June 2020
Friday 4th June 2020
Out and about
Today, for the first time in 11 weeks, I travelled by train in Zürich. The last time, Thursday 19th March, I went to Oerlikon for a language lesson, and I realised that travelling on the train was rather risky, since someone in our family is in one of the risk groups and should not risk being infected with Covid-19.
Since then all of my lessons have been held remotely.
Today I didn’t have much choice. I had to travel into town, also into Oerlikon as it happens, to the immigration authority, since my residence permit is up for renewal and this time it will be in credit card format with biometric data on it. And that can only be done by going to the office and having a proper photo taken.
Over these weeks I’ve either been wearing my indoor shoes, or my walking shoes. But today I put on my out-and-about leather shoes again, also for the first time in eleven weeks.
Since then all of my lessons have been held remotely.
Today I didn’t have much choice. I had to travel into town, also into Oerlikon as it happens, to the immigration authority, since my residence permit is up for renewal and this time it will be in credit card format with biometric data on it. And that can only be done by going to the office and having a proper photo taken.
Over these weeks I’ve either been wearing my indoor shoes, or my walking shoes. But today I put on my out-and-about leather shoes again, also for the first time in eleven weeks.
Thursday 11th June 2020
One hundred years ago today my mother, Ivy Joy Sturgess, was born. Where exactly she was born is not quite clear. The birth certificate says Long Ashton (but that may just be where the register office was). I seem to remember her saying that she was born in Portishead. Anyway, somewhere in Somerset and not far from Bristol.
There are very few early photographs, but I did discover one of her as a baby.
This one came a year or two later, but judging from the warm clothing, it wasn’t a birthday picture.
This photo used to stand in a frame on my grandmother’s sideboard. It always used to puzzle me a bit. Why was she standing under an oriental parasol?
Since then I’ve realised that that might have been part of the ‘set’ at a photographer’s studio.
Anyway, the nineteen-twenties-style dress is distinctive.
Since then I’ve realised that that might have been part of the ‘set’ at a photographer’s studio.
Anyway, the nineteen-twenties-style dress is distinctive.
After that the photographic record fades out. Those were hard times and her father, struggling with ill health dating back to his military service in the First World War, moved from one job to another. The last of those was at Badock Hall in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, working maybe as a gardener or groundsman. There he died in 1939.
My mother and her mother ended up living in Bristol’s inner city. Their flat in King Square Avenue was burned down in the bombings of 1940, which might explain why so few mementoes of her early life survived.
At some time in the nineteen thirties she started working as a shop assistant. I don’t know where she started, but certainly from the end of the war until her marriage she worked for Longs in Filton Park, just outside the northern boundary of Bristol. I believe it was a greengrocer’s .
My mother and her mother ended up living in Bristol’s inner city. Their flat in King Square Avenue was burned down in the bombings of 1940, which might explain why so few mementoes of her early life survived.
At some time in the nineteen thirties she started working as a shop assistant. I don’t know where she started, but certainly from the end of the war until her marriage she worked for Longs in Filton Park, just outside the northern boundary of Bristol. I believe it was a greengrocer’s .
At the age of thirty-five, on 5th November 1955, she married my father in Broadmead Baptist Church in Bristol.
Those were austere times too. The wedding cake was by modern standards modest, and the wedding dress had to be something which could be worn as Sunday Best after the wedding.
From the time she got married she lived in Stoke Gifford, just north of Bristol, and there she lived until her death on 6th February 2008.
Those were austere times too. The wedding cake was by modern standards modest, and the wedding dress had to be something which could be worn as Sunday Best after the wedding.
From the time she got married she lived in Stoke Gifford, just north of Bristol, and there she lived until her death on 6th February 2008.
And here she is on one of her visits to Switzerland, seen with her two granddaughters on Christmas Eve 2002.
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Contact
If you’re interested in English lessons or translation and checking services, please feel free to contact me in the language of your choice - English, French, German or even Lingala!
Here are my details:
Here are my details:
Mobile
078 609 56 51
+41 78 609 56 51
+41 78 609 56 51
Location
Tödistrasse 9, 8634 Hombrechtikon
(New address from 24th March 2018)
(New address from 24th March 2018)
If you are travelling from Rüti / Wolfhausen, drive past the Hombrechtikon place-name sign for about 300 metres and turn right into Tödistrasse, just before the Tobel bus stop.
Approaching from Hombrechtikon
If you are approaching from the centre of Hombrechtikon, follow the signs to Rüti. At the Tobel junction (the Methodist Church is on the left) turn left. Tödistrasse is the next turning on the left, just past the Tobel bus stop.
The entrance to our new flat is about 100 metres from the junction with Rütistrasse, on the left-hand side of the road.
The house number is number 9 and we are on the first floor.
There are a few visitor’s parking bays a short distance beyond the entrance, on the left.
There are a few visitor’s parking bays a short distance beyond the entrance, on the left.
Arriving by bus
If you arrive by bus from Bubikon, get off the bus at Tobel and follow Tödiweg until you get to Tödistrasse. Our house is on the right.