Switzerland – Page 13 – trippingdifferently

October 17, 2014October 27, 2014

1st Week of Autumn Holidays…

Actually, we are nearing the end of our 3 week Autumn School Holidays. As usual, i wait till the end to consolidate what we did.

So the first few days was given over to boring stuff like housework and grocery shopping. We did have fun at our usual Squash lesson and meeting a new friend at an indoor play-park we haven’t been to in ages.

Then we hit it big time at the annual Suisse Toy Fair; it’s a huge toy fair showcasing all the new toys, gadgets and games. Well, actually… we go every year and i have been noticing that it seems to be getting smaller. But still we had fun. Tobias invited his good friend to come along with us. We arrived there an hour after they opened, at 11am. i had expected to get out of there by 4pm. That didn’t happen – we left at closing – 6pm! We had a good time so it was worth the time and money.

Top Left: T trying his hand at wood craving, Top Right: T and his friend testing new Wii games, Bottom Right: T and his friend trying out a funny boardgame, Bottom Left: Trying out a new cycle. — Top Left: T trying his hand at wood craving, Top Right: T and his friend testing new Wii games, Bottom Right: T and his friend trying out a funny board game, Bottom Left: Trying out a new cycle.

Top Left: Climbing the Ovalmatine moving rock wall, Top Right: T with his Lego creation, Bottom Right: the Loot from the toy fair, Bottom Left: The boys doing a last race before we leave. — Top Left: Climbing the Ovalmaltine moving rock wall, Top Right: T with his Lego creation, Bottom Right: the Loot from the toy fair, Bottom Left: The boys doing a last race before we leave.

The next day we joined some friends and headed out to the Juckerhof – a rather well-known pumpkin/fruit/veggie farm in the Zürich region. People go during this time of the year to see their spectacular pumpkin displays.

Top Left: 1st sight of the farm, Top Right: Lots of pumpkins everywhere!! All for sale, Bottom Right: giant butterfly made of pumpkins - you could ride on it (if they let you), Bottom Left: giant piano which plays recorded music, it's so big , my head only comes up to the keys. — Top Left: 1st sight of the farm, Top Right: Lots of pumpkins everywhere!! All for sale, Bottom Right: giant butterfly made of pumpkins – you could ride on it (if they let you), Bottom Left: giant piano which plays recorded music, it’s so big , my head only comes up to the keys.

Top Left: that's one BIG pumpkin!! They have a bigger one on their other farm, Top Right: we paid to walk thru the 3 apple mazes and you could eat the variety they indicated - which was Red Spring and they were yummy! Well worth the CHF5 and the walk, Bottom Right: we brought back yummy pumpkins and other produce, Bottom Left: in the large maze at the end of the field, we played a sort of bingo type game. We were given a sheet showing the pests & helpful insects of the field. We were to find all these board & get a stamp to indicate we found them all. It was all for a chance to win a dinner for 4 at the farm - they do serve fresh yummy food! — Top Left: that’s one BIG pumpkin!! They have a bigger one on their other farm, Top Right: we paid to walk thru the 3 apple mazes. You could eat the variety they indicated – which was Red Spring and they were yummy! Well worth the CHF 5 and the rather long walk, Bottom Right: we bought yummy pumpkins and other produce, Bottom Left: in the large maze at the end of the field, we played a sort of bingo type game. We were given a sheet showing the pests & helpful insects of the field. We were to find all these boards, get a stamp to indicate we found them all. It was all for a chance to win a dinner for 4 at the farm – they do serve fresh yummy food!

Tobias also volunteered to cook dinner one time that week – he cooked Spaghetti Bolognese. It was yum! He enjoys cooking – still a little fearful of the hot stove – but he did a good job and we tucked into a good dinner that evening. He has cooked other dinners before too… and i hope to help him learn more recipes and fall in love with cooking.

All in all it was a fun-filled week! Stay tuned for the 2nd installment.

syc

June 23, 2014

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate…

A few weeks ago, we visited the Frey Chocolate Factory with some friends and had a wonderful time.

Now we have visited a few chocolate factories already – all throughout Switzerland but this one has to be my favourite!

For me and for the boy, it was probably the most comprehensive journey through the entire chocolate production process, from the cocoa beans to yummy dark brown bars of chocolate, which we all love.

Each group of visitors was given a batch name and can enter the factory when your batch was called – ours was named Lucky 🙂 We each received a headset attached to a device which gave us a choice of languages and all we had to do to listen to the description of a particular exhibit is to point the device at the infra-red spot and push the button.

Most of the exhibits have a hands-on part. One of my favourites is this one which shows chocolate packaging design through the years, from the 1900s onwards. We could also take home a sample of the current packaging of one of their current popular chocolate.

There was also a cute giant box of chocolate where people could get in, dress up as a praline and take photos.

The kids liked the little digital game where they threw bars of chocolate via a motion detector.

And no visit to a chocolate factory would be complete without the tasting of the delicious brown stuff 😉 There was a whole conveyor belt full, along with 2 chocolate fountains where you can cover fruits with liquid brown gold – YUM!

i did not order it but there was the option get a photo of yourselves taken and printed on a chocolate bar. There was also a short quiz on a computer we could take to find out our chocolate type. We each got a computer print-out of the results and a custom chocolate recipe for our chocolate type.

Tobias got The Stylish and a Chocolate Cupcake recipe. i got The Curious Gourmet and a recipe for Fig and Chilli Chocolates 😉

There was one down side – they played this video which was screened on their big wall in the room about every 20 minutes or so and that messed up things if you were in the middle of listening to an exhibit.

Other than that, it was a great visit. i highly recommend visiting the Frey Chocolate Factory. The plus is that all their chocolates are fair-trade!

syc

June 14, 2014

Memories…

Over the last few months, there have been little things that have happened and events/places we have been to, which i want to remember and would have loved for each of these to have a blog-post each… but life took over and those posts never got written. Besides, some are really small things and others have already passed so i thought i put them all into one big photo post.

So here are some memories from our last few months:

Some time in February, Tobias decided that he would attempt to finish an entire Subway Foot-long Sandwich (a whole 30 centimeters of bread and fillings). He has tried a few times since but has not been successful. It doesn’t matter whether he did or did not finish that huge sandwich; what was important is that he tried and it was fun watching him try 😉

Sticking with the food theme, we found a new Sushi place to eat at. Now if you know have known us (in real life) for some time, you would have been told at some point that our boy is a Sushi-Monster! He LOVES Sushi!! So this is a big thing. Yooji’s serves great sushi and it’s a conveyor-belt system which my boy adores. The other attraction is the tablet ordering-system – very modern, complete with little games and internet access to entertain you while you wait for your food. The only problem is how expensive it is to eat there, especially when he can finish an average of seven plates by himself!

At the beginning of March, Tobias started going to Chinese class again. We had him in one class when he was in Kindergarten but that closed after a year or two due to a lack of students. Now his best friend and his best friend’s brother are going to one, he has decided to join them, which is fabulous. Unfortunately, it is a fair drive to get to class and now the other parents who share the driving have found another teacher much closer so it looks like we will continue with classes but with another teacher.

After the Sportsferien (Sports Holiday in February), Tobias picked up Unihockey (floor-ball) and is loving it. None of his friends play this sport but it doesn’t matter, he enjoys it and is making new friends on the team.

Daddy’s birthday should have gotten a blog post all its own BUT… we had to celebrated it belated and then life got busy. So here’s our little celebration at home with the 6-minute Chocolate Cake.

We got invited to a Swiss-American wedding! This was special because we got invited to the dinner, which is a first for us. We got to see how a Swiss wedding dinner works from beginning to end – so very different from ours. It was all about having fun – my kind of wedding! There were games and lots of laughter and conversation; it was a long long fun-filled event – we left early (close to 11pm). We really enjoyed ourselves and it was an excuse to see the lovely city of St Gallen. i’m not posting a picture of the couple because i don’t have permission and because i couldn’t get good pictures. So i’m posting a picture of the very lovely homemade table decorations – i really liked them!

So this year’s English League Premiership saw Liverpool, my husband’s beloved team, having a real shot at winning the cup. Which is the reason why Tobias and i left him with his friends in a pub one Sunday afternoon and went to a small Medieval Festival in Luzern. We enjoyed the sunshine while walking around the stalls. Tobias got to work with a blacksmith and hammered out a small horseshoe.

A highlight for Tobias in April was getting to play the Cajón during worship at church. He has been asking and asking to be allowed to play with Daddy during worship and he finally got to do it. He was thrilled so was i and i’m so proud!

Like a true Singaporean, i bring you back to the food. We (husband and i) got to eat at a small family-run Vietnamese restaurant in Liebefeld, Bern, (Pho Saigon) directly opposite the chinese grocery shop. They serve authentic Vietnamese food and we love it and will definitely be back for more.

Last but not least, we have been living in renovations since the start of May. The real-estate company which owns our quartier has decided it is time to renovate the facade of our building. So the scaffolding went up and will stay up till the middle of July. Tobias was really excited cos he could open his window and walk directly onto the scaffolding. Of course, that idea was met with much disapproval.

Yes much has happened. Looking forward to a quiet summer holiday – is that possible?

syc