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Countries, Europe, Music

Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day

1st August 2024 funtime65

Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day… or better still make a sport of it.

After all every country in the world is waving or wrapping themselves in theirs just now at the Olympics in Paris.

All of which is a treat for vexillophiles everywhere.

So with all that drapery fluttering around why not put it to good use and turn it into an event?

With a swish of the flag

Hip to be square: The Vatican State flag

After all, the Swiss, who fly one of the oldest in the world, dating to 1339 and the battle of Laupen in the canton of Bern in 1339 do.

When they adopted it on their chain mail to distinguish themselves from the other participants on the battlefield.

Like all of us the Swiss are rightly proud of their flag which, with the Vatican State‘s, is the only square flag on the world.

So much so that the right to fly a flag was a privilege reserved for the urban guilds from the Middle Ages onwards.

Now, of course, any Tom, Dick or Harald flies theirs whether at a sporting event, political rally or from their back garden.

And I’m watching you out of my window, Royalist Roy!

Now you can judge for yourself how well the athletes at the Olympics wave theirs.

But, in truth, if there was a gold medal for flag flying then the Swiss would surely be champions.

Because since the turn of the century 1910, the Swiss Yodeling Association have taken it under their wing.

Catch the wave

Blowing your own horn: And the Swiss have a right

Now with a swish, let’s begin.

Flag throwing involves swinging a 120 x 120cm silk flag back and forth on a short staff.

And then throwing it into the air and catching it by the staff as it falls.

Now if you thought that waving a flag was just swishing it from left to right then you would, of course, be oversimplifying the whole art.

There are, of course, more than 90 regulated swings.

As well as the two grips there are body swings, plate swings, medium-high swings, leg and body combinations and passes for duets.

All to the accompaniment of alphorn music.

Fly the flag

Now, I’m not sure if a cocktail Swiss flag counts for the competition… well, looking above it clearly doesn’t.

But I will wave mine in honour of my Swiss amis today for Swiss National Day and the significant moment.

When in 1291 the Swiss Federal Charter was signed by the three founding cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden.

As they agreed to ‘stand together against outside judges and aggressors.’

All of which is good reason to let out a Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day and word up to my old amie from Iterlaken, Brigitte, I have been practising.

As a postscript and whisper it today as it’s the Swiss day so get on board Swiss and fly yourself out there.

But us Scots have the oldest national flag in Europe dating back to the 9th century.

And it’s a national shame that we don’t make more of it than just an exhibition in a dovecot near where we live now, in Athelstaneford, East Lothian.

Countries, Europe, Food & Wine

Swiss cheese Raclette it be

7th October 20237th October 2023 funtime65

Swiss cheese Raclette it be… and there’s my cri de coeur for the inaugural World Raclette Championships later this month.

Or my let it crumble moment if you will.

Anyone who has visited Switzerland (and if not, why not?) will wax lyrical about their cheeses.

That melting magic when your cheese drips onto your potatoes like snow from your skis down the Alps.

Of which, of course, the Swiss when it comes to their cheese make it an occasion.

The big cheeses

For this first edition, our Swiss amis have invited several countries’ best big cheeses for a weekend in Portes du Soleil, north of Chamonix.

The five best cheeses in each of the three categories are judged by a Super Jury, of cheese experts.

Alpine Raw Milk Raclette
Cheeses made exclusively with raw milk from alpine pasures between June 15th and July 15th.
Raw Milk Raclette
Cheeses made with raw milk.
Other Raclettes
Semi-hard cheeses.

Yodel heroes

At the heart of the festivities will be a festive ‘Raclette Village’ with an array of alpine tasting cheeses and numerous workshops.

And what would a Swiss party be without a sing-song, a yodel, a glockenspiel.

And that’s what you get with the Raclette Village with an emphasis on kiddies’ entertainment.

Wonder if they’ll call it the YMCheeseA.

Melt your heart

So Swiss cheese Raclette it be.

It’ll melt your heart and probably clog it but hey, ho, we’ve got to go somehow.

And dripping cheese and amber lager is my idea of the best route and Air Swiss the providers to get you there.

The Swiss agree, why then would they call their lager Hell?

America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Food & Wine

Chocs away on Easter Sunday

17th April 202217th April 2022 funtime65

And for many it’s what today is all about… Chocs away on Easter Sunday.

And thoughts away of dem sweet places where I’ve savoured the treat of the Gods.

We have the Central and South Americans to thank for extracting the cacao which makes our chocolate.

And when we want to know more on anything our go-to people are the Smithsonians in Washington DC.

And Hayes Lavis, cultural arts curator for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian has the skinny on chocs.

He tells us that ancient Olmec pots and vessels from around 1500 B.C. were discovered with traces of theobromine.

And for those who know their chocs they’ll recognise that as a stimulant compound found in chocolate and tea.

So now we’ve done the science let’s sample the choccie tastes of the world.

ChocolaTobago

And the way to a man’s heart is the love of a daughterie.

So when you come across a chocolate called Laura in the West Indies then you get that special rush.

This Tobago taste of heaven is a French-Caribbean collaboration and named for the manufacturer’s matriarch Laura.

Sold in high-end shops like Harrod’s it’s still best sampled where it’s made, Tobago Cocoa Estate.

Swiss sweet

We all know about Swiss sweets… Toblerone and it’s mountain triangular shapes.

And Lindt which is everywhere of which I was reminded from the minute you arrive in Geneva.

You’d have to tell me if SWISS airline still gives out comp choc to it’s passengers…

I like mine, my Lindt, though like the Asians who love to take selfies at the top of Europe.

To show off to family back home, at the top of the Jungfraujoch.

In Bruges

Was I the only one who wondered why a restless Colin Farrell didn’t cure his boredom through chocolate and beer?

Mind you, it would have been a very different movie.

Yes, go up to the cathedral and also check out St Anthony’s tongue.

But the best taste of all in Bruges is their oh-so-tasty chocolate.

Cadbury’s and Brum

Now you might not immediately link Bruges in Belgium and Birmingham in England.

But they’re both canal cities, major historical trade hubs.

And they are both hooked on chocolate.

It is no exaggeration to say that Brummie Joseph Cadbury was a chocolate evangelist.

As a Quaker and teetotaller he saw chocolate as a healthy alternative.

Joseph was a general good egg all round (or Cadbury’s Creme Egg) if you will

He set up a village in Bourneville for his workers and provided for all their social, health, education and sporting needs.

And a great pacifist, he even took on Queen Victoria over the Boer War.

All of which you can discover in the excellent Cadbury’s museum.

And finally, a Big Chocolate Apple

I’ve always been a great advocate of only having friends in cool places or jobs, or preferably both.

And in return they get the pleasure of hosting me.

Kate is one such, a New Yoiker and food and drinks editor who took La Famiglia Murty around Manhattan.

Chinatown, her own office kitchen on Production Day, and Jacques Torres Chocolate factory.

Now Willie Wonka’s got nothing in Kate or Jacques.

I mean bacon-flavoured chocolate… you read it here first.

Enjoy! Chocs away on Easter.