The Zürich Wine Exposition, Expovina, is a pretty awesome idea. Really!

12 steamboats, docked side-by-side, serving as a temporary home to nearly 120 wine merchants. A place to lazily stroll around on a Saturday evening, tasting delicate nectars to your heart’s content..

And all that for the modest sum of CHF 20.00! Awesome I tell you!

So awesome, in fact, that most of the town’s teenagers rapidly cottoned on to the awesomity of the happening and decided to grace it with their thirsty presence. You have to hand it to them, though: they are pretty conscientious when it comes to persevering through a seemingly hopeless task; I’m sure most of them managed to visit at least every booth twice!

Which is vastly more than we succeeded in doing: after having managed to get onto one of those damn boats, frayed a passage through a mass of jovial visitors, discovered a couple of free square inches which had temporarily been abandoned by someone else’s elbow, and set claim to our own moment of rapture, we diligently experienced a virtual Vuelta (not bad, but nothing to write home about) before sampling a few drops from “down-under” (Oz or South Africa? To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure anymore..).

And then it was rapidly time to call it a night.

I’m sure the place really IS awesome. At around 14:30. On a Thursday afternoon. Which is precisely when most people wish to relax after a grueling week on the grindstone.

To be absolutely honest: there weren’t only teenagers present. Quite a few adults had made it as well, probably ex-teenagers wanting to reminisce their youthful days on those steamboats, judging from the fact that this was the 55th venue….

Remember the “Whassup” Budweiser commercial?

First aired on December 20 1999 it soon achieved cult status and was followed by numerous parodies featuring grannies, rabbis and even …the Teletubbies.

Ever wondered what happened to the original five friends, what they are up to nine years later?

Exactly! Whassup?

Most business hotels offer some perk or another.

Some provide a bathrobe and slippers (let’s not mention the “luxury bathroom amenities” again, will we?). Others might even slip a free newspaper under your door, but I must admit that I had never ever seen this one before:

A duck, a rubber duck delicately poised on a shelf in the bathroom!

It truely made my day!

Dear “Faith Tones”,

I am absolutely thrilled! Not only to receive a copy of your latest opus, but to be blessed by your divinely generous and virtuous offer:

For a moment I really thought I would go for it; alas, mainly due to conflicting duties (you can imagine what it’s like up here: chaos, pure chaos), but also my total incapacity to choose only one of you three cherubims, I regret to inform you that I will momentarily be incapable of honoring your proposition.

May I take advantage of this missive to add that I am now well stocked with chocolate, complimentary bathroom articles and fluffy toys and would respectfully suggest donating the financial aspect of your devotion to a needy cause.

Thanks anyway,

Yours,

Jesus