i am huge on leftovers! Growing up i watched my mum cook for a battalion – this is always what i tell people and it is absolutely true. My mother did cook large amounts each Sunday and my aunts, uncles and cousins would all come over and eat. Of course, we didn’t have a big house, just a modest HDB (Housing Development Board for my non-Singaporean friends) 4-room flat. So when that many came over, there was no room for all to sit at the same table, at the same time to eat. Whoever came first, ate first and then made room for the next persons. And many times we would just sit wherever we wanted to eat; the kids mostly sat in front of the TV 😉
i loved it! The house was crowded and loud but i loved it. i love being around people and being around family was even better. This is one of the reasons i like having dinner guests. It is also the main reason why it was hard for me to learn to cook just for myself (when i went to university) or just for two (during the first years of my marriage).
Then near the end of the day, when people were leaving, we packed up the leftovers and everyone took their share home and most of the time we still had enough to have leftovers for ourselves as well.
As much as we all liked gathering together, kids grew up, priorities changed, cousins moved to whole other countries to live and these big gatherings also stopped happening.
BUT… my mother still cooked large amounts on Sundays (not battalion-sized though). This time it was more for convenience. My mum worked full-time – she always has and still does. Yet she maintained a lovely home and provided wonderful meals for us. And having the meals already cooked in advanced was a great help to her.
So as you can see leftovers played a big part in my childhood, teen years and even young adult days. i still like having leftovers, some foods just taste better after a night in the fridge 😉 And that’s why the article below stuck a chord with me and why i am sharing it. It has a really tasty recipe at the end of it too.
Today, 8 years ago, this little guy entered our lives and life has never been the same again; it has never been better. Now don’t get me wrong, life hasn’t been a bed of roses; parenting is never a bed of roses but it is one of the most rewarding jobs ever… you just have to wait a fair while for the rewards to show up… hehheee 😉
Wasn’t he the most adorable baby? 😀
So on Wednesday, 16th May 2012, he had a party with his friends at the Coop Restaurant in the neighbouring village. (For my not-in-Switzerland friends, Coop is one of the 2 big supermarket chains here.) Now the party costs actually included a cake – but it was a simple chocolate or fruit cake. Tobias wanted me to make the cake and this year he was happy with whatever i wanted to make. (Previous years requests can be seen here, here , here and here.)
i made Cake-in-a-cone, something i have always wanted to try. These pictures show the progress after my experiments were done.
Clockwise from top left: Box prepared, Cake baked, Cones inserted into box, Final deco elements added.Here’s the completed cake at the birthday party… i love the black and white checkered table 😉
The party started with the children (we invited 9 kids but 1 didn’t show) having to decorate their animal masks.
Left to right: the kids decorating their masks, Tobias in his finished mask and in costume… he is wearing the costume of the restaurant’s children’s mascot… Jamadu.
Then a shooting game – guess what they are shooting… the “wild animals”… just kidding… 😉
Left to right: Meet the “Wild Animals”, then the shooting the “Wild Animals” game… hehhehee… some of the kids were really quite good, they got quite near to the bulls-eye on the wall, which was their real target… 😉
Next was Spin-the-bottle with a twist; when the bottle points at you, you go get your gift for the birthday boy 🙂 i like.
Spin the bottle and Bring your gift… Presents!
After which, they got to decorate their very own little piece of carrot cake with icing and flowers and pigs and smarties. The kids went a little crazy as you can see below (and after i shot these pictures, the boys just drowned their cakes in icing!).
Decorating the carrot cake, see the overload of decorations!!
Finally it was time for the birthday song and birthday cake. My favourite shot.
The Group Shot! All of them have known each other for the last 3 years… started at Kindi together…
No, actually here is my favourite shot, taken today at home (a custom i started last year: to take a photo of the 3 of us, on the actual day of his birthday, at our dining table with a small cake).
Daddy, Son, Mummy… i love…
8 years have just flown by… i have watched him grow and learn and change, watched him take falls and pick himself up again, watched him progress through school, watched him make good friends and so much more… i wonder what the coming year for Tobias will hold…
February 11th, 2012 – we set off from our home towards the Bernese Oberland, heading for Wengen, a carless (only hotels, delivery services, taxis and residents can have cars up there) mountain resort just above the village of Lauterbrunnen. It is the home of the International Lauberhorn Ski Races – both the downhill and slalom. We have always skied and visited the opposite side of that valley, the village of Mürren, which is slightly smaller but also quieter and more importantly where we can have a nightly meal of good Chinese food :p Oh, it is also the home of the James Bond mountain, Schilthorn, where In Her Majesty’s Secret Service was filmed.
Anyhow, this year we thought we could do with a change of scenery.
The Village of Wengen, as seen on our walk into the village from our chalet
Isn’t it a pretty little village, way up high in the Swiss mountains?
Our dear friend, Andrew, joined us for the week. He flew in from Singapore just to come snowboarding with us 😉 Actually he came on a spur of moment decision last year at about the same time and liked it so much, he decided to come again this year.
Tobias was booked in for 3 half-days of ski school, unlike last year’s 5 whole days. He wanted to ski with us instead, which is great because he can ski with us now; and he’s actually faster than Mummy. So Daddy is the one who chases after him down the hill.
Here he was at the first day of ski school.
He had to be the one facing the opposite direction :p
i was a little disappointed with ski school this year. Mainly because they weren’t sure where to place kids who had never been in their classes before. OK, really not their fault because each ski school has its own system and they just didn’t want to put a student in a class where they would find it too difficult. But i think that across Switzerland, all the ski schools should have one system of grading, then there will be no confusion for the poor students and they can progress better. So he was sort of stuck on the baby slope for 2 lessons. Only at the last lesson (his last lesson, other students went on for more days) did the instructor take them up the bigger training slope. However, he enjoyed himself which is the more important thing.
Curling on the ice ring in Wengen
We took it nice and slow that first full day we were there. We just walked around the village, checking it out. There were other activities happening besides skiing. They have a fairly large area for skating and curling, a sport which i find rather amusing to watch; all those people with brooms to sweep the ice trying to slow down a large rock as they try to knock their opponent out – a little like playing with marbles, just bigger and with sliding involved 😉
The English Church in Wengen
The village itself is lovely and very picturesque – there are too many gorgeous photos to share them all here. We found an English Church tucked away at the back-end where the local school is. i wondered what the kids do during the high season for skiing – not sure if they were on holidays or not as it was a Sunday when we walked by the school. The lady we rented the chalet from actually used to live up here and her children went to the local school at that time. We also had some friends come up and visit just for that one day. The second day we had another friend come and stay for just one night. It was nice to have a bit of coming and going. Hope you guys had fun.
The chalet we rented is a quint old Swiss-style chalet, built in 1885. (i like living in a bit of history) It was not near the centre of the village but was a good 25 minute walk away, which gave us lots of peace and quiet; but getting a little boy to walk that distance after being in ski school for a whole morning, in his ski boots, was just not something i will want to do again. Here the boys were making that second last turn towards what was home for a week.
A Snowy Walk in WengenHome from 11.02.2012 to 18.02.2012
The first floor was all ours. Inside was really quite cosy. i love that lounge chair (not sure if that’s the correct word for it) in the living room. The 3 bedrooms and living room were all linked via doorways, but there were not actual doors separating each room, which i rather liked. Here’s a mosaic of the interior.
Inside the Chalet Stella
Our only complain was that the insulation wasn’t great; it is an old house. So we were freezing our little butts off those first few days as night-time temperatures dropped to below -17!
At this point, i would like to share a few things which took my fancy while we were up there:
An Elderly Couple blowing the Alphorn in the centre of the village. It was lovely and so befitting.A Sundial, on our way to the nearest ski lift, which is where the Lauberhorn Races end.Frozen Patterns on the Windows
The first 3 days we were up there, it was Siberian cold but the sky was clear blue and the sun graced us with it’s brillance. The 4th day was really a whole day of constant snowfall, visibility was limited on the slopes. We chose not to ski but still saw lots of people going up the slopes. Here’s a comparison of a clear day and a snowy day.
Snow Day / Clear Day
We headed to Mürren, with intentions of having a yummy authentic Chinese lunch. But it was not to be. They were closed for lunch that day – sigh! We settled, instead, for a very filling Swiss lunch of cheese, potatoes and sandwiches, which was very satisfying even if it was not what we were seeking. Then headed home for a relaxing late afternoon of doing nothing.
Quiet Reading Time
Here the men were settling into some reading. There was no TV in the chalet. We survived a week without TV. My little guy did well. He had his DS with him but was allowed only limited time on it. Other times he entertained himself with his books or with playing spy using the binoculars which were at the chalet. We also played card games, Uno and Monopoly Deal, every evening.
Working for their Dinners
The men also helped with some housekeeping. After the heavy snowfall, it was important to clear the steps leading up to the chalet. Otherwise, the snow would freeze and there would be a high chance of slipping, especially when walking in ski boots. Here are Hubby and Friend, clearing the steps.
February 18th, 2012 – we left Wengen. It was a whole 19 degrees warmer (from -17 to +2) than when we arrived and the snow was already becoming slush on the streets in town.
All in all, it was a great week. We skied, we walked, we enjoyed nature (Thank You God), the men snowboarded, we went sledding and we relaxed… what more can you ask of a week away? 🙂
The Swiss Mountains
Already looking forward to next year – Mummy is hoping to take more lessons so she can keep up with the Son on the slopes 😉
The 3 of us with the Jungfrau range behind us.
syc
PS: In the caption of the photo of the Sundial, i mentioned the Lauberhorn Race, we actually skied down a tiny part of that black run (for those who don’t ski – black runs are the most difficult) when we decided to try going home that way on our 5th day (on the map it said red run – middle difficulty). Very proud of us all, even though it’s just a few hundred meters of that run – all 3 of us made it down with only 1 fall each.
trippingdifferently 