Lausanne, the Golden Cage: Midget Xmas and other stories

Lausanne Xmas decoration featuring the traditional Xmas walking sausage

Yes, we are still living in the tiny apartment, but not for long. We spent Xmas here and even though it got claustrophobic and boring at a time, I must say that trying to cook something special in this tiny kitchen was a great challenge for the party planner in me.

We were playing with different factors:

1. I was suffering from some sort of gastroenteritis. My original wish for raw oysters as a starter didn’t seem like a good idea after all.

2. We have a tiny fridge to store food and only two electric cooking plates that go from cold to bbq-in-hell mode in 0.2 seconds (no nuances or fine cuisine allowed).

3. We own 2 forks, 2 knives, 2 plates and 1 wine glass (one broke already).

4. We are lucky enough to have two cutting boards; unfortunately they forgot to plan for the counter space to use them.

Rata the cat doing the dishes

Luckily my loyal sous-chef managed to put something together with the ingredients we had bought (I said I am a party planner, not a party executer) and the result was great.

As a starter we had some oysters cooked in champagne. I was expecting to be able to eat these raw and avoid the additional pan usage, but I did not want to blame the oysters for my stomach ache.

Then we ate bisque – from a can. Advantage: you only need one pan to warm it up. Disadvantage: the realization that we did not have a serving spoon.

By that time I was already full. Luckily, since we were only able to cook one thing at a time, we could keep the main dish and the dessert very simple: shrimps and lemon sorbet.

Oysters!!!!

The views

I am thrilled to announce that since recently I am the proud owner of a Swiss bank account, which brings me up to the same level as most of my home country politicians. Back in Spain it does sound like a bit of a joke saying that you have a Swiss bank account. But I need one! For two main purposes:

- Allowing my company to deposit my salary in it.

- Allowing myself to spend all of it in no time.

And when I say “in no time”, I mean: “shit, where did it go?” Swiss salaries might seem obscene to the rest of Europe, but the sad truth is that everything is proportionally expensive. Any kind of entertainment, therefore, requires a bit of smart budgeting:

- Starter at a medium range restaurant: 12-20 euros

- Main dish at a medium range restaurant: 30- 40 euros

- Cinema (two people, no popcorn): 30.5 euros

- Four glasses of wine and appetizer: 35-60 euros

- Taking the metro /bus (1 way) within the city: 2.8 euros

For 2.80 you can take a bus to the desert

However, there is one thing that is and (hopefully) will remain free: the views!!

Montreaux

Misty Leman lake

One thing to point out is that petrol is quite cheap compared to The Netherlands. So Ivo and I have been playing the role of proper tourists with our yellow number plates, or hiking map and with the wrong shoes to walk on the snow. While driving and walking around we discovered some cool places.