Hello Dear Reader And happy February! I hope that like me you are starting to notice the initial signs of spring. I have seen my first snowdrops and have definitely witnessed a gradual improvement in light levels when I walk home from work through the streets of Luzern. Here, things are gearing up to carnival which begins on 27th February, the day known locally as “Schmutziger Donnerstag” ( or “Dirty Thursday”). According to a local website ‘Strange characters with fantastic masks and costumes parade along the narrow streets while groups of carnival musicians (“Guggenmusigen”) blow their instruments in joyful cacophony and thousands of bizarrely clad people dance away the spirits of…