A weekend of healthy Alpine air

After a work trip to London on Wednesday (damn I do miss the place), I was back at Schiphol two days later for a trip to Zurich. A workfriend is doing a project in Zurich and opted for an apartment where she can stay the weekends rather than hotelling it Mon-Fri and flying home every weekend. When she suggested I'd come and visit, I didn't need to think long.


I'd been to Zurich once before, but only to our offices and some restaurant in town. So on this trip, I wanted to get to know the city. And I did! The forecast was cloudy and rather blegh but both Saturday and Sunday turned into wonderfully sunny days. We ate nice food (tapas and local fare), walked miles along the lake (with swans that don't belong to a queen), had a look around town (pretty), had a coffee at an old fashioned tea house that is apparently a pick up place for 70+ cougars (Sprüngli), and watched the All Blacks beat France (but only just...my heartrate went through the roof). We also stumbled upon a lovely coffee place, Babu's, where we had brekkie on Sunday morning, pre-match. A nice find. Great coffee, super friendly staff, and delicious bread. Also pretty affordable, for Zurich standards anyway. All in all a lovely weekend, and I came back completely recharged!

And of course we ate like a local too. This was Sunday lunch.

Books

Amsterdam just doesn't give me the energy levels London did so rather than being out and about a lot, I prefer to stay in most nights. A glass of red, a hot bath, Spotify and a book are perfect companions on those occasions. So despite no longer commuting by public transport, book or Kindle in hand, I still finish one book after another. And recently I read a couple I really enjoyed.

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the sixties, and is told from the perspective of two maids and a daughter of a cotton farmer. Skeeter, the cotton farmer's daughter, mourns the loss of the maid who was with her family for most of her life and is struggling to accept the racial views of her peers. Aibileen loves the child in her care more than the mother does, and Minny often gets in trouble for speaking her mind. Their stories come together when Skeeter decides to write a book with stories of the Jackson maids and asks Aibileen, her friend's maid, to help her. It's a wonderfully written book, painful to read at times, even more so when you realise how recent this history is, and how for some it's not even quite history yet (think KKK). It's touching and funny and I just loved reading it.

When I visited Washington DC last May I made sure to spend some time in Kramer's, one of my fav book stores. One of the titles I picked up was The Imperfectionists. It is basically a series of portraits of employees of an English language newspaper in Rome. The characters are so well defined, and the stories often so funny, it's hard to put the book away. It's an amazing debut by Tom Rachman. In several of the stories, the last few sentences completely change the picture you'd been painting in your mind. Very clever and charming.

Ian McEwan is very much hit and miss for me. I've loved some of his books yet almost hated others. A few reviews I read made me buy Solar. And I enjoyed this story of a womanizing scientist whose life went downhill after he won the Nobel Prize for his research. He sometimes made me cringe, in the way that David Brent from The Office does. But just like I would keep watching The Office, I kept reading Solar. There's a certain charm in the dodgy scientist, and the way McEwan portrays him troughout the book is brilliant.

Finally, having read a fair bit about the flick, I picked up One Day at a recent visit to Waterstone. A guy I follow on Twitter said he'd found it touching and I can see what he means. It tells the life of two friends on 15 July of every year from their graduation date onwards. A drunken snog then turns into a friendship where he becomes a womanising tv-personality while she dates an unsuccesful comedian, slaving away in a Mexican theme restaurant for years. It's a very easy read, and great company on grey autumn days.

Four positive reviews. Have I read any crap books recently? Not really, I think. Next is the Fry Chronicles, and I have high expectations of that one too!

New job

It's been a hectic month. Shortly after Barcelona I went to Frankfurt for work, wrapped up a project, and organised a client seminar at our offices. And I changed jobs. Pfew. Having had doubts about my old business unit since March or so, I still thought I should give it a go. But three months into it I realised it wasn't going to happen. So I graciously accepted the offer one of our actuarial partners made me earlier this year, and I joined the actuaries. As a non quant, I constantly feel like the least clever person around, but love the focus my work now has, and kinda feel at home in geek town. A week and a half into it, it's a bit early to say for sure, but I think it's been the right move. Everyone's more serious but super friendly. And it's amazing how much work you get done in the office if you're not mucking about half the time!

Barcelona!!

A disgrace. My friends' son Max turned 1 recently and I had seen him for about 45 minutes in his entire life. So I booked a ticket to Barcelona to properly introduce myself to the wee man and catch up with his awesome parents. They had moved since I last visited, and I instantly fell in love with Gracia, where they now live. It's lively, leftish, youngish and with loads of quirky shops and little restaurants. Some of the old locals can still be found gossiping on one of the many squares in the area.

In between playing with Max, we had a lovely time catching up and when Martin offered to stay home with Max, Elena and I went out and did some shopping. In my case two identical dresses in grey and black from a local brand. Which was the same dress Elena wore on our Friday night out. So not very original but hey, we're not really at risk of being at the same time at the same place wearing the same dress. Saturday evening was spent drinking Aperol spritzers in Barcelonetta, where the pic was taken. A great weekend, again!

Oh, and one thing: when Martin posted this pic on facebook, one of our mutual friends commented 'Saskia looks ready to be a mum'. I would advise not to interpret this pic as such, or you could get very disappointed. ;-)

Back in Blighty

Big Ben, a photo by Gypsy Saskia on Flickr.

It had been two months when I landed at City Airport on Thursday evening. Two months of missing London terribly. And it was good to be back. As soon as I got on the DLR this big grin appeared on my face and it didn't leave it all weekend (well it did briefly but I'll get to that later). Reason for the visit was my friend Heather's farewell drinks as she is moving back to New York. It was lovely to be back in The Hide, have a chilli raspberry martini and catch up with colleagues. For the rest of the weekend, brekkies, lunches and dinners were planned. I saw many friends, ate fantastic food, and managed to do some shopping as well. Heels from LK Bennett, tea and granola from Waitrose, books from Waterstones and bits and bobs from Boots. I visited Nero and Pret at least twice a day, reading the papers on my iPad while people watching.

The only 'minor' glitch was the fact I showed up at City Airport for a flight out of Heathrow. Oops. Expensive 'oops' too.... Hopefully a mistake I will never make again. But even after leaving the UK a few hours later and many a pound lighter because of this, I can look back on a fantastic weekend in the city where I'm at my happiest.

My 'hood

Blue doors, a photo by Gypsy Saskia on Flickr.

After seven or so weeks I still can't get too enthusiastic about the Lowlands, but I do really really love my neighbourhood. Every morning and every night I still admire the view from my bedroom window. But more than that it's the vibe I love. It's a good mixture of locals and foreigners, and has a villagy feel to it. People are friendly and there are heaps of nice restaurants and some great shops. I am o so happy I didn't give up my apartment before moving to London (though if I had I may not have come back but let's not go down that route).

Two weeks ago my friend Heather and her man came over from London, and next month it's Justin from Seattle. Next Viv from London. And hopefully there'll be some friends of friends who need a place to crash sometimes as well. Love having guests and showing them non-touristy Amsterdam. It may not be London but it's still a decent place!

Settling in

I could write blogs and blogs about things I don't like at the moment. Settling back in is tougher than I thought it'd be. Work culture is different (fewer laughs, more hierarchy), the people act differently (Dutch men don't do courteousness), and don't get me started about supermarkets and canteen lunches. But let's not write about that. It would only make me more miserable. I try and focus on the things that are fun in this place.

Like Lindenhoff. Major Dutch supermarket chains don't do organic/local food very well, but there are alternatives. One is Marqt, a local supermarket chain that really really really should open a branch near me. Another one is Lindenhoff, a farm that's a 30 minute drive from the Dam. It's proper countryside. People ooh and aah at the (very cute) piglets, knowing they'll be bacon when they're old enough. Having had a decent life, by then. The farm shed hosts a little shop where the farm's meat is sold, as well as cheeses and veg from all over the country and sometimes abroad. There are about 10 types of cheese you can sample (and guess what....) as well as a few wines (I was driving and decided not to go near those). The one thing that makes me very happy is the sight of heirloom tomatoes. I can't explain. They don't taste *that* different. But I have a thing for the purple, green and yellow beauties. So tomato salad it is tonight. With a lamb merguez and some broad beans. Yum.

Oh, and another thing that makes me happy every morning and every night is the view from my bed room. It can't get much better than this. The pic doesn't do it justice, but he ho.