familial entropy

welcome to the Pinot Noir region

Posted on 17. August 2014 by erdhummel

When I wrote that we don’t have a honeymoon, it wasn’t completely true. We did get a honeymoon-day as a present from our friends which we made use of today. The little one therefore had the pleasure of her first “Gotti-Tag” (Swiss German for a day spent with your godmother) while we took the train to Schaffhausen and then rented an E-Bike in order to explore the Pinot Noir region.

We started at around 9 am and dropped the little one off at our friends (she was spending the day in the zoo with penguins and blueberries, much to her delight!). While we still worried a bit during the first hour (after all it was the first complete day without her and we weren’t even close by in case we were needed), we started to relax immediately when we saw the Rhine Falls. In Schaffhausen, we received the E-Bikes at the train station (after some troubles at the counter) and off we went: our first E-Bike tour.

What shall I say?……Wuuuuuuuuuuushhhhhhhh!!!

It’s almost immodest how fast you can drive with an E-Bike!

First short stop was at the Rhine Falls, but we left relatively quickly for the wine region as we would see the Falls again on our way back. The beginning of the tour turned out to be not as easy as imagined. Mainly because we didn’t bring a map as it was a railaway offer by the Swiss railway company and we somehow thought that they would provide us with a map for that tour together with the bikes and the helmets.

So the only thing we got was a map with a mountain bike route. Which we decided to take as it lead us through the forest. We thought we could turn it into a mount-E-bike route. Didn’t work out. Fact is – E-bikes don’t work so well on rocky forest paths. And we somehow lost track. So after two hours we were really happy to end up in a small village which we knew was on the actual pinot noir route. Aaah, and the vineyards. The grapes. Dozens of red kites. And half-timbered buildings, all with the characteristically big gates that you find in wine regions. A truly beautiful route via Jestetten, Osterfingen and Wilchingen (click on the pictures to enlarge).

The second part of the route went along the Klettgau-Bike trail, but was, compared with the first part, less spectacular. Mainly along the railway tracks. (If we go back there we would take another way back). It ended, however, at the Rhine Falls again which are simply beautiful, especially because it had been raining during the last days so there was more water than usual, and today was beautiful sunshine.

Back in Schaffhausen we enjoyed a pizza and a stroll around the old part of the town. I wasn’t aware that Schaffhausen is such a picturesque town and was pleasantly surprised. Almost by coincidence we entered the cross coat of the cathedral – a beautiful and very relaxing ending of our tour.

We were back in Zurich at half past five, only half an hour later than our friends and the little one. Looks like they had a great day too and we are extremely happy and thankful that we were able (and enabled both by our friends and by the little one) to do such a wonderful trip. Now we’ll drink a glass of wine and finish the day with a movie…

Posted in Family, Switzerland, Travel | Tagged E-Bike, Klettgau, Pinot Noir, Rhine Falls, Schaffhausen, Veloroute Nr. 77 | 2 Comments

walking among champions

Posted on 13. August 2014 by erdhummel

These days, the European Athletics Championships take place in Zurich, and we are more and more discovering that we are walking among champions. It all started on Tuesday when the little one and I had the first baby swimming class after the summer holiday. The lobby of the hotel where it takes place was crowded with, as we discovered, the Polish and the Swedish teams. It was also the first time I heard about the Championship being in Zurich (slight cough…). Apparently, one of the obligations of the championship committee was that always two teams have to be put in a hotel together (I read that special attention was paid towards not putting Russia and the Ukraine together).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In the afternoon, our neighbour told us a bit dissappointed that their grandchildren couldn’t watch the training of the athletes although they walked around the whole sports hall. But you can’t peak inside…This was when I discovered that the training is held approximately 200 meters aways from our flat.

And when I went shopping today, we noticed that two other teams are located in the hotel right next to our local mall. It’s getting exciting. I am just waiting for the first contest to be held in our backyard.

In the meantime, the aura of championship starts to spread. The little one turned into a big champion when it comes to slowly walking backwards and holding tight to a forbidden object while not letting me out of her sight.

Posted in Switzerland | Tagged European Athletics Championships | Leave a comment

this dreaded thing called…

Posted on 12. August 2014 by erdhummel

Last week I was asked by a friend if we are honeymooning.

haha…

no.

See, there is this dreaded thing called field work. It’s the little child of Karsten’s PhD. And the reason why we haven’t had any summer vacations for the last years. To be honest, Karsten and I have only had one proper holiday during our whole relationship so far (if you don’t count christmas at our parents place) and that was in 2010 when we travelled around Tanzania. Apart from that, we had 5 days in Rome once, and a long weekend in Stralsund. Oh, and the days on Spiekeroog…which were supposed to be a whole week, but then Karsten had to leave earlier to attend a workshop. Like on our civil wedding when he had to leave right after the wedding dinner.

Instead of going on holiday, Karsten spends his summer days on his field. Two years ago, I joined him as an intern (maybe that almost counts as working holiday – it sure added a whole new dimension to our relationship. I mean, who can openly admit to regularly kiss one’s boss?). If you wonder how the field looks like: it’s huge. And by now full of plants. And all those plants have to be taken care of. They have to be planted, watered (if necessary), measured, re-planted, cut, you have to weed and to cut the grass and and and. And that’s just the outside-part.

Imagine the following summer day scenario: blue sky, the sun is burning, red kites are circling above you. You find the first blooming research plant in the first row of the first plot. Diligent as you are, you start counting the leafs. Counting the stems. measuring the circumference of the stem. Counting the flowers. measuring the height. Deciding on a habit between one to ten. After 10 minutes, you are done. A feeling of efficiency and satisfaction takes over. This is going well!

Until you look up. And you see that there are 9 more plants in the row. And 36 more rows, each with 10 plants. And your view rises and you look over the field and discover that there are 11 more plots. Each with 37 rows. Each row with 10 plants….Now do your maths, dear reader. How many plants have to be measured? The red kites suddenly resemble vultures. Your back starts hurting after the third row. You feel thirsty. And you remember that you forgot the sunscreen.

So, no, we are not honeymooning. But this is the last year with field season. Next year, Karsten has to write everything up. But he can do that everywhere as long as he has internet access. Maybe Sweden? Scotland? Tuscany? Or Canada? One day we’ll have a proper holiday!

Posted in Family, PhD, Travel | Tagged field work, honeymoon | 5 Comments

Life in a village

Posted on 9. August 2014 by erdhummel

Living in a rural village outside of Zurich has its advantages. For instance, you will be greeted by almost everyone when roaming around the village. May it be on your way to the supermarket or to the train station: most of the people, regardless whether they actually know you or not, will greet you with a quick but friendly “Gruezi!”. As soon as the little one was born, I was not just greeted with “Gruezi” anymore, but with “Gruezi mitenand!” (which roughly translates into “Good day everybody”). Even with only 2 weeks, the little one was automatically included in the greeting. This is something I very much appreciate in Switzerland and one of the few things I truly missed in Finland.

Three weeks ago, when I was on my way to the train station in order to catch the plane to Germany, packed with my backpack, a small daypack, the little one’s diaper bag and the little one in her stroller, I apparently lost the little one’s jacket. Today I got it back. Because some kind-hearted soul found the jacket on the street and put it on a pillar. And when my friend walked down the street, she saw the wet jacket in the rain and thought that it looks like one of the little one’s jackets. So she took it home and sent me a message whether we lost it. Today she showed it to me and it was indeed our jacket – with all the wedding excitement and the warm weather I hadn’t even noticed that it was missing. If I had noticed it, I would have never thought that I would get it back after three weeks. I like living in a village!

Ps: The fact that the jacket was immediately recognised as being the little one’s made Karsten wonder whether we dress her too unconventional….

Posted in Allgemein, small but significant differences, Switzerland | Leave a comment

don’t enter that conveyor belt!

Posted on 7. August 2014 by erdhummel

Our evening conversation two days ago:

S – You fell down the wall….two damage points

F – Whaaat? I thought that’s only one point!

S – Nooo…I explained it before! Falling down the wall causes two damage points…

K – Haha (triumphal)!!

F – Karsten, are you done programming the next round?

K – Don’t rush me! I have to think!

S – If you enter that conveyor belt you are dead!

K – Whaaat?

F – Haha (triumphal)!

K – So I am dead anyway?

S – Unless you face in the other direction…

K – Aah! Alright. Wait, I have to programme everything again!

F – (sigh)

K – HA! S, can I shoot a drone at you?

S – Yeees….but first I force my programme upon you!

K – What? Why can you do that?

S – I got this special card…

K – And what happens now?

S – You have to do everything I do!

K – Can I still shoot a drone at you?

F – I go three steps forward.

S – Wait, it’s Karsten’s turn first. He pushes you down the wall!

F – Whaaat?

S – Be careful not to stop at the compactor.

K – Haha! (triumphal)

S – And my robot shoots Karsten’s. Pamm Pamm!

K – Wait, I still do everything you do, right? Pamm pamm! Ha!

F – I am shutting down.

…any guesses which game we were playing?

Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments

outcome of the wedding week (or: how much family craziness you can squeeze into one week)

Posted on 6. August 2014 by erdhummel

Here an overview over the major highlights of the wedding week (some of them not directly related to the wedding yet with somehow influential character regarding the general perception):

– one happily married couple

– one not really enthusiastically baptised but still happy toddler

-a lot of happy guests (at least that’s what we heard)

– one flight booked to the wrong part of Germany (you’d be surprised how much difference a single letter can make…)

– more than 1/3 guests with stomach flu (almost none of them on the wedding day itself!)

– ca 20 kilo less, split on several persons, due to stress and the previous point

– 1 busted car (total write-off) and a shaken mother

– one flooded basement

– more than 80 liters of sparkling water drank during two days

– 15 self-made cakes

– one new second cousin born during the service (but 600 km away)

– about 4000 pictures taken

– one emergency call in order to save two calves

– daily visits of the local open air bath

– one destroyed tie

– consumption record of the wedding evening: 17 glasses of coke (by my 15-year-old cousin who consequently rocked the dance floor until 1:30am)

– one wallet left behind

– a reservation in the hotel on our name for our silver wedding anniversary (don’t even ask…)

– many, many happy memories

Family (sigh…). The beauty about this list: the points are almost equally distributed between Karsten’s and my family. If that’s not a good match….

Posted in Family | 2 Comments

wedding impressions

Posted on 4. August 2014 by erdhummel

As requested a few impressions of the wedding 🙂

The copyright lies with my sister and my father-in-law. If you have any questions please contact them via familialentropy at gmail.com

Posted in Family | Tagged wedding | 1 Comment

wedding, wedding, wedding

Posted on 31. July 2014 by erdhummel

As promised, I’ll write a bit about our wedding, now that most of the guests have left again and the stomach flu seems to take a break. Though it is almost impossible to put this whole beautiful day into words (especially while the little one is emptying my mother’s desk drawers…).

Despite the difficult circumstances, everyone managed to be in the pink on the special day. The weather decided to be sunny – the only dry and sunny day during the last 6 days! We walked the short way from our home to the cathedral, with the little one between us. We had ten cute little (and not so little anymore) flower maids. We had the most awesome priest with the most touching sermon we could wish for. We had a little daughter who started to explore the huge cathedral on her own as soon as we sat down, to the amusement of all the guests (it is not easy to concentrate on the ceremony when you watch your little daughter disappear behind the big altar!). The impressive organ on our way out was replaced by an equally impressive bagpipe player in front of the cathedral (who managed to pluck my heartstrings for the third time within 1 hour).

We had a beautiful afternoon with coffee, cake, a self-written wedding song, sparkling wine with elderflower and strawberry punch. With a great and relaxed band and dancing in the garden. With two horses for the children – and for the adults as well (it’s not that easy to climb a horse with a wedding dress!!).

We had a great evening, with the most delicious food, the most touching speeches and the most beautiful piano music played by my cousins. And the most beautiful contributions (which I will probably show in detail during the next weeks). We had the most awesome guests, relaxed and happy, and we always had several people looking after the little one (or the little one looking after them?). We had the best daughter in the world who didn’t complain at all, who didn’t even ask for us as parents but who was completely happy sitting in the grass, picking flowers, watching people and playing with all the children. Who went to bed at 8 pm and didn’t wake up once!

We had the most amazing DJ who rocked the dance floor, and guests who very quickly got rid of their shoes and danced barefoot for the rest of the night. We had many small children who walked around with self-made lanterns as soon as the sun set and who rocked the dance floor almost as long as the grown-ups. We had an amazing wedding cake (which lasted for three days).

We had the most relaxed and friendly waiters who blew soap bubbles at the end of the night when only two friends and Karsten and I were left and danced the last dance to “What a wonderful world”.

What a wonderful day indeed!

Posted in Family, the little one | Tagged wedding | 5 Comments

intermediate result:

Posted on 29. July 2014 by erdhummel

The wedding was great!

Now Karsten joins the ranks of the stomach flu victims (see previous entries…).

More from us as soon as the chaos disappears….

Posted in Allgemein | Leave a comment

pre wedding craziness

Posted on 24. July 2014 by erdhummel

There is so much to do and actually no time at all to blog! However, this whole pre-wedding chaos is just too good to be left out here! So here is a quick insight into the last days craziness:

Good things first: we picked up my wedding dress and everything is fine! The little one, Karsten and I are still fit and ready to commit! And the first guests arrived.

Yesterday started to be a bit hectic though. The telephone rings basically every ten minutes and by now we are almost scared to pick it up…At one point, the owner of the hotel where most of our guests are staying called and he was completely confused. Which is not new to us – I think I will honor him an own blog entry, because his confuseness is just way beyond proper hotel management and I am afraid most guests think that my parents live in an area which is, touristically seen, about 60 years behind. Anyway, he was really confused about the bookings and I had to go through his whole guest list in order to tell him who of the guests belongs to us. After we settled that, he got really nervous because he discovered that there hasn’t been any bookings of the restaurant which belongs to the hotel. And since all the guests are attending the wedding, he automatically assumed that the wedding will take place at the hotel. We had already assured him several times before that we will celebrate somewhere else, but somehow he keeps forgetting it. I just hope that everything will be fine during the next days at the hotel!

(Update: awesome! Just one minute after I wrote this I received a call from my mother who wanted to drop some stuff at the hotel. Turns out the guy forgot to make a reservation for Karsten’s aunt who already contacted him in November!)

Later, we got a call from the florist asking when they are supposed to deliver the flowers and whether the people at our wedding location will arrange them or not (NO, the waiters will NOT arrange the flowers because that’s what the florist is supposed to do!!) Turns out they don’t have enough personnel for Saturday, so they would prefer to come and arrange everything on Friday already (which is not possible, because it’s hot and the flowers won’t last 1.5 days!). Then the lady wanted to confirm the way how we’d like the flowers to be arranged. The plan was that we have spots on the tables with three differently sized glass bottles and we just wanted some summer flowers to be loosely arranged in those bottles. But according to the lady, the flowers don’t stay in the bottles (please don’t ask me why!) so she filled the small bottles with colored stones to make the flowers stick! I sensed a disaster because in May, when we went to the florist to discuss this whole decoration thing, we specifically said several times that colored stones are no option at all!

At this point my mother started to have stomach cramps (please see previous entries).

We went to the florist to check the decoration (and yes, we had plenty of other stuff to do too!) and when the lady showed us the bottles we simply stared at them for several seconds. She had indeed filled most of them with bright orange and green stones. She had also wrapped bows around all the bottles. Lots of bows. In bright, eyestraining green! There were also large bows around the ears which were supposed to in the middle of the table. It looked awful!

We told her that this simply doesn’t fit to the rest of the location. Basically everything of what she had done had to go. Which really wasn’t neither her nor our fault but her colleagues fault who didn’t communicate what we discussed in May. When my mother said that it might be the easiest for us to just pick up the bottles and the flowers on Friday evening and to decorate it ourselves, the lady was very sad so we gave her another chance. The flower decoration might not be perfect on Saturday, but we decided that no one will notice the decoration anyway as long as we look happy 🙂

When we came home, Karsten just got of the phone with one of my family members who was already on the way to my parents place. Most of my extended family lives in Northern Germany and it’s quite a way from there to my parents place. One hour after they started their car broke down. Which apparently resulted in a fight which is the reason why only two the actual four persons in the car arrived at our place. The other two got of the car and went back to their home. One of them is coming today by train. I have no idea if the fourth one is still coming. I don’t really understand the problem, but what I do understand is that, if the fourth person isn’t coming, I will have to completely change the seating plan again. Apart from the fact that I was really looking forward to all of our guests.

In between I sent Karsten to fetch my wedding dress out of the car. He was gone for about 15 minutes and when he came back he didn’t have the dress with him but instead he had bought four chocolate puddings.

It was a long day. We are all slightly exhausted (some more than others), all a bit confused and a certain ironic humor starts to spread which comes with every family celebration and which I dearly love despite all the chaos. My mother feels slightly better again (fingers crossed). I am so looking forward to the wedding!

Posted in Family | Tagged wedding | 3 Comments