carnival in a small village, why i hate these events.

today was carnival in our tiny town of tegna. i hate going. on these occasions, the foreigner still stands out, even if he or she is integrated. integrated, well, so so. people will talk to you when you are one-on-one. but when there is an event like this, no one will come up to you. not to me anyway. this year hubby dear was not in the kitchen helping out to cook risotto, he was just there as a visitor. so i promised i would go and i did dragging the moment of going as far out as i could. there was still some laundry to hang up, the kitchen had to be cleared. i explained to him in the morning why this for me is such a terrible occasion. i feel left out, so i rather stay home. and people are there to look and judge, not in a nice way. in the course of the day he had to agree that it might be better to stay home. we were confronted with a family who always tries to make other people black. it was so sickening to see people not saying hello when they usally do, whispering behind the backs of others. persons prying to know what is going on in others' home. next year at least i do not have to explain why i am not going anymore. i am done with this kind of small town life.

iceskating

watching the news on dutch tv tonight. oh dear, there is a fever going on in holland. with the biggest concentration up north, in friesland. people are getting ready to go. sitting at kitchentables covered with newspapers, a rag in hand and some grease in a tin. preparations. this time it is true. there will be iceskating on natural ice. the best thing there can be. so get your skates ready, we are off. something i so miss where i live. i recall my childhood, outside the hague. after elementary school, in the months of december and january, we would run home and pick up our skates and go out as fast as possibile. we would be skating on small ditches and man made lakes until after dark. never wanting to go home, even with feet frozen off. it was the best time of the year. growing older, we would skate where ever the frozen water would bring us and at the end of the day we would catch a bus or train to take us back home. it was always a big adventure. where would we go, and the most important question...would the ice hold us? we were used to listen to the ice to squeak. we would know how fast a tear would rip thru the ice from the rumble and know if we would be safe. stamping on the solid floor "clonk, clonk" ... yes, this is thick enough. riding against the wind, in a geese mars, so the first would become the last every so often to have a break . with a newspaper under your sweater to keep in the heat and the cold out. there would be stalls with 'koek en zopie' in strategic points, where you could heat up a bit with some hot chocolate and cookies. i was so lucky to grow up in a time where there was no doubt about it that one could skate every winter. the last years i have been following what is going on in holland. happy people, sad people, waiting, measuring, ice thick enough, ice not thick enough, elfstedentocht(11-city tour 220 km in friesland) or an alternative somewhere in sweden. i wish the old days with cold weather would come back, it was so great. no one should miss out on this experience.

last day of xmas vacation

what a pity, it is over. the days of lounging around and bringing kids to the slopes. got most of the xmas deco down. not all, that hurts too much. was on the phone the other day with a dutch guy. the dutch are crazy....... about skiing. the ones that like to ski, do it all year round. the town where my mother used to live, zoetermeer, has its own indoor skiing paradise. so even in summer you see people going in, dragging ski's and snowboards along. when i was small, before these indoor ski domes, people used to practice skiing on pine needles in the dunes. can you imagine that?! so the guy i was talking to, said he was going to austria for a week of skiing. leaving at 11 pm, after a day of working, driving all night, and then he would expect to be at the point of destination at 8am. then they would go for a little breakfast and then off hitting the slopes. and this is a story you hear from almost everyone. the last day they will ski until about 4 pm, pack and drive back and go to work the day they arrive. no relaxing at all. can you understand now why there are so many 'plaster flights' going from all places back to holland?!

dutchwomanabroad@gmail.com

new year 2012

last night i was really missing the dutch tradional treats we eat on new years eve. our famous oilballs and applejacks. my family members will say 'yuk' and my thighs would balloon up even more if i had to eat all i would make. but one or two wouldn't have been misplaced. is it a good thing or a bad thing that i can go to bed at 11 pm and can sleep thru until the next morning? lordie, lordie, it seems like we live in a resort for the elderly. no fireworks starting at 4 pm and going on until 4 am the next day. no neighbors walking the streets with a bottle of champagne at midnight kissing and  maybe a bit of brawling. i, ahum, we, usually, the last 5 years or so, spend the 31st at home alone. it is not my night of the year, i get a bit depressed, another year full of sh.. gone, and i hate all agitation about 'the new year', that everything will be different. i think 'new year, same sh..'. hubby falls asleep at his usual 7.50 pm and i will sit under the hood in the kitchen with a book, smoking and drinking by myself. boys went off to locarno this year with friends. and if you sit at home alone, as i do, and eventhough it is not my evening, it still would be nice to go out the door at midnight and see some people. a no-go around here. but then going to bed early gives you a great start in the new year with no hangover and the 1st of january is not a wasted day.

wishing you all a great 2012. x

xmas day 2011

sitting here on the sofa, pondering how i will fill my time, it came to me ..... time to write. getting a cup of tea ready, lunch has been eaten. a very easy one, bread and salmon, cheese and other goodies. so how come i do not have a big xmas lunch with the family as the italian tradition preaches? first off, how can one have a xmas lunch with sun outside would be my question to the enquirer. it is so not inspiring. that is what i found out the 25th of december 1993. i was on my own in locarno, sun and no snow. i took myself up the mountain towards s. bernardino above locarno. lordie, what was that day hot. it must have been 10 degrees or more, like today, and i got into a real sweat. but back to the italian lunch now. most people i hear, are complaining about having the family and inlaws at the house on first xmas day. i don't complain, i just do not have them over. after our children were born, we had a couple of times lunch at my hubbies parents' place, then another couple of times at my sister-in-law's house. i hated it. throwing away a day sitting around, being bored. the one day in the year that you are allowed to do nothing. and then there is nothing christmassy about the day when it feels like spring. feeling that it was my turn to organize something i said ok, but on my terms. doing it as my german heritage dictates it, the evening of the 24 th. it seemed that the whole world crumbled. it was a no go for the italian minds. well, either that or nothing at all. hubby dear was pulled over after a bit of fighting. my big motive was how will you enjoy my xmas decorations during daytime. i spent loads of time to pull everything together. my house, my rules, so it went the way i wanted it. we did it a couple of years in a row. big succes, not lasting too long, and a long day afterwards to recover from heartburn and other stuff. then i quit because i thought it would be time for my brother-in-law to take action for once. that never happened. yesterday we had another go at it, after we escaped it for 2 or 3 years in a row. my parents-in-law are getting older and i thought it would be nice to have all four grandsons around the table for once. everyone really appreciated it, it was nice. but this morning the man of the house said next year, no party, just the four of us is enough. we are lazy buggers, and pj-huggers.

merry xmas to all of you!

what about snow this year?

december 11th, mountains brown, no snow to be seen from our house. i looked on the website of bosco gurin and there is a little white to be seen. i long to see some rain and snow. big son asked me when there would finally come some heavenly water. if i say that i need rain, people here get very upset. why would someone want rain or snow?well, i suppose it is something which helps us to keep alive! after 2 hours all ticino people are fed up with down poor, and it is not as if they are always outside and in that moment they are confined to stay put. i love rain and snow because it relaxes my brain and it tells me it is okay to nothing for once in a while. me, big egoist, loves the snow for myself and family. a lot of ticino people do not think about the economic side of snow for this part of the country. we have some really nice little skiing areas and i hope they will be around for a long time. so to keep them going...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

december

'sinterklaas has left'. well, almost, pigging out on 'pepernoten' as i write. i went to holland twice in the last month, so i had all the time to get the sweets we need to celebrate sinterklaas. i was in holland just the days before our number 1 celebration, and i was sad to see that they was hardly any decoration, there was no sinterklaas in any of the big departmentstores to receive children. a big change from a couple of years ago. my sons sat often in sinterklaas' lap to tell him what they would like to get. i saw only 4 zwarte pieten, the old guy's helpers. it was really a downer. people do celebrate the event on the evening of the 5th still in a big way, bigger than christmas. when i flew back to switzerland, my big sons for the evening 'believed' again. they will do anything to get a gift. i recall the times that we celebrated it with another dutch family and other nights just my little family. so much excitement, frightened children hearing zwarte piet knock on the door. but now sinterklaas is out of the door and we are getting ready for xmas. in holland it is usually not celebrated with gifts. it is a day for love and world peace. having a german mom, i was a lucky girl that i got gifts twice in december. we also do xmas for our family, but not in such a lavish way as sinterklaas. my sons know that. people will ask me what dutch people eat traditionally on the 25th. i haven't got a clue.....rabbit? my mother always did 'chicken fondue' with broth on the 24th, very easy always does it;) decorations are up now. the next thing we will do is starting to think about dinner. for a couple of years we did nothing. 3 days of pj's, xmas movies and leftovers. heaven! this year i thought it would be nice to have the inlaws over(for them, they are getting old)....i might regret it...not because of this extended family, but because i hate having to do to much. a lot of work for what? my dinner would be a bottle of wine accompanied by a piece of cheese. i am also born with the dna easy does it. but no it will not be like that:(  hubby dear and his mother have been talking. i had to bring 'gerookte paling'(smoked eel) from the fish guy on the 'albert cuyp' market in amsterdam. they blabbered on about in what way he should cook the shrimp. cold or warm shrimp, that is still the question. we have to have something not fish based for the boys who do little fish. i am famous for my pies.....so you can imagine what i have to do. i will be glad when that night is over. and then we will live up to the 31st. 'oliebollen', tradional  dutch sweet grease balls(yes we do have a dutch cuisine), delicious, i might think about it to make them. and what we will be doing that evening.....i am famous for going to bed at 10. i don't give a d... about that evening. new year...same sh.. that is my motto. why should i wait up for that? anyway, i wish all of you happy holidays. a big 'smack' to you from dutchwomanabroad