It snowed again. Cool, eh? The locals didn't seem to think so. I can't understand why. I like snow, and I think that being cold, wet and miserable is a small price to pay.

I got all inspired and went for a stroll in the nearby forest with my camera.

Maybe if I pull hard enough...

Fulenbach by Snow

Walking the Dogs

Enchanted Forest

More snow,

more trees.

That's it. Just pics this time. Makes for easy reading - and easy writing. Cool nonetheless.

Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'S', for Snow (it snowed), Skiing (we went skiing), Switzerland (that's here), Slack bloggers (that's me), and other things that start with S.

This is my house a month or two ago when it snowed. There was only a few centimeters, but enough to make everything cold and white for a few days after which it melted and drained away, and that was the winter.

Normally winter in Switzerland makes more of an effort. It dumps snow on everything, freezes lakes, stops traffic, blocks passes, and at the very least puts on a decent show. I think that this year winter couldn't be bothered. Maybe it caught a cold.

I went skiing with a sport group in Fulenbach a couple of weekends back to a place called SanerMöser. Considering that it's one of the worst skiing years on record, we still managed to get a half-day of skiing dirty, patchy slushy snow. 'nuff talk. More show.

En-route

Rather be inside than out...

The crew...

End of day 1. Towards evening it begins to snow, and continues through the night. Next morning it is still snowing. The wind has picked up, and they've closed the main gondola. After considering our many options, we agree it is best to return home.

Evening

When it rains it snows

...and snows.

Across the valley.

And that was the end of that.

A quick post with some pics I meant to upload in the last post, but never did.

Skiing in Belalp
Went skiing between Christmas and New Year's day with Emil and Claudia. It was the first decent stretch of time off I'd had, so I was pretty keen to go and get my first taste of the Swiss slopes. However, I had a few problems. First, there was bugger all snow. 40cm, which was enough to keep the main runs open, but the quality was crap, there were stones everywhere, you couldn't deviate from the main runs, and the entire upper ski area was closed. Secondly, I went and bought boots that were too small for me. I know - it takes a special kind of idiot to do something like that and I don't expect any sympathy, but I swear to you they were fine in the shop. I brought them home and wore them for an hour, and I think they must have shrunk in the car. I don't know. Luckily it was no problem to bring them back afterwards, and I ended up hiring. Finally, and worst of all, I came down with the flu. It wasn't one of those nandy pandy flus either - this one really kicked the crap out of me. The first day I managed three runs before I returned to the hotel and remained bedridden until evening. I forced myself to eat a fantastic four-course meal that I couldn't taste, and went back to bed. However the next day, after 24hours sleep I was feeling better. All told however it was a pretty good holiday.

Sonja's Hippy-theme Birthday Party
Sonja is Emil's partner, and unofficially my step auntie. Her 50th birthday was right on December 31st, so we talked her into throwing a hippy theme party. We had plenty of time to prepare, and prepare we did. There was a hall, catering, decorations, a live musician, fireworks, crazy outfits, and a general abundance of flower power. I acquired a prefab hippy costume, added rose tinted glasses, a wig, sandals and a guitar, and perfected the über-hippy. The glasses started pinching on my nose, and Luca (Roger & Sandra's 3-year-old, bless him) insisted on strumming my guitar, so the only photo with me in it is sans accessories.

Lets Have a Beer
These are some cellphone-photos from a night out with the lads from work. We're at O'Malleys Irish Pub (I believe) in Zurich (could be wrong though), and Woidl found this skeletal zombie sitting downstairs by the payphone in the pub. He took the zombie's head without much of a fight (zombies have low HD) and brought it upstairs, and thus began the routine. The full picture series can be found at http://picasaweb.google.de/bela.grossmann/LetSHaveABeer but I've imported the best pics for your convenience.


Can you guess who's the guy in the mask?

Today's New Year's Day, and I haven't posted since November, so I've got some catching up to do. The answer to what I've been doing for the last three months isn't that exciting - Work. On Monday morning I wake up at 6am, bus to Olten, and take the train to my place of work in Zürich. I bring clothes with me, and sleep for one or two nights in the company flat which usually has a free bed, go to Kung-Fu after work, and return home once or twice a week for fresh clothes. I don't think it would have exactly made an enthralling blog, hence I haven't posted for a while.

Work itself is going okay, though I've really got a lot to learn still, and in a few weeks the project leader Maik will be away for three weeks in the military, and I get to do support all on my lonesome. Should be interesting I think.

Speaking of military, I did attend a military information day, and I won't be doing military service in Switzerland. I don't speak enough Swiss-German, and I'm getting too old (the cut-off age being 25, and kids usually do it at 20), so I have been certified 'Untauglich'. It means I'll have to pay an extra 3% tax, but so be it.

But surely something has happened in the last three months that is worthy of writing home about. Well, in actual fact, several events have transpired which I will report in the next several thousand words (or the equivalent word count value in pictures).

13/12/2006: i-logs Christmas Event, Austria
Once a year my firm hosts a Christmas event in Klagenfurt, Austria. It's thinly veiled as a 'business activity', and there is a meeting on the Friday, but it spans across the weekend, which leaves plenty of opportunity for festivities. Airfare and accommodation is taken care of by the company, so how could I refuse?
We (Maik, Oli and I) flew in on Thursday night, dropped our bags off at the hotel, and Oli led the way directly to an empty bar where over the next half hour we pretty much just got hammered. I thought it was stupid, and said so, but hey - when you've got four empty glasses and four full ones, what else is there to do but drink?
So the meeting on Friday morning was a bit of a challenge, and I almost dozed off a couple of times, but nobody really minds dis attentiveness if you've got a good reason (such as being hungover). Towards evening we migrated from the office to the pub across the road, then out to the Klagenfurt nightlife. 'Twas a pretty crazy night, with the expected drunken antics, but little else to report.

Bowling: Spot the beef	Roland's hand wasn't on my shoulder a moment ago...

Saturday afternoon we went bowling. If I should ever have to bowl to save my life, it'd be a sad funeral. That evening there was a function hosted in a local castle, which was really cool. I hadn't eaten anything all day, and to my delight it was buffet, and I chowed down until I could chow no more. With the exception of Rib Night™, I don't think I have ever enjoyed a meal as much. A few of us were keen and headed back into town, but didn't amount to much.

Sunday was crap. We got back to the hotel around 4am, and had to check out by 11am, so we weren't exactly well rested. Klagenfurt on Sunday morning was cold, and closed. There was a wee market in the town centre that we had a look at, but eventually just ended up shooting some pool until our taxi took us to the Ljubljana airport in Slovenia, where we flew home.

17/12/2006: 70's Theme Party
Sonja's son Rene, who I suppose is technically my step-cousin, was I think turning 30 along with some friends of his, and had a joint birthday party. The theme was 70's dress. The picture (above right) is of Jannick (left), Claudia (right), and myself (center). Jannick did a frighteningly good job of drag, and I dubbed her 'Lola' for the evening.

The party itself was held in a nearby castle, and was a well organised affair with food, drink and entertainment provided. Costumes were many and varied, with most people putting on a decent show. Some of the guests got keen and did stand-up comedy routines, such as this one (right) which started as a two-girl retinue and ended in full-blown line dancing. These crazy Swiss.

The following events including the ski trip and the New Year's eve hippy party will have to be concluded in the next post so stay, er... posted.

Ah, a weekend in Paris. NO, not Hilton - France.

On Wednesday night my French friend Sylvian said he was free for the weekend if I wanted to visit. I booked my tickets online that night and flew to Paris on Friday after work. It is certainly one of the rare and special advantages of single life that you can plan holidays three days in advance. I've been paid and have a weekend up my sleeve, so why not go and see a friend I haven’t seen in two years - in Paris. *sigh*... life is beautiful.

Sylvian met me at the airport, and drove me back to the flat where I met the flatties and dropped off my stuff. We ate some home-made pizza, and drove into town for a drink and a walk around. That part of town was definitely the red light district in Paris, as every second shop was a sex shop, a strip joint or a brothel. Men stood outside and beckoned passers by for a ‘good time’. Apparently if you ever go in the girl will ask you if you want something to drink, and then crack open a €300 bottle of champagne. Ouch. Sylvian took a photo of me in front of the actual Moulin Rogue, and I’ll upload it when I get it from him. We drove around a bit and saw Paris by night. And that was Friday night.

The next few photos are what I took on Saturday morning. Sylvian had work, so Christophe helped me buy a day pass for the subway, gave me a map, and left me to my own devices.

Paris Subway, and popping out from the Subway onto the street.

Just outside Invalides.

Invalides courtyard (left), and a statue by the enterance (right).

I also made it to the Eiffel tower on Saturday (topmost right image, roughly joined in PhotoShop) before return for lunch at 2pm of chicken and potatoes, which was really good. After lunch Sylvian had to go see about a girl, so I walked to the local market and bought a leather jacket I've always wanted but never had the disposable income to justify buying.

Later on we took the subway into the Paris city proper (the flat is just outside the ring that defines Paris city). We walked through some of the parks and had a look around.

I reckon this'd look good in the garden.

Hey, it's that Louvre pyrimad from the DaVinci Code where Jesus was buried. Crap - did I just gave the whole movie away?

And that was Saturday night. Went home, drank some fine French vintage and played poker till 4am (almost won too, but lost the gamebreaker with a pair of 10s vs a pair of Jacks). Sunday morning I walked down to the baker and bought croissiants and baguettes for breakfast. Some friends came over for lunch, and then Sylvian dropped me to the airport at 3pm.

If you've been following my posts, you'll remember I theorised that airports are built to reflect the character of their land? Well judge for yourself (image above right).

And so my time in Austria comes to a close. I’ve stayed in Klagenfurt this weekend, and will fly back Wednesday evening. Gah… flying. I wonder what the chances are my flight will be delayed, cancelled, rescheduled, or otherwise rendered incompetent. Of the five flights I’ve made to and from Austria, only one has actually gone according to the original plan. The worst was going home last Friday, where my flight from Klagenfurt to Vienne was delayed by an hour, which meant I missed the last connecting flight to Zurich. I managed to get on a flight to Basel, take a taxi from Basel airport to the train station (CHF40, halved with someone else) and take the train to Olten. On the plus side my flight was upgraded to business class, and my seat number was A1. Of course by the time I got to Olten it was past midnight and there were no more trains to Murgenthal (my stop), so Claudia came to my rescue and met me in Olten. And it was Emil’s birthday. Thanks Austrian Airlines!

I’ve had a touch of a cold or something since Friday, but it hasn’t slowed me down much. You can’t keep a good man down, as they say. And you can’t keep me down either. Nonetheless I’m quietly spending my Sunday reading Dilbert, watching a German overdubbing of Angels in the Outfield, and updating the blog. Was a really nice day so I went to the Zentrum for lunch and took some pictures.

Yesterday I went walking on the Slovenian border with some guys from work. Actually we parked on the Austrian side, showed our passports to the dude in the checkpoint, and walked up the valley on the Slovenian side. The border is just a 3-foot with a stick-figure sign saying you shouldn’t jump over it. Some rules just beg to be broken. There was a duty free shop too (the border actually runs through the shop), but Austrians and Slovenians aren’t allowed to buy from it, unless someone with a foreign passport buys it for them. Not that I did or anything.
From next Monday I will work in Zurich on a real project. A colleague here at work says he knows someone in Zurich who has a room for rent. I’m quite happy staying in Fulenbach for the moment, but the 90min transit to work and back might change that. I’ll try commuting for the first week and see what happens. I’m looking forward to having a regular lifestyle.