What do I do all day?

My mom asked the question on Sunday of what do I do all day while Mike is at work. I think this is a very good question as one would assume that a woman with no children and no job could sit around eating cheese and chocolate and drinking wine all day. Unfortunately, not so. Things are a little less... convenient here.



6:30 Mike's alarm sounds and I roll over and go back to sleep

7:30 Mike leaves for work

7:45 I get up and start to pick up the house. The putzfrau will be in today and I need to pick up the mess from the weekend. I have a glass of water and a glass of orange juice while I straigten the living room, kitchen, entry and put away the clean clothes.

8:30 I take a quick shower without washing my hair.

9:15 I take the trash down to the curb and walk to the bus stop and wiat for the bus. Take the bus to the tram. Take the tram to the Marktplatz. I grab a chocolate Schoggiweggli and walk toward the next tram stop. There is an outdoor supply store so a stop and grab a back-pack.

9:45 I'm at the Bancverien tram stop and catch the Tram 3 to Birsfelden.

10:00 I meet up with a group of English speeking residents of the Basel area and we set out for a 2 hour walk in the woods. We stop at about 11:00 for coffee (wine for me please) and the head out for the end of the walk.

12:00 We arrive back in Basel and I have a Wednesday lunch date with a very nice lady from Korea. A lady from New Zealand needs to go to the store and get a gift and the send it out. I am totally confused about the mailing of packages, so I ask if I can tag along. I picked up some cheese for dinner and learned a very slick way of sending back a small gift.

12:45 We part ways and I head for the Grocery. I keep my grocery list (which has become more of a guideline than a strict list) in my phone and my shopping bags on me at all times. The store has some nice tomatoes and fresh basil so I get what I need to make a Margherita Pizza and green salad with herbed chicken. I also pick up some coffee, OJ, milk and apple cider.

14:00 I'm headed home and holy moley this stuff is heavy! Tram 8 to bus 11 and then 2.5 blocks of walking.

14:30 We have an appointment to see an apartment at 6:15 so I need to prep dinner. I cut the tomatoes, basil, cheese for the pizza. I cut the chicken and mix in the rub. I open the vinegar and oil for the pizza and salad dressing... oh no! I bought lemon infused olive oil!!!! Does anyone know what I can do with this lemon olive oil????!!!!! I watch a little TV in between cutting and see that the US market is taking a huge beating.

16:30 Walk to the bus stop. Bus 11 to Tram 11 to meet Mike at work by 5.

17:30 We stop at a small Thai restaurant and order Spring rolls as a snack and I accidentally order huge Cokes for both of us (huge by standards here; they would be quite normal in the US). OOPS! That wasn't a cheap mistake.

18:15 We look through the two-level apartment and find that it has nice space for entertaining including a private patio off of the dining area. The bed-rooms are a little small, but we decide that we can make-do with the space. The washing situation is a shared room, but we would have 3 to 4 days a month.

18:45 We walk to the tram and change trams at Barfuesserplatz. There is a Coop convenience store, so I grab some olive oil (without the lemon) and Mike gets a magazine.

19:00 Tram to the bus to the walk home, and I am exhausted, but we haven't had dinner. Cheese plate to hold us over, and I work on the salad.

20:00 Pizza is ready! Its good, but the ready-made dough from the grocery store is a little tough.

21:30 After picking up the kitchen a little bit, I am ready for bed. Tomorrow looks about the same and I'm going to need my strength.

Monday's Post about the Weekend

Good Morning everyone! Mike left for Munich this morning at about 7. I went back to bed and woke up to the sound of a Jack-Hammer outside my bedroom window. I really do live in the city.

It rained most of the day Saturday. Mike and I stayed in Basel and stopped by one of the apartments that I looked at this past week. We also went to the Jean Tinguely Museum. Here is a link for you... http://www.tinguely.ch/ He seemed to specialize in assembling found items into moving sculptures. Very interesting stuff.

Sunday we went to Luzern. It is beautiful city on a lake. It rained most of the time we were there... except the sun came out when we were ready to leave. We went to a Picasso Museum... http://www.rosengart.ch/index_e.html this was amazing. The Ms. Rosengart and her father were friends of the artist, and the museum is full of her collection... including several portraits that Picasso created of her! Luzern is a beautiful place but because of the weather, the pictures Mike took of the scenery didn't run out very well. So I am attaching a picture he took of me while we were on the site-seeing cruise on the lake. If you want to learn more about Luzern (also spelled Lucerne) you can go to http://www.luzern.com/en/welcome.cfm. We plan to go back on a day that the weather is better. We also didn't have the right clothes with us for this kind of day. When we get our shipment, things will be easier.

OK, I'm going to IKEA today to look around at furniture. I also need a plastic container to store Orange juice in. Mayo comes in a tube, Milk and OJ come in a cardboard "brick" or bag that you cut open (making it messy to use and store), and granola comes in a bag. Someone warned me that packaging would be different... was it Kathryn or Mari?

Ciao!!!