Noah's Tulips

On Monday, I came to the conclusion that my office needs to be gayed up seriously. Thus I bought a bunch of flowers and placed them on my desk.



It took me over a day to realise that there are always two tulips of the same kind in it. I still do ask myself what this might mean.

Excluded

I think I do not watch enough (Swiss) telly. Yesterday at our after swim pizza, this add was the part of the table talk but I could not add any wit or repartee to the discussion since I haven't seen nor heard of the commercial, although it seems to have been around for 4 months.

Swiss? Get Your Groceries Today!

Tomorrow, Switzerland will celebrate its 718^th birthday. The Swiss among you might remember that in 1993 we voted that this day should be a work free holiday. In Swiss logic this means the shops are closed too.

Tomorrow this will completely backfire. Our national holiday will be on a Saturday. We would not have to work anyway. And yes, we have to do the shopping for the entire* weekend today - on a bloody workday. The shops might even close earlier than usual on a Friday since it's the eve of a holiday.



* shops are closed on Sundays.

Me Looking Even Hotter

The main purpose of doing sports is looking good when naked. The main purpose of urban cycling however, is always looking hotter than the rest of the world.

Thus my eternal quest for The cycling gear, which brought me recently to OUTLIER, a New York City based outfitter with the tag line Tailored Performance, which provides bike-to-boardroom clothing. Well boardroom, make room for my bike! My shipping arrived yesterday.



You do not even have to ride a bike to wear it ;)



Since the quest is eternal I'm already coveting a new object of desire: A POC RECEPTOR+ helmet. But no luck so far. They are out of stock everywhere :(

I Just Saved £0.01

In these hard economic times, you have to take every bargain you can get. Amazon.co.uk just made my day with the following announcement:

£0.01 is your total savings under our Pre-order Price Guarantee.

Because we reduced the price of your pre-release title between dispatch (when we charged you) and the release date, you will automatically receive a refund for £0.01. You will receive an additional e-mail when this refund is processed.

Mini Skål

Every time, when my caring employer sends me to Denmark to spend some time at sea with the present-day Vikings, I buy for Toño a Mini Skål (bowl) by Peter Svarrer at Illums Bollighus (The porn shop for design zealots). The bowls are available in seven different colours. When I came back from Denmark last Friday, I brought the white one. When will we have to face grey? And what will come after grey?

Screwed

What do you expect, when you have to buy your furniture in affordable furniture shops...





... nevertheless, we like the new additions.

A Bit Of Unsolicited Advice

If you ever learn anything from me let it be this: When buying an overpriced business shirt at Herren Globus and you care to have a breast pocket on your shirt, always, always check whether the breast pocket is actually stitched to the rest of the shirt and not just loosely enclosed. Because I can tell you from experience that returning to the shop in a righteous manner fully prepared to tell the staff that they sell overpriced flawed garment only to learn that the decision makers on the shirt design did not want to impose on the customers that they have to wear a shirt with a breast pocket and that if you wish to have this enclosed option, Herren Globus sewed it on for free in less than a fortnight is not nearly as much fun as you might think it is.

That is all.

Under Shower After The Workout

There are a lot of things that are happening under shower after the swim workout. Such as last August, when I told Beat - the third pooftah in our swim team, former chef turned gaming lobbyist and avowing kitchen appliance aficionado - that I have a soft spot for a certain kitchen appliance.

Last Thursday under the shower, Beat remembered our conversation and he told me that he has his hand on a second hand Kenwood Chef in excellent shape. Well it's not the Major in brushed titanium but it cost only a fifth of that price. I could not resist and after Toño gave his blessing... well it's now in the kitchen of our weekend residence.



There is only one problem of the “law” of diminishing marginal utility. I don't need two of these multi-functional kitchen appliances. Is there anyone out there interested in a TURMIX varioTronic 600 with many extras - such as blender, fruit press and grater?





Added Later
The TURMIX varioTronic 600 has found a new home at Tina's mother.

Emerged From The Abyss

I've got myself a new mobby. Silly me's bought exactly the same model as Toño already has. Bets are open when we first grab each other's phone in the morning.

So far the most difficult task has been selecting an appropriate ring tone. This has become something really difficult since phones are not capable any longer to just ring. And as a güero, I can't get through with a hot Latin tune (as Toño had to point out). After hours of testing and pondering, I went for the piano rift from Level 42's Leaving Me Now, which was also used heavily in Strike's I Have Peace. I'm not a particular fan of either combos, but I thought that this one does sound least silly in most occasions. What a shameful criteria.

I'm far from having peace, because I've lost all numbers. Please send me an SMS with your name or vCard to +41 79 205 04 49. Many thanks!

Ohmigod!

Reading The Economist's feature on the rise and fall of the shopping mall (article), I realised that I was shopping this summer in Glendale Galleria. This mall inspired Frank Zappa's then-teenage daughter, Moon Unit, to the song Valley Girl.



It's where I saw the iPhone for real for the first time. Total space cadet!



Toño and his cousin Celeste at the Galleria.

Yellowboam

New Year's Eve is right around the corner. It's time to stock up for the party. If you really want to have it a bit decadent, you should get some bottles of Veuve Clicquot's Yellowboam.


The label is either made of Ostrich, Alligator or Galuchat (ray) leather. Each bottle is sealed with foil covered in real 22.4 carat gold and topped with a collectible 24-carat gold-plated muzzle cap engraved with Madam Cliquot's signature as a hallmark of the finest quality. All this for only 2000$ per 3 litre bottle. Don't forget to sharpen the sabre.

And The Winner Is...

It's really surprising and hard to believe, but there are still some companies which value loyalty. One of those is Transa.

Transa is a Swiss shop, selling outdoor gear. Everything started 30 years ago with some folks, who had a penchant for trips through the Sahara by Range Rovers. Such an endeavour requires some special equipment, which is hard to get. One thing let to the other, Transa was founded and has been a flourishing business ever since.

The folks of Transa decided to share the joy with their loyal customers. Some weeks ago, Toño and I enjoyed a lovely complimentary evening with fine Maghreb cuisine and a theatre show. There we also filled a competition form.

Yesterday, word came through that I actually won. It's not the main price but a handy backpack by Bach:

Going Bionic

It seems to be true, global warming is a fact we have to deal with. One of the side effects is that the weather will be much extremer. But as we know, there is no bad weather - only bad equipment.

When it comes to waterproof and breathable fabrics most people still choose Gore-Tex™. But remember, we have to deal with the threats of the 21^st century, and Gore-Tex™ is so last century if not last millennium. Thus I decided to go bionic for my mew exposure to nasty weather gear by choosing howies^®' Long Way Home Jacket:

Around whole collar and front arm panels, it has Schoeller’s fabric called reflex which looks black in day light but becomes a large reflective area in the dark. But the real stand out thing about the jacket is it uses the bionic (sfx: six million dollar man music) C-Change™ membrane from Schoeller. It was voted ‘2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for product innovation of the year’.

It’s clever stuff. You see during activity, the structure of the C-Change™ membrane opens as body moisture levels rise. Excess heat can escape to the outside air. Which makes it great for those long rides home. Correspondingly, when you’re cooling down, the structure of the membrane closes, retaining the heat directly at the body.

Lick This Bag

Steve Jobs is supposed to have said You know a design is good when you want to lick it. I'm currently licking Monocle's Overnight Bag:



It's made by Porter in Tokyo. The bag comes with a laundry bag, a pouch for toiletries and pouch to store a bag when you get back to your pied-à-terre.

Hot, Safe and Fair

Finally something positive about condoms. Hot Rubber is introducing condoms made of Fair Trade latex.

Now you can shag around* knowing that the fabric saving your health is produced under human working conditions, without exploiting child labour and with the least possible impact on natural resources.



This is my favourite add by Hot Rubber from the late eighties. The tag line reads Who stays over night...

* not that I would do a thing like that...

Heavily Tempted

Finally a day off. The last couple of days, I've been repairing a poxy gun. Although I work in defence, I can hardly tell the difference between a gun and a toaster. And when we are already at comparisons, making a systems engineer fixing a gun is like forcing an architect to fix the plumbing. However, now the bloody thing is ready to pump hot lead again. Thus I could avoided work for today and went (window) shopping in Copenhagen were we happen to be moored right in front of the queen's palace.



I loath shopping, but in Copenhagen things are different, such as more beautifully designed than elsewhere. I spent almost an hour at Illums Bolighus, the unaffordable shrine to Scandinavian design. I'm lucky, I don't live here. I would starve to death just to buy all those lovely things.

Slick Treadly Flat

This afternoon I was supposed to give a workshop on motivation. But ironically, I just could not motivate myself to go for it and I had to cancel.

The last month was just too demanding. I'm dragging an only half cured gastric flu around, and I'm totally exhausted. Yesterday, I even went to bed at 10pm. Imaging me, getting pre-midnight sleep.

So this weekend is totally dedicated to recovery. I just started with a bit of retail therapy by ordering a Recycled Slick Tread Tyre Belt from howies^®:



It's absolutely useless, nevertheless I reckon, it perfectly matches me right now.