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.

Read more

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!

Read more

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.

Read more