So, for the inaugural Thing on a Friday What Made Me Laugh Throughout This Week Coz It Was Funny post, here’s The Best of Murray Hewitt. Arguably the best character in Flight of the Conchords.

I have a brilliant new business idea #brilliantnewbusinessidea

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) May 15, 2013

I will personally ‘translate’ any text sent to you by any man.’What does he mean by that?’ I will instantly tell you #maletexttranslator

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) May 15, 2013

So, I sent him (an excerpt from) a text I got from from Mr Mac this morning and he replied.

“@msmac: “Not feeling too good. Hungover like hell.” from @craigmclovin”

“I regret that thing I said last night” #maletexttranslator

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) May 15, 2013

But then I saw this saccharine monstrosity on Twitter this morning. What were they thinking?

I had absolutely no idea who/what Owl City is. But then I came across this parody video.

It made me laugh. And know that I don’t need to know who/what Owl City is.

A Taste of Switzerland: three delicious and easy Swiss recipes to try

Go on, click it. And let me know if you try any of the dishes.

I just wanted to share a couple of little things I’ve seen around t’internet over the past few days.

First up, this lovely time lapse video of Zürich which I found in Facebook.

Then, this Sad Cat Diary which is very funny, even if you don’t like cats. Like me.

And one more video which I found while I was looking for a video of pine martens online. You see, when I went out for a walk with my mate this morning, we took our usual route and while headed down the hill, saw a furry, substantially-sized thing bouncing about in the long grass beside us. It was too big to be a mouse, too bouncy to be a rat (also- ewwwww!), too hidey to be a cat and too small to be one of the cows. My pal mentioned it might be a marten of some description. I searched for martens online to see how they move, see if they have a bouncy action, and I found this:

They do! And I really think that’s what we saw this morning. How exciting.

(List of wildlife I’ve seen in the Village of the Damned: Foxes, deer, grey herons, red kites, buzzards, badger(that was very exciting), and now a marten.)

And finally, a silly website which tells you, if you give it access to your location on your computer, whether or not you should hang your washing out. Warning- swear words. But that’s what makes it funny.

Nüsslisalat- en guetä!

Nüsslisalat, or Lamb’s Lettuce, as I knew it BS (that’s Before Switzerland. Well, it is now.) is a great favourite with the Swiss. Every now and then big bags of it will be on special at Coop and you see it in everyone’s trolley. It’s traditionally a food for Boxing Day, as far as I can make out too, which I find a bit strange- a salad in the middle of winter.

But anyway, I never really knew what to do with it until Patrick invited his dad and me to Easter Brunch (that’s another Swiss thing- “invited” means they’re paying) at his fancy* restaurant. There was Nüsslisalat on the cold brunch buffet (along with smoked salmon, salad nicoise, prawn cocktail, celeriac salad and a load of other lovely things made by Patrick himself, as the cold kitchen chef.) Patrick was serving at the cold buffet and when I asked him for some Nüsslisalat, he asked, “Do you want everything that goes with that?” I took everything that makes up a proper Swiss Nüsslisalat dish and it was delicious. Here’s a very simple recipe so you can try it too.

• 1 bag Nüsslisalat/Lamb’s Lettuce/I think it might be Mache in the USA
• Croutons
• Roughly chopped hard-boiled egg
• Bacon pieces
• French dressing

I emptied the bag of lettuce into a bowl and sprinkled the croutons, bacon and egg over the top. Then add dressing. Perfect for summer, I reckon.

In other news, we might have some quite exciting news to share soon and I still don’t know what’s wrong with my protected posts.

* as in the restaurant he works in. Not, well, you know…..

I’ll get back to you on that.

Vocational Travel: Nursing in Tanzania, an Interview with Jenny Schimak

Sounds like an amazing experience.

James’s blanket. His favourite colour is purple.

And another one bites the dust. This blanket is for James. It’s the same size as Ewan’s (big enough to throw over a single bed but not big enough to tuck in or anything) and James picked the colours. Well, he picked “black and purple” and I decided to go with a little more. But he’s still happy. It’s purple, lilac, grey and black (acrylic, so it can get chucked in the washing machine) and I think it works quite well.

I’m currently between knitting projects. I think Patrick’s girlfriend would like me to knit her a blanket next but I just haven’t seen the colours I’d like to do it as yet. Patrick can’t make up his mind.- I’m happy enough to keep going with this blankie pattern; it’s easy enough for my limited brain capacity yes interesting enough to hold my attention. However, Ewan has asked if I would ever try to knit him a jumper! Yikes! That’s, like, proper knitting. If anyone can point me in the direction of a plain-ish, v-neck for dummies, please do.

Crocheted Cowl Scarf

In crochet news, look what I did! Last Friday I had a stitch & bitch session with my friend India (Hi India!) and she taught me to crochet this ripple pattern. I had actually bought these wool blend colours with the idea of knitting/crocheting) it into a (huge) blanket/bedspread for my own bed. India wisely asked me if I’d like to start with a scarf first, to get used to the stitches and to tattoo the pattern onto my brain. Of course, she was right and I’ve managed to make myself this lovely warm cowl scarf which will be perfect for walking around the Village of the Damned next winter. I’m still working on my granny squares from last month, about half way through a big blanket with them. Mr Mac asked me the other day if there are any other techniques of tying yarn into knots to make things that I need to learn. I told him no but I just remembered lace-making.

I’m going to leave that to the experts.

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