¡feliz navidad y un próspero año nuevo!

Tomorrow, I'm embarking to Mexico to meet Gatín's family and commemorating the birth of Jesus in a climate that is bit more propitious for my rheumatism.



I dare to cite Kaag by saying "give every day the chance to be a Christmas day".

Cookie Bitching

A colleague of mine has once called me the cookie bitch of my family. According to his theory, every family has one. It is the person, which makes the Christmas cookies. Whatever, this weekend it was again time for cookie bitching at Gomad Mansion™. The process is very simple. One takes this:



...and turns it into this:



This year, my bitching could be limited to the absolute minimum, because Gatín took over the cutting of the cinnamon and chocolate stars. He is much more patient than I am when it comes to handling delicate matters.

Almost Like Common People

Roe used to be the food of the poor. I once heard that in Basel it had to be prohibited by law to serve roe to the attendants every day. Sweet Chestnuts had been a cheep but nutritious food for the poor too, since they were introduced by the Romans into Ticino. Nowadays, both have turned into culinary frills (you will agree if you ever had a saddle of venison with chestnuts).

My beloved Migros has now brought this delicacy to my breakfast table by choosing it as the third flavour of their winter season yogurt collection:

Beware Of Being LONLEY

The The The song on DRS3 the other day brought back a frightening memory. It must have been in 1993, right after The The's Lonely Planet Tour passed Switzerland, when I made the mistake to show up at work with the tour T-shirt, which had very big LONLEY written all over the front. As soon as our late secretary caught sight of me, she grasped me and did not stop hugging me for at least five minutes, while she kept saying "everything will be all right".

La Belle Hélène

In 11 days we can celebrate the 141st anniversary of the premier of Jacques Offenbach's operetta La Belle Hélène at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris. I could not wait until then and tasted already the new Migros winter season yoghurt Pear and Caramel:



This yoghurt tastes like the desert that has been named after La Belle Hélène to promote the operetta back in 1864. It combines the delicious sweetness of caramel with the aromatic acidity of the pear.

A Hug For A Kiss

I've never quite understood what the xxxxx or ooooo at the bottom of a letter or card means until I dared to ask an Anglo-Saxon:

xxxxx: kisses
ooooo: hugs

:-$

Made My Day

DRS3 does not make it easy for me, because they like to play complete bollocks, such as Dire Straits and Florian Ast. Never mind, yesterday DRS3 somehow perfectly hit the vibes of the day by playing This Is The Day by The The.

THIS IS THE DAY

Well, you didn't wake up this morning because you didn't go to bed
You were watching the whites of your eyes turn red
The calendar on your wall is ticking the days off
You've been reading some old letters
You smile and think how much you've changed
All the money in the world couldn't buy back those days

You pull back your curtains
And the sun burns into your eyes
You watch a plane flying
Across a clear blue sky
This is the day
Your life will surely change
This is the day
When things fall into place

You could've done anything If you'd wanted
And all your friends and family think that you're lucky
But the side of you they'll never see
Is when you're left alone with the memories
That hold your life together ... like glue

You pull back your curtains
And the sun burns into your eyes
You watch a plane flying
Across a clear blue sky
This is the day
Your life will surely change
This is the day
When things fall into place

This is the day your life will surely change
This is the day your life will surely change
This is the day your life will surely change
This is the day your life will surely change

See the clip.

In a Vortex of Seasonal Emotions

Love can have an influence on habitats. Switzerland has a bipolar shopping world, which is dominated by Coop and Migros. Gatín used to buy at Coop while I'm an ardent Migros shopper. Nevertheless, Gatín discovered Migros new winter season Yoghurts before I did and brought some home. This morning, I tasted the Apfelstrudel flavour.



Apfelstrudel (Apple strudel) is a traditional Austrian pastry, which consists of an oblong strudel pastry jacket with a filling of chopped apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and bread crumbs. The art of preparation is in making the pastry very thin and elastic. A single layer should be so thin you could read a newspaper through it. The filled Apfelstrudel is baked in an oven and can be served warm, usually sprinkled with icing sugar. The traditional way to serve it is with vanilla custard.



Much to my surprise, this yoghurt really tasted like real Apfelstrudel. This seems like another victory for the artificial flavour industry!

Unfortunately, I prefer Apfelstrudel in the time between lunch and midnight and I use to eat yoghurts for breakfast. Hence, this flavour does not fit at all into my unconscious pattern of behaviour.

But maybe I have to change. As Nature reports in its latest issue, the North Atlantic's natural heating system, which brings clement weather to western Europe, is showing signs of decline. This means there will be much more winter in Europe, and hence, maybe much more of this Apfelstrudel yoghurt.