It’s raining again, temperature 4°C. If that is all I have to report then we now have dull and boring days here. Today is yet another holiday, as it is St. Bartholomew’s day, the day after the New Year. I don’t know why we celebrate this day in Switzerland, just another day when the shops are closed, although not so much as it used to be. Since last Friday I was out once to try out my new wheelchair. I would have gone yesterday as well, but there was an icy cold wind blowing. Now I am slowly getting cabine fever.
Some shops are open today, including our supermarket, but I will be back a little in my old routine with cleaning bathrooms and such boring stuff. I bought enough food to tie us over until tomorrow.
I seem to have spent my end of year holidays with some cooking, a little bit of cleaning and trying out my new wheelchair. Otherwise a little bit of blogging and putting various jigsaw puzzles together online – a new hobby. I read on in my Joseph Roth classic book “Radetsky March”, about 3 generations of the Trotta Family im the K. und K. (Imperial and Royal) Dynasty of Austria in the second half of the 19th century, which was an interesting time. Kaiser Franz and his Sissi were leading the country. World War I had not yet broken out, but at the end of the book the preparations are beginning. There is also a duel in the book, which seemed to be a thing to do in those days if you happened to be an officer in the regiment and got insulted.
Even my newspapers were only online in the holidays with no great stories.
WordPress seem to be doing funny things again. If I happen to make a mistake in a comment I would press “Edit” and arrive in a window where I could correct it and update the comment. This window has changed, and now looks like something completely different. It does the same thing, but around 6 corners until you get where you want to be, and reposting the corrected comment has become very complicated. Again the question, why repair it when it is not broken.
Today I will be cooking rataouille for lunch, that mixture of various certain vegetables popular somewhere in the Provence area of France. I quite like it, and it does not have to have meat, as keeping stuff in the fridge for five days does not work well with meat. I have now discovered a new type of aubergine: the funny long violet stalks on the right. They are easier to cut and can also be cooked as a veg to other dishes. I am an aubergine fan and this time even the others like it. I am usually the only one in the family with the taste for this vegetable.
And now I will move on as I am sure my exciting day has now left you stunned. It can only get better. I will probably do a wheelchair excursion this afternoon with my camera to see what the world is doing outside my appartment. Tomorrow is the day when they let me out again to explore unknown territories, like the supermarket. Have fun and blog on, you never know what will cross your competer’s path.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
Those veggies look California grown, except in winter.
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We do import stuff from California, but not so much veg, more wine. It is too cold to grow the stuff outside in Europe now, but a lot comes from Holland where it grows under plastic. Some parts of the country look like a town for extra terrestrials in plastic.
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Yes, I saw pictures of that in Spain. This will be a bad year for wine because several wineries in Sonoma County burned.
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I don’t drink, but naturally tried the California wine. It seems very fruity to my unqualified wine taste.
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I do not like wine. (I actually do not like the wine industry either because it is so pompous, and takes up space that could be used for orchards.) I found that the few ‘fancy” wines that I have tasted from France taste like the rotten grape juice that they are. Italian wine is better I suppose; not that I would know. I still believe that California wine is the best. But, like I say, I do not drink wine or other beverages with alcohol in them. I got some Champagne last June at my #5 sister’s wedding.
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I also do not like wine so much, but it is an industry in Europe from various countries. Swiss wine is apparently quite good, and I know the various names, but as I don’t drink it I cannot pass an authorised comment.
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Happy New Year! Those purple veggies look like eggplants. I’m sure that you will create a tasty meal.
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They are egg plants, we call them aubergines. Up to now I got the normal sized dark coloured ones, but I find the long slender type better to prepared a cook. Happy New Year.
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Thanks. Happy 2018!
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When they sell us those long thin aubergines (and their paler cousins of the same shape) here in the NY area of the US, they call them ‘Japanese eggplants’. I think the taste and texture are usually superb, a more delicate non-fibrous feel to me than the larger jollier fat ones–your mileage may vary.
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I quite like them as I can serve them as a separate vegetable. Just some time frying slowly in butter does it a treat. Mr. Swiss still doesn’t like aubergines so much, but these are persuading him.
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I really don’t like their new edit/update comment box, but it isn’t as bad as some of their OTHER changes. At least once you figure out how it works, you can get back to the post. But you can’t add italic or bold or anything anymore.
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I am still trying to work it out. It is more complicated and I don’t see the sense in the alterarion. I have to turn 3 corners before I get to what want. I don’t like this one at all.
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