Holiday Dhamaka

Share your recipes for toddlers

Please share your recipes for toddlers. Mine one is really fussy with food and I am running out of ideas in terms of what to cook for her.

First round of discussion with Caritas

Hello Lovely Ladies,

Last week I visited one of the Caritas second hand shop and spoke to the shop head. The gist of the conversation is:

• She did not seem to be very convinced letting unknown group of girls in her shop.
• They mostly need volunteers to work as sales person and you need to speak good German for that.
• She needed more commitment and a well defined plan of when, where and how long are we available.
• We need to speak to the higher management level and explain who we are and why do we want to work for such a cause.

I checked Caritas web-site http://www.caritas-zuerich.ch/helfen (please check the link "

Freiwilliges Engagement").  

They do not only need volunteers in their second hand shop but also for other purpose as well like to teach German, to teach basic computer skills etc. There is a contact person for each topic.

Kontakt: Sandra Hürlimann, Leiterin SecondhandLäden, 044 366 68 51, s.huerlimann@caritas-zuerich.ch

This is the contact person to work in second hand shop.

I was thinking to write to her in German but my German skills are not so good.
Any volunteers for writing this email??

Also, our work is/should not be limited to one institution. We should try options with other NGOs, old orphanage. Contacting rotary club might also be useful.

Ease up your cooking tasks

Cooking from scratch is time consuming and tough. Making rice and daal still manageable but making curry is what takes a lot of time. But what if we have all the ingredients ready. Ginger- garlic paste and all other spices are available in market already. If we get chopped vegetables then process of making sabji is also not so tough. Follow these tips and this will prove quite useful

• When buy vegetable like carrot, cauliflower, cabbage etc, buying a bigger packet is always economical. In your free time, chop these vegetables and store them in zip-lock fridge bags. They last for quite long time and you have ready ingredients to cook
• While enjoying your favorite TV show, you can peel of garlic pods and store them in air tight container in fridge or any fridge bags
• You can also store cut vegetables in deep freezer and they will last even longer.

MISCELLANEOUS - Something Exciting you Wish to Share?

Share any interesting news here!

Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders

The Subtle Psychology of Women + Interesting Videos every Women should watch| TED Talks

Writer Jhumpa Lahiri at home - The New Yorker

HH Drama rehersal May 17 2015 final

HH Drama Mar 7 2015 snapshots

SWISS INTEGRATION

When in Rome, be a Roman. True. When we are in Switzerland, we cannot live in an Indian bubble entirely, we need to integrate with the local culture. One big barrier to this is not knowing the language. But after 5-10 years, if we dont try to learn more than Tschüss and Adieu, then who is to blame :-). There are also many customs which are interesting, share your information, share few common German words, or any information, experience which you feel is important for integration.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, HOBBIES

We believe, we can always carve out some time for our hobbies, nurture what we have learned and learn new skills. Share tips, urls with which one can get informed about different activities (a workshop, etc.).





Here are some extracurricular activities that High Heels Group participated in last two years:

2014 Chorus, mainly by 'Non-Singers'. It didnt matter whether we had professional 'sa re ga ma' training or not, most of us have never even sung on stage, so what said High Heels Group! We chose two songs and had good fun on stage, enjoy the video!

High Heels Chorus 2014


2015 Drama, our own story, acted by our own friends. What if Durga, Shiva, Asura, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesh, Kartik, Lion and all pets of these Gods and Goddesses lived in this world, what would their life be like? Imagine them going for a family vacation to India, get a glimpse of their lives in this musical drama:

High Heels Drama 2015

HEALTH IS WEALTH !

HEALTH defines not only physical well being but also emotional well being. In Today's life, managing office work and getting less time at home and managing a family with young kids can be very stressful. What can we do, to keep in shape and combat stress? Not just looking good, but also feeling good? Share your views, problems and solutions.

FAMILY MATTERS

FAMILY MATTERS, WHAT ELSE :-)?

This topic includes, how we are managing our relationship with all (child, husband, husband's family), what bothers you, how to handle issues, discuss your problems and share your tips.

WORK MANAGEMENT

Work, almost all of us are working part-time or full-time and realise the significance of 'Work' in our lives. Have you faced any work related problem lately? Or any information which you would like to share? It can be recent news related to work-permits, or work hours in CH, where to search for jobs? Anything!

HOME MANAGEMENT

Home Management means working efficiently at home, so that household chores do not overwhelm us. It can be anything like cutting vegetables for two days in one sitting and packing them in plastic bags and storing them in the refrigerator, or running the dishwasher regularly and saving some time and energy! Share your thoughts and tips.

DISCUSSION 1: What Effects Us Most in our Daily Lives?

How can we manage our work and personal lives more efficiently? Simple things, which can improve the way we think and organize ourselves in our daily lives. 

Talk about what effects you, share useful tips with others.

7 participants were asked to jot down 5 points which came to their mind first, related to above topic.

Participant 1:

1. Day to day household work: sometimes so tiring.

2. Child management: morning to evening, no help.

3. Health: no time to take care of oneself.

4. Stress: growing, no remedy.

5. Fitness: not fit at all, after a tiring day, no time for fitness program.

 
Participant 2:

1. How to cook fast - which is healthy too.

2. Smarter ways to do household stuff.

3. How to get your baby engaged in things which are good for the child (not harmful stuff like watching screen, but more constructive like colouring etc.).
4. How to take care of yourself in this fast life.
5. How to stick to healthy habits and how to avoid procrastination of important work.

Participant 3:

1. How to manage home being a working lady and a full time mum.

2. How to take care for ourselves and maintain ourselves.

3. How to manage kids and keep them entertained, how much time should we give them.

4. Fast cooking tips, recipes.

5. How to balance social and family lives.

6. How to handle 'Sasural'!

7. Integration with the Swiss (language).

8. Things to bring from India, storage.

Participant 4:

1. How to split household chores between husband and wife.
2. How to manage stress - working and running a family.

Participant 5:

1. How to manage household chores efficiently.

2. Integration with the Swiss: learn the language, how else?

3. Time and energy management.

4. General health (physical and emotional): few tips

5. How to manage professional life, skills etc.

Participant 6:

1. Work - tips

2. Marriage: tips

3. Baby: tips

4. Friends

5. Myself

Participant 7:

1. How to handle stress.

2. Self-care (skin, hair care).

3. Recipes (quick and healthy).

4. Child Care.

5. Job.

Based on this preliminary survey, we felt that we could start discussing all these points under 7 broad topics:

1. HOME MANAGEMENT

2. HEALTH

3. WORK

4. FAMILY

5. EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES/HOBBIES

6. GENERAL

7. SWISS INTEGRATION