Swiss trains

I'm on the train from Zurich right now and as we're approaching Bern there's this announcement: "We're approaching Bern and we are sorry for the delay of 3 minutes. "

Yes, trains in Switzerland are always punctual they actually apologize when they are 3 minutes late. Three minutes!

Update: I spoke too soon. The train has stopped now due to a problem in one of the stations and it's been sitting idle for half an hour already. Only now does it start moving again.

It was so tacky...

Saturday evening we all went out to celebrate my best mate's birthday. He wanted to do something fun, so he made reservations at this bowling alley where they also serve pizza by the meter (yes, pizza by the meter!).

The bowling alley is a bit worse for wear. Imagine a bowling alley in the 80s and that's about it (albeit with an electronic score board - I don't think they existed in the 80s yet). There are pinball machines, video games (Time Crisis II for Christ sake!), a pool table and an air hockey table. However, it was quite packed with people wanting to have some fun (such as doing Tequila shots while bowling).

Anyway, we started out with the meal first. As we were 17 of us, a meter of pizza is never going to be enough, so we had to wait another 20 minutes for another meter. In the end we ate 3 meters, but if they were any quicker I reckon we could have eaten about 5 meters. But the best bit was when suddenly there was live music playing. And when I say live music it is not a band, but one guy with a couple of keyboards and a drum machine, singing hit songs. At first he sang Italian songs, then French, and then we heard the intro of Tina Turner's Simply The Best. At this point we all had consumed a fair amount of alcohol, so when the refrain kicked in, we all shouted "You're simply the best!". This song was followed up by Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall and then Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger.

We bowled afterwards for 2 games. I didn't do that bad considering I haven't bowled in ages. 150 and 143 (in the second game I only had 3 pins in the first 2 frames as I was experimenting with a throw).

Evenings like that are always fun.

Possibly the best job in the world?

There's an opening here:
http://www.islandreefjob.com/

The applicant needs to have good swimming skills, and a love of snorkelling, scuba diving and other water sports. The successful applicant will earn AU$ 150,000 for six months, with free return flights and expenses. Accommodation is provided on the island.

Why am I not applying???

2009

Happy New Year everybody!

I went snowboarding last weekend in a small place called Torgon. It's part of the Portes du Soleil, a huge ski-resort that spans over France and Switzerland, and you can actually ski from one country to the other (very useful before 12/12/2008 if you want to smuggle stuff from one country to the other).

The skiing domain comprises over several ski villages and one of them is Torgon. It's quite small, but once you get up there, you can go across to several other places. And the good thing about this place is because it's small and not very known, there aren't a lot of tourists who go there to show off their ski-gear during apres-ski. Which means more room for me to fall over and less queues at the lifts.

It was blue and bright and you can see the clouds hanging below you. The snow was perfect and even though it was cold (about -8 degrees) seeing the sun in all its glory makes up for it.

The weather is still freezing cold and I haven't seen the sun in days, which means that skiing conditions is still great. Shame I'm stuck in an office for most of the day. Oh well, at least I can go home for lunch and watch 30 Rock.