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Theory of Swiss Cooking: 6 Ingredients Is All You Need

25 Jan

This Christmas my family and I developed a new theory on Swiss cooking. All Swiss traditional dished are various permutations of 6 key ingredients.

  • Bread
  • Potatoes
  • Cheese
  • Onions
  • Bacon
  • Sausage

From this list you can make Roesti, Fondue, Raclette, Bouillon soup, bratwurst, geschwellte kartoffeln and the list could go on.   I think this will turn into my new barometer of Swiss restaurants.  If there menu consists of only items from my list it gets a top rating.  I can think of one restaurant in Baden that fits that bill.  All of a sudden I feel like I need to make a reservation at the Resturant Arcade.

 
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Miniature Swiss Trains

22 Jan

 

gottardo nord from fb1 visuals on Vimeo.

I was surfing around the internet and found this neat video down with a tilt shift lens feature Swiss trains. It is a cool little clip. Enjoy.

 
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Capturing Her First Moments

22 Jan

My daughter is now 3 months old.  During the first months I didn’t take as many photos of her as I would have thought. Things have finally settled down a bit, we have a routine, and I am finding some time for the things I used to do before the arrival of the little one.

While my daughter was in a good mood this morning I setup my lights in the living room for a portrait.  The challenge is of course getting a 3 month old to put a smile on her face long enough for Daddy to snap a picture all while looking in the direction of the camera.  It kind of feels like winning the lotto some how.

The trick of course is to introduce a stuffed animal.  My animal, in a small nod of the hat to the SVP is of course a black sheep.  I got my photograph, a beautiful smiling happy child holding a black sheep about half as big as her.  She may never be Swiss, but she will always be mine and that seems reason enough to love her with all my heart.

 
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Posted in Photography

 

Winter Photos

20 Jan

Still going through some photographs from our trip to Oberwald in the first week of January.  I love fresh snow and small streams.  Put them together and you have the makings for really nice photographs.  Unfortunately it was still snowing when I crossed this stream.  This means it isn’t quite as sharp as I would like, but it still captures the moment.

 
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Swiss German: Töggeli Kasten

15 Jan

Töggeli Kasten

 

Swiss German: Töggeli Kasten
High German: Tischfussball
English: table soccer

 
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Posted in Language

 

Friend Gets Song in Kinder Bueno Commercial

14 Jan

I got an e-mail today from a long time friend that works on in L.A. as a music composer and producer.  He does a lot of music for radio and television.  He was writing me because he just got a royalty check for a Kinder Bueno Commercial that is running in Switzerland.  Of course knowing I am here he dropped me a line to ask me if I had seen it.  I hadn’t seen it yet but kudos to him for his global work.

I actually have the track in the commercial in my iTunes library.  I like to keep up with his music and he sends me tracks now and again when he has new stuff.  I’ve included the commercial from youtube.

 

 
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First Christmas Away From Hom

28 Dec

New Years 5km Candle Lit Nordic Walking Event

 

Christmas this year was a totally new experience for me and my family this year.  It marked the first year in my life that I spent the holiday away from home.  Since our little baby was so small this year we made the difficult decision to stay in Switzerland.  We did have family join us in Switzerland for the holiday so we weren’t alone, but it was very different.  Some old traditions were put aside.  Others we tried to replicate here as best we could in this new setting.

I don’t think having Christmas outside of the U.S. will be a permanent change, it feels like only a temporary arrangement.

Due to the fact that were were here we did get to do some local things that we wouldn’t normally have a chance to do. We bought our Christmas tree in the plaza under our apartment as opposed to the Jumbo home improvement store.  Usually we don’t have that option because the vendors start selling trees in the city a little late for out tastes.  We did get to keep one long standing tradition which was eating fondue on Christmas Eve.  And I have to say I think it was better in Switzerland for obvious reasons.

We also participated in the new years nordic walking evening on Baldegg.  The event was a 5km candle lit trail followed by a pasta dinner.  Most of the hike was in the pitch black forest with the trail lit by some 1000 candles according to my calculations.  It took a good 15 minutes to get used to walking in the complete darkness as the candles just didn’t have the power needed to illuminate much of the trail at all.  My sister-in-law described it like stumbling 5km for the bathroom in the middle of the night.  A perfect description.

Our family will be here for another 2 weeks or so.  That is beautiful in a sense that we will have 3 extra babysitters around, and that they will have a chance to spend so much time with the newest member of the family.

 

 
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Posted in Daily Life

 

Amazingly Fast US Passport Renewal

14 Dec

I noticed my passport was going to expire in about 6 month time at the end of November.  Around the same time I was looking into getting a passport for my daughter.  Having looked into the process for renewal by mail on the US Embassy Citizen Services page I learned that I could renew my own passport by mail and the process would take around 25 working days.  I should of course plan for possible delays during heavy travel periods.

Seeing as the description also mentioned that once my old passport was in Bern it would have to be sent to the U.S. for processing I was not optimistic.  But having planned to stay in Switzerland for Christmas this year it sounded like a perfect time to renew.

After a day of running around an collecting my photos and paperwork to be mailed I put everything in th epost on December 2nd and didn’t expect o hear a word until early January.  You can imagine my suprise then when I got a letter that included my new passport on the 10th of December.  Finally the first time ever that a government agency has done something quick and efficient.  Kudos to the people in Bern for getting this done so fast.

Hopefully I will have the same experience in getting my daughters passport.

 
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Posted in Travel

 

Clouds Over Baden adn 64 bit Operating Systems

08 Dec

 

I haven’t had too much time for myself lately.  Or at least if feels that way since I haven’t had a lot of time to work on my photography.  I did finally get one small pet project of mine completed recently.  That being a rebuild of my computer and an upgrade to an 64 bit operating system.  Normally I am not one for lots of hardcore system reinstallation type work.  But I finally bit the bullet.  One of the prime motivators was the fact that I was trying to do some things in photoshop that my current operating system would just not handle.

So now I have a 64 bit operating system, and 64 bit versions of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop running.  Now I’ll just need so see if I can get that extra 10% of improved performance out of the new setup.

As a first test run I processed a photo I took of the clock tower across the street this fall.  All my programs seem to be working well. It will be time to get back into the swing of things once I can get the little one down to sleep.

 
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Starbucks In Baden

29 Nov

Yes in fact hell has finally froze over and Baden now has a Starbucks.  The shop opened in the middle of November and is located in the train station building right on track one. There was some press for the opening, a small article in the local Baden newspaper, but besides that it has been quiet.

I was disappointed in the layout from what I say.  I guess I am used to these vast, expansive North American Starbucks shops where there are loads of comfy chairs where you can sit, enjoy a cup of joe, and maybe surf around on you mobile device thanks to free wifi.  What we have in Baden is yes indeed a Starbucks branded store, but the scale of the place is very European.

By that I mean I probably could have counted all the tables on my 10 fingers.  They do have some additional outdoor seating, but that is a bit useless at this time of year.  I just don’t image myself going to hang out for an hour or two in the Baden Starbucks, it’s just a bit small for my liking.

That said I did see a sign advertising some tasty looking holiday hot chocolate drinks.  Even if I don’t feel like hanging around the shop I think I’m still going to have to stop in for a hot chocolate to go and a little taste of home.

 

 
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