May Plan

Um, hello.

So, I haven't written in a while. Four months and 23 days to be exact, but who's counting? The longer time went without posting, the more I had to say, the longer the writing got, the more insurmountable the idea of posting became.

How to fix this? I've set myself a goal to post every day in May. Something. Anything. Recaps of the past few months, videos that make me smile, the going-ons in my life, and perhaps about a few of my other May goals. Fair warning, BC has an election on the 9th so there may be a political rant or two depending on what happens in that.

For now, I'll just post a video that always makes me happy.

(The two Swiss farmers are Sebi and Paul, and there's a whole series of ads featuring them.)

After a March filled with reminders and conversations about Switzerland, I started April by joining some Swiss friends (now residing in Victoria) for cheese fondue. Let's guess who has been feeling homesick for one of her homes-away-from-home since then. Perhaps being wistfully nostalgic about die Schweiz (or di Schwiiz in Swiss-German) will be one of May's posts.

New Year! Same Old Me!

Well, folks. We did it. We survived 2016. And given the year it was, that was no small feat!

Before we leave 2016 behind forever, I encourage you to check out Col. Chris Hadfield's Facebook post of good things that happened this past year.

We good to move on to 2017? We are? Good.

I haven't made any resolutions per se this year, but I do have a few items or habits that I'm working on. (But without set goals attached, so I hesitate to call them resolutions. If that makes sense.)

I want to get better about saving money. To do this, I'm using the budget sheet that Liz (One Twenty Five) created. It's not that I'm bad with money, but I'd like to grow my savings. I've been slowly chipping away at it quicker than I'm putting money into it. I'm not a banker, but I'm pretty sure that's not how saving works. I'm hopeful that at the very least this will get me into a better habit of thinking about what I'm buying before I plunk down my cash.

I'm still working on my Swahili. My future plans include more return trips to Tanzania, so this will be on my list for the foreseeable future. I also have visitors coming from Switzerland this summer. If there is anything their last visit taught me, it's that my command of the German language has dropped considerably. I would really like to get through a sentence without pausing to think of the next word. With multiple languages in the plan for this year, I used Lindsay Does Languages Yearly and Monthly Planner. (She's a great resource for tips and tricks to help you learn a language if that's in your plans for 2017.) I'm also participating in the Instagram Language Challenge over on Instagram if you want to hear me speak Swahili. (If you are learning a language and want to participate, check out Lindsay's Instagram for the January prompt.)

Comic by Itchy Feet, a great language and travel comic.
Also, I can't tell you how many times I'd default to
German words when trying to speak Swahili.

In case you missed it above, I HAVE SWISS VISITORS THIS SUMMER!! YAY!

The best surrogate parents you could ask for when you follow a boy to Switzerland.

I also started bullet journaling again. I kept a bullet journal for the first couple of months of 2016 and found it a great help in making sure I actually crossed items off my to-do list every day, but I misplaced the journal in August. With the trip et al, I just never got around to starting another one. Some people have very fancy journals, but I stick to the basics. Who has time to artfully decorate each page and colour-code the washi tape and stickers? Definitely not me! (To see examples of what I'm talking about, click here.) I follow the style in the video below. If you're interested in giving a bullet journal a try, it's a good place to start.

On that note, I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful 2017!

Social Weekends

Last time I wrote, I was counting down the hours until I left for a camping and wedding weekend on the Cowichan River. The location was beautiful, the group campsite was beautifully set up, and it pissed with rain the entire time.

The roof of my tent and a very wet fly on the first morning.

Okay, maybe not the entire time, but a good 80% of the time.

To give you an idea of how much it rained, we received more rain in 4 days than we did in the 4 months proceeding them. The Lower Mainland more than doubled the amount. Along with all this rain? A wind storm. In a year of recording breaking heat, drought conditions, and double the amount of forest fires, my friend picked the one weekend the weather was shite.

We needed to warm up during the ceremony so we made coffee.
This was encouraged by the wedding couple.

At least the Friday we arrived was sunny and hot. Some of the party even got in some swimming. I did not because that morning I tried to break some cement stairs with my back. FYI: the stairs won. It made for a slightly painful weekend with limited movement but I wasn't missing the wedding!

Down at the river.

To top off the rain and the wind, on the day of the wedding, the Malahat was closed due to an accident which left those who hadn't come up on the Friday scrambling to make it up. If you don't know Vancouver Island, the quickest way 'up Island' - to go north - is over the Malahat. There is also a ferry crossing which is a) never on time, b) always late, and c) notoriously unable to keep to schedule, or the 4 hour drive west to Port Alberni and then loop back east. People who needed to make it over the Malahat included friends, family, and the caterer. Eek!

The mantra for the weekend became "this will all make a great story." And how many brides have a photo of their wedding dress hanging in a tent?

I selflessly agreed to bring the giant six man tent instead of the
cozy two man tent so it could double as the dressing room.
Selflessly.

After the wedding weekend, I met up with my friends who were visiting from Switzerland. It was a wonderful reminder of how awful my German has become. Obviously, I need to make an extended trip back to Germany, Switzerland and/or Austria to practice and improve. On the upside, this was the view from our table.

This isn't even the 'good' view to the Olympic Mts. That was taken by a private party!

The following weekend, my younger brother and I met up at the Irish Times to watch the Liverpool vs Man Utd game. I grew up watching English Premier League soccer but no one in my immediate family had any real loyalty to a specific team. Then B returned from living in Ireland after high school (family tradition) and he was a die-hard Liverpool supporter. By default, the rest of us have kind of become converts.

Walking in, I found a solid wall of red Liverpool shirts. Apparently I had found the unofficial Liverpool supporters club in Victoria.  No matter where you go, you'll will never walk alone. It was a fun way to watch a game that didn't exactly go in our favour.

TSN! Hire me for more of this great insight!

Today, I got up at Ass O'clock to watch Ireland play Canada in the Rugby World Cup. I headed over to my dad's, fried up the healthiest version of an Irish fry you will ever see - scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato - and sat down to watch the game.

Yeah. I don't want to talk about it.

At least my dad was happy.

(I expected Ireland to win but I was hoping for a bit more a fight from Canada. If they had played in the 1st period like they did in the 2nd...)

In Case You Don't Own A Calendar, It's Fall!

You know those periods in your life where you think you are the busiest you could ever possibly be then life is all like "ha ha, nope!" and suddenly you're even busier? Yeah, I really wish it would stop doing that. My whole we're-into-the-home-stretch-things-should-be-calmer statement was way off the mark.

But in the midst of all the craziness which sees me working 9.5 hour days and taking work home, I've discovered exactly how much I love my job. While I could do with a return my regular hours of work with no take-home items so I could have a life outside the office, I wouldn't change anything else. So, you know, silver lining and all that jazz.

Downside? What was supposed to be last week's Trivia Tuesday is still sitting on my hard drive only partially finished so instead, you're getting a recipe.

I may have posted a recipe just so I could use this gif

This recipe is for Schnitz und Drunder, which is just a really fancy way of saying "best Fall food ever!". It's a potato, bacon, apple and pear stew-type-thing which is just as fantastic as it sounds. Every Fall, when everyone else is tripping over themselves to get Pumpkin Spice Lattes, I'm planning entire weekends around being able to cook Schnitz und Drunder.

Schnitz und Drunder is a Swiss dish. Traditionally, this dish is made with dried apples and pears but I have recipes which call for both dried and fresh. I use fresh apples and pears because I'm lazy and most of the dried recipes tell you to re-hydrate the dried fruit the night before they're easier to find in grocery stores. Stop judging me.

Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp butter

- 1 onion, chopped

- 1 pear, peeled, cored and sliced

- 1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced

- 1 tbsp sugar (optional)

- 1 lb potatoes, peeled and chopped (doesn't have to be pretty)

- 10 oz piece of double-smoked bacon or ham, chopped into chunks

- salt and pepper to taste

- 2 tbsp cream

Serves:

4 - 6 according to all the recipes I've ever seen. I think that's generous. I've found 3 - 4 is a better estimate.

Instructions:

In a large pot, melt the butter. Soften the onion but don't let it brown. (If you have a really fatty cut of bacon, you can put it in first and use that to soften the onions instead of butter.)

I threw in the ham early because I wasn't paying attention.
LET THIS BE A LESSON, KIDS!

Add in the apple, pear, sugar (if using), the potatoes and enough water to just about cover them.

Toss in the bacon or ham (if you haven't already done so). Salt and pepper to taste, then let the pot simmer uncovered until the water is almost completely evaporated (roughly 30 mins).

It's around this point that I start hopping around yelling "WHY AREN'T YOU DONE YET?"
My apartment smells delicious and I get impatient.

Stir in the cream and serve.

Look at this fantastic meal!

Okay, so it doesn't exactly photograph well because it's essentially a stew, but trust me when I say that it tastes fantastic. 

If I had to sum up fall in one meal, this would be it.

En Guete!

(Beautiful Swiss German for 'Bon Appetit!)

Happy Am 1. August!

Fifteen years ago, I went to Switzerland as an after-thought while backpacking around Europe. I had no intention of visiting the country because everyone I talked to mentioned how expensive it was and how unfriendly the people were. It was only when I was reminded of a family friend I could stay with in St. Gallen that I added it as a possible destination on my European backpacking trip, but it still took meeting another Swiss person who invited me to visit his part of the country to convince me to actually go to Switzerland.

A rainy evening in St. Gallen

It was, in no uncertain terms, my favourite country of the whole trip and I wish I had allotted more time for it, but I had a time commitment to keep in Ireland so I had to move on. Yes, it was the expensive place that everyone told me it would be (especially coming from Italy), but they were also the most helpful people I met during my entire journey.

The vineyard of a family friend, near Basel. Their first harvest will be this Fall.
Obviously, I need to go back to Switzerland so I can try some of their wine!

I had spent most of my childhood longing to learn German and travel to Germany because my mom's family comes from there and I knew so little about the country compared to Ireland. (My dad's an immigrant whereas my mom's family came over a couple of generations ago.) But this desire was almost completely undone by six days in Switzerland. I had loved travelling in Germany, I had even fallen in love with Austria, and wished I could have spent more time in both countries, but Switzerland? Switzerland stole my heart.

Town Square, Thun

When I looked into University programs I could attend in Germany (yay EU passport!), I had the option of a university pretty much next door to where my mom's family comes from or one that was 40 mins from the border with Switzerland.  I went with the proximity to Switzerland. (In fairness, it was also a proximity to my Swiss boyfriend so that decision wasn't just about Switzerland.)

View from the ferry looking towards Merligen, Lake of Thun

I've had the opportunity to return to Switzerland a few times over the years and every time, my love for it grows a little more. If only I could get a job which could afford me the pleasure of living there. (Remember, ridiculously expensive!) So, it really should be no surprise that when the Swiss National holiday of August 1st rolls around, I do something to mark the occasion. (This year, I made a loaf of züpfe and brought it into work.)

Near Fluelen, Lake Lucerne (or Luzern, if you're me)

I could wax poetic about my love of Switzerland for hours - hell, if you've ever spent time with me and made the mistake of asking about Switzerland, I have waxed poetic about it for hours. And I'm not sorry that I did - and I wanted to share some of my love for it with all three of you on this Swiss holiday.

Sunset from my friend's apartment rooftop, Zurich.

Lieb' Schwiiz!

Making Plans

Welcome to the future! Isn't it glorious?!?

I'm a little sad that the future doesn't actually look like this,

I had a rousing evening of staying home and watching movies. It seemed that all my options for the night involved large crowds and loud noises, and I just wasn't feeling it. So after a viewing of Dinner for One (it's tradition), I snuggled in with my kitties and a couple of movies: The Social Network and Michael Collins. I'd never seen The Social Network which seemed odd given the amount of time I spend on Facebook. I saw Michael Collins on a date 17 years ago - yes, I'm that old - but a recent discussion about it prompted the repeat viewing. While it's a decent enough movie (historically accurate bio-pics are hard to get right), a better option to learn and understand that time in Irish history is The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Great film. Check it out.

At any rate, I'm just going to assume everyone had a more exciting evening than I did. On to the 2014 resolutions!

1. Go to kickboxing/bootcamp at least 11 times a month.

In an ideal world, I'd be making a commitment of going to every class, every week (that's four classes a week) but this is not an ideal world. Attending class is a huge time commitment as I go straight from work and don't get home until 7:30 or 8:00pm. Some weeks, doing that four nights in a row is just not going to be feasible. So while I want to aim for attending every class, my minimum is going to be 11. And maybe, for added incentive, I should say something silly like "if I don't make the 11 classes, I will do [insert number] burpees".

 Because if there is one thing that will make sure I get my ass to class at least 11 times a month, it's the threat of more burpees than I'd get in class.

2. Run two 10Ks

I will be running the TC10K in April because that's what you do when you live in Victoria and like to pretend you're a runner... or you're high on running endorphins and you agree with some Twitter friends that it sounds like a great idea to form a team. Same thing, really. But I want to aim to run another one in the Fall, something to keep me going once the TC is finished. If I get really hardcore, I'll do the Gunnar Shaw but I don't know if I'm ready for that level of trail race in the cold.

And just to be very clear, when I say 'run a 10K' I mean 'jog a 10K with plenty of walking breaks'. Let's not fool anyone here with thoughts of speedy races.

This totally counts as running, right?

3. Start the process of becoming certified in Instructional Design.

I'm a technical writer. To move forward in my field, Instructional Design is where it is at. Don't worry, I don't expect you to understand any of that. The plan is to enroll in a few classes, probably starting in September because they're through schools that start in September. Someone should probably remind me of this in June.

4. Improve my German.

A few years ago, I gave myself an ultimatum: either that was going to be the year that I worked on my German or I would drop it and just accept that das Schiff had sailed. I did nothing that year and so I let my half-hearted attempts to improve my German stop. 

Then I went back to Germany and Switzerland this past year and had to use my rusty German. Surprisingly, my German was much better than I anticipated and I gained a lot of confidence in my ability to use it. Not surprisingly, it reignited the desire to improve my German. I've been working on it casually for the past few months and I'm going to continue doing so in 2014. I'm still trying to determine how I plan to 'measure' my improvement. Hmm, a Christmas trip to Germany/Switzerland where I speak only German for the entire two weeks? Anyone want to fund that?

And that, my friends, concludes my resolutions for 2014. Nothing crazy, but building on what I've already started.

Wish me luck!

Question: How about you? Any resolutions? Or are you not a resolution person?