As free as a bird on Friday

Bearbear and Piggy go to nursery on every Thursday and Friday. On these two days I usually fill my diary with appointments to see the masseur, doctors, friends and do my weekly food shopping.

But today, a Friday, I was absolutely free! I had no appointment at all!!

What a luxury. You will treasure this kind of freedom when you have kids. Somehow you need a break from your kids, although you do miss them terribly when they're not around.

With all the time in my hands, I could manage to take my sweet time to cook myself a very good lunch instead of having the usual spaghetti with Bolognese sauce from the jar.

Voilà, here's the end result - Pan fried beef entrecote with tomato salad. Simply delicious.

↑ Pan fried beef entrecote with tomato salad

It was a hot day today. 26℃. So I decided to have my lunch on the terrace. While eating, mom called from Subang Jaya.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Malaysia, Subang Jaya is a township next to Kuala Lumpur. If you don't know where Kuala Lumpur is, then I don't think you want to know about Subang Jaya. Anyway, it was a wonderful surprise to hear from mom and I was so glad to know that she was safe and sound.

Mom was here during the summer of 2005 but she found Switzerland a bit too cold, too quiet and too boring. I remember a conversation we had during her stay here.

Mom: "It's as quiet as in the grave yard here. How can you live here for so long?"
Me: ..............

↑ Close-up of the beef entrecote with tomato salad

In order to avoid having the boring bread/pasta/rice, I chose to have sweet corn as my side dish instead.

↑ Boiled Spanish sweet corn. Very sweet indeed.

Cherry is in season now. Why not have it as dessert?

↑ Fresh cherries, handpicked from the local supermarket Migros

After such a heavy meal, I couldn't be bothered to move anymore. Where's my deckchair? It's time to lie down, put my feet up, have a light lemon chilled drink with ice cube and enjoy my weekly dose of The Economist.

↑ My favourite deckchair on the terrace

The Economist arrives in our letterbox on every Friday, as punctually as a devoted lover.

↑ How to get him out? Good question.

When I felt too sleepy from the heavy meal, I let myself doze off on the terrace. Gentle breeze from the lake was caressing my skin. Today was such a bright sunny day. Zurich Lake was extremely blue. The hill on the other side of the lake was greener than green could be. A few sail boats, aimlessly, floating on the lake. I was suddenly exceedingly moved by the beauty of it all.

And I knew, mom would disagree with me.

↑ Zurich Lake in summer

As I glanced towards Zurich city at the far end of Zurich Lake, an ordinary day didn't seem so ordinary anymore. One could easily be mesmerised by the blueness of the lake.

Summer time in Switzerland is like poetry in motion. And life is sweet.