Mum's in town!

As I have had my younger sister over for a short break my Mum decided that she would like to come also and as Jeff (my stepfather) was going to South Africa to spend some time with his son in the Kruger Park (Jurassic Park as it feels when you are there), then she was free to come and pay me a visit. I went to meet her at Zurich airport and wanted to make sure I did not get caught out like before, so I checked and double-checked the arrivals terminal to ensure I was waiting at the correct one. And once again whilst waiting at terminal 1 reading the arrivals sign and flight information that clearly said arrivals 1, she was no where to be seen. So rather than panic, I walked through to terminal 2 and there she was, waiting 20 minutes for me. Is there something wrong with this airport, as I made sure I was at the right terminal and twice it has caught me out! Anyway, we jumped on the train back to Bern and I pointed out the places of interest on the way, not forgetting all the Graffiti, which seems to decorate the journey. Once in Bern we walked to my apartment so she could get familiar with the city and how close everything is, forgetting that Mum is not as young as me so the altitude may make it harder, but she managed fine. We walked over the suicide bridge and watching people swimming in the river Aare. Rather than doing any more train journeys we stayed in Bern and did some exploring. I even took Mum up to the ‘Rose Garden’ as I had promised her one! :-)

Elimination time!

Who are in and who are going home is the big question. Tonight was the end of the Swiss dream, although they dominated for 90 minutes they could not capitalize on this. So the dreaded 30 minutes extra time was played, full of cramp and tired legs but the Swiss battled on and came close to scoring, always looking the better team, but still no goals. So the ‘Beautiful Game’ came to a nasty end with the Swiss losing out to Ukraine in the penalty shoot out and for a Swiss goal keeper that had not conceded a single goal so far, saved the first shot and had too much to do to save his team that could not find the back of the net. Yesterday was the end of the Dutch dream as they went out to a dirty Portuguese side, after some fantastic football it all ended with 9 men apiece and 16 bookings. The head FIFA Chief Executive said the referee should have given himself a yellow card for his bad decision making, I agree! The good news is England, although playing yet another ‘CRAPPY’ game managed to progress to the final 8 with a fantastic free kick from Beckham, before he was sick and had to be substituted. It’s a funny old game!

Midnight trian to Bern

I was sitting on the midnight train, due to depart from Lucerne at 5 past the hour and the last train back to Bern. I had an evening with my colleague John and the Swisscom Mobile guys at their data centre to ensure our MMS alerts platform worked well and delivered all the alerts for the FIFA World Cup football, my presents definitely helped! This was a success, as all the messages were delivered, Switzerland had beaten South Korea and we had watched the game on a big video screen with beer and munchies. All in all a good night and I then had to leave to catch the last train, which would be a 1.5 hour journey back via Olten, so I shouldn’t fall asleep, or I would end up in Basel. With 5 minutes to go I jumped on the train, the front section furthest away from the station so I would ensure some peace and quiet and plenty of room, but how wrong I was. Within these last 5 minutes my empty carriage became full, with all sorts or weird and whacky people (probably all Swiss!). As the Swiss team had won their game, Switzerland had woken up and people were parading the streets, shouting and partying, car horns blaring constantly as if the Swiss had won the World Cup. So I had the pleasure to share a train with some of them, not that I minded, but I was hoping for a quieter train journey. As the train departed there was not a single spare seat as we set of into the obis, but not before the train inspectors checked all the electronic brakes on each carriage. This is done on the older trains as there was a fatal accident a couple of months ago when a goods train ploughed into a stationary passenger train as it’s electronic brakes failed. So before I digress too much, which I have a habit of doing I will get back on ‘track!’ I had the pleasure to sit opposite 2 guys that had enjoyed the warm summer evening and were now tired and wanted to rest. So sprawled out on their seat opposite they made themselves comfortable, slipping their sandles off and leaving me with a deadly Swiss cheese smell, which nearly blew my socks off! Then to add to the smell and ambience was the warm days stagnant sweat, beer breath and someone playing their music so loud I thought I was in a disco. The pleasures of an evenings train journey…. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had to change train at Olten, so I only had to endure this for 30 or so minutes. I arrived at Bern at 01:36 am and walked home as the buses and trams finish around 12:30. Partygoers had also blitzed Bern, as there was rubbish everywhere, beer bottles and the usual crap. I was glad to get to bed; maybe I’m getter old?

David's Birthday

Happy 45th birthday David!

Hatfield - UK

Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Traveling to England felt just like the movie. I was up early to catch the bus to the main Bern 'Banhof' then off to Basel where I had to jump on the 'Flughafen' bus. Once there it was easyJet to Luton, then a car journery to Hatfield, with all of this to look forward to on the way back.

Tour de Suisse...

Football Football Football

Einstein a Go Go!

Hide and Seek

Niederhorn

Thun

Whit Monday

How to influence the way people see you!

Perception is a strange thing, we can change the way people perceive us by many means; our clothes, (which is normally the first thing people notice), the people we are with, the places we go, or attitude and of course our mannerisms we expose. Today was one of those days. I did not really know what clothes I was going to wear, but have this nice Brazilian, zip up sweatshirt, which seems to have a strange effect when I wear this. Well let me start at the beginning; I decided that I would walk down into the city, about a 15-minute walk, mainly down hill, and as it was I nice day took a leisurely walk. As I left the house my neighbour on the ground floor made the first comment. He said I was obviously getting into the football spirit as I had donned my Brazilian top. As I have met him before we talked about the football and the teams we would be following during the World Cup. I have to admit the teams I will be following are; England (because Scotland are not in this and I’m sort of English, as Mark always reminds me), Switzerland as I live here, Holland as I spent 5 years there and of course the best team in the tournament, Brazil! So the next comment was went I was walking across the ‘Kornhausbrucke’ (bridge), yes the suicide bridge, as I mentioned before. A girl (with he partner) walking up on the other side, shouted across and punched the air saying Brazil for the cup… At that point I thought this is going to be a strange day as everyone is going to think I am now Brazilian, so should I sneak home quickly and change, or endure the comments for the rest of the day. So once I was in the city (well town as its pretty small to really call a city), I was then acknowledged by many people as being a Brazilian. As the Brazilian team are over here in Switzerland having their warm up games in preparation for the World Cup, then everyone is interested in Brazil. Quite strange as the German and Dutch teams are also here in preparation for the World Cup and no one is interested, but the Brazilian team, who are camped out in Weggis are having 20,000 people going to their practice sessions and the whole lakeside town near Lucerne has become Brazil for the month. Everywhere are Brazilian flags, etc. Champions Brazil warmed up in style for next month's World Cup with an 8-0 romp over a Lucerne select side in front of a capacity 30,000 crowd at the St Jakob stadium on Tuesday. Ronaldo and Adriano scored twice while Lucio, Juninho Pernambucano, Robinho and Kaka grabbed the other goals. Their opponents were based on the FC Lucerne side which won promotion from the second division this year plus several former players who are now based abroad. Brazil's last international before their opening World Cup match against Croatia on June 13 will be against New Zealand in Geneva on Sunday. The South Americans, who are training at Weggis on the shores of Lake Lucerne, kicked off with the side which coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has already announced will face Croatia and which started their last competitive game against Venezuela in October. Ok we digress; lets get back to the story. So as I wandered through Bern I thought I should go and buy an English shirt for when England are playing, but at 99 Francs I thought this was a little expensive, but then it’s only once every 4 years, but I’m a Brazilian today so best not buy an England shirt, maybe tomorrow. My last shop before returning home I was approached by a couple of Brazilian girls, strange as there seems to be a lot here, and they asked if I was Brazilian. After ‘Oi’ and ‘tudo bem’ I was lost for words and they soon discovered I was a fake!! But nevertheless they seemed interested in me! So as I started to explain, we could influence the way people see us by something as simple as our clothes. So maybe I should wear a shirt that says; I’m single and would like to meet girls! Or depending on whom I’m out with I would need a whole load of different shirts with logos on such as; ‘He’s my friend I’m not gay!, She is my school friend from the Philippians I’m not a Swiss guy that has married and imported a wife!, or I’m not really Brazilian I just happen to like this top. OK, yes I’m going crazy, maybe paranoid but then you should try this out and see the effect!