Cat Sitting

This weekend, I am back at my mum's house cat-sitting Muffin for her while she's in Amsterdam.  My first week in my new home and a bit of a busy week at work, made this the perfect plan.  We lit fires, made apple crumble and gave Muffin lots of TLC.  I did squeeze a little housey-shopping in and got a heart shaped bath mat and some colourful knifes.

 Apple Crumble straight out of the oven, ready to be devoured 

So comforting on a cold and windy day

 Admiring my work in-front of the fire which we kept on the whole evening

 Sunday morning, woke up to muffin snoozing on my make-up bag in the bathroom

To make a comforting warming crumble you will need:

100g Butter

100g Flour

50-75g Sugar plus 3 table spoons for the apples

3 Apples

2 tsp Cinnamon

2 whole cloves

This is a very quick and very tasty recipe. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C, then peel, cut in half, and slice the apples.  In a blender, or by using your fingertips, mix the flour, sugar and butter until you get dry yet buttery crumbs. Add the apple slices to a bake-proof dish and mix 3 tablespoons of sugar, cinnamon and the two cloves so each apple slice has a bit of both.  Pour the crumbs on top and pop into the oven for about 45 minutes until golden on the top.

On a cold day, anyone you're with will be thankful for this, and they may even stroke you to sleep in return

International Office

The perks of working in an international organization are the little surprises my colleagues bring back from their travels.  My colleague who frequently travels to and from Japan kindly brought members of his team these green-tea flavoured KitKats,  can't wait to try it.  Cool gifts like these need to be saved for special moments.

Some Basler Läckerli from my hometown which I will bring in for my colleagues to try today

Spring Shine

Being in an office all day has it's gloomy points, sometimes I have a strong desire to be be a florist, taxi driver or a chef. I imagine the daily routine in such professions could be brightened by being able to observe people interact with each other out in the world. 

Here are some of the things I have cherished while at home on my short holiday:

My mother's engagement ring on a butterfly tray my father's father has brought back from Brazil on one of his trips as a captain

Playing my old piano at my dad's.  Current song I play over and over: Fire by Augustana

Bright spring buds

Being able to step outside whenever I like... And wear what I like

All flowers, especially those which grow in unconventional places

Something New

I decided to treat myself to a brand sparkling new Nikon D3100. Never before have I used a DSLR camera but I can tell you now,  I am in love. 

I had 2.5 extra holiday days stored up from 2011 which I needed to use up before the end of March so on Wednesday afternoon, I was on a train to Basel.  (Un)Luckily, I had caught a cold, so I spent these precious free days indulging in baths, fruit juices and following Muffin around with my camera.

Welcome 2012

It's a bit late but what can you do without a functioning camera and no knowledge whatsoever on how to use a newly purchased Imac.  The Christmas holidays were far too short as usual but we did manage to find time to do some exciting activities like 1) Eating and 2) Ice Skating.  I have also passed my 3 month trial period in my new job and am over the moon to be in the midst of things.  I found out that later this year I will be travelling to Thailand on business -it's like my own little Christmas gift from work as i have never been somewhere that exotic and hear it is breathtaking. Anyways, before I chat too long, i'll leave you with some photos of what me and my ♥ have been up to the last few weeks:

 Our Starter for our New Years Eve at home: Sushi, Garlic-Chilli Sepia which we made & ♥'s Mango Shrimp 

  Indulging in seconds of the little baby sepia-squid, they were the highlight of the whole meal

Main: Roasted Duck Break with a Blackberry Jus, Spring Onion Mash and Buttered Baby Carrots

On the 1st of January, I treated  ♥ to some home-made pancakes with expensive maple syrup

 Ice Skating in my home town, Basel

 ♥ showing me his moves

Pork Chops with Dijon, apple and maple syrup sauce (and some spätzle yuuuum)

Back in work mode: trying to bring a little bit of my style into the conservative dress code

Movies and Rain

We're back from Locarno (a week ago) and I can truly say I had a brilliant weekend.  Our 3 hour road-trip to this little town close to Italy was breathtaking. We took a longer route over the Gotthard mountain pass but were rewarded with breathtaking views.  At the top we were met with mysterious spooky fog which made for a dream-like experience.

Once in Locarno we walked around taking in the rustic architecture, bustling film-festival goers & enjoyed listening to everyone around us speaking Italian.  Once we realised that a few crisps munched in the car didn't count as an adequate meal, we stopped at a little café by the lake and shared a salad and the cutest mini croque monsieur while wishing we could speak better French (him) and Spanish (me). It didn't rain until about 30 minutes before they scanned our tickets to let us into the Piazza Grande so we quickly bought some bright yellow plastic ponchos which we wore while eating our pizza slices & espressos-to-go as we waited for the stars to arrive.

We werent really fans for the film Cowboys & Aliens but Drive, which was the second feature film was far more entertaining (although I had to close my eyes at the gruesome bits). The soundtrack was amazing.

 Sometimes we take Switzerland for granted: view we got while driving towards Locarno

Huge rock faces whilst we drove over the Gotthard mountain pass

We found ourselves driving through many of the tunnels pictured here at the bottom

The higher we got, the foggier it became

 Mouth-meltingly-good:  our Mini Croque Monsieur

Salad with Goat's Cheese

 Italian Coffee by the lake

 Just saying hi to my friend Craig

  Sitting in the Piazza Grande for a drink before the Films

 Locarno's massive open-air screen, it's as big as the buildings!

 Waiting in line to see if we could still watch the movies in the rain

 We could...  We did (with the help of our sexy ponchos)

We saw celebrities and the atmosphere was great, it was very much worth it

 on Sunday after a long sleep, we watched some beach volleyball in Basel before watching another open air movie

Nice seats we had with the Historical Barfüsserplatz Museum in the Background.

We ended up seeing 3 movies in an open-air setting in 2 Swiss cities within 24 hours. It was certainly an experience, but I may be watched-out for a week or so.  Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  

J.o.B Search Break

Been taking some time to intensify the search for a job, so I'm sending out apologies for being absent in this little zone.  I do however have some photos of the past few days. I've been pottering about Basel-country finding unhealthy snacks, making some nice rainy-day meals & choosing the easiest form of 'exercise', ping pong to tackle those calories.

First covered ping-pong table we found - so we can play when it rains

Sunflower which went in the bouquet we picked for  ♥'s stepmum (including lucky ladybird)

Bruch Table with both Brothers at Dad's on Sunday

 Massive Malteaser Bag weariness

 Spinach & Prawn creamy pasta sauce

 Loved every bite !

Perfect Comfort Romance Food Recipe:


10 Raw Prawns
2 Cloves of Garlic thinly sliced
1 chilli
25 ml cream
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach
300g pasta or more if you're hungry

Fry the prawns until pink in some oil on medium heat and remove from the pan. Add the chilli & garlic and Sauté for about a minute before adding the cream and spinach. Cook down until the spinach has lost it's form and the flavours have begun to merge. Add the prawns, and cooked pasta and toss to create a marriage of yumminess. Serve straight away with some Parmigiano-Reggiano in a giant bowl for the greatest pleasure. Hope everyone's week is running smoothly.

Dine like Kings

I can truly say we couldn't have eaten better this weekend. First, that taste-bud-tingling-extravaganza at Besenstiel, then the most romantic and secluded picnic up a mini-mountain followed by my dad's Masterchef-skills at BBQing. I think I may need to turn up the motivation to work-out.


I've left you with some pics from our saturday picnic

Setting up our picnic spread

 A whopping 60Fr.- worth -->  it even included a single bought piece of sashimi sushi

 Preparing my tummy for the feast

 Being silly with the shopping bag

 ♥ joining in

 Packing up  (before a farmer finds us on his land)