George started secondary school at the end of August. It is much better than primary. He has different teachers for different subjects and they seem to be very passionate and kind. They are not strict and uncaring like the last teacher. They love what they do and put all their energy into it. There is no shouting. The class teacher, Mrs Glaus, is particularly nice.

The school offers after school activities and George is doing robotics, which he loves. He has made a new friend - David - and he seems to be a very happy go lucky but hard working boy. I met his mum Michéle and we went to the parents meeting together with Verena.

George still forgets books and homework and has problems getting organised, but he is much better than before. He seems to really get a lot out of school and stays for school lunches in the canteen. He can do homework in a supervised environment at lunchtime, so he can ask the teachers if there is something he doesn't understand. On Tuesday there's a club where you can go and talk about problems, discuss issues that affect young people. He likes that too.

George's grades were not sufficient to put him in the 'A' stream so he went into "general" and is hoping to do so well that he will be promoted into the 'A' stream in November. He has been working hard and his grades have been very good so far this year but he has a few tests to go. He is at guitar lesson right now with Gaby next door.

Three weeks ago we went to see the Beatles documentary '8 days a week: the touring years", which we loved. The tiny Rex cinema in Fribourg was completely packed and we had to sit right at the front but it was fine. The film was uplifting and inspiring although it was rather sad that the Beatles lost interest in performing because of the cult of celebrity. They felt the whole circus around the band had become more important than the music itself, and that's why they split up. When we came out of the movie, George said he would ask Gaby to teach him 'Girl' on the guitar, and within 30 minutes (the lesson was short) he had learnt it! What a talent!

Last weekend George and I (both wearing ridiculous pink tutus) took part in a fun run in Lausanne, which Heather signed us up for. We were in a group with some of Heather's friends, her husband Theo and her girls, Victoria, Bridget and Elizabeth, who are all lovely. Heather's son Christopher did not participate as he was tired from football training but he ended up running more than us as our "official" photographer.

When we lined up for the start there were thousands of people in colour run t-shirts and blue headbands. All our group wore tutus. The atmosphere was fantastic, with great music played over huge speakers, a really fun animator with dancers on a stage (we had to copy the dancers so that was a good warm up), and everybody had packets of dye that they opened and threw around, so we were covered in colour from head to foot before we even set out.

Most people seemed to walk the whole way but I tried to run most of it. George was running around like a mountain goat, springing off trees and showing what a little whippet he is (actually not so little at about 1.64 now). I decided to stay with Theo and Bridget, who is only 8 but also runs like a mountain goat, so we did a tiny bit of walking and then had to spring off behind her again when she had recharged her not inconsiderable batteries.

At the end of it all we got a medal and went to eat a pancake. We raised over CHF10,000 for a vaccination against Crohn's Disease being developed by King's College Hospital in London. Christopher has Crohn's

Yesterday we went to a show organised once every 5 years by ProSpecieRara. The organisation brings all its protected species together in a big hall and you get to stroke the animals and have a good look at them. Some of the goats were pulling children in little carts. I was working and George and Graham came along for the ride. They now have 2500 breeders and many species have been saved from extinction. Afterwards we went to Lenzburg and had goulash soup in a café. Lenzburg has a lovely old town so we walked around a bit.

Today we went to see Emma sing in her choir, Lakevoices, which was a great fun show. She sang very well and put a lot of energy into it, as she does with all her activities. Such an inspiring, fun person. Graham met her husband Pat and her two sons Josh and Leo (Leo is 12 like George) and I promised to invite them for curry.

So in all these events, we saw Swiss people letting their hair down and having a really good time. The warm up at the colour run was off the scale joyful. At the concert today, people stood up and danced along and clapped to the songs the whole way through. And who'd have thought so many people would turn up to see a documentary in English about the Beatles. We were so lucky to get a seat.