Looking for a prepaid cellphone card in Switzerland and are considering Sunrise?

Try Google!

Or maybe not:

Vic had the great idea of losing her cellphone during our recent holidays so we got her a temporary (cheapo) phone with a Sunrise prepaid card.

And as she mainly communicates via SMS, we went for an offer which includes 1’000 free messages (to be sent within a period of three months – should bearly be enough.. ;-)) and a whopping CHF 2.00 conversation capital.

Two weeks later, she informed us that she wasn’t able to send any SMS anymore!

After a quick call to the Sunrise helpdesk, she was then informed that (free) messages could only be sent if she had a credit; which she didn’t, of course, as you can imagine just how long the CHF 2.00 lasted for.

“No problemo: let’s top up your credit online”, I said and proceeded to find the appropriate link on the Sunrise homepage.

“Dear customer”, it told me, “in order to recharge your account, you need a special, really hush-hush, secret password”. “And in order to get one, simply send an SMS to….”. *BOING*.

But ahaaah: it was also possible to call a special number and request the password…..from your mobile phone. *BOING*.

“Oh well”, I told Vic, “I’ll simply pop by the station on the way to work and reload it via the ticket machine”. A great service, BTW: you enter the cellphone number, the amount you wish to “upload”, insert your credit card and woosh, Bob’s your uncle.

Well: at least that’s the way it works with all the other phone companies I know of.

Sunrise doesn’t go “wooosh”, Sunrise goes “whir, whir” as it prints out a 73 digit code you then have to enter into your phone. *BOING*

So, Granmas, Uncles, and Godmothers of this world: forget about giving little Johnny a Sunrise Prepaid card for Christmas with the intention of topping it up remotely whenever you feel like it.

Get a Swisscom one instead!

Drove past the area where the Crazy Nock Brothers, a stuntman show, were to exercise their talents later today.

Entrance Fee: Adults CHF 25.00, Children CHF 15.00

CHF 80.00 for a family of 4? Crazy they are!

…to watch your language in front of “little Johnny”:

Humans never cease to amaze me!

Let’s say you manage an airport; oh, nothing fancy: four gates, 20 movements per day and two check-in counters.

A waiting lounge with a capacity of 150 passengers.

Pretty easy right? You simply make sure there is never more than 1 aircraft on the tarmac at any time. Ok, maybe two: they’re never completely full. Result: small(ish) queues and nearly everyone finds a place to park his/her butt (after all, most pax were picked up 2-3 hours before departure).

If you’re incompetent (or a sadist), you cluster your departures: 4 flights, then 2 hours of inactivity, then 4 flights, then 3 hours of inactivity, then another 4 flights….

Then you can watch all these people queuing outside the airport before reaching the (only operating) counter. You can also smirk as they all hang around a packed departure lounge, fighting for seats and oxygen (BTW, you’ll find the same gits who reserve their sunchairs at the poolside, piling odd bits of carry-on luggage onto available seats: you never know, Helmut might just decide to sit down after a while…).

But then, I suspect it is all a cunning strategy you make you actually enjoy the square meter of space allotted to you during your flight home.

I sure did!