A close-up and personal look at Switzerland
Coming from a war generation, Ben’s mom’s slogan was “Make new things out of old things”. There are a lot of ways to describe what they did: repurpose, reuse or my favorite, upcycle. Whatever you want to call it, it… Read moreBeing Creative with Old Things
Nothing is quite as American as brownies; small, square chocolate cakes. Brownies can be gooey, fudgy, or cakey. They can be topped with icing, powered sugar, whipped cream or anything else, or nothing at all. You can add nuts or… Read moreBrownies, American Style
The word barber is derived from Latin and means “beard”. There was a time when barbers were not only expected to shave and cut hair. They were also expected to do healing, medical procedures like bloodletting, extracting teeth and leeching… Read moreBarbershops in Switzerland
Ben’s dad had a basement full of wine that he bought so it could age. That was cool. Some were really old, too. Although Ben and I both don’t have any major wine knowledge we thought we could try, too…. Read moreBuying Wine from Giordano
A whisperer is a person who understands and can communicate with dogs and cats. They can get to the bottom of and reverse behavior or training problems. They can spot problems and give tips as what to do to solve… Read moreDog and Cat Whisperer
Remember the Christmas song “12 days of Christmas”? Many stores want you to believe the 12 days refer to before Christmas. Time to go out, buy gifts and crank up that economy. Thing is, the 12 days start on Christmas… Read moreEpiphany or Three Kings‘ Day
Switzerland likes to be on time. Trains, buses or fundamentally anything that has a schedule is dependent on being on time. Indisputably clocks and watches are an important part of daily life. Clocks Some people like the tic-tock sound clocks… Read moreClocks, Watches and Time
The Swiss call December 31st Silvester. Sylvester?! Stallone or the Looney Tunes cat? Those are the only two Sylvesters I know. Still, I’m pretty sure New Year’s Eve wasn’t named after either one of them. So why is New Year’s… Read moreTraditional New Year’s Eve
I’ve always associated Christmas with warm, family time and yes, always somewhat magical. For me it’s candles that do it. As I’ve mentioned before I had never seen real candles on Christmas trees before I came to Switzerland. Year after… Read moreMagical Christmas Moments
While going to work in Berne I often stopped at a local bakery. You always had to have something to eat at the 9 o’clock break. Those were the days when I could eat bakery goods including doughnuts without worrying… Read moreDoughnuts and their Names
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