A Trolley Full of Calories

Probably it is a trait found more in woman. Inquisitiveness. But then you could say it’s because we are just more interested in certain things.

Standing in line at the Supermarket for instance. I don’t know about you, but I always look at what everybody else has in their trolley,and in the few seconds it takes to look, I build my opinion about them,which I must admit isn’t always noble. Maybe because there are more and more people buying things who are having difficulty fitting in the food lines.

Yesterday the very overweight young woman in front of me put a large packet of Florentines,a delicious,toffee type cookie of fruit and nuts coated with a heavy layer of milk chocolate on one side. (Yes I will post the recipe) Plus a jumbo pack each of M and M’s, and Maltesers, a one kilo bag of refined sugar and a bottle of red wine. (Nothing against a glass of red wine of course)

There are people out there,like my blogging colleague Joe Felso who have started counting calories,and I wonder why more people can’t do it, for we all Know what obesity brings us, and it isn’t as though the food that make us fat is cheap.

Why can’t the food stores scan the calories as well as the price.

In Switzerland all medical care must be paid for. It is very good but very expensive,and health care insurance costs rise each year. We now have thousands of families in the county where I live alone, who can’t afford health insurance or pay for a doctor to treat their sick children, because others can’t discipline their eating habits and are making themselves chronically ill which we all have to pay for.

I think it is time Insurance companies gave some kind of bonus to people that could verify a certain weight loss over a years period,then there might be an incentive to count calories and eat healthier.

The Shape of Things to Come

Allegedly it was a hearing mistake, but it made me wonder,especially as I find myself doing some of the oddest things these days.

An elderly lady while using the Self Check In at Stockholms’ Arlanda Airport, instead of putting her bags on the conveyor belt layed down on it herself and disappeared into the darkness of the luggage hatch.

According to the Airport Authorities the personal on the other side managed to “sort out” the seventy eight year old out without any lasting damage.

Stupid Cows ?

I have often wondered wondered why cows can’t be more individual. Have you noticed too, how they all like to stand in the same direction when grazing? Probably the herding instinct I thought,or maybe like a veterinary professor once told me, because cows are just plain stupid.

Nothing of the sort,I have now learned,they posess a geomagnetic sixth sense.

Google Earth photographs of 8510 cattle on 308 pastures scattered over the globe showed that the tendency of all was to stand or sleep on a north -south axis,with their heads pointing towards the magnetic North Pole.

That is indeed individual.

A Bad Wife

Can’t seem to concentrate on anything these days. Time doesn’t flow by, it rushes like a raging torrent towards the last day of September.

Last week,even the pain returned,that which always makes itself evident in some kind of joint or muscle in my body when I am going through a bad patch. The medical practitioners call it wear and tear at my age. I call it something else. Whatever it is,it is something that is influenced by the cold and my mental attitude.

I have now done something which I don’t think a normal wife does, even when she has been married to the same man for thirty eight years. Maybe a normal woman wouldn’t either, I wonder if I am normal.

I saw an ad. in the paper “Apartment to rent in Thailand ”

My husband and I are both retired,and are lucky enough to be still in good health,with two lovely daughters who don’t need us any more and a cat that does.

We are not alike,in fact we don’t have the same interests in many things. But we did enjoy travelling, and always said we would do it more when we retired,and definitely we would go somewhere warm in the winter.

But we didn’t and we aren’t going to, for Hubby has become a home bird and quite satisfied to potter about in the garden. He likes the Swiss winters,with the cold and the wet,and his body doesn’t rebel them.

We talked about it, and we went to see the owner.The flat could only be let on a years basis but it was at a very reasonable price.

I could do what I liked he said,but he couldn’t see himself going there for more than a month.

I rented it,and I now have a ticket. Return of course.

I also have a very bad conscience.

The devil in me says I shouldn’t have, for thirty eight I have looked after home and family I have a right to do what I like now within reason, while there is time left.

But the other dutiful side of me,says wives don’t do that.They stay at home they cook and they clean,they shop, and they nurse for ever. and they don’t usually teach their husbands how to do it for themselves like I did.

Should I stay here because I once said “I do” is it my duty?

He could fly directly from Zürich if he misses me. I will be twelve hours away.

Olympic Medals and Chinese Lesson 5

Compared with the USA or China it’s nothing, but our little country has never been so successful in an Olympic Games since 1952,then Swiss athletes also won three medals in one day.

Gold for Fabian Cancellara, congratulations to the fastest man on a bike.

It almost makes me want to forgive the Kings of the Road here who can’t obey a traffic rule the moment they get their helmets on and their noses down.

Congratulations to Karin Thürig,also on a bike, and Sergei Aschwanden,bronze in believe it or not Judo.

And to all the other Athletes who have had their labours crowned, especially Michael Phelps who is phenomenal. Our neighbours up north are already murmuring that it gives food for thought. But then the days of the old DDR are long gone.

I’m just hoping that Roger Federer will win too,not so we have another medal, but because he’s one of the nicest people around and he deserves it.

Now if you want to say it in Chinese;

Zhu he Fabian,Karin,Sergei,Michael,….huo de jiang pai (tschoo hey F.K.S.M.hoo-o de chiang pie)

We congratulate…….to the medal.

Dipping a Brush in Water

I still try to paint.

Watercolour.

I don’t practice enough and I don’t let the creative side of me, if there is one, get the upper hand but slog along trying to copy others, whether books or teacher.

By chance a colleague of my husband visited us just as I was returning from art classes last month and I was forced to show him my work.

I don’t like showing people what I paint,I suppose I am a bit ashamed of it.

The colleague studied Art in Munich,although making a career in another field he still dabbles with paint and has had several successful exhibitions.

Mmm.

He told me to throw away all my small paintbrushes-did he realise they cost me the earth,-and buy the largest block of rough watercolour paper I could find.

He told my husband he thought I had talent.

A week later he came over again and brought me a Da Vinci brush, size 24, Jumbo, and a 50 page block of Torchon paper 36x48cm.

I don’t know what it was,the praise,the brush,or the paper.Maybe a combination of all three,but at last I am seeing results and feel that what I am now painting might be good enough to hang on a wall sometime.

I would like to pass on his advice to all other struggling and exasperated watercolour beginners.

Chinese Lesson 4

Zhong guo (tchong goo-ow)………China

zhong wen (tchong wen)……….Chinese

xue (shooa)……….learn

Keep at it.

Lick It

No need to worry anymore if there is no disinfectant around when you cut yourself.

Just lick it.

Laboratory tests in Holland have shown that a certain protein called Histatin which is present in saliva, besides having an antibacterial effect, also accelerates the healing process.

The Dutch scientists hope that from their new knowledge better treatment can be found for chronic wounds and burns.

So when you next tell a child who has cut themselves to “lick it better”,you can now be sure it will help.

Chinese Again

Hope you are sticking at it.

Todays words are;

Wo hen hao (wo hen how)…………I am well,or,I am fine

Wo jiao (wo jow)……….my name is

Wo schi rui (wo shee rooi)………I am from..

Birchermuesli, Perfect Food For The Olympics

Although I vowed I wouldn’t watch any of the Beijing Olympics, I found myself sitting in front of the television,excusing myself by saying I had to wish Roger, who was carrying the Swiss Flag,Happy Birthday.

The Swiss have now managed to win a bronze medal,so I am now committed to watch us beat the Chinese !

I live in the land of the original Birchermuesli.Nothing out of packets for me. It is the perfect food for watching the Olympics on TV. Nourishing, quick,easy and you don’t get a bad conscience looking at all those perfect bodies,because it doesn’t need to have many calories. It usually tastes better though for a good lashing of cream and sugar, brown of course.

Dr.Bircher-Benner 1867-1939, pioneer of whole food health and Birchermuesli introducer, might raise his eyebrows at mine, but basically it is the same as his, which is still served in the sanatorium he founded in Zürich.

You need;

A cup of dry rolled oats

soak in

2-3 cups of fluid, milk, milk/creme, milk/yogurt, or evaporated milk as preferred for about 30minutes.

add

2 apples,grated unpeeled,

1tablespoon of lemon juice (optional)

a handfull of chopped nuts (I like pecan or walnuts),

lots of berries, whatever you have,raspberries, blueberries,strawberries,etc

2 bananas sliced

other fruit if liked, peaches,plums,apricots,mango,chopped. (oranges or pineapple don’t combine well)

Sweeten with honey,brown sugar,or molasses.

Add more fluid if too dry, and serve with whipped cream if you are not counting calories.

In Switzerland Birchermuesli is often eaten with wholemeal bread and butter as a complete meal.

En Guete and let the best man (or woman) win.