Cam Whore

15 December...

some photos from our life in Morges..

Some warnings:
~ It contains a lot of pictures of mountain, lake, inanimate objects, trees and duck
~ Camera hates us. It makes us look fat although we are really 5 kg lighter than we look
~ Most photo have been digitally enhanced (another excuse why jem "thinks" he needs a new camera lens...) "It is all about the camera, not the photographer. Let's drink some wine"

X'mas in Morges

Coffee, tea or cheese?

25 Christmas - SUNNY!

We start the day with great anticipation of opening presents... yes, call us shallow and materialistic and what have you not...

This is what Jem got for me!

~ A table top grill with raclette! So guess what Jem will be having for dinner tonight?!?!

~ Raclette is a kind of chesse and also refers to a dish using this cheese. Raclette originates from Swiss (Valais) and very popular during winter. Heat up sliced raclette cheese till it is soft and then mixed it with boiled potatoes, other vegetables, charcuterie, and perhaps seafood. Raclette party is very popular in this part of the world - shame I don't like cheese :)


This is what I got for Jem!


~ A single served, capsule system, coffee machine - the Nescafe Dolce Gusto Circolo

~ It looks uber cool (kinda like a spaceship invading earth, one kitchen at a time), 1 coffee capsule cost SGD 0.50 and readily available in supermarket, makes great cappucino, chococino, mocha, expresso, long black and latte machiato...

~ This beats nespresso ANYTIME!


~ All the lovely capsules...



~ Demonstration of the machine in Italian...

We are gonna get high on coffee and cheese tonight..

All we want for Christmas is - PRESENTS!

24 December - CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas is one of our favourite holiday every year. For me - mainly due to presents. I am honest.... I get extremely excited when I buy someone a fantastic gift or when I received one.

Yes, I know Christmas is the time to cherish your loved ones, make peace with the past, spending time with family & friends etc etc but like most people I know, Jeremy and I spend time a lot of time with our family (before we move to S'land). We have dinner, talk on the phone, chat on msn, web cam chat etc so Christmas is like any other day.

The 2 things that sets Christmas apart from other "normal" days are the FOOD we eat and the PRESENTS! Jem and I decided that we will be opening our stash of presents tomorrow!


My present to Jem are wrap.. his to me are in plastic bags with scotch tape! The Olive Green present came all the way from Singapore!


We decided on a somewhat more traditional dinner tonight... as ALL the shops will be closed tomorrow, today was a major grocery day for us :)



Oooh la la....



Rocket Leaves salad with Mango and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing



"just-right" heated Escargot with sinful herb butter



Heavenly pieces of Ham top with Lingonberry and Brown Sauce and Pâté en Croûte


We had a nice quiet Christmas eve dinner.. each lost in thoughts wondering... What are in those nicely wrapped up boxes?!?!

The mighty has fallen...... ill

Jem is ill........ he has fever and the flu... he has been going to bed at 9.30pm yesterday night and tonight...


Photo taken @ 9.35pm

Despite being ill... he is very determined to go IKEA tomorrow to get his WINE! "It will kill all the virus"... er yah.... sure.

Wanton mee....

21 December

Because we were sooo desperate for wanton noodles, I decided to try.. After all, how bad can it be?

I made the wantons on Sunday and have them refrigerated and deep fried them today..


BEFORE


AFTER

Result: YUMMY!

My mother-in-law send me the recipe for charsiew (she can sense my desperation) and I was ask to buy "kum sum yok" or pork with fats and to avoid pork fillet. Now I have NOOOOOOOOO idea how to say that in french. So I just pointed my finger at some random cut of pork..


Roasting in the oven...


All sliced up!

Result: Not bad at all.. but nothing beats the char siew back home

Noodles - I bought some chinese egg noodles from Ly Thanh and after boiling in hot water, dump in cold water and boil again.. the texture was good. Added oyster sauce, sesame oil, soya sauce, dark sauce and mix it all up.... and ta dah.........!



THE NOODLES WERE AWFUL!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha... I would happily take pointers from anyone since I have 2 more coils of noodles!

Happy Toes

21 December - Wet and cold

The best advice I have ever received from a friend is this:

"It is all about the layering (of clothes) and make sure it (shoes) has Goretex"

Goretex? What the hell is that? It sounds like a crossover between a Porn Movie and Friday the 13th. Amy can almost qualify as the smartest friend I have sans a PhD and that is exactly what I did before coming over to Switzerland.

So I ask Jem and since he is the guru all of things material (or so he claims)... he went all smarty pants at me..

"Of course I know what is Goretex... I have vast knowledge, you know. Goretex is expanded polytetrafluoroethylenethylenetylenethylenethylene * blah * blah * blah *"

After googling (I am self proclaimed Queen of Google), Goretex is the most amazing material every created! It is breathable, waterproof and windproof! You cannot imagine how important all those elements are in the winter.

So off I went in search of good walking shoes with Goretex and VOILA! TIMBERLAND has them... So time to ring up another friend who can get me AMAZING AMAZING discount and bought 2 pairs (1 for me and 1 for Mr Smarty Pants)!

We have trekked through snow piles, slippery & dirty icy slush along the road in chilly wind and we are so happy that our toes stay nice, warm and cosy :)




Happy Toes = Happy People

All we do is eat

19 & 20 December - snowing.. majorly...

Tami (in her pitchy voice): "Oh my god! You are sooo auntie already!"

Yes, I admit I am getting very auntie-ish. My life consist of work (which takes up 1/2 a day), cook, eat, clean and sleep. So as I was web-caming with my sis on Friday evening, I had to start cooking whilst talking and that was when she made the remark... so I am dedicating this post to what Jem and I have been eating the last 2 days...

Saturday...

we bought this frozen escargot from Coop and it was not bad. Not as succulent as the ones you find at a restaurant but I suspect we didn't heat this up enough.


Jem grilled the steak and I made the mushroom sauce.. being the meat eater we are, our plates were licked clean!


Sunday....

We had Mee Siam and Gyoza for lunch followed by Ham, mushroom raviolis and salad for dinner.


Thanks to Prima Taste, this Mee Siam is truly one of my favourite! As I can't find taupok here, I had to do without it. I also decided to spend CHF 1.95 (or freaking SGD 2.50 on 150g of taugeh)


This salad is made up of Rucola leaves, ham cubes and pear with Balsamic Vinegar dressing from Movenpick (who also made yummy ice creams!)


We had Mushroom Raviolis bought from Aligro for CHF 10 (or SGD 13.60) for 1kg! For 7 servings, this is well worth it...


I bought this Ham from Coop as it was on Action and will form part of our Christmas eve menu.. pair this with Lingonberry Jam from Ikea and you get a match made in heaven!


Monday...

I am attempting wanton mee for dinner tomorrow but have no clue how to make charsiew! But will certainly try!


Gosh I miss the charsiew made by Jem's mom.. miss the charsiew from HV market... miss the charsiew at Clementi Market.. just miss any charsiew

I Heart Ikea

19 December 2009 - Cold but not snowing...

As you know, most if not all commercial activities comes to a halt on Sunday. It is against the Swiss employment law for anyone to work on Sunday and few shops that are open are normally located at MAIN train station.

So Saturday is a full on shopping day for Jem and I. We wake up, Jem will make breakfast...
- since I cook 6 days a week
- he wakes up earlier than me

... and off we go. And today - we went IKEA in AUBONNE and spend close to CHF 1,000 on furniture for our new place!

Mind you, these furniture are the cheapest of the lot and basically what we will need for our 2 year stay here... Jem wants to add some colour to our place (as much as possible anyway)

For the bedroom:

~ For the reader in me.. .and the facebook king in Jem... we got 1 in black and 1 in yellow!


~ We bought 2 of this and it will serve as a side table for books and comp and will also serve as coffee table when there are guests!


~ For any Ikea Fanatics out there will know that this is the CHEAPEST bed frame a person a buy from Ikea.. at CHF 99.95 - it doesn't get cheaper than this.. although our mattress (the 2nd cheapest - cost CHF 249!)

For the Dining area

~ We bought 4 of this + we have 2 folding chairs donated to us by Kelly (as she was leaving for Switzerland)


~ Jem and I have ALWAYS wanted to buy Bar Stools for bar table... so we got the cheapest one.. we thought it would be cute watching the other person cook.

For the Entrance

~ No apt is complete without a place to hang all our coats and scarf and beanies!

For the Hall / Guest Room

~ For all our visitors, this is where you will be sleeping! We even have quilt and pillow to go along with this... It is mighty comfy too!


~ Our apartment doesn't have any light fixtures - meaning if we want light, we need to fix it... and since Jem is not very electrical savvy (I think we need John Cheng to help on the lights), we bought this floor lamp so he won't be in total darkness.


For the little nook (just outside the bathroom)

~ This will be our utility shelves.. from toilet paper to cartons of coke to sacks of jasmine rice!

Of course we bought many other bits and bops like colander, shower curtain, toilet brush (very important), teeny weeny ironing board, water glass etc... was it worth the price? Oh yes! I think we would have spend a lot more if we had gone to any other furniture store!

The Ikea restaurant here is boring (very different from Singapore). Their menu is VERY VERY limited. We have been here twice and the main dish are:
- Sweedish Meatballs
- Pasta
- Fish & Chips (apparent "Filets de Perches" as it is known, is quite popular here)

- Poached Salmon with pan-fried vegetables cake

Gone are the local daily specials and chicken wings that we get in Ikea Singapore! And I don't get free coffee as an Ikea member too! *boooo*

Jem discover his favourite wine at the Ikea Food Store. For anyone who knows Jem, he does not drink - not more than 2 glass anyway. But for this particular wine, he has finished 4/5 of the bottle in a short span of 24 hours!!!! He loved it so much, that he is persuading me to go back to IKEA to get a few more bottles!

And what wine are we talking about?.....








This is the same wine we tried at the Christmas Market... after some googling.. it is known as mulled wine (in English), vin chaud (in French), Glühwein (in German) or Glögg (in Nordic countries)

According to Mr Wiki... mulled wine is wine (usually red) combined with spices and typically served warm. Historically, wine often went bad. By adding spices and honey, it could be made drinkable again. Nowadays, it is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas.

So Jem have been heating up this wine and drinking it all day long.. some of his reasons are:
- It is snowing - let's have the wine
- I can't solve this matlab equation - think I need the wine
- I am having sore throat - I need the wine so that the alcohol willkill the virus
- Cool Running is on TV - let's have the wine etc etc etc....

So we are going to IKEA again this TUESDAY...

Chestnut roastin' on the open fire

18 December 2009

I woke up this morning and was greeted by the snow covered garden right outside my window.. it will indeed be a White Christmas as Sue had hope... all the cliche... now I need to built a fireplace and find some chestnuts to roast...


11 November 2009

VS


18 December 2009

It's all in my head....

17 December - My mind is numb.. guess the temperature is really low today!

I bought the swiss national lottery and won a whooping CHF 150,000! I am sooo excited! This is the first time I have ever won the lottery and just cannot believe my luck! YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Not knowing how much the tax will be - I think Jem and I will actually put down payment for a neat 2 bedroom place in Switzerland and MAYBE buy another place in Singapore. This is soo exciting!

Now, we can ALMOST spend money without second thoughts... ooohhh Nespresso Coffee Machine.. come to mama! I don't drink coffee - I just like the IDEA of having a coffee machine.

I can change my whole wardrobe too! I will introduce funky colours and throw away some of my "dated" clothes (read: My Entire Wardrobe needs to be thrown away).. Jem will splurge on a new bike and maybe just maybe we can buy ourselves a car...

Oh wait.. we only won CHF 150,000 not CHF 1.5 million... damn... Oh well, I am sure we can buy all that with spare change and maybe I can hire some hot bod Brazilian to water my potted plants every few days!

*dreamy faraway look*




*snap* Shame we didn't win the lottery....

This is how bored I am - I had NOTHING to blog about today and resorted to making up stories :) Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.. oh and my Brazilian toy boy is called Luis Carlos Ronaldo...

Grocery-xercise

16 December - -2 degrees... too cold to do anything

The fridge is empty. By Swiss standards, I have a normal size fridge. By my standard, my current fridge dwarf in comparison to my Fisher & Paykel fridge back home. I think this fridge is about 200 liter. As such, I rarely stock up. Other reasons include:

1 - My fridge is puny

2 - Unlike the older generation, I have no clue how to shop for the week. Sure I can buy 1kg worth of chicken fillet for the week, but what if all i want to do the whole week is to eat Ikea Meatballs and Pringles?

3 - I consider grocery shopping as a form of daily exercise (both brain and legs)- the 5 min walk to the shop, the 20 minutes walk up & down the various aisle, mental calculation of discounts and special offers etc

So today I decided on a grocery marathon. I went to Aligro Hypermarket.... I walk to Morges train station, took a 6-minute train, wait 7 minutes for the bus, took a 3 minutes bus ride and shop for about an hour!

I swear Aligro is around for GIANTS.... here's why...


2.1kg worth of sweet corns


4 kg worth of BAKE BEANS...


I didn't buy much, cos Jeremy and I can't consume 2kg worth of carrots, 1kg worth of herbs, 50kg of rice, 1kg worth of fish fillet etc within the week. Plus, I am doing this for the exercise... :)

Tonight I decided to make sushi rice.. I never knew that making Sushi Rice can take up to an hour and I need to add Rice Vinegar to it. I thought it was as simple as dumping the rice in the rice cooker and cook.

So anyway, I headed home and make Pork Katsu Curry for dinner.. cos Jeremy's tolerance for spice have dropped to that of a newborn and I have cravings for curry. Japanese meal is never complete without Sushi Sashimi and of course Inari...


The photo clearly does not reflect how yummy the meal turn out.. thanks to S&B Katsu Curry Sauce :) (Surely, you didn't think I cook this from scratch?)


This serving of salmon only cost CHF 5! Yummsss....

Switzerland's PUB

15 December - -2 degrees

I stay put at home today - cos it is just too cold to go outside. Hence, I stayed at home and clean the toilet (told you I am like a maid).. The water is Switzerland is fairly hard (ie the water contains a lot of dissolved minerals (like Calcium and Magnesium). It is perfectly safe to drink - in fact, in one test by a magazine, the tap water in Switzerland is much cleaner than bottled water and about 500 times cheaper.

Hard water does have its downside. It leaves a lot of residue in your kitchen appliances (like pots and water kettles), scums in your sink and bath tubs, clothes comes out "harder" and hair sometimes look lifeless.

So it did take a lot of energy and effort to clean the toilet today.. *phew*

As we are returning this place in about 6 weeks, everything needs to be spotless before we move out. So I thought I do a round of cleaning to make it easier for Jem to do the final round just before he moves.

Do you know that Switzerland uses a very different kinda powerpoint from Singapore? See, thank god Jem and I came here for a visit in July or else we will be soo ill-prepared.


The regular powerpoint used in Singapore, Malaysia and UK


Switzerland's wall socket

So what did we do?

1 - We brought our own extension cord (courtesy of Iskandar Johor Open)

2 - We wanted to take the easy way out and buy an adaptor (but the place we went to - didn't sell any!

3 - So the engineering-trained husband decided to take things into his own hands and we bought the plug from about CHF 1 from the supermarket and did a switcheroo... and the result.. TA-DAH!





It was a success! Now all our laptops, charges etc work perfectly fine.. of course, if I decide to go to a cafe to work, I need to lug the extension cord along... and look like a total idiot :)

Jem even swap the plug on the rice cooker as well..

Staying in Switzerland have made us more self-sufficient (mainly cos we are cheapos and really can't afford to spend more than we make...!) Not a bad thing at all

Easter Egg Hunt

14 December - -1 degree

It is getting colder and colder... and all I did today was a grocery run and snuggle under covers working and watching movies. Mind you I am technically on leave from 10 November and my new contract only starts 15 December. So I have done more than I am suppose to :)

I watch The Proposal and it is an awesome show and soo funny! I especially like the part where they couldn't find Sandra Bullock's boobs and coining it as the "Easter Egg Hunt!"



Decided to go local tonight and cooked sambal prawns and nasi lemak.. Yum! I think Jeremy's threshold for spice have dropped to ZILCH and he now finds Pringles Paprika to be HOT AND SPICY... sigh...

Let it snow.. let it snow.. let it snow...

13 December - COLD

I experience my first snow fall today! It was quite a let down as the snowflakes were soooooooo tiny.. I mean they are teeny tiny... by comparison, the mole on my face is like Goliath compared to David-esque snowflakes.

That aside - I did get very excited looking at he various shapes (i had to put them real close to my eyes to make out their shapes). I lasted 2 minutes outdoor before I felt my nose turning blue...


Let it snow.. let it snow.. let it snow..

Party party party

12 December

You know Christmas is in the air when we have back to back parties.

Party A: At Jeremy's boss' house
It was awesome.. her house that is. She and her husband bought a piece of land and built one of the most fantastic house I've even been in. The highlight of the party / get together is a gift exchange we had called WHITE ELEPHANT and here is how it goes:

1 - Everyone brings a white elephant - a gift you have received but have no use for for or something you bought on a whim and is now taking up space in your house.

2 - Everyone put their gift in a pile

3 - Number tags are distributed to everyone... (to make it more interesting - there are double numbers in the bag!) - THE HIGHER YOUR NUMBER, THE BETTER

4 - MC will then call out the number in order e.g 1

5 - If you have number 1, you grab a gift and you need to open it in front of everyone (so that they can get a good look)

6 - If you have number 2, you can choose to either (a) grab a gift or (b) steal the gift from someone who had already open their gift... in this case, number 1.

What did I get? I got an apple, a snail and a finger puppet.. and Jeremy got a piggy bank.. hahah - we were the first two to pick our gifts as we had to rush to another party! BUMMER!!!!!!!!!!


We ate the apple....

We ended the night by taking a 20-minute walk back to the apartment (in the freezziinngg cold) where we had another party with our neighbours... So we were stuffed, cold, aching from the walk and slept..

Surreal

BY: JEREMY TEO

It has been a month since we arrived in Switzerland and the word 'Surreal' seems to ring in my head after Joyce mentioned it the other day. Switzerland is a place I have dreamt of the perfect holiday destination for as long as I can remember and now we are here - I am here working with the university, living here, residing just beside lac leman (or lake Geneva) that covers almost 80% of Singapore's land area.

We have been really busy looking around for apartments and getting all our administrative requirements sorted out - residence permits, declaring I'm not a bankrupt, 1/2 price cards for public transport, recommendation letters for housing etc etc. The fact that we got the very first apartment we applied for - Surreal - the horror stories we've heard of submitting 15 -20 applications and living in the lab for months was something I did not intend to experience.

Maybe it is because we were looking for apartment in Morges (aka Boon Lay). Yes, we're like village people as compared to those living in Lausanne. And it helps that we got recommendation letters from my boss as well as the current tenant of the place. I also heard being a "Dr." in EPFL does swing the vote in my favour.

Whatever the reasons may be, it has lead us to break all records in house hunting. It is a huge load off our shoulders and in Feb we will be moving in. Strange that 75% of Swiss do not own their own homes and would rather subject themselves to this hassle of renting. I cant really understand why since interest rates for housing loans are a mere 1%. Guess its the maintenance of the house that will be costly.

The Swiss system have their own quirks like trash in 'approved' trash bags, scheduled timings for using the laundry facilities, allowing each able bodied Swiss man who have done military service to bring their assault rifles home, closing of shops at 6 or 7pm and government offices having opening times from 10 to 12 and 2.30 to 4.30pm. Their knack for having very precise bus/train timings is something very pleasing though.

Swiss food is quite boring, as you can see I'm not missing home food yet as Joyce has been cooking up a storm. We also have had 2-3 gatherings with fellow S'poreans / M'sians in Lausanne. One of the guys is a PhD student and the other is a fellow postdoc at EPFL so we sure have a lot to talk about. Last weekend we had steamboat and reminded me so much of home with the slang / food / topics of conversation, but the moment we stepped out of their apartment, we're smacked with a view of the snowcapped alps and cobbled stone streets -SURREAL-

I'm slowly finding my place in the lab, with direction for research as well as getting used to the 'loose' environment as compared to the 'weird regime' I was subjected to back home. I took off early yesterday at 4pm to head home for a nice run and today I went for a 1.24hr bike ride with Dr. Jeffery Rice. Though it was only 30km but we scaled up to an elevation of almost 700M. Climbing was painful and the downhill was exhilarating. My nose, ears and feet were all numb when we got back to EPFL. The view during my ride and run was unbelievable, almost SURREAL and then it set in...here I am riding and running in one of the most scenic places in the world. I'll end this post with a picture that says it all. I can't wait till our friends and family visit.