There was a moody sky when I arrived home this evening.
Strangely it didn’t rain and everything is back to normal now.



Come to think of it, I’m a bit moody myself. Apple has gone and fixed something that wasn’t broken. They took their Dot Mac services and converted them to MobileMe.
It starts with the name - it sounds really inspiring, as if it jumped right out of Windows.

All sorts of claims were made about the service, such as 'Exchange for the rest of us' and 'Push technology'. There are no references to either now.
With Dot Mac I had syncing for my Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, and no end of other info between all of my Macs. With MobileMe I still have that, plus my data is 'pushed' (what am I supposed to call it now I'm not allowed to call it 'push'?) out over the air to my iPhone.
Wow! If I make a change on my Mac (or PC), the change automatically syncs to the MobileMe server, where I can view it on the MobileMe website or 15 minutes later on my iPhone - uuhm, if I had one...
If I alter something on the web or on my non-existant iPhone, within 15 minutes the change happens on my Macs. This is the sort of technological improvement, I greet with open arms, I just hope the service gets extended to similar mobile phones, because at the moment there's no way I'm going to purchase a Phone that can't do half of what my current phone can do!

My Calendar is online and I can access it from anywhere in the world without having to publish it - but do I get a choice of which sets of entries I get to synchronise?
It's all or nothing, I'm afraid. So now my personal dates are online, my work dates, my boss's dates, German holidays, Swiss holidays, British holidays, Birthdays...

You are supposed to take the good with the bad, they say...
Gone are my online bookmarks - I'm no longer able to access them from any computer, anywhere in the world.
Gone are iCards and - for some reason - gone is my mail!!
No mail at all has reached my Mailbox for the last two days!!

I'm sure Apple is working on it, but to be without mail during a working week is rather a problem.
To charge for the service (and it's not cheep) is rather a cheek!
Steve - if you're reading this - please switch my mail-account back on...

Lynx recently talked about the smoking bans that are slowly creeping accross Sitzerland.
Some enjoy cigarettes, I enjoy a cigarillo or two while sitting with a beer and chatting with friends in a bar...
In my opinion smoking should be prohibited anywhere that people gather to eat or where people are forced to spend time in confined spaces e.g. public transport, theatres etc. (as is already the case in most European countries!).

Trying to break a 500-year-old-habit (and the rising prices of alcoholic beverages in public houses) is leading to economical and sociological problems in both Germany and Britain.
Germany reports less business volume since smoking bans were introduced in 2007, with bars, discotheques and restaurants doing less trade.
In Britain 17 pubs are reported to be closing every week - that is over 850 closures a year. Figures released by the British Beer and Pub Association reveal that the current pub closure rate is seven times faster than in 2006 and 14 times faster than in 2005.


Granted, it will be another 65 years before the last pub will be forced to close at the present rate, but a unique heritage that attracts visitors from all over the world, seems to be slowly coming to an end.
The unique thing about British pubs is the fact that, traditionally, everyone visits them. In the coutryside it is not unusual to find the local squire standing next to and socialising with Joe Bloggs.

Britain's problem with public houses disappearing is due to the fact that, over the years, thousands of pubs were bought by investors. Enterprise Inns, for instance owned over 9,000 Public Houses in Britain until recently.
Due to a combination of cheap alcoholic beverages being sold in supermarkets and a smoking ban for all enclosed public spaces, all of a sudden profits have dropped and the investors are making a loss. To cut their losses, they are ‘disposing of pubs with profits less than the group [Enterprise] average’.
It is more profitable sell the buildings and have them converted into office space.

The Swiss Restaurants and bars, that I know, are similar to British pubs - the mayor will drink there along with everyone else and discuss local gossip - they are a central meeting place for the local comunity. A ban on smoking is going to unbalance this social environment.
Before we reach the point that Swiss bars start to close down at a rate similar to that of British public houses, I would hope that Switzerland will take a look at what is happening to its neighbours. There may be a solution other than prohibiting smoking in ALL enclosed spaces. Better ventilation and/or smokers/non-smokers-rooms should certainly be looked at more closely...

This Junkers 52 completely spoiled one of my panoramas recently while it took sightseers on a tour of the Alps and Lake Constance...



It was pure chance that had me at the right spot at the right time and a pure fluke that my camera happened to be pointing in the right direction...

Sitting at my dining table, I have a view of green meadows sloping up to a quaint, old Appenzeller farmhouse.
More often than not, in the summer months, there are cows on the meadow...

Last night at, dinner, a single cow was grazing in my line of vision - its bell ringing to the rhythm of it chewing grass. I got up to get some pepper and when I returned to my seat - really, just a matter of seconds, I found there were two cows - we had a new arrival. The first was still munching away at the grass, apparently unaware that she had company.

Now, I know where cows come from - I’ve seen it on the telly dozens of times. You have this cow either tethered in a barn or lying in a meadow - in either case it makes terrible noises until a guy with a Land Rover turns up to comfort it. The guy then puts his arm into a crevice somewhere around the rear of the cow, disappears into his Land Rover and returns with a rope. One end of the rope disappears into the rear end of the cow and when it is pulled out, there is a calf attached to it!

But that’s not how it happens!
I know because I’ve seen what happens twice in real life.
There is a cow grazing on the meadow, you blink and all of a sudden there is a calf lying next to it, the cow is still munching away at the grass, unaware that she has company - why? Because the calves just drop out of the sky!
The following pictures were taken just a minute after the birth:


As you can see, mum is still unaware of the fact that she has company.


Even when company tries to make itself noticed.


The other cows, having watched the calf fall from the sky, immediately come to investigate...


... which makes mom realise that she has new responsibilities.

While I was taking pictures, my bell rang. My neighbour from downstairs was standing there breathless.
"Did you see what happened?“ she said.
"Yes,“ I said "a calf dropped out of the sky.“
"Do you know who’s cows they are?“
"Well, yes."
"You have to phone him then!" (I would have anyway)

So, I phoned the farmer to inform him of the phenomenon, he arrived ten minutes later to assure himself that all was well and life in Appenzell continued as if nothing much had happened...

On a fairly regular basis, I check to see how many visitors my site is getting. It is always a thrill when I get more than two visitors a day and when it is obvious that those visitors didn't reach my site by mistake...

The last few weeks, however, have seen a rise in visitors that is rather disquieting.
40 to 60 visitors a day is quite an achievement for my lowly blog - especially as I don't update it at regular intervals.
In normal circumstances I would feel proud of myself, but checking online activity shows that a majority of those visitors arrive from 'the other side of the world' and head straight for a post that is exactly twelve months old.

I removed more than half of that post yesterday - it makes me feel safer.
The post was not only attracting too many visitors but also some very obscene comments.
I am sure that those regular readers, who read the original post, will agree with me that it contained nothing racially or religiously discriminating and was in no way derogative.
Nevertheless, depending on what you google, you will find said post at postion number one! In this case, I don't take it to be a tribute to my writing!

My visit to google today produced surprising results.
The swimsuit for Muslim women that I mentioned in said post (I hope you'll forgive me for not mentioning the name of this fashion article, this time round) has been prohibited in some Dutch pools and the Swiss Democrats in Zurich want to have it banned from their swimming baths and from the River Limat which flows through their city!
Both Dutch and Swiss officials allege that the swimsuits are a provocation by a culture refusing to conform with their [chosen] surroundings. At the same time the Swiss state that the swimsuits are unhygienic.

As the swimsuits are made of the same material as conventional/western swimsuits, I can't see that they are less hygienic, so what it boils down to is discrimination.
The Muslims wish to abide by the Quoran and put as little of their bodies on display as possible, which, as far as I am concerned, is their good right. The Europeans don't wish to be forced to look at something they are not used to seeing. After all - we don't eat anything we've never tried before either, do we?!

I always knew that the Swiss are ultra conservative - I wouldn't have thought the same of the Dutch...