kitschenette - life in the swiss lane

Freitag, by night

By night, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

My friends Ian and Leanne came to Zurich yesterday and had a great day shopping, lunching and browsing around the city. I had such a nice time. They went home before dinner, but Bruno and I had dinner with the lovely Manuela at Restaurant Rosso (hence the nighttime pic of the Freitag tower, as the restaurant is just next door).

8:06am

8:06am, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

Surprise snow, out my window this morning.

Plaits, Sunday morning

Plaits, Sunday morning, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

Perusing her fairy cookbook for her latest baking extravaganza.

We had the laziest of lazy days today, after a late night at the neighbours.
Sometimes it is just so, so good to do nothing!

Laser eyes

Laser eyes, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

I think I had some plastic glasses with a similar effect way back in the 80's.

Gold headband courtesy of dear-departed Ms. Fabelhaft.

On Saturday we had Bruno's relatives over for a Christmas lunch thing. It was nice to see them - most of them live in Luzern or near Bern so we don't see too much of them. Saturday also happened to be Samichlaus (Santa Claus) day - the day when Samichlaus visits and brings gifts of nuts, clementines and chocolates, that is, if you've been a good boy/girl! Traditionally Samichlaus would come along with his (politically incorrect) friend Schmutzli ('schmutz' meaning dirt - usually this was a person covered in soot). If the kiddies were bad they were stuffed unceremoniously in Schmutzli's sack and dragged off to....who knows. Anyway, just the thought of Schmutzli is usually enough to scare the kids into submission! In the Christmas parades in each town (dorf) Samichlaus still comes along with Schmutzli, and lots of big cow bells and drums, when night has fallen. In fact, there are lots of families who hire a samichlaus on 6th December and get him to come and speak to the kids and mention a few personal things about their behaviour that they can work on (the parents give the samichlaus notes before he comes in). There is even an association which organises the hiring of Samichlauses on the 6th, as obviously they are in demand on this particular evening!

Detail

Detail, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

Working at home this morning.

This dictionary/thesaurus has been with me since (unbelievably) high school. i remember a friend of my mum's bought it for me. I used it all through high school, university and beyond.

It's looking a little the worse for wear now, taped together with duct tape and the spine cracked, the edges of the pages yellowed with age. In between some of the pages I sometimes find a stray hair or two, crumb of food, coffee stain, or other assorted marks of love.
How many hours have I spent poring over this book?! Too many spent in the early hours of the morning in a panic, that's for sure.