Your World 🌎

Welcome back to another episode of A'lil Hoohaa's monthly photo blog challenge. 

PJ, our host, figured it was going to be a hard - or at the very least unusually challenging -  month for us, so our prompt for April is Your World, which I naturally interpreted as My World. 

Like every April for the past six years I've been busy blogging from A - Z. 

This year was all about my home country Switzerland. When I picked this theme I thought it'd be nice to use spring break to actually be out there exploring, instead I had to shuffle a few topics around and exclusively use old pictures. Today is also the last day, the letter Z is all about the gorgeous mountain resort called Zermatt, check it out if you like. 

I was so busy counting down the alphabet, I missed my 900th post. Raincheck!

Now on to what my world looked like during times of lockdown and isolation. 

I wasn't as isolated at other people. We kept our business open. Providing IT support was considered highly essential, especially within the first two or three weeks. Everybody needed to work from home, and many had no idea how this Zoom or Teams worked, and why their connection to their employer's server didn't work. So we were there to help. Some went to the office like hubby, son and I, and some did so from home.

Did I say son? Well, yes. Schools closed as of March 16, and since I went to the office, Colin went, too! We didn't need our meeting room, so this is where he was doing his homework and stuff. He became a Zoom pro in no time and figured out how do to all kinds of shenanigans like changing his profile name to Mrs S who is his principal, aka the old witch. His classmates became nervous: what is she doing in our online class?

Yesterday our federal council announced that kids are supposed to go back to school on May 11. We are going to miss this guy at the office!

When at home I spent a lot of time writing. Blogging from A - Z is a huge challenge, and even if you wrote all of your 26 posts ahead (which I never managed in six years) you still want to visit your fellow bloggers' posts. 

Being the good role model that I aspire to be, I could not do screen time all day. 

So we baked. 

While I don't consider myself patient enough to make my own sourdough starter as almost everybody else on social media did (it takes at least five days, and every couple of hours you need to stir...) I am lucky organized  enough to keep some yeast in my baking drawer at all times for that one time that a pandemic crisis makes everybody hoard flour and yeast, no matter if they will actually make bread or not, and shelves are empty for weeks to go.

So, yeast. For this bread I also used some leftover potatoes that I shredded, and - wait for it - beer. Yes! I had purchased a can of Guinness for St. Patrick's Day, but nobody drank it. And I wanted to avoid a repeat of what happened last summer, so into the bread dough it went!

While my dough was rising, I was minding my own business in the kitchen when the door bell rang. My neighbour to the left said "not sure, but you might have a leaking pipe somewhere. There's water coming down in the garage. Better check it out!"

Whaaaat?

He was right. Water was dripping down from the garage ceiling, and it must have come from our house. I called hubby to ask for advice. He is the analytical type and immediately asked "how much water?" 

I thought I was prepared when I told him: about 15 drops every seven seconds. 

He was not impressed, so I installed this highly scientific measurement equipment:

As it was going to turn out, the hose that leads to our kitchen faucet, was leaking into the outer house wall, and it must have been doing so for a while. Bad luck we only noticed during Easter weekend. Not only were most businesses closed due to Corona anyway, those who might have been working, weren't going to be back until Tuesday. Easter Monday is an official holiday in Switzerland. 

Luckily hubby managed to temporarily fix the hose.

Later this month the toaster and the water cooker broke, too, and I have a feeling our dishwasher isn't going to make it much longer either... 

As much as I love spending time with my little family, from time to time you need a fellow girl to talk. My friend D is the director of patient care at a hospital. Her regular work days are long gone. She participates in task forces, scrambles to reorganize processes, gather retired nurses, medical students, everyone who knows basic medical procedures. 

They created a staff daycare, so doctors, nurses and lab techs are able to come to work and bring their kids. 

This was our night out on the town, social distancing done right ;-)

The lockdown made me miss my already overdue hair appointment by one day. Hair salons were allowed to reopen this week in Switzerland. They have to follow strict rules: customer and hairdresser wear masks and disposable coats, not more than five people are allowed in then room at all times, no beverages can be offered, because let's be honest, you can't drink without removing your mask... 

Today, April 30, it was Colin's and my turn, and we are pretty pleased with the result.

I hope you had fun with my pictures. Will you please visit my fellow bloggers' posts.

PS: I usually offer a bonus picture. This one comes with a baking tip. In case you have ever wondered whether it made any difference if you baked your cookies right away, or let the dough balls rest in the fridge for a few hours, here's the your answer:

Left: baked right away, right: cooled in the fridge for a while. Both were yummy.