Stretching Out

I’m stretching out my old carcass for the fifth time this year at KLIA’s Golden Lounge. But I’m not complaining, because this means that I’m only a twelve hours flight away from my beloved Gatín.

If everything had turned out as scheduled, I would do this in two weeks time. But again, things turned out differently. Hence, I’m heading home again.

We changed our flights yesterday, just minutes before our caring boss let call to command that we must change our flights immediately in order to come home. Get mind readers a salary raise or a dismissal?

Better to Stay a Bit Longer

My caring employer announced yesterday that it is going to get rid of 112 of its devoted employees. That is the second time this year an sums up to 20% of the work force. All participants of the program are supposed to be informed until the end of November. I reckon, it's better to stay in Malaysia until then - the Swiss maxim Weit vom Geschütz gibt alte Krieger applies, even though we were firing this week in Malaysia.

Sailing Break

I’m back in Lumut (Malaysia) since about a week. This is - so far - the fourth time this year. The hotel gave me a room from were I can unfortunately see right to the work at the shipyard:



I have to go to the balcony to see the place were I intend to spend some time this weekend in order to recover from the sailing and trial activities:

Imperilled Brest

Archery is history since the naval Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571. The Christians had embarked arquebusiers and musketeers. The Ottomans opposed them with the traditional Turkish weapon, the composite bow. It was their loss. Turkish casualties totaled 30'000 out of 60'000 men engaged. It was the end of naval archers, because it was a life's work to master the necessary skills and an entire generation was wiped out during the battle.*

Tigresa is either stubborn or had a window seat during history lectures. She's spending the weekend practising Archery. I just hope that her devotion does not as so far as cutting off or burning out her right breast.

* see Keegan, John: A History of Warfare, page 337.

Bike Trip

It has been a long time since the Naval Department made a cycling trip. But today, we did it again - against all odds. With we, I mean the six that actually showed up (including Martin who is not even on the payroll anymore). I'm not intending that the rest are cowards. Some were on holiday, some called in sick, some were unaccounted for, and some were just indispensable at the premises. Surprisingly, the entire project management section was missing - time management seems not to be their most shining quality.

But lets turn to what we did, because we had a premiere. So far, our cycling trips were all downhill. Altitude wise, today's trip could have been in the Netherlands. It was completely flat. We cycled around Lake Biel, with an extended lunch stop on the Sankt Peter island. It's actually a Peninsula since the big Jura waters correction.

Thanks to our caring boss, who gave us the department's Christmas party money of the last couple of years, we could enjoy the savours of our route. E.g. I've never tasted Damassine before. I did not know, what I've missed in life.



Warm up at the Bahnhofs Buffet



Ready to roll...



Sami and Herbert study the history of a church...



Riding.



Martin in front of the lunch restaurant.



The Restaurant



The final drops of both the Twanner and the trip.

I Found My Place

I reckon, I found my place in history. Last night, I catapulted Swiss labour action into the age of blogging.

The labour unions are campaigning against turning Sunday into a working day. We Swiss will have to vote about that quite soon. I'm going to say NO because the capitalists seem not to open the stock exchange on Sunday anyway. What is the fun of shopping on a Sunday, if you can't earn any money at the same time.

Whatever, the labour union Unia takes the teddy bears, which had to work all summer for the tourists in Zürich (24/7 without any pee break), as a theme for this campaign. To speed things up, they wanted to put photos on the net on the fly and needed a tool to do so. Last night I set up a blog to support this. It's now called Zürcher Teddys gegen Sonntagsarbeit.

However, when I left home this morning, I had my first doubts whether I did the right thing. Because, I saw this teddy in a Unia Smart:



Unia lets their teddies, which have to do hard campaigning work, sleep in cold cars! I'm astonished.

Take The Alternatives!

My flatmate Tigresa & I have been living together for almost nine months. That's a first (as having a boyfriend for even a longer period). I was used to have my four walls for myself since 1983, when I fled from the farm to seek my success in the big city.

So far, we managed without major trouble. Of course, there is an endless list of the open toothpaste kind. Nevertheless the other day, we had a bit of crises, when Tigresa took my newspapers (both Tagi and NZZ) with her in the morning. I'm addicted to newspapers. I spend up to two hours per day reading newspapers. Arrrh.

There would have been alternatives for Tigresa, as the following picture shows:

• There is the FraZ (Women's Newspaper). Tigresa receives this ever since she was flirting with the editor at the demonstration on March 8.
• I, on the other hand, receive for an absolutely unknown reason the newspaper of the weird fundamental Evangelist Peoples Party (EVP). An eerie way of mobbing me, maybe. I would share this filthy rag anytime.
• The letter from the bureau for the prevention of addiction was telling me that they have to close down a service due to lack of funding.

There will be no cure for my newspaper addiction. Better live with it.

Tacos Dorados For Dummies

Gatín is a brilliant cook and Tacos Dorados is one of his best dishes. Good things are there to share. That's why I share his family recipe and the how-to-do with you. I said, good things are to share. Therefor, this recipe serves 10. It's mandatory to invite some friends, when making Tacos Dorados.

You'll need...

• 1 kg potatoes
• ½ kg tomatoes
• 2 small onions
• clarified butter/ghee
• loads of oil (sunflower or peanut)
• 1½ kg tortillas

...for the tacos and...

• ½ onion
• 7 tomatillos verdes
• 3 chiles serrano
• 1 Mexican beer
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt & pepper
• 150 g crème fraîche
• 100 g grounded parmesan

...for the topping.

The Tacos

Boil, peal, and chop the potatoes. Chop the tomatoes and the onions.



Fry the tomatoes and the onions in the hot ghee. Add the potatoes and mash everything.



Heat the tortillas in a pan until they are soft. Put some of the potato-tomato filling on top and roll the tortilla.



Fry the tortillas in a pan with loads of really hot oil.



The Topping

We start with the Salsa Borracha (drunken sauce). Chop the onion and garlic. Simmer the tomatillos and the chiles. Blend the onion, tomatillos, chiles, garlic and beer. Season with pepper and salt.

Arrange some tacos on the plate. Top them with crème fraîche, parmesan and some Salsa Borracha. Serve and enjoy.

My American Hero

Hollywood is full of liars. Reading Today's Highlights on Answers.com and digging a little bit deeper, I realised that the favourite drink in western saloons was not whisky but applejack (at least in the early years). Applejack is an alcoholic drink made from hard cider that has been frozen.

Highly responsible for spreading apples, and hence applejack, in America was John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, who was born on this date in 1774. He is legendary for giving and selling apple seeds and saplings to citizens migrating westward, and for planting apple trees as he traveled through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.

John Chapman just became my personal American hero. Johnny Depp would be a brilliant Johnny Appleseed. Hey Hollywood, make a film. Subito!

Spoiled Cows

A sign of Autumn in Switzerland is that restaurants put pumpkin soup on the menu. But there is an even better autumnal treat: Maize Soup*



Maize can be even cheaper than pumpkin. Gatín made this delicious dish out of cobs that we've nicked** from my brother's field. Although, this maze is basically cattle fodder, it is just perfect to cook a strengthening soup out of it. Or as Gatín said: Your brother spoils his cows.

* I know, it is called corn. But according to Wikipedia only in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
** We've helped to harvest potatoes for an entire day, though.

It's Autumn Anyway

Autumn has arrived and my beloved geraniums (pelargonium) still look great:



At a first glance maybe - it's rather shocking, if you take a closer look:



I've consulted many experts in the kingdom Plantae (swim teacher, brother & father) and they all said that:

1. it's a fungus
2. it has propagated too far to do anything
3. it's autumn anyway.

I did not expect autumn to arrive that quick.

Tainted Audio Reception

DRS2 is a radio station which does not provide us with cheerful hosts and an endless middle-off-the-road sound carpet. Nevertheless, it seems that I am already tainted with all these features by other radio stations, because the following two announcements attracted my attention this morning. Both were presented in a perfect Bühnendeutsch*:

• "We have a break until 9:30" followed by silence until 9:30.
• "The music will start in 5 seconds".

*) German Version of the Received Pronunciation

Anticipation

At least there is something pleasant to look forward to at work...

Designer Lunch

I love rapid prototyping. However today at lunch, we went maybe a bit to far and fast in prototyping a new fire-control radar. We might get into a hassle with Knorr, when we're going to market our new product. I reckon, we're better getting a brand lawyer on our project team a.s.a.p.


There are even more legal problems: We did the whole thing at lunch, which is not considered part of the labour hours. The canteen, where the design took place, belongs to the company and the parts we used too. The soup that was in the bowl to the right was subsidised by our caring employer, but it was already eaten at the time we did the design. This is still not enough: I took the picture with Mr.Mac's mobby.

We don't even know, who owns the rights of the picture. But it's on the Internet anyway. Feel free to use it, but better read the small print first and carefully.

Small Print
This page, as well as many other things in life, may offend you. Note that no electrons were harmed in the creation of this page. It is made from 100% recycled bits. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Hand wash only, tumble dry on low heat, do not iron. Gomad is not responsible for anything.

Some Rebel Chic Please

Rebel sells. It seems to be the USP of our times. However, Swiss labour union UNiA hasn't noticed this fact, or why would they put their staff in such awful ponchos for labour actions that are supposed to catch public attention?

¡Atame!

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Tomorrow just before noon, Tigresa will be tied in public.

How far is this lady willing go to become the top campaigner of Switzerland?

That's the question, we ask ourselves at Gomad Mansion™. However, her concern seems just to be, how to stile her hair to meet all obligations of the day - that is, from being tied to meeting the top brass of the organisation: wild or tied?

The Apple Cake Experience

This apple cake is from Thurgau, the place where I was born and formed. Unfortunately, I have never made one until Friday night. I did compensated for this neglect by making two cakes - one for Gatín and one for my clan in the lovely Thurgau.



That is, what it takes for a circular mould with a diameter of 22 cm:

• 125 g butter
• 125 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• juice of ½ lemon
• 200 g flour
• a level spoonful of baking powder
• 4 apples.

Butter the mould and powder it with some flour. Put the mould at a cool place.

Mix the butter and sugar until the mixture is foamy. Add egg yolk and lemon juice. Sift the flour and baking powder onto the mixture. Beat the egg white. Mix the stiff egg white carefully with the mixture and fill it into the prepared mould.

Peal the apples, cut into half and core them. Cut the apples from the round side, but don't cut through. Put the apples slightly into the cake. Besprinkle the cake with some sugar.

Preheat the oven to 200 °C and bake the cake for 35 minutes. Enjoy as soon as the cake is cooled down.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Gatín!

.


La risa, la gloria y la luz de mí vida is celebrating his birthday today. Happy birthday Gatín.

Se Esta Poniendo Caliente Aquí Adentro

This weekend Tigresa, Gatín and I are going to cook Mexican for about 33 people. The theme will be se esta poniendo caliente aquí adentro (it's getting hot in here) and a the Serrano Chilies we shall shop later this afternoon will guarantee a sufficient level of heat, hehe...

The Menu

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Insulted

A friend of mine has completed some kind of sport instructor course and is going to instruct. I think, it's a kind of spinning, don't blame me, it's hard to keep track of all these modern sports and sports terms. Whatever, music seems to be important for this kind of workout, or at least the beats per minute of the background tune.

I've been listening to electronic music ever since Mittageisen and the early days of Stefan Eicher (the early day and only the early days!). Hence, my friend thought that I might be the right address for what he calls Techno, House and Dance Music. Never mind, there are some CDs in my humble collection that might fit into the scheme (Ms.Mac, can you please give me back those crimes on disc by Steps - it's for a friend). The real insult came when he asked, if I have such music in my CD tower.

There has been the question ever since CDs had to be stored in homes, whether one should leave a one-night stand before or just right after the sex, when he/she has CD tower in the apartment where the act is supposed to take place. A CD tower? At Gomad Mansion™? Are you mad?