Ok, maybe it WILL stop raining eventually permitting me to give the lawn its first cut of the season (before having to resort to a scyth); and maybe, just maybe it WON’T snow next tuesday.. But spring is here. Definitely!

Am I glad it’s Spring since 4 days: I can’t stand Winter!

We visited our local book shop today, looking for a travel guide to the Ostsee (somehow DBW has these weird dreams of long walks along the beach while ice-cold gales delicately brush through our hair, before retreating to a lonesome lighthouse where we cuddle up below a large duvet and spend an awfully long time attempting to warm each other up.. ;-)).

Anyway, they had one so we were more than delighted to fork out the CHF 18.60, until we attempted to pay by EC-Card (i.e. direct-debit, NOT credit):

Errm: do you mind paying cash? We only accept card payments for amounts over CHF 20.00.

I really had to make an effort not to issue a long “tirade” about Amazon, and how they would actually deliver my book, to my doorstep, for free (maybe I shouldn’t have, but it was Monday and I was feeling mellow.).

And being an investigating B*stard, I checked out the vendor conditions for handling a so-called Maestro card. Apart from the obvious leasing fee for the reader (which can also be used for credit cards), advantages include:

1. You can count on 4.4 million cardholders as customers, alone in Switzerland, all who wish to pay conveniently and easily without cash.
2. You enable over 582 million cardholders from around the world to pay without cash at your business or in your online shop.
3. Your customers feel secure because they always have sufficient funds on hand when they can pay with Maestro at your business.
4. It is proven that your customers make more spontaneous purchases daily.
5. Your turnover is in your bank account in no time at all.
6. You have less cash in the cash register and thus bear less risk.
7. You incur no expenses for billing and collections.
8. You can process payments quickly and easily at the terminal.
9. Your administrative expenses are clearly reduced.

So, next time: if I actually take the bother to visit your premises, don’t force me to empty my pockets, ok?

Seen at Teuscher’s on the Bahnhofstrasse, this afternoon:

Oh do I love globalisation!

Nipped up to Nürenberg yesterday to discuss an outsourcing project with a major customer.

I must admit that, since I gave up sales and entered the brilliant and fascinating world of IT 9 years ago, I rarely had the chance to experience the familiar situation whereby you sit in-front of a customer and try to convince him (or her/it) that whatever you have to offer is even better than sliced bread.

So I actually looked forward to the day and was determined to assert whether I actually missed my previous occupation or not:

1) Getting up at 05:00 is totally uncool!: don’t know about you, but the flesh on MY face invariably only wakes up around 09:30. Sitting on your terrace while consuming your first IV of caffeine at 05:15 is quite interesting though: you can catch various members of the local wildlife doing things you wouldn’t even dream of doing (and I don’t mean the “ghastly neighbours..).

2) Purchasing your train ticket the day-before is cool: my colleague turned up 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time and stood for 8-9 minutes in a queue which was serving 2 (out of 4) counters.

3) Having a BRAIN which only wakes up at 09:30 can be cool: the Deutsche Bahn has banned smoking from its train stations since September 1; including the platforms. Said colleague immediately lit up as soon as we had deposited our rucksacks on the floor. I spent the last few minutes waiting for our train eying the conductor which was standing a mere 2 meters away.

4) Eating a lavish breakfast on a train is absolutely cool: I don’t eat breakfast during the week. Somehow I still can’t get rid of the taste of the porridge Mum used to force-feed me with; neither can I forget the porridge-tasting burps which would then burden me for most of the morning.

Sundays are something altogether: our weekly brunches are legendary and we all fully enjoy the gentle carelessness associated to the absence of school/work.

So what to do at 07:30 if you’ve got 5 hours train ride in front of you?

Simple:

5) Taking souvenir pics in a factory is absolutely uncool: especially if there are signs literally EVERYWHERE warning potential paparazzi of the fate which awaits them. Still, it is rather tempting when your cell-phone has an inbuilt camera. BTW: t’was the above-mentioned colleague once again; not ME!

6) Eating a Double Whopper with Bacon in the DB first class lounge is uncool: especially surrounded by managers slurping Darjeeling.

7) Finding out that each platform has this neat yellow “smoking-allowed” perimeter is cool: so you can smoke if you absolutely need to; but those who don’t want to share your exhalations know where you exactly where you are and can avoid you at leisure.

Getting a phone call from your boss asking you to solve a technical problem once you’re back home is totally *BLEEP*: especially if you can’t benefit from the the wireless LAN which will be present in the ICE you’ll be travelling in because your battery is dead. And you know you won’t be home before 23:00. (Colleague again)

9) Reverse-engineering your laptop’s power plug by breaking off the grounding pin in order to make it German-power-socket-compatible is cool (as long as your power supply never finds itself needing that pin).

10) Finding out that the promised-WLAN is out of order is uncool: especially has you’ve managed to solve your power problem.

11) Connecting yourself via your cell-phone, GPRS and Bluetooth is technically cool: I’m just glad I won’t be the one submitting my colleague’s expense reports!

12) Solving the problem while hurtling through the Black Forest at 200 KMH is “way-out” cool: but see point 11.

13) Arriving back home at 00:10, 19 hours after having originally left the warmth of my mattress is more uncool than you can ever imagine: I’m too old for this shit!

Ever since I saw Eric Pryde’s version of Steve Winwood‘s “Come On Me”, I swore that , someday, I would purchase a membership to a fitness club, which I would visit on a regular basis and develop my very own “butts of steel” (yes, DBW: AND “gutt of steel” as well!! ;-))

Trouble is: up until now I never actually managed to find ANY place remotely ressembling the one in that clip (ok: for those of you with Alzheimers, here it is, once again:)

Until yesterday, that is!

When ever we nip over the border to go shopping, we inevitably return to find some flyer or another stuck under the windscreen wipers. Some flyer or another which I invariably flatly ignore and deposit in the nearest bin.

Yet this Saturday, something caught my eye:

Could it be? Could it really be possible that the place of my dreams has just opened within minutes from my abode?

Too good to be true, probably. But I might just pop in to find out what THIS is all about: