Due to a tight schedule, I treated Vic to a scrumptuous lunch at our local Migros restaurant today (actually, it was one of the worst meals I have lately had to suffer: a microwaved – c’mon, you can’t expect fresh food at 12:50, can you? – minute pork chop and chips laden with a greasy herb butter sauce which turned my intestines into a methane factory for the rest of the afternoon).

As we were escaping leaving the place, Vic noticed the following ad placed strategically next to the elevator:

“Get your free gift with every Lilibiggs kid’s menu: a wolly hat, a pair of gloves, a scarf or………….an icecream“.

Someone definitely has a screw loose!

DBW and yours truely took part in Zürich’s Bloggy Friday for the 2nd time in two months, networked with two new bloggers, Urs and Andi (sounds better than “met two faces”, eh?) and confirmed why they both hate “Spaghettiplauches” (a big bowl of noodles served with various sauces which don’t taste of anything similar to a spaghetti sauce).

But, as mentioned, weirdness prevailed: of the 6 other participants, none was opionionated nor arrogant. It was simply a great evening among interesting and thoroughly nice people.

In Zürich.

With (mostly) Zürchers.

Weird, I tell you!

I must admit that I was rather anxious about attending this evening’s Bloggy Friday in Zürich.

Not that I’m not used to leaving the house by myself, mind you. I actually drive in to work twice a week and DBW sometime even lets me go shopping alone.

I simply wasn’t sure what to expect: would an Anglo-Saxon blog be welcome amidst a myriad germanophone ones? Would we have anything in common, apart from templates and plugins? Would I be the only one without an iPhone?

There is nothing more to say than “Thanks for a great evening, Roger Rabbit, Bluetime, Rockgöre, Falki, Lupe, Fraggle and Bambi; I wish we would have had more time..”

I’ll be back!

And might even take ol’ Bricciola with me if she behaves next time!

That ANYONE should manage such a shot is pretty damn good.

That ANYONE should manage it during the third set of a grand slam semi-final is awesome.

But to turn it into a passing shot and gain a match ball as well?

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….

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!