It has become fashionable, it seems, for young men to wear boxer shorts under their swimming trunks [Jul already commented on this].

I personally can't understand the fashion statement. I don't really want anyone to know that I wear underwear by Calvin Klein and Yve St.Laurent. But then, whoever has been able to understand the fashion statement of young people of any generation?
Hygienically speaking , however, the fact is that any amount of fabric worn in a swimming bath is unhygienic - the more you wear, the more dirt and bacteria is transported into the water. The 'problem' has become that serious, that Basel has already put up signs prohibiting underwear and Zurich and other cantons want to follow suit ...

Ed. The rest of this post has been removed.
Apparently it was causing trouble in other parts of the world.
Sadly no-one was prepared to tell me why, or how it may be altered so as not to cause offence.

This afternoon I discovered three neighbours - women - hanging in the lime tree in front of the house I live in ...

At first I wasn't sure how to react. I racked my brain to find any special dates that my mobile phone hadn't reminded me of - nothing.
I considered going back inside and consulting the Farmer's Calendar hanging in my kitchen, but I'd checked that at breakfast and wondered about the entry:
'Pharisee and Customs officer', it said. 'Sunrise 06:24. Sunset 20:15.'
I wasn't so good in Bible classes, so I have no idea, what the hypocrites had to do with with customs and excise ...
... but the scene in 'my' tree was something entirely different.

Then I noticed that my neighbours were armed to the teeth!
Two of them were waving knives at me, the third was wielding sécateurs.
It was the garden scissors that got me thinking along the right lines ...
... colds and influensa.

Dried Lime flowers, when infused in boiling water and sipped slowly, will make you sweat - supposedly a cure for a cold.
I learned that it takes a cold three days to build up, it will stay with you for three days and it takes a further three days for it to leave.
Over the years I have found this piece of wisdom to be true and no amount of pills, sprays or infusions will alter the fact.
While it is true that Linden 'tea' will make you sweat, I have never found a medicine that really alleviates the symptoms of a cold.

My neighbours, however are all farmers and believe in the old remedies (some of which are really effective - try a cushion filled with warmed cherry stones to alleviate back ache - nothing better.) they are convinced that lime flowers will cure a cold and so, there they are hanging in my tree!

When they are finished here, they will move on to the next tree just up the hill.

I suppose I wasn't quick enough - if I should decide, at some time in the year, that I need lime flowers, I shall have to visit the chemists ...

I read a report today, about the impact of the mobile phone on Australian life.

Two quotes from the reports summary are interesting:

The mobile phone is an indispensable part of the everyday life. More than 90% of people asked, report that their lives could not ‘proceed as normal’ if they were suddenly without their mobile phone.

The mobile phone is an important medium for maintaining kinship ties, especially for women. The mobile is a device well suited to maintaining intimate relationships at a geographical distance.

Rubbish! I can't see how a mobile phone could possibly be indispensable or help maintain an intimate relationship!
O.k. I have carried a mobile phone around with me now for over sixteen years - the first weighed in at twelve Kilos. I have to admit that, for some years now, I no longer need a woman at my side to constantly remind me of appointments, of birthdays, aniversaries and other important dates. My mobile has certainly made me more independent.

My mobile wakes me every morning on weekdays, ensuring that I get to work on time.
Clicking a few buttons will impart almost any telephone number in the world and I have used it to book and to pay for flights, car rentals and train rides.
It gives me a weather forecast twice a day, keeps track of all my addresses and I use it to take all kinds of notes - it allows me to do my job more efficiently (another point made in the report).

It can even make telephone calls.

Oh! That makes it sound pretty much indispensable, doesn't it?
Well then, what about relationships?

I can openly admit that my mobile phone is of no help, whatsoever, at maintaining relationships - near or far!
After checking the software that came with the phone, I can't find a single application that is even remotely suited to maintaining a relationship of any sort.

To be quite honest with you, I think human elements are required for that sort of thing.

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year to date - 34°C

I didn’t leave the safety of my flat until around 22:00, when it had cooled down to a reasonable measure.
Today is a normal workday, so I didn’t get to see a thermometer. But believe me, it was hot!
It’s days like today, though, that make me love my job.

My office is air conditioned so I can enter it at 07:00 and it is cool.
I can close all the blinds on the windows and it stays that way!
Because I have a lot to do at the moment, I just got the first chance to contemplate leaving my office again. It is 18:00.

I know I’ll be in for a shock - the car has been standing in the sun all day and inside temperatures will have reached at least 65°.
 
Could someone please drive round the block with it for half an hour, for me?

The weather, these last few weeks, was not really what you would call summer.

The unusual thing, however, has been that it rained during the week and was relatively pleasant at the weekends.
Last week, on two occasions, I awoke asking myself if it were, perhaps, November. Cold, grey, dark and dismal.

Thomas Hood's poem was especially appropriate.
No sun -- no moon!
No morn -- no noon!
No dawn -- no dusk -- no proper time of day --
No sky -- no earthly view --
No distance looking blue --

Imagine our surprise, then, when the weatherman forecast a weekend of soaring temperatures.
On Friday temperatures reached 14°C. Yesterday the thermometer displayed 30°.

The local farmers obviously believed the forecast because on Friday evening they were out mowing the meadows.
Yesterday they turned the cut grass twice and because the ground is still wet and colder than usual, for this time of year, they are out turning it again today.

My nearest neighbour is always a little faster than the others and while I write, he is raking his hay into windrows awaiting collection.
He obviously hasn't learned from experience ...
... last year he stacked his hay in the hay loft and soon afterwards the fire-briagde arrived to put out the ensuing fire - Hay produces internal heat due to bacterial fermentation. If hay is baled from moist grass, the heat produced can be enough to set the hay on fire.

Today is Sunday - the tractors are driving up and down the meadows and no-one seems to care about the noise. I'm sure, that if I put on music at the same volume, there would be complaints ...

A sentence that Heidi wrote reminded me of something ...

Whilst visiting Denver some years ago, I decided to drive up to the Rockies and visited an old mining town there.
The Lady who showed me to the my motel room noticed that I'm not a Yank and asked me where I came from.
I told her Germany because, technically I did.

"Who's the mayor of Germany?" she asked.
I enquired, if she actually meant the Prime Minister or the President?
"What!" she exclaimed, "Germany has a President too!"

After recovering from her shock, she asked me, if the Germans have color-tv.
I couldn't resist telling her that a few old folks still used TVs, but they went out of fashion very quickly, when holographic projectors were introduced.

At her request, I described how the newscaster nowadays stands in the middle of your living-room, visible from all sides and how the cowboys and indians, in those good old John Wayne films, chase each other through the center of your living-room too ...

... she had a tough time getting her head around that one!

I read a number of different blogs regularly and something that crops up on a regular basis on expatriate blogs is "Things I miss ..."

Americans expatriates, for instance, miss Book Shops, Mexican Restaurants, Road Trips, SF-Bay-Weather, Californian Weather, Peanut Butter, Jell-O, Dr. Peppers, Peaberry Coffee Shops ...

While I can understand some of the above, there are things beyond my comprehension:
What is Jell-O; what's wrong with European Peanut Butter; there is a Starbucks round the corner - why isn't that an alternative for Peaberries; Road Trip?

I only went to one Mexican Restaurant in the States: I hated it. I rather like those here in St.Gallen - that probably makes me a philistine!

On the other hand - there are book stores, even large book stores here in Switzerland. They even have reading tables. But they come nowhere close to a Book Store in the U.S. - No sofas, no armchairs to sit in, no free coffee ...
... just not cosy!

Anyway, after reading another of those blogs today, I started wondering what I missed about England. My conclusion:
I don't!

I know I used to - I missed Marmite, Custard, Xmas Pudding, Malt Vinegar, Fish and Chips, Trifle and Tea.
For some reason, I've grown so used to living in Europe that I don't miss those things any more.

I do buy tea whenever I'm in England and wouldn't ever drink any of the concoctions they call 'Tea' here. If I don't have any tea left, I don't miss it, I just drink coffee!
Same goes for vinegar - When I run out, I use italian vinegar.

I enjoy Custard, Fish and Chips and Xmas Pudding - when I'm on the Isle - but I don't miss having them here.

Things have altered over the years. The thing I miss now is German Bread.
The Swiss have more different varieties of bread than any other country in the world, I read recently.
They even have something called wholemeal bread. You have to be very, very lucky though, if it comes even close to German wholemeal ...
... it is more often a very dry affair that conforms to the laws defining wholemeal.

(The ash-value is important - after burning flour, the ash is weighed. It has to reach a specific weight to be defined as wholemeal.
The Germans reach the ash-value by using whole ground wheat, rye or whatever.
The Swiss do what the Germans used to do thirty years ago - they add bran to filtered and degerminated flour.)

Other than missing bread, I find it annoying that France is a three-hour-drive, so purchasing pickled gherkins is slightly inconvenient, Spain is even further, so I seldom get Spanish coffee-beans and I have to travel to Germany or Italy to purchase decent Italian wines ...
... I'm definitely European - even if I retain my British eccentricity!

What do you miss as an expat?