Beautiful Bern, Boring Embassies, Brown Bears and Baby Equipment

Tuesday this week, Paul and I took a day off so I could go to the Danish Embassy in Bern. Not that I was unable to go there myself, but it's always nice with great company, and neither of us had been to Bern before.

The reason I had to turn up in person at the Embassy was in order to apply for a new passport. As newly married and having taken my husband's (I can almost say and write that without giggling...) name, it seemed only right to have that added to my passport - which means getting a new one. When Stefan turns up, we can go to the Danish Consulate here in Zurich and apply for his passport as he's under 12 years old. (Yes, we want him to be a Danish citizen. He won't get Swiss citizenship from birth, as neither I nor Paul is Swiss.)

I always think of Embassies as being slightly palatial, or at least housed in a cool old building with whitewashed walls and perhaps a guard outside. Hence I was rather disappointed to find that the Danish Embassy in Bern is placed on the second floor in an apartment building, and that the first person to greet me was the cleaner! The reception room did have the obligatory pictures of the Queen and Henrik, (though they could do with being updated), and there were also a couple of magazines promoting tourism in Denmark. My query was dealt with quickly by a very nice lady and I was out of there within 20 minutes.

Paul had been waiting for me outside a cafe and seemed surprised to see me back so soon. His dealings with embassies have always taken quite a while and involved queueing, but I guess this is one of the advantages of coming from a tiny country with few inhabitants...On the way back, we passed an embassy with a guard outside (furnished with a big gun!) as well as some housed in beautiful buildings. I might consider changing citizenship. Though then I might have to queue.

Bern is much more beautiful than I thought. It seems less busy and noisy than Zurich and even though we didn't see that much of the town, I still managed to take some great pictures which I think give a good idea of what the town has to offer views-wise (I'm sure that's a word!):

This could be Italy! But it's not.

An iron bridge over some river. And blue skies!

Another bridge over a river, forgot if it's the same as the one above.
 (I should work as a guide, I know.)

And let's not forget the famous bears of Bern, which we also managed to see. Some cities make do with ducks and swans and flying rats as part of the city ambience, but not Bern, oh no, they've opted to include bears. I even took a couple of videos (shot according to the dogme-rules) - unfortunately I'm unable to upload the best one, so you'll have to make do with the one below and a few pictures instead.

They have it good! Their own pool including two apples!

A barrel and sticks to play with.

Once back, I realised I'd overdone it with regards to walking around, so had to get a new appointment with the chiropractor. I saw him yesterday and he sarcastically asked me if I had more excursions planned over the next couple of weeks. I don't. But it's hard when one is so naturally active to cut down on exercising... ;-)

A couple of weeks ago we went to a baby-equipment store in order to get a few essentials before the event in July. The pictures below show the backseat and boot of our car after we'd finished part one of this exercise. The cot and changing table are on order and should arrive by the end of June. Should Stefan arrive before, we can borrow items from the shop which is good to know!

Stuff.

More stuff and the expectant dad.

Okay, we could perhaps have packed this a bit more cleverly -
it's just still such a novelty to have space in the back!

Thanks to those of you who've provided me with recipes, and especially to Jess for giving me a cooking lesson a couple of weeks ago. I have added a few things to my repertoire and will report on my progress soon.

Lots of love,

Karen x

Cheap Switzerland!

'Cheap' and 'Switzerland' are two words, you rarely see in the same sentence without a ‘not’ hovering around somewhere. One could say this is in fact an example of an oxymoron.

Yes, there are things in Switzerland which are cheaper here than in the UK, please see list below (not exhaustive, I’m sure, but these are the things I’ve come across since July):

1.       Ear plugs

2.       Glasses (if you have ‘normal’ problem-eyes)

4.       Electricity

5.       Travel cards

Ear plugs:

Since university, I’ve been using ear plugs and I guess I’ve become addicted to them. As I don’t feel this is an addiction that has taken over my life, I’m not worried about any side-effects showing up in 10 years’ time. Hence I keep buying new ones on a regular basis. (Having tried various kinds, I’ve come to the conclusion that the ones that work best for me are the yellow foam ones with blunt – not round – edges.) They sell for around £3.50 (=CHF5.88) in the UK for three pairs and in Switzerland I pay around CHF2.99 for three pairs – almost half price!

Glasses:

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased three pairs of prescriptive glasses. As you can see from the pictures below, they are colour variations of the same frame. 

The colours are: Black, brown and red.

The frames were CHF19.50 each and the total per frame with a prescription of r: 3.25 and l: 2.00 was CHF111 (the eye test cost CHF20). So the total costs of my three pairs of glasses ended up being: CHF353 = GBP240. In the past when I’ve gone for the ‘buy one get (the cheapest) one free’ in Specsavers or other places, I’ve always ended up only using one of the pairs. This time around, I was determined to not let that happen and with three identical frames, I’m happy to confirm that I swap colours several times a week.

Electricity:

Having spent some time today doing calculations in order to establish how much we pay for 1 kWh here compared to the UK, we ended up with the following result (yes, we know how to have a good time!):

Switzerland: 

1 kWh: CHF0.14 = GBP0.10

UK: 

1 kWh: GBP0.20 = CHF0.30 

Even though we have a dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, electric stove as well as more gadgets than two people necessarily need, the fact that we pay 50% less per kWh means that even with the above running regularly, we don't spend more money in total per month, than we would have done in the UK without these machines.

Travel cards:

My monthly travel card, which lets me use trains, busses, trams – and even a ferry on Lake Zurich (the short route but still very picturesque) in all of Zurich as well as all the way to Zug (25 miles), where I work, costs CHF248 (GBP168). I’ve just looked at First Great Western’s website, and the monthly travel card from Moreton-in-Marsh to Oxford (30 miles), which is what I’ve been using for years, before I left the UK, is now: GBP218.50. This includes the train journey only. No ferries, no busses. But probably still lots of delays and cancellations! (I'm SO not missing the general chaos of public transport in the UK!)

I am fully aware that most things in Switzerland ARE more expensive than in the UK (or even Denmark), but the quality and taste of for example fruit and vegetables as well as the service one gets and general standard of living are much higher as well.

This doesn’t mean I don’t miss living in the UK, though. Luckily I get a daily dosage of Britishness at work as most of my colleagues are ex-pats like myself. And I've started watching Coronation Street again...

Lots of love,

Karen x

Project: Learn to Cook

Things need to change in the Rosinger-household which involves me starting to cook on a higher level than the current one. Which is pretty non-existent. I have happily been chopping an astounding selection of vegetables (incl. three different types of tomatoes), adding feta either in crumbled or cubed form and sprinkling this colourful concoction with lime for the past two weeks which is a little bit like cooking. In raw form. And without the danger of burning anything (other than when I boil an egg!). But I would like to add a little bit of 'danger' into the mix. 

Yes, it's ridiculous that I haven't moved on and into the kitchen properly, but I just seem to freeze every time I look at a recipe, count the number of ingredients, techniques, pots & pans involved, and don't get me started on the whole timing-part of cooking. I am aware of the irony of me working as an assistant where I am interrupted on a hourly basis whilst doing one thing, then being asked to do another and in the middle of that job, having someone call me with a query about something totally different that now has to take priority. I should be able to handle juggling more than three ingredients, knives, at least two hobs and an oven without going into a minor meltdown and have Paul rescue me and bring me to safety away from bobbling sauces (the wrong kind of bubbles), too generous helpings of chilli, broken pepper mills (where one part falls into the tomato sauce) by kindly (and expertly) taking over. 

So, dear audience, I kindly ask, beg even, for your help, as this situation has to change. And ideally before Stefan turns up in July. My last day in the office is Friday 21 June and I hope to feel well enough to produce dinner for Paul when he gets back from work, say, at least three times a week during that time. Thus, if you know of any simple recipes which you think might be at my level, please email them to me and I'll try them out. I'll even take pictures of the finished result as proof (well, it won't prove that I actually cooked it, you'd just have to believe me...). 

By simple I mean:

Not too many ingredients;

Not too many techniques;

Not too many pots and pans;

No fish;

Not too many things that need to be done at different times.

The recipes can be in English or Danish. 

I look forward to hearing from you!

Lots of love,

Karen x