Curing Myself

I went swimming this morning but had to give up after 1.5 km because I felt dizzy. Remembering that on the farm we used to give cows, who just gave birth a bottle of wine to give them strength, I concluded that this must solve the problem:

Daylight Carbs

Trends are there to be obeyed and so we finally cut back on carbs after dark... but there are the occasional daylight meals.

So later today we are invited to a birthday tea. Since we have never been to such an event we have no clue what is being served, we thought stocking up on carbs for lunch might not be the worst of ideas...

Penne with broccoli topped with cherry tomatoes slow fried in sage and butter from milk of Piedmontese cattle.

5 on the Fifth - Summer Special

The final '5 on the fifth' was last December - but Stephen Chapman has decided to resurrect the old idea for a one-off summer special. So I don't want let him down and participate.

The rules are: "Take 5 photographs on the days leading up to the 5th and publish those on your own blog and then add the link to my blog so that others can find your images. You can either take 5 random pictures or follow this months theme: Summer." Well, here we go:

August 1, 2012



Celebrating Swissness with breakfast on the balcony on the 721st birthday of Switzerland.

August 2, 2012




Champagne o'clock with the swimmers (and boyfriends)

August 3, 2012




Quiet lunch break at MFO park.

August 4, 2012




Our first summer holidays had been on balcony, though this time we are heading abroad. Our first leg brought us to Savoy, where we stayed the night near Aix les bains.

August 5, 2012




About to Cross the Viaduc de Millau on our way to the winery Mas du Soleilla near Narbonne. It's the highest bridge ever built by mankind. Lord Norman Foster did it with unmatched elegance.

I hope you get the chance to enjoy your summer as well.

Chez Toño

About a year ago, Toño started a new job as wine buyer for a posh wine seller. Toño is responsible for all Latin countries except France, Quebec and Louisiana. This was a dream come true for Toño and he is very happy at his new post

The buyer team at his new firm has this tradition to invite each other home for a fine dinner and so tomorrow, they will drop by at our residence for a little soirée.

It is not that you cook and they have to eat what you serve them... far from it, every tiny little detail is discussed in the team and (luckily for our household budget) they also contribute some of the wine.

To cut a long story short, here is the menu they came up with:

L‘apéritif

Tricolore di Focaccia

Le vin
Champagne André Clouet brut Rosé



Première entrée

Terrine de foie gras

Alternative végétarienne
Terrine de légumes


Le vin
Champagne Roederer Cristal 2002



Deuxième entrée

Médaillons de thon sur tomates mondés Cuore di Bue au basilic avec huile d’olive extra vergine

Alternative végétarienne
Tranches de Mozzarella di Bufala sur tomates mondés Cuore di Bue au basilic avec huile d’olive extra vergine

Les vins
Puligny-Montrachet 2009, Domaine Leflaive
Ermitage «de l’Orée » 1991, M. Chapoutier



En plat principal

Rôti de veau à la sauce au vin rouge avec de pommes de terre et de carottes jeunes

Alternative végétarienne
Rôti de Tofu à la sauce au vin rouge avec de pommes de terre et de carottes jeunes

Les vins
Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru – Les Champeaux 1999, Domaine Denis Mortet
Crozes-Hermitage « Les Varonniers » 1995, M. Chapoutier



Le dessert

Charlotte russe

Le vin
Château Rieussec 1989

Urban Green

In the age of sustainable living, the path to happiness goes through home-grown outdoor plants. This especially applies for townsfolk as we are. Thus we also avoided to be offside, followed the Zeitgeist and invested all our energy (and a lot of our money) into the plants on the balcony of our residence.























Of course, wreckful hailstorms are also a part of the Zeitgeist and of them met our geraniums a week ago. And meanwhile a fungus seize the opportunity and settled in with them. Though we are certain to overcoming this adversity as well.

The Upholstering Job

We have got two settees, which each of us brought into the marriage. The one from me was designed by the late Hannes Wettstein and it is one of my most esteemed possessions. I remember bringing a sample of the hardwood floor along to the shop to get the perfectly matching covers. Well, after about 12 years, said covers became a bit threadbare and something had to be done.

The first attempt was to go to the shop where I bought it. Apparently, the couch is no longer being produced but the fabric for the cover is still available. The shop was happy to provide an offer within a few weeks: 16'000$

That was slightly hard to swallow, not only considering that this was more than twice of what the couch cost in the first place...

Luckily there are alternatives like the upholstering shop in the village I was born and bred. They did it for a tenth of that price and even suggested a bolder fabric which now also matches with the painting above.

We are very happy with the new look.

Location:The Upholstering Job

Cucumber Salad

It is close to bed time and this is usually the time I am brushing my teeth, floss and so on... and the time I am reflecting on the day that just passed. Well, looking back on today I have to admit that I have not achieved much for my caring employer. Never mind. Though the thing I can truly be proud of is that cucumber salad I came up with as side for the slice of tuna Toño made for dinner.


I was torn between crème fraîche and yoghurt as base for the dressing and luckily sided for the latter. It was refreshing and went perfectly well with the tuna as well.

I mixed a plain yoghurt with some apple vinegar and seasoned with sea salt and black and red pepper. Before adding the dressing to the pitted, quartered and finely sliced cucumber, I sprinkled them with chopped dill.

Dinner was served with a Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner Tradition 2010.

Eiertütsch

Eiertütsch is a good old Swiss Easter tradition. A kind of an affair of honour. It's about breaking each other's eggs. The challenged can choose the type of weapon - that is, if he prefers to go for little egg's endian versus little egg's endian of big versus big. The loser usually has the right to regain his honour by asking for a return match with the other endians. We are very passionate about this. Well as passionate as Swiss can get.

"Let's go to Bethlehem"

Yes, this year, Toño got us a shepherd for our Nativity scene. It's the one carrying the lamb:



Read more about the Nativity scene tradition at our residence.

Cookie Bitching 2011

Yes, I've baked the exact same cookies as I always do. Plenty of them :)

Wir sind dann mal weg...

I'm about to leave the office... finally holidays :) We'll be in Berlin, where we plan to meet Martin on Monday for a Potsdam tour.

Sonntag

Marting does it all the time, so for once I may do so as well... this was this Sunday's lunch:



Later, when the champagne has worn off, one might find us at the lido Mythenquai, before we'll had to see Race Horse Company's Petit Mal at the Theater Spektakel:

Das Auto

Toño just bought a car. It's a Polo Comfortline 1.4 L, 4 cylinder petrol, 85 PS, 7-speed DSG

Raw Passion!

I would never have thought that a book I bought based on a review in The Economist would be a page turner bursting with passion, like it happened with It’s All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels by Robert Penn.



And as nice side effect, I learned a lot about my favourite ride, like how it was invented and the side effects of this process on economy and society. Robert Penn is a great storyteller. Lance Armstrong was so wrong with the title of his book.

Summer mood has arrived...

... because I got the matching t-shirt for my summer book :)

5 on the Fifth - Blur

This month's 5 on the fifth theme is Blur. Here some blurry stuff I encountered here in México:

A fish in a shopping centre.


An artist's paint mixing board.


A frock, my niece did not want to wear (I can't blame her).


Death can cause a blur of tears.


Anything but blurry: Pacifico Clara.

Sobre El Jorullo

Close to La Huacana is México's second youngest volcano of named El Jorullo. Although only a half an hour drive away, Toño and his sister have never been there.

El Jorullo was born on September 29, 1759, and had been active for 15 years. It a cinder cone volcano, which lies in a remote yet beautiful landscape. The drive goes through groves of elegant palmas real, the local variant of sabal mexicana. The farmers only harvest the top to leaves to make hats and brooms.

The head of the local environment protection agency was so kind to give us a tour. It is a half an hour hike to the crater, but the view up there is worth every step.



Our guide refused to take any money for his services, he just asked us, to promote a trip to the volcano. Hence, by writing this, I'm paying of our debt.

Location:18°58′19″N 101°43′05″W

The place where I cut both my feet and still have to be grateful for

Under this romantic chute Toño learned to swim (Toño is the one embarking on a dive):




Sadly, littering is an issue all over the globe and so it happened that I cut both my feet with broken beer bottles in this water right below the same chute today.

However, if Toño had not been pushed into the water here by an uncle, who happens to be the closest in that picture, and thus learned to swim we might never had met at the the pool in Zürich.

Location:La Huacana, Mexico

Dealing with Cutlery or the Lack Thereof

I am not talking about the basic differences of dealing with cutlery by Americans and Europeans. Others wrote about that conclusively (read about). I am talking about my intercultural competence being constantly challenged by the lack of basic cutlery here in México. At home in cosily boring Switzerland my cutlery concerns are being restricted to occasionally having to eat with a knife, of which the handle is not hollow (and thus not well balanced). Here in México I'm hardly given the opportunity of a knife at all. If so, I'm not even expecting a sharpened one anymore. What one can expect is a spoon or a fork at best. If you address this subject with Mexicans they point out that the tortilla acts as spoon in their culture. Fair enough, but I still find it rather challenging to eat bone-rich meat with just a fragile plastic spoon and a floppy tortilla.

Location:Morelos Sur,La Huacana,Mexico

Piñata

Our children's birthdays in Switzerland are lacking some serious entertainment. Unlike in México, we do them without a piñata getting some serious beating.




The piñata is filled with candies, fruits and nuts. It's an entertaining way to make children work for their incentives.

Location:La Huacana,Mexico