We are still doing fine, just don’t have much time for writing.
By now, not only my sister and my niece, but also my other niece and my mother-in-law got sick. So we keep our fingers crossed and hope that everybody will be ok on Saturday.
My father thinks everyone feels splendid and it’s all psychological. I have experienced similar reactions of him in distressing situations – when I returned from Tanzania with over 40°C fever he told me it’s travel excitement…
Great events cast their shadows ahead! Next weekend, the little one will get baptised and Karsten and I will have our church wedding after already being married for two years. Our civil marriage two years ago was very short-notice with only the closest family (and not even all of them) attending. So we agreed that we’ll have a celebration with the whole family and our closest friends when we’ll do our church wedding. It was planned for last year. The restaurant was organised, the church booked, the invitations ready. And I discovered that I was pregnant. The estimated birthdate was 4 weeks before our planned wedding….
So we postponed the wedding, agreeing that we probably can’t enjoy the party if we have a four weeks old daughter. Gee, I can’t tell how glad I was about that decision!
This year we have another shot. Everything is ready (almost).
Two days ago, my sister and her family already arrived. Via night train. My little niece threw up all night during the trip (honestly, that must have been the most awful night on the train ever , not just because the conductor refused to supply them with a new mattress and a new blanket…). Now, two days later, my sister suffers from the same and my brother in law already feels sick, so it’s just a question of time. Of course we spent all day together yesterday before my sister started hugging the toilet.
So please, please have your fingers crossed that the little one and I won’t be next. I’ll be really frustrated if I can’t eat all the good food next weekend…
One thing I truly envy Karsten is his daily way to work. He is cycling every day, it takes about 20 minutes and it’s a beautiful way to start your work day (unless it’s raining cats and dogs like last week). We live at the outskirts of Zurich and naturally there is a building boom going on – flats and houses are incredibly expensive in Zurich, so slowly but steadily all the suburbs and villages expand and take over what is left of a beautiful surrounding. In Switzerland, Zurich does not have a very good reputation. It’s mainly associated with big buildings, trains and banks, I guess. The valley around Zurich must have been very picturesque, though, with many old farms, hills, lakes and rivers. I give it ten more years and the last old farm will probably have disappeared.
Karsten’s way to work somehow shows the bias between the extension of the city and the original surrounding nature. It starts with an industrial park and ends with the highway. But in between, there are forests, fields, creeks, birds….Every morning when he leaves, I wish I could join simply because the prospect of cycling for 20 minutes along fields and lakes in the fresh morning air seems incredibly calming and refreshing.
This morning, he took the camera with him, so this is what he sees every morning and evening:
starting at the sports field….
…passing the industrial park with a huge construction site in order to build a tunnel underneath the railway…
….entering the nice part. The path leads along a small creek on the left side.
Passing one of three lakes on the right side….
…enjoying the season..
…watching herons on the freshly mowed fields…
…passing another lake…
…crossing the highway (with rush hour)…
….and stopping at his workplace which is right next to a blooming sunflower field right now.
And this is my favourite picture which he took on the way back today:
Bankers and money is one of the typical stereotypes of Switzerland – especially when living in Zurich. At a closer look, the Swiss money is quite special indeed. It somehow happened last week that we were paid back a (for us) larger amount of money in cash and therefore we had the chance to look at notes that are usually (to my regret) rather rare in our wallets. Mind you, I am just speaking about our own wallets. Generally, you won’t have any problems at all if you want to pay with big notes – at Karsten’s work even the sandwich trolley has change when you pay with a 100 franc note for a 2 franc sandwich. A situation that would not be imaginable in Germany because every kiosk vender would think you are a little cuckoo if you give him a 100 Euro note for a chocolate bar. In Switzerland, it’s a basic prerequisite (the ability to change big notes, not being cuckoo!). So far, it only happened once that I saw a notice in a shop refusing big notes: in a small bookshop where it said on the counter “Unfortunately, we don’t accept 1000 (Note of the author: one thousand!!) CHF notes. We apologise for the inconvenience.”
The Swiss notes are remarkably bright and colorful and are among the most forgery-proofed notes in the world. The smallest one, the 10 franc note, shows Le Corbusier, a famous architect (whose buildings are, by the way, listed as World Heritage). As we encountered last week, the 200 CHF note displays Ramuz, a famous Swiss writer. On every note, the value is written in the four official languages of Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh. The most remarkable fact, though, is that the Swiss notes are increasing in size (more specific: length) proportionally to their value. They lengthen by exactly 11 millimeters. The 10 CHF note is 126 mm long. The 20 CHF note is 137 mm long. The 200 CHF note is already 170 mm long. And the 1000 CHF note is impressive 181 mm long.
And here lies the fundamental problem. My wallet is simply not big enough for 1000 franc notes…
…it wakes up from its lunchtime nap after only half an hour and instead of sleeping another round together with you, it walks away without looking back, opens the door and disappears into the kitchen while babbling incomprehensibly…leaving you in the dark bedroom.
Another week has passed and it somehow felt like late autumn. Hot chocolate, rice pudding and warm jackets, as you can see on the pictures – I am joining Carola from Frische Brise with her weekly photo review:
One of the little one’s favourite activities these days….
Lunch for cold days: rice pudding with apple and cinnamon
a quick recharge
Broken wind wheel after a thunderstorm
Karsten’s shoes and feet after the same thunderstorm (when he was on his way home after work)
Hot white chocolate with vanilla
garden harvest
Rain, rain, rain, all week long. Being inside all day is slowly getting us into a paddy. Therefore: waterproofs on and outside we go, even if it’s just in order to take out the trash. Because taking out the trash can be quite an adventure too!
Last Sunday happened to be the first sunday of the month. And I happened to be at home. Which was perfect, because ever since we moved here I wanted to check out the small village museum. Which is only open on the first sunday of the month for 3 hours. Not an easy undertaking to visit it.
Source: http://www.museum.ch
To be honest, I didn’t expect much of the museum. After all, we are living in a small village on the outskirts of Zurich. There are only few of the old, charismatic farmhouses left, the rest has been overrun by modern apartment buildings and an industrial park. We happen to be among the lucky ones who look at green meadows and trees when we are sitting on the balcony, but only because we live in the last row of apartment blocks…So, considering that there is not that much going on here, I was really surprised by all the objects, information and details which were lovingly put on display in the museum. Turns out our village has some fascinating stories to share that you wouldn’t expect to find here! And I am not joking. You want an example? Well:
One of the most respected personalities in our village in the 1920s was Franz Josef Weck – who was, as far as I could gather, the son of Carl Johann Weck. Surely you have heard of Carl Johann Weck? No? I bet you have, though! In 1895, Carl Johann Weck bought the patent for conserving food in rubber-sealed jars. In the years to follow, he successfully sold (and exported) those jars which soon became known as Weck Jars. In German, even the word “einwecken” was invented based on his success (“einwecken” = preserving food in rubber-sealed jars…).
Source: http://www.google.de
He died in 1914, but his son continued the business. He was the owner of a respectable property in our village and the first person here to own an automobile. That might have been the beginning of the end, though….the main road on the old etchings looks so much more picturesque with horse carriages than the motorway feeder today!
Have a great start into the new week everyone!
On every 5th of the month, Frau Brüllen asks “What are you actually doing the whole day?”. So here you go – a meticulous insight into one half of our weekend:
5:30am – the little one pipes up…since it is my turn to take the early shift, I try to ignore her and hope that she’ll go back to sleep again
5:33am – after one minute of silence and hope she is back again and I pack my blanket and lurch into her room. As I am still hoping for at least half an hour of sleep, I try to calm her down in her bed
5:40am – no chance. Maybe it’ll work when I lie down with her in “cuddly corner” (a mattress with lots of pillows that I put on the floor – mainly to make it more comfortable for us parents, hehe).
5:45am – the little one is nuzzling around, but not going back to sleep. I make a note to myself to somehow change her sleeping pattern. Just one daily nap instead of two small ones….or we should put her to bed later….nap…bed…ah, that sounds so good!
5:50am – maybe the little one WOULD go back to sleep if I would let her pinch me. Somehow my arms have a very strong calming effect on her, but she has the bad habit to pinch and scratch which I am desperately trying to break. So I guess I SHOULD stay strong and tell her no if she pinches me…
6:00am – yeah, no, I guess that’s it. We just roam around the cuddly corner and I wallow a bit in self-pity.
6:30am – see who is nuzzling up again and closing her eyes! Victory! If only we would lie a bit more comfortable and not half on the mattress, half on the floor.
7:40am – the beauty of parenthood is that you can sleep in almost every position. Drawback is the back pain that follows an hour of sleep on the floor…But hey, the little one is still snoozing, so I get up and try to have a cup of coffee.
7:45am – while the coffee machine is warming up I putter a bit around. Looking after the flowers on the balcony, filling the dish washer, cleaning the table
7:55am – I sit down with a coffee and decide to participate in the diary blogging today
8:00am – the little one is awake. This time happily awake. Time for her milk bottle (and time for my coffee to get cold).
8:30am – Karsten decides to get up as well and gives me a quick overview over last nights soccer game (Brasil:Colombia). He didn’t watch it neither, but apparently he had used the morning to already read up the news in bed.
8:45am – I am blogging a bit. In the meantime, the little one fills my coffee cup with her building bricks and the computer mouse.
8:55am – Karsten starts to make breakfast. Originally, Karsten and the little one were starting to make breakfast, but the younger part of the team decides that it’s more fun to run around with her wooden car, making a lot of noise. Good morning neighbours 🙂
9:30am – breakfast is finished. I mentioned that the little one now starts to imitate us and that we should be careful what we do at the dining table. One minute later Karsten puts a mosquito net over his head and plays ghost. Not sure whether he actually ever listens to me or not…Mental output: next Fasnet he wants us to dress up as Moby Dick Trio. I being Ishmael, he being Captain Ahab and the little one being the whale.
10:15am – the little one got a new diaper. I had a nice long shower (I love weekends!!). Karsten had a shower and shaved in honor of the weekend. The little one got another new diaper. And now we are off to check out a nursery school.
11:50am – back home again. The nursery school was good, the little one happily stayed with one of the nurses while we were looking around, and we got a bratwurst (ach, that always makes our German hearts beat faster…). I would really love to give the little one to nursery school one or two mornings a week, simply because I think she would very much enjoy the company of other children. The price list, however, brought us down to earth: around 700 CHF/month for two half-days a week…nothing that we could afford right now.
11:55am – Karsten goes shopping, I prepare lunch. Since it’s already a bit late, I just make spaghetti with small tomatos and parmesan. Strawberries as desesrt. While the water is boiling, the little one and I are playing ball. And reading a book.
12:05pm – the little one is standing in front of her chair, full-throatedly asking for food.
12:10pm – we are having lunch. note to myself: spaghetti are not the most suitable fingerfood. Although it looked really funny when the little one had three short spaghetti sticking to her upper lip. A bit like a blond….ah, well, whatever. In the end, about 1/3 of them have been eaten, the other 2/3rds are spread around the table and the floor. Mixed with water which the little one is trying to drink out of her own cup (surprisingly succesfully most of the times!).
12:30pm – Karsten is back and putting away the stuff he bought. I am cleaning the table. The little one is somewhere inbetween.
12:35pm – after the little one accidentaly drops a glas with pickled ginger, Karsten and I get into a fight who was responsible for it: the person that handed her the glas or the person that didn’t take it away from her….
12:45pm – Karsten and I are good again. The little one brings one book after another.
1pm – I am feeling really tired and I ask Karsten whether i could lie down for some minutes. He asks: “With the little one or without?”. Good joke….
1:20pm – I get up again and decide to have a cup of coffee instead. The little one just fell asleep 5 minutes ago, so both Karsten and I switch on the laptops to get some stuff done.
1:40pm – the little one is awake again…
2:15pm – somehow Karsten got lost in the little one’s room. I guess they are both sleeping on the mattress. Or she is sleeping and he is too afraid to get up because it might wake her. Whatever it is, I had time to sort some bills and other oh-so-important stuff.
2:20pm – both Karsten and the little one are awake again…
2:30pm – the little one and I are on the balcony, planting new flowers. She is a big help, putting the soil into the pots. Then she starts to eat the soil with a spoon. Then she pulls down the fresh laundry. Then she cries a bit theatrically and holds tight to my leg. Then she throws the rest of the soil down the balcony (unfortunately our neighbours from downstairs are sitting on their balcony, so I guess they got quite of soil..).
3pm – Karsten and the little one are blowing soap bubbles while I water the plants.
3:10pm – I decide that its time to go outside!
3:20pm – I decide that its time to go inside because it’s raining!
3:30pm – the little one decide that it’s time to eat again. Banana, blueberries and kiwi.
4:00pm – Karsten decides that it’s time to go outside again. I am trying to make up my mind regarding the music for the ceremony of our upcoming wedding/baptism
4:10pm – Karsten decides that it’s time to go inside again because it’s still raining. I am desperatly trying to finish an Email for the organist while the little one is theatrically clinging to my leg again. (and I am desperatly trying to tell the organist in a diplomatic way that we don’t want the songs to be played too slow…as he is a very old and conservative organist and already denied our wish for “all you need is love” as last song, we fear the worst)
4:25pm – I decide it’s go outside again, this time with waterproofs!
4:30pm until 6pm – the little one and I are working in the garden. I plant salad and cut back the strawberries, the little one joggles with the hand barrow and tries to enter the rasberry bushes. Later, Karsten joins us and takes the little one to the playground in front of our building while I continue working in the garden. At 6pm, it’s time to go inside again and prepare dinner.
6:05pm – I prepare salad (freshly picked…to all the German readers: Pflücksalat has been the greatest thing to sow this year! We have a never ending supply of salad!) and dates filled with parmesan and wrapped in ham (something I always wanted to try). In the meantime, the little one is taking a bath.
6:20pm – The little one is out of the bath and already wearing her pyjama. Karsten tries to fly his indoor helicopter. After 5 seconds, the little one starts crying.
6:30pm – dinner is ready! The dates taste good, but I could use a bit more ham the next time.
6:50pm – the little one and I are reading/looking at her books. In between she is rolling around, making jokes, and clearing out her wardrobe.
6:55pm– Karsten tries the indoor helicopter again. The little one starts crying again.
7:00pm – Karsten shows the little one the indoor helicopter. She grabs it. He says “careful!”. She starts crying again. We are still working on her attitude towards constructive criticism…
7:05pm – the little one and I are cuddling a bit to calm her down. Karsten blows soap bubbles.
7:15pm – I try to clean the flat a bit and tidy up the little one’s room. In the meantime, the little one clears out the clothes she missed half an hour ago.
7:20 pm – the little one is having her evening milk bottle. Afterwards she gets her teeth brushed.
7:35pm – time for the little one to go to bed.
7:45pm – the child is successfully sleeping! Now our evening starts! The kitchen has to be cleaned. At least the toys which are lying in the middle of the floor should be tidied up. There are two big bags of laundry waiting to be folded. When that’s all done, there’s a really good computer game waiting for us. And self-made eggnog from our fridge which we were planning to drink for a long time – we were waiting for a weekend because we are not sure whether it’s still good or not. If it’s not, at least both of us are home tomorrow… Last but not least, there’s a good tv-series waiting to be watched. That’s why I say goodbye now and thanks for the detailed reading of a pretty normal Saturday at our place!
familial entropy 