Lately

I've been meaning to get a picture of this for a while, it feels like some sort of comment on Swiss multiculturalism. Hello Kitty strawberry spread next to Heidiland butter (yes, it is a place).

Migros were also running a promotion for "Asian" goods, the vast majority of which were made in Asia apart from an incongruous Buddha mashup tray made in Italy. 

David's office had one of their social TGIF evenings, which was a "spicy" night involving tortillas, meat and vegetarian chilli, hot sauce and some hilarious warning signs.

I found an open wooden crate of parts in Selnau station with something written on it in Chinese, next to the braille-marked stairs up to Sihlbruecke.

Cute idea in the local 2 Fr shop to have grow-your-own plants, but I'm not sure if it really works for green tea, coffee and tobacco.

And we went for a walk on the snowy paths by the river on Saturday to visit Hiro Takahashi's bakery. We had a lovely not-too-sweet cheesecake and a chocolate gateau that was more like a giant chocolate brownie and should have come with a side order of insulin. And we took photos of some of his lovely Japanese-style breads.

Amazingly, there were some trees budding and flowering even though the temperature has been hovering around zero for weeks. And we found a tiny snowman!

Looking forward to a trip to Geneva this weekend to see friends and hopefully explore the town of Nyon!

Day out

I spent most of Saturday preparing for selling my jewellery at the Swiss-Japanese Friendship Society's New Year event, which involved getting change from the post office, a detour to the Korean food shop to pick up some hot Japanese curry roux, then to the large Migros down the train line to pick up some polyester stuffing - to make cushions with! I finally used up some of the fabric I got in Takayama years and years ago and I'm quite happy with the result, although the stuffing is a bit lumpy. (I also totally overestimated how much I'd need, I got two 250g packs but ended up not even finishing the 500g pack I already have. Stuffed things are in my future.) And we had some rather delicious curry.

Sunday was a great day for food, but not for selling jewellery. I got there early to help set up and so had my pick of the tables and got a nice prominent spot, but spent most of my time chatting to people and buying from Tomoyo Jaeger, who makes amazing Japanese sweets, and Hiro Takahashi, our local Japanese baker. A friend bought two packs of five phone straps with decorative mini-envelopes (puchi-bukuro) to give as gifts to her students on their birthdays, Tomoyo bought a phone strap and a little boy bought a Swarovski designer crystal pendant. For himself. You go! Everyone commented that not many people had come, and one member of the committee mentioned that people were spending money on food but not much else. But my bento from Usagiyama (aka Hotel Hasenberg) was delicious and it was good to see everyone.

I will never in my life have the patience to make an omelette the thickness of a crepe, let alone wrap it so nicely around a rice ball. Thankfully Usagiyama do that for you.

 My table.

The cushions I made on Saturday showing off some of my jewellery.

Hiro Takahashi and Tomoyo Jaeger were across from me. Great view!

I saw this ad in the main station on my way home, which made me wonder if I was still in Switzerland, or in Japan...

But then I remembered seeing these Swarovski crystals in Migros on Saturday for about four times what I pay for them in the UK, and that's when I don't buy them wholesale.

A warning sign that "Seilkran" will be operating at this station next week, which seems to be some kind of combined crane and winch system.

And finally, some photos from last weekend in snowy London! Bill and Austa took me on a detour into a snow-covered graveyard. Appropriately enough, we were on our way to the "Death" exhibition at the Wellcome Collection.

Out and about

I was out last weekend to get a new toner cartridge for my printer - I bought it about 3 years ago with a small cartridge included, and it's only giving me the 'toner low' light now. Nowhere had the small cartridge, so I got the big one which will presumably last me until no-one prints anything any more.

The display of cat play trees at the pet shop in our local shopping centre, with a sign sternly warning that this is not a seating area.

 And a strange bunny head made of small post-its seen in a deserted office building I walked through to get to the shop to get my toner cartridge.

It's cold and snowy, but that's par for the course and most importantly nothing stops here because of it. Fingers crossed that London doesn't get any snow while I trying to get there on Friday night or get home next Tuesday.

Carrying over

I was so happy to get my last pumpkin at the beginning of December, and since it was a big one there was way more than I could use before we left for Christmas and New Year. After roasting, I searched to see if you could freeze the cooked flesh and came across a great idea - freezing them in muffin cups so you get nice regular amounts! What I forgot to do was check how big mine were - the article I read online said the containers held 1/4 of a US cup, but it turns out mine hold 1/2 a cup. So, I accidentally defrosted twice as much as I needed.

Nothing else to do but bake and bake again... pumpkin and chocolate-chip cookies from the "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" book, and a new pumpkin loaf recipe baked in a new disposable cardboard container. Waiting for it to cool down to see how it worked out!

Happy New Year!

Without any fuss (or indeed any notification at all!) the Open University awarded me the Certificate in Contemporary Science on 31 December 2012! Awarded for the completion six short science courses (microbiology, drug design, genetics, nutrition, alternative energy, seismology & vulcanology) it's a nice way to mark the halfway point of my first year of the BSc.

I can now use Cert. Cont. Sci. after my name, which I may do if I need an ice-breaker!

Seasons' Greetings

It's my last "working day" of the year, although I will have to bring some work and study with me when I go away over Christmas and New Year. I'm hoping to have enough calm and time to think about this year and all that it's brought, and - barring the invention of working crystal balls in the next week - figure out what I'm going to try to do next year.

In the meantime, I wish you and yours a wonderful end of year, whatever you call it, and all the very best for 2013.

What Switzerland is made of

We've had a fun few days with friends who came to see Switzerland's Christmas markets with us. Friday was spent exploring the two market squares full of stalls in Basel and the train station in Zurich, then Saturday in the two squares and under the train station in Lucerne... the plan for Sunday was to go to Bern, but we didn't get started early enough and the market there closed at 5:00 pm, so we ended up wandering around Zurich again and having some amazing 70% cocoa hot chocolate in a flammkuchen restaurant in the Old Town. The Christmas markets were pretty good, with not so much looking mass produced although there were disturbingly similar stalls in all three markets, even for things you would think were handmade, like wooden carved goods.

It snowed almost constantly on Sunday and Monday, although it was all blown away by a storm last night. I walked around town with Ada on Monday and we stopped into the amazing Sprungli café at Paradeplatz. It's a tie for which hot chocolate is better (both 70% cocoa) and their cakes are amazing!

Ada anticipating all that chocolately goodness, plus apple strudel and coffee éclair.

 She had a mug of hot chocolate, while I ordered a 'portion' - turns out to a hot silver jug full of hot chocolate, with a dark chocolate on the side!

We had had enough chocolate after that (believe it or not) so we then went for a herbal tea (mainly to avoid having to go outside in the cold and snow again). Ada had a rooibos with tangerine, and I had a ginger and lemon.

 After seeing her off at the station I went to see himself, he had just moved desks into a new part of the office and the catering staff were excelling themselves as usual.

Boats and lights and biscuits

I finished off my set of boat coasters!

Really happy with how they turned out, although the thread wasn't finished off as well as I would have liked. It is dark brown on dark brown, so at least it's not too obvious.

I headed into town yesterday evening to pick up some mirin and have a look in the hobby section of the large Migros in Brunau. I noticed on my way to the station that there were signs up for a Christmas market on the weekend of 1-2 December (coincidentally when our guests are here), and that the local Civil Defense had put up the municipal Christmas tree.

I headed into the main station (there's a small Korean restaurant and food shop nearby that sells Japanese ingredients as well) and found that the city Christmas lights were up on Bahnhofstrasse. I do like them.

The lights at the large Sihlcity shopping centre were slightly less subtle.

After checking out the crafting supplies - and other things that I could repurpose - I headed towards David's office for a coffee, passing the rather odd castle near the business park that was festively floodlit.

We did some paperwork and tidying up on Saturday, and had a friend around to watch Iron Sky. I tried making the soft pumpkin cookie recipe that Austa sent me, using a freshly baked pumpkin with lebkuchen spice mix and some chopped dried apple instead of nuts. They needed a little more than 15 minutes to cook, but they were amazing! Nearly all gone already, and I think I know what I'll be doing with the other pumpkin too. ^_^

For the person who has everything...

... I bet they don't have a fluffy cockroach.

Make and do

I didn't just do things over the weekend - I made things! Well, almost. I had some finishing off to do tonight, but I've done the washbag kit I bought in John Lewis in London oh so long ago, and have finished off two of the six coasters from the kit I bought in Japan even longer ago.

The finished washbag, with a ribbon and button closure.

 It's even lined - something I was always convinced would be far more difficult than it actually was (and yes, the lining coming up over the top is a design feature, not just me).

One of the boat coasters, ingeniously made from two square pieces of fabric. So ingenious I've been afraid of the instructions for about two years. 

The pattern calls for beads hung off the ends, but I liked the idea of buttoning up the sides instead. And I just bought loads of buttons the last time I was in Dublin. 

The finishing touches waiting to go on the remaining four boats, some other evening.

So, overall very happy with myself. I'm learning what the sewing machine can and can't do, and getting used to guiding the fabric. I have a few other things I'm looking forward to trying out, including interfacing. It's a brave new world.

Sushi and cake

I finally managed to catch up with Mr Yamaguchi last week - we met up at the Japanese bakery in Sood-Oberleimbach, Hiro Takahashi. Where we had - sushi! It was absolutely delicious, hand made by the chef himself.

I gave Mr Yamaguchi my origami paper. I have too much craft stuff. I decided to concentrate on the other stuff - jewellery and fabric - and leave the paper to the expert. We had a great chat and found out what the other was doing, and we got an invite to their new place outside Bern.

I also mentioned that it was David's birthday the next day, and before I knew what was going on, Mr Yamaguchi had arranged for Hiro Takahashi to put together an amazing strawberry mousse cake! I failed to pay for it. I will get my revenge somehow!

David bought the cake into work and people loved it, so I hope it brings more business to the bakery!

Bear

A warm welcome to the newest inhabitant of my desk - a spirit bear from the Grand Canyon.

He's officially a fetish bear, but I learned the other definition of that word first, so I'll stick with spirit bear.

That makes three bears, a frog, a sea slug and a nautilus. The joys of having a large desk.

Lingering

The snow has stopped falling, but is still out there - unsurprisingly, since it's about +1 C. I'm going to have to turn up the heating, as my fingers are turning blue if I leave them out on the keyboard long enough to type a sentence.

And the birds have decimated the feeders.

Schnee

Looks like the weather forecast was right.

It's due to warm up next week, so I doubt it will stay long. The birds don't seem to mind at all, I saw all four great tits on the feeder (one pecking at the water), the sparrows were darting in and out and two blackbirds were chasing each other noisily through the garden. ^_^

I made myself some breakfast and took it back to bed.

Strange days

Finally got around to sorting out the big blue Ikea bag that was full of my stuff from the last time I sold any of my jewellery - in March on the anniversary of the earthquake in Japan. I took inventory of all the remaining pieces and found that I couldn't name one of the semi-precious stones. You know you've been away for too long when that happens.

Decided to do a draft list of people for physical and e-cards for Christmas and (Japanese) New Year. The last list I could find to edit was from two years ago, and I found myself having to take some people off the list as they had passed away in the meantime. Very strange feeling.

Here, there, everywhere

We were barely back from Berlin before himself had to get ready for a three week work trip to the USA, and me for a 10-day one back to Dublin. Thanks to everyone who sent Dad good wishes for his surgery, it all seems to have gone perfectly and fingers crossed his vision will improve before the end of the year as the corneal graft settles in.

Apart from juggling the flood of work that predictably came in just when I couldn't take it on, I've wandered far, far outside my comfort zone with the amazing Experimental Genome Science course that I found after someone pointed me at the Writing for the Sciences course on the same site (Coursera). The courses are all free, you just need to put in the time and do the assignments. Experimental Genome Science is aimed at entry-level graduate students in genetics, which I am not, so I'm not sure if I'll make it all the way through but so far it is fascinating if an awful lot of hard work. The Writing for the Sciences course is much more my speed and I'm enjoying it immensely, especially the tips on writing and revising.

And thinking ahead - it feels like the end of the year already - a search for images to use for my Japanese New Year cards led me (in a rather roundabout way) to the very lovely LittleLion Studio. Not that any of their images are suitable for the cards, but I just love them to bits.

Berlin!

I'm still working on getting all my camera photos of Berlin in order, but hopefully it will be done by/at the weekend. Took far, far too many photos in the zoo and aquarium....

We loved Berlin. It wasn't what we expected at all. It was wide open spaces and never crowded, chilly but sunny, full of places to stop and talk and eat and then realise that you were surrounded by history. The first reaction was that we'll be back. As a bonus, I got to meet a translator I've worked with on the Japan Society school exchanges - we got on like a house on fire - and another translator who was in Berlin at a conference.

The U-Bahn trains had the Brandenburg Gate printed on every surface.

A double pumpkin delight at a restaurant in Hackescher Markt - pumpkin soup with smoked duck breast...

Followed by linguine with huge slabs of roast pumpkin and shallots. Couldn't finish!

Our sugar rush on Saturday, a German dessert made with pancakes, raisins and slivered almonds, served with fruit compote and ice cream.

There was a spot of rain on Saturday, so we nipped in to the Ritter showroom/shop. Their half-bitter hot chocolates were amazing!

And finally, a bit of strangeness from Zurich station, when I was there yesterday trying and failing to send a DHL parcel.

Notes from Switzerland

Well, in case you were wondering, the Christmas season appears to have officially started. The cheerful orange-shirted staff in Migros were busy building a display with Christmas lebekuchen when we were in there on Saturday.

We had a quiet weekend as we were both tired. We walked from ours in to the local shopping centre, taking plenty of detours around the river. And stumbled across things that I've only ever seen here.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

I ordered new fans for my old Macbook Pro, which arrived very quickly from the US. Himself kindly installed them for me on Saturday, and while digging through the stuff I'd left on the laptop I found a flyer for last year's pumpkin festival at a farm on the other side of the lake - and just in time, because their next festival was on the following day! Here are the photos of the pumpkin festival, with its Olympic-themed pumpkin sculptures.

The fans work beautifully and the laptop is just as quiet and well, no warmer than it was when new although that's not saying much. Unfortunately, when I plugged it out for a moment to plug it into a different socket, it died on its arse. The battery says it's not charging (although the generic battery status indicator says it should be replaced soon but is still fine to use. Right).

The only other news is that I've signed up for my next two OU courses - another short course, about plants and all they do for us (and what we do to them) and a bigger one, made of two 15-unit courses on cardiac disease and cancer mashed together. Being on the transitional fee arrangements meant I paid £300 less for the longer course, although the short one was mysteriously £15 more than the previous ones.

This now means I'll have three weeks in October where both these new courses and my current vulcanology/seismology and alternative to oil courses are running, so that's lots of incentive to get the two current ones finished ahead of time... after that, I just have 20 units left on Level 1, so it'll be nuclear energy and forensic science and then on to Level 2 for more chemistry and biology.

Yay for recipes

Because they turn this:

Into this:

I normally make these without the glaze (and the little flowers, which are in the original recipe) but decided to try it this time as we were taking them as dessert. And kudos to himself for the idea to pop the cupcakes back into the warm oven to melt the glaze and get it to spread evenly. ^_^