Zucker farm

 This Sunday we went to Zucker farm.. it’s a 45 minute journey from our side, first a ferry of car from Horgen to Meilen and then from there by car, but then the route we followed was closed for cars, so we went to Uster bus stand and from there took a bus to the farm.Once we got down from the bus, it was a small beautiful walk to main area and there were pumpkins everywhere, pumpkins carving was going on, there were beautiful creatures made of pumpkin,all food being served was with farm fresh ingredients and mainly pumkin , shops selling jam and sauces with fresh fruit and vegetables. It was lake side , so view was totally captivating.

I was wondering that we are agricultural country and grow so many things but never do any event like this or anything else to commercialise it and increase the reach of such items, like when I went to Lonavla I found so much of strawberries and everything with it, in Nainital we find lots of fruits like berries, then even in kausani I found lots of local jams and all but no marketing like this.

Bellagio.. lll day

 Near lake como, there are 3 islands.. Bellagio, Menaggio and Verenna, , among them we chose Bellagio because it’s the most beautiful , small quaint little town.  We took a ship in which cars can go, 30 chf was the ticket for four adults. Once we reached there, we took a round by car to the inner lanes.. they are quite narrow and all one way only. And then parked the car and walked around.it has many shops of crystals, glass objects , watches and usual things like clothes and all. Basically lake is surrounded by shops. It was very enjoyable to walk in the lanes and all the stairs are cobbled stones, very fascinating. 

Food was quite reasonable there   And since we went from Zurich, we found it cheap,

Glass items are very special there, like glasses with real gold lining and then jewellery in precious and semi precious stones is also widely available with lots varieties 

There is this villa which is a tourist destination but we couldn’t see this because it has stairs and steep slop, I couldn’t climb. BTW this is the place where Deepika Ranveer got married

Day-2.. MILAN

 Can you believe it that I saw Milan in 1979 and then now. Actually I have been to many cities in Italy like Rome Florence, Pisa,Venice, Verona, Bergamo.From Lake como we started after breakfast around 10.30 to Milan, it’s around one and half hour journey and reached Duomo.. main attraction of the city.. it’s a majestic building in size and architecture both . It has a big open area in front like a big square and it was full of people. It’s surrounded by all designer shops.. Louis Vuitton, Salvatore feragamo and all, on one side there is a covered lane with artistic floors and tinted glasses with both sides Restaurants and high end shops. It’s called Matta. Here best gelato is available we had lunch there,roamed around for some time, bought a few things .

It’s a typical city, and good if you are interested in buying branded clothes shoes etc.

Italy trip.. day 1

 We planned to see lake Como , Bellagio and Milan this time. We started from Horgen Zurich in the morning around 9.00AM by car, on the way we picked some croissants, strudel and. coffee for breakfast and carried on, in Switzerland every drive is so scenic and picturesque, that one can see for hours..

After 3 hrs we passed thru Chiasso, the border town, looked worth seeing but we didn’t have time, bhi Eder checking is not much, just a person looking into the car, no checking of passports or COVID certificate.

We entered Lake Como, it’s surrounded by mountains on all sides and lakes. We had booked rooms in Hilton thru booking.com. It is a very spacious hotel and big lobby area..Due to covid mask is necessary to wear even in hotel.checkin time is 3 PM, since we reached around 1, and we were hungry also, we decided to have lunch here only. It had very limited menu, no pizza even, bruschetta was also not good , very bland , and I had sphagett,.. ok only and charges are quite high, here they charge for water also.

Room wasnt ready by 3 also, so with a little haggling , she upgraded our room. Here some rooms have glass ceiling and give the feeling of sleeping under the sky. Rooms are good with kettle, iron and all.They have rooftop swimming pool.

Then we went to the city, and walked around.. whole area was full of designer shops. And they close at 7 pm and then all restaurants open, most of them expand outside with fireplace and all. And then there were hawkers selling toys, umbrellas and all. Surprisingly most of them were Bangladeshi and I felt bad looking at their condition, hardly able to sell much.

We had dinner of pizza pasta and burata and came back to hotel.

MAID

  I just finished this series on Netflix and it made me think of so many things. Let me give you an idea about the story first .Its about domestic violence,single mother and abusive parents.

First take away I feel is that people should have kids only when their marriage is stable, the concept of getting pregnant and marrying because of that is so wrong, and on hind sight it tells us to be selective in physical relationships,instead of sleeping together at the drop of a hat, or taking precautions to not get pregnant. 

Here Sean mother was an alcoholic and always berated his father for doing nothing good etc, and the end rust was she was unhappy and she brought up n alcoholic son..but he is basically a good man, trying to reform.Here I feel bad for Sean that he has a mother no one deserves and then he gets wife who also dent try to understand and support him in his crisis

And the Paula..mother of protagonist .Alex..another women who should never be a mother, she is disgusting in her attitude and behaviour.

Now the protagonist..Alex, she is good looking and hard working also but I don't understand one thing that girls marry for love and as soon as there is any problem, love is th first casualty..for me loving doesnt mean good times only, one should be supportive in diversity too.When her husband needs her most, she is not there for him, and she wants to look after her vagabond mother,but never forgives her father for being abusive to her mother,isn't it two way street in marriage? Secondly his father is happily married to another woman,doesn't it not indicate that there may be some fault of her mother also. She takes help from anyone when she doesn't have any other way but herself, she goes to her husband when she doesn't have a place to stay, but takes his hospitality for granted and is not caring towards him, takes the help of his father but always insults him,takes the help of nathan and does nothing in return..I don't like her basic values

I like Regina and Denise, who help without any expectations and are nice

Day out in Zurich

 Though we have been to every place so many time’s, still it’s fun to go out on your own. We took 12.45 train from Horgen Oberdorf to Zurich B. It cost us 14.50 CHF for one ticket of first class ( to avoid crowd).It’s a very scenic journey through Thalwill, rushlicon etc and takes around 20 minutes. Here ticket is balance d for 2 hours in all mode of transport in certain zones.

We got down and started walking on Banhofstrasse .. very popular street with all designer brands, just name it and it is there.

We took a stroll all the way to Jelmoli..big store and outside took falafel wrap.. it’s 14.50CHF with cold drink.Then we went to old town. I just love walking those cobbled streets beside lake. Then we took a tomato cheese baked bun type. It was for 5 CHF.

Then we strolled to Bellevue for Movenpick, one stacettella for me , it’s so creamy and tasty, I just love it,it’s 4.50 CHF

And then we went to Bürkliplatz to take ship tour for one hour, it’s 4 CHF for general and 7 for first class. It’s a very scenic route in Zurich lake.water, mountain , greenery and flowers all in abundance..

One new thing I saw here is that in some restaurants a QR code is there in centre of table, just scan and see menu.

Family katta

 Recently I saw two Marathi movies, actually I like them because generally they depict normal people , normal life, not over the top.

This is about a septuagenarian couple living in a beautiful house in Lonavla. For their 50 th anniversary they invite their children.. 3 sons and one daughter for a family get together. It’s all about their preparations and how children react and then husband dies in the morning only.. as here I see in life also most of the times siblings grow up to be like rivals and always jealous of each other specially brothers, so I don’t understand why people want more children , so that they will have someone of their own to care.

Second one I saw is Bonus.. it’s part fun part cliche, a wealthy boy lives in a chaal for one month to prove his point. Very stereotype people, all poor are good from heart, help each other whereas I have seen lots of time that poor are not kind to their type.secondly changing everything about the rich.. so much so that hero is vegan and he is asked to break his principles and eat meat.. I found it totally unreasonable and foolish.if that was so, why poor want to earn and be rich,but first time saw such a dashing hero in regional movie.. he is very handsome , well dressed and acted well.

Virgin River

Lately due to lock down I have been watching lot of movies and series .and few I really liked. I don’t have a liking for too much violence or gore though I like spying tales something about a few personal favourites

Covert affairs…. This is a series on Amazon prime. It’s about CIA operations and what I loved about it is that every episode is filmed in a different country, main cast is very good and lot of advanced technology is seen , which I never knew about.

Virgin River..Its on Netflix. The story happens in a quaint small town, such a dreamy place to live.. exotic beauty, all people know each other and help each other and there is just one bar cum cafe, one doctor only

Chesapeake shores.. again a small place near Baltimore, here one sees the consequences of making indecent choices after marriage or should I say thinking for self only. I find in most of American series that when young people think about self only, not kids or spouse and when they grow old, they want to make amends and in the processs children are traumatised and face multiple problems

What we carry..

 This is a memoir by Maya shanbagh Lang. It’s an amazing book , I was so engrossed that I finished it in two days. It’s the story from the perspective of a girl about her parents and then her daughter. Maya is the daughter of a psychiatrist mother and engineer father, they migrated to US in 70’s. Her father is a very dominating and uncaring sort of person who is always angry and sometimes cruel to her. Her mother talks to her and she has a very strong bond with her but later on when her mother gets Alzheimer’s, and she cares for her , she realises that her mother never saved her in any crucial situation and thru a story wanted to say that any woman who puts herself first in any condition is not selfish and May be she manages life best and she was not very truthful even.

Ultimately she puts her mother in assisted living and it’s her journey from a daughter who always looks up to her mother to a mother who is is very honest with herself and her daughter and about the choices one has to make in life , sometimes initially it looks bad but they are best in the end.

A very good and must read.

Part 2

 I think in my last post I was not able to put myself clearly because some got the idea that I m suggesting one shouldn’t look after the parents. How could I say that? I m all for good moral values in every thing in life. 

What I am saying is that today due to longevity I see in many houses one invalid parent at least and not everybody can afford to have maids looking after them, I know it , I kept in Chennai for day time and she charged 750/ a day,in the night my hubby took care, though he was working in day from 8 to 7 full time, so the situation is quite grim which nobody realised unless they have to face it, And one needs to find a solution to keep sane.

And in that free discussion is very important in family and in society also, everyone loves parents but there.comes a time in life when you can’t do everything yourself because you are not physically strong enough to do that however u want to do it.

So we must realise that when one reaches retirement , one should be free of all responsibilities, be it children or parents. If anyone still needs you, try to settle them..

For parents also save  from day one , like you save for all other things and then when the time comes , set them in a good care., there are many such places now a days, quite professional and even elderly get better care than at home

Old age a blessing or

 Whenever I see people wishing old people many more years, I really wonder if they are really that naive to think that more years are blessings or Am I too skeptical..

Because I don’t think or see many people looking after their old parents or restricting their life. I know it first hand.I have been looking after my mother-in-law forever and know how many compromises are needed, my children never had a room of their own, my finances were always stretched to the best . And myself and my husband couldn’t go to see even our children together for last 15 years,.and we see our life ending like that.. she is still here, though invalid and living like a vegetable, we have to give her bath food everything. She is 101 and my hubby 72 and it’s very difficult situation for him to be in. Now all his other siblings who wanted my MIL to live a long life and suggested all sort of things have just become indifferent and gone their own way, leaving us with the mess.

So I really feel that we must think about it, not that wishing makes anyone live long, but why wish something which brings misery to all.

And secondly before reaching 60, retiring age, if parents are alive, all siblings should get together and collectively decide who will take care of what and how. 

I always feel that any age is good if one is able to do one’ daily chores, beyond that nothing is blessing, only a curse. And we should wish a happy time and good health not years to anyone beyond 75.

What do you think?