Tigresa's Love Nest™

Finally last week, we managed to meet Tigresa* to...

1. hand over her birthday present with almost 4 month delay**
2. see Tigresa's Love Nest™, which she is inhabiting since spring with her breathtakingly handsome lover
3. be special guests at one of her "circle of friends" dinners.
   

Tigresa's Love Nest™ is in a totally rural area. There are plenty of flies everywhere. However, it's dead quite. Game is grazing in front of the kitchen window (you could kill Bambi***), they grow their own vegetable and can count the stars all night.



* Tigresa was my flatmate at Gomad Mansion™
** she shares her birthday with Lenin, which it one of the few dates I can actually remember
*** we were introduced to Tigresa's lover over a Bambi burger

1.5" of Fame

While Toño had been properly interviewed, I also got some rays of the limelight. Or at least my elbow, which made it on television for about 1.5 seconds.

tomARTen

Yesterday, we went to a little bit different kind of art exhibition. Adoptive parents were growing 540 different varieties of tomatoes. The idea behind it was to give evolution a face.

Coincidentally the local natural history museum was founded 150 years ago, exactly when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. The art project celebrating this is called tomARTen - an acronym of the two German words for tomatoes and species.

Our friends Anigna and Topo were among the adoptive parents and brought their three children for everybody to taste.



The three varieties were:

• Astrachanskije
• Aunt Gerti's Gold
• Dvorzovij (from the palace)

Out of the Astrachanskije Toño & I made some ceviche.



The ceviche was so well received, Toño even had to give an interview.



The day ended at Anigna's and Topo's garden, were we had some more tomatoes (we just can't get enough)...



... and just enjoyed a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Leisured

I've taken the decision*, to take things slowly today. I.e. I will not participate in the Limmatschwimmen**.



* euphemism for not doing anything
** a swim down the river Limmat along the skyline of Zürich, which is sold out anyway.

Saturday Flowers

Gloomy Thursday

It wasn't really my day. Did loads of fruitless treadmill-like work stuff, but nothing else. What a waste. I was far off the flow and was just pulling the cart through the mud.

So I'm a bit gloomy and was looking for some music to close the day with. I came across Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. This song is also a bit melancholy but is full of verve at the same time. A combination I like. And it brings back some nice dream-like memories.



Now I think I can go to sleep.

F***, I'm Angry!

Because allegedly there is supposed to be a link between anger and time perception:

Here's a test: let's say a meeting, originally scheduled for Wednesday, has been moved forward two days. What is the new day of the meeting? If you think it's Friday, you imagine time as something you move through. If you think it's Monday, you think of time as something that passes by you. So what? Well, according to the British Psychological Society, "Friday" people have an angrier disposition, than "Monday" people. The researchers also found that "thinking about moving through time can induce anger." discoverd here (See also Angry thoughts can change the way we think about time.)

So it turns out, I've got an angry disposition. What a cartload of horse shit is this? Have you ever heard of a meeting being preponed?

Did Cooking Made Us Human?

This metamorphose amazes me time and time again. You take soemthing mother nature gave you...



...and simply by cooking, it turns into something with a different flavour, taste and texture.



But when did mankind came up with the idea of cooking? I searched the lovely net for an answer and couldn't find any useful. Researchers' opinions range from 2.3 million to 10'000 years ago. Wtf.

However while searching, I came across Richard Wrangham, who wrote a book called How Cooking Made Us Human, in which he claims that cooking of food made digestion easier allowing the early cooks to evolve smaller guts and larger brains. Or in other words, modern humans are highly evolved for eating cooked food and cannot live healthily for long on a strict raw food diet (read more about).

No Regrets

I try to avoid regrets. Regrets just don't help. All I can, is trying to learn from my mistakes and do it better when I have the chance to do so. Everything else just would make me depressive. Another pull up the skirt kind of thing.

Nevertheless, there were regrets nagging at me this weekend*.

Toño usually prepares himself for winter by taking multivitamin pills throughout September. This year, with all the flu** hysteria, he started the treatment on August 1 and it will last until the end of September. In addition, Toño persuaded me to join him.



Well, on my trip to Spain I kind of forgot to take the pills. I missed 5 3 days. And then this Saturday, I started to become a sore throat, felt quite week and my lymph nodes are swollen. In other words a cold got hold of me. Instead of enjoying summer, I'm sipping tea and sleep a lot. If only I had taken those bloody pills.

PS: Thanks Martin & torchy! for the cheer up over Twitter.

* and still are
** yes, I was in México in April and I had a flu, but maybe not The Flue (more about).

Birchermüesli - an Interpretation

Antipo Déesse has asked for the recipe for Birchermüesli. No doubt, a charming lady's wish shall be my command.

Birchermüesli had been invented by Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, who was a Swiss physician and pioneer of whole food. He postulated eating raw fruit, raw vegetables and nuts instead of meat and white bread. He was truly a bit revolutionary for the late 19th century. Dr. Bircher's original recipe goes:

• 1 tablespoon rolled oats, soaked in 2–3 tablespoons water for 12 hours
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon condensed milk
• 200 grams apple (about one large, preferably a sour variety), finely grated and mixed with the above directly before serving
• optionally top with 1 tablespoon ground hazelnuts or almonds

I've slightly modified this recipe to my preferences. I usually start with some yoghurt.



This could be plain or with fruits. If it's plain, you might add some sugar too. Fruit yoghurt has usually already sugar in it. Some people use cream or whipped cream, but i.m.h.o. it tastes so much fresher with yoghurt.

Then I add plenty of finely cut seasonal fruits and berries. Today I took blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, apricots, nectarines and bananas. You might also add some lemon juice. Then the fruits don't oxidate.



You can use whatever fruits you like. However, grated apples are mandatory. Use a sour variety when possible. Some slobs do not grate the apples but finely cut them. This is definitely not my thing. I like my muesli to be smooth.

#

I add the cereal flake mix only right before serving. I like my muesli not only to be smooth but also crunchy at the same time. I use a mix with no added sugar and no dried fruits.



Serve and enjoy. It goes well with a piece of bread and butter and a coffee with milk. If you like to have your food with some wine, Toño recommends a Moscato d'Asti.

Feeding Our Inner Moloch*

Sometimes I really understand that Lunario is contemplating going vegetarian.



* Ancient Middle Eastern deity to whom children were sacrificed.

Saturday Flowers

Office Flower

My eyes are not the best, but sometimes I'm even blinder than the police allows. Like I had been in my office for more than an hour until I discovered that my office plant is blossoming.

Volver Revisited

The song Volver, which gave Pedro Almodóvar's film Volver the title and the stand-alone song, was sung in the film in a flamenco version by Estrella Morente (and lip synced by Penélope Cruz)



There is an amazing version on her website (go to Multimedia).

However originally, this song is an Argentinian Tango... here sung by Carlos Gardel:

rundfunk.fm again

From tomorrow on, Zürich will be again the far better place to be. Rundfunk.fm will be back again! woot!! :) :) :)



You're not in Zürich? Book now to get the vibes (or stream it)!

Volver

Finally, after a workday that lasted from 7am to 10pm, we finished our job. The open item list is endless, but we got the signatures we needed.

We went to celebrate to a flamenco restaurant. This was one of the song that was played...



Now to bed. In 4 hours I have to get to the airport. We'll have a shitty connection. It will almost take as long as from south east Asia tio get home. Although two days too late, volver is the word du jour but it just takes time.

Disfrutar Tapas

A perk of being sent to Spain is to spend an evening enjoying tapas. The downside of this is, you can't start doing this while the sun hasn't set...



Just some tapas that have passed our palate:

Goat cheese in phyllo



Tuna on hummus and onions



Gambas (prawns)



Sutchi catfish in salsa de cava



Sorry Toño, I forgot to make mental nots on the wines. They were good :p

I Pulled Up My Skirt

In a comment to yesterday's whiny post mr.mac demanded: Pull up your skirt dear :-). And so I did today.

This pull up your skirt line is a bit of an inside joke and a variant of a former boss's standard reply Results, not reasons!

The skirt line actually goes back to the fairy tale The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm. In the 80es there was version published in German in which the story is told by a bra burner (read it here). The skirt line came right after her version of this:

...the King's daughter used to go forth into the wood and sit by the brink of the cool well, and if the time seemed long, she would take out a golden ball, and throw it up and catch it again, and this was her favourite pastime.
Now it happened one day that the golden ball, instead of falling back into the maiden's little hand which had sent it aloft, dropped to the ground near the edge of the well and rolled in. The king's daughter followed it with her eyes as it sank, but the well was deep, so deep that the bottom could not be seen. Then she began to weep, and she wept and wept as if she could never be comforted.

Imagine, what a women's libber thinks when a woman's only solution after a slight slip-up is to weep until some slimy arrives to offer his help (for a hefty reward). What a woman should do instead is to pull up her skirt, step into the water and get the bloody ball!* Hence the line Pull up your skirt dear!

Whatever, I guess I made Saint Barbara happy today by getting slimy hands while being on the water (alongside):



* what woman would play with a ball anyway, when instead she could read a good woman's book, discuss with her women's group or paint banners for the next women's march.

Foobar - Washing Or Buying?

There were two highlights of the day:

1. amazing weather
   
2. shark skewers for lunch

I desperately needed a bier to accompany the shark skewers, because the rest of the day was a complete disaster.

I'm here in Cádiz to bring a gun through an acceptance test. Two weeks ago, there were two colleagues here to prepare the job. One buggered off on holidays and the other to another assignment. The job here is way beyond my job description, however, that is not something you bring up when you're asked to fill in for somebody. Normally, this takes 1 day and is more or less a walk in the park. My boss did not approve of it, but I told him we should not leave our colleagues in the lurch. What I did not know is that they took me for a ride:

• The gun is not fit for acceptance.
• There is even a hardware defect they knew about but they did not even care to order spares.
• While dealing with this and poorly trained maintainers, I destroyed a flap on the gun (several thousand $ damage - though I'm not a trained gun mechanic).
• Neither has all equipment been delivered that is subject to acceptance,
• nor all data has been gathered and implemented that is required at this stage.
• To add insult to injury, the client has not yet approved the procedure and demands loads of changes.

In other words, this job is fucked up beyond all recognition and yes, I have to extend my stay!

Washing or buying new undies & socks is the next question to be resolved.

Blue Collar Beach Attire

We arrived late afternoon at Cádiz in southwest Spain. It honestly feels a bit weird being on a blue-collar business trip to a place where everybody is running around in beach attire.

Whatever, we went over to El Puerto de Santa María, from where Christopher Columbus's second expedition to the Americas set sail. Our expeditions was limited to a brief stroll at the beach and some seafood.

Being A Good Patriot

For a Swiss, 1^st of August is about being a good patriot. But how, when there is not a single Swiss flag in the house? I thought being super clever when solving the problem by turning the Birchermüesli into a Swiss flag and almost failed...



... but corrected it before we dug into it =S



I tried to make up for this slip up by dragging Toño to the Swiss National Museum where the new permanent exhibitions «History of Switzerland» opened today.



Since it was free today, it was heavily crowded. The most impressive exhibit was the wheel* of Swiss myths, which was big enough that we could see it despite all the people.



And I (accidentally) trample égalité under my feet. But that is a French thing anyway.



* I have no idea why it is a wheel. Nobody claims that Switzerland invented the wheel. Though, I could start a rumour here.

On A Golf Course?

On August 1, Switzerland is commemorating the Rütlischwur, the legendary oath which is considered the foundation stone of Switzerland. According to tradition this oath was made in 1291 on the Rütli, a picturesque meadow above Lake Lucerne.


I once had a calendar in my office showing a similar picture of the Rütli like the one above. I tried to give an Australian colleague a brief history lesson by telling him him that this was place where Switzerland was founded. He just replied What? On a golf course?

Here is Toño & I enjoying a rest on the Rütli in 2005. It had been my only visit there. The blessed meadow was just being sprinkled with liquid cow manure. An odour, I actually associate with being at home.


Picture by Stoipi.

Saturday Flowers

Upgraded Personal Safety

I will not be partying all night on Switzerland's 718^th birthday. Early Sunday morning I'm supposed to fly to Spain. I will have to stay a couple of days & nights at Cádiz.

For once, I don't have to bring along some suits and ties on a business trip, but was given brand spanking new stylish safety footwear, which fulfils the ISO 20345:2004 standard for personal protective equipment.



Toño will be alone for two nights but he at least can be assured that my feet will be well protected while I'm away.

Swiss? Get Your Groceries Today!

Tomorrow, Switzerland will celebrate its 718^th birthday. The Swiss among you might remember that in 1993 we voted that this day should be a work free holiday. In Swiss logic this means the shops are closed too.

Tomorrow this will completely backfire. Our national holiday will be on a Saturday. We would not have to work anyway. And yes, we have to do the shopping for the entire* weekend today - on a bloody workday. The shops might even close earlier than usual on a Friday since it's the eve of a holiday.



* shops are closed on Sundays.

Greifensee Crossing?

Every Thursday Toño & I go swimming with the Katalin Sharks - as we call our crawl class. Usually this is in the indoor pool at Oerlikon. However during summer, wild horses couldn't drag our master shark to an indoor place*.

So for today, the master shark has summoned us to the Greifensee. However the question remains: Will we have to cross** the lake or not?



* with the rare exception of ruthless thunderstorms
** the distance indicated on the picture is for the round trip

Added Later
We did not swim 2.4 km but 3.2 km.

Cursor Interruptor

Toño and I have something new in common. Both have been diagnosed with the same ailment - that is, plantar fasciitis, which is is a painful inflammatory condition of the foot.

Though I think my case was a bit less severe. I was diagnosed last year by my GP, who gave me leaflet with some exercises. I did those for a while but came up with the idea to wear less plimsolls* and more shoes with a footbed that actually beds the foot and does not only protect it from the dirt. To my surprise, this actually worked quite fast :)



My pain was in the midsection, but Toño's pain is at the heel. It usually came after a run and stayed for at least a couple of days. He even bought new shoes - to no avail.

Toño was diagnosed last week by The Specialist in town. His prescription consists of a page long list of appointments with a physiotherapist**, inlays for his shoes and a ban on running for at least 6 months :(



* = chucks for the Americans
** I so hope he is a she and old & ugly

gomad just left the building...

My nom de plume gomad.ch, which I chose when I started this, is complete bollocks. It is not even a name. Basically, it is a URL I'd reserved years ago. And I got bored of it. I've decided to change it. gomad is gone. My new nom de plume is Mr. Urs. I hope you don't mind. That is all.

Birth Control Failed

Last Sunday, my mother disclosed another family story...

Yesterday, my father could celebrate his 86^th birthday. He was born on July 27, 1923. My paternal grandmother was born on July 26 and kind of hoped that her baby would be born on the same day too.

In 1923, my clan was laying a new roof. On her birthday, my heavily pregnant grandmother was caring tiles all day, hoping that would bring things into motion. Despite all the hard work, her wish was not fulfilled.

Meet Татьяна

This is Татьяна (and Toño).



Татьяна did not like it when I took the picture, because she just spent the day picking gherkins on the field, she was sweaty and her hair was all messy.

Татьяна is my brother's milker*. But Татьяна is also my brother's fiancée. Татьяна is from Russia - that is, from Udmurtia** to be precise. Yes, this the 'home' of the AK-47 rifle.

My sister told me this news last week when we were talking on phone. There is not yet set a date for the marriage and my parents have not yet been informed***. Though due to visa issue they have to tie the knot before September. Toño so hopes there will be a big party.

By the way, Татьяна is spelled Tatyana in English.

* In Russia, milker is a female profession (according to my father), (Russian) men lack some qualities to excel in this job.
** Татьяна's native language is Udmurtian.
*** hence this is all hush hush and you haven't heard of it, поняли?

Stoned Cherries

1. We haven't got a cherry tree*; and
   
2. the cherry season is rather short; and
3. our kitchen is far too small,
   

thus it does not make any sense to get a fancy deluxe cherry stoner. But luckily, there is an alternative, which can be nicked at work: paper clips.



Fix the cherry with one hand and take the paper clip into the other. Stick the paper clip through the spot were the stem was attached, grab the stone with the tab on the front and lever the stone out of the fruit. Done.



I don't recommend to wear your best shirt. It can be really messy. I kind of recommend a Dexter approach to the stoning: wear gloves & uses easily cleanable surfaces.



* When I was a boy my clan used to have some cherry trees. That is where I learned how to fire a rifle, since it was my task to kill the cherry eating birds. Though I got into serious trouble when I killed a songbird. Hard to sort the wheat from the chaff on a tree when you're short sighted.