Sledding in Uetliberg

This is an old post (end November, just managed to finish it now!)

It's been snowing non stop in Zurich. It lets up for a couple of hours and again the snowstorm starts. Sometimes its mild- you can walk in it, and sometimes its really stormy, its difficult to even drive. The highest temperature over the last few days has been + 1 and its mostly -2 or -3 degrees during the day and much colder at night. The downside is that the car gets covered in snow and every trip to the school and back or anywhere needs to more minutes to scrape off the snow, sit in the car with the heater on so that the windows clear and only then you can go. Of course the driveway will be completely snowed in so either you have to shovel an exit for yourself, or take your car 3-4 times over the snow so that i can get out. And its very cold..brr..2 mins outside without a cap or gloves and your hands feel numb, or you get a headache.
The upside is that its so beautiful - there's a huge blanket of snow over everything and it looks amazing. The fir trees are snow covered and the drive to the girls school is through some field and the landscape looks amazing all covered in snow, especially when the sun is out. Its so bright you need to wear goggles to look at the snow. And the best thing about the snow- sledding! Or sledging, i don;t know what is the proper term for it.
Our kind neighbour gave us his two sleds- they were used by his kids when they were young but they are in great condition. And when it snows like this in Zurich everybody heads to Uetliberg where there's a 3 km trail down the mountain. The whole exercise was pretty exhausting though. Cars are not allowed all the way to the top of Uetliberg mountain so parked at the nearest station. The GPS didn't tell us that the last 800 m was restricted access, so we actually had to park away from the station and walk 800m . and with two sleds and two whiny girls (ok they were fine on the way up, but exhausted on the way down!) it felt pretty long!
The train was very crowded (I think the whole of Zurich was on the train headed for the mountain) and there was barely room to stand, let alone manage two cranky kids and sleds.  At the top it was easy enough to spot the start of the sledding course. The hubby took S (and zipped away) while I took A and began a more cautious downhill journey. While it was a 3 km downhill trail, a lot of it was very gentle slopes or flat ground so often we had to get down and pull the sled, or sit on it and push hard. The steeper parts were fun but i couldn't go full speed as A was getting frightened. Being Switzerland it was not at all child protected, meaning if you took a curve too fast you could literally fall off the mountain so that made me more cautious but we ended up falling hard once (but not over the mountain!).
It was good fun, the steep stretches made up for the effort of the flat stretches and the whole thing took about 40 minutes. I'd read up on it before going and when i mentioned to the hubby that it could take 40-45 mins he laughed and said to come down the mountain? that should take 2 mins! Now we know.

The return journey was tiring. We ended up at a train station before the one we had parked at. So we had to catch a very full train heading towards the mountain and get off before the stop everyone gets off so there was much pushing and nudging and stepping on toes , that too carrying the sleds but we managed! The Mumbai locals, Bandra-Churchgate experience came in handy! I lost my gloves in the train and my hands literally froze on the 800 m stretch back to the car. It did not help that A who was exhausted and cold by now kept whining and i had to carry her and the sled.

It was fun, but we won't do that again in a hurry! I thought i was decently fit now with the regular running on the treadmill but all my joints and muscles were aching the next day.

Travelling with sick kids

Travel with kids is by itself tough. But travelling with sick kids is one of the most difficult experiences I've had. I've managed quite a bit of travel alone with S and A - from India to Zurich a couple of times with a stopover at Frankfurt or London and its been ok. I've even managed a couple of hours sleep on a day flight when A was napping and I've somehow managed not to be utterly at my wits end by the end of the journey.
Still i looked forward to the US trip since the hubby would be accompanying us on both legs and i thought finally I'd be able to watch a couple of movies, have a glass of wine, generally relax a bit.
But that was not to be.
A got a ear infection a couple of days before our return, and the day of our return S got the flu. As a result both kids were unwell and extremely cranky on the journey back. The flight from Chicago to Munich was a night flight and at the time of booking we thought we would get a good 7 hours sleep on the flight. Of course that was not to be. One or the other was continually restless and their hours of overlapping sleep was about 3 hours. And exactly at that time a most irritating girl sitting behind us decided to tell the guy sitting next to her the story of her life. And she continued in her loud voice for more than an hour. So totally we got about 2 hours of sleep.

And then we landed in Munich with two sick, sleep deprived kids. They refused any breakfast and had to be carried all the way to the connecting flight. Luckily they slept while waiting for the connection and on the flight from Munich to Zurich but at as luck would have it, one of our luggage pieces did not connect so we had an hour extra wait at Zurich to fill up the form for missing luggage. S was extremely tired and nearly asleep on the trolley and A kept crying sitting on the trolley asking to be carried.
We reached home at 6 pm and after feeding the kids some maggi and preparing their dinner i took S to the doctor to get some medicines to relieve her. It was 9 pm by the time we got back and we were all so exhausted.

Unfortunately it did not get much better in the following days. Both the girls had jet lag and took turns in staying up and when S was not sleeping she was unwell. I know i sound like a terrible unloving mother but the high point of the last week has been dropping both of them at school on Monday morning and looking forward to a few hours of peace and quiet!

Our trip itself was great fun but the return back and the last few days have been so frustrating that I'm starting to wonder whether it makes sense to take these trips with long time differences and lengthy flights unless its at least a month long!

Norway trip - Oslo

We did a 7 day trip to Norway in August, just after the kids and I returned from India. It was very hectic because we left the day after we got back, but luckily none of us had any jet lag, and the kids were remarkably well behaved (touch wood) on the flight back from India so I was not at my wits end.
We flew into Oslo and spent 3 days there. We had rented a service appartment in the centre of the city and that was good because a) the food is awful there, especially if you are vegetarian , and b) because we didn't have our car we could walk or take the public transport to the major locations

Let me start by saying that Norway is extremely expensive, even by Zurich standards which is saying a lot. The taxi ride from the airport to the service appartment was astonishingly high and we promised to use as much public transport or our legs as possible.

The first day we went to Bygdoy Peninsula. Its a really beautiful country area to walk in and full of musuems. We misread the bus directions and ended up walking some 2 km ( I had not brought A's stroller along (why ?) so there was much carrying and much of motivating to walk.) I saw the bus when we had nearly reached our destination after the long trek and thereafter I put myself in charge of figuring out the public transport! We started at the Norwegian Folk Museum. A quaint place depicting life as it would have been in the last century - with a typical bakery, pharmacy , bank etc. There was  live folk singing and dance,  farm animals and a modern playground which kept S and A engaged. I would say, worth a visit only if you have time.

Folk singing and dancing















Then after lunch at a local restaurant- seemed to be somebody's house converted into a restaraunt which was set in really beautiful surroundings but had a really limited menu we set out for the Viking Ship Museum. Very interesting. It had 3 preserved Viking boats and we could just imagine the Vikings rowing out on them!

                                            Viking boat

The second day we went to Frognerparken which has the famous Vigeland Park, with sculptures by  Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures are really amazing, very detailed and realistic. The part of the park surrounding the sculptors has rows and rows of beautiful roses. The girls had a blast running through them. S wanted to collect pink petals, but agreed to only pick those fallen on the ground. At the other end of the park is a children's play area. It had pretty unique stuff with many ropes and bridges, and doubles swings and the kids spent a happy hour there. So the park turned out to be a good outing both for the kids and for us.

Sculpture dedicated to the Holocaust                                                                                

Play area















In the afternoon we decided to walk around downtown Oslo. Very pretty. There was an outdoor jazz concert at one of the places, and the whole atmosphere was amazing. The Opera House is beautiful,  overlooking the harbour.


View from Aker Brygge
Both evenings we went to Aker Brygge around dinner time. It has a lovely view of the harbour and is a nice play to just relax, watch the sunset and have a glass of wine. There are a whole host of restaurants overlooking the harbour. We were surprised to see so many American restaurant chains - TGIF etc which we don't see in Zurich. Probably a lot more American tourists here.





All in all I really liked Oslo. It was a modern city but very scenic and beautiful, lots of things to see and do and a nice place to just hang around. We were lucky with the weather, it was cold (we needed sweaters in August) but it wasn't raining at least.

Why do they grow up?

They are so cute at this age. The other day i went to pick up A from the daycare and i found all the kids  in a dark room huddled around a light. They were making wishes. I asked A what she wished for. She said ' for mummy'.  My heart could melt just then. I told her, your wish has come true, here I am.

And then you have S. She had a playdate with someone in her class and she wanted to go with her mom directly from school. She had done this once before and started crying halfway through the playdate so i told the mom that A and I would also come along. But S would have none of it. She insisted on going alone and said that I should not come. I had to finally go there an hour later under the pretext that A wanted to play with her friend's younger brother!

Bunk Beds

We finally bit the bullet and got a bunk bed for the girls. Basically S already has a car bed so we bought a bed which fits on top of that and stairs to get up. The hubby made a slide to come down the other side. Yes, you heard right, he made the slide. Bought the wood pieces from Jumbo, had them sawed to the correct dimensions, then sandpapered it at home, hammered in the nails attaching the sides to the slide and voila it was done.
Of course that was not as easy as it sounds and it took three evenings to make it. The bunk bed had to be assembled as well and all in all the making of the bed and the slide was a major activity at home.

S now sleeps on the top, and slides down in the morning when she gets up. A sleeps on the bottom on the car bed (I wish!).  I lie down with her on her bed and she goes to sleep. Then she wakes up somewhere between 1 and 3 am and cries. So either i lie down with her again till she sleeps, or else if I'm too tired i bring her to our bed. I guess she has to get used to waking up and being alone- we've tried to convince her that she's not alone since S is on top, but i guess old habits are hard to break!

The slide is great fun and the girls have invented a new game of throwing toys on top and watching them slide down. Initially the wood was a bit rough and A went on it and refused to go again. The hubby had to put some wax and smoothen it and then only it was good enough for the fussy madam. This highly sanitised place has ruined her I say, even the slides in the playground have tyres at the bottom to absorb the shock!

I wonder how they managethat

Last week was super busy with children's activities and at the end of it i was left wondering how people with more than two kids manage!
The week schedule went like this :
Monday: We had a playdate for S after school, I was to pick up her friend and bring her home and her mom would pick her up after a couple of hours. Of course this has to be the day my car got a flat tire and there was no stepney in the back. So i had to call emergency services and they came and changed the tyre. In between all this excitement i was getting late to pick up S so i had to take a cab, and from the school the mom whose child i was bringing home for the playdate gave me and A a lift back to A's school where i had parked my car while waiting for the emergency services guys. And what of S and her friend you may ask. I requested another mom whose daughter I had invited for a playdate (alongwith the mom who is a good friend) to take the three kids to my place while i went to A's school and figured out what was happening to my car. Luckily the emergency services guys had been there while i was at S school and the car was ready for me to drive home but they had left a message that this was a temporary tyre to be replaced asap. The mom picked up her daughter from our house at 7 pm and i quickly fed the girls their dinner and collapsed in bed

Tuesday: In the morning I took the car to the Renault showroom and they said they would put the winter tyres on since i had brought the car in, but it would take the whole day and i could pick up the car in the evening. So A and i left the car there and went to a friend's place (who has a daughter A's age). In the afternoon we had to take a bus and train and walk 1/2 km to pick up S from school and the whole process took 2 hours (what usually takes 45 mins!). Then in the evening we had to again take the tram and bus to reach the showroom and pick up the car and we were finally home at 7!

Wednesday : We had a coffee morning with the Indian moms in S school (finally some activity for me!)  but i had to leave early to pick up A from school. After S school pick up she had her swimming class, then we rushed back home and the hubby was home early to look after S while I took A to her school for turnip carving and celebration of the Raebli festival. The below post talks about this festival-that one was a much larger celebration over the weekend -
http://newinzurich.com/2012/11/06/rabechilbi-and-rabeliechtli-umzug-in-richterswil-saturday-10th-november/ carving and Raebli festival.
The one near A's school was a local celebration where children and parents walked in a procession with handcarved turnips with candles inside. We were invited to the school at 5 pm to carve the turnip to be in time for the procession starting at 6:30 pm. But given S swimming lesson and tons of traffic on the way home i reached only at 5:45 and that gave me very less time to do this complex turnip carving which i had never done before. Basically you have to cut off the head of the turnip, scoop out the inside and make it nearly hollow, carve out designs on the outside, then cut holes on the top so you can out thin ropes through it which the child can use to hold the lantern (the turnip with the candle inside). Well my turnip was not so well hollowed out, and consequently the skin was too thick to carve out any great decorations and the the whole lantern was too heavy for A to hold so I had to carry it instead. So it did not look anything like the beautiful lanterns you can see in the blogpost above! And to top if off A was really tired after sitting through S swimming class, then doing the pumpkin carving with me and she made me carry her for half the procession. I  finally gave up halfway because i could not carry her, a heavy turnip and a big diaper bag! Still it was fun and I wanted to do some activity for A and with her. The other day i went to do cooking at S school and she told A about it and A got very upset and insisted that i come and cook in her school. Which of course i cannot do as it is a creche and not a school. So now i can talk about this and tell her when she and i carved turnips together and walked in a procession. By the time we got home it was 7:30 and we were both exhausted!

Thursday : S had her ice skating lesson after school on Thursday, and after that there was a lantern walk in the woods at her school!!! It was 'optional' being after school hours but of course they had hyped it up so much in school and all her friend were going and she had been making her lantern in german class that we had to go. The ice skating class is close to her school so the plan was i would be back in school after the ice skating class at 5:30 and the hubby would come there to pick up A so I could go with S for her lantern walk. The school had warned that since we were going into the woods it wouldn't be easy with a stroller. But  there was bad traffic that day and the hubby reached the school only at 6 pm by which time i was nearly 1/2 way done with the walk. In the end it wasn't so bad since I took the stroller for A and the track wasn't that terrible. But both girls were freezing by the end of the walk, it was quite cold and we were all pretty tired when we got home. But the walk was a nice experience for S, she lit the lantern she had made in school and carried it the whole way. in the woods the teacher lit a bonfire and the children sang German songs and ate bread (which they had baked in school, was most yucky!) and had fun. On the way back the candle inside our lantern went off so S had to use her torchlight.

Friday : In the morning a class mom came over and we cut out the Diwali craft we are going to do at S school next week,.Again after school another activity for S, she had a birthday party of one of her classmates to attend. The people here i notice in general are quite fussy about only the child invited attending and not the siblings of the invitee (back home of course we would say the more the merrier) and i did not know the mom that well so i could not impose A on her. So after ferrying S to the party i put A in her stroller and wondered what i would do for the next 2 hours in this cold weather - it was too far to drive back home and come back. Luckily the party was in a hotel which had an ice skating rink and playground below. A did not want to go on the polar bears on the ice skating rink but when we went to the playground we found two other of the class moms with their younger ones. So these three played together for quite a while, we had a cup of coffee at the bar (amazing view of the lake, and the ice skating rink all lit up, to be done at leisure one day without kids!) and then it was time to pick up S. S had a great time at the party- there was some clown to entertain them and when we reached up the children had balloon swords and were fighting with each other. By the time we wound up it was 6:30 and we were supposed to be at a friend's place for dinner at 7 pm, But it was next door to the party place and made no sense to drive all the way home and back, so we just went over for dinner. The kids slept early so we could have a nice conversation over wine for a change!

Saturday : We DID NOTHING !!!! Basically recovering from the week of activity

Sunday : We had a Diwali potluck at a friend;s place. That went on from 12:30 pm till 7 pm! But good friends, teen patti and dumb charades. Good fun. And the kids played kids dumb charades too, watched too much TV and played too much I Pad!

The week was just too exhausting. And this is with two kids and me not working. Wonder what will happen when A has her own activities or if i get a job! Anyway Happy Diwali for now,  have a great year!

They say the darndest things

Why are kids so brutally honest. I was at the receiving end of it twice in the last week.
The first time we were at a friend's place and she had made aloo paratha for all the kids. It was getting late, so as soon as S finished one i told her we had to leave. She wanted another, so i said we'll go back home and I'l make one for you. And she said " You don't make it as nicely as H aunty!"
And then a few days after that, i decided to make cookies at home. One of S friend's mom had come into school and baked cookies with the children and S loved the cookies and kept asking when we can bake. And my sis in law had given us these really cute cookie cutter shapes and baking utensils for the kids which i wanted to use. I bought the Betty Crocker recipe where all you really need to do is add water and oil, but i managed to screw that up as well by keeping the cookies in the oven for too long and it became too crisp. S ate one and said its not as nice as the one N's mom made. Moreover when i asked her if she wants to bake cookies again a few days later she said no ! :(
I hope she always retains her honesty!