Here you'll find a back catalogue of items from the home page.. a kind of creative dumping ground.. just in case
you missed it!
February 2010
A couple of weeks ago one of my radio pieces looked at the Inferno ski race down from the 10000 foot Schilthorn.
The Daily Telegraph ran a very interesting and exciting piece on the race with an amazing video of what it's like to ski this
amazing downhill. See it here. And below Markus's run down the entire route. Some of the ridges are very narrow, curves very tight and
the cliffs very steep!
Twitter is an experiment, so I can learn more about all these extramural internet activities. I've
tried facebook, a blog and now Tweeting, and it's relatively good fun, but whether any of them will become lasting parts
of my internet life.. I don't know yet. I guess I should say 'watch this space'. Now there's an idea for a new application,
sorry 'app', people could upload a picture of a space for their friends to watch.. I could make a fortune!
January 2010
A new year and a new Alphorn Infotourist theme tune by the Wunderkind Lisa Stoll just 14 years old!
Lisa's musical career began at the age of 6 playing the recorder. Later she picked up the cornet, (the
instrument not an icecream) beginning a great passion for brass music. The school band followed and at the age of ten
she took on the alphorn and has become brilliant at it, winning all manner of awards. Now another accolade for Lisa,
a year as the new Infotourist theme! Well you can't win them all Lisa!
The track is called Fix and Foxi from Lisa's new album Love Alphorn.
Lisa is interviewed in German about her rise to fame!
January 2010
Catherine takes a leap from our second snowman of the season, while
our Chrismas tree enjoys time in the snow!
All this snow is like being in the Bernese Oberland. Well not really, but we can dream.
Here are some pics of the garden taken just before Christmas. Click the pic for a much bigger view.
Ahh.. a family gathering in the snow
Affectionately called 'the bus stop'
A snowman takes shape
Memories of haw frosts in the BeO
Catherine films Hannah eating snow!
What a drip!
Winter Wonderland
It had peaches on it a few months ago!
We have an ecclectic selection of trees!
The big bird table and the bus stop
December 09
Thursday night (17 Dec) and it was snowing like heck in the garden. See
right..
November 2009
On Radio BeO, this month we did a couple of specials celebrating Albert Einstein, the most famous resident
of Berne. We've a video of some famous quotes from this brilliant man set to Mozart.
Below, a few words unprepared. [laughter] A country becomes really a soul only in consciously serving the intellectual
life, and in the case of our Jewish people it was really this endeavour, which conserved the Jewish people as a whole. We
would not be in existence today, as a community of people, without this continued, or discontinued ... ehh ... activity into
learning and in thought and in literature."
Halloween 2009
Wicked Witch Catherine in the spiders web!
I've named him.. Elizabeth!
We were all spooked up for Halloween!! Here's the pumpkin carved by Wicked Witch Catherine which was
carried around and lit in friends homes. Be afraid.. be VERY afraid! Click for a larger view if you dare! Pathetic isn't it?
In fact the very idea of 'celebrating' Halloween has many people up in arms. Find out my investigations and thoughts here.
Here's an ongoing call to all Oberland photo folk. Have you got a fantastic photo of the Eiger Monch Jungfrau
trilogy at a resolution of around 2402 x 4368 pixels? If you wouldn't mind me using it here on the website, I would be
delighted to receive an email!!
September 2009
I can't let the passing of this great man go without adding my tribute to Keith. Undoubtedly the best TV chef of all
time, he strongly influenced me in my formative years at the stove. Individual, eccentric, flamboyant, mercurial, often shambolic,
he was a maverick of television, berating the cameraman for filming his face when it was 'the food dear boy!' He
came into the radio station I was working at once, and he was entirely charming. Another little chunk of Britain has disappeared.
God bless you Keith Floyd. There is a very special red wine in Heaven I'm told.
You know by now how I love churches and their bells. Well it just so happens that the world's oldest "ring of bells" has
just been rung for the first time in 20 years and it's in our home town. BBC Radio 4's Mark Worthington reported from
Ipswich on the bells, which were cast in the 15th century and rang for centuries in a church which later fell into disrepair
before being renovated and turned into a beautiful cafe where we love to eat. It's run by folk with learning and physical
disabilities. The renovation of the bells has rightly made national news. The Today programme feature can be heard by
clicking the link below.
Large chunks of Switzerland including some of the Oberland have now been added to Google's Street View. If you've not
used Street View before, zoom in on the map and drag the little yellow man to where you're interested and if the service is
available there(marked in yellow) you can have hours of fun wandering around! Click here for a link to the excellent Google maps site, type in 'Interlaken' and away you go!
June 2009 Farmers in the Lenk posed naked on the Alp. So reads the
headline in the Bernese Oberland . A three day calendar shoot with 'half naked' Farmers has taken place. 24-year-old
Corinna Studer who shot the calendar says "I would prefer to shoot again" The Farmer's obviously had a
real hard time 'with wind and low temperatures to endure for over an hour in front of the camera, but they enjoyed every moment
say Corinna'. Well proof is in the eating (if you get my drift) so we look forward to seeing the final calendar!! (Mike I
want the first one!!) Currently with order for 17,000 copies, as the German translation says 'he gets a lot of positive
feedback and feel to the expansion' I bet he did. The calendar for 2010 will be published in October!! Great fun!
May 2009 The newly formed Glacier lake above Grindelwald
(below) is threatening the very lower reaches of the village (GRUND) and the river downstream, even as far as Lake
Thun, as the banks formed by rock fall from the decaying edges of the Eiger mountain look like they will collapse allowing
millions of cubic metres of water into the valley. A website has been created. Here is a translated link to it.
In 1995 Hillside Animal Sanctuary was formed after witnessing the plight of the battery hen and since
then has helped and campaigned for animals in need, particularly those who are so routinely abused in the intensive factory
farming industry. I've done a fair amount of work for Hillside, and they are a great charity. Do please have a look at their website!!
April 2009 Here's a plea from the heart. Please take a look
at the website of the Hillside Animal Sanctuary, a charity we support in Norfolk, that has helped and campaigned for animals in need, bringing to public awareness the
awful suffering of animals in the intensive factory farming industry. In fact most of Hillside's residents have been
rescued from the farming industry. But now they are facing severe crisis, and need everyones support.. maybe including yours.
All I ask is PLEASE take a look at the website and the work they are doing. Buy something.. or better still make a donation. Catherine has emptied her money box, and we
all need to do the same... PLEASE!
We had to keep it quiet, but we signed the papers today, so we can announce that Liz and I have purchased
a new house. The mortgage is a little heavy but we think it's worth it, although the red carpet smells of dogs a
bit.
It's ours.. all ours!!!
We got it at a repossession auction. Appartently the owners hadn't kept up the payments
Ah Sunday.. a beautiful day.. Spring bursts into the garden, and here are two whippersnappers that
made an appearance heading for the pond.. Froggies went a courting.. and he did ride! Ah the pond 'washing machine' is about
to start! Trouble is there are just too many newts and dragonfly larvae for the poor old tadpoles.
A week in Beatenberg.. a week in Engelberg.. BOOKED AT LAST!!
Russ Conway below in 1959 was sitting Side Saddle!
Above a very handsome chap (my older brother), me and my lovely mum taken in Switzerland in 1965.
Early March 2009
'Why do we leave it so late!' has been the cry echoing around the Goss household recently. Holidays..
what a nightmare!! It's all a question of tieing up flights and suitable accomodation, and the last two times we've tried,
we've not been able to make it work. The airlines have mucked around with the routes again.. Easyjet now do not fly to Basel,
but Ryanair now do, albeit only a few days of the week, and we are equally suffering the silly 'one moment
cheap, the next expensive' game, as well as the 4.99 flight which after all the add-ons turns into 400 for the four of
us! The appaulling exchange rate problem left us wondering if we could make it at all this year, but the discovery of
some reasonable flights meant it was imperative that we tied up the accomodation. After nights of searching, worrying that
the flights would go up, guess what, the Oberland is BOOKED, apart from some places which.. well lets say .. we couldn't
bear, and believe me we are NOT fussy. The tourist offices appear to have nothing much left to offer. So just as last year
we're at our wits end, so inevitably our mouse has again been clicking the word 'Austria' also, and well where we will end
up is anyone's guess. I guess I should add 'watch this space'. Of course we could always camp the Oberland, just like we did
back in 1965. Great fun.
February 2009 You'll remember we have been conducting an experiment with high
resolution pictures on the site. The research has been done, and the results are in.. and the decision is..that
we will standardise our pictures at a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 which we will call 'High definition'. The
reasons are that really photos are not much use any larger as you have to scroll across them. So thank you for your patience.
Those photos that are on the site at larger resolution will eventually change, and all new material including from the Cole family will be at our new HD standard. We hope you will approve!
February 2009 and Mascha is due to leave Radio BeO... oh the glorious
Mascha!
I'm sad! (OK I don't look sad but I am)
It's always been inevitable.. and now the time nears..
We hope to be joined by some little birdies this Spring and the birdboxes are being
prepared. Someone we are already joined by is Cuddles.. err I mean Polly! Catherine changed her name after a few
weeks.
Also joining the family Flipper and Goldy (we'll let you work out which is which)
January 2009 Time to turn the lights off.. not because of the economic situation,
but to appreciate this photo of the Oberland's night sky, but what can you see? Click for a whopper! Hopefully more on the
Oberland's night sky soon.
Eliana Burki.. I can't talk about her as I'm all choked up! La Vie en Rose.. She knows how to handle that
horn of that I am sure.
Beautiful woman, beautiful music and not a bad pair of ripped jeans! Visit Eliana's lovely website for beatiful Eliana with her beautiful alphorn.
End of December 2008. We arrived back at the house after a few days
away in the 'gap' to find our beautiful Bumble had passed away peacefully in his nest. How that hamster was loved, oddly enough
for many different reasons for different members of the the family. We all had close associations with him, me often as I
secured the house for nightime. I would give him a 'special' nut, and have a quick word about the day as he chewed the metal
bars of his cage. He never bit once.. despite the attentions of a toddling Hannah. Catherine couldn't stand to be at his burial,
so I did it myself, with the inevitable tears. I had to open the shoe box to take one last glimpse. and give him a parting
kiss. His paw still across his lovely serene face, as if deep in sleep when Jesus decided to take him.
God bless you Bums - Rest in peace.
Thanks Bums for everything.. and particularly for teaching Catherine the responsibilities of
pet ownership.. which I'm glad to say she is holding to, with the arrival of some new members of the family.. Ladies and Gentlemen
please meet 'Cuddles' a Russian dwarf hamster (maybe we should have named her Cuddleski)
Christmas 2008.. well we just about made it.. we were all very ill just before,
but we made the festivities... oh and the tree looked lovely.
'Dad do you think we've overdone the Christmas decorations a bit?'
Here's Big Daddy.. with Big Father Christmas.
Wow what a whooper! and Father Christmas is big too!
It's October
With little old Monty Marmot safely asleep for the winter I can safely show you this wonderful vintage postcard
from 1950 of an Eagle hunting a marmot.
Find a word to describe the goings on at CERN Geneva?
It's difficult! We've had the webcams on our website for the last few years, but on 10 September 2008 the first beam in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN was successfully steered
around the full 27 kilometres of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. The protons travel the 27 kilometres
11000 times per second! Faster than Swiss Railways!! This historic event marks a key moment in the transition from over two
decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery. God is amazing and now he's letting us in on some of the
secrets. Find out more with videos of an amazing day here!
Below we're getting our feet back on the ground after a wonderful paragliding flight
to Interlaken's Hohematte (I've done it and it FAB!!) Picture courtesy of the excellent www.beo-news.ch
Well.. 'we loved the ... Tyrol' Ummm doesn't quite have the ring of our daily chant of several years
that 'we love the Bernese Oberland, but we had a good time. It was an enjoyable and fascinating experience to visit Austria
again. Yes the mountains are smaller, but they are still very impressive. There are plenty of excellent walks and plenty to
do for families, and in our limited experience, I reckon Austria just pips the Oberland to the medals for customer
service. Of course, we have pangs for the Oberland everyday, and we'll be returning very soon. As you may
have heard Catherine was ill in Austria with a throat infection which led to complications and three quiet days unable
to move from the apartment, but she is well now, and back to her 'robust' self!! Many thanks for all your kind
wishes for her speedy recovery. 100% attendance record at school all last year, and she goes and gets ill on holiday.. ho
hum!
Catherine in a healthier moment on the balcony!
We were staying in Ehrwald at the foot of the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, and accessible
from both Germany and Austria. By the wonders of modern communication (and the fact that we're both loopy), I arranged with
Martin and his family, staying in the Bernese Oberland at the same time as we were in Austria that we should take a
sunset photo at exactly the same time Wednesday night at 20.30 CET. Firstly the Bernese Oberland following a big thunderstorm
at 6pm..
.. and now from Ehrwald Austria.. a thunderstorm is brewing in a neighbouring valley!
The 3rd Incrowd Get Together happened in August in the Bernese Oberland, and
there are a few photos on the Incrowd page.
Well with the UK economy looking so fantastic (well someone's got to talk it
up!) Thoughts are turning to holidays, and for us, trips to the mountains... but not the dear old Bernese Oberland this
year. We've bailed out of an exchange rate that gives us 20% less buying power than a few years back. We
just can't afford it. But we're not 'crumbling' in Britain.. far from it. It's all the fault of the rest of the world! Oh
and by the way, we're not in recession yet... apparently. Ho hum.. off my soap box and into prayer. I've put something appropriate
on my thoughts page.
June 08 and Hannah walks!! Oh and Catherine skips on a trampolene!
We got one up on the Queen on one Saturday in June. The flypast for
Trooping the Colour, as usual flew right over our house on it's way to Buckingham Palace, so we got to see it 15
minutes earlier than her majesty. The only thing we missed was the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, who are too slow
for the jets and join up with the main group over Essex somewhere. Any road up, here is a short video of the event over our
garden! Quicktime on the link, or Window Media on the player( don't forget you can right click select 'zoom' and click 'full
screen' for a more cinematic experience)
