Celebrating Womanhood - Edited by Kamalika Chakraborty

What happens when a group of women gather? They scream, they giggle, they gossip, they share and they encourage each other! And the High Heels group is no different.
We did all that and much more!

Celebrating Womanhood_High Heels Switzerland

High Heels Discussion Forum: How to manage home and work efficiently

On 16th of March, 2016, High Heels Group met to discuss over a cup of coffee the importance of managing home and work efficiently. With most of our members being moms of young kids and juggling a job and family, we felt that we could share our own personal know-how's and tips with each other. In the second part of the discussion, these women also shared their unique anecdotes related to pregnancy and 'giving birth' to their child, with lots of laughter over cups of cappuccino and cake. Some tips which could be summarised from this discussion are:

VIDEO LINK TO DISCUSSION:  How to manage home and work efficiently

1. Use a Planner - Use a planner, either a mobile or table calendar and jot down your appointments. Share this planner with your partner, so that both are aware of each others joint or separate appointments. Kids activities also need careful planning.

2.  Delegate Tasks - Husband and Wife should have defined tasks (but do remain flexible whenever required), so that no one has to follow-up on each other. One should not be overloaded with too many tasks, so 'delegation' is the key, e.g. if wife is cooking, husband can clean up the table and start the dishwasher (not just in theory, but also in practice!)

3. 'Me Time' - When you have a hectic schedule, kids screaming at home, pending chores, and thousand other things in 'To Do' status, we often forget to give ourselves some free time. We keep working and worrying, till we drop dead! Avoid that. Start your day with an activity that you enjoy, e.g. one of the members said that everyday she keeps half an hour (atleast) for herself, either she reads a book, or just listens to music, and does not do any other work simultaneously. This 'Me time' is necessary to equalize the stress and strain we go through in our day to day life. Multitask, but with some 'Me Time'.

4. Prioritise and Compromise - You may have done A to Z activities before you had a family, but now you have limited time - so how will you cope with it? Will you stretch that limited time and involve yourself in A to Z again? Or, perhaps it is more efficient if you filter out from that list your MOST important activities and spend your time only on those selective activities. Learn to say 'No'. Also, try to compromise your level of 'cleanliness' at home, if it is semi-clean, learn to stay calm and accept it as normal. 

5. "Help!" - Learn to shout for help, when you need some help! DO NOT strain yourself, and keep everything to yourself. Ask for help from friends, family, or hired helpers like maids or babysitters. We are all earning, so spend it on helpers whenever necessary, so that you save some energy and time. Do Not feel shy to say, "I need help, I am having a burn out!"

6. "Teamwork with your Husband" - A husband who helps in cooking and cleaning, is it just a dream? Shouldnt be. In today's life, where both members are bread winners, both partners can also be care givers to their families. A happy household is afterall the best gift that you can give to your child. Arguments are normal, accept it, dont get disheartened, it happens in all families esp. with young children, but then keep going and work as a Team.

7. Work in batches - At home or at work, try to categorise similar kind of works and work in batches, e.g. if you are cutting vegetables (carrots, broccolli, onions), cut some extra and save them for the next day. Think ahead, so that it takes less time to execute. If you are going to Migros, buy everything together, do not make multiple trips. Think ahead and save time.

Compilation by Brindarica Bose

-

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.