Photos of Basel

Photos from Friday's walk, see previous post for some details.

Friday took the tram to the farmers market in the cobbled square in front of the Rathous. It was right out of Julia Child dreams. I bought some freshly baked bauernbrot to take home for supper. Tasted samples of cheese and dry sausage. Had a grilled bratwurst with mustard and a hunk of bread for lunch, especially tasty because I'd had no breakfast. The sausages were grilled on an open grill which gave them a gentle smoky taste. They are served bare on a plate, a big dollop of sharp mustard on the side and a hunk of excellent bauernbrot. People stood around several nearby tables to eat their quick lunches. Well dressed businessmen, mums out with the kiddies, ladies in flowered dresses and hats! All eating their choice of grilled sausage - with their fingers. Yes, no forks, no rolls. I watched and copied. You snap off a section of sausage about an inch or two with your fingers, dip it in the mustard, and then nibble or bite the bit. Bread is eaten separately, torn off the hunk in bite size bits. Delicious. A quick wipe of fingers with a paper napkin and off you go.

I'll post photos I took of the market.

Then I strolled down to the Rhine and across the bridge, taking photos, walked down crooked old streets, taking photos, and over another bridge taking me to the Kunstmuseum (art museum). A modest collection compared to the Met in NYC or MOMA, or the Guggenheim, the British Museum. But, this was quality over quantity. Each painting or sculpture was a gem. A treasure. I lingered here, staring, my eyes loving it.

You may add the following to my wish list for Christmas:
Hans Holbein -Organ stall painting (mural) 1528, Basel Munster
Franz Marc - woodcuts ( I didn't like his paintings, the woodcuts are wonderful)
Max Ernst - Father Rhine
Paul Klee - Ad Marginem 1930
Giorgio de Chirico - The Enigma of Fate
Any of the Kandinsky's, the Braque's, the Picasso's.
Any of the Modigliani portraits of girls.
The Rodin scupture in the courtyard of the Burgers of Calais - check out my photo of this one.
Yum, what a wonderful collection! I finished up my visit with an excellent coffee at their cafe.

Another stroll, taking more photos. Then a tram ride home the roundabout way. The tram passed through a nearby forest! Yes, a nature preserve close by. With a Rudolphe Steiner shule. And acres of wild raspberries. In a few weeks I'll return and pick bucketsfull to make into preserves.

Exhausted when I got home. But a great day.

I used to think Barney was the worst children's TV show ever. But then, I watched it in German. Nightmare!

The stuffed cabbage came out gorgeous. The meat filling was moist and dense and intensely flavorfull and the sweet and sour tomato sauce for it was perfection! Yummy! Oh my god it was good! And the Basel bread? It's heavenly. A crusty white loaf, a sourdough I think. It's so good you could live on it.

Dessert will be crepes with strawberries.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something wonderful will go just right and work out for a best friend of mine. In fact, I'm pulling out all the stops and wishing on a star for him as well.

Ramble, Ramble, I'm off to torment myself with another dose of strange continental television

I risked the stairs this morning when, after an endless wait, it was apparent the elevator just was not coming. I had a hunch it was an issue with the exterior door somewhere not closing properly or something to do with the signalling.

Anyway down all 6 flights I trudged. And they are loooong flights even going down. I walked to the bakery by the train station. Yay! I actually knew where the train station was (guesses correctly from memory), so score 1 point for me on orientation.

Bought a loaf of fresh Basel bread and a cinnamon pastry then headed over to a discount supermarket that's basically caned and packaged products, not fresh food, to get the tomatoes and flour, etc I need for today. I'm making stuffed cabbage in sweet & sour tomato sauce. Dessert is crepes with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream or ice cream. I've sliced and marinated the strawberries already.

Lucky for me, my guess on the elevator was correct. When I got back to the house with my heavy shopping bag, the elevator was waiting on the ground floor and worked just fine. Someone needs to sort out the door signaling circuits, tho.

My coffee should be ready now. Ahhhh first coffee of the morning!

What a monumental downpour here! It's been raining on and off all day, often severely with gusts of high wind. But about sunset the sky cleared and it warmed up and we had a sunny end to the day - or so I thought.

Just now a load of lightning and thunder and massive storm rolled in. The rain is so loud you can hear it thru the double or triple paned glass. The entire skyline flashing with lightning and massive rolls of thunder. Wow! I closed the terrace doors. I presume the cats have sense enough to be inside. If not, I'm sure they'll make the fact known soon enough.

I'm going into the livingroom now. Going to turn off the lights and watch the storm. The livingroom here has, essentially, a glass wall onto the terrace. The view looks out over the city onto the Jura mountains. We're on the 5th floor (by European style counting) or the 6th floor (by American style counting). Yes, we have an elevator.

Rosti - Swiss National Dish

How was I to know that I've been making the Swiss National Dish for most of my life? I see all this nonsense about "rosti" on the news here, on cooking show discussions, at the supermarket. Loads of anxiety from the women on the cooking shows about their abilities to cook this mysterious "rosti".

Being curious, I finally checked it out at the supermarket. (I know, I should have goggled it, and I finally did today) What do I find but that it's just a big old potato pancake like I first learned to make by watching my Great Grandmother many, many years ago as a small child. Instead of making the pancakes in small 3-5 inch diameter cakes, the Swiss make a large pan-filling thick cake. Big deal, that's exactly what my Great Grandma used to make to plop on the table when there were a houseful of my Great Granpa Izzie's friends. They'd cut it in wedges and eat it along with glassfuls of Balentine's Ale.

So what is the big deal about that? It's a nice simple peasant dish. Warming and filling and tasty. But for god's sake, a national dish? That you get all aggravated over? Wow.

Anyway it's storming here; massive downpour and high gusting winds and cold. Quite a change from the bright blue sunny skies and almost hot weather yesterday. At times the rain came in almost horizontal waves. Severe enough that I had to close the windows even though we are surrounded by covered terraces.

I'm not going out in this awful weather. Tomorrow will do for a trip to the supermarket to buy tomatoes for the sweet and sour stuffed cabbage I planned for Wednesday's supper.

My First Solo Excursion in Basel

Not a very exciting or extensive excusion, I'm afraid but quite enough for the first time.

I really needed to get groceries. Asti drinks cream in her coffee. I'm a coffee with milk sort. Also I needed some bread or rolls and a modest assortment of fruit, veg, and meat so I could prepare normal meals rather then nibble on junk or eat out. Luckily, being a New Yorker, I had a large canvas tote bag one could stuff with groceries to carry home. No worries about the paper or plastic decision on the continent. They simply bypass it by not providing ANY bags at all. You bring your own. Period.

I have a transport pass so I planned to take the #14 tram down to the farmers market. Great idea. I go out, walk down the block to the tram line where trans stop going in both directions. Very convenient. Except, which way did I want to go? Hmmm. No idea. I was totally disoriented. No map, of course. (Note: get city map of tram routes!)

Giving up on taking a tram at random with the certainty of getting thoroughly lost in a city where I din't speak the language, I decided to walk to the local supermarket. That at least I remembered from a walk with Asti when I first arrived. So down 2 blocks to the supermarket.

Reasonable enough. Of course I only had a 100 swiss franc note and no change so no shopping cart for Barb. I grabbed a small plastic handbasket and perhaps that was just as well as it reminded me clearly to limit my purchases to what I could reasonably pack in my tote bag and carry home.

Prices are shockingly high for one accustomed to NYC supermarket prices. They are evn high for one accustomed to Waitrose supermarket prices in the UK. Try almost $8 a pound for chopped meat! Insane, eh? How about $2.40 a pound for the lest expensive apples? And $6.25 a pound for peppers. Ok, so we're not going to have stuffed peppers for supper this week, I'll make stuffed cabbage. (I have to go back for tinned tomatoes tomorrow, too heavy and bulky for today.)

I thought I was doing pretty well though. I even braved the meat counter and spoke to the butcher. I managed to make myself understood when I ordered some great looking bratwurst. Hands held apart the length of bratwurst I wanted. She lifted the long coil of sausage and eying my hands asked something in a burst of incomprehensible to me, German. I nodded and said, "alles", she nodded and twisted off exactly the length I wanted. Success! I managed to order 100 grams of Swiss farmer salami as well. It looked really lean and beautiful.

It was interesting wandering about and trying to figure out which were the equivalents of the products I'm used to, which new products looked interesting and appealing. From years of shopping at Waitrose in London, I'd gained the false assumption that supermarkets everywhere were basically the same since Waitrose is almost exactly like a better class NY/NJ supermarket. The one here wasn't. It was geniunely alien. Not bad, it was actually qiuite lovely. Just very alien.

The total for the small basket of groceries I bought was shocking. It was 57.75 swiss francs which is $48 US. I guestimate the same basket of groceries would cost me about $35 in the US. Ah well, I'll get used to it. At least it gives me a good guideline on what sort of salary I need to target here.

So, enough for now. It's noon and I'm ready for a roll and butter and a bit of that lovely farmer's salami.

Sipping coffee this morning in front of my computer, outside it's glorious spring in Basel. I can hear early morning birds and looking out the room-wide windows in the home-office, it's bright and sunny and warm and the sky is a pale blue right out of an impressionist picture.

I am falling in love with Basel.

Yesterday, Asti said lets knock off this computer thing and get out in the sunshine. What a good idea!

We walked to the tram and took that down to the Rhine. It was really very warm and sunny, summer weather, almost sultry. We walked across a bridge over the Rhine and on through crooked, narrow streets - many of the houses, perhaps most, dating from the 14th century. We ended up at Ueli-Bier stube in Kleinbasel. This bier stube brews their own well esteemed biers on the premises. We sat in the rear garden and had their specialty brew Tut Ankh Ueli. http://www.lupi.ch/ex/tutanchueli/tutanchueli5.gif
This beer's recipe is based on the analysis done on residue found in drinking flasks in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Probably the earliest known actual beer. This brew was excellent, and those who know me and that I don't normally drink beer, will understand that that means a lot.

The smell of saurbraten was driving us wild with its warm yumminess so Asti and I shared a platter. Oh lordy, lordy! That was good!

After a while we continued our day out walking along the Rhine to the next bridge. There are fountains everywhere. Basel loves water and they are very proud of the quality of their water. As we approached the next bridge over the Rhine we saw an area taped off with people and police standing about watching for something. And suddenly Zoooooooom! there they were and there they went...it was the annual Basel rollerblading marathon. So of course we watched the skaters zoom by for a bit, then continued on to the bridge and over the Rhine again. This time we walked all the way home, stopping here and there along the way. We detoured briefly at the Kunstmuseum (art museum).

In the front courtyard of the Kunstmuseum is The Burghers of Calais by Rodin. (You can read about the story behind their sculture and see photos of it here: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-burghers-of-calais)

We window shopped and stared at architecture the rest of the way home. By the time we arrived home close to 9pm, we were hot, tired, desperately in need of huge diet cokes with loads of ice, and very pleased with our day out.

Asti had a mad packing session as she was off to Belfast on a 6am flight this morning. From Belfast she'll drive to Cork and then back to Basel on Wednesday. Thursday it's back to London for a day.

It's May day here - and they actually celebrate it. There are May poles in the parks. I'll go out this afternoon to watch the dancing and celebrations.

I returned to Basel on Friday from 10 days in the UK. Asti and I flew over from Mulhouse airport to London City Airport. Then a mad 100 mile journey accross London from the extreme east to the west in a massive arc to avoid the 5 quid congestion charge. Arriving at Alan's we drank his coffee, gobbled up some really nice cheese salads, and off we went to Oxford for the ACCU spring 2005 conference. Both Alan and I did presentations and they went very well. Asti and I were also on a panel on Women in Computing. It was really an excellent discussion, too bad they scheduled us directly opposite Bjarne Stroustrup's keynote talk. Despite that, those who did attend enjoyed the session. A highly successful conference on all fronts including networking and deal-making.

We also discovered a really great and really cheap noodle house just around the corner from the Randolph Hotel. Yay!! The Singapore noodles were the best I've ever had!

I didn't walk around Oxford very much aside from a few short strolls with Alan to look at the Colleges and drop in at Blackwell's. The weather was cold and drizzling. Lucky us had a suite at the Randolph Hotel tho - courtesy the lovely ACCU organizers.

Anyway, we drove back to London on Sunday morning. Asti was off then to Surrey and returned to Basel on Tuesday. I stayed on in London with Alan till Friday. Besides a IBgames business meeting on Tuesday, we just wanted a few more days together.

I'm in Basel. Definitely somewhat culture-shocked. My over 10 years commuting to London simply didn't prepare me for this very German and in many ways, very old fashioned culture. There's a great deal that is lovely here and I'm enjoying it. But it is definitely alien.

I just watched The Last Samuri. I really enjoyed it, was very impressed. Of course, it was shown with German sub-titles.

The cable here is premium but still shite for all that. The English channels offered are limited to BBC world service, some crap called BBC prime that shows the cheapest/crappiest of old BBC shows, ESPN, CNN-some special inferior edition. It's really awful. German TV/cable seems to be focused on sex. Perverted sex, depraved sex, bizarre sex, more sex, weird sex, sex sprinkled into totally inappropriate shows, sex. And that's the regular channels, not the porn channels. I'm certainly no prude but the obsessiveness of it is a bit distasteful.

My project to revive Federation II is going well. Last night we made the Top 10 list at The MUD Connecter. Starting to get more new players checking us out already! Yay! In fact we're #9 at the moment and moving on up.

On the home front, I'm at the end game of my move to Switzerland. Exactly 24 hours from now I leave for the airport. I actually packed the first of my suitcases this morning. I have 1 more large suitcase to pack and then my carry-on bag which has to hold my extra laptop and some fragile stuff as well as things like jewelry and cameras that can't go in the checked baggage.

The 2 "large" suitcases I have are not really very large at all. Not by any definition. I really wish I could have managed to get 2 really big ones, the ones I have aren't anywhere near the size the airline allows as standard.

So I'm sitting here juggling things in my mind. Triage. Trying to figure what to take and what to leave behind. Anything left behind goes in the garbage. So it's a very final and draconian choice I have to make.

I'm still grieving over my books and CDs. I had to leave all those here in New York. My son took them and will store some for me to retrieve later, but most will merge with his collections and well, such is life.

But I'm grieving over the loss of so many of the little things that had meaning to me. I can only pack and take with me so many things, the rest must all remain behind.

And in the end, well, insert some profound quote here. I can't think any more. Just so tired and want this to be finished.

Oh yes, to add to my delight in this process, my housemate has been more than his usual inconsiderate self lately. I've been suffering from bouts of massive abdominal pain both Sunday and Monday. Symptoms seemed like classic food poisoning. But from what? Nothing I could think of. Today I figured it out. I sniffed the milk carton and there's a faint scent of decay. Arrgh!!! It was fresh milk when I bought it Saturday. Absolutely fresh, just delivered and icey cold and I rushed it home and into the fridge. So how did it spoil so fast when it was stored under good conditions? Ah ha! Idiot housemate late Saturday night put a large boiling hot casserole next to it in the fridge. I have told him not to do this. And especially not to put hot stuff next to the milk. But, he never thinks about anyone other than himself and always what is absolutely easiest for himself. So, the milk had a jolly nice warming. Since my 2 episodes of pain followed drinking a large cup of coffee with milk, that was a lead. Today, discovering the funny smell of the milk, I discarded it, bought more and today so far, I'm fine. Looks like spoiled milk was the source.

I will not miss Mars (my housemate). He has been an unreal experience. I can well understand now why his housemates don't last longer than 6 months, most only 3. The other housemate here had his fill of Mars a few weeks ago and simply disappeared. Left. His room is intact. He simply walked away. He's found a new life elsewhere and just decided not to every return to this place.

How sad. I was so joyfull when I moved in here before Christmas. But I was also ignoring that I was spending unreasonable amounts of my time and energy cleaning up after Mars. All the filth and mess he left in the kitchen and bathroom every day. When I realized what I was doing and stopped, that's when the true proportions of the situation became clear. Things like washing all my dishes and cookware before I went to bed. Then in the morning, going to make breakfast, discovering that Mars had used it all, and left it strewn around the kitchen all dirty and greasy, or worse, it had disappeared - he had taken it into his room and it would be weeks before I saw the item again, and then usually because it had broken. He didn't use his own stuff because that was already filthy and unwashed, piled up in the sink or on the stove. Besides, he liked my things better than his. Well, of course he would. My kitchenware was top notch, the dishes were really lovely ones from Finland, the cups slowly collected and large and well balanced and comfortable to hold. His pots were cheap sheet metal or discards from former housemates. Mine were heavy, t-fal lined, glass lids, carefully chosen. It was a constant battle in the kitchen, a losing one. Always losing because he simply didn't care, simply had no respect at all for other people or their property.

So, enough of all that. I must get back to packing and discarding.

I'm moving to Switzerland next week.

Those who know me either already had an email about it this morning or can email me directly.

Last Sunday I went to Central Park to see the Gates. WOnderful. I'll post some photos. Perfect weather-sunny and 58. Perfect winter day. The park was mobbed. Paper says was almost 1 million there - the Gates are drawing everyone. They're worth it.

Went to another 2 job interviews on Tuesday- back to back. Nothing from either of them yet. Anther 2 bite the dust. I have another interview scheduled for next week. Friday I'll send out more resumes and set up next week's interview schedule.
It may be that I am just paranoid. Tho one rational point is, I seem to be the first person they interview most of the time. And I've read several studies that say the first interviewees are almost never hired. It's the last 2 or 3 that get picked. But how do you change interview order?

The Federation relaunch continues sucessfully. Not easy, I have to kick Fi and Alan back into line constantly. I'n determined the game will succeed.

I need coffee and it's so cold.

I'll play catch up for a moment.

I spent Christmas in New York. Blech! I usually spend it in London. I love London. I love Christmas in London. I love going to the Christmas market in Covent Garden with Alan and poking about from booth to booth- especially the German ones. I love meeting friends for a jolly Christmas Eve dinner. Even nicer is the quiet Christmas day walk to the pub for lunch with friends. How deliciously scandalous and decadent that feels to an Amercian, sitting in a pub on Christmas day. I love New Year's Eve with my friends, listening to Big Ben strike the hour.

But not this year- well Chistmas 2004. It wasn't my idea either. It was one of those sort of bullying decisions Alan makes without consulting me. At least this time I let him know how unhappy about it I was. His excuse was he needed to get to the Data Center in NJ to upgrade several of the servers' OS. My take on that is, that's even worse. That turns it from Christmas together into a business trip where I am a side issue. Frankly it's also much more expensive in NYC because Alan always weasels us into going out to eat constantly. I don't like this, not just the insane expense, but I don't enjoy all this outside dining. I like eating at home, especially now that I'm in the new apt and I cook and bake exceedingly well.

At least Christmas Day we had a nice dinner. I made a large succulent duck with all the trimmings. Andrew joined us for dinner. It was quiet, good food, good conversation. Lots of warm affection. Then dessert, a very boy's dessert. Dark chocolate fudge brownies with vanilla bean ice cream on top and that topped off with candied orange peel - all homemade, even the candied orange peel. The peel was a surprise hit- it was nibbled away entirely in very short order. Good thing I made 2 batches of it. I used the leftover peel and all the pulp to make homemade orange marmalade. Bottled sunshine.

Alan bought me a magnificent slipcased edition of an archeology book on the Inca.

It was a very close 2 weeks but in some ways a remote time. There were questions and answers that needed to be said but weren't. And then Alan left 2 days before New Years to go back to London. That was very miserable. I spent New Years alone. Well with friends online. But no matter what people say, they are lying. It's not the same.

I've made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that next Christmas will be spent in London. Period. Or Else.

So that was my Christmas hols. Pah!

After New Years I had expected to go back to work for the Tech firm. The Manager had assured me of it, several times. But I waited and nada. It wasn't just me. The others emailed and asked if I knew hat was going on. Delays delays delays in the contract. Who knows. Instead of right after New Years, it's the middle of February now and we're still waiting. End of February he's saying now. Ha We'll see.

I'm getting loads of job interviews but no job offers. I guess they hate me when they meet me. Who knows. It's depressing. At least I get lots of quick responses to my resume even if they only interview me.

So January has passed. Now February. I spoke with AQlan on the phone for almost 2 hours on Valentine's Day. End of January, Federation launched. My new business plan is looking successful. Slowly turning the tide. Definitely on the way up. Fingers crossed.

I did get one job but it lasted only 1 day. Very BOFH situation. The money from that 1 day's work was gone immediately in paying 1/2 February's rent. It was a very long 11+ hour work day with no lunch or breaks. I'd probably have gotten ill between the stress and the long hours but the money would have been terrific. Ah well.

So here we are at the brink of the President's Day long weekend. And that is 2 months trimmed and condensed into 1 post.

Astrid is back safe - almost

This morning's news is that Astrid is back safe from her amazing adventure in the East - almost. She phonedme from Berlin airport this morning to let me know she was safe and waiting for her Swissair flight back home to Basel. She's had some amazing adventures on the Trans Manchurian Express and the trip back was not uneventful - she had to reschedule and wing it all from Irkutsk when eveything went pear-shaped at the border and they ended up with Russian Border guards surrounding them with Kalishnikovs.

I'll leave the rest for later or a link to her blog when she finally gets settled in, unwinds from the trip, and writes up her tale of adventure on her blog. (Or phone me for details- assuming the reader knows me)

I'm not the Phoenix Church of God

Really. I am not now and never have been the Phoenix Church of God. So why do people from Phoenix keep calling me on my cell phone saying thAat's the number of the Phoenix Church of God.

Damn, if I was an evil person I could tell them sure, I'm the Church secretary, just send your cash to me.

The calls for the church are driving me nuts!

I'm not even a Christian. Never have been.

So I'm moved into my new apt. Even bought a new bed - and very comfy it is. Alan and I have been relaxing, set up some bookcases in the living room and unpacked all the books. Next project will be to move the bed around to the other side of the bedroom to maximize free space. Then when I go back to work, I need to buy some storage units and get all the clothes and stuff stored away neatly.

But it's really lovely having a genuine kitchen again. I made crepes for breakfast a couple of days ago. Also made beef, mushroom, and barley soup - yum! Last night I picked up a duck for Xmas dinner. I wanted a goose but none at the supermarket. I probably will ask the manager if he can get one for me anyway if it's not insanely expensive.

This afternoon we're going out to New Jersey to the Lunarian's Christmas Party. Hopefully a nice day. We went to the Museum of Natural History this week. That's always sort of like going home again. We just looked at the meteorites and the hall of minerals and of course the orgami Christmas tree.

(Note- any of you who are reading this blog- I'm job hunting! Email me for a copy of my resume if there's any work available at your company.)

Moving Day

Moving Day- words to strike terror into even the hardest heart. All went relatively well, however. We went out for a Rreally excellent meal afterward at the fabulous chinese/japanese restaurant on Broadway & 100th Street. I managed to get the laptop hooked up to the cable modem and working - obviously since I'm online now.

Now I have to set up the bookcases, unpack, scrub down the refrigerator, etc. And buy groceries. And most important, buy a bed.

Profound thanks to Adam and Andrew for interrupting their lives to slave away at a miserable task for me when they had so many other important things to do. Also thanks to Tom for helping with everything.

I have to transfer my landline here on Monday but meanwhile my cell phone does it all quite well. This place has connectivity unlike my other place which was in a completely dead zone.

I'm still feeling very happy about my birthday Friday as family and friends surprised me with a stream of phone calls and flowers. Definitely an excellent cheerer-upper.

Today's my birthay.

The good news is that I found a new apt. Adam and Andrew will help me move on Saturday. I'd really, really like to get started bringing over the small stuff today tho. I tried yesterday, packed a shopping cart with stuff. But when I got out the door, it started to rain, icy stinging rain. I had to turn around and go back inside. What a bummer!

Still job hunting. Asti helped me polish up my resume so fingers crossed that will help.

Books- I just finished reading, "The Bookseller of Kabul". Excellent book, highly recommend you read it. A view of post Taliban middle class society thru the life of a bookseller's family. Fascinating.

When does the Christmas season start?

Growing up in New York City, I always knew when the Christmas season started. It started as you stood, shivering in the cold, on Central Park West, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the moment the Santa Clause float passed by. Period. End of question.

Then you stopped for hot chocolate with your family before you all piled into the subway to go home for your Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner.

Viewing the Santa Claus float go by was like the figurative flipping of some celestial switch that started a clockwork mechanism that initiated an orderly progression of events. These events continued in proper sequence, year after year for decades, culminating in the day we all returned to school in January.

Part of the clear and visible seasonal protocol was that christmas carols were not played or broadcast, decorative lights were not turned on, and season window displays were not installed in windows till AFTER Thanksgiving.

And it was good. Very good.

After the parade ended, the lights suddenly switched on, carols were broadcast on the radio stations and in stores and public buildings. All along 5th Ave the stores vied to offer passersby the most opulent, gorgeous, amazing Chistmas themed window displays.

A week later the lights were turned on on the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. That signaled the start of ice skating.

Each familiar traditional event triggering the next -

The Nutcracker Suite at the NY State Ballet, Ahmal and the Night Visitors at the Brooklyn Acadeny.

Orgami classes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and decorating their orgami tree.
A visit to the Central Park Children's zoo to feed the seals and look at the polar bears.

Weekend visits to Central Park to go ice skating at the Wollman rink, ride the carousel - the moving horses on the outside for us kids, the stationary sleigh seating for the parents.

Buying roasted chestnuts, freshly spun cotton candy, or red candy apples from street vendors.

Strolling down 5th Ave looking at the marvelous window displays. Neidermyers for hot chocolate.

Visits to F.A.O. Shwartz's. Macy's toy dept and then a session with the real, genuine, Santa. (Macy's Santa is THE real santa - see Miracle on 34th Street)

And yes, watching the Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland on TV on Thanksgiving day - it was always broadcast. And then watching the original B & W Miracle on 34th Street, which imho is still the absolutely best and perfect and defining version of the story. (And please note this- they NEVER showed that horrible piece of crap It's a Wonderful Life -ever- during the season. That film all by itself can kill every last shred of holiday spirit and good will towards men within me.)

Going to Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center to sing the Halleluia Chorus - audience and stage singers, all together, a cappella. Glorious! If you've never done it, do it!

Christmas day we all stood on line for the (CHEAP cheap cheap) matinee show at Radio City Music Hall - usually another magical Disney animated film and the wonderful Rockettes, a ballet, the Christmas spectacular with a live nativity, and the awesome Wurlitzer panzer-organ. Well, this was the tradition in MY family for Christmas day since we were not Christians. I had no clue what Christ was, what the religious part of Christmas involved, untill I was 9 years old I had only the vaguest idea what Christians were to begin with and if you had told me what it was I'd have thought you were winding me up, that no one could possibly believe such obvious nonsense.

New Years Eve meant crowding and squashing together in Times Square to watch the ball drop. Kissing the one(s) you loved was absolutely required ritual. Regardless if it's family or as you grew up it was your romantic partner- if you didn't kiss the one you loved on New Year's, the whole year was somehow ruined.

I've left a lot out of this, but you get the picture.

When did/does the Christmas season start for you?