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Last pumpkin carved

 

The family 

Carvin' pumpkins with the two Es

The weekend came and went by too quickly (I find myself saying yet again). On Saturday, I persuaded E to stop by one of the blumenfeld near our home to pick up some pumpkins for our first ever Halloween-carvin activity as a family (we were short of time but we managed to squeeze it in).

LE and I fell in-like with the giant orange pumpkins - but in the end, we opted for quantity and practicality (i.e. ability to carry): taking home 3 small pumpkins and 1 butternut squash.

We started carving the pumpkins on Saturday and continued yesterday - splitting the butternut squash into two to make the task easier. I tried to roast the seeds in the oven - this didn't work out too well (see the burnt seeds below?). We have 1 more pumpkin left to carve this evening which should amuse LE. He has been excited, watching us handle the pumpkins and is especially relishing the task of switching off the lights to see them glowing in the dark.

25 ways to wear a scarf - a brilliant video

Watch this video! Here I was, just sticking to just one style. 

 

Lunch (el weekend)

Our lunch after spending the morning food shopping: Roast chicken (in white wine and curry) served with rockets and cous-cous. We collected LE prior to going shopping. He had his favourite garbanzo (with some spinach snuck in) cooked by his dad not long after we got home and was fast asleep by the time the chicken was cooked. We are sitting around relaxing before LE wakes up. I do like our weekend routines.

Dangly earrings

Here is a picture of some of my spoils from Mulhouse. I'm inspired to wear dangly earrings now, after seeing how nice they look on my course mates and some of the facilitators. I hardly change my earrings and often wear studs day in day out. Yesterday I wore the pink-purple ones; this morning I'm sporting the green ones.

I'm back home from the student house.

It was certainly a challenge to cycle back home. Especially uphill. Egad. The weather was summer-like (hot even! Amazing grace - in October?) and I had with me, not only my winter coat, which I slung on top of the handlebar, but also my school shoulder bag holding together my ipad, E's computer, papers (all of which I needed for my assignment on Wednesday). I also had another bag hanging from the other handle, containing some of the stuff I bought from Mulhouse. I was reluctant to leave too many things behind at Z's place for collection on Monday, mindful of taking up precious space in the small room.   

I had a lovely time hanging out with the three girl friends (Z, R and N). Indeed, I had tried to post something about them earlier, using typepad-app on iphone but it seems as if the post has disappeared into thin air. Typepad can be a pain sometimes. %$£.  To recap on the main points:   I'm lucky to have found like-minded people so fast. The girls are very warm, friendly and easy to talk to - I feel like I've known them longer than a few months. They started the course earlier this year, so unfortunately will be leaving next month.     

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Spending quality time with Z: Both R and N had prior engagements after we came back from Mulhouse, so it was just Z and me last night. We opened a bottle of white and sat up watching this film (I found the cinematography beautiful and colourful and the storyline captivating). This morning, like yesterday, Z prepared breakfast for the both of us, carefully assembling the ingredients on top of the small fridge in her room. I asked Z whether the breakfast (orange juice, coffee, bread, cheese, meat and apples) was typical where she came from. Yes. Better ingredients after the Soviets had left: it was possible to buy orange juice from the supermarket! I described to her what traditional breakfast in Malaysia was like and could see her eyes widen. I love my course - if not for it, I would have not met all these interesting people I am spending time with now - learning all about their alternative lives. 

Breakfast at Z's

 

Another night at the student house

I decided to join the girls and embarked on the train to nearby Mulhouse (France) yesterday instead of biking home as initially planned. It was a lovely day - we went to quick epil and then rewarded ourselves with some much needed wine which we enjoyed in the sunny outside.

Afterwards, we walked around and shopped, seduced by the chic french style around us. Late dinner and a train back to Basel and another night at the student's house as it was too late to bike home.

The good news is that unlike yesterday, I now have fresh clothes to wear. The question is which one to wear to bike home (Mulhouse had so many nice offerings and I indulged on more than one; definitely will have to bring the G there when she comes here).

Otherwise, E arrives home from Beijing later tonight. Yay.

 

2 off - 1 to go

Pftttttttt my immediate work is done! Essay on media submitted last night at 10pm.

I'm now at the students house. An unplanned overnight stay to finish my work at school.

Will write more soon! Another picture from the Swiss mountains.

Guess what? I'm still busy with my assignments

I would like to type about my weekend but tonight - my main task is to finish two projects. 

The first one is the essay I've been procrastinating on (relating to the role of media). I realised this afternoon, while talking to a mate, that my inaction for this particular essay is partly due to my ambition to produce a brilliant paper ("partly" because I also know I've been enjoying myself with the internet before my computer screen died).  I'm reminded by my foolishness regarding great expectations and self-induced paralysis relating to PhD Chapter 3 in c.2003.

The second task promises to be more fun. It was assigned today and is unfortunately due first thing tomorrow. We are to set up a business proposal with the aim of providing "value", for example a service/product which generates some financial gains while also eradicating (or trying to) some structural violence like hunger, illness, etc. I accepted the challenge to work with others I'm unfamiliar with and a few hours ago we finalised the details of this business venture (making and selling wooden furniture whilst trying to help provide employment and a sense of community for marginalised former child soldiers). It's exciting because we are using the background countries and real-life situations faced by two of our members  (from here and here). The presentation is tomorrow and I'm in charge for all things financial - so I get to potter around with excel model tonight. Yipee.

Right then, off I go. In the meantime, here are some more pictures from the trip. I took them while we were on the train climbing up the mountains.  

 

Quick one for now

A new week and I'm behind schedule with essays due to procrastination. In fact, one deadline is looming dangerously close... So no faffing about until I've completed the piece of work. In the meantime, I'm sharing with you some pictures taken on my iphone from the weekend trip -my first time up in the Swiss mountains and in wintery conditions at that. The scenery as I mentioned before was beautiful; I can understand why the Swiss lurve their mountains. I will write more when I have some time.