Fashion, Milan and the Autoroute Blanche

So, here's what you do if you're in Milan, on the weekend of the Milan Fashion week - only you don't have a fat cat bank balance, fashionista wardrobe, or the street cred required to muster up passes to any of the actual mainline events - 

1) Get a room in the city - even if, budget constraints dictate that you're staying so far away from the actual action that the clerks at the reception desk give you a sympathy hug along with your keys.

2) Spend most of your shopping budget on the stock clearance sales going on across street and mid line fashion stores across Milan - you'll be amazed how quickly 15 bucks an item multiplies to half a month's savings.

3) Get into the line in front of Grom's for a gelato - never mind that it's still technically winter, and you're carrying an entire wad of wipes for the snot that'll erupt after. It's Italy, and it's heavenly. Don't forget the almond biscotti alongwith.

4) Browse the shops at Monte Napoleone, try to pretend that you belong inside the Valentino and Dior showrooms. After giving it a respectable few minutes, shamelessly befriend a shop assistant and ask when they go on sale and where the factory outlets are.

 5) Catch coffee at the cafe's tucked away behind the high end boutiques.as you closely scrutinise the well heeled passersby, and the impossible well dressed people walking into the cafe, hoping one of them is Anna Wintour or Grace Coddington.

6) Casually amble down the cobbled streets over to the main Duomo square, all the while making sure to catch a good glimpse inside the various black sedans with waiting chauffeurs parked all over, just in case someone famous walks by. 

7) Amble around the Galleria near the Duomo, and stand stunned in the magnificence of the Cathedral in the night. Close out the evening with dinner at Bagutta, a restaurant with a history - Ingrid Bergman once dined here.

And if you're serious about buying some actual designer stuff, try Foxtown, an outlet mall located an hour and a half drive away from Milan, very near Como, in Mendrisio. You can find the latest spring collection at D&G, Gucci and amazing discounts at the Jil Sander, Ralph Lauren, Replay and Diesel outlets.

The drive adds on to the distance from Geneva, so it was a four and a half hour odd drive back to Geneva from Mendrisio, but the stunning views on the Autoroute Blanche, through the Mont Blanc tunnel was completely worth it. I went nuts with my camera on the drive, check out these pics. 

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Shameless Excess... Bring it On

Just back from a week in Dubai - the land of the sun, surf, dazzling lights, shameless excess - just what the doctor prescribed as an antidote to the depression brought on by a prolonged bout of a dreary winter and an even duller Geneva.

I know that the media would make this city out to be currently in the throes of a cataclysmic crisis, where investors stand ruined and poor labourers toil it out in the sun, aka Egypt when the pyramids are built. The clamour has been exceptionally loud in the British media, which is ironic, considering Brit expats are the most spoilt in Dubai - they live in 4 bedroom villas, get manicures and salon treatments at the drop of a hat, have maids, gardeners and assorted staff and a general level of luxury which they would never be able to afford or have access to back home.

The truth lies somewhere in between - the guys facing financial ruin are likely to have been the very same speculators and developers who created a real estate bubble in the first place, workers face tough conditions, but often have no choice, as the wages they earn provide them with an opportunity to uplift the lives of families back home (as most Europeans would agree- they would rather they did this in the sweltering heat of the desert, than in their own backyards), and the average middle class citizens (most normal people in the city are middle class, they cannot hope to reach the level of wealth of the sheikhs and their extended families) work there and love living there and rejoice when others leave, as it means the roads have less traffic, and the malls are less crowded.

I leave you with my impressions as a tourist in Dubai Mall - the largest mall in the world, set in the district around the Burj Khalifa - currently the tallest building in the world. PS - they just got Bloomingdales. 

 

The Burj at Sunset.....

  

Candylicious.. the kids have little shopping carts of their own....

  

Magnolia Cupcakes at Bloomingdales - a perfect snack post an afternoon of retail therapy...

 

The Flying Men fountain inside the Dubai Mall.....

The Downtown Marina before the dancing fountain starts......  

 

The Dancing Fountain at Sunset.......

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Ridiculous Fashion

Would you pay a month's rent for this?

Apparently there are people who would. Take a look at the latest bag from Louis Vuitton's Spring Summer 2010 collection

 

It's called the Raindrop Besace and is expected to retail at Eur 1200. I don't know much about fashion, but you're kidding me right? Or maybe it's a case of the designer (Marc Jacobs), trying out some not so subtle fashion satire. He'e been quoted as saying, "There's this huge cult following of almost crazy people at Vuitton who just want whatever they buy to be exclusive." Well, they got their wish. (News courtesy http://stylefrizz.com, huffington post)

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Vive La France!

It was the worst of times, a seemingly endless winter, spent wallowing in a heap of weepy romantic comedies, DVD box sets and watching my neighbour's cats put on weight (one of them has got to be pregnant). The bleakness was relentless, the boredom was terminal. There appeared to be no repreive in sight.

And then, like a ray of sunshine that had fought a seemingly unwinnable war with the bank of clouds slouched over the Geneva skyline, and won, there emerged ....a whisper of hope (theme music)

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you.... hold your breath...Vitam Parc. Positioned as a "Centre for Bien Etre", it is -

a) At a 15-20 minute drive from Geneva City Centre (just out at the French border, near StJulien)

b) An indor aqua zone, with heated full length swimming pools, indoor and outdoor whirlpools, and water slides for the kids

c) A gym, squash and badminton court open until 10 pm in the night.

d) An indoor rock climbing area.

e) A Migros that is open till 9 in the night

f) A designer Macdonalds and three other cafes that you might actually consider sitting down and eating at.

g) A website and a customer service with working level knowledge of English.

They tell me the place gets pretty crowded on the weekends. It's close enough that you could be in Geneva, but it has thankfully precious little that is Swiss about it.

Maybe I can survive this winter without tearing my hair out after all.

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Pet Peeves

I know that this may be a little premature, considering I've only been here a few months (seems like a lifetime already), but here's a few things that make it real hard to love the Switzerland and locals.

 1) Texting while walking - Talk about taking "Pieton is King" a little too seriously. What's with the walking with your head down while texting, and not even bothering to look while crossing the street? You're just hoping there's nothing wrong with my brakes dude.

2) Customer Service folks telling you what they won't do - This appears to be a national sport that the Swiss take a lot of pride in. True story - I walk into the post office to pay my bills - I have about six or seven of them. The cranky old lady at the counter a) Speaks only French b) Tells me that I should have torn the versements out before presenting the bills for payment c) Stares at me blankly when I ask her what the total is, after grudgingly deigning to stamp all of them. You are expected to now the total, she tells me with a sigh, as she puts the bills through the machine. Really... I think she would have been better off at home with the cats.

3) Shut Down Sundays - I never thought I'd ever be in a situation where I'd hate Sundays - and this is after living in the Middle East, where Sunday is the first working day of the week! Sundays in Switzerland make me feel like I'm in a riot affected country that has just called in a curfew. About the only thing that you can do is catch a movie. Last weekend, the entire population of Geneva - I'm not kidding here - was at Balexert, a local movie theatre. It was so bad, that we had to actually watch the film sitting on the stairs! And if you're unfortunate enough to not want to ski every weekend in winter, well, I guess you don't deserve to be here!

I know this is just the first of many rants about Switzerland, but then, people tell me its because I'm getting into phase two of settling in. Hmmm...... I hope they're right.

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Gypped in Geneva

So I'm getting out of a meeting at one of Geneva's most prestigious hotels - The President Wilson, last evening, when I got robbed.

It was a slick operation. I am an easy target, both arms full, distracted, as I finish a phone call getting into my car. A man knocks at my window and signals to my tyres. "The wheel's out of alignment, be careful driving," he says, in French. Alarmed, I step out of my car and look cluelessly at my back tyre. Unable to perceive anything wrong, I drive off to the restaurant where we are having dinner. 

It was only as I was getting out of my car at the restaurant that I realised that I didn't have my bag. My first instinct was that I'd left it at the hotel. A frantic dash back and search at the hotel and the parking lot revealed that this wasn't the case. Either the guy himself, or an accomplice had somehow managed to get the bag out of the car, while I was out looking at the tyres. 

Our suspicions were borne out, when we are told at the visa processing office that we were the 19th case of stolen permits reported in the last couple of months. Rumor has it that Geneva has apparently been invaded by a gang of purse snatchers from Lyon.

Meanwhile I'm kicking myself mentally for not being alert enough. Luckily, the most valuable thing in my purse was my permit, and some loose change.

So keep an eye out people, in case you're in the same situation, remember to watch your purse!

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Illusions and Recycled Air

The 40 something executive in a customised designer suit who zips through check in, while you wait it out behind the four parent, six screaming kids nightmare of a family returning from a ski vacation. The woman who clocks in sixty thousand odd air miles, managing a career, a family and two children. The hotshot young manager who comes up with a way of cutting 85% of the cost to company, two weeks into her first job. 

Ryan, Alex and Natalie are the key protagonists in the film in writer/director Jason Reitman's "Up in theAir", during the course of which he effortlessly takes these and other hallowed examples of what constitutes a  successful human being in modern society, and manages to get the viewer to see beyond the cliche. - Ryan has lost any semblance of human connect, Alex has "settled", and Natalie hasn't realised that she can't have it all.


Through the course of the film, the characters reveal their cynicism ("Think of me as yourself, only with a vagina" - Alex) and their essence ("How does it not even cross your mind that you might want to have a future with somebody" - Natalie), with effortless wit and irony, and, at it's end, you leave not feeling sorry for any of them, but rather reflecting on (as Ryan would put it) what you, if anything, would really  "put into your backpack before you set fire to it."

There are many metaphors for the decline of substance and real human connection in this film, one of them perhaps is also that it has been pitted with the likes of Avatar in race for the Oscars. While it is unlikely that it will triumph over the flash and dazzle of technology, the money making juggernaut, or the political correctness of other contenders, in itself, it is a quirky little gem, with some great acting (a shoutout to a brilliant Vera Farmiga and a merciful lack of schtick from George Clooney), brilliant writing and the pluck to stick to what filmmaking is all about - that sleight of hand that makes you engage and reflect while thinking that you are being entertained.

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An Apple makes a happy Valentine's Day

I'm no tech geek, in fact, if there were a Darwinian scale on tech awareness, I'd probably be hunched right next to the primates, but I'm right on top of Apple's droolworthy Ipad launch. While the $500 gadget is a must have for this year,  here are some other cheaper yet great Valentine's day gift ideas from the Apple Store

1) Personalised I-Gadgets - SFr 7+ (SFr 75-200)- A personalised engraved message on an I-gadget of your choice - the catch here is that you have to buy the Shuffle/Ipod/Iphone itself. If your significant other doesn't have one of these, however, it's worth considering.

2) Ipod+TomTom - SFr 119.95 - A great solution for those stuck with significant others who won't ask for directions, are incapable of understanding directions, or just so disorganised that you don't want them messing around with multiple gadgets while driving.

3) Itunes gift card - SFr5 to 100 - Easily available at most supermarket checkouts, and can be personalised with a message. Practical and non sentimental its a great last minute buy to be presented with a bunch of flowers and a kiss.

More information at The Apple Store, Schwiez.  (all images from Apple Store).

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Anyone home??

Never let it be said that I wasn't brave enough to venture out to explore the beauties of Switzerland in winter. An impromptu visit by a friend led to a boatride to Evian. She was on a short trip, visiting the thermal baths was not an option, so the experience was... how should I put this... a sleepwalk through a ghost town.

No more Lac Leman boatrides for me till the peak of summer. Meanwhile, this was me after a long boatride back, a shower and a soak.....

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Avatar - the modern drama

The Chinese government has pulled Avatar out of an estimated 1500 theatres in China, substituting the film with a biography of Confucious. While arguably, cinemagoers are better off with this switch, the motives behind the move are more sinister; many commentators believe that it is an attempt to nip in the bud any unrest that might be building up as a result of popular association of the Avatar storyline with the struggles of Chinese against land grabbing real estate developers. (China's Avatar restrictions cause a stir - Wall Street Journal)

Elsewhere, the L'Observatore Romano, the Vatican mouthpiece, slammed the film as endorsing a return to "neo paganism" , or the worship of nature over God, a view that they say is endorsed by the Pope (the Pope watches movies?? who knew!!.) Not to be outdone, the American conservative media has also jumped on this bandwagon, one reviewer calling the film anti  American in its "... hatred of the military and American institutions, and the notion that to be human is just way uncool.." (John Podhoretz, The Weekly Standard)

Seriously?? We are talking about the film with the giant blue people right?? The one you needed to wear those comical cardboard glasses to watch? The one with flying mountains, dragonlike creatures for transport, lack of substantial clothing for the main protagonists and a giant tree as the main point of conflict? The real green metaphor in the film is the amount of moolah that the producers of the film have generated, and the colour of envy in the faces of the competition.

 

The only real risk that this film poses to mankind is the prospect of a lineup of sequels and a slew of knockoffs in which we will be forced to endure cliche-ed storylines and even more dazzling special effects as substitutes for great storytelling and real human emotion.

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Feature - Happiness and Foreigners

It's just the first few weeks of the decade, and already, we seem to be awash with happiness surveys, and satisfaction indices. International Living's recently released Quality of Life Index lists Switzerland as number three among the list of places that offer you the best quality of life, behind France and Australia. Is it realistic, however, to use these surveys as a guiding light towards a career/educational/lifestyle change?

Consider the Quality of Life survey - while the ranking itself is derived from official sources like the UNESCO, WHO, the math is overshadowed by the magazine's own fatuous, touristy take on what it might be like to live in these cities. Here's what they have to say about Paris - " I always wish quality of life indicators could measure a country's heart and soul. But it's impossible to enumerate the joy of lingering for hours over dinner and a bottle of red wine in a Parisian brasserie..."

The writers clearly make more money and have more time on their hands than an average working Parisien. Most foreigners moving into a city like Paris face an intimidating house hunt ahead of them, many students in Paris live there as squatters, or pay absurd amounts of money to camp out on someone's couch. Language acts as another significant barrier to new entrants to France, or indeed most parts of Europe, not to mention artificially imposed barriers on job mobility in a seemingly endless recession.

Can quality of life be pinned down to the bricks and mortar of amenities like health, cleanliness, transportation and technology? Family, relationships, culture, friendships, art - do they count? Perhaps it is impossible to lay out how much we value these in our lives in black and white tables of numbers. Or perhaps it is - Costa Ricans recently ranked their satisfaction with their lives at an average of 8.5 on a scale of 10, putting them on top of a poll comprising 142 countries. Many foreigners living in any single country for an extended period of time choose to deal with cultural isolation through "ghettoising" themselves, they create mini replicas of their home countries, in an attempt to feel more at home, and to help their children relate to their ethnicity.                               

People making the move are not the only ones who face issues, the countries on the receiving end of large scale influx from immigrants are also doing some serious soul searching. Europe's ageing population is increasingly voting in favour of cultural protectionism, as they struggle to keep some part of their beautiful spaces to themselves. Patrick Marnham's recent exploration of Secret Venice for Conde Nast brings out the angst of the local residents" They are everywhere....with their cameras and ridiculous back bags.....Venice is doomed, the city is dying," is the frustrated outburst of a Venetian local.

Setting aside the positive impact that immigration has to their economies, citizens are not just voting to stand up for what they believe are essential components of their individual cultures, but asking newcomers to either put up with "integration" or leave.

Faced with having to interact with foreign culture on a day to day basis also has had the effect of bringing out hidden skeletons; Australian educational institutes recently saw a 46% drop in enrolment of Indian students, in the light of alleged racist targeting of Indians.

Would everyone just be better off where they were, then? Will the next few decades see an emerging trend of "deglobalisation", a contraction in the will people have to leave their home countries? Or will we see the emergence of more "potboiler" cities like Dubai, a fantastic, futuristic, glitzy mishmash of a metro that unabashedly attempts to recreate the best of the world in the middle of the desert?

Soothsaying apart, it is clear that it is not a clash of the civilizations that we need to be worrying about, but a clash within civilizations, a struggle to hold on to cultural icons that are dear to us in a world that has seemingly eased exchange to the point of universal uniformity. Either way, we should count ourselves as lucky to perhaps be the last few generations that will be able to view the world as we know it now.

Reading Picks

• International Living - 2010 Quality of Life Index
• Paris - Discrimination - Finding a place to live in Paris
• Is Costa Rica Really the Happiest Nation on Earth?
• Plans to build Lyon in Dubai

       

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Getting through the Winter boot camp - Romantic Comedies

As if it weren't difficult enough to get through a Swiss winter in case you aren't a skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, luging (or some other such sporting activity involving insanely uncomfortable sports gear and launching yourself from a great height) enthusiast, it turns out to be the worst winter in the northern hemisphere in decades. I've chosen the sensible option and chosen to deal with this by staying home, having stocked up on DVD box sets and chocolate enough to last me a few months.

Let's begin with my favorite genre, romantic comedy. The genre has witnessed a revival of sorts this year, just as it looked like it had doomed itself forever to the tastelessness of Will Farrell and the glibness of Matthew Mcconoughey (Death to the Chick Flick). Here then are my picks for the must watch romantic comedies of this decade.

2002 - About a Boy - Will (Hugh Grant)plays the rich, idle,no gooder who decides that single mothers present an easy exit option to dating; that is, until he meets Fiona (Toni Collette) and her son Marcus. (Nicholas Hoult.) Events that follow build up to a heartwarming coming of age story. Watch out for some great moments between Will and Marcus.

2003- Something's Gotta Give - Harry (Jack Nicholson) is the eternal playboy, now in his 60's. He starts dating Marin (Amanda Peet), and accompanies her to her mother's beach house in the Hamptons. Events unfold - they unexpectedly run into Marin's mother (Diane Keaton) there, Harry suffers a heart attack, Marin meets his handsome doctor, loyalties change and affections grow. Diane Keaton is at her element, the screenplay and dialogue by Nancy Meyers is sparkling, the art direction draws you into the upperclass, baby boomer world of classic Americana ( this DVD is currently on discount at  fnac stores across Suisse)

2004 - Before Sunset - Sequel to the 90's cult classic "Before Sunrise", the film begins with Jesse (Ethan Hawke) running into Celine (Julie Delpy), in Paris, on a book tour. They spend a few hours together and reminisce on the past and their current life and loves. The script and the cinema both meld together to create an unforgettable ode to all things Parisien - the beauty, the free spirit, the search for love.

 2005 - Hitch - I'm sure everyone's seen this at least once. Hitch (Will Smith) plays love doctor to accountant Albert (Kevin James) who is hopelessly love stuck by  his boss (Amber Valetta) , while being pursued by a journalist on the scent of a story (Eva Mendes). The comedy is hilarious (the scene where Hitch teaches Albert to dance is a classic), and the romance is sweet, and the ending is predictably satisfying.

2007 - Waitress - Jenna (Keri Russell), plays a waitress who is pregnant, stuck in a dead end town and trapped in an abusive marriage. She dreams of baking pies and escaping the grim reality of her life. While this hardly sounds like romcom material, writer Adrianne Shelley great script raises the movie above just another American small town flick.

2009 - 500 days of Summer - Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt), meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel) at work, and finds himself to be irresistibly attracted to her. The film jumps  backwards and forwards through time, engaging the viewer into this sharply told love story.After a mostly dismal 2007 and defunct 2008, this film has (hopefully), injected fresh life into this genre. It has won most Indie film awards this year and has recently been nominated for the Golden Globes 2009.

So gather up the comforter and the remote, and get ready for some warmth and fuzziness!

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The Starbucks Bibliotheque??

Last week's supposedly cool viral campaigns inviting female facebook users to reveal the color of their bras (to surprising success - I certainly didn't want to know my best friend's penchant for "electric pink with lace"), only reinforces the fact that pretty much anything is "cool" as long as its online. (Facebook's Bra Color Story)

Unhappily, it also means that we accept the decline of institutions that we perhaps should be fighting harder to protect - long form writing, investigative journalism, newspapers, research, informed opinion - these are just a few of the mainstays of thought that look as if they might bite the dust soon, casualties of the shapeshifting, design heavy, limited attention span online audience.

Seth Godin's blog today deals with the decline of yet another beloved insitution  - Libraries. I fully endorse his view that we need to take the initiative to build places where you come to find expertise. Being an eternal optimist, go a step further in saying that the libraries of the future will not only survive, but thrive. Cut to 2040 - you walk across to your neighbourhood library to catch the lecture on how the human race saved earth from extinction through strategic initiatives taken in the early 21st century. After the audiovisual, you browse references online and in hard copy as you sit on a comfortable couch and drink fair trade coffee. Sounds fun? Hell yeah.

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Ma I want to be a photojournalist!.. Nah, a weatherman is better.

JobsRated recently released its survey on the Best and Worst jobs in 2010. At the top of the worst job list is "Roustabout" (people who work on oil rigs, also used for circus workers). The Best Job is (don't bother twisting your brain, you'll never guess..) Actuary!!! These are the guys who provide statistical, probability based modelling on risk to insurance providers.

This report ranks 200 jobs on various criteria - Income, work environment, physical demands, stress and hiring outooks. Physical risk and income appear to be the top influencing factors for the 2010 outlook. Here's the Top 20 Best and Worst....

All 200 jobs by ranking can be found here. Here's to a safe, stable and ultimately unexciting 2010!

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