Simple

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

Our prompt for the month of September was "Simple", which of course can be interpreted in many ways. 

Let's start with a simple alpine view here in Switzerland. Earlier this month, Colin and his teammates spent a long training weekend in Grindelwald, which is located in the Bernese Highlands. Hubby and I were lucky to find hotel accommodation for one night in this notoriously fully booked town, and we were even luckier to be greeted by a perfect blue sky.

Unfortunately the exhibition game the guys played had far-reaching consequences, for one guy who he's been suspended from games ever since :-( 

Days are becoming notably shorter now, meaning sunset happens earlier, and while Colin is at practice, I try to get errands done as long as businesses are still open (they close at 7pm in that state) and then catch one of my simple joys at the lake.

By the time the sun has disappeared, you can count on me to be hungry! Usually I would go to Freiruum, but I have resolved to try something different every once in a while, so I went to a fairly new Korean restaurant, "Miss Miu" I keep walking past, thinking their patio setup looks fun.

I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the menu. I literally had to google what these dishes were all about, and I ended up ordering Bibimbap, 비빔밥 , a popular Korean dish made with rice and various vegetables, some meat or tofu, a raw or fried egg, and *gochujang. 

Bibimbap literally means "stirring rice". Originally a simple leftover meal,  there are few restrictions on the choice of ingredients.

Mine came with chicken, carrots, mungo bean sprouts, spinach and shiitake mushrooms, and of course, rice. The stone bowl it comes in is hot, similar to a hot stone you use to barbecue your meat on. That's where the stirring comes in. Your ingredients will finish cooking while you stir. Makes sense, right? The veggies were raw when they arrived. This is what it looked like after a few minutes. Consider this your bonus picture.

So what's the verdict? 

It was delicious! 

However, I made a mistake and didn't wait for the food to cool down before digging in, and I burned my tongue from the overly hot food. 

I found the price-performance ratio a bit excessive and will therefore not visit this restaurant on a regular basis.

My clothes (and hair) were really smelly after this experience. People were doing hot stone BBQ at the neighbour tables, and while it's an appetizing smell while you are eating yourself, you don't think so by the time you get in the car and at home.

If you have been following me for a while you know that every September, one of my highlight is to visit the Jucker Farm's pumpkin displays. There's four locations, the main one in Seegräben the less crowded Bächlihof, the main production plant in Rafz, called Spargelhof (asparagus farm) and finally Römerhof, right next to Zurich Airport.

With Colin away in school for long days, and my being back to working more or less part-time, I was lucky to be able to go there on two separate days and enjoy what these talented people did with just some simple pumpkins. 

So last night hubby and I have grudgingly volunteered to take over player support at the away game. This job has become unpopular because some of the teenage boys don't seem to know how to behave during a road trip, in the locker room and on the players' bench.

Add to this the fact that the three ladies who have been rotating this duty, have recently found themselves in changed circumstances. One accepted a job at an ER's reception desk, and she's working mostly weekends, one's son left for a year-long student - and hockey - exchange in Canada, and the third's son got the chance to prove himself in a higher division. 

Since we attend every game anyway it was suggested, it was now my turn. Well, the reason we go to every game is 

A - we want to see the game and 

B - I want to film the game. 

That's where hubby came in. He looked after the boys during playing time. Meaning, he opened and closed the bench door during shift changes, and he handed out ice packs. 

And we all hoped nobody gets injured. This was my biggest concern. We are not trained in anything medical. All I can offer that I have been countlessly rewatching ER, so I may have some diagnostic skills, but I have never stanched a bad bleed or put on a printer's tape.

As the boys grow bigger and stronger, the game becomes more physical, and recently we had quite a few incidents where a player didn't get up after being shoved head first into a board and the like.

The opponent  last night - Chiasso, in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland - is notorious for playing roughly. 

The team manager assured me that the refs, as well as our coaches, will know what to do, and she was happy if I took care of the game jerseys and the food.

Where does it get simple, you ask?

How to make Ice packs on the go: You bring plastic bags, you follow the Zamboni, with your bare hands you scoop up leftover ice slush into your baggies and close them with a knot. By the third intermission the ice master took pity in me and showed me there was a actually a bucket and a shovel. 

The furnishings in this dressing room were so sparse that we couldn't even find a counter or something to prepare the food on. We had to slice our apples in the one tiny sink in the shower.

Speaking of shower. The sink in the shower area was the only water source. During intermissions the guys wanted to refill their water bottles. Since they didn't think they were supposed to enter the shower area with their skates on, it came down to me to take care of over a dozen bottles. 

After a 4:3 loss we cleaned up and made our way home. Some of the guys actually said thank you, and the coaches told us we were hired. Even so, I hope we can avoid a redo. It's now other people's turn. How about the ones who've been successfully avoiding any kind of work?

I hope you enjoyed my simple pictures and are now headed to check out my blogging friends' contributions.

*Gochujang is a spicy, fermented Korean spice paste made from sticky rice flour, soybean flour, chili and sea salt, as well as barley malt powder and rice syrup.