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.

It is no longer possible to write from George's perspective as he is 12, a proper young man with his own opinion about things, and it would be a bit patronising, I suppose. So I now write from my own, mum, perspective.

George has just spent two days being tested on French, Geography, Science, History, Maths and German. These exam results, plus his term work, will determine whether he gets into the A stream at high school, which he starts at the end of August. The mock exam results were not that great so we are not expecting miracles. I think he is just relieved to have the whole testing business over with for the year - wipee!

George is still recovering from being shot in the thumb by an air gun, weilded by his new friend and neighbour, "I didn't realise the catch was off" Timotheo. This resulted in a visit to A&E on Sunday night. An x-ray showed there was nothing broken so we went home and watched ' Modern Family' series 2, which cheered us up. Tim's dad rang and I chewed his ear off over giving a gas propelled gun to a 12 year old. He has since put the weapon that he calls a toy in the attic, apparently. George is still friends with Timotheo and life goes on. He has to keep the bandages on til Friday and is banned from doing sport but I am still taking him bowling tomorrow with Quentin as a treat for finishing his exams. Graham is away working in Germany.

At last spring has come. The gardens are full of flowers and the sun is shining. A turtle dove is singing the refrain of 'she drives me crazy', a hit from the eighties by Fine Young Cannibals. Mum did turbo weeding yesterday and the grass is covered with little piles of weeds that have not been raked up yet. She was going to dump them in the field next door but then the farmer, Marcel, arrived on the scene to inspect his perimeter fences. He is going to stop dairy farming because his expenses - vets bills etc - were greater than his income last year. He is going to keep chickens instead.

Yesterday me and Yannick went with mummy to the swimming pool in Murten. We jumped off the 3 metre board and did pirouettes in the air. Afterwards mummy and I scootered and daddy rode his bike from home to the cafe in Domdidier. I had a ham croissant with seeds on. Yum. Afterwards I spent the afternoon playing with Yannick. We went for a bike ride, did jumps on our scooters, played a bit of Mario Bros on the Wii and played footie. We played some basketball and said hello to the new puppies at Jean-Bernard's farm.

In the evening we watched 'The Voice' and 'Britain's got Talent'. There was a very good dance group from Holland who told a sad story with mime and dance about a man who met his girlfriend, got married, went to war then died. The dancers made the shape of the church with their bodies, then the wedding car in which they travelled back from the church, then a war plane. It was amazingly good.

I have been on holiday for two weeks. Last week nanny was here and it rained a lot. We went to Neuchatel and visited the botanical gardens then went to the Papiliorama in Kerzers, which was nice and warm. I'm not sure if I like all the bats whizzing around in the Nocturama!

The houses were tinged pink this evening as I took George to his swimming lesson in Avenches. The second lot of tests t determine whether he goes up to the next class, swapping Sunday nights for Saturday mornings. This would be a whole lot more convenient as, at the moment, we always have to make sure we are home in time for swimming after skiing on Sundays, visiting friends or whatever.

Today we went skiing in Schwarzsee. A beautiful, crisp sunny day with fantastic snow conditions but soooo cold - minus 12 on the car thermometer plus wind chill. As soon as you breathed into your face mask the water droplets froze, so I had icicles hanging off my eyelashes! George is a great little skier now and hardly ever falls over. He loves all the off piste bumpy bits and skiis well on the steeper slopes. When I watch him I almost burst with pride. I nag him to lean forward in his boots, keep his arms forwards, practice his short turns so he knows what to do when we get to a narrow passage. On the lifts going to the top of the pistes we cuddle up and tell stories, and look for animal tracks in the snow.

Graham didn't join us. He sat and studied in the restaurant near the lake. He's doing his last paper (before his thesis) for a Masters degree (MSC) in crisis management, with Leicester University. His shoulders ache today - part of the rheumatoid arthritis he is being treated for. He stopped the drugs for two days because he thought he had a kidney problem but it turned out that beetroot turns your pee red as well! He was away last week at a conference in Copenhagen, where he had been asked to speak, and had been eating beetroot (YUK can't stand it myself).

I am also very proud of my lovely husband, who has built his business up from scratch and made such a success of his consultancy. He is a loving, kind, encouraging parent and adoring husband.

Tomorrow I'll finish off editing a film about bats in Switzerland and why they're endangered. I've been to an exhibition, to the papilliorama where a PHD student was studying bats mating habits, and spent one morning with a bat specialist from Neuchatel who helps people renovate buildings in a bat friendly way!

Mum and I have just been to see the Payerne carnival, which was great. It didn't rain. We met the Thai lady from the pizza restaurant in Corcelles and she threw confetti with us and played with me a lot. The carnival floats were better than ever - very big and creative and funny. And there was a great group of women dancing. The music was also fab - Barbara Streisand and stuff like that. I stood next to a girl with a broken leg and grey paint in her hair and she danced a lot on one leg. I threw a lot of confetti in her face and it was quite hard for her to throw as much back as she had to hold her crutch with one arm. Daddy was watching West Ham play some other team so he didn't come with us.

We have just got back from a week of skiing in Sörenberg in central Switzerland, which was excellent. The snow was good and it was sunny every day. Mostly (easy) red pistes. One brilliant black piste coming down from the Rothorn but that was a busride away from the main ski area. Mum and dad did that.

I went to ski school every day and am officially a red prince, in the advanced group. Most of the children in my class were between 9-11 and quite good skiers. We had a slalom race on Thursday and I came 13th, but all the students ahead of me were older. There were about 35 in the red prince group, all competing together in the slalom. Mum said it would have been better if they had had separate categories for different ages. Anyway I got a great bronze medal and a badge and I was happy with all of that.

I really learnt a lot and I can ski as fast as mummy almost. She has to race to keep up with me most of the time. But I still fall over more! I fell over badly on Thursday and scraped the skin off my chin and split my lip. It's Sunday now and the skin is still all bumpy and red on my chin.

We had a nice apartment to stay in. I watched TV (in German), did my Nintendo, did drawing, and went down to the Rakkalino room to play with the other children and do arts and crafts with them. A guy called Andy looked after us. He used to be a snowboard teacher. Mum cooked in the evenings. We sometimes had lunch in the mountains.

I made a great tool for firing confetti at people at carnivals, which I used today. It works ok but not as well as when you throw a big fistful. Mum says I can use it again next week at the Avenches carnival.

One night we had pizza and did a drawing competition. I was upset my drawing didn't win as it was much harder to colour in than the pictures the other kids did. We had a raclette that night and the parents had to judge which was the best picture. The other parents all spoke German.

In half an hour I'm going to my swimming lesson - looking forward to seeing Maud (whose also in my class at school). I am sad that mummy is going back to work tomorrow but happy that daddy will be here.