…that I don’t live in London.

Because I would be spending ENORMOUS amounts of time in Foyle’s Bookshop.

Foyle’s is like nothing you have every seen: while the ground floor sports your usual novels and non-fictions, the rest of the building is full of treasures.

You wouldn’t believe that there are more than a couple of books on mosquitos; there are, I saw them. If you happen to browse the aviation section, you won’t only find your usual stuff about air disasters and such, but books on airports, runways, plane manufacturors, war missions, pilot biographies… I am sure that I could discover at least another 17 passionate hobbies just by being let loose in Foyles for an afternoon.

But I only had 20 minutes.

So I purchased the couple of things I had been looking for, plus a couple of things I stumbeled upon and went back to rescue the girls from the evil reaches of cut price clothing.

Mayb it’s best, indeed!

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!

As I checked in to my (company-sponsored) hotel this afternoon, the receptionist was quick to point out that:

“Your rate doesn’t include breakfast, sir.”

Followed by a

“Would you be interested in a special upgrade which includes full English breakfast and a complimentary fruit bowl in your room, sir? For the modest amount of £35, sir?”

Hmmm, I thought, pretty reasonable…

“Per week?”, I ventured.
“Per night, sir”, he replied
“Maybe not”, I decided

Of course, the package would have included a bathrobe and slippers (which I dearly missed throughout my stay), a daily newspaper (I was regretting my decision already) and “LUXURY BATHROOM AMENITIES” (an extra bar of soap WOULD have been nice); but I remained disciplined, remembering who had to approve my expenses.

The fact that I learned that our company benefited from a special £9.95 “all-inclusive” breakfast deal the next day did finally help soften the blow!

One of the greatest things about our family: even if we don’t get to see each other that often, (and none of us is really conscientious when it comes to keeping in touch), when we DO meet up, it’s as if time had stopped since our last reunion.

Actually, judging by the number of babies and the receding hairlines, maybe it WAS a while after all….

Many moons ago (exactly 4 years to be precise) I jumped over my shadow and did yet another thing I really thought I would never ever do: I purchased a diesel-powered car.

Once you’ve overcome initial misgivings (noise, maintenance costs) which are largely historical, diesel offers a lot of advantages over petrol engines:

• More reliable
• More efficient
• Less maintenance costs (a service interval of 50’000km for mine)

And the most important factor for me at that time:

• Lower fuel consumption

On the day I collected my brand-new car, the price of a liter of diesel was approx. CHF 1.40 (those were the days). At an average consumption of 6.5 liters/100km for 40’000km/year I was then spending CHF 3’640 per year for the advantage of being mobile. For statistical purposes, with the liter of Diesel costing approx CHF 2.30 today, the yearly cost of my mobility has now risen to CHF 6’240!!!

As a grand total of 31’200 km are spent driving to and from the office, I thought I’d work out exactly how much I pay to go to work; and I was gob smacked!

• 2004: CHF 11.83/day

• 2008: CHF 20.28/day

My company promotes Work@Home; somehow I believe I’ll be taking an increased advantage of this offer in the near future…

Click on Read more for a full comparison

Today was the last day of the girls’ Spring Break.

So I thought I’d take a day of work and treat them to a day out, something special, just them and their dad. I accordingly made a virtual list of places we could visit and “fun” things to do: nothing out of this world, mind you, just the usual stuff kids enjoy such as Europa Park, etc…

Those were the days: I could have suggested a trip to the Moon!

Sarah’s reaction was:

“I want to spend the last Friday of the holidays with my boyfriend”

(…which kinda figures as she had just spent the last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the hols with said individual).

Vicky, sensing my upcoming defeat, offered:

How about lunch at the Brasserie Lipp followed by an afternoon of shopping?

Pragmatic, eh?

So that’s what we did. I ended up only having to take the afternoon off (didn’t want to wake the little darling before 11:00 on a day off!!!), having a GREAT lunch with my favorite youngest daughter at our favorite restaurant,

where we gorged on cockles, whelks, muscles and other delicacies before waddling off towards the Bahnhofstrasse.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon, wallet in hand, visiting such establishments as H&M (3x), Tally Weijl, Claire’s, Jelmoli (had to buy some Sushi, you know), Clockhouse, as well of a bunch of other places whose name I simply cannot remember.

Enjoyable? Definitely! I now know why my brother enjoyed playing with Barbies so much..