New Years Eve in Swissy

So far not much snow, but quite a hectic and fun filled Christmas. It was our first New Years Eve together and we chilled out most of the day and couldnt really make up our minds whether to go out in the evening or snuggle up with a nice bottle of wine and see the New Year in alone.

At about 2pm it started to snow, I mean really really snow a lot. I got so excited I ran outside dancing around in it lol. Chop-chop always laughs at how much I love snow, but coming from the South of England it isnt something I've seen a lot of.

At this point we decided we would share our New Years Eve with friends and chop-chop called his sister and we arranged to meet her, her boyfriend and her little boy in Zurich centre at about 10pm. We set off about 9 and walked down a few stops to use the teller machine at the bank, then we hopped on a tram. Walking through the streets it was eerily quiet, snow does that doesnt it, kind of makes everything feel still. Passing restaurants and bars cheerily lit up and filled with revellers, it was all so warm and cosy and quaint.

The town was a totally different story, it was absolutely packed with people. From 8pm stages set up around the city centre offer live bands and DJs, while food and drink stands fuel the visitors with mulled wine, sparkling wine and treats. At 11.40pm the crowd falls silent on a signal from airborne balloons, and at midnight the city's church bells ring in the New Year. At 12.20am the 20-minute display lights up the night's sky. After the show ends, the musical entertainment starts up again and continues until 3am.

The atmosphere was absolutely brilliant, the funniest things were some of the youngsters, obviously worse for wear but no nastiness. The young girls staggering around in short skirts and high heels in arctic conditions. The snow on the streets had turned to slush and then frozen in the extremely cold conditions, watching some of them ice skating in high heels was hillarious. On the tram on the way home a young guy was seranading us with his babbling and giggling songs. The whole night was really special and Id recommend a New Years Eve outside in the Zurich night air to anyone.

I was absolutely freezing cold when I got home, but a hot bath and a cuddle in bed with chop-chop and I was all snuggly warm again :)

Lazy snacks with a twist

I absolutely adore cooking, but even I sometimes just fancy something out of a tin or a packet. However most pre-purchased foods just dont hit the spot, so I always tend to jazz them up a little bit. Here are some of my favourite lazy snacks.

I hope you enjoy :)


Fish Finger Sarnie
3 fish fingers
1 slice of gouda cheese
1 tablespoon of tomato relish
1 Dill pickle
2 sliced of white bread cut from a loaf

Grill the fish fingers, slice the bread in half and pop it in the toaster. when the fish fingers are done slather the bread with tomato relish, slice the pickle, pop in the cheese and fish fingers. I serve this with a little bowl of salad drizzled with olive oil, lemon juice and red wine vinegar.....


Tuna and Cheese melt
half a tin of tuna fish
a cup of grated cheese (any sort)
2 slices of white bread cut from a loaf
salt and pepper

Put the cup of grated cheese in the microwave for 1 min, toast the bread, fill it with tuna, pour over the melted cheese and season with salt and pepper. I usually have this with a chips and some salad

Quick mushroomy pasta
1 portion of pasta
half a carton of button mushrooms
1 clove of garlic
half a tub of creme fresche

Boil the spaghetti in salted water, sprinkled with olive oil, slice up the mushrooms, pop them in a saucepan with a knob of butter, a crushed garlic clove and a liberal sprinkling of salt...saute for 10 minutes. Throw in the half tub of creme fresche and stir. Drain the spaghetti and toss in the mushroom mix. Optional topping of parmesan if you want.


Quick fish pie
1 portion of fish (anything will do, salmon, cod etc)
2 large potatos
parmesan cheese
parsley

Put the fish portion in a dish cover with milk and microwave for 5 minutes. Boil, season and mash the potatos, add a knob of butter. Add chopped parsley to the fish. Pile over the fish, sprinkle with parmesan and put under the grill until brown on top. I serve this with some lightly steamed broccoli......

Steak and Onions
1 rib eye steak
half an onion
1 clove of garlic

Season the steak and pop under the grill, 10 mins each side gives you medium rare, add an extra 5 for medium and 10 for well done. Chop an onion and saute in olive oil with the garlic clove. Pour over the steak. I serve this with a quick boiled rice or mash.......

Crunchy ice cream
I caramel flapjack
1 portion of ice cream

Slice the flapjack in two, make an icecream sarnie and serve. You can do this with a few flavours to make a pretty desert.

Choccie bannanas and cream
1 bannana
4 squares of dark chocolate
whipping cream
cherries to garnish
2 scoops of vanilla ice cream

Slice the bannana, melt the chocolate in the microwave and pour over. Heap in two scoops of ice cream, squirt with cream and top with cherries....

Training a Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Living with a man is indeed a different experience. I mean, dont get me wrong I love chop-chop to bits and living with him is definately better than when i lived without him.

But there are subtle differences in our lifestyles arnt there?

Chop-chop is used to living alone and as such is quite able to do basic housework. But the little touches like arranging the cushions and cuddly toys on the bed, opening the curtains so they are level each side and using furniture polish definately arnt among his priorities.

Which makes one wonder is it really worth going to all the effort if its not appreciated.Makes sense that if he doesnt think its necessary, is it?

Why are women, by-and-large more house proud than men. I once read a plaque on my friends wall, shes a riding-instructor (the messiest creatures on the planet lol) that said "A tidy house is a sign of a dull life". Why spend valuable time making your environment spick and span instead of say reading a book, going out with friends or generally doing something more interesting. I've thought about this and decided its because it gives me a feeling of well-being, I'm never truly happy when everything isnt perfect. The smell of futniture polish is quite nasty really, chop-chop hates it, but i always use liberal amounts. I find it more than acceptable, but lets face it we wouldnt wear it as perfume would we, and it doesnt have that delicious comforting aroma of home baked cookies or bread.

My title suggests I have ideas on how to actually train a man to be more like us, and this isnt the case. I wouldnt want chop-chop to be like me really, if he constantly polished and sprayed and arranged teddy bears on the bed, this would discombobulate me no end. I mean I'd doubt his masculinity I guess, who really and truly wants a man like that!!!!!!!!

So the endless cycle of women complaining about men being untidy is a bit of a misnomer really, cos its a lose-lose situation for them.

Cooking is a whole different ball game though, nearly all men are proud they can cook something. Usually their signature dish revolves around pasta. Doesnt matter what nationality they are, how many women have been wooed by their mans Spag Bol, or his under-bar-b-qued, blackened "chicken a la botulism" lol, chop-chops is a little more sophisticated in that he makes "spaghetti al olio", but it all boils down to the same thing really, something that they can present to you on a plate 2 maybe 3 times and year, then sit back at every other mealtime and scoff what youve slaved over.

So I guess the answer to training a man is........ why bother. We all love them the way they are anyway and to be honest they are pretty much un-trainable :)

This article wouldn't be fair or complete if I didnt show you my chop-chops first attempt at yorkshire puddings. They were soooo good I'm a bit worried really, so I've hidden the fairy cake tins and the furniture polish :)

Chop-Chops Puddings :)

ZSC Lions

As part of my christmas pressie chop-chop got us ticket to go and see the ZSC Lions play Lugano. ZSC are a Swiss ice hockey team and chop-chop follows them madly. Id never seen an ice hockey match before, but I loved the film Mighty Ducks with Emelio Estevez which was about a kids ice hockey team. Plus it was a winter sport and being in Swissy with the snow and the chilling cold air Ice Hockey just seemed like something I should experience.


Id got chop-chop a new ZSC hoodie for christmas which he looked gorgeous in. I wore totally inappropriate high heeled black suede boots, denim skirt and a humungous ZSC shirt that almost made it appear my skirt was non-existent.




We got on the tram in the evening to set out for our adventure. As we got closer to the stadium there were people everywhere wearing ZSC shirts and all wending their way towards the stadium through the snowy Zurich night.


All social events involve food and this experience was no different, chop-chop had one of those incredibly large swiss sausages with bread and heaps of mustard (ive never really taken to them) so i had a carton of hot chips (something the swiss dont excel at) and oodles of tomato ketchup. We stood at a podium watching the milling crowds stuffing themselves like us while we all waited for the game to start. Deciding to take our seats we then had to face what i remember as a truly dangerous march thru a wall of cigarette smoking, effusive, chattering band of ZSC and Lugano fans. Not all men, there were lots of women and loads and loads of kiddies too. But the smoke lol, well not so much the smoke as the hot ends of cigarettes casually waved around in the hands of Swiss, german and italian supporters (have you noticed they talk with their hands and their mouths). It was like dodging bullets and something that really sticks in my mind about the evening.

TIP: if you go to one of these games dont wear clothes you dont want a cigarette burn in, unless your like Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment and can contort your body through the red rays of a museum security system.

The stadium was huge, there were big screens showing advertisements and replays, a huge computer strip to show the scores and some fans had hung banners promoting their team on the walls behind. The teams came out to a huge roar, much excitement and the game was started. Im not going to pretend I totally understood everything that went on, it seemed to start and stop in bursts, everytime it stopped some music came on and when they started to play again it stopped.


I thought the most amusing part was when someone got sent off and they had special music for that too, tailored to which team member was being a little break in the hole. At one point the ZSC fans all lit little fire/candle (not sure) thingies which they waved around with great enthusiasm. The whole thing was fast and furious and great fun and I dont feel you have to be an ice hockey affectionado or even understand the game to enjoy the evening, I know i did :)

At half time there was a break, and they had 3 people on the ice from the crowd, one was a little boy of about 10 id say. The object of this was they were given a puck and a stick and they had to hit their puck between an impossibly small area to win some money. I mean it was like the dam busters, the area they had to drive their puck thru was incredibly tiny but they all got onto the ice in good sport, grinning up at their respective families and ready to take their chances. Unbelieveably the little boy hit a gold home, the crowd went crazy, cheering and clapping and the little boy was like an olympic hero, he grabbed his stick with two hands, huge grin on his face and jumped up and down performing for his adoring and awe struck family. Way to go little boy!!!!!

Unfortunately ZSC lost so chop-chop was a little forelorn and after running the gaunlet of lit cigarettes we were out on the street in the chilling weather making out way home.

Id love to go again, the ZSC experience was defiantely one I would recommend and want to repeat.


Go ZSC Lions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

History of the ZSC Lions

Locally nicknamed "Z", the team was formed in 1997 as a result of the merger of the two local teams Zürcher Schlittschuh Club (German for "Zurich Skating Club") and Grasshoppers Club (GC), the ice hockey section of Grasshopper-Club Zürich. ZSC played in the National League A, was clearly the fan favourite of the city but in constant financial trouble. Grasshoppers, meanwhile, was playing in the Nationalliga B, failed to qualify for promotion several years in a row and had a small fan base, but was backed by a very wealthy man.
ZSC was the first Swiss team to play in an indoor arena (Hallenstadion).

They won the Swiss championship in the years 1936, 1949 and 1961 and the prestigious Spengler Cup in 1944 and 1945. After the merger, the ZSC Lions won the Swiss Championship in 2000, 2001 and 2008, the IIHF Continental Cup in 2001 and 2002 and the Champions Hockey League in 2008.

During the 2008-09 Season, the ZSC Lions participated in the first ever Champions Hockey League, for which the automatically qualified. The other participating Swiss team, SC Bern, had to first win the qualifying tournament. for the group stage, the ZSC Lions were placed in group D, along with HC Slavia Praha and Linköpings HC. ZSC Lions came first in this group with only one defeat and three victories, thus qualifying for the semi-finals.

On 7 January 2009 they qualified for the first Final of the CHL against the Finnish Espoo Blues, beating them 6-3 and 4-1 respectively. The first leg of the final was held on 21 January 2009 in the Magnitogorsk Arena against Metallurg Magnitogorsk and ended with a 2-2 (0-2,0-0,2-0) draw. The goals for ZSC were shot by Trudel and Wichser respectively in the first third of the game.[1] The second leg was played one week later, on 28 January 2009, in the Diners Club Arena in Rapperswil, Switzerland. ZSC Lions won the finals with a 5-0 with goals by Down, Sejna, Seger, Alston and Trudel.