-
Secrets of Scotland for Tourists – Off the Beaten Track – Part Two
All beautiful countries share this problem – you can’t see Scotland for tourists blocking the best views and roads. Find unspoilt and less traveled paths with this series of articles on the Secrets of Scotland If you are looking to go off the beaten track in Scotland, find some places that are not clogged with tourists, turn your back on Loch Ness and Edinburgh and head for the West Coast. As I posted on my blog last week, a lot of the foreign tourists seem to head from Edinburgh up to Loch Ness, then over to Skye. Some of them might journey on further North, but many don’t. The…
-
Secrets of Scotland – Off the Beaten Track – Part One
All beautiful countries share this problem – you can’t see Scotland for tourists blocking the best views and roads. Find unspoilt and less traveled paths with this series of articles on the Secrets of Scotland – the hidden parts of the country that are not on the normal bus tour itineraries. Seeing your home country through the eyes of a stranger, as a foreigner, is always interesting. I recall being surprised at some of my husband’s observations over the years. He loved the typical British pub, with carpets. It had never occurred to me that carpets were strange in pubs – but considering all that must get…
-
Store Cupboard Quick Meals
Sometimes I just cannot be bothered cooking. I have no inspiration, no initiative, null bock (as my German husband would say). When this happens, I open the cupboards and the fridge and have a Ready-Steady-Cook moment. I have learned over the years that having some basic ingredients in the house makes it possible to throw things together at the last moment. Even if we have guests, I can forage in the freezer and fridge and find something worthy of serving up. Not being organised enough to plan a menu for the week, this is my normal way of deciding what to make for dinner each evening. So I might have…
-
Happy Independence Day
Happy 4th July! Today I am doing something that I have never done before. I am hosting a 4th July party. Actually, it is the first time that I have ever attended an Independence Day party so I am not quite sure what I am letting myself in for. As a Trailing Spouse, I meet a lot of women from other countries and cultures, many of them wives or girlfriends of my husband’s colleagues. Some of us meet once a month for a night out and this month we decided to have a BBQ to celebrate Independance Day. I fear I got off to rather a bad start when I…
-
The Swiss Apartment Rules
Did you know that the Swiss have rules that restrict many activities that most of us would find totally normal? The Swiss apartment rules are particularly strict, so we’ve always been thankful that we live in the countryside with no direct neighbours. Today my husband was preparing for the big 4th July Party that we are hosting on Monday. Part of this involved a bit of garden work – we have a large linden tree in the garden, it’s yellow flowers are pretty for about 30 seconds before it sheds the flowers onto the grass. Raking the flowers and leaves takes a lot of time and effort so we bought an electric…
-
The BEST Carré d’Agneau recipe ever
Or if you are being less poncy, “Rack of Lamb”. I prefer to say Lamb Carré as it sounds more exotic, less pedestrian. And this is definitely not a pedestrian recipe. About a year ago, I was searching for a good recipe and came across this one. I know it was on a recipe website, but I have searched and searched and I cannot find it so I cooked it as I remembered it. As I was writing this blog post, I realised that I had forgotten to add the olive oil to the breadcrumb mixture, but it still worked. I think you would get a thicker crust with the…
-
Baking Disasters – Life Disasters
A comment on Twitter today (you know who you are) about Mummybloggers and I suppose bloggers in general made me stop and think. Mummybloggers are “tweeeeeee” and full of “oh, I cooked this cake today crap”. I guess she is right. We do present ourselves in a good light. Just as we sort though the holiday snaps, discarding the pics in which we look like Moby Dick, we discard projects that don’t turn out very well. Most of us bloggers have baked, cooked or made things that have been utterly shit. Or have spent a day telling readers how to be a great parent, only to run out of energy…
-
Beth – Chapter 9
The latest installment of the story of Beth, who has moved to Geneva to further her career as a lawyer. Here Beth discovers the downside of being an expat – the loneliness. For earlier chapters look here: Chapter One – The Decision Chapter Two – The Farewell Chapter Three – The Flight Chapter Four – The Apartment Chapter Five – The Company Chapter Six – The Neighbour Chapter Seven – The New Job Chapter Eight – The Loneliness Chapter Nine Beth awoke with a start, her heart pounding, her pyjamas sticking to her body. Sitting up in bed, she raised her hands to her cheeks, unsurprised to find them wet.…
-
Beth – Chapter Eight
The latest installment of the story of Beth, who has moved to Geneva to further her career as a lawyer. Here she moves into her new flat and meets her neighbour. For earlier chapters look here: Chapter One – The Decision Chapter Two – The Farewell Chapter Three – The Flight Chapter Four – The Apartment Chapter Five – The Company Chapter Six – The Neighbour Chapter Seven – The New Job Chapter Eight With a sigh of relief, Beth shut down her computer and stacked her files neatly on the corner of her desk. She had trained herself to be neat after starting work with Carnegie. Not being a…
-
Remembering Anabelle
Last year I got to “know” a blogger called Caz, a Mumsnetter whom I joined in protesting against the Eastenders cotdeath storyline. You may have forgotten the furore that followed the broadcasting of the episode where a mother discovers her son, lifeless in his cot and on the spur of the moment decides to swap her baby for a neighbour and friend’s living child. The storyline has ended, the characters have moved on but for some parents there was no happy ending. Their baby was not revealed to be alive, and living in the house of a mentally ill woman. Their baby was never coming back. For parents it is…
-
Cooking For Vegetarians
I am going to admit that I am not a great fan of vegetables. Or rather, I like veg but I love meat and a meal for me pretty much always includes some kind of meat. Less meat is more healthy, I know, but there we are. I just like meat. So when our guests arrived last week and I discovered that one of the group is veggie, I knew it was going to be a challenge. Particularly as my children are big meat eaters – or rather my son is. My daughter is more likely to eat the side order and the veg. The first evening I had to…
-
Salmon en Croûte
This was adapted from a Jamie Oliver’s recipe, in the Ministry Of Food book. I blogged recently about the E Coli outbreak in Germany, and my decision to start buying local food. Next week I shall receive my first veg box from the farmer behind the hedge. Until then, I have been going down to the village where he has a little stall with an honesty box to buy my veg. I must take a photo next time I go past, it is very sweet. Today, I bought a bag of fresh spinach, a lollo rosso salad, a massive courgette and some spring onions. The quality was very high, all…
-
Photogroup Workshop – Theme: Water
When “Water” was suggested for our photography group monthly theme, it would have been easy to head down to the lake but one of our members suggested going to Choulex near Geneva , where there is a nature reserve with a river running through it. It was an inspired suggestion. These are some of the photos that I took.
-
Cultural Faux Pas – Buffet Canadien and Himbeergeist
… or as a good friend of ours once said, “I made a right pas faux”. Sometimes life as an expat is not so rosy. Sometimes we make mistakes and look really quite silly. Moving to a new country is fraught with social danger, there are so many unwritten rules ready to trip you up. Much to the amusement of the locals. When I was invited to party with “Buffet Canadien” during our first summer in Geneva, I was curious what would be served. Canadian buffet – would it be moose sandwiches and pancakes with maple syrup? I racked my brains to think of other Canadian specialities – were…
-
Sponsors Of Mums
It is not often that a multinational company so misjudges their advertising audience as Proctor and Gamble has with their “Sponsors of Mums” campaign. Maybe it is just me, but their ad makes me want to throw things at the TV. The dog goes into hiding when she hears the advert start as she knows that I will be shouting before long. If you haven’t seen it, it is part of P&G’s Olympic advertising campaign. Info here We are informed: “For 80 years in the UK and more than 170 years around the world, Mums have been our boss at P&G. They’ve driven our product innovation and they’ve led…
-
Filets de Pêrches
If you go into a restaurant in Geneva area then there is a good chance that one of the dishes on the menu will be Filets de Pêrches – fillet of perch. After living here for sometime, a colleague of my husband remarked that it was a wonder anyone could swim in Lake Geneva, the amount of Perch that was on offer in the restaurants. He was of course alluding to the fact that the restaurants give the impression of offering fresh fish from the lake, when it is anything but. It is imported frozen from other countries. Some restaurants do sell perch from Lac Leman, as Lake Geneva is…
-
Chapter Seven – Beth Starts Work
The latest installment of the story of Beth, who has moved to Geneva to further her career as a lawyer. Here she moves into her new flat and meets her neighbour. For earlier chapters look here: Chapter One – The Decision Chapter Two – The Farewell Chapter Three – The Flight Chapter Four – The Apartment Chapter Five – The Company Chapter Six – The Neighbour Chapter Seven On her first day at the new office, Beth walked to work. It was quite the contrast to her previous commute, stuck in a stifling tube for thirty minutes with other stressed travellers. Here in Geneva she left her flat, strolled down…
-
These are The Times We Shall Dream About…
This week is MS Awareness Week and today is the funeral of my lovely friend Hilda, who died last Wednesday after battling MS for over 20 years. Who was Hilda? She was a woman, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a friend. She was loved by many. Right now her family and friends are gathering in my hometown to bury Hilda, to send her on her final journey, free of pain at last. Hilda was a friend of our family for many years. I cannot say when I first met her, I guess I was quite young at the time. We got to know each other better when…
-
Becoming a Feminist
As part of the theme #feministfriday, the blogger Translantic Blonde asked this week, “What moment triggered you to say, ‘I am a feminist'”. To be honest, I am not really sure. I guess I have always been a feminist, but had never considered myself one. A feminist – one of those hairy-legged, dungaree-wearing, elderflower-wine-drinking, hemp-clothed women? That wasn’t me. Sure, I went through a gentle rebellious protest stage in my teens, but I didn’t go on protest marches, I had no strong opinion on feminist topics or politics (although I was always interested in politics in general). When I moved to Germany, “Feminism” was not something that I was interested…
-
Parlez vous Français?
Un peu… …is generally my answer to that question. I should speak more than just a little, and if I am honest I do. But it frustrates me that over two years after arriving in Geneva, I am far from fluent. My children are trilingual – English, French, German and are handy as translators occasionally but I don’t always have them with me. It frustrates me that my French is so bad. I have noticed in recent weeks that people seem to think that I understand more than I do – possibly because I smile and nod a lot, and because I get the gist of the conversation so can…
-
Life as a Feminist Trailing Spouse
The term “Trailing Spouse” may not be one that you are familiar with, unless you are a fellow expat wife. It is used to refer to the partners of those who move abroad for work. In most cases, we are women, although there are some men out there. I first heard of the term when we were planning our move to Geneva. An email from a colleague of my husband referred to his Trailing Spouse; you can imagine my reaction. When I told a friend about this, she asked if I were planning to wear Laura Ashley dresses and waft about, chiffon scarves floating in my wake. Or perhaps become…
-
Quick Homemade Pizza
Living in a small village has advantages and disadvantages and one of the down sides is the lack of take-out. We do have a pizzeria in the next village, but by the time we drive over there, wait for the pizza to be made (as we can never remember where we put their telephone number) and drive home, I can make pizza. And most of the time (to blow my own trumpet for a moment) it tastes better. The recipe is one that I use for making white bread – from Mumsnet recipe pages. I can make a large family pizza and still have enough dough left to make a…
-
Spring Alpine Pass Tour
One of the great things about living in Geneva is the short distance to the Alps. Even before we bought our 1973 MGB Roadster last year, we loved driving the windy Alpine pass roads, through Switzerland, France and on to Italy. In the past years we have ticked off the Simplon Pass (through the village of Gondo), the Majolapass to St Moritz, Col d’Iseran and Col du Mt Cenis. Last week my mother came to stay, and my husband and I headed for the hills in the MGB, leaving Granny to have fun with the kids at home. We had planned a route but at the last minute changed plans,…
-
Schools in Geneva
One of the most important issues when expats move to a new country is schooling. You can out up with a less than stunning kitchen (and you often have to here) or a slightly boring social life but if your children are unhappy in school then the assignment will be a short one. Or of course if you are unhappy with the school. When we moved to Geneva we faced the decision – local schools or international/bilingual schools. Cost was not a factor, as my husband’s company would pay for private schooling for the duration of our stay in Switzerland. Our children were still quite young, just 4 years and…
-
When your child gets lost…
It is one of those moments when time stays still. You look up from what you are doing and notice that your child is not there. He was there just a minute ago, you look around wondering where he is. He cannot be far. Maybe he is a bolter, an escapologist and you are used to this. Maybe this is the first time that he has done this. Either way, your heart starts beating faster as you search for his familiar face. You try to remember what he was wearing – was it the red or the blue tshirt? How can you not recall this? Shouting his name you start…
-
There IS no place like home…
… it is not just a cliche. We spent a week with my in-laws in Germany (more blog posts to follow with tips and recommendations for holidaying in Bavaria) but are so glad to be back home in Switzerland. Not only because the weather is better here, but being able to relax in the garden and enjoy the peace and quiet is wonderful. The in-laws have a city apartment with a balcony, but city life is busier than village life. And I never thought that I would ever say this, but I prefer it. I am a city gal, born and bred in the outskirts of Dundee, lived for almost…
-
Chapter Six – Beth Meets Her Neighbour
The latest installment of the story of Beth, who has moved to Geneva to further her career as a lawyer. Here she moves into her new flat and meets her neighbour. For earlier chapters look here:Chapter One – The DecisionChapter Two – The FarewellChapter Three – The FlightChapter Four – The ApartmentChapter Five – The Company The main character was called Dora in earlier chapters. Due to popular demand her name has been changed to Beth. I will go back and change the earlier chapters tomorrow. Chapter Six At 6 am the following morning, Beth was awake and dressed ready for a quick breakfast before going to open the apartment for the arrival of the…
-
Do the children of writers have a right to privacy?
This morning on Twitter, the writer Jenny Colgan linked to this story in the Daily Mail. Supposedly an article on how even young girls suffer from self-doubt and trying to live up to an unreachable beauty ideal, the author tells of finding her six year old daughter’s diary and reading it. She finds to her horror that the diary is full of self-critical observations. She admits that it is wrong to read her daughter’s diary, completely missing the much larger betrayal of writing about her daughter’s intimate feelings and fears, then publishing it in a nationwide newspaper. Great way to boost your daughter’s self-esteem – write it up for all…
-
In which Dora becomes Beth in Chapter Five
I have taken onboard the comments about the name “Dora” being, for women with young children, synonymous with the slightly annoying bilingual girl with the monkey sidekick. So, without further ado, changed her name to Beth – with thanks to my Twitter friends for their suggestions. Read Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter 4 Chapter Five There was no way to put this off any longer. Beth had to go into the office. She walked into the office building, a modern glass structure near the centre of town, and gave her name to the chic receptionist at the marble topped desk. Waiting while the woman contacted Beth’s office, she turned and looked…
-
Happy Mothers Day – An Expat’s View
It is, I think, the 20th Mothers Day that I have spent apart from my mother. Although she may well post a comment saying, “What about that time XX years ago when you happened to be in Scotland?”, and if she does, then I stand corrected. Life as an expat is great but there are times that we miss out. We expats miss celebrations such as birthdays, weddings, christenings and anniversaries but also on the chance to say goodbye when a loved one far away departs from this life. The friends and family are far from us, but only in actual kilometers. Not from our thoughts. So today, I am…
