Child Friendly Geneva

Geneva lived up to its reputation for being efficient - we had no problems going anywhere with the stroller - there were lifts & ramps everywhere.

There were also no lack of activities to keep the little one occupied. Here are our favorites.

The number one activity - feed the swans.
Now we know where all the left over & stale bread in Geneva goes to

The platform set up for the Festival of Geneva
We were lucky to catch the festival with food stalls from around the world, concerts, rides etc.

I absolutely loved the children's playground
with their retro, wooden equipment
Such a nice change from the colourful plastic ones we seem to see everywhere else

Natural History Musem - free for all
A very impressive array of animals, dinosaurs, insects, birds of every considerable species

I love this collection of glass blown model jellyfish
So pretty

Geneva Highlights

I've been having all kinds of technical difficulties. First my hard disk crashed, then my internet box went burst..... Do bad things always come in threes ? So what's next ?

This is a little overdue but here are our highlights of Geneva. Look out for part 2 - the child friendly version.

Geneva - the city that Singapore fancies itself after. Coming from Ardeche, it was invigorating to be in a metropolitan city again - the Brazilian bossa nova concert, the Thai food stalls, the Russian & Middle Eastern tourists, the very English Marks & Spencer shop & the 5 Asian stores that I went to....everything so accessible.

Jet d'Eau
The symbol of Geneva - a man made water spray of 140m
(The symbol of Singapore - a merlion spraying water from it's mouth)
I used it as my point of reference when exploring the city

Flower Clock
what else but for the city famous for watch making
Apparently the most accurate clock in the world
(oops my watch was 7 mins faster)
made of 6500 flowers

The beautiful St Pierre Cathedral

Hotel de Ville
preparing for another concert

Chess game
Parc des Bastions

Reformation Wall

Youth Park, Plainpalais
We went there for the flea market but I found this more fascinating

Lac Leman or Geneva Lake
(stop on the way to Ikea)

Blackberry Bramble

Quickberry !
Quackberry !
Pick me a blackberry !

Trainberry
Trackberry
Clickety-clackberry

Rumble and ramble
In blackberry bramble
Billions of berries
For blackberry jamble

- Jamberry
Bruce Degen

Looks like nobody ventured a guess as to where I was. I should have given more clues but anyway I was in Geneva last week visiting friends. It was my first time there & actually also my first time in Switzerland.

I'd be posting the photos real soon but guess what was the first thing I did after I return ? That is after I'd done unpacking, doing the laundry & re-organising my laptop (sigh, they weren't able to recover any of the data from my macbook sob sob all my photos). Pick blackberries.

Remember the trail near our house, well it's full of wild blackberry bushes & the blackberries are all starting to ripen. It's always fun to pick in the wild but picking blackberries is probably the least fun of the berry picking because the plant is prickly & full of thorns.

The Girl was in charged of holding the basket while I picked. Note to self : Remember never to bring her berry picking again cos she just stood there eating whatever I had put in. In spite of that, we still managed to collect 1 kg of blackberries.

What do you think I should do ? Blackberry ice cream, blackberry muffins, blackberry crumble - so many options......

Note : The extract at the beginning of the post is taken from one of our favorite books - Jamberry - all about a little boy's love of berries.

Green tea madeleines

The Girl attended her first playgroup ever 2 weeks ago. Shocking isn't it ? Prior to this, I haven't met any like minded mums which may, in part, be due to my inability to communicate fluently in French. But I've recently met some English speaking mums & one of them organised this playgroup.

It was their first session & I thought it went pretty well. The children were mostly around the same age. I believe The Girl had a good time & I'm looking forward to many more sessions.

These green tea madeleines were my contribution for snacks.

Green tea madeleines
makes about 18

2 eggs
50g butter, melted
120g sugar
1 lemon
2 tsp green tea powder
2 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp olive oil
120g cake flour or self rising flour

1. Beat the eggs with the sugar

2. Add zest of the lemon & 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Mix

3. Mix in the melted butter, milk & olive oil

4. Finally the flour & green tea powder

5. Bake in oven at 180C for 15 mins

Away for a week

As most of you know by now, we're prone to taking last minute trips which is what we did. 

Yesterday we drove 4 hours, crossed the border & now staying with some friends. Make a guess where we are right now - bonus if you can guess the city (yes it's a city). 

I didn't update the blog cos would you believe it, my hard disk crashed & hopefully I would be able to get it fixed here. Sigh. I just hope I'm able to retrieve my photos, contacts & all the data stored. 

Keeping my fingers crossed. 

This might be my only vegetarian dish

Readers of my blog would know by now that I'm not a vegetarian. Not only that, I was never a very big vegetable eater. Note : I used past tense cos living here & having access to fresh vegetables from Rene's garden has slowly converted me. Me, who used to say salad is rabbit food, now eats greens on a regular basis.

Having said that, I can't really have a meal without some kind of meat or seafood. But this dish is an exception. My Italian friends, the Bartoccis, who came to visit 2 years ago, showed me how to prepare this. I fell in love with it & make it whenever I can. So Katia, this one is for you.

Pasta with Summer Vegetables

1 zucchini, diced
1 aubergine, diced
1 red pepper, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
Farfalle (bowtie pasta) or Fusilli (cockscrew pasta)
lots & lots of grated parmesan

1. Cook pasta al dente in a pot of salted water as per directions on package. Drain & set aside

2. Fry garlic in olive oil then add diced vegetables. Fry till vegetables are soft (add water or pasta water to prevent vegetables from drying up & cover to cook). When done, toss in the pasta, add generous amounts of grated parmesan. Salt & pepper to taste.

3. Serve hot with more parmesan on the side

Note : I sometimes add black olives into the dish too. Just add them when the vegetables are done.

At the tax office

Last week, I had to go to the tax office (called Hotel des Impots here) to purchase special stamps in order to retrieve my new carte de sejour (permit of residence). Why they don't accept cash is again one of those French bureaucracies that I've learnt not to question.

So there I was driving into the carpark & realised that the building was in complete darkness & with the sun reflecting off the windows, I couldn't see if there was anyone in there - oh no, they are closed for summer vacation. I was about to turn around & drive off when I noticed one of the ground floor windows opened & someone inside.

Okay let me go in & ask. Then when I stepped in, I could see that it was business as usual except that they were all working in semi darkness. It wasn't a power failure either cos the computers & fans were working.

After I'd finished purchasing my stamps (not before the lady had asked me why I needed them, where I was from, who my secondary school teacher is, why I moved to France - basically my whole life story), I decided to ask her if there was something wrong with their lighting system cos I had almost left thinking they were closed.

She said "oh no, nothing wrong with them'' & then proceeded to switch them on - 3 tiny halogen spot lights. She went further to explain that in this heat, it was unbearable to turn them on. She then turned them back off, bid me farewell, turned around & continued doing what she was doing in the dark.