Fumoir

According to 20 minutes today smokers are banned. This is indeed not good news. Now restaurants and bars in Zürich have got to implement fumoirs. I think it's something like pissoirs are for pee. 57% voted for. I want to kill them all. And according to a Swiss friend this means a lot more people are symphathizing, because 75% cannot be bothered to vote. Not sure about the logic there, but I am worried about the outcome. Good thing is we've got until 2010 until this will be implemented. Time to move on?

La Traviata

Tomorrow there is a performance of the opera La Traviata at the main station here in Zürich. I find it quite cool with initiatives like that. However, considering the buzz that is already surrounding this show, I bet you it'll completely packed. But hey, might be worth a visit!

SBN dares

I find it quite daring that SBN uses his nick in the comments, even though he doesn't know what it stands for. It could be anything really...

Cool plant

One can certainly see that it's autumn.

Another weeks progress

Building as it looks today.

Food-time

Lots of food for the grill.

Educational dinner

With the amount of time I spend with gays I am now almost fully trained in being a fag-hag. Yesterday certainly added some insight into gay mentality. It was hilarious! Pic from the beginning of the evening, it got somewhat wilder later...

Sheep placenta

Love my gay friends, but their ability to give presents leaves a bit to be desired to be honest. I don't know about you, but to receive a "get-younger-cream" consisting of sheep placenta may not be the best gift.

Määhää.

Gay dinner

Ah my gad. I am exhausted. Just had dinner with 5 gay guys. Imagine a girls dinner and then quadruple it! Or you could just replace relationship talk with sex. That works too. Pics later. Now I must get the last bus to go out.

Just the starter

Then on the menu was veal filet (738 grams! for 2 people), veggies and my favourite roasted potatoes in the oven with olive oil, salt and rosmarin. I can honestly say that we were full afterwards. And half of my steak is a left-over for tomorrow. No wonder I only lasted an hour out...

SBN goes north

SBN is fairly young and still single. At least he was until today. He's off up north for the weekend to meet a girl he only met before on Facebook. Oh, the youngsters of today. I'm very excited for him. And curious (my thoughts are he can do what he wants as long as he tells me about it :). Need material for the blog, in case my own life is not enough. I expect a full report when he's back on Sunday. Half of me wants her to be a real witch, but fear that SBN has a good knowledge of the human psyche. Well, he moved in with me, didn't he? The other half of me will be happy for him.

What's occuring?

Seems like SBN got along with one of my friends, which is a good start. Welsh meets Scandinavian. Now, it might have helped that we saw Gavin & Stacey before and had therefore a lot to talk about. But it was a really pleasant evening with lots of easy-going talk. Until I mentioned something about men and sex. Then it got really quiet, and I was told that they sympathized with my brother who doesn't want to read my blog in the event I would ever mention an even distant relationship to a man. Men I tell you. They are ever so happy to crack dirty jokes about women, but once you approach something relationshipwise they go all funny. Predictable I think.

Windows

Today it was window-time re new flat. Met with the architect who explained the different types of windows to me. Fortunately there were only 3 alternatives, expensive, more expensive and extremely expensive. Imagine that. But there is no point in having a Fort Knox entrance door if the windows can be walked through, is there? Besides, I wanted a milky-glass window in the shower...until the architect pointed out to me that I shouldn't shower when it's dark outside. Ah well, my silhouette doesn't look that bad :)

Meat-shopping

How many pieces of a cow could there possibly be? Many as it turns out. Was advised to go to this shop where they sell fairly large pieces of meat (like 1 kg) but to very competitive prices, and as I have 5 guys for dinner (all gays!) on Saturday I thought it was a good idea. Friggin hell though. Am I supposed to know which pieces are good for tablegrill (and they were all labelled in German for some reason)? Had to consult with the ex over the phone. So now I've got two big chunks of meat, cow and pig, which I somehow have to turn into thinly sliced pieces until Saturday. Ah well, several days to find somebody to help. What are friends for?

Complaint

I have struggled for 9 days now to find something to complain about SBN. It seems like I'm never satisfied until I can complain about something (hey, maybe the ex had a point?). But diligent as I am I found something. What does the pic tell you?

Exactly. He doesn't sit down. Room for improvement...

Ashtray

I don't know, but the words ash and tray to me indicate that ash is supposed to be in the tray. Not anything else. Like paper. Only a friggin non-smoker would ever put paper in an ashtray. You know what happens when paper meets fire? Exactly.

Or like today when I saw a grape in an ashtray. Duuuh! Why anybody would put a grape in an ashtray is beyond me.

The pic looks like somebody had a night out.

Classic attorney

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

WITNESS: No.

ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?

WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?

WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Portrait

I have the opportunity of ordering a portrait. I just cannot work out whether I want it to be me or somebody else. The guy who does it is excellent. He did the ones on the pic only from a photo. That plus he promised to make me look gorgeous...

SBB pays

Remember the refund I was going to get from SBB? Well, got an email from them saying that it is too expensive to transfer the money electronically (how can that be?), so they wanted my address so that they could send it directly to me. Oh no, I thought, thinking I would get a check or something having to actually go to a bank to cash it. But no. This is what I got.

And I had only asked for 17.90 back.

But I guess anything goes, and even though I feel a bit foolish for causing all this trouble for a 20-franc note, it was because I wasn't treated properly. Bad service is a definite hate object. But hey, they made up for it and I will continue to pay my tickets with SBB feeling good.

The pointy finger-style

Haha, was out with two young boys on Friday. Amazing that two guys in their 20's want to go out with me, but it just goes to show that experience beats stretchy skin :). One of them had a funny dance style though, which I suppose can be called "the pointy finger-style".

Another floor

Hey, positively surprised today when inspecting the building plot. Another floor has magically appeared since last time. I reckon the yellow in the middle right of the pic is my terrace. This is soooo exciting!

Revolving door

6 months seems to be my limit, considering the last three flat-mates I had. The first one moved out because he wanted his own flat (fair enough), the second one because I wanted to keep my flat intact (not having the kitchen burned down) and the third one because I said so (reasons too fresh to be discussed here). Anyhoo. SBN went to the kreisbüro today to register in Zürich and at my address, and I had this feeling that he went in there saying "I'm moving into xxx-" and before he finished they would say "strasse 123". Guess it didn't help when SBN brought an 'exit-Zürich form' home that the kreisbüro gave him...

It's raining men - again

Turns out next week is filling up with "dates". And for some reason they're all men. At least in terms of all having penises :). But who am I to complain? Can't be too picky these days. And who says you need only one?

SBN

I need to find a nickname for new flatmate. Hmm, let me think. First thing that comes to mind is SS, but that would indeed be unfortunate in this part of the world. SY would work, but is not quite true. No, I think it has to be SBN. That really says it all. So from here on, SBN it is. Now, SBN turns out to be quite resourceful. He landed in Zürich last Sunday, and took the train to the main station. Managed to buy the ticket in the machine, “but when I pressed the ½ button it became cheaper so that’s what I did”. Haha. Good thing he wasn’t stopped. PS. Pressing the half price button on the machine means you need a half-price card to back it up. It’s 150 CHF for a year, and SBN didn’t have one.

Sorry Swisscom

Oops. Discovered when coming home today that the plug wasn't connected properly. Chapter 1 in the manual. Just goes to show that nobody is perfect. So back online. Hurray!

Catastrophe

Since yesterday evening I am without a working telephone and computer. How will I survive? Ohmigod, I might even have to watch tv, talk to the flatmate or read a book! Boo-hoo, life without my computer (forget the phone, not important) is just not worth living. And friggin Swisscom is not sending anybody over to repair whatever is broken until Saturday! This is just not on. Blog-readers, I'm sorry but there won't be any blogging the next few days (but not as sorry as Swisscom will be when I tell them what I think of their service!).

New flatmate

Think new flatmate got a whiff of what it'll be like living me me. Met him for the first time tonight, and so far he seems ok.

Which makes me think of this afternoon when bro and I went to a housewarming party and he met my friend for the first time, saying "she's nice but about as difficult as you". Hmmm.

This is what new flatmate thinks about it all.

Giraffe

Went for dinner with friends this evening, and they have a bone as decoration on their sofa table. I don't know exactly why, but hey, you don't question people whose taste lean towards skeletons. That could indeed be dangerous.

Was told it's a giraffes leg, and all I could think about was how cool it would be if they instead said it was a mammoth.

Family

Me and my brother. You just have to take a wild guess who's the black sheep here.

Samba

Have no idea what was going on in Bahnhof today but it looked like samba.

Did you know?

Interesting info about Switzerland.

Polterabig

Interesting to find out that ze Swiss are equal. In English there is a word for men having a party before they get married - stag party. For women the equivalent is - hen party. But in Switzerland it is polterabig for both sexes. Hurray! But considering that one canton in Switzerland only allowed women to vote in 1970's it is perhaps only "one step for man..."

Autumn

Thursday was definitely the last summer day in Zürich. Boo-hoo. Now it's raining and just grey. The only light in the tunnel (is not an on-coming train!) is that it's Saturday. The night for getting drunk, meeting people, going out and having fun. Tomorrow though is another day, and one for a house-warming party in the afternoon (isn't that a little strange to have a house-warming on a Sunday?) and a dinner in the evening. Life goes on, even if it's a little colder...

Bragging

397 points, so you achieved position 6407 of 401055 on the ranking list You type 494 characters per minute You have 93 correct words and you have 0 wrong words

Life in the fast lane

Multitasking is my middle name. This evening was going from a friends birthday party to drinks and dinner with other people, to meeting my brother. Good thing I thrive on action. Now being home, I got the best present of them all. Books! Five books I've been dying to read. Life is good.

Speed is everything

Didn't manage to give you the code here but this is the link. I type 91 words per minute. Beat that if you can!

Moral courage

Coming home from town on the bus there was a bit of a drama. I couldn't see all of it, being in the back of the bus but something was going on at the street in front of the bus making the driver honk the horn. Then we came to an abrupt halt and the driver stormed out to confront three black men who were somehow obstructing our journey. The driver was a small little guy, but had no problem telling the men off. But perhaps it's easy with like a 100 people in the bus backing you up, but nevertheless encouraging to see. Again, SBB rocks! Or wait, was it VBZ? Anyway, one of the abbreviations.

SBB rocks

It took them a week to answer but here it is: Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 5:18:34 PM "Dear Mrs. xyz Thank you for your e-mail of 3 September 2008. We are delighted that you chose to travel by train from Zurich HB to Zug the day before. Thank you for doing so. We would be pleased to provide you with a little background to your complaint. The Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) orders and "buys" train operations from us at SBB, and bus and tram services in the city of Zurich from VBZ, etc. This enables you to travel on all trains, buses, trams and other public transport services in the ZVV tariff area with your ZVV ticket. The income from ZVV tickets is then refunded to the individual transport companies (SBB, VBZ, etc.) proportionally, based on a distribution formula. However, SBB is the sole operator of long-distance services, and so it is sales of "our" tickets (national tickets) alone that cover the costs of these. Therefore, if a limited-stop (SBB) train runs from outside the ZVV area into it, you will require a national ticket for this train up to its first stop in the ZVV area. If you had been travelling on a train that stopped in Thalwil, the combination of your national ticket from Thalwil to Zug and a ZVV travelcard for all zones would have been the correct one, because ZVV would then have reimbursed us for the Thalwil-Zurich part of the journey that your travelcard covered. However, on both the outward and return journeys, you travelled on a train which did not stop in Thalwil. We receive no reimbursement for this direct service to from Zurich HB to Zug and back, as we are the sole operator of the service. If we were to start accepting ZVV travelcards on these services, then we would effectively be paying ZVV part of the price of the ticket for a service that we were running in full ourselves (and they would not compensate us for this). Unfortunately we are unable to see why the train conductor accepted your combination of tickets on the outward part of your journey. It is clear that you did not receive this information when you purchased your ticket at the counter. We are therefore able to refund the duplicate tickets as a gesture of goodwill. We kindly ask you to send us the original tickets to the address below, quoting your customer number: 123. Thank you for your assistance.Yours sincerely," I take my hat off for SBB and promise to take the "right" train the next time.

Concert

Am invited to a concert in Oslo. Love the name of the band.

New tenant

Well, here in Zürich we move fast (perhaps not quite as fast as CERN) but at least I make snappy decisions once in a while. Just spent half an hour with my new flatmate. Not in person mind you, but on the phone. He seems ok enough, and showed a willingness to be trained in taking the garbage out once in a while, be in charge of insect removal and other useful tasks in a household. I'm buying the pig in the bag as we say, the goods before I have inspected it. In short, I'm taking a chance. Wasn't this exactly what I should'nt do? Ah well, why not...how bad can it be? Story to be continued for sure.

Moving on

Well, I've been hesitating whether to immediately take in another tenant or to live alone for a while. I guess it depends. Currently there are two interested parties, one German and one Scandinavian (!). They both seem to want the room unseen. A bit strange I think, if I were to move I would at least like to see the place before moving in. But maybe that's just me being oldfashioned (not old, ok:)!). It's still fifty-fifty, but will keep you posted.

I love you but I love me more

A classical saying by Samantha in Sex and the city, apropos CG leaving. Not that I loved CG but I really liked having him around. Until the last month, when it got unbearable for reasons I shall let remain private. Feels a bit like dr House who on telly was just asking one of his students „Have you been insulted in the last half hour?” and the student responding “No”. Dr House: “Check your email”. Let's just say that our interests were non-aligned at this point in time, that we agreed on disagreeing and that we're parting on friendly terms. At least I think they will feel friendly in a week or so. And that's not bad, when you can feel like that. But all for the best, and now we're moving on. Forward and hopefully upward in my case...

Politics

I cannot remember ever having written about politics before, but there's a first time for everything. This Sarah Palin, McCains No 2 scares the shit outta me. One of those box-politicians who thinks that everybody who is not white, christian and pro-family should be executed. I rather think it's her who should be if not executed, so educated. When Hillary didn't make it quite to the top I kinda lost my trust (if I ever had it!) in American politics. Well at least I was hoping for the poor yankies to get a new start with Obama. But I donnaw now. The American people are not well known for their ability to choose real political leaders. The understatement of the century? I think we're in for a rough ride in the world. So glad I live in Switzerland! Not that the politicians here are something to write home about, but we do have a good life quality and standard and a social security net for the needy. Ok, enough with the serious stuff!

Cool spectacles

Fashion? I should pay more attention.

Limbs

Remember the guy who would be a contender 10 years younger? Well, here he is again. With a girl who's like 17. I reminded him about age differences...

Kick ass outfit

Not often I admit since I'm almost always right, but it happens that I do take other peoples unsolicited advice. Like tonight. After hearing from my aunt (on the telephone!) that I should invest more in my appearance, and from my friend on the webcam ("maybe next time we'll speak you're dressed". Just because she couldn't see that I indeed had a top. Tried to tell her that this country is actually warm and one doesn't need a thick sweater in September. Not sure I got through though.), I decided to dress up. I mean, it can't hurt, right? So stripy pants (slimming...vg!), black top, even a necklace and I will top it all up with black high heels. Yeah, don't mess with me tonight!

SBB response

Well, the only email so far I had from SBB was this: "Dear Sir or Madam, Thank you for your enquiry.Within the next 48 hours you will receive a mail containing detailed information on your enquiry.PS: Discover the mysterious East: www.rail.ch/discoverThis e-mail has been generated automatically. Please do not reply.Thank you for your interest. We look forward to being of service to you again at "SBB.ch".Your SBB team" sent on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 11:12:37 AM. Told ya, ze Swiss being on time is a myth. As well as not wanting us customers to be in touch. Reply not possible, not signed by a person with a name. So it's September 6 and I'm still waiting...

Webcam

I did it. I know, before you complain that webcams are old news I just want to remind you that my old pc was just that. Old. Couldn't cope with new technology. But I am now happy to inform you that it works. As long as you don't move fast. We didn't get the voice to work though (hello, did we try?) so perhaps add Skype next time. Anyhow, I've now seen their new house from every angle. I had her walk around showing me. Neat.

Suburbia-bus

Very strange on the bus out in suburbia today. Dedicated seats to women after 8pm. Why exactly would women need designated seats?

Bedroom floors

Not sure why all the suppliers to my flat have to be located very far outside Zürich. Today I had to get up early-early in order to get there on time at 11. Bus and train and bus in the forest (well, at least compared to my beloved Zürich city).

Anyway, have chosen an oak parquet which I hope will fit nicely in my bedrooms, and not provide too much of a discrepancy to the black granite floor in the hallway.

Apart from having to oil the floor every second year (which according to the salesman only takes a few minutes per floor. HA!) it should last up to 40 years. Suits me fine.

So what do you reckon? The only difference to the pic is that the size of the pieces will be smaller.

Potential stalker

When I was in Zug the other day I went to order another drink and this guy looked at me and said "hi, Annika". Hmm. While it's always nice to be recognized, I didn't remember this guy from a hole in the wall. So he told we met at J's party (J is the guy I know in the band and the reason I went there), and I said that must have been something like 3 years ago (since I've only been to J's place once and that was a long time ago). No he said, that was 4 years ago. On the 22nd of August. Oh fuck. Thoughts that were going through my head at the time were either something really special must have happened to him that day, or he doesn't have a life. Both equally disturbing. But I choose to think that maybe he was just pulling my leg, trying to make me think I was special, and I was somebody to be remembered. However, for a while it was fun to believe I had my own personal stalker...

Dinner for friends

Always a pleasure to have people over for dinner. Tonight it'll be minute steak (I have strict instructions from the ex on how to cook these, since he thinks I overcook everything...which btw only happened once!), fried vegetable mix (onion, leak, carrots, pepper, chili and courchette) and cauliflower. On the side a salad and a plate of mozzarella, tomatoes and basil with olive oil. Hope they'll like it.

Last F***

F*** again

Got two more downloaded.

When it's ok to say the F*** word

Only, the Vista shit doesn't want to download certain files. It's very unreliable and I wouldn't recommend it. Only Dell wouldn't sell XP anymore. Even though I the CUSTOMER wanted to buy it. Guess it doesn't matter. Perhaps Microsoft, Dell and SBB can shake hands?

Cash management

I guess culture and finance doesn't go hand in hand. For the second time I went to the opera house to book tickets for that voucher I have (first time they were closed for the summer), only to be told that tickets cannot be booked more than one month in advance. What? It's like my brother says: "If somebody wants to throw money at you, you don't object". If they were to accept money well in advance, they would have more money to "play with" = invest = more return. How stupid is it not to accept early bookings and payment? But I'm not giving up. I will see that Aida opera in October...

SBB

I have a little dispute with SBB for the moment. SBB is the national railway, and normally I am a really big fan of them. Very good transportation system to fair prices. What else can you ask for? Well, I guess service is the answer. The other day I went to Zug (for that fabulous band) and since I have a pass for all of the Zürich canton I only had to buy an additional ticket from Thalwil (end of Zürich canton) to Zug. What they failed to tell me was that the train I chose to take had to actually stop in Thalwil. I took the first train available which happened to be the Cisalpino which doesn't stop in Thalwil. All well on the way there. The train guy didn't say a thing, he stamped our tickets and off we went on our merry way. On the way back though it was a different matter. A Mr G Pfenninger claimed to not understand a word of English and apparently not any Switzedütch either (my friend is Swiss), and made my friend pay the extra fee for the train not stopping in Thalwil. Like it was our fault. When back in Zürich I went to the ticket counter, only to be met very rudely by a guy who said it wasn't their job to inform me, it was my duty to ask. Hello? So now I've written an email to SBB to ask them to refund the extra pay. Will keep you posted on how it goes.

90 years old

I am invited to a 90th birthday party in Jersey. Gosh almighty, 90 years is a very very respectable age. Unfortunately I'm unable to attend, even though Jersey is a fabulous little island with enormous beaches.

The search has begun

One of the fun things about finding a new flatmate is "interviewing" the objects. I take a very laid-back approach, showing them around and doing some small-talk. Preferrably over a glass of wine. The guy today had ice-tea and told me he was into sports. Well, nobody is perfect. However, he seemed to be a nice guy, looking proper like he's not into burning down flats anytime soon, and being young enough to take instructions well. The only thing was that he prefers a room that is not furnished, and frankly, I wouldn't know where to put all the stuff if he doesn't want it, so it may not be the perfect match. But it was a nice start...

Construction site

I am so happy that the new building is progressing according to schedule. Now I know for a fact that somebody is actually working there. I checked. Hard to imagine this will eventually become (luxury in my case :) flats.

On the phone

Got a phone call today from an old friend, who I hadn't talked to in a long time. The call lasted so long that my phone died once over. I guess 1,5 hours is a bit, but we had a lot to catch up on. I am now up to date on lots-of-shit-Sherlock, their new house and the problems I can anticipate with mine, friends and families etc etc. Nice.

The things you never would've guessed

Brilliant link to the secrets of ze Swiss.

Contract

I've had a number of flatmates the last few years, and except for M nobody has asked for a contract (M is a control freak, and of course I signed one). I tend to think that people are reasonable and use common sense. My mistake. CG is about to move out, and I thought about perhaps making things more official next time I rent out. The contract would look like something like this: Cigarettes are not included in the rent. Always lock the door when you leave the flat. Do not put fire to the kitchen. Cleaning doesn't hurt. Sit down on the toilet. Taking out the trash is not forbidden. Stealing is not a good idea. If you take my food you either replace it or let me know. I could go on but that would be crude...

Equality

I have really cool friends. A friend of mine, who I happened to introduce to her boyfriend some 7 years ago had a baby some months ago. Well, nobody is perfect but what is cool is that she now went back to work while her man is home with the baby. If only more women could be like her. A role model for women who insists on having babies.

0,6%

Since I bought a new flat I am obsessed with the real estate market. Perhaps because I have now signed up to pay for it eternally. Imagine my joy when I was reading about the Swiss real estate market, stating that 2% is the magic number, meaning so many free apartments in the market is optimal. Switzerland has apparently 0,6%, meaning practically no free flats. Good news for me.

Piercing

I am so against piercings and tattoos. Well, I pearced my ears as an adult, only because I got earrings from an ex-non-observant boyfriend as a present. Only then did I make holes in my ears. But today I saw a really cool piercing. I know what you think, but it's not that. A woman had a glistening stone in her cleavage. How cool is that? Ok, I wasn't so pleased when I heard that you have to actually CUT the skin open in order to put the stone in. But I might just ignore that bit, because I do have a fantastic cleavage to put it in. I wonder if there's an age limit to when this is cool...

Matches with a story to tell

Art - once again

Being interested in art as I am I'm always on the lookout for new things to photograph. Haha. This thing I have absolutely no idea what it is... but it looks arty right?

Every Monday is a party

First in Zug (you know the place that is named after trains?) and then in Zürich...fabulous music and not too crowded. Rock'n roll, that's me.