December 12, 2007

Hey, that's mine!

A true case of survival of the fittest...


Found on flickr.com

December 11, 2007

Christmas

I am counting the days down to the Xmas holidays.... only 10 days to go...! Still haven't bought any presents yet - am so uninspired this year!

M & I are going to Hamburg for New Year. Will be great to get away from this slow moving country! It feels like I haven't traveled in ages! Which is true... last time was to Nice (great shopping, or rather I found one great shop in which I bought three pairs of shoes and a bag in 15 minutes flat!) with M and my parents.

Everyone seems to be leaving the country - I would almost say I feel left-behind! How silly is that? To make myself feel better I posted my CV on monster.co.uk... a bit of lip-service... when did fooling oneself become so easy?!

On a happier note, I finally found a volleyball club and a pilates instructor!

I'm getting to know my neighbors:
A few weeks ago, on a Monday morning (figures...) I shut the door to my flat on my way to work. Just as I turned away, I stopped short, reminding myself to lock the door. But then I realized that s***! my keys were still dangling in the lock... on the other side of the door! Luckily a nice neighbor happened to pass by and taking pity on me offered to help. He turned out to be a mechanic (no, not a locksmith, it was a Monday, remember?!) and managed to break open my door using pure force - and had quite a job of it too!

Poor guy, he must be ruing the day he met me: two days later I sent him a text message at midnight, asking if he had a spare mattress I could use! He not only replied (silly boy), but went down to his cellar and produced a fantastic mattress after 30 minutes of searching (which is still under my bed - don't blame him if he is avoiding me!) for my friend to stay over.

November 07, 2007

French

My French skills were the cause of much hilarity this afternoon:

A colleague called to say that she was experiencing light bleeding during pregnancy and that she needs some time off. As my boss happened to walk into the room at that point, I passed her the phone with the remark "elle a le sang qui coule". I didn't understand why she suddenly went white, snatched the phone and shot out of the room.
I looked over at my French "room-mate" colleague, who had caught the whole situation and was killing herself laughing. She explained between gasps that I had painted a near death scenario ! Literally translated I had said: "her blood is flowing / she is loosing (a lot of) blood!"

Wonder if that mix up will get me some free French lessons!

November 05, 2007

Halloween

I know for a fact that Dracula (or all vampires for that matter) were prone to lisping!

August 18, 2007

My dear father

We celebrated Mum's birthday at the Cantina Don Camillo yesterday. Dad seemed to be hard of hearing. Our favorites were:

Dad: " I would like a tea - with water!"

Dad (to the waitress): "Your English is very good."
Waitress: "Thank you, my mother is American. "
Dad: "What, your mother is German?!"

August 11, 2007

Audrey and Jack Bauer

Here a hilarious comment about Audrey and Jack Bauer:
Audrey looks just like Skeletor, the baddie from He-Man!

July 30, 2007

Love is agony

I have been in the state of agony for the last few days. I am in love. In love with a pair of shoes!

On the fateful day (last Friday), I was strolling home around midnight, absentmindedly glancing at the well-lit shop windows. When suddenly, my gaze was caught by a pair of expertly crafted black high-heels. It was love at first sight! I shot over and pressed my nose against the glass, drinking in every single little detail. Then, my eyes fell upon the price tag. My insides churned. “They are so expensive! No!!! Wait, I am a fully fledged business woman now, I can afford them", I thought happily. Yet I must be growing older, because I was surprised to find that a black monster had begun to rear its head. Roaring for me to be sensible and all that crap. I found it imposing some kind of masochistic ban on those shoes, which goes so far, as to me denying myself the pleasure of even IMAGINING THE POSSIBILITY that one day they could be mine. It is driving me insane! Day after day the shoes innocently flirt with the glances of predatory shoppers. Giving me anxiety attacks, that when one day the beast is finally silent (I am already hatching a cunning plan to kill it while it sleeps) they won't have my size!

July 28, 2007

Spider-pig

The Simpsons movie did not live up to its trailer.
I recommend renting the DVD.

Pré Fêtes de Genève

I managed to survive the initiation to the pré fêtes of Geneva...
3 3dl champagne sangrias (champagne, peach syrup and fruit drowned in vodka)
1 apple shot
1 big squirt out of the deerskin pouch (very sweet & extremely potent!)
1 huge whiskey red bull (I neither like whiskey, nor red bull! but was so far gone at that point that I didn't notice WHAT I was drinking. Had only eaten half a green salad.)
1 caipirinha
all in 4,5 hours.

The next day I was greeted to a chorus of "my god you look so yellow!!!"
Must have been the champagne.

July 22, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

A definite must-read!

The only critique I can muster is:
What modern parent in their right mind would bequeath their child with the name "Albus"?
Even if it is after the legendary wizerd Dumbledore...
Personally I prefer the name Dumbledore over Albus. Far nicer! (Albus reminds me of the bird "albatross"!)

July 20, 2007

Motivation

I am in serious need of a long holiday. My motivation has dropped to below zero and I have to force myself out of bed in the morning – on limb at a time. I need a change!!!!

“Harry Potter and the deathly hallows” is coming out on Saturday, so at least that’s something. But wait, he’ll certainly die, so after this weekend I will be in full mourning… hope it’s not too hot out… black does attract the heat!

I am at home in my flat in Geneva at the moment. Pissed off, because I had to wait for men…. should be a woman’s prerogative!!! The heating is playing up (like I’d notice in summer!) so they were sent by to check, change and cause chaos. After an hour they succeeded in creating a leak in one of the radiators and tiptoed off without me noticing. Great! So I had to call them AGAIN and they came huffing and puffing and are now sorting out this “little problem” as they called it. (Everything is “little” here. You could be a 3m tall basketball player and they would still refer to everything you eat, wear and do as “little”! Weird their terms of endearment: going round “belittling” everything and everyone!)

M. will start his new job in August. So that’s him happy. Didn’t have to look for long (2 weeks) but was moaning as if he had been out of work for a year! Men….!

We got a new boss at work. The one on maternity leave decided to leave permanently, so voilà, an opening came up for someone moving back to Geneva from Austria… and she happened to have experience on the brand…. fate!

Everyone is happy and my co-worker has calmed down with her exploits, so we’re a fully functional team for now.

July 01, 2007

Graduation

M graduated yesterday (uni, law, cum laude). Congrats! We've been out celebrating ever since we knew he passed...
Welcome to the working word. You surely won't be just another fish in the sea of job-hunters for long!

Speaking of fish: in Malta we were (or rather, I was) attacked by a shoal of fish. At first I thought the tiny, black nibblers were rather cute, until their jaws opened and they revealed their true carnivorous nature.
M refused to be impressed and keeps on insisting that a 2cm long fish does not bite.... men!

After a few days, we decided that Malta's charms were too dry and barren to hold us. So we booked a day-tour of Sicily / Mt Etna.
The crossing only took 90 minutes on a high speed catamaran. After visiting the quaint little town of Taormina, we headed up to Mt Etna and marvelled at the destruction lava can cause.

June 17, 2007

Off to Malta

M and I are off to Malta next Sunday. But this time we ran into obstacles before we even left the country!We booked the trip on the spur of a moment late Monday night. Unfortunately we got the dates mixed up. Which now means that we have 7 flights for a one week trip! I am never ever booking online without my agenda at hand. Never ever again!

Paris in May

Paris, the city of love has captivated me again.
I spent a whole week in the lovely city of Paris, roaming the streets at night (during the day I was kept busy with a training module), drinking in glimpses of the Sacre Coeur, the Tour Eiffel and the Jardin de Tuileries.

The trip back home was horrendous though. 20 minutes into what was supposed to be a five hour train journey, the engine conked out! This forced us to wait for FOUR hours in the stifling heat of the wagons until the replacement finally arrived. Luckily the guy sitting next to me turned out to be chatty and what was more, quite interesting too!
But even though the driver tried to make up for lost time, we arrived at the second-last stop at 3 am (instead of 11pm). As the Swiss train station had already closed down for the night (that was adding insult to injury!), we spent the last two hours of this journey-from-hell in a coach. Exhausted, legs swollen to twice their size (had such a shock! this had never happened to me before), I arrived home at five in the morning after an eleven hour journey.
However, I can’t even say that I will never take a train out of Paris again – last time I flew out of Paris and there was a strike, so I could hardly get to the airport. Paris obviously doesn’t want to let me leave, once I’m there!

May 01, 2007

May 1st

It's beautiful weather outside and it's a HOLIDAY! :-)

April 09, 2007

2 + 6 = 8

I nearly forgot to commemorate another year... I turned 26 on April 4th.
Thanks for the Birthday wishes everyone!

Always interested in destiny, I wonder, what does my Personal Year hold in store for me?
4 + 4 = 8
2 + 0+ 0 + 7 = 9
8 + 9 = 17 = 1 + 7 = 8

Personal Year 8. . . . Attainment and capital gains
This is a number 8 personal year for you. This is your power year, a period when you can make important strides in you life. Coming after a very slow and introspective period (the personal year 7), you may start feeling some stirrings of ambitions. This is a year of big decisions and major achievements. Activity is your keynote now, and you will find yourself very much involved and occupied. Opportunities for advancement and recognition for past and current work is likely to come about during this year. You have things going for you so long as you take advantage and act. It is easy for you to branch out and expand in a businesslike manner. If you are at all inclined, this is the time to exude self-confidence and authority, because others will tend to be receptive to your leadership and control. Your power and status potential is at a peak of the nine years personal epicycle that concludes at the end of the next year.(Source: astrology-numerology.com)


Doesn't sound half bad, now, does it?

24 & Ishiguro

I've done it again... spent many hours with my eyes glued to my laptop, riveted by the one and only... Jack Bauer. Sad, really. Or would be if I cared. Right now all I can think about is when and where I can continue watching season five. Luckily tomorrow is a holiday.

Between 24 and sleeping I managed to sneek in some good old-fashioned reading time. Kazuo Ishiguro captured me with Never let me go and The remains of the day. Both books fascinating, the former gruesomely so.

April 06, 2007

Home & Geneva

One of the good things about being ill (flu - nothing serious), is the fact that all my weekend retreats (family, boyfriend, friends) have wireless internet access. It is such a joy to be able to read my private mail again!

After an eight weeks stint in Morges, I now finally own a key to a flat (well, room would be more accurate) in Geneva! Now summer can come and I’m ready… with the beautiful waters of the Lac Léman in walking distance and a street full of shops open 24/7… all seems quite promising!

February 23, 2007

Arosa

Had a girlie weekend last week up in Arosa... yet again.
We partied all night and well into the day. Which obviously meant that we didn't manage to sandwich much snowboarding in between the drinking and dancing..
Managed to dance the night away with some random guy... a fantastic leader, I was sooo impressed!

February 09, 2007

Over

There. As of today, I am officially no longer a sales rep.
Funnily enough, I have a strange feeling about giving up the freedom of driving around, visiting clients. It was nice being my own boss (sort of, at least.) Do I miss it already?
Or is it just my sentimental side is coming to the fore? Whatever this feeling is, it is definitely being intensified by the fact that I have to give up my car! (sniff)

February 06, 2007

New toy



I have a new toy: the ipod nano 8 GB.
It's black, cute and (most importantly) has the ability to reduce the boredom of a 3 hour train journey to an absolute minimum.

February 05, 2007

Toe

On a whim, a few friends and I decided to go up a mountain for a bit of snowy fun. So yesterday saw us zooming up the 351 corners to reach Arosa. After having rented our sledges, up we went to the Weisshorn with the gondola.

We decided to do a bit of après-ski (or avant-sledge in our case) first, for a bit of Dutch courage.
The girls became highly animated and introduced me to weird drinks such as "Gsichtli" (meaning "face"; made out of peppermint tea with peach schnapps) and "Holderio" (elderflower tea with some kind of fruit schnapps) - both AWFUL! I stuck to my mulled wine (thank you very much!) and we happily sipped and slurped, enjoying the sun. Until we suddenly realised, that the sun had practically set and we had better get our butts down the slope pronto!
Grabbing our sledges we first didn't manage to open the lock and our cries of dismay send many suspicious glances in our direction. Eventually the lock sprung open and we set off down the sledge run. Faster and faster we flew, past dark trees and straggling pedestrians (who jumped to the side in a hurry). Then, a sharp corner and a weird sensation overtook me: I was flying! Straight for a tree! I managed to twist to the side and bumped myself roughly but avoided a head on collision, which would undoubtedly have been more painful for me than for the tree.
Always a trooper (or thanks to the alcohol dulling the pain) I got back on the angel of doom (= sledge) and got down without further mishap. At home I discovered that my toe had turned a nice shade of black and yellow. Luckily that was all the damage. But I cannot walk for two days, which means that nor can I finish my moving. What a drag.

February 03, 2007

Moving

Yuck. I am moving down to Morges today. The second stop on my way to Geneva.
Just the thought of lugging all my stuff from A to B is enough to send me into hiding.

We went to a Ü25 (Ü stands for "over") Party yesterday. Really brought home the fact that age is creeping up slowly... where is my anti-aging cream?

January 27, 2007

Let it snow

Snow is transforming Northern Switzerland into a fairy wonderland at last.
Winter did not seem winter without a bit of frosting.

Next month sees me saying goodbye to Berne and hello to Geneva. Hopefully I will stay there for longer than 6 months. That is the plan, in any case!

HOT TIP
If you want to see the latest tv shows, check out all u c . It provides a collection of links, from which you can watch all the latest series online. (It is also showing the current season of 24...)

January 21, 2007

Back

Soo... I'm back. What riveting news.
(I apologise for the sarcastic edge, but I am just not THAT thrilled to be back in albeit autumn-y, not wintry, Switzerland. With the exception of seeing friends & family of course!)

Australia was fantastic.
A laidback and friendly country with beautiful scenery, intriguing animals and most importantly 35°C!
We flew to Sydney via Tokio, which was a bit of a strain. We arrived looking like wet, disheveled rags and envying all who managed to look fresh after our long flight. Having six hours in which to amuse ourselves at Tokio airport, we discovered the conveniency of theirDay rooms’. These rooms are very small single or double bedrooms, with a private bathroom, to be booked by the hour. After our gruelling flight a three hour kip was just what we needed!

Spending Christmas Day away from my family felt slightly strange. But as we were so jetlaged, we slept most of the day anyway. Boxing Day, I rose bright and early, all set to start the day with a good cup of coffee. The barrista was a chatty person and asked me if we were planning to hit the sales. “Sales?!” I squeeked. “Oh yes, Boxing Day Sales are THE sales of the year. Everyone looks forward to them.” Hmm. And here I was thinking that we may manage to travel without breaking the bank. Well, that apparently was not meant to be!

Sydney was lovely if windy. We took the ferry out to Manly beach and ended up having our first surf lesson there. It was fantastic, even if we did swallow half the ocean. Luckily the water there is soooo clean! A friend is / was taking an English course at a language school down on Bondi Beach. She introduced us to the Australian way of life by hosting a BBQ (or barbie) on the beach. We ate English sausages and a skippy (kangaroo), the latter unfortunately did not agree with everyone’s stomachs.

Driving down from Townsville to Airlie Beach was uneventful, even if we were driving on thewrongside of the road. We must have made a very half-baked impression on the Europcar guy... he even drew us a detailed map on how to get to airlie beach (ca. 3 hours drive straight down the coast). As I said, very kind and helpful people.

We saw the New Year in with a countdown and two Australian guys. Both had decided to come up to Airlie Beach by themselves for the New Year. Funny that.

As the beach was off limits on account of the stingers (jellyfish), we took a sailing boat trip out to Whitehaven beach. That was quite an experience!

On we drove down to Noosa, breaking the journey in Yeepoon, a town that could have been the setting for the filmpsycho”. Needless to say, I did not sleep a wink in that motel!

Our next stop was Noosa, a lovely place, if catering solely for tourists. We discovered the many pleasures of Australian wine and bland food. (Even if everything sounds and looks so appealing, the Aussies do not know how to season their food! Such a disappointment!)

I met an English couple who had just been to Singapore and they were showing me a film of the sights. We kept chatting with me occasionally glancing down at the camera, when suddenly a lady from a nearby table stood up and approached me. "You do realise that you have been filming for quite some time with the cap still on the front of the camera!" She blurted out. I looked at her in amazement and tried to stifle a laugh. "I am not really filming, but watching a film. But thanks for your concern." All her friends fell about laughing at that. Thankfully she did too!

Instead of trying to spy Oz's wildlife in their natural habitat, we opted to spend one day at the Australia Zoo near Brisbane. (I mean, come on, flipflops - or thongs as the Aussies call them - are hardly ideal footwear for a trek through mosquito ridden rainforests, now are they?) The place was full of interesting animals. Amongst which we saw tasmanian devils, kangaroos, koalas (who seriously stink in the wild - not cute!), wombats, tigers, emus, kookaburras, and my new favorite animal, the echidna (looks like a hedghog with a straw for a nose).

Byron Bay was our last stop. We were told that it is such a fantastic place, we decided to stay a week. The initial pleasure at finding a cute, hippie-ish, design town was marred by not being able to find accommodation. In the end we had to opt for a bungalow a short way out of town. Still in walking distance, thankfully. This town's vibe seemed to be: surf or tan during the day, party hard late afternoon and at night. Right up our street! My fave cocktail turned out to be the Banana Beach Dream (or something like that!). Blend one banana with baileys, kaluha and a dash of cream. A few of those make a great liquid dinner!

On the whole we were very lucky with the weather. The only few rainy days we had, we spent driving. Great holidays, if slightly on the expensive side.