New Job

The New Year started with a big change for

years

with Dow he changed to another company

with the starting day the 5th of January. The

commuting was the first big change: instead of

an easy 12 minutes downhill from Hütten into

Horgen, it became initially a 1:30 hour through

down-town Zürich, towards Basel.

Early morning queuing and finding

innovative short-cuts (without too

much success as Zürich had closed all

other possibilities) was the action of

the day. Luckily this changed in May of

this year when the Zürich West Ring

opened. Now the commuting trip can

be done in just a bit over an hour!!

The other change was the use of

German. The international

that Michael joined turned out to be a

true 'German' company with only a few Swiss

and other foreigners. You know Michael's love

for the German language....

S P E C I A L I S S U E

D E C 2 0 0 9

01

A Super Fast

Year

New Job

Zauchersee

Shop till You Drop

Easter in Holland

Dutch Tradition

School Trips

Kitchen Project

Saling in Coratia

Culture in Italy

Summer in Hütten

Sportive Year …

Cats & Mice

Flying through the Air

Sinterklaas

Visits

The New Year started with a big change for

Michael: after 23

with Dow he changed to another company

with the starting day the 5th of January. The

commuting was the first big change: instead of

an easy 12 minutes downhill from Hütten into

Horgen, it became initially a 1:30 hour through

, towards Basel.

Early morning queuing and finding

cuts (without too

much success as Zürich had closed all

other possibilities) was the action of

the day. Luckily this changed in May of

this year when the Zürich West Ring

ommuting trip can

be done in just a bit over an hour!!

The other change was the use of

international company

that Michael joined turned out to be a

'German' company with only a few Swiss

and other foreigners. You know Michael's love

he German language....

“fliessend steinkohl deutsch”. Next year this

family update will be written in German

Zauchersee - Ski Vacation

Normally we always used the skies to go from

Wagrain to Zauchersee. This one

trip was done the previou

weather condition & lousy vision.

So we decided this year to go directly by car to

Zauchersee and stay there for the week. As

you can imagine we now did one

safari in the opposite direction Zauchersee

Waigrain ;-)

fliessend steinkohl deutsch”. Next year this

family update will be written in German ;-)

Ski Vacation

Normally we always used the skies to go from

Wagrain to Zauchersee. This one-day-ski-safari

trip was done the previous year is very bad

weather condition & lousy vision.

So we decided this year to go directly by car to

Zauchersee and stay there for the week. As

you can imagine we now did one-day-day-ski-

safari in the opposite direction Zauchersee ->

‘Hüttener See’ view from our garden

We were accompanied by Sterre, Thijn, Ingrid

& Stefan. Merel and Fleur were often off-

piste, buried in the snow ! We were lucky this

year: lots of snow, even a couple of days with

clear blue sky and excellent skiing conditions

…. and no broken bones.

“Shop till You Drop”

Fleur’s 12th

birthday was of a special nature,

something perfectly fit for young ladies and

inspired by the movie ‘Confessions of a

Shopaholic’. The girls made a tour through

downtown Zürich on their own, made a few

purchases, did a photo scavenger hunt and

had dinner in a fancy restaurant with a table

for their own!! Of course afterwards at the

sleep over, all the beauty products were

tested with loud giggling and screaming. The

pancakes the morning after were devoured in

big quantities!!

Easter in Holland

A Bed & Breakfast in Schoorl was our base

during the Easter vacation. Michael flew in

from Basel for a long weekend. Next to the

delicious breakfast, the other great positive

were the bikes !! We made a few bike rides

through the dunes.

Dutch Tradition - Konninginedag

When you live in Switzerland, you should not

let go of your own traditions. Now we have to

be honest, Fleur and Merel haven’t lived long

in the Netherlands, but when you can dress

up, whether its is for a football match or just

Queensday, you can not let that opportunity

pass by ! So 30th

of April: special clothing to go

to school.

School Trips

• Merel Snowboard Trip to Davos

(March)

• Merel’s Yearly Class Trip to Anzere

(May)

• Fleur went to to London (May)

• Fleur’s Trip to Leysin (August)

• Merel’s Trip to Leysin (September)

Kitchen Project

How to make your house YOUR house? – Of

course by putting in a new kitchen. A 6

months project with numerous difficult

decisions & choices about materials, colours

etc. had its culmination just before the

summer vacation. Just placing a kitchen was

not enough: the whole entrance, corridor and

toilet also got a total make-over. The high

point and most critical one was the removal of

a load bearing wall!! Even though the

architect ensured us that it was possible and

the contractor seemed competent, we

checked our insurance policy and had

sleepless nights dreaming about collapsing

houses…. Everything worked out perfect,

except for some minor clashes with the

painter and electrician who’s hobby was

drilling and sawing holes in everything.

Sailing in Croatia

After much debate and preparations in the

previous year (remember Elba?), we finally

decided to go on a sailing trip. We found the

family Broekhuizen to beef up our sailing skills

and split costs (go Dutch isn't it?) so we rented

a 44 ft sailing yacht in Croatia. When the sail

vacation came close, the yacht was being

upgraded nearly on a daily basis, making us

afraid that we would need to hire additional

sailors and crew to be able to maneuver the

yacht. In the end we ended up with a 47.3 ft

Jeanneau, with lots of space and as it turned

out still excellent maneuverability in the

harbors and bays. Your dream of private

sailing and anchoring in desolate bays with

woodfires and BBQs on uninhabited island

beaches is shattered when early in the

morning a little dinghy sails by selling fresh

bread. Another high light of this vacation was

definitely the spotting of dolphins –twice

even!! Unfortunately we did not make first

place in the traditional regatta, but with some

bluff we managed to sneak in third, which

was, looking at our lousy start the best we

could get. Next year we will for gold!!

Culture in Italy

On our way back to Switzerland we had a

week stopover in a very nice small house

in a little village south of Padua. Venice

was close by and was visited twice (!!).

The 'glass island' Murano was missed

during the first trip and according to York

we had to visit the museum and glass

workshops on the island.... so back again

in the masses!!

Another special event was the opera Carmen

in Verona. As you know the open

amphitheatre does know have a roof …… and

of course during the afternoon enormous

thunderstorms came over the Verona,

providing rich downpours of warm rain. After

spending the afternoon in the local McDonald,

with hundreds of other tourists trying to stay

dry, the weather cleared and with our plastic

ponchos we enjoyed the first 2 acts of

Carmen. Unfortunately most of the kids fell

asleep, so we decided to cut the opera short

and drive back to our little house.

Summer in Hütten

It was not the hottest summer, but warm

enough to visit the local badi, enjoy BBQs on

the terrace and water sprays on the big

trampoline !

Sportive Year ….

Looking back we also had a relative ‘sportive’

year, at least according to our standards….

• Marian’s tennis lessons - do not forget

her close encounter with Roger

Federer(!).

• Fleur started tennis lessons this year

hand and has a beautiful backhand swing!

• We all participated in this years ZIS

Turkey Trot (3K)

• To strengthen her back muscles, Marian

has a couple of time a week Fitness,

• Every (ahum) Sunday morning Marian

& Michael have their 5K run around

Hüttener See.

• And of course, every week the girls

have their horseback riding.

Cats & Mice

During the year our cats Simba, Tigra and

Chicka brought quite a few little visitors in our

house. Most of them were already deceased

when they

arrived, but a

few enjoyed

the pleasant

stay in our

warm

washing

kitchen down

stairs alive,

enjoying the

abundant

amounts of

cat food. We even caught one time a life

mouse (most probably in stress) just a few

inches away from two sleeping cats.

Flying through the Air

A special attraction we visited – and will visit

more in the future as it was so much fun – was

the Rigi

Seilbahn

attraction. At

least 20 – 30

meters high in

trees you have

to finish a trail

that puts to

your nerves to

the test! We

had to climb,

jump, balance

and do a lot of

abseilen !!

FUN !!

Sinterklaas

This year the Dutch tradition of “Sinterklaas &

Zwarte Piet”, was very much different from

previous years as both girls now have lost

their faith, but still wanted to receive their

presents! Therefore we all secretively

prepared presents for each other (lootjes

trekken) and wrote a witty rhyme to go along.

On the evening of December the 5th

we

unpacked our presents and laughed about the

jokes. That we made of each other.

Visits

Also in 2009 we were lucky that lots of folks

paid us a visit, either to celebrate New Year,

enjoy the ‘rest’ in Switzerland, to represent

the Google Streetview Team (huge amounts of

pictures) or just ejopy our company (is that

possible?).

Michael, Marian, Fleur & Merel de Braaf

www.blog.familie.debraaf.com