Cats

I just read this blog on Juanita's Blog about Cat Blogs. How lucky are those cats to have their own blogs! It made me think of my cat. A ginger persian. She was beautiful and she was tiny. Fully grown, but tiny if you can imagine her without all the hair. We did feed her, don't think that's why she was small. She got a good diet recommended by the vet, but she just happened to stay quite small. Petite I guess.

When we got her she was really scared. She would run and hide under the bed when the doorbell rang. We thought it would pass, that she just needed time to adjust. But it did not get much better. She was a very stressed cat.

And she didn't like to be cuddled.

Oh this? A VERY rare moment.

This was more like her- staying out of reach:

She had to be groomed regularly. We would brush her, but she wouldn't allow us to do a proper enough job. So she did not love us very much for taking her to the groomers.

But like other cats she did like to be close to us.

Like most cats she liked to sit/ lie on the things you are busy with.

I spent (still do) most of my time at home at my desk preparing lessons for school or making teaching materials so Shiva, that was her name, would casually join me.

But try and give some attention and show some appreciation for the attention she is giving you? She acts all "I'm not really here to be with you, I just happen to feel like sitting on the table next to the flowers." Or "Don't touch the hair with your dirty hands you."

She showed her love by sitting in my gym bag. "I actually do like having you at home. Don't go to gym." Ok, I'll stay just for you Shiva. I didn't want to go to gym really anyway.

The day we got a teensy little dog almost smaller than her she was not a happy cat either. The dog was scared of her and she was scared of the dog. Here's a once in a life time moment. This was not really the relationship they had. Well not while I was at home anyway. Who knows what the cat gets up to when the mouse is away.

We did love our little Shiva. We felt honoured when she chose to lie on our bed. And she acted very happy, excited, almost silly, when my mom came to visit from Germany. I think she did love us back too. In her own way :-)

I wouldn't mind having a cat again some time. But apparently my husband is allergic to cats. Did he just act non-allergic to impress me while I had a cat? I wonder...

I am having a pajama day today

The great thing about living in a country where no shops are open on a Sunday is that unless you are going to go out and see some place you haven't seen or just stroll around, there's no reason why not to just enjoy a bed day.

That's what I've been doing today. At 3pm I did finally get dressed and tried convincing my husband to take a walk with me down to the Limmat river, but he was unable to leave his online computer game, World of Warcraft, so I am now back in bed.

I have finished watching both seasons of the new Beverly Hills 90210, one episode after the other. Blogged a bit, read some blogs, posted more ads for our flat and of course had a look at facebook every now and again to see what everybody else is up to. Next I'm going to start reading the manual for my camera.

If it's cold outside and you've got nowhere you have to be, enjoy a pajama day once in a while. It's great!


Update: We did in the end manage to get that walk in before it got dark!

Beef & Beer Stew

I don't want you to miss out on this. If you're not vegetarian you have to try this. Just do it. It will make you happy. It will not only make you happy but also everyone you serve it to. So go on now! Click here and get cooking.

PS Cape Town readers enjoying the summer weather, I would suggest you save the recipe for winter and rather try one of these for now. And then think of me and know that I would also like some sunshine right now!

A. xx

Looking for a lovely spacious apartment?

We will be moving out of our apartment soon. It is a lovely apartment and we are sad to have to leave it. It has LOTS of space!

Here is a bit of a description, but please contact me to come and have a look if you are interested.

Three room Maisonette apartment in Dietikon right next to the Reppisch river. Quiet neighborhood, minutes walk to centre of town, bus and train.

First floor: Large living room (32m2) with fireplace, tiled floor with underfloor heating, glass enclosed balcony, separate kitchen, bath/WC.

Second floor: Large living area which we are using as a study/ TV room (37.5m2) with sloped ceiling on the one side, tiled floor with underfloor heating, big balcony, spacious bedroom (22.5m2) with laminated flooring, shower/WC, storage closet.

There is also a storage room as well as another double built in closet for storage. (Lots of storage space!!)

Since there are only 3 apartments in the building there is no washing machine schedule. You can wash ANY TIME you need to!!

Click here to view photos on Flickr.

Rent: CHF 2150 (including Nebenkosten)
Underground parking available if needed at an additional CHF130

Please email me if you're interested or pass on if you know of someone who might be interested!

Recycling in Switzerland: you've got to know what you're doing.

I know I haven't been around much here on the blog lately. Lots going on. You know how it is. So I've been browsing through some old photos to look for something to blog about. I went right to the top, the first album in the folder marked Switzerland 2009. It says "Day one". I skipped those first albums. Didn't even have a look at it again. It's a bit scary to think about everything we've gone through. We knew just about nothing when we arrived. The first couple of weeks I spent on the internet and phone organising what needed to be organised.

Anyway, I scrolled further down and I have an album labeled "Odds and Ends". Things I didn't really know where to file. A photo here and there. I found this.

Do you know what these people are doing? No, they aren't homeless people looking for something worth saving out the bins. This is Switzerland! I do this too. This is where we do recycling. This is nothing new anymore. I'm surprised I haven't told my readers who don't live here how this is done. It took me a while to figure out where and what to do. This is not something you want to get wrong. You can get fined by the garbage police if you do something wrong with this recycling business. So here's how it starts.

All cardboard goes in a big paper bag which is in my cleaning cupboard. Newspaper goes at the bottom of another cupboard where I've got some space. Glass goes in a large paper bag which is not as lucky as the other bag to have a space in a cupboard so is stationed in a corner of the lounge, sort of hidden by a chair. It then gets taken to the recycling place when the bag gets too full or before we have guests (whichever comes first!) Oh I almost forgot there is also a bag for tins and another for plastic bottles. And plastic bottles don't go to the same recycling area. Most grocery stores have recycling bins outside for plastic bottles. Just remember to take the caps off and squish the bottle a little smaller. Are you still with me?

Cardboard in the yellow, glass (sorted clear, green and brown) in the blue containers.

Now as you can see in the first picture, you can't just dump your newspapers in the recycling bin. It gets tied neatly in bundles no higher than 25 cm. There is one Saturday a month when you can leave your newspapers outside and it gets picked up. But I have never tried to remember this date. I have to take the rest of the stuff to recycle. The glass and tins. So I just take it all together.

And that's it. Easy once you know what goes where. Oh I almost forgot - there's one other small packet: the one for the coffee capsules. Don't they make a lovely colourful picture? You don't have to tie these in bundles thank goodness. This is one thing you can just dump in the big container.

I enjoy recycling. It makes me feel a little better about how much we throw away. And if you have to pay Sfr. 2 which is almost R15 in South Africa for one garbage bag, you don't want to fill it up too quickly or unnecessarily!

Collecting Coop stickers?

Dear Swiss Readers,

I have been collecting those Coop stickers, but don't need any more pots or pans. I don't have space for more even though I might like some more like the pressure cooker and wok... So, I have 5, soon 6, full sticker cards if any of you would like to use it. Send me your postal address and I'll send it off to you. First come first serve. I'd be happy if someone can use them, otherwise it will be going in the bin. :-)

Non-Swiss readers wondering what this is about? You get these stickers when you shop at a specific grocery store called Coop. Then for each full card of stickers you can choose from a selection of pots and pans and get discount on it. Not for free! You still have to pay something!

Personalised pen

My sister's Christmas present: a pen and note book designed for her by me!

We came upon this pen shop, called Prodir, by accident. Walking around Zürich my husband wanted to go into this shop. I was thinking: "A pen shop? What do you want to do at a pen shop? You can buy a pen anywhere!"

It sounded boring having a shop that only sells pens.

Well, I was mistaken. A friendly guy (who spoke English very well - very important) asked if he may show us around and explain what happens there. He told us how you can design your own pen and note book, showed us how everything worked and showed us some examples. Very interesting. And immediately I thought "Christmas present for someone who lives in California and has everything (except a constant supply of Swiss chocolates)!"

We went back the next week because I wanted to bring a photograph to put on her pen (because you can do that), but in the end realised the picture would come out too small and not be worth printing. So here's how it works:

You walk into the shop and ask the friendly designer (that's right, they are all designers, not just shop assistants) if she speaks English because you're quite sure her English is going to be better than your German and it would just make things simpler. Of course she says yes. You smile gratefully and you tell her you want to make a pen. She takes you over to the big touch screens where she helps you to choose a type of pen, colours, and whatever else you want.

I wanted pink for my sister's pen, but the pen I chose did not come in any pink bits and I didn't want another kind of pen because I felt this one was the nicest. I liked the way it clicked. So I went with purple. You can have each part of the pen in a different colour and Andre wanted to add some bright orange bits in too, but I said no, it has to be a girly pen. I told him to make his own orange pen.

And by the way, you don't have to do everything on the touch screen only. You can also ask them to put the different parts and colours of the pen together, for you to see and decide which colours you like.

I decided to write my sister's name on her pen with a little heart after her name. You can change the colour, font and add shapes and things like I did with the heart.

When the pen was done I said I want a note book to go with the pen too. Decided on lime green polka dots with her name again in purple to match the pen.

And then it fits snugly inside the book!

If you tell them it's a gift they will wrap it beautifully too. (I had to carefully unwrap and re-wrap to take pictures because I knew you'd also like to see the pen!)

3D coolness!

On Saturday we went to see the movie Avatar in 3D. WOW! It was amazing! I now want to see any other 3D movies. I'm looking forward to the new Shrek and Alice in Wonderland in 3D.

This was our first time to the cinema in Switzerland. We never used to go to the movies much in SA either. We prefer to watch movies at home where we can lie on the couch in front of a fire and pause when we need snacks and hot chocolate. Well, that would be me needing snacks and hot choc. But this was so so good, I didn't even think of snacks. We were so excited to be in a cinema that we took pictures before the movie started! These glasses are something to see :-)

In Switzerland most movies are in English with German and French subtitles which is nice for us. Movies here have intermission. The movie will stop at a random place just past half way through and the lights will come on. Toilet and snack break just like at home! You could see who were Swiss or have done this before - they brought their own snacks for half time!

Fun fun fun! I want to go again!

Munich airport tour

While still in Munich over the Christmas holiday we went on a tour of the Munich airport. I don't know if other airports do this too, I've never heard of it, but I think it's such a good idea. I'm sure it was very interesting, it sure sounded like it from all the information and figures our tour guide gave, just a pity it was in German... He spoke way too fast for me to understand much but it was still fun to go on an hour bus tour all around the airport which is quite big. We were hoping for some more behind the scenes action like going up in the control tower or something like that. You know, to really see how everything works. But that could obviously be too dangerous and was not part of the tour. The bus did however take us through areas where the public is not allowed.

Ready to leave with the bus!

If you book a tour for a large group you can ask to have it in English, otherwise only German. I was surprised to see how full it was. Our bus was completely full. And there was another group waiting for the next tour when we got back.

Market at the Munich airport.

Ice rink at the airport. (Not part of the tour!)

Last days of 2009

I've been a bit lazy with the blogging lately. It's taken a bit of effort getting back into work mode after such a lovely holiday. But here are the last days of last year!

I had my birthday on the 29th. My 30th birthday! We went for dinner at an Afghan restaurant in Munich which was really great. The food was delicious and it was interesting to experience something different. The restaurant is called Nigin, close to Marienplatz but you kind of have to know about it or you won't find it. Or if you do you might not go in. But do go. It's not a big restaurant and when we arrived we were the only people there for a while. It was a Tuesday night and a little off the main tourist street so I thought that's why. But it soon filled up completely. Go look for this one if you're in Munich!

Try the aubergine and the pumpkin starters!

How did this teapot make it into an Afghan restaurant? Could they tell we're from Africa?

New Years eve we spent at home in Munich. It was just too cold and we've done enough walking around town. We made sushi and then watched the fireworks from the balcony at midnight. Quite a display!

I wish you all a fantastic 2010. And a special thought to the teachers in South Africa who went back to school today to start the new school year.

Neuschwanstein

After Christmas, while still in Germany, we drove to the castle of King Ludwig II, called Neuschwanstein, in southwest Bavaria, Germany. Both Andre and I have been there before but it's still a beautiful castle every time you see it. This castle was also the inspiration for the Disney Castle.

We walked the approximately 20 minutes up hill to the castle but you can go in a horse-drawn carriage if you feel lazy. Andre and Jürgen did a bit of extra walking to the Marienbrücke where you will get the best view of the castle for taking photographs. The way to this bridge is normally closed during winter time, but you can walk there at your own risk if you're adventurous.

Opposite from Neuschwanstein is King Ludwig's parent's castle:

Worth a visit if you're in the area!

Our second first anniversary

On 30 August 2008 Andre and I got married. Then we got married again on 3rd January 2009! I would do it again it was so much fun but Andre says NO. He says the big one on the 3rd was too stressful for him.

On 30 August we had a very small ceremony, so small that only our parents and my sister knew about it. We decided not to tell anyone because we already had our "big day" planned for the 3rd of January and we didn't want to spoil the excitement of that day. We didn't want our family and friends to think, "They're married already so it's not such a big thing." It was not easy to keep it a secret. But we knew if we told one family member we'd have to tell all of them and the same with our friends. Otherwise it wouldn't have been fair.

So we still had our big day with flowers, wedding dress, cake and all on the 3rd of January and that makes today our second first anniversary!

Here's a video of wedding dance. We had lots of fun learning the dance and others at a dance school a few months before our wedding.


Our wedding dance from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.