It's been a lazy morning, watching TV, reading books, playing computer games (my favorite is Super Mario). This afternoon we are meeting Merle and Lelia, and their mum and dad Faryal and Falk at the butterfly sanctuary, the Papiliorama. Haven't been there for ages. Our friend and former au pair Alison once got lost in the Nocturama, the stinky dark dome with nocturnal animals. She got lost in the bat cave and came out almost in tears. But it was quite funny at the time. Every time you go in there a bat flies in your hair, which is a bit scary!

Yesterday we went to the library and took back our books, then went to get some shopping. At the Migros you get a Nano, a little pellet shaped character with a magnet in, every time you spend 20 francs. So mum got five and I bought a Nano track with my pocket money so they could race with each other. I got two lots of two the same so will now try to do swaps with my school mates.

In the afternoon we went for a bike ride and along the cycle path, beavers had been very busy chopping down trees and making dams. There was a huge fat toad in one of the pools of the river. Mummy thought it was poorly - it was so bloated that it couldn't keep its balance in the water. I wanted to take it home and save it but mum thought it would be better off where it was so we left it. I got tired going up our hill so mummy had to push my bike. Still a bit sick from this cold.

Daddy is studying a lot for his degree and seems to enjoy that. At the moment he is writing an essay about terrorism. We are living in interesting times because Tunisia and Egypt had revolutions against the leadership and overthrew their presidents. Now Bahrain and Libya are having a go, In Bahrain the army has been called off and the government seems ready to compromise. In Libya the leader Gadaffi has sent the army out to shoot the protestors and more than a hundred people have died. Mum and dad say this will change the course of history - these revolutions.

Mummy went to Kosovo for a week and has written three articles for her website. There is a special dossier for her stories. She now has to make two films. Her bosses said they liked the work.

I managed to be good all week and on Friday mum and dad gave me some brilliant shoes which light up when you stamp your feet.

Dear me, Mr Blog, it has been a while! So much has happened. I had to go to see a school psychologist - it was Vera's idea. She was my Kindergarten teacher. Vera thought I was like her son: gifted, disorganised. Her son also got depressed and she didn't want that to happen to me.

So I saw Nicolas Ducré about 5 times (and missed loads of school) and he made me do lots of tests - hard ones and boring ones. Then in the end we had a meeting with mum, dad, Chloé and Rachel (my primary school teachers) and he told us all that I had an IQ of 130 and that, in all the tests I did, I came out as a child with 'haute potential', which means 'gifted' in English.

Nicolas asked what the teachers were going to do about it and they said, more or less, nothing as they did not have time to spend with individual kids' problems. Despite this, things did change. They made me do some of the exercises with a timer, so I had to do them quicker than the other children in the class, and they said that I did the exercises better like that. I got better reports. I felt better.

When mum said I had to go and see Nicolas I thought it was because I was stupid, but now I know it was the opposite.
Still , my friend Quentin is better at maths. Yannick always gets good grades in everything. It's just that in some subjects, like the human body, geography...stuff like that, I am better than the others. But this is also partly because mum and dad explain a lot of things to me. I spend more time with adults than children who have lots of brothers and sisters. We go to museums, travel to different countries, visit ancient ruins etc. Fanny told me she had never been in a plane. I know I am lucky in this way.

On December 16th we went to England. We wanted to visit nanny Flood, Uncle Robert and Aunty Joy on Saturday and we hired a car especially, but it snowed a lot and all the cars were having accidents, so we didn't go. I was very sad about this as nanny Flood then died on New Year's Day and I never saw her again. She was nice to me and laughed a lot. Daddy was very sad.

We had a great Christmas. First nanny Barbara came over. This year noone had to go to hospital. (Last year dad had to go to the emergency ward as mum thought he was getting pneumonia!). On the 26th nan went home and we went to visit Ol and Tim Clissold, who were staying at Tim and Lorraine's flat in Flane. Mum went to University with Ol.

We went skiing with them and mum's old friends Simon and Joy (also Uni friends of mum's) and their children Oscar and Sonia. So it was a fun time. There were lots of pistes but the weather was bad and sometimes we could only see to the end of our skiis through the fog. I played with Alex and Max and Rachie, Ol's children. We played Pictionary and with my Nintendo.

Father Christmas gave me the Nintendo and there are lots of funny things you can do with it, apart from playing Super Mario. You can morph photos and make strange monster faces, and you can record your voice and speed it up or slow it down - so you can sound like Mickey Mouse. I was in level 8 of Super Mario but I flew a plane to level 12 so now I am at the top level. I am going into the world of lava, so I need to put my snorkel on.

I have just come back from my swimming lesson. Today I was practicing backstroke. Yesterday I had the first of 4 collective ski lessons at Schwarzsee. It was good because we practiced going over little hills and cliffs (!!!!) and turning. My teacher is called Super Marius. There is another French speaking girl in my class called Lucy - she is 9 and also speaks French. I am a so called 'little prince' in the Swiss Ski School Advanced class. Next year mum wants to put me in the Schwarzsee ski team as they do competitions and exciting things. I have to do a test to get in. Then I will have to go to practice every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning.

I am still doing judo on Tuesdays as well, and this summer I would like to start athletics. Mum and dad would like me to learn the piano. Dominique, our neighbour, comes to see me once a week and we practice French and she teaches me new words.

Today it was really cold - minus 3. (Yesterday it was minus 6 at Schwarzsee). I went for a bike ride from Avenches to Faoug - mum and dad walked. Then we went to MacDonalds then we went to see a new Disney Film about Repunzel in French, which was brilliant!

We are just back from a week of walking and thermal bathing in Leukerbad and were glad to see that the house is still standing and has not been painted blue in our absence.

More about Leukerbad: We went on a walk every day...one day following the trail of the 8 sources they use in their ten thermal baths. We went on a metal walkway high above a gorge with a torrent racing through it. It was quite exciting! The guide explained that rainwater trickles down through the different layers of rock, which is porous, and when it gets to about 500 metres deep, it bounces back up under pressure. The water is hot because it comes from deep in the earth. The sources are tapped and channeled to the different thermal baths. People have been coming here to bath in the waters since about 1850. At that time they only paddled, but later they put their whole bodies in. There is one pool at the Burgerbad that contains unfiltered, uncooled thermal water from one of the sources. It is muddy looking, very hot, and black slime covers the bottom of the pool. So that's what sick people used to come and bath in because they thought the minerals would make them better. These days every one baths in the waters. But the water is filtered and clear, thank goodness. Otherwise we would get slimy every time!

I liked the Burgerbad because there were lots of different pools with water jets and jacuzzis, and two fab slides. One was green and you went down it in a rubber ring. The other one was red and blue and you just went on your own and some bits were dark and scary. We went to the Burgerbad three times this week. Children up to the age of 8 go for free and I am only 6!

We arrived on Saturday and Daddy came back from the Philippines on Sunday. Mum picked him up in Visp. It was so great to see him again. He had been away for ten days and I missed him a lot.

Back to Leukerbad and the walks. Once we went to the top of the Torrentbahn and walked down to the middle station, where we caught the gondola to Flasch, then got a bus back to leukerbad. The countryside was lovely, with all the autumn colours. I saw some animal tracks but no actual animals.

We didn't realise when the bus stopped that we were in the middle of the town, so got yet another bus that drove all around the resort and finally stopped near our apartment in Parade. It would have only taken a few minutes to walk there from the bus station.

Another day we took the cable car to the top of the Gemmi mountain and went animal spotting with a guide. He had a few pairs of binoculars and we spotted quite a few chamois. When the guided walk finished - and there was not much walking but lots of talking so I played in the new snow - we walked down to a lake and started mini avalanches.

On Friday - our last day - we were supposed to go on a guided walk in the vineyards but no one else booked it. There needed to be 4 participants for it to take place so the tourist office cancelled. Instead we went on our own walk from Leukerbad to Inden - about 6 km along the Culture Path, the original path that wealthy travellers took to leukerbad when there were no trains. It was very lovely. We just missed the bus back so went for a hot chocolate in a tavern while we waited for the next bus.

Our apartment was very small and had sloping roofs so mum and dad kept bumping their heads. There was a bedroom with two single beds and a fold down bed in the lounge. We took it it turns to sleep in different beds!

On Monday night we went out to dinner with Morven, mum's friend and work colleague (her news editor) and her daughters Eve and Nadia, which was fun. I was silly, as usual, and made them laugh a lot. Mum and dad and Morven shared a fondu. The kids had pizzas. Morven and her daughters only stayed from Saturday to Tuesday morning, in a hotel not far from our Reka apartment (the Schlössli)

So we had a wonderful time in Leukerbad. It snowed one day - Wednesday - and we did a soap making workshops. Mum made a witch, a snail and a Christmas tree out of her soap. I made different shapes - one like a curly Catherine wheel, and daddy made plane white blocks of soap with no patterns and no colour. Mum and I put green in ours but the colours were a bit blotchy.

I have been watching French TV to improve my French.

I'm very glad to be home now. I am still on holiday for another week. Huray!!! No homework.

Another action packed weekend. Saturday went to scouts in Domdidier - we played some running around games. The scout masters were good fun. They are all about 20. My school mates Yannick and Valentine were also there, and a girl I used to know at the garderie in St Aubin, Aurore.

After lunch we went bowling in Estavayer - it's a great bowling hall with a climbing area and trampoline for children, and lots of those computer games where you drive a racing car or do a ski race and you have to put 2 francs in each time. I was even better at the skiing than mummy. Daddy won the bowling - he got two strikes. Mum got one strike. They said I was really good but when I threw the ball down the bowling alley I almost went with it every time!

After that we went to Praz where they had a fête de vendange - it was great. There were lots of tents with food and wine and fairground rides and bands playing. One of the bands was quite bad. We had noodles with chicken - YUM.

Today is Sunday - mum and dad had a lie in. I played lego and made a hangar for my new biplane. Then we went to the Roman museum in Vallon, where they had an open day, and lots of ateliers where you could make different things. We made mosaics, we painted on tiles, I made a silver coin and a little leather pouch for it, and went on an archaeological dig, where I found some old mosaic and old bits of pots. I also made a mouse out of clay but most people were making pots! My mouse was good but his ear fell off in the car on the way home. Dad stuck it back on and now it is drying in the back bedroom.

They also had yummy sausages with beans in, and bread made in an outside oven, and salads with lentils and couscous. Mum and dad liked that. I had a croissant and an ice cream. I liked that too. Now I am going swimming. I am in the grenouilles class. We stay in the deep end and do diving and stuff. One day I would like to be a really good diver from the high diving boards - you know, one of the ones who do somersaults and land straight in the water like a dart.

Mummy is reading lots of French books to me as we both need to learn new words and improve our vocabulary. She gets them from the library. Some are really fun and they have a little paper 'torch' with them that lights up the page when you put it between the the plastic cover and the paper page underneath. Like magic. But we have to keep stopping with the story while mum looks up words.

Had a great day today. Met up with Alexander, David and Rafael and their mums and dads at Yverdon plage, had lunch, played on the swings, caught a frog, climbed on some neolithic stones, and found a huge branch which we took it in turns to sit on while the other kids carried us. I found the branch with Rafael and we composed a marching song while we were carrying it. I did the words and he did the tune.

Later we said goodbye and came home to Dompierre and did my swimming lesson. I told mum I didn't want to go but on the way to Avenches I had to admit that I enjoy those lessons a lot and never want them to stop. I am now in the frogs class, which is more advanced than the class I was in before the summer holidays, but I didn't really notice any difference.

I have now started primary school (end of August). My new teachers are called Rachel and Maud and I particularly like Maud. Rachel is more strict. Mum and dad came to meet my teachers last Friday. They were a bit disappointed that I was in the slightly naughty category on the behaviour chart (but I will be back in the good bit by Monday so nothing to get too excited about. Daddy says I will get a present if I can stay in the extra good section for a week. No problem).

Mum and dad were also disappointed that I hadn't filled in much of the exercise book I am supposed to work on in the breaks between other things. But thjere's no hurry - we have all term. So what if other kids have filled all theirs in already! I can do it easily in a few minutes if I just knuckle down to it. The teacher told mummy I was a bit of a dreamer and took a while to get around to things but she knew that already.

The canton has cancelled my weekly French lessons even though the teacher commented on my weekly report that I had to make more effort with the French!

Despite all this, we have a nice classroom and I like my school mates. We all get on really well. I like school a lot. We have a stuffed owl and a squirrel in the class, on loan from a museum.

Apart from school I also go to judo lessons on Tuesday - mummy thinks I am quite good at it and is pleased because I listen to the teacher more and try to do what he says. I went to the choir this week that Yannick goes to but I didn't like that much and am terrified of performing before an audience so I'm going to drop that. But Yannick and I will go to scouts. It's every other Saturday. I might also go to the Wednesday afternoons nature adventure in Murten that Maud, my classmate, goes to.

The summer was great. We went to England and stayed in Charlestown where smugglers used to hide their smuggled goods in caves. There was a great shipwreck museum there and a nice beach and I played with the girl next door to our cottage called Fiona. Nanny came on holiday with us. She is lovely. We shared a room. She didn't hear when I fell out of bed..she was so fast asleep.

We visited the Eden project, the lost gardens of Halligan, Mevagissey, Fowey, Polruan and another beach near Charlestown. We looked for crabs and built sand castles and once, in Polruan, we saw a seagull take an ice cream out of a woman's hand. She was a bit surprised! We ate cornish pasties while sitting on benches and looking out to sea.

I was at home with mummy for one week and we met Maggy and Alex in Basel and went to the natural history museum. We also went to the swimming pool and the lake.

Our au pair from Croatia, Marina, left while we were on holiday in Ticino. We stayed in the Rekka village in Albernago near Lugano for a week. There was a big outside heated pool and I made friends with Cyril and Rayon and their sister and we hung out together. We made some good stuff in the bricolage classes every morning - I made a stone necklace and a birdbox (now on our tree near the sandpit and swings in our garden).

We also visited Bellinzona's three castles and went out for a few evening meals. On Wednesday I went with daddy and the other Rekka village people on a boat trip and a walk. At the Rekka village they also had ping pong and table football, crazy golf (I got good at this) and a trampoline. Mummy had to work from Monday to Thursday but spent Sunday and Friday and the evenings with us.

When we got back from holiday I had a week with daddy and played a lot with Yannick and swam with him and Nicola in Yannick's pool. Then a new au pair arrived - Angela from Moldova. We get on fine. I have had lots of au pairs now: from China, Canada, USA, Romania, Poland, Estonia, Slovak state and now Moldova (although she lives in Romania). I also had two different Portuguese child minders for a while.

Last weekend we went to the Seilpark in Bern for my friend Anglie's birthday treat and I hurt my leg badly because I was whizzing around too fast. Then on Sunday we went to Porrentruy and saw the biggest collection of dynosaur tracks in the world, at a place where they are going to build the A61 motorway. Next year the tracks will all be covered with road. There were more than 2000 different tracks - some really big footsteps (Herbivores) and some small ones made by the raptors. It was brilliant. I watched the movie Kangaroo Joe on the way there (2.5 hours) and The Pink Panther with Steve Martin on the way back. I still think it's really funny even though I've seen it loads of times. I told my teacher at Kindergarten (Vera Nicolet) that I wanted to be Inspector Cleusot when I grow up.