Good News from Татьяна & Toño

My sister-in-law Татьяна had some serious troubles with immigration in Switzerland (read about). Basically, the authorities claimed that my brother and Татьяна were engaged in a sham marriage.

My brother had to hire a barrister. There were two options. A) The Specialist in Swiss immigration law but from another Kanton (state) or B) one with the following qualities:

• local, knowing all and sundry
• member of parliament for a xenophobe party
• immigration-phobic voting record
• bulldog-like qualities in and off court.

My brother went for option B and his tactic seemed to have worked. The immigration department caved in very early in the legal process. This week Татьяна had been granted right of residence in Switzerland. She is not an illegal immigrant any more and can now visit her mother in Russia, who will celebrate her birthday at the end of this month.

Toño's troubles were not as bad as Татьяна's, nevertheless, they gave reason to worry. Toño was dissatisfied with his employer and had given his notice (read about). Almost unheard off, Toño's employer seemed to have noticed this shot across the bows and has actually changed his behaviour towards the employees. He also kindly asked Toño to reconsider. After some meetings, in which they both talked about their expectations, Toño withdrew the notice and is back on board.

Now both Татьяна & Toño can smile again.

Do you sleep in the same bed and do you shag regularly?

A new chapter has opened in the marriage turned saga between Татьяна and my brother. Thurgau's* migration department has denied Татьяна permission to reside on grounds of sham marriage. Everything rests purely on circumstantial evidence:

• Age difference (28 years)
  
• Татьяна's social background (rural Russia)
  
• how they met (at work).

There is the possibility to appeal the decision, but this involves lawyers (= heaps of money) and embarrassing interviews (typical question see post title). They want also to get married in church this summer in Russia. But with the legal uncertainty, they can't make any plans for their future.

* their state

Moi, l'architecte d'intérieur

This September, my brother surprisingly married his milker Татьяна. So far my brother and my parents were living in the farm house. Nevertheless, my parents were anticipating a marriage much earlier and wisely bought decades ago a small house down the road to use it as Stöckli:



My brother is not always the speediest and now my parents are aged 77 and 85. You can imagine that moving at this age is no easy undertaking. However they are up to it, but need some help to get the place ready. My sister makes no bones about things and thus took care that the carpets get cleaned, the hardwood floors get reworked and that a telephone line is connected. But since I'm the pooftah of my clan, interior design just had to be declared my field of expertise.

I is unclear when the house was actually built, but it must be around 400 years old and this had to be taken into account when selecting things. I don't mean that I was going to get 400 year old furniture and that all plumbing had to be removed. What I had to find were things that match with both the old building with its tiny rooms and my parents.

The pièce de résistance was clearly the settee for the drawing room. First I tried affordable furniture stores. This was torturous! Who was I to know that this planet is chastised with so many ugly furniture. I then tried the second hand stores. All furniture of the affordable shops obviously ended there. Close before I hit hit rock bottom and was about to declare defeat, Toño demanded that I had a look at a store nearby, which had a wide range of couches. And yes, they had the one model I was looking for:



I know, the Louis XI lounge table is not the most perfect match, but my parents will bring a lot of their old stuff and it will be a wild style mix anyway. If what I got would be too perfectly matching, it would not go with the other furniture.

In the background you can see the coat rack. It was originally designed for the Statens Järnvägar (Swedish State Railways). I chose it because it is solid and dynamic at the same time.



One of the most neglected fields is light. And since I also worked in designing lighting is usually spent a lot of time choosing lamps and bulbs bringing the lamps into effect. Luckily I found the Berliner Messinglampen GmbH. Of course choosing a chandelier would be nice, but the rooms have a low ceiling and thus I went for this:



and for the bedside tables:



Now, my parents can move. When this is completed, a second round will be necessary to fill the gaps.

Pilar & Thierry

...ont décidé d'unir leurs destinées*, as they wrote in their invitation. This will be celebrated today in French part of Switzerland at the banks of Lake Geneva. In other words, I will be exposed all day (& night) to the standardized langue d'oïl. But I'm not here to complain, I'm honoured to celebrate with Pilar & Thierry, their friends and family.

[so much bigger]
Here, Toño is explaining to Pilar and Thierry how vertjus is made (back in July)

* Pilar and Thierry have decided to unite their destinies.

Wedding Planning

The permit has arrived and my brother and his fiancée Татьяна can tie their knot this Friday afternoon in a civil marriage ceremony.

This morning, I received calls from both my sister and my brother while I was still in bed. My sister prepared me for my brothers request. He needed a suit and thought I might have what he needed.

In the afternoon we all met at my clan's residence. At this point of time only the date and the suit were solved. We had neither had a location for a reception, nor a menu, nor a guest list. These are the wedding planers in front of the residence.



The reception will be held in the arched cellar. We even agreed on a menu, a to-do-list and my brother and Татьяна made the guest list. So now, the guests have to be notified by them. Most of them do not have the slightest of a clue yet. And we need a caterer, heaps of flowers and Toño has to get some cartloads of champagne.

As usual, I think we completely forgot to ask my mother about her opinion.



Btw, my clan resides in this house since 1863.



Stay passionate and Godspeed!
Mr. Urs

PS: The ceremony in front of the altar will be held next June in Russia. How this will work with my brother being Zwinglian protestant in a Russian Orthodox ceremony will be something we will have to solve after this week.