despair over quantities of Lego that are not in their box, again.
- Talk to other mothers at the playground, who are usually very patient with me.
- Join a Spanish conversation class to console me for how slowly my German is progressing. Lots of homework involved. No spare time left!

As a last resort, if anyone is still bored:
Conceive a(nother) baby. Guaranteed full-time occupation for at least the next 3 years.


*or other language of your choice.

oh noooo you got a groan for that now Karl.
Odile don't groan him, I made him do it you know. Did you see his previous very decent post?

Yes, well, there's fact and fantasy.
What I really do with my free time lately is (in no particular order):
-play piano
-tidy up the garden
-taking a Migrosklubschule Swiss-German course
-cook for the family
-go biking over lunch up in Horgenberg
-go to the gym
-hover around this forum
-did a meet-up once last week

Although I am seriously considering going to the demo on Paradeplatz on Saturday, albeit without a protest sign

There seems to be a lot of trailing spuses in Switzerland that would prefer to work, probably part time, but are put offf by the difficulty of getting a job, language issues and maybe because they only plan to be here for a few years. I wonder is there a business idea lurking there, matching these people with companies who could use their skills but don't want to take on a permanent employee? Basically acting as an agency supplying contract/project workers.

I don't think she is being wholly serious .. or at least not about herself. Rather she is assisting those on the forum who appear to be in a boredom state (whether they realise it or not).

I Envy you with a capital E. I have so many projects and things I want to work on but have to cram it in my day of caring for 5 kids and cleaning a 2 story house, with a large yard.

ideas, hmm, so many,

cook, try out new recipes, create new recipes, write a cook book, bake, decorate cakes, work with fondant, craft Christmas cards, practice body painting, create a website, learn plant care and flower arranging, go to a gym, take dance lessons, learn a new language, sew a dress from scratch....

Well, apparently Ranga's reply to me was removed, but anyways, it was hypothetical, tho not too far removed from real life...

actually I do not envy anyone. I am quite pleased with my life after all.

Referee haha!

I thought of a couple more...

Offer to teach a skill that you have to EFers or their children, free or paid, in a group or individually. (I would love to learn cake decorating, among many other things, although this year isn't a good time.)

Blog about the stuff you actually do, for the benefit of family members abroad or other expats - I find this takes considerably more time than the actual doing of it, especially if photos are involved.

Join Pinterest. Serious time-wasting possible here, and it's free, and you find loads of ideas of things to do. Some are even genuinely feasible.

Use the spare time to organise all those recipes you have bookmarked on the web or stuffed into the back of your recipe cupboard. What, you don't have those? Just me then. Make the good ones, take photos and create a recipe photobook (which you could also give to any younger family members for Christmas). Loads of photobook providers in Switzerland.
That one's on my current to-do list.

ETA: Any chance this could be stickied so we can all find it again when we get bored?