Mumblings from the Alps

Mumblings from the Alpshttp://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/blog.htmlDay to day in SwitzerlandenrjhCopyright 2006 rjh2010-02-07T15:51:29+01:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:39:14 +0200Family matters ...rjhPhotographyRound and About ...2010-02-07T15:51:29+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e6ca8e2896003710f8de75e2fa06ab3d-201.html#unique-entry-id-201http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e6ca8e2896003710f8de75e2fa06ab3d-201.html#unique-entry-id-201
I spent New Year's Eve in Bangkok — at very short notice, I must say. One of those spur-of-the-moment things, I've been known to do before.
During my stay in BKK, I (actually that should be 'we') made arrangements to get married (the part that surprised those that were unaware of our plans).

My first visit to Asia has left some overwhelming impressions, so many, in fact, that I am leaving you with my pictures, to tell most of the story about what I saw:

Temples and the King's palace covered in gold, while only yards away hundreds of people sleep in an open square, because they have nowhere else to go. Nightly market stalls offering fruit and vegetables unknown to many Europeans, along with food (e.g. crickets and grubs) that many would never consider trying. One of the most polluted rivers worldwide, which just happens to flow through the hottest metropole in the world. And the ruins of an imposing Capital, built in the 13th century.

In Bangkok I was able to see many official offices while registering divorces, applying for various papers, applying for name-changes and queueing to get married ...
The officials all wear military uniforms with wads of badges pinned to them, to show how much red-tape they have fought.

Many dozens of Kilometers were covered in various taxis, while traveling back and forth between these offices. Two things struck me on these jaunts:
First — Although the temperature outside was between 35° and 37° the taxis were always cooled to 17° — after two days I developed the worst cough I've ever had.
Second — If there are any traffic-laws in Thailand, no-one ever follows them!
Personally I would say there are none. Just do your own thing.
If the road has three lanes, open up a forth and fifth or even a sixth!
If the lights change to red, just sound your horn and keep on going.
If a pedestrian tries to cross the road, even on one of those silly pedestrian-crossing-thingies, he or she is fair game — just go after them!
If you can think of an unusual method of robbing someone of his right of way, just try it; even if it means turning at junctions on the wrong side of the road!

Outside the cities, it is not unusual to observe eight-feet-long snakes slithering across the roads. Luckily (for the snakes) 95% of Thailand's population is Buddhist. Unlike pedestrians, it is a sin to kill an animal.
Public transport: A pick-up with two benches perched in the cargo-area and covered with a cloth roof to protect against the sun.
The driver sounds his horn every time he passes a Statue of Buddha or a temple, so that his passengers may raise their folded hands to their forehead in a 'Wai' as a sign of respect.
The drivers of all the cars around you do exactly the same, abandoning their steering-wheels for seconds on end ...
... even if the holy statue just so happens to be in the middle of a traffic island!

Pictures say more than a thousand words — enjoy ...

]]>Oops ...rjhMusings2010-02-07T15:00:39+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ebdcb219d1bca88eaab7f4a7bf71f16e-200.html#unique-entry-id-200http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ebdcb219d1bca88eaab7f4a7bf71f16e-200.html#unique-entry-id-200that, I call strange!

Some time in December, both my main hard-drive and my backup hard-drive failed. I have had to reconstruct work from the last ten years from Web-Sites and from crumbs that I've found lying around on various external drives.

Amongst other things, of course, this blog.
I found some backup data containing published blog-entries on one drive and look — I was able to reconstruct (I think) my complete blog — but could I publish it — I could not!
I can't say how many dozens of times, I've tried to re-publish these pages without success.
Please don't ask me what I did differently today — I have no idea.

The main thing is — I am back online.

More to follow!]]>Peace ...rjhAppenzellerMumblings2009-12-26T12:28:29+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6b669f24a5360f99fefa8022118f5d3f-199.html#unique-entry-id-199http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6b669f24a5360f99fefa8022118f5d3f-199.html#unique-entry-id-199
Peace!
Standing in the Swiss meadow, I take in the tinkling of the sheep's bells, the rhythmic 'dong, dong, dong' of the cowbells as they munch the grass, the twittering of the birds as they go about their business.
The sky is blue and the snow-capped mountains look crisp and beautiful in the morning sun.
Allaa eea eea eeahh!

The serenity of my surroundings is suddenly disturbed by the tinny call of the Mullah as he calls people to prayer from his minaret!

Swiss-mountain

The SVP began one of their usual discriminating campaigns this autumn and called people to vote against the building of minarets in Switzerland. As usual the posters were defaced or ripped from the walls but, surprisingly, the Swiss people went to vote and decided that minarets shouldn't be built here in Switzerland.

Tit for tat you might say, after all, Christians aren't allowed to build their churches in Muslim or Islamic communities, so why should Muslims be allowed to build their houses of worship in Europe?
Well, European constitution stipulates freedom of religion, for one thing!
I'm not quite sure what it was that moved the Swiss to vote as they did. Although I respect the fact that it is [usually] the people that decide what may or may not come to pass in Switzerland, I think the SVP successfully created a vision of minarets being built in Swiss areas of beauty.
That is rather short-sighted. I would expect any Minaret to be built close to a Muslim or Islam community, and I can't see any such community being situated outside the main cities.
Any building erected in Switzerland is, just like anywhere else in Europe, subject to rules and regulations. This means it would not be possible to build a minaret anywhere close to open landscape or living areas where the rules stipulate that no building may be erected that is higher than two stories. This poses quite a restriction, I would say.

I recently visited a Buddhist temple. A marvelous building in bright red and yellow, with a roof of gold.
It sat right next to the Aldi car-park in the middle of Gretzenbach's industrial area.
It is visited by Buddhist from all over Switzerland — it is, after all, the only one in Switzerland.
Why is it the only one? Not, I think, because Swiss Buddhist enjoy traveling between two and four hours to worship, but because building any house-of-worship devours enormous sums of money — almost impossible for small communities.
The Buddhist temple wouldn't be in Switzerland if the King-of-Thailand's-Mom hadn't paid for it to be built.
The same applies, I think to minarets — 4% of the Swiss community is Muslim. Without help from abroad, not too many more mosques (there are 90 already, with and without minarets) are going to jump up in the Swiss mountains.

This time, I think, the Swiss were ill informed before they went to vote and didn't take the time to inform themselves of the present situation ...]]>What a defference a Day Makes ...rjhPhotographyRound and About ...2009-10-18T17:47:17+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7a33738ffc06c378a306466c3e5070b5-198.html#unique-entry-id-198http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7a33738ffc06c378a306466c3e5070b5-198.html#unique-entry-id-198The weather is changing ...

October_02

Wednesday to Friday we had smatterings of snow and I had to clear snow off the windscreen before I could go to work.
Well, at least it gives me time to look at the scene around me ...

Yesterday, it snowed all day long. I had quite a shock when I pulled off the road to let a car pass on the single-track-road: I always knew that wet meadows are not ideal for driving in and even the best 4x4s have problems driving in them ...
I drove off the road and onto a meadow covered in wet snow and, even though I'm using winter tyres, my car just slithered uncontrollably down the hill and refused to be braked until it left the meadow on the other side.
Luckily there wasn't much in my path, other than a wire fence (which didn't survive the encounter and which I hid afterwards).

To change the subject ...

This is what todays weather is doing:

October_01

Just in case you didn't really believe me — it is snowing!]]>Autumn ...rjhAppenzellerRound and About ...Photography2009-10-11T17:00:32+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2e9dd7b1fa6041ff973b91801124fdc8-197.html#unique-entry-id-197http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2e9dd7b1fa6041ff973b91801124fdc8-197.html#unique-entry-id-197The leaves are changing colour again and up here in the mountains, this always goes hand-in-hand with some of the most amazing morning views.

Here is one I photographed on Wednesday morning. Click to see the larger version.]]>Renovation ...rjhAppenzellerMumblingsMusings2009-10-11T17:00:28+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e3182a598838265ba6dca8f8e0c2d483-196.html#unique-entry-id-196http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e3182a598838265ba6dca8f8e0c2d483-196.html#unique-entry-id-196Watching them at work, it really is no wonder that it took them so long ...
... they nailed up the shingles one at a time!

Shingles01

Really, the guy doing the work nailed a piece of metal to the wall, aligned a shingle to the metal and shot two staples into it. Took the next shingle, aligned it to the metal and shot two staples into it. Took the next shingle ...
Amazing!
After doing this sort of work for over two hundred years, now, you'd think they'd have discovered a swifter way to work. Well, not here.

They say that the Swiss are slow (the Swiss say it's only the people from Basel that are slow, but I beg to differ!). Watching them work makes me fall asleep!
If anybody from the Swiss-Wall-Cladding-Industry wants a tip on how to speed things up - just give me a call ...

Shingles02

At least the shingles are wood, though, before work was started, I was afraid they were going to use the cheaper, asbestos version that some newer houses are clad in.]]>Survival of the Fittest ...rjhNone2009-08-20T20:57:18+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/12ba6c2401cd6273bc73a58411bf4c6f-195.html#unique-entry-id-195http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/12ba6c2401cd6273bc73a58411bf4c6f-195.html#unique-entry-id-195And it really is very good:

Looking at the work on display, you have to keep reminding yourself that they are made of sand and not of stone!
The sun was very low when I took these pictures yesterday, the illumination was not ideal. If I get the chance, I'll take some more on Saturday ...]]>Dreams ...rjhRound and About ...Photography2009-08-15T16:45:03+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ab1e8836164a35e717db299279f0ac10-194.html#unique-entry-id-194http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ab1e8836164a35e717db299279f0ac10-194.html#unique-entry-id-194
If you are passing close to Lake Constance, now would be a good time to stop off in Rorschach.
The anual Sand Sculpture Competition finishes today and the results, which will be on display until the 13th of September, promise to be as good as every year.
'Eat and be eaten' is this years motto. I haven't checked the titles of the sculptures yet, though ...

More to follow ...]]>ArchitecturerjhAppenzellerMumblings2009-07-27T18:38:30+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/98d04695c134a6cca7818711333cad68-193.html#unique-entry-id-193http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/98d04695c134a6cca7818711333cad68-193.html#unique-entry-id-193If she had, she would understand why they were built the way they were ...

Remember those romantic pictures you saw, of those Swiss chalets with their shutters?
The Appenzeller were very clever, when they designed their houses – the shutters were designed to be retractable.
They can be lowered or raised, as needed.
The solid wooden blinds can be pulled up to keep out the heat or the cold and can be set to just a slit, to let in fresh air while keeping burglars at bay. They protect the windows against the numerous hail storms we have and, for housewives, there is the interesting fact, that they prevent them from getting dirty when it rains.

Blinds_II

As I mentioned, the north side of this house is being renovated. When the old window frames were ripped out, the blinds disappeared with them. I asked why this was the case and was informed that the new windows supply enough insulation to hold the heat during winter ...
When I asked about the fresh air during the summer, I could actually hear the blank stare on the other end of the telephone line!
So now I have windows that keep in the heat, all the year round!

Blinds

I don't know, but I thought you'd give some thought to a properties construction before starting to renovate, I know I would ...]]>Artisans ...rjhAppenzellerMumblings2009-07-19T14:03:06+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/90aceaf9059e6740eb5070d189b9970c-192.html#unique-entry-id-192http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/90aceaf9059e6740eb5070d189b9970c-192.html#unique-entry-id-192Obviously it doesn't conform to any ISO Standards regarding insulation.
The northern side of the house was last insulated in 1924.
The insulation in those days consisted of sheets of tar-paper and a coat of shingles.
How do I know it was 1924?
Speculation really. I found a newspaper from that year that had been used to fill in a gap between two beams.

Last November, a chap knocked on the door, saying he'd been sent along to check the insulation.
He looked at the windows, tapped on walls, hmm'd and hah'd, took some notes and some infra-red photographs – both from inside and out.

Eight weeks ago scaffolding appeared on the north side of the house and next day, at six in the morning, I was rudely awoken by banging and tearing sounds and the smell of cigar smoke. There was a guy outside my bathroom window ripping the shingles off the outside wall. He came along at the same time every day for a fortnight and, regardless of the time, hacked away at the wall.
Surprisingly — when he noticed that I had guests staying — he found some quieter pastime until around 09:00. Each time he finished a floor, it was clad in pastic sheeting and, by the end of the fortnight, the whole of the house-front was coated in plastic.

It just so happened that it was the warmest time of this year, so far. The stench of the plastic was terrible and, of course, no air could get in to, or out of the house. It was suffocating!
It took a fortnight for the next team of workers to arrive. They put up a wooden framework and, when they were finished, obviously took measurements for the new window encasements. That was just over six weeks ago. The house has been clad in plastic again ever since.

On Friday the new windows arrived and I had proof of the fact that some form of co-ordination must secretly be taking place. Workers from two different companies climbed the house – one from the inside, one from outside. Those outside ripped out the old window encasements. The one inside ripped out the windows, sawed away at the walls around the windows and began fitting new windows.
I got the shock of my life when I arrived at the scene. Everything within three meters of the window frames was coated in sawdust and wood chippings.

dust

After seeing me, open-mouthed, studying the chaos, the carpenter put down his circular saw and, realising what my problem was, explained — the guys outside had ripped out the window frames without bothering to cover anything up and, seeing the mess, he'd decided it was no longer worth going to the trouble either ...

Pine sawdust is slightly oily. I now have pine sawdust all over the crockery that was stored on shelves next to the windows, in the sugar bowl, the bread bin, in and all over my coffee machine — just everywhere.
When I got up yesterday, even more sawdust had settled and I was at a loss where to start cleaning.
I eventually started with the ceilings and slowly worked my way down. I'm almost finished in the kitchen now; only another six windows to go ...

dust_II

]]>InitiationrjhAppenzellerMusings2009-07-11T19:20:00+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a1051f7b6473055e7374e17011f869bd-191.html#unique-entry-id-191http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a1051f7b6473055e7374e17011f869bd-191.html#unique-entry-id-191Well, she went on to do a couple of days of theoretical exams and all the hard work she put in over the last five years payed off — she passed.
I was proud to accompany her to her Diploma Celebration and more than willing to arrange the traditional initiation ceremony for her.
Since very early years, Printers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been initiated after becoming a journeyman. The initiation may be carried through in other countries too – in German the ceremony is called 'Gautschen'. Over the years, the ceremony has been extended to take in not just printers but most pre-press apprentices too. We had our Gautschfest last Friday.

There were two young ladies to be initiated, this time round. One because she just passed her exams, the other because she passed her exams twelve months ago, but was not initiated by the company she did her apprenticeship at. Now we can't have that, can we?

So what happens at a Gautschfest?
At a prearranged time both ladies were supposed to be bound, hands and feet and carried or frog-marched downstairs, where two barrows were waiting to cart them off to the village fountain.
Two of our men were clever enough to creep up on their (almost) unsuspecting victim and close her office door to prevent her escape, before successfully overpowering her.
The other two weren't so lucky they were spotted and the young lady defended herself with a water pistol, of all things, before taking off .
I chased her down two flights of stairs before loosing my footing – luckily without serious injury.
The other guys caught up with her on the car-park. She put up a fight and I was forced to stop photographing and take hold of her so that the ceremony could commence!

Both ladies were bundled into carts and transported to the village fountain a kilometer away. There the ceremony master was waiting for them. His speech called for them to be sat upon wet sponges until their nether regions were well and truly wet. He then called for their christening – with buckets of water.
After the christening the ladies were freed from their bonds (well, they were supposed to be) and dropped into the fountain. As the fountain had specially been cleaned and refilled just the day before, the water was freezing – I can assure you.

The delinquents then had to pull their carts back to work, where a barbeque had been prepared in their absence.

They were lucky they only got wet.
Until two-hundred years ago the fresh journeyman was set under the influence for a week. During this period, a tooth was extracted, his hair was shorn (as badly as possible) and his colleagues all got as drunk as possible too. The initiation was banned after getting out of hand.
Not to be done out of a celebration, this modern form of initiation soon reappeared soon after the ban.
I quite enjoyed it.
I hope you enjoy the pictures ...

]]>Talent ...rjhMusingsMumblings2009-07-11T19:09:54+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d70d9625adf0ba8807d72446d53589bf-190.html#unique-entry-id-190http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d70d9625adf0ba8807d72446d53589bf-190.html#unique-entry-id-190An elderly gentleman just left the stage after doing an impersonation of Frank Sinatra.
I was surprised that neither the jury nor the audience seemed to notice that he didn't hit his notes a number of times.

PAULO

The thing that shocked me, though, was the fact that he gave his audience the two-fingers* on four separate occasions, while leaving the stage.

Try that in England and you wouldn't be very welcome on stage again – he, however, gets a chance to travel to Las Vegas!

*For those of you, who have no idea at all, what I am talking about:
Pictures of Sir Winston Churchill often show him giving the 'V' sign - V for victory.
Displaying the 'V' sign the other way round (in my day also known as 'the two fingers') is just about the strongest insult you can make in GB.
Worse, I would say, than the raised middle finger, I learned in Germany.]]>Hamburger ...rjhAppenzellerMusings2009-06-28T13:36:51+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a79ae4786609197fc0e424e8a533708b-189.html#unique-entry-id-189http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a79ae4786609197fc0e424e8a533708b-189.html#unique-entry-id-189The Hamburgers should be done any minute now.
Who told cows they should stand under trees during a thunderstorm anyway?

We've had a number of thunderstorms, these last few weeks.
During one of them, my friends daughter's dad rang. After they had conversed fo a few minutes, the box on the wall went 'Zzzztt!!' and the phone went dead. I couldn't believe the phone was dead — the internet connection was still working.
However, no amount of button pushing would revive the phone and in the end I called Swisscom on my mobile to ask for assistance.

The woman on the other end was very sympathetic.
"W'rum hänse telefonieret, wenn's gwittret?!" She demanded to know.
Why were you using the phone during a thunderstorm?!
Apparently, when the phone rang, I was expected to jump up and yell
"Stand back! Don't touch it!"

She was so kind.
She offered to send a technician within the next three days.
Well, that's nice of you, I'll just take the next few days off work, then, so I'm sure to be here when the guy arrives ...
Any chance of something a little more precise?
Friday morning between 07:00 and 10:00 was her answer.
For the two days in between, she would have all my calls diverted to my mobile.

I do, so like Switzerland's Customer Services.

Oh, there you are — a flash of lightning — I'll have to take a look and see, if my cows are done yet ...

rain

]]>Tinker Bell ...rjhAppenzellerMusingsPhotography2009-06-28T12:40:47+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e36afb60810b1e661a90186496284421-188.html#unique-entry-id-188http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e36afb60810b1e661a90186496284421-188.html#unique-entry-id-188During dinner she repeatedly stopped chewing and cocked her head to one side,
After a while, she informed me:
"I could never live here!"

I suppose it's a good thing I hadn't invited her to come and live here!

Yesterday, the rain would have made things easier for her.
The cows were huddled tightly together under the trees and somehow managed not to move at all.
The sound of cow bells was gone!

I'm sometimes amazed at the things that disturb people.
Friends who spent the night here once, got up in the middle of the night to put planks of wood under the flow of the spring outside because the sound of the water was preventing them from sleeping.
Strangely the water will very occasionally stop flowing for a few minutes —
that's when I wake up!

The ultimate torture for some, obviously, would be the nights when a couple of cows come and lie down next to the spring to chew the cud. And then, at five in the morning, the cockerel down the road begins to crow.
I think it's idyllic.
Some, for some reason, don't ...

cow

]]>Sing You a Rainbow ...rjhAppenzellerMusings2009-06-27T15:53:59+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5d09e07ad29c44f10a6f800c1a6e2847-187.html#unique-entry-id-187http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5d09e07ad29c44f10a6f800c1a6e2847-187.html#unique-entry-id-187Before that, I worked in St.Gallen for six years.
In those 15 years I have noticed that they have a strange custom ...
... the St.Galler Open Air Festival is always held at the worst possible time of the year.

Do you remember Woodstock?
Remember the weather on the third day of the event — the Sunday?
Right — it teemed down with rain and gusts of wind threatened to topple the lighting masts.
Well, that is what the weather at the St.Galler Open Air Festival is usually like!

I worked in a building situated at one of the festival entrances for ten years and I stood at the window many a year to watch hunched up figures, carrying rucksacks and tents, shuffle through the mud towards a weekend of music, alcohol, marihuana and muck.

Yesterday was only slightly different.
After two weeks of constant rain, the tight valley which hosts the event was waterlogged.
At midday, yesterday, the weather suddenly brightened and hordes of people clothed in t-shirts and rucksacks emerged from St.Gallen main station happily puffing away at joints and lifting their smiling faces to the skies.
They made their way by bus to the soggy meadows of Sittertal, to pitch their tents and, as the first performances were already on Thursday evening, I don't really want to try to imagine the results, but I'm sure that by the time Cypress Hill appeared on stage at around 23:00, people were, in places, already ankle deep in the mire.
Just to put the icing on the cake, while The Niceguys and The Flaming Lips and The Cold War Kids were on stage (there are four different stages to get wet at), entertainment began in earnest; it rained in buckets full for two hours!

Luckily, by 05:00 this morning it stopped raining for about four hours, so anyone already awake might have breakfasted in relative dryness, from the knees up, at least.
There is more rain to come during today and the forecast is for rain until next Friday.
I bet they'll have fun clearing the mess up afterwards!

Fest

The images above are from previous years, courtesy of Stadt St.Gallen (St.Gallen can do it.) and Flickr.
The image below is from today, courtesy of the organisers . The make-shift sign says
"Warning – Damp areas & Danger of splashing"

If you are wondering what you are missing, here is the programme.
Although there is some great music being presented, I can assure you, I shan't be there. Again.

today

]]>KlosterhofrjhPhotography2009-06-20T11:39:26+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/8dd50eb8ba8701d8739aec656ef8e867-186.html#unique-entry-id-186http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/8dd50eb8ba8701d8739aec656ef8e867-186.html#unique-entry-id-186With no change of weather in sight, I started contemplating the wonderful weather we had during winter ...

This is the cathedral square in St.Gallen.
If you click on the image, you'll finde there are two versions of it.]]>My own tiny world ...rjhAppenzellerPhotography2009-06-06T13:08:19+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9653e4b85d138a0a1aa21ec8a08f9654-185.html#unique-entry-id-185http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9653e4b85d138a0a1aa21ec8a08f9654-185.html#unique-entry-id-185Have you ever had someone tell you that you live in a world of your own?
Well, with my new lens, I can prove that I do.

Click to see the larger version.]]>Orthography ...rjhAppenzeller2009-06-05T17:20:02+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/167980e5c33a3e1ccaefe3ce36d3f4fd-184.html#unique-entry-id-184http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/167980e5c33a3e1ccaefe3ce36d3f4fd-184.html#unique-entry-id-184Sandra commented on my last post that Schwiizerdüütsch (Swiss German) is a spoken and not a written language.
Strange, I was under a very different impression. In the past nine years, I seldom received anything in writing from a Swiss colleague or acquaintance that wasn't written in Swiss German. I have post cards, e-mails, text messages and chat messages to prove it — all of them unintelligible.

I'll explain what Sandra meant.*
Because the official language in northern Switzerland is German, some rules have to exist governing orthography and grammar. The Germans have been working on the rules for many years now and supply them in the shape of a Duden — the official reference books for the German language. The Duden even contains a number of words that are only used in Switzerland, just to make sure the Swiss know how to spell them. **
Because The Rules only govern High German and the Swiss never bothered to jot down the rules for Swiss German, we have a free-for-all when anyone wishes to write in their everyday language. The result is chaotic.

One of the things people here lament when they acquire a new mobile telephone, is the fact that the text programmes are set to T9.
"You can't write an SMS", they moan [Short Message Service].
T9, for the uninformed, tries to guess what you intend to write and, as soon as you have typed two characters, will begin to suggest words for auto-completion.
It can't speak Schwiizerdüütsch!

Here are two examples of written chaos:
At work there is a group of between eight and ten colleagues that cook for each other every Friday. I sent a chat to one of them asking who was due to cook, the coming Friday. The answer:
"Hemmo nonig abgmacht, luägemo denn vorzuä amel."
The translation, or thereabout:
"Wir haben's noch nicht abgemacht, wir schauen [entscheiden] dann laufend [immer]."
We haven't reached an agreement yet, we decide as the occasion arises."
If you study the two different versions of German, I'm sure you'll notice the similarities.

I sometimes ask for a translation but this particular young lady is incapable of writing High German — and I'm not joking.
A gem that she was unable to supply a written translation for and I don't understand even now:
I asked if she had produced a specific design ...
"Nei, abo übonoo so wjä sie's mer gshickt ka hend..."
I gathered she was trying to tell me that someone had sent it to her. Bele, one of my readers, sent me the translation:
"Nein, aber so übernommen wie Sie es mir zugeschickt haben ..."
No, I used it as it was sent to me - so easy, when you see the correct solution.

I sometimes can't make up my mind which is worse – written Schwiizerdüütsch or the spoken Appenzeller dialect.

*Some people say that Swiss German is dialect. I'm not quite sure that a language that develops at different speeds in different regions doesn't become several languages ...
Take Gaelic, for instance. Both the Scots and the Irish speak Gaelic (which developed from Celtic) but they don't understand each other or the Welsh (Celtic).

**Old High German, today, only used in Switzerland, it often states.
]]>Language barriers ...rjhAppenzeller2009-06-02T19:47:28+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f5528225e04da52b0586fee9204138e1-183.html#unique-entry-id-183http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f5528225e04da52b0586fee9204138e1-183.html#unique-entry-id-183I had visitors from Germany last week.
An old friend 'C' and her daughter.
They stayed all week and I took them out sightseeing a couple of times.
Being German, C's German is pretty good — she even gets all her prepositions and tenses right, which I don't.

The Swiss around this area also speak German — at least, they think they do.
I've got used to the local Appenzeller and can make out 95% of what they are saying. In St.Gallen, I even understand 100%!
But please don't ask me to try to talk Swiss German — I couldn't, not in any of its many varieties.

We stood in St.Gallen watching a painter from a distance. She turned, saw us watching and said something like
"chaasch goluaga cho, wannst wötsch"
At the sound of those hair-balls being hacked up, C looked at me with a question mark planted in the middle of her face.
I translated:
"Du kannst näher kommen und schauen, wenn du möchtest." (You may come and take a closer look, if you wish).
Did you notice the similarities?

German and Swiss German started to evolve in different directions during the middle ages. To be honest with you I can't shake off the feeling that Swiss German remained standing, while German-German developed to todays standards.
By comparison Swiss German is grammatically much simpler than High German and has a much smaller vocabulary.

The Swiss think that the Germans are arrogant. The truth is, though, the further north a German comes from, the more precisely he or she will speak. This, combined with the fact that they have a more diversified vocabulary, easily gives the impression of arrogance. In actual fact he or she is not 'speaking down at you' its just the way they learned to speak the language.

On Wednesday we drove into Appenzell itself. You've heard of Appenzeller Cheese. Of course you have, you've probably even bought some, after all, it is exported all over the world.
C decided to buy some real Appenzeller cheese from a real Appenzeller dairy. Each of the different cheeses were labeled to state their degree of ripeness. Classic, Surchoix and Rääs amongst others.
Pointing at the cheese labeled Surchoix, C asked "Was ist das genau?"
"What is that exactly?"
She was rewarded with a string of guttural, hacking and nasal sounds.
Looking at me wide-eyed she asked "What language was that?"
"It was Appenzellerdüütsch," I replied "but don't ask me what he said, I haven't a clue!"

As I said, I can understand my local neighbours when they speak their version of Appenzeller German (Appenzell Outer Rhode), but five miles down the road is the Border to Appenzell Inner Rhode, the smallest of the Swiss Cantons.
When you cross the border, there should be a sign to say "Warning, you are leaving the German Sector!"
Crickey! I understand more Welsh ...]]>I'm Free ...rjhMumblingsMusings2009-05-18T19:26:14+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/deb82fcee4bb8614d0cf7b4f16974730-182.html#unique-entry-id-182http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/deb82fcee4bb8614d0cf7b4f16974730-182.html#unique-entry-id-182O.K. to be honest I was very annoyed with Google for blocking my site - it has been blocked for over six weeks now.
I felt discriminated.

This site was hacked on the afternoon of March 27th and within hours, Google hung up a sign to inform my readers that I was distributing malware. In actual fact each of my .html pages had been injected with a Java script which could attack Windows machines.
I took a careful look at my site (because Google told me I should) and discovered hundreds of pages which had been hacked and needed replacing. I did so within three hours of the attack.
Sadly I missed a couple of galleries, I'm afraid.

The problem is, it is impossible to communicate with Google. You send a request for them to rescan a site and get a message that it can take up to several weeks to do so ...
... but you never get an answer or a message to tell you that your site is or (in my case) still isn't o.k.
Then I found a scan result which stated that my site had been scanned last Wednesday and ...
... was distributing malware.

I opened up each and every single page that is openly online and checked.
Nothing.
Then I remembered some galleries that are linked to this blog - dormant and unused.
I checked them. They were a writhing mass of bugs!
I spent Thursday evening online checking each and every hidden directory and repaired over a hundred files.

If you feel that your computer has been compromised as a result of visiting my site, I would like offer my humble apologies.
I reacted as soon as I was notified but missed the galleries containing the pictures of the car cemetery, the cows under the trees and a few pages that are, as to date, still unlinked.
If you visited either the cars or the cows between 27th March and 14th May, then please check your (Windows – Macs remain unaffected) computer for malware.

I now have certification that my site is clean again!]]>Türmchen & Erker ...rjhRound and About ...Photography2009-05-17T16:15:50+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1a802447171faf22084fef236ab8c8e6-181.html#unique-entry-id-181http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1a802447171faf22084fef236ab8c8e6-181.html#unique-entry-id-181
St.Gallen is an interesting city.
A city of small towers and bay windows.
At the moment, it would seem, it is one big building-site too.
It is still, however, very photogenic.

The best time to take photographs is a Sunday morning between 09:00 and 10:00.
At this time of day the streets are freshly freed of the nights debris (groups of youngsters sit around at night drinking and smashing their empties – the cleaning troops arrive at around 05:00). The citizens of St.Gallen are listening to the sermon inside the cathedral.
You have the streets to yourself.
]]>AppenzellerhüslirjhAppenzellerRound and About ...Photography2009-05-10T16:22:46+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0a4696dcfc5bd3c8fdbb053d6200c4bf-180.html#unique-entry-id-180http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0a4696dcfc5bd3c8fdbb053d6200c4bf-180.html#unique-entry-id-180... not quite in focus, I'm afraid – still working on that!

To see the larger version, you will need to have QuickTime installed.
You will also need a little patience, it is quite large.

Why is it the second picture?
Because the first was taken in St.Gallen – here it is:

Blue-house

Focal length: 12 mm; Apperture: 8; Exposure: 250

There is no larger version of this one online yet, but I'm sure a new gallery will be published soon ...]]>Customs and traditons ...rjhMumblings2009-05-09T13:05:11+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9cbb90ec5d069517326378dbe0ba44cf-179.html#unique-entry-id-179http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9cbb90ec5d069517326378dbe0ba44cf-179.html#unique-entry-id-179
Me: I would like some clarification regarding duties paid on parcel number 'xyz'.
Her: Yes, Sir, how may I help?
Me: I would like to know why I had to pay CHF 99 duties for a used article.
Her: You didn't Sir. That was CHF 65 duties; CHF 18 fees; CHF 10 Storage and
CHF 6 because the parcel had to be opened.
Me: But I never had to pay duties on a used article before!
Her: In that case, Sir, you must have ticked the wrong boxes.
Me: Which boxes?!
Her: Of the customs declaration on the parcel.
Me: Come again – How can I tick boxes on a parcel I haven't received yet?
Her: In that case, the person who sent the parcel made the mistake.
Me: I would like to apply for the return of duties and fees.
Her: The fees can't be returned; you may apply to have the duties returned
but it will cost you CHF 30 in fees.
Me: O.K. Nice joke. Can you set the ball rolling for me?
Her: I'm not joking, you have to pay CHF 30, that leaves you with CHF 35.
You have to apply yourself.
Me: I am myself.
Her: You have to make a written application and return all of the papers.
Me: Look – you have everything you need on your screen at this very moment.
Would you please be kind enough to push the button marked reimburse for me.
Her: I don't have that button, you have to make a written application and
return all of the papers.
Me: But this is ridiculous.
Her: You have to make a written application and return all of the papers.
Me: But ...
Her: You have to make a written application and return all of the papers.
Me: Have you ever heard of rendition of services?
Her: You have to make a written application and return all of the papers.

Oops - I broke the phone, banging it on my desk!]]>Examination ...rjhAppenzellerMusings2009-05-09T11:57:54+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/10ee94d08bff41a2284b0480dbfe0a32-178.html#unique-entry-id-178http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/10ee94d08bff41a2284b0480dbfe0a32-178.html#unique-entry-id-178This week she had to take her practical examination.

It is interesting that in Germany they sent the exams along to the instructor with the request to make sure they were carried out correctly. In Switzerland, an 'expert' comes along to supervise.

The lady responsible for supervising our examinations first explained the exercises that were to be carried out and, when she was sure the instructions were clear, she pressed the button on her stop-watch.
She was a little put out that she couldn't sit next to the examinee, but the poor girl was nervous enough, without having a stranger breathing down her neck for two-and-a-half days.

Instead I seated our expert in the office opposite where she could see who went in and out, but couldn't actually see the apprentice without taking a few steps first. I certainly wasn't making life easy for her.
I gave her a coffee and watched her twiddle her thumbs and flip through her diary for a few minutes before I settled down to watch my protégé's screen from the comfort of my own computer, sending her the odd tip via chat now and again ...
You don't want someone to ruin four years hard work, just because they are nervous.

The Pre-Press exam is fairly straight-forward — unless, of course, you are a bundle of nerves:
• Colour-correction and exact cropping of three digital images; a picture composition put together from two images and a cut-out with some retouching work – 2 hours.
• Reproduction of a two-sided order-card to exact design 'drawings' – 4 hours.
• Design and production of a sixteen-page brochure, from initial scribbles (to be submitted) to finished print-data and presentation mock-up – 12 hours.
• Correct colour-profiles embedded in all files and everything saved to a CD after a specific file-structure.
After 19 hours points are deducted every 15 minutes taken, after 20 hours the exercise is broken off. Failure.

Every now and then, a colleague would distract the expert while a few tips were given or corrections suggested and during the midday break everything was checked and double checked. Another colleague made sure that the meal was drawn out a little ...

I heard of one young lady, who returned to her desk on Thursday evening after 'her' expert had left and spent half the night correcting and completing her work. We didn't have to resort to such drastic measures, we just spent a lot of time coaching and becalming ...

The mock-up presented a few problems because it had to be larger than A3 [420 mm x 297 mm]. The examination committee presumes that everybody has an A2 printer that wil print, bind and trim all in one go. Our A3 printer doesn't and is too small anyway!
I asked the expert to turn a blind-eye, while I helped produce the mock-up.
She did.

I got the thumbs up yesterday when I asked for the experts opinion on the results (I knew so anyway, but I wanted my protégé to see it).

Now we have to endure two days of theoretical exams. We can't help there, I'm afraid, those have to be taken at school ...]]>Swiss Customs ...rjhAppenzellerMumblings2009-05-02T13:35:01+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/899ad9703d3a53244b2f77bd9051e7b9-177.html#unique-entry-id-177http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/899ad9703d3a53244b2f77bd9051e7b9-177.html#unique-entry-id-177I told you what the results would be ...
... no, not the football results, but the result that Swiss courtesy would have on tourism – bookings have dropped by twenty percent.
Can that be coincidence?

Yesterday I asked a computer-supermarket-assistant where I might find a USB adapter set.
She shrugged her shoulders and told me she had no idea. Did she call a colleague and ask for help?
No.
I found what I wanted in the end after walking up and down endless rows of computer accessories.
This is just typical of what to expect when you visit Switzerland. Not just in shops but in hotels and restaurants too.
And does it end there?

I ordered three tubes of toothpaste in England. They were sent to me via Royal Mail and cost £14 including postage.
A week later a bill arrived from Swiss cutoms – CHF 60, an equivalent of £35!
I immediately phoned to complain and was informed that customs taxes are calculated by the size of the parcel.
I mentioned the fact that I had a receipt for CHF 20 which already included astronomically high VAT and was informed, in not so many words, that that was my bad luck!
I ordered a screw in the USA. Because it was custom made, it cost $60. Postage also came to $60.
Customs taxes? $60!
$120 for a single (albeit specialised) screw.

I am agog to know the result of my latest strife with Swiss customs.
Three weeks ago I bought a camera lens in an auction on ebay.
After a week, I contacted the guy I purchased from to ask if he'd actually posted the thing off. He assured me he'd sent it off with Royal Mail the same day.
I phoned Swiss Postal services - sorry, without a tracking number, we can't trace a parcel.
Last week I phoned again. No results.
The day before yesterday a letter flattered through my letter box. Swiss Post Customs Services.
A notice that they have a parcel for me which has been declared correctly to be a camera lens.

So my parcel has been sitting on a shelf in Zürich while someone has been trying to decide how to tax it. Due to the size of the parcel, it will probably cost me what – CHF 40? But on the customs label it states camera lens – surely a lens is worth a lot of money?

The letter invited me to state honestly (they are kidding, surely) the value of the contents and to provide proof in form of a receipt.
If I am unable to provide proof within five days, the parcel will be returned to sender.
I posted off the PayPal receipt the same day underlining the words 'USED LENS'.
I wonder how long I shall have to wait, when I might receive my parcel and which costs might be added for the unexpected act of actually having to handle a parcel.

Keep this up you wonderful Swiss and you won't just be losing tourists, you'll be losing tax-payers too ...

]]>The Hills Are Alive ...rjhAppenzellerMusingsPhotography2009-04-22T17:57:15+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ab2430857d49f5db3c21945b543f0309-176.html#unique-entry-id-176http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ab2430857d49f5db3c21945b543f0309-176.html#unique-entry-id-176
DSC_0708bl

Down in the valley, spring is about a fortnight further advanced than up here, but the wait is still worth it ...]]>Little Miss Muffet ...rjhMusingsAppenzeller2009-04-11T10:13:40+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6b38178011d1e26e89a8750f6ce52ae7-175.html#unique-entry-id-175http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6b38178011d1e26e89a8750f6ce52ae7-175.html#unique-entry-id-175ex-pat blog about life in Switzerland that I read regularly, posed the question this week 'What is Quark?'.
I was surprised to see that no-one had bothered to answer the question, so I thought perhaps a belated Aprilscherz (April Fools Joke) had been suspected.
Not the case — I wrote a reply explaining exactly what Quark is but my reply was rejected. The reason? "Bad Spam Word"!

I have no idea which word is supposed to be a spam word — perhaps it was 'Tuffet'?

Before moving to Switzerland, I lived in the south of Germany for almost thirty years. There, Quark is regularly served (most especially on a Friday) with potatoes and Schnittlauch — chives.

So what is Quark exactly?
This was, of course, my first question as a plate full of the stuff was placed before me.
The answer was provided by the Schöffler-Weis German and English dictionary — these were pre-www-days!
Curds!

O.K. so what are curds? Well I knew that Miss Muffet ate them together with whey, but although they were apparently everyday ingredients for a staple diet in Britain 200 years ago, no-one had deemed them fit to be served, in our family at least, during the 20th century.

Curds, I eventually found out, sadly without the assistance of Wikipedia 'in those days', are a form of fresh cheese. Lactic acid is added to milk which separates into curds and whey. If you leave it to stand, long enough, the curds will harden and turn into cheese.
The Germans, Austrians, Swiss and the Alsatians stir the whey back into the Quark to prevent it from hardening — presumably, this too is what Miss Muffet was enjoying before her meal was so rudely disturbed.

The fat content is, amazingly, 0.2% so, to make it unhealthier, cream is usually added.
I have to admit, spiced with a little salt and chopped cloves, served with boiled potatoes, it really is delicious.

Some but not all of the whey is stirred into the Quark, so what happens to the rest?
As you can read on the blog mentioned above, it is all shipped off to a factory in Rothrist, Switzerland, where it is turned into fizzy pop!
Fizzy pop, produced from sour milk?!
Sounds terrible — tastes great!
Really.

Now, what's a tuffet ...]]>Update ...rjhAppenzellerMusings2009-03-29T13:30:37+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1b47c8da4fa7c79a59268eb3e22f9d18-174.html#unique-entry-id-174http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1b47c8da4fa7c79a59268eb3e22f9d18-174.html#unique-entry-id-174The question, although so very British, is not confined to the people I talk to in Britain — my German friends ask it just as often.

At the moment the question has been refined to 'Have you still got snow?'
The answer is 'No — it's gone.'

To prove it, here are two pictures, taken just ten minutes ago:

snow

You see — no snow, it's gone, almost.

By comparison, here is a picture taken a fortnight ago:

snow_3

See the difference?
Correct — we have bare patches now, we didn't last week ...]]>Malware ...rjhMumblings2009-03-29T12:17:54+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/481a589f994cb8f9c4e608d9fbedda65-173.html#unique-entry-id-173http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/481a589f994cb8f9c4e608d9fbedda65-173.html#unique-entry-id-173
If you've made it thus far, today, you are very brave — very brave indeed.
Or you are using an outdated browser ...

My site has been blacklisted by Google, King of the Universe.
Actually, it is very kind of Google to inform me that my web pages have been compromised but, hello-oo, it's the weekend, I get the most traffic at a weekend, you can take that bloody sign down again now!

My site was attacked on Friday afternoon; all of the .html pages on the site were hacked and a Java script inserted. The script contained an iFrame, an invisible frame that, in this case, whisks your computer off to a site in China that distributes malware.
I have been unable to find out, yet, whether it is my hosts server or just my pages that have been hacked.

I spent a couple of hours replacing each and every .html document on this sub domain and the main domain it is hosted on — this blog alone contains 395 .html pages, then there are my galleries etc. — a lot of work, I can tell you.
Anyway, I did my homework and informed Google of the fact.

Google was very quick in putting up the sign to inform everyone that I am actively supplying malware it took them just a few hours. When I informed them that the danger has been removed, I got a message that they will check my site again in due time, but this might take a while ...
... not good, not good at all — this is costing me traffic and a lot of those visitors won't return again!
Please take that sign down ...

Bild 2

Of course, I also had to change all the passwords that allowed people to access my sites and had to check my computers for trojans (to my knowledge there are no confirmed virus for the Mac OS X, last count there were 140'000 or so for that other operating system) or keystroke loggers. There were none, so I must presume that the passwords for access to my web site were too easy to guess.

If you visited this site between 15:00 and 24:00 on Friday and were not warned about doing so, please check your computer for malware!

]]>Compositing ...rjhRound and About ...2009-03-18T23:38:10+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9e5ab86c645906479c9e9ff14c266970-172.html#unique-entry-id-172http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9e5ab86c645906479c9e9ff14c266970-172.html#unique-entry-id-172

It wasn't 36 images after all, it turned out to be 45.
There are a couple of spots with visible double exposures. I left them intentionally because I feel it demonstrates that the pontoon in motion – as were the geese!

This panorama is a little larger than usual: I like the datails.
This means that if your computer and/or your browser were built before The Flood, you might not want to click on the link.

I hope you like it ...]]>At last ...rjhRound and About ...2009-03-18T17:52:13+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/180e63ff707ba5b9b59d51267a142cf9-171.html#unique-entry-id-171http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/180e63ff707ba5b9b59d51267a142cf9-171.html#unique-entry-id-171
If you are a regular visitor to this blog, then you will know what one of my hobbies is and for some time now, I have wanted to photograph the Gas Street Basin in Birmingham.

I spent many hours there, with a sketch pad, yonks ago when it was in a in a desolate condition. In the meantime the Birmingham City Council has realised its value. The whole area around Gas Street has been renovated and modernised. Cafés and pubs have been erected and it is well worth a visit.

When I visited at Christmas I took along a camera that had not yet been calibrated for panoramas. The resulting images had to be stitched by hand. The first panorama is now ready to be presented – at long last!

I took a second, 360° panorama, from further along the dock. I'm not sure, yet, that I'll be able to stitch it. It wasn't until I was almost finished taking the 36 shots that I realised, I was standing on a pontoon that was gently rocking while I worked.
I'll take a closer look soon. Watch this space, I might be successful, who knows ...]]>Crossed wires ...rjhMumblingsMusings2009-03-14T17:18:39+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/11ce7408c9855a9df3c320cc46503910-170.html#unique-entry-id-170http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/11ce7408c9855a9df3c320cc46503910-170.html#unique-entry-id-170We got a new firewall at work for Christmas and, even though my firewall is the same brand, they seemed to be unable to communicate with each other.

I mentioned it to one of our techies and he got me to check this and that, experiment here and there and crash my machine a number of times. At long last, after checking both firewalls, he decided it was time to update the software on mine.
"Not a big deal," he said "only takes a couple of minutes."

So, yesterday morning he logged on to my machine – online – downloaded the new software, installed it – and was gone.
No, he wasn't finished, he was just gone.
His supposed update had flushed my firewall's ROM and disconnected me from the Internet.
No Firewall, no techie, nothing. A blank screen, so to speak.
Well, there was nothing else for it but to bundle up my firewall under my arm and take it to Techie.
Luckily I pass his office on my way to work, so it was only a short detour.

Round about 16:00 he phoned to say I could collect my firewall again, newly configured a ready to take me online.
"I've just made a few alterations which mean you'll have to reconfigure your modem."

Of course, there's nothing easier than reconfiguring a modem – I do it almost every day – great, thanks!

So I connected my computer directly to the modem, sorted out its IP-address and password, quickly reconfigured it and re-set-up my account with Swisscom, who, of course, didn't recognise me any more.
It didn't take more than an hour.
But then, I'd got nothing better to do with my Friday evening anyway, had I?
When I was finished, I plugged in the firewall, connected it between the computer and the modem and went online.
Well, at least, I tried to. Nothing; a blank screen.
I sorted out the passwords etc. and logged in to the firewall. There I was greeted by large red letters stating "The firewall has not been configured"!
Not having done it before, it took me about two hours to figure out how a firewall is configured but, in the end, I actually got back online.
As you can see.

This morning Techie phoned and asked cheerfully "Everything all right?"
He can consider himself lucky that he lives in Austria ...]]>Swiss Hospitality ...rjhAppenzellerMumblings2009-03-07T15:06:59+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/452f7db9ec06d31e960277c3332674fe-169.html#unique-entry-id-169http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/452f7db9ec06d31e960277c3332674fe-169.html#unique-entry-id-169
I know that offal is not to everyones taste, but I've eaten tripe in a couple of different countries – and always enjoyed it.

Callos - Spanish tripe (meaning it is probably pork and not that of a Spaniard) with chick-peas, red peppers and pork suasage-meat similar to black-pudding.
Pakal-Pörkölt - A spicy Hungarian stew with tripe and red peppers.
Iskembe - A Turkish tripe dish similar to Swabian kutteln, but with garlic.
Saure Kutteln - A Swabian (Southern Germany) tripe dish soured with vinegar and/or lemon juice.
Trippa alla livornese - An Italian version of tripe with tomato sauce (what else?!) garlic and parmesan cheese.
Trippa alla Romana - Italian again, with – wait for it – tomato sauce, white wine and (who'd have guessed?) permesan.
Tripes - The French version of tripe and onions
'our' own, British version of tripe and onions, of course. And not forgetting:
Haggis which is a Scottish pudding with oatmeal, suet, all sorts of offal, wrapped up in a sheep's stomach and served with turnip and potatoes. (And best washed down with a wee dram!)

I'd never eaten tripe in Switzerland before, so I decided to give it a go.
However, not wanting any surprises, I asked the waiter, who was also the bartender and presumably the owner,
'Wie werden Kutteln ind dieser Gegend zubereitet?'
'How do you prepare tripe in this part of the world?'

He gave me an angry stare at the audacity of my question, and replied:
'So wie Chuddla eben gemacht wäret!' (He almost choked on the 'ch')
'Exactly the way Kutteln are prepared!'

I couldn't quite make up my mind whether to get up and leave or order, so he immediately prompted me
'Wönt ör jetzt öppis, oder nit?'
Do you want to order something or not.

This is the point where I should have got up and left, but, knowing that Swiss hospitality is the same just about everywhere and given that I was hungry, I ordered a beer and Kuddla.

For anyone unsure how tripe is cooked in Zürich – I would say it is somewhere between between livornese and Romana but without the white wine, garlic or parmesan cheese.
To be honest with you I found it rather bland; rather like Swiss hospitality.*

*Disclaimer: I refer here, not to the Swiss in general (although there are unfriendly people all over the world) but to the Swiss gastronomy and hotel business.]]>Hazy Shade of WinterrjhAppenzellerMusings2009-02-19T19:33:43+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3a741f28d1479b695557d320cd4678da-168.html#unique-entry-id-168http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3a741f28d1479b695557d320cd4678da-168.html#unique-entry-id-168I don't think I have, have I?

spring

It was a little warmer, yesterday, than usual so the snow lost a little of its volume.
This picture was taken this morning.
When the thermometer in the car displayed this:

Temp

Take my word for it — that is slightly chilly!

Obviously you'll now be asking what the roads look like.
Well, I assure you, there is no need for concern — today they have been cleared
and look more or less like this for most of the way down to St.Gallen:

road

Two inches of packed snow.
In St.Gallen it is much warmer [-13°] and there is more traffic so a lot of the snow had disappeared from the roads by 07:00. Instead it was piled up on the pavements, where pedestrians had to fight to pass each other.

spring_II

I do like the winter – don't you?]]>PhotographyrjhMusings2009-02-08T15:26:37+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c25d90d5a8cf775de2f1d02115b62789-167.html#unique-entry-id-167http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c25d90d5a8cf775de2f1d02115b62789-167.html#unique-entry-id-167other hobby – photography.
It would seem that I don't get through cameras as fast as I do computers (or cars, my brother would tell you — not true!):

I started photographing things while I was at Art-School. I can't, for the life of me, remember the camera I used in those days, but I still have some of the pictures. Black and white.
For some reason photography didn't interest me a great deal in those days. It might be due to the fact that I found the costs prohibitive.

Around 1970 some kind person gave me a used Olympus Pen 35 mm Half-Frame Camera which I promptly took on holiday with me to Germany – that person may step forward because, I'm ashamed to say, I have no idea which relative it was.

From then I have progressed:

ca. 1978: Yashica TL Electro-X
1980: Olympus OM 1 (second hand but still in immaculate condition today)
1983: Olympus OM 2
1987: Olympus OM 2 SP
1992: Olympus iS 3000 (L3)
1997: Olympus CAMEDIA C-1400L 1.4 Megapixel
1999: Sony DSC F505 2.1 Megapixel
2001: Sony DSC F707 5.2 Megapixel
2003: Sony DSC F828 8.3 Megapixel
2006: Sony DSC R1 10.3 Megapixel
2008: Olympus E-3 10.1 Megapixel
2008: Nikon D700 12.5 Megapixel

Strangely I have no idea what happened to either the Olympus Pen or the Yashica.
I still have the OM 1 and the iS 3000 and only very recently gave the OM 2 SP to a friend, who'd broken the OM 2 I'd given her ten, twelve years ago. (The OM 1 and iS3000 are up for sale to the highest bidder!)

I've always been a fan of Olympus cameras and was terribly disappointed with the first DSLR they put on the market. It seemed so inferior compared with the Sony 'point-and-shoots'.
At the end of 2007 Olympus at long last introduced the camera that I'd been waiting for, for all those years. After reading the technical blurb, I ordered one and, when it arrived, was immediately disappointed with it!
Oh, dont get me wrong – it is a state-of-the-art device, but I had never read up on the pros and cons of the chip-size that Olympus uses.
The Sony chips are so much larger (at the same resolution) and deliver a picture (sorry Olympus) of much higher quality.

Having an SLR back in my hands, though, had me hooked again and when Nikon introduced an SLR with a full-sized (35 mm) chip...

As soon as I've got it calibrated to shoot panoramas, you can expect some high-quality alpine pictures (technically that is, not necessarily content-wise)!

Watch this space ...]]>Apples not oranges ...rjhMusings2009-01-25T11:26:16+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1ab1bb8896724ce80ebcda6c694b4d80-164.html#unique-entry-id-164http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1ab1bb8896724ce80ebcda6c694b4d80-164.html#unique-entry-id-164The fact prompted me to go through, in my mind, all the Macs I've owned.

I've worked with Apple Macintosh computers daily since 1990, after watching my colleagues working with them for five years.
The first machine I was forced to work with was a IIFX. You could have bought a Mercedes Benz for the same price.
I rather liked the Mercedes – I hated the Mac. It was what the Germans term as a Shrinking Violet (Mimose) – very sensitive.
On some days I got the distinct feeling that I only had to look at the thing and it would crash!

Here are the machines, I've been proud to own:

1991 Quadra 700
1993 Quadra 660 AV
1995 PowerBook 5300
1996 PowerBook 1400 cs
1997 PowerMac 8600
1998 PowerMac G3
1999 PowerBook G3 (Lombard)
2001 PowerBook G3 (Titanium)
2002 PowerMac G4
2004 PowerMac G5 (I'm writing on it at this moment)
2005 PowerBook G4 17"
2008 MacBook Pro 15"

Just for the record: 1999 Newton 120 – the neatest piece of computer hardware I ever owned!

Not bad, I suppose, twelve computers in seventeen years.
Theoretically that means each one lasted one-and-a-half years.
I sold most of them on and many are still alive today – I visit them sometimes.
I've lost track of how many Macs I got through at the various places I've worked, but at the place I work now, I've had five.

You'll have noticed that half of the machines I owned were laptops, which I always had parallel to my desktops. I spent a great deal of my time on the road. The first two, the 5300 and the 1400, were painfully slow but since then the Mac books have always been able to keep pace with a desk-top – once they were booted.

I only recently sold my 17" G4 and replaced it with an Intel model.
Not that I wasn't satisfied with the G4, but occasionally I need to test something on a Windows machine. For this purpose I purchased a Sony Vaio 12" which is a wonderful little machine. My new MacBook, however runs Windows a lot faster and having two systems on one machine means less clutter on my desktop.

I've mentioned before that I have a number of (working) Macs on shelves in my office. Some of them, such as my Quadra 660, I've used myself, some I've collected to save them from being binned. I'm still looking for a Color Classic, which was produced in 1993, so if anyone knows where there might be one lying around ...

Happy Birthday, Mac!]]>GalleriesrjhRound and About ...2008-12-15T14:42:29+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5c4f46a632576b3c0a761a7204ed8f6d-163.html#unique-entry-id-163http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5c4f46a632576b3c0a761a7204ed8f6d-163.html#unique-entry-id-163do that on a computer?) and I remembered putting up a gallery of pictures taken at Fazeley Junction and threatening to put up more …

For those of you, who don't know what or where Fazeley junction is, I'll explain:
Great Britain has a network of inland waterways. The Romans started the idea – they built several navigable canals, such as Foss Dyke, to link rivers, enabling increased transportation inland by water.
The United Kingdom's navigable water network grew massively as the demand for industrial transport increased. The canals were key to the pace of the Industrial Revolution. Roads at the time were unsuitable for large volumes of traffic.
So many canals were built during the 18th and 19th century that things almost got out of hand. Now the country is so riddled with canals that you might ask what's holding the place together.

Fazeley Junction is a junction near Tamworth where the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal meets the Whittington and the Coventry Canal.

I took an interest in photographing the various junctions around the Midlands a few years ago and hope to photograph more on my next visit to the island.

The gallery I'd put up for Fazeley has just been revised and two more have been added: Lapworth Junction, where the Grand Union Canal joins the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal and Fradley Junction, where the Coventry Canal meets the Trent and Mersey Canal.

By the way – if you are interested in touring Britain, you couldn't do it in a more leisurely fashion than renting a narrowboat …]]>Samichlaus …rjhMusings2008-12-05T18:53:21+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a0c6c79dc33775eb5cabaf9c5443f05b-162.html#unique-entry-id-162http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a0c6c79dc33775eb5cabaf9c5443f05b-162.html#unique-entry-id-162This is because on the eve of December 25th Father Christmas clambers down our chimneys right?
Wrong!
Go and read your Bible again and come back when you know what we are really celebrating!

Father Christmas,or Santa Claus, as he is also known, was a Greek bishop from Patra* in the 4th century who gave his whole inheritance to the poor and, reputedly, had a soft spot for children.
He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.
After his death on December the 6th in Myra he somehow turned into a saint – Saint Nicholas.
Something to do with some manna that grew on his grave.
The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.

The cult of the saint spread from Italy to the rest of Europe during the 11th century.

I spent some years in Germany and originally thought the Germans must be impatient because Father Christmas arrived there on the 6th of December and not, as we Brits and those Americans expect him to, on the 25th.
It took a visit to Turkey to make some sense of the mix up that somehow occurred while the cult was crossing the English Channel.

While in Germany I often heard of, but never saw Knecht Ruprecht, Saint Nicholas' attendant. The children were threatened that, if they hadn't been good during the year, they would get a beating from Ruprecht, rather than presents from Santa.
Imagine my surprise, then, the first time I bumped into Santa here in Switzerland. He was accompanied by a bearded guy in a cassock who, for all the world looked just like Santa himself – except, that is, that both his cassock and his face were black.
This, I supposed, was the guy who is forced to climb down the chimneys in Santas' place.
His name is Schmutzli which just happens to sound like the German word for 'dirty'

Schmutzli carries Santas' sack for him and a switch and, just as in Germany, the children get the choice of a present or a beating.
Thankfully, Santa creeps down English chimneys during the night and doesn't bring an attendant along. I don't think I'd have been able to bear the strain of not knowing whether to expect, a gift or a clobbering!

The whole of eastern Europe has similar traditions to Germany and Switzerland and I find it strange, that in crossing The Channel, Santa got muddled and thought he was Jesus after all.

You might like to read about the various attendants he has …

Oh, by the way – Happy Nicholaus-Tag

*Don't ask me how they did it, but both Patra and Myra are now in Turkey]]>Early one Mo-orning …rjhAppenzellerMumblings2008-11-30T09:32:46+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7a1f9d13388df542a085d06670f7c6fc-161.html#unique-entry-id-161http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7a1f9d13388df542a085d06670f7c6fc-161.html#unique-entry-id-161
I was lucky on Thursday.
We were not woken by the sound of the snow plough and there was no eerie silence after switching the alarm clock off.
A glance outside showed that no fresh snow had fallen –
life could commence as usual.

They have promised us a hard winter this time round. I don't know what that is supposed to mean, but I might have an inkling:
When I went to climb into the car to go to work, it was covered with a thick screen of ice. The temperature was minus ten degrees!

Not a great deal by Siberian standards, but we are in Switzerland and it is only November. The cold months don't arrive until February!

Luckily I'd thought to put one of those Aluminium blankets over my windscreen so that, at least, was free of ice.
I was, however unable to see out of the side windows.
Well, I sprayed the side windows and rear screen with ice remover (I don't even want to know what's in those bottles) and went back inside for a cup of coffee.

A few minutes later, I removed the sludge from the side windows with a squeegee and set off for work.
I arrived at work just ten minutes later than I had intended.
When I went to lift the hatch to get something out of the boot, it wouldn't lift on its own – there was a centimetre thick sheet of ice across the whole of it, except for the deep hole, where the wiper had been working.

Quite cold, I'd say …

]]>Wot's that ? !rjhAppenzeller2008-11-25T23:34:28+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c4177ef4de013eee151e1a1c26542b57-160.html#unique-entry-id-160http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c4177ef4de013eee151e1a1c26542b57-160.html#unique-entry-id-160Yes, we had an inch or two mid-October that lasted for a week, but that doesn't really count.
This weekend we awoke to a foot of fresh snow …

This part of the world is called Switzerland. We get snow here every year without fail. Lots of it.
You can always expect the first snow around mid-October – just a smattering to remind you what you are in for – but the same thing happens every year: You always get a number of drivers on the road that have never, ever seen the stuff before in their lives.
And that's just how they drive.

Some still have summer tyres on their cars, because, well, who would have expected snow at this time of year? (They've only been telling us ten-times-a-day-for-a-week, just what we are in for.)
They creep along the roads at a snails' pace. And you can guarantee to find one crawling along in front of you exactly on that stretch of road that you won't be able to overtake on for the next three kilometers.

Luckily the Swiss are well equipped to deal with snow.
If the snow fall is less than a meter overnight, you will be awoken at five in the morning by the sound of a snow plough. More snow, and your 'wake-up-call' will be earlier.
This means two things:
a) You should rise a little earlier than usual, so you don't get into a rush clearing the snow off your vehicle.
b) The roads will be clear of snow (unless you are still in the middle of a snow storm) and you will be able to drive to work in safety.
If you happen to wake up to a total, eerie silence, panic!
This means there is a meter or more of snow and the snow-ploughs are still trying to cope with the snow down in the village – you are going to be late for work. Occasionally even a day or two!

Of course, you still get the odd patch of ice here and there, once the roads have been cleared, so you do have to drive carefully, but the worst of it will be gone.

Imagine my surprise then, when I climbed into the car to drive home from a party on Saturday night – the motorway was encased in three inches of solidly packed snow!
I had always envisaged snow ploughs racing up and down the motorway, 24 hours a day. They don't !
Enquiries have revealed that the drivers of said snow ploughs get tired at some point and finish work at around midnight. After that you're on your own.

Now I presume that the Swiss are aware of such facts. So why then, do so many of those still using summer tyres wait until after midnight to use the motorways?
They block the middle lane, stationary, with their wheels turning on the spot and looking utterly helpless behind their steering wheels. If you could hear them, I'm sure they bleat like sheep.

If you wish to get home, you have to weave in and out of them in an elegant slalom through the snow, secure in the knowledge that the rescue services will be along with blankets and hefty fines before too long …

Americanisms removed 30.11.2008]]>On Top of the World...rjhAppenzellerRound and About ...2008-11-01T16:00:32+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4715c924ae1e35b1e19c991e99f54825-159.html#unique-entry-id-159http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4715c924ae1e35b1e19c991e99f54825-159.html#unique-entry-id-159I think I did.
Did I mention that I live on a hill 1000m high?
That's three quarters of the way up Snowdon, for those of you that can't imagine how high that is...

Apart from being extremely quiet, living here has other advantages too. I can, for instance, usually see what the weather is doing down below me.

I took this picture this morning:

Go on – click it!]]>Hot, or not?rjhMumblingsAppenzeller2008-11-01T15:15:07+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0c6bf814e4bfc6297b87bff2c93a54c1-158.html#unique-entry-id-158http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0c6bf814e4bfc6297b87bff2c93a54c1-158.html#unique-entry-id-158Japanese sushi;
Chinese stir-fries;
Vietnamese Pho (noodle soup);
Philippine chicken;
Indian lentils.
But best of all is Thai Cuisine because it is the spiciest...

I really enjoy spicy food, so why is it that so many restaurants refuse to serve it?
There is/was an Indian restaurant in Ludwigsburg that offered three choices of meal:
Mild, Hot or Normal.
Mild is, well, mild.
Hot is spicy – German spicy.
Normal is spicy – Indian style!
Why can't they all do it like that?

I went for a Thai meal the other day.
You could choose meals with zero, one, two or three chilli peppers from the menu.
I ordered a meal with three.

When my meal arrived, I was certain they had brought the wrong plate to our table. I'm quite sure even the most coddled Swiss person would'nt have found it spicy.
I called the waitress and complained. "Oh, but that is the spicy one", she assured me.
"In that case, I need chilli", I said.
"We no have Chilli,“ she said "only fish sauce"
"Then I need the fish sauce", I replied.
(Fish sauce is fish extract with raw chilli peppers)
She called something into the kitchen and I recognised the word 'Farang' which means 'Long-Nose' denoting a European/American.
The fish sauce arrived but there was hardly any chilli in it. By the time a portion of the food was anywhere near 'hot', it was too salty to eat.
I gave up and ate my meal as it was.

This happens to me all the time – even if I visit a restaurant with Thai friends who will tell the waiter/waitress "He can eat as 'hot' as we can!"
The waiter invariably scoffs and I get a watered-down version of what I ordered.

Good to have Thai friends – I get invited to dinner every now and then and am served the normal version.
Yummy!]]>Time flies…rjhMusingsMumblings2008-10-18T12:37:57+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a358d2f3a5c9b14750e9ebf6745c4d4c-157.html#unique-entry-id-157http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a358d2f3a5c9b14750e9ebf6745c4d4c-157.html#unique-entry-id-157
This year, it seems to me, the colours have been even more intense than usual and it has annoyed me that I haven't had an opportunity to take any photographs.
A fortnight ago I snapped off a couple of shots from my office window (which I do quite regularly) and was happy to have captured some of the Autumn colours 'on film' at last.

Last week, though, looking out of the same window, I was presented with a palette even more abundant in colour, I dropped everything and grabbed a camera.
The difference a week can make!

I do like Autumn…]]>CemeteryrjhAppenzellerMusingsRound and About ...2008-10-12T13:16:17+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/01c81480463f4b2b704030514d409f42-156.html#unique-entry-id-156http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/01c81480463f4b2b704030514d409f42-156.html#unique-entry-id-156… I just logged on to see if there were any new entries on this blog.
Of course, no one else works here…

You'll have to excuse – I've still got my right leg in 'plaster' and don't spend so many hours at the computer as I used to.
I don't get round to doing as much photography as I might, either.

However – a fortnight ago, I travelled with friends from the Fotoclub St.Gallen to Kaufdorf in Gürbethal (near Bern) because there is an Automobile Cemetery there.
Quite photogenic.

Sadly the cemetery will have to close in March next year, so any one wanting to see this spectacular display of automobile history will have to hurry!

In 1975 the authorities in Bern gave the owner of the scrap yard permission to create the auto cemetery, but insisted he would have to hide it by planting a few hundred trees.
The trees were planted and both cars and trees have coexisted ever since. Nature, however, is slowly gaining the upper hand.
In places it is hard to decide if a car is part of a tree or if a tree is part of a car.

Now the authorities have decided that the cemetery has to disappear – the trees do not blend into the landscape and the cars (not one of them a day under 30 years old) are polluting the environment!
Quite paradox.

I shan't go into all of the arguments that have ignited around the topic. Let it suffice to say that they are heated, with the authorities refusing to see that the scrap yard might be of any cultural value…

…look at the pictures and judge for yourself.
]]>After the Storm...rjhRound and About ...Appenzeller2008-09-01T21:47:36+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3d4dd840880899ec14891e84affa8242-155.html#unique-entry-id-155http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3d4dd840880899ec14891e84affa8242-155.html#unique-entry-id-155
The sand sculptures in Rorschach have been finished for a fortnight now. I went there the evening the winner was decided (I spy...) but there were so many people there that I didn’t venture close!

This weekend after two days of catastrophic rainfall having fallen since the prize giving, I actually managed to take some pictures.
'What do they do if it rains?' Global Librarian asked. Well, you didn't actually mean torrential rainfall, or did you?
If we are talking normal summer rainfall — the surface of the sculptures can get a little rough.
If we are talking medium catastrophe rainfall — the surface gets a little rough and the elements that weren't packed as solid as they might have been collapse...

But here — judge for yourself:

Parts of my two favourite sculptures have collapsed and the base of the sculptures are very rough, but I find it makes them interesting.

BTW – if you want to see what the sculptures looked like before the rain, you can view them here!]]>Google...rjhMusings2008-08-16T09:03:32+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fd81f897b3565ee6ebee372527482b59-154.html#unique-entry-id-154http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fd81f897b3565ee6ebee372527482b59-154.html#unique-entry-id-154
... Jul gets people who are looking for a 'Whore in Regensburg‘, 'Naked man pictures' or 'Japanese peeing'. I read her blog regularly and would never have worked out what makes it so popular with Google.

So what have I been writing about?

Most people arriving at my site via search engines are [still] looking to purchase a Burkini!
I googled the word myself and was relieved to see that I am not the world's leading authority on the subject - happily, I don't even make page 5.

I am, however, the world's leading expert regarding the topic What is going to happen in the Alps - right after Wikipedia, that is. Thank you Google, I love you!
My expertise on Cow Bells in the Alps is often consulted, but not as often as Dr. Herriot; and if you ever need to know How to stop pigs blood congealing, well, just ask!

You can't avoid my blog, if you wish to know anything pertaining to Schwiizertüütsch and I get regular clicks from ¿Norway? on that one. I wonder what that means in Norwegian?

My all time favorite?
Wanted, second hand motorway sound barrier.
Well, I suppose it depends on how much you want, I've got a couple of hundred meters in the garage, from that time when I practiced hydroplaning on my way home from work...
... it's going to cost you, though!]]>Castles Made of Sand...rjhRound and About ...Appenzeller2008-08-13T11:50:03+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/76b97ad87079104d80a59da389eff8f5-153.html#unique-entry-id-153http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/76b97ad87079104d80a59da389eff8f5-153.html#unique-entry-id-153
In Rorschach, on Lake Constance, a competition is held every year to see who can create the best sand sculpture.
250 tons of sand are dumped on the lake shore, stamped into rectangular wooden forms and then sculpted. Some of the results are amazing!
I took some pictures of the finished entries last year and forgot to show them to you.
The one I liked best was called Daydreams and just happened to win the first prize:

sand_II

Daydreams, Front

Sand_I

Daydreams, Rear

Ten teams of two people from all over the world compete every year.
Each team has a week to finish their work. This years theme is 'Dream and Reality'.
The first three years saw Swiss sculptors among the winners. Because foreign teams won for the past few years, no Swiss are partaking this year...

I wanted to photograph the work-in-progress this time round and then the finished results.
A lot harder to do, on crutches, than I had envisaged, but here is the work-in-progress (4th day).
I hope to find a chauffeur on Saturday, so I can photograph the finished results...

It is impossible to guess, yet, which team might win this year - we shall know more on Saturday.
If you would like to see the sculptures live, they will be on view until September 14th.

To be continued...]]>Both sides, now...rjhRound and About ...Appenzeller2008-08-10T21:00:26+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e8ca7f414761af4fc1888a39a6a8d662-152.html#unique-entry-id-152http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e8ca7f414761af4fc1888a39a6a8d662-152.html#unique-entry-id-152Yesterday, I discovered my camera again:

We had some wonderful clouds!]]>Magic question...rjhMumblings2008-08-03T08:13:58+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c80686f40c03719213c0798d0b729f2d-151.html#unique-entry-id-151http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c80686f40c03719213c0798d0b729f2d-151.html#unique-entry-id-151... the right foot.

When I arrived at the hospital, they messed around taking blood samples asking questions and so on and generally 'preparing' me for the OP. One of the questions was 'left or right?'
I answered that it was the right foot. An indelible marker was produced and the right shin was marked with an X.
After starving me for twelve hours, they came along to test my memory. Again, I told them it was the right foot. The marker appeared and an O was drawn around the X!

My bed was wheeled down to the operating area and while I was moved from my bed to the operating table I was again asked, if I could remember which foot was to operated on. Well, you can't trick me that easily! 'The right foot', I told them.
I was then maneuvered into a smaller room, where I was to be prepared for the OP.
A pretty young lady appeared with the magic question and I informed her too that it was the right foot.
She tucked my right arm away under my body with some wedges, attached an arm-rest for my left arm and then an anesthetist appeared. Once more the magic question was asked and correctly answered. I was rewarded with a deep sleep...

I'm sure you know by now where this is leading.
After I had been awake for a while the surgeon arrived at my bedside and asked how I was. He then informed me that he had some good news and some bad news...

... I now have a cut on my left foot with twelve stitches in it.
Oh, he'd realised immediately, of course, that something was amiss.
He was standing right next to a drip which got in his way - most unusual...
... so he too asked the magic question!

Supposedly the operation was a success.
I'll spare you the pictures for this post...]]>Moody Blues...rjhMusingsMumblingsRound and About ...2008-07-22T19:54:00+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/afd9497c1b145f5c84838e53f1eea24a-150.html#unique-entry-id-150http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/afd9497c1b145f5c84838e53f1eea24a-150.html#unique-entry-id-150Strangely 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...
]]>Going up in smoke...rjhAppenzellerMusings2008-07-19T21:02:56+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3cec7d14cc5378a1b781f32484bb01d3-149.html#unique-entry-id-149http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3cec7d14cc5378a1b781f32484bb01d3-149.html#unique-entry-id-149Lynx 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...
]]>Those magnificent men...rjhRound and About ...2008-07-10T14:30:47+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/26a6e49795f33b161103d9fb88d31cda-148.html#unique-entry-id-148http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/26a6e49795f33b161103d9fb88d31cda-148.html#unique-entry-id-148

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...]]>Dr. HerriotrjhAppenzellerMusings2008-07-10T10:20:13+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/8ce3995eb457892171f0ee31c81be4d6-147.html#unique-entry-id-147http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/8ce3995eb457892171f0ee31c81be4d6-147.html#unique-entry-id-147More 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...]]>Bathing fashions (again)...rjhMumblingsMusings2008-07-09T18:46:02+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4ba0b88b2560ba719d81969c63bb6f75-146.html#unique-entry-id-146http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4ba0b88b2560ba719d81969c63bb6f75-146.html#unique-entry-id-146
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...]]>Bla, bla, bla...rjhMusings2008-06-28T09:45:49+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/65443f576c60911c8d06362e5ac82d43-145.html#unique-entry-id-145http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/65443f576c60911c8d06362e5ac82d43-145.html#unique-entry-id-145recently talked about learning a foreign language and asked 'How do you improve your foreign language skills?'

I immediately started to answer, but half way through, decided my answer was much too long for a comment.
To explain how I practice my language skills, I first have to explain how I learned the language in the first place...

Before I left England for Germany, I very sensibly decided that, if I was going to spend my near future in a foreign country, it might make sense to learn the lingo. I bought a "Teach Yourself Book - A First German" and sat down during my midday breaks and in an evening to study it. I got as far as page 46 before leaving for Germany and learned such interesting and useful sentences as 'Does the dog bite?' and 'The gas-cooker is in the kitchen'.

Of course - having only reached page 46 I never grasped the importance of being able to choose between 'the', 'the' and 'the', before diving headlong into everyday German communication.
In the preface the author of the book states 'One aim of this book is to simplify the learning of endings.' He forgets to explain how important articles are...
How are you supposed to use the accusative, if you know how the article alters to form it, but don't know the correct article in the first place.
Well, well done L.Stringer - you taught me the difference between light and dark, but I never learned if it was 'the' table or 'the' table.

When I arrived in Germany at last, I was able to ask 'what time is it?', but unable to understand the answer. I was able to say 'I'm hungry' but unable to tell anyone what I'd like to eat. And then, all of a sudden, there was a rather disconcerting problem...
... what was I going to do for a living?!

My German girlfriend had told me it wouldn't be a problem to find a job and, hopeless optimist that I am, I'd believed her. Then I suddenly realised that working, more often then not, also entailed writing.
For some reason, no-one wanted to employ an engraver who would engrave the wrong articles into his workpiece, or a graphic Designer who could design a pamphlet without any text...
Luckily I was offered a job as a reproduction-photographer. I grabbed the chance with relief.

The first weeks were spent in a darkroom (and I mean 'dark' - panchromatic film registers all light sources), with someone trying to explain to me what he was doing at any precise moment. It was fun, I can tell you!
You can't imagine how tiring it is to listen to a voice in the dark, knowing just how important the grasp of those foreign words is to your future.

But I had a concrete reason for wanting to learn German - I wanted to be able to communicate with my girlfriend, her family and her friends. They were a great help! All of them - a big thank you in retrospect!

After just a few months I could communicate quite well, so I decided to buy a book - a children's book that I'd already read - "Münchhausens Abenteuer". I was hopelessly overtaxed. Then one day, I was expected to lie around at the open-air swimming pool, a thing I hate. In my boredom, I went to the kiosk and purchased a penny dreadful (a dime novel, for you americans, Groschenroman in German), and WOW!! the style of writing was entirely different - I could understand it.
I read dozens of those novels in the following weeks and my German progressed in leaps and bounds.

Sadly, I never did get my mind around German articles - they clashed with what little French I'd learned at school and never seemed to make sense. I mean - which idiot decided that a roof is neutral while a table is male, unless, of course, you are talking about a spreadsheet, in which case it becomes female...

The result?
I speak fluent German - so much so that the Swiss and many Germans automatically presume that I am German - until they listen closely to how I mumble my way around articles.
My advice to anyone learning German?
Take care to learn the difference between 'the', 'the' and 'the'!!

How did you learn to speak a foreign language?
]]>Insult and Injury...rjhMumblings2008-06-22T13:51:15+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7bba617242340e765503c662275cdefc-144.html#unique-entry-id-144http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7bba617242340e765503c662275cdefc-144.html#unique-entry-id-144an earlier post from this column...

Apparently I am disturbing people on the other side of the world and the post is attracting a number of offending comments.
(I have removed and shall continue to remove the most insulting of them)
The problem is connected to religion and religion, for some reason, always seems to be connected to violence and radicalism.
The Koran, The Bible and the teachings of Buddha all tell us to respect others [beliefs] and to live in peace and yet, for over 2000 years people have been crucified for being Christians, or cut down by the sword for not being Christian.

In more recent times it is not even enough to be of Christian faith (and I suppose other religions have similar problems) people have been beheaded or bombed to death for being Protestant or Catholic and whole Cantons [Appenzell inner and outer Rhoden] and countries have been divided by faith.

The past few years have seen heated arguments about headscarves in schools and universities - What happened to acceptance?
If Catholic nuns are allowed to wear their habits in Hospitals and (admittedly, Catholic) schools, why shouldn't Muslim maids be allowed to cover their heads as required of them by their faith.

I can't see anything insulting in last years post about the accepted attire and the resulting hygiene problems in European swimming baths, in fact I am sure that other posts I have written have been very much harder on my Swiss neighbours.
I was commenting on facts, not passing judgement.

Please try to accept the fact that I am only commenting (if ironically) on my surroundings and please refrain from posting insulting comments.]]>Concentration...rjhMumblings2008-05-25T08:57:29+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/72c3c7ebd5a37d985f0fc9dd745e2a8e-143.html#unique-entry-id-143http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/72c3c7ebd5a37d985f0fc9dd745e2a8e-143.html#unique-entry-id-143
For the first time in yonks, I went to the cinema yesterday.
I was sitting there engrossed in the film when all of a sudden, with no prior warning, the screen went blank and the lights came on.
Unperturbed, people got up and stretched, went for a pee, or a smoke, or went to get a drink, or whatever...

They do it every time and every time it takes me by surprise!

I remember, when I was young, cinemas the whole world over had the same problem. Films were on two reels. When the first came to an end, it had to be changed before the film could continue.
A sign would appear on the screen 'Intermission'.
This was a welcome sign for children, because it meant that an usherette would appear from nowhere, to sell ice-cream.
Better cinemas worked around the problem by setting up two projectors - when the first reel neared its end, it tripped a switch and automatically started the second projector. The break often went unnoticed - the film could be watched in its entirety.

In this age of digital technology, there is no need to interrupt a film at all.
Unless, that is, your audience starts to fidget and loose interest.
I suppose that is what happens in Switzerland.

Whatever - be prepared if you ever think of visiting a Swiss cinema.
After approximately 45 minutes the lights will suddenly be flicked on and you will be forced to sit around for ten minutes wondering what to do with yourself...]]>Sorry, we just can't help it...rjhMumblingsMusings2008-05-25T08:33:30+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a830344095b3f40af5ba628c376a873c-142.html#unique-entry-id-142http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a830344095b3f40af5ba628c376a873c-142.html#unique-entry-id-142
United Nations experts have warned that human activity, including global warming and the shooting of 'problem bears', threatens to cause the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.

Thomas Kolly, head of the Swiss delegation to Bonn, told swissinfo:
"Unfortunately, I have to say that it is quite obvious that we will not meet the goal of lowering flora and fauna loss by 2010".

While he was talking, there were more illegal immigrants on their way from Italy...
... the bears have obviously heard about the bear-proof bins that have been dispersed throughout Grisons (Graubünden) and want to try them for size - we are to expect more arrivals this year.

At least the authorities have stated that they may have to 'rethink' their approach to bears and might even have to redefine what actually constitutes a 'problem bear'.]]>The sun's been quite kind, while I...rjhRound and About ...2008-05-24T07:24:57+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/05fe9379bc8182250cbdfc8fc043193c-141.html#unique-entry-id-141http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/05fe9379bc8182250cbdfc8fc043193c-141.html#unique-entry-id-141
We had glorious weather here - ideal because, as I mentioned, I had visitors from Germany.
They had a whole week of sunshine, sunburn and all.
We went sight-seeing a couple of times and, of course, I had my camera with me.

The Hohe Kasten - the mountain you've already seen on one or two of my pics -
has a new, rotating restaurant on it's summit.
We breakfasted up there on the Friday after Whitsun.
The resulting panoramas took a little longer to process.
Shooting directly into the sun causes over-exposure. To compensate, I took all of the pictures with three different exposures and combined the results to HDR (High Dynamic Range) images - that means three separate panorama images combined to display the details in both the clouds and the dark parts of the scene.

The new restaurant is well worth a visit, by the way.
It completes a revolution every hour - giving you plenty of time to eat and enjoy the view...]]>NoveltyrjhMusings2008-05-21T18:25:54+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3ed801e295de2b1f3d95d73b40553fa2-140.html#unique-entry-id-140http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3ed801e295de2b1f3d95d73b40553fa2-140.html#unique-entry-id-140
The houses round here all have flowers hanging below their windows between Spring and Autumn.
I have to admit, it does make them look nice. So, so as not to be different, I participate in this tradition - after all, the window boxes are a fixture and they look strange when they are empty.

Last Wednesday was ‘Kalte Sophie’ the last of the Eis-Heiligen - the Ice-Saints. These are four days named after the Saints Pankratius, Servatius, Bonifatius and Sophie (the Catholic church has determined a saint for each calendar day) that can begin with a frost. Wednesday evening my flowers were in their window boxes - the first in the whole of the neighbourhood!

Sadly I am unable to take credit for the fact.
I had visitors last week and they took it upon themselves (boredom?) to attend to my empty flower boxes.

Now I have a problem.
Over the years, I have discovered that the whole affair of flowers and plants is rather complicated...
... apparently they need things like water and ¿fertilizer? at regular intervals.

I was never particularly good at maths - especially algebra and equations with unknown denominations - X * Y = ?.
Apparently the important part of this equation is ‘interval’.
Twice every six months, so I have been informed, may be regular, but I seem to have interpreted Y wrongly.
The result: X * Y = †

Somehow, I can’t get rid of the feeling that part of the equation is missing. Didn’t they always give us some sort of a clue at school? Something like X * Y = 6 ?

I shall try very hard, this year, not to disappoint my friends...

geranium

There are three of these...
... while downstairs we still have last year's weeds.

weeds

]]>Fox hunt...rjhOther StuffMusings2008-04-23T15:55:38+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4aaf60147a6967312df9e7525eb77e39-139.html#unique-entry-id-139http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4aaf60147a6967312df9e7525eb77e39-139.html#unique-entry-id-139

Gotcha!]]>Fox on the run...rjhOther StuffMusings2008-04-23T15:11:14+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/11e7aa926fb63fdae86b4e9787b4ac0a-138.html#unique-entry-id-138http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/11e7aa926fb63fdae86b4e9787b4ac0a-138.html#unique-entry-id-138Of course, when I opened the window to photograph the scene, the fox got nervous and wandered off.

I managed to take these pics of him (making presumptions again).

01a

Today I spied him at another mouse hole.
I am incapable of opening windows silently, it would seem, so when I opened the window to photograph, he (or she, as the case may be) trotted off a few paces, turned to see what the noise had been, then sat down and watched me for a while before leaving the scene:

Now it is chasing crows!
Rabies?]]>St.Gallen in 3DrjhRound and About ...2008-04-23T12:34:50+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ff0dabc55758c4d75c2b0d0eaa653bf4-136.html#unique-entry-id-136http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ff0dabc55758c4d75c2b0d0eaa653bf4-136.html#unique-entry-id-136Well, Ms.Mac, here you are:

I certainly hope you like them.

A little more 'old-fashioned' is this one, which is 'just a normal panorama image' showing Lake Constance from close to where I live.

It was photographed on Saturday but, looking out of the window, you wouldn't believe it now. At the moment, I'm glad that the weather (cold and wet) is outside and I'm inside...]]>Six o'clock bells...rjhMusings2008-04-16T20:31:37+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6ae9a85c11daffb975bdc9e1129777e6-135.html#unique-entry-id-135http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6ae9a85c11daffb975bdc9e1129777e6-135.html#unique-entry-id-135You've not heard of the Böög?!

Well, at the end of each Winter the people build a large bonfire and burn the effigy of a snowman (who is named the Böög) whose head is filled with explosives.

Depending on how long it takes for the head to explode, the weather for the coming summer can be predicted.
Or so the story goes.

This year it took just over 26 minutes, meaning poor weather this summer. Anything below 12 minutes means good weather.

I know that the Swiss are reputed to be slow, but I wonder if they have ever considered the fact that the speed a bonfire will burn depends on how it is built, what condition the wood is in and - the weather.
On Monday we had rain and snow, so I can imagine the building of the bonfire to have been rather hasty.
The wood was most likely somewhat wet too. As you can see by the picture, there was a great deal of yellow smoke - I seem to remember from my Boy-Scout-days that that means damp.

The Swiss meteorological office reported that the accuracy of the Böög's weather predictions over the last 50 years has been negligable. He did, however, predict the warm Summer of 2003!

The festival is called Sechseläuten - the ringing of the six o'clock bells.
At the end of Winter the church bells would ring at six pm instead of five pm to inform craftsmen that daylight was coming to an end.
The fact that they could work an hour longer was always celebrated with an enormous festival.

Well, if having to work an hour longer each day isn't reason enough for a celebration, I can't imagine what would be... ]]>I did warn you...rjhAppenzellerMumblings2008-04-16T20:12:25+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fddb3dd032339e1d83c0618ebec81644-134.html#unique-entry-id-134http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fddb3dd032339e1d83c0618ebec81644-134.html#unique-entry-id-134
The brown bear known as JJ3 (what a sweet name for a bear) became a problem-bear and was shot on Monday in the canton of Grisons (Graubünden).
While foraging for food, he got too close to humans. Not that he was ever aggressive, mind you, just not afraid enough of mankind.

They did try to scare the bear off by firing rubber bullets at him but apparently he just moved on to the next village. So, instead of trying to find a more appropriate solution, the local government had the animal shot.

The problem now, though, is that the bear had an Italian passport. The Italians are up in arms, threatening to put a boycot on Swiss goods and on travel to Switzerland.

Anyway, the authorities in Grisons are just in the process of distributing bear-proof bins?!
So if any other bears wish to try their luck, they are welcome.
They just need to mind their manners.

Just because we shoot bad-mannered bears, doesn't mean that Switzerland can't provide a habitat for them...]]>Take Two...rjhRound and About ...2008-04-12T10:08:32+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c5e62aa7dbf2398432d66fb51dd31b8e-133.html#unique-entry-id-133http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c5e62aa7dbf2398432d66fb51dd31b8e-133.html#unique-entry-id-133Not to bore you, but because, at long last, I have achieved something I have been trying to do for twelve months now.

You might have noticed that one of my pastimes is panorama photography.
I started down this road by chance about two years ago.
I was in Wales and stopped at a lay-by near Barmouth. I looked at the scene I'd seen a hundred times before and decided it would be a nice scene to photograph.
I got out my camera and took a series of shots - freehand - wondering if I would be able to stitch them together in Photoshop.
At home I stitched the images together in photoshop and decided:
"Next time, you'll have to use a tripod!"
It took ages to stitch and retouch the finished panorama.

'Next Time' I thought I'd be clever, so I used a monopod instead.
Again, it took me days until I was even almost satisfied with the results.
By chance there was a lot of water in this picture too, which proved to be one of the biggest challenges.
What I couldn't understand, however, was the problem I was having with the perspective.
It was this picture that made me go looking for information on the web.
It took 24 separate cropped images, distorted out of all proportion, just to put the railings together - the whole panorama otherwise only consists of 36 images!

When I finally solved the parallax-distortion-problem with a so-called spherical-panorama-head for my tripod, I thought the logical Next Step would be 'Virtual Reality'.
It has taken me twelve months to get there, but I finally solved all the problems I discovered in that corner too!

Here is my first spherical panorama.
I am very proud of it, so I hope you are duly impressed!

You will need QuickTime to view this one - it is installed on most computers, but you may have to download it.
You can move around the picture by clicking and dragging with the mouse. You can zoom in with Shift and zoom out with Ctrl.]]>AliensrjhAppenzellerMumblings2008-04-06T13:46:36+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/51bee860fe453cf51ff50a6a14430c8f-132.html#unique-entry-id-132http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/51bee860fe453cf51ff50a6a14430c8f-132.html#unique-entry-id-132 Einbuergerung

On the advent of the European Football Championships the SVP (Swiss Peoples Party) seem determined to present Switzerland to our 600,00 foreign guests in poor light.
If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll remember the black sheep of last August...
Well now the SVP has revived a four-year-old campaign to show our guests just how discriminating the Swiss are - racially discriminating, that is.
'Go home, foreigners!'

The campaign is aimed at the prevention of mass-nationalisation.
Now mass-nationalisation really does sound bad - I agree with you!
Just envisage those millions and millions of criminal Africans and Asians* lining up to pick up a free, red passport.
That, however, is not what it's all about! It is about people who were born here in Switzerland.

There are a few foreign families here that stuck it out long enough to have produced a third generation.
What does that mean?
... well, it means that Grandma and Grandad originally came from Italy or Germany, their kids were born here and, in the meantime, produced kids of their own.
What nationality are those new arrivals (some of them now in their 20s and 30s)?
Italian or German, of course!

'Hang on', a couple of liberal thinkers have said, 'that can't be right, the parents were born and raised in Switzerland as were their children - they are Swiss, right?'
Nope!

The third generation children are as alien as their grandparents.
No matter that they were born in Switzerland, have never visited the country their grandparents came from, let alone speak their language - they are aliens and, as such, are unwanted!
Oh, no - they aren't discriminated in any other way, they are allowed to pay their taxes just the same as anyone else. They can't vote, of course - we can't have foreigners voting, now can we. That would just go to prove that they are even taking an interest in the country they were born in and are an integral part of society.
Tut, tut, tut...

Now of course - if they care to pay for the privilege of being accepted as Swiss citizens - that is a different matter entirely. We'll take their money gladly. I mean, let's face it, they're probably more Swiss than their Swiss neighbours!

The placards, which are being hung up everywhere just in time for the arrival of our guests, depict brown and yellow hands grasping for Swiss passports out of a box. Clearly immoral! Criminal, you could even say.

Just that the SVP has their own version of the facts again...

* Sorry if you happen to be African or Asian - this is just meant to serve as an example.]]>Picture PostrjhRound and About ...2008-04-06T13:22:33+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/07adb1e9187354ac0fa7e3ab63d22dfc-131.html#unique-entry-id-131http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/07adb1e9187354ac0fa7e3ab63d22dfc-131.html#unique-entry-id-131A total of 152 images taken within two hours (and four kilometers) of each other, stitched to give you five panorama pictures.
I hope you like them.

On the first picture's horizon, by the way, is the Lake of Constance.

]]>Surprise...rjhAppenzellerRound and About ...2008-03-24T12:27:14+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/04e8538604a7c9971b9d48cd259dffd4-130.html#unique-entry-id-130http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/04e8538604a7c9971b9d48cd259dffd4-130.html#unique-entry-id-130Obviously, the first thing I did was work out the nodal point - the point of rotation on the barrel of the lens to cancel parallax distortion when rotating the camera for panorama photography. Once I'd worked that out, I went out and took my first panorama.

Remember me publishing this image recently?

This was the second version of the scene. With the first version, I misjudged the exposure. Well, you know - new equipment, snow, photographing into the sun ...
Anyway - this was what happened:

P2030370blog

Obviously, I didn't think it was worth stitching the images together, so I just left it.
Until today, that is. The snow plough didn't come through this morning (did I mention that?) so I started playing around. Here is the result:

You can send the plough in now, I'm ready to take some more pics!]]>The Tracks Of My Deers...rjhAppenzellerMusings2008-03-24T08:14:31+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/acbca759059f166245e585449c96051b-129.html#unique-entry-id-129http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/acbca759059f166245e585449c96051b-129.html#unique-entry-id-129We have a den of foxes just 500 meters away.
Sometimes, at night, it sounds as if a child is being butchered in my front garden.
I've checked more than once.
You harden with time and now they could butcher a child in my front garden and I wouldn't give it a moments notice.

Just as you hear in tales, the foxes move from hen-coop to hen-coop stealing hens.
You can often watch them, heads held high, carrying off their prizes.
That is why I presumed these to be fox-tracks.

Blog_VI

I was mistaken.
We have a lone deer moving backwards and forwards across 'my' valley.
It will stop every now and then at the edge of the woods and scrape the snow off the ground with its hoof, to get at the grass below I presume.

Blog_VII

The sound of my shutter, in the silence of the morning, was enough to make him (I'm presuming he's male) dash for the trees...

The snow plough hasn't been through for two days now.
It looks as if we're supposed to be more interested in looking for Easter eggs than in going out.
I've not seen any bunny-tracks, so could you get the snow plough out please!]]>Still Spring ...rjhMumblings2008-03-22T09:22:55+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/04677856329742753813ff49c39fb17c-128.html#unique-entry-id-128http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/04677856329742753813ff49c39fb17c-128.html#unique-entry-id-128
Blog_V

]]>Spring!rjhMumblings2008-03-21T13:07:25+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/03c2111bca234f4873180bbdfe010191-127.html#unique-entry-id-127http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/03c2111bca234f4873180bbdfe010191-127.html#unique-entry-id-12720th March 2008, 07:28. 30 Minutes into spring - this picture was taken:

Blog

We are not amused!

But then again, perhaps we are...
These pictures were taken a 08:00:

If only the temperatures weren't well below freezing...

Please click the images above for the larger versions]]>Customers and friends ...rjhMumblingsMusings2008-03-02T15:57:44+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/eaf44b19001f95449c3573d7984d88ac-126.html#unique-entry-id-126http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/eaf44b19001f95449c3573d7984d88ac-126.html#unique-entry-id-126
Talking about a 'Charm-Offensive' Dr. Petra Solba, CEO of Austrian Advertising, stated recently:
'We place a high value on hospitality - the unique mix of service-mindedness and friendliness, spiced with a substantial shot of humor.'
That might just work in Austria, though I have reason to doubt*.

Jürg Schmid, CEO of The Swiss Tourist Board was quoted as saying:
'There are many unexpected sides of Switzerland to discover - for example, the refreshing red and white enthusiasm for their own team. Switzerland wants to surprise!

Oh, they'll surprise, all right, no doubt about that!
Their lack of humour, and the fact that Swiss service enterprises confuse 'hospitality' with 'hostility' is going to cause a lot of surprises.

We are looking at somewhere around 600,000 football tourists and something like 1,000,000 overnight-stays.
For 'tourist' please read 'antogonist', 600,000 people and each of them is going to want something at some point - just imagine the pressure those hotel and restaurant employees are going to be under.

It will start at breakfast with waiters and waitresses being asked the best route to the local stadium.
On too many occasions the answer will be: 'Sorry, this is the hotel restaurant, not an information office!'
It doesn't matter that the guests will not return or that they will most certainly advise friends not to visit, 'they wouldn't have returned anyway - they're only here for the match.'

Just imagine then, that a gentleman from the Swiss Tourist Board has hit on a bizarre new idea. He recently suggested on the radio that the ~~antagonists~~ guests should be treated with respect and answered in a friendly, polite and helpful manner, even though they are not personal friends.
One or two of those service-people may have heard the programme and may even give the idea some consideration.

The rest ...
... I'm not optimistic.

*While skiing in Austria a many years ago I was sitting with friends waiting to order something to eat. The boss served us himself - by the time he got to me, I'd forgotten the name of the desert I'd chosen. Stuttering I asked for 'Salzburger Dingsbums' (Thingamajig)
The boss answered in Austrian German:
'Wannst nit woast wie's hoast, dann brauchst au nit essa'
If you don't know what it's called, you dont need to eat it.

I've not tired Salzburger Nockerl to this day ...]]>Gone With The Wind ...rjhMusings2008-03-01T18:15:09+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/328cbf19b66ceca85aa2aec8fe31e537-125.html#unique-entry-id-125http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/328cbf19b66ceca85aa2aec8fe31e537-125.html#unique-entry-id-125I have to take that back.

can:Vase

A watering can and a zink flower pot only made it as far as the middle of the slope down into the valley.
Two watering cans remain lost but are probably just out of sight behind the next dip.

Can

I did manage to get some shopping done, but realise now, why we were warned to stay home.
I had to drag myself along the barn wall to reach my car and was hardly able to grapple the car door open.
Apparently Emma (The hurricane) was blowing at 150 kmh.

There was chaos in St.Gallen when I got there.
They are building a new football stadium/shopping center. The shopping center is due to open next weekend.
It looks as if there might be a delay after all, Emma took part of the roof off and dumped it in the road!
They were working 24/7 to finish on time as it was ...

That bamboo plant is still there. How does one get rid of something like that without attracting attention?]]>Nice cuppa ...rjhMumblings2008-03-01T10:33:14+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b054a5eeafe9ab8b4a834ec55fbed671-124.html#unique-entry-id-124http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b054a5eeafe9ab8b4a834ec55fbed671-124.html#unique-entry-id-124
I recently bought a new coffee machine.
The old one was playing up.
For some reason the Jura coffe makers all seem to develop problems with their electric circuits. To replace the circuitry is almost as expensive as a new machine.

I've looked at Saeco machines before. They seem to be robust, but that has been one of the main things that has prevented me from buying one. The bean grinder is so robust that you can hear it doing its chores two miles away.
Then there was always the problem that there was only one heater for both the coffee and the milk. This meant that if you made a cappuccino you would have to wait a while for the heater to cool down before you could make your next coffee.

Well, just recently I saw a Saeco machine make a cappuccino. I saw it but didn't hear it. And straight afterwards the woman demonstrating it made an espresso.
She had me interested.
Yes, she said, new grinders and additional heaters.
It only took another cappuccino and an espresso to convince me.

So half an hour ago, I switched on the machine. 'Clean the milk container' the screen said.
No, I'll do that later, I thought.
Peeeeep!! Clean the milk container!! The machine said.
The process takes 20 minutes and uses one-and-a-half litres of water plus chemicals.

The process finished, you may refill the water tank with fresh water and rinse the system.
Now you can settle down to the daily ritual.

Press the button for a cappuccino. I like how it will prepare a cappuccino with just a single touch of a button.
Just watch it appear, almost magically, in the cup.
Take the cup to the breakfast table, sit down and, at long last, take a sip of fresh coffee.

Peep, peep, peep, the machine says - 'Rince the milk container'.
Good, so now you get up, leave your fresh coffee, press the buttons and rince the milk container.
May I sit down now and drink my coffee?
After studying the screen carefully, there are no messages.
Back to the breakfast table and take another sip of that well-earned coffee.

Peeeep!! 'Remove the milk container!'
Switch the bloody thing off so I can drink my coffee!

Really, I never saw a more annoying machine!
I am going to take my old machine to have the circuitry replaced next week.
Does anyone want a coffee machine that will make a cappuccino at the touch of a button?

coffee

]]>MovingrjhMusings2008-03-01T09:36:31+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e4bdb65f3fed702af2fe4958e380ed2e-123.html#unique-entry-id-123http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e4bdb65f3fed702af2fe4958e380ed2e-123.html#unique-entry-id-123But that is exactly what this one is doing.
Shaking, vibrating and occasionally lurching.
Where the ceiling is still the original wooden-plank-construction the dust of three hundred years is trickling out from between the cracks.

They have warned us not to go outside unless it is absolutely necessary and then definitely not to go where there are trees.
Train services have been discontinued until further notice.
No - we're not in the middle of an earthquake, it is windy!

The picture below is of an electric fence.
Somewhere along its length it came adrift and now it is hanging bizarrely in the wind.
The brown patterns on the grass?
The farmer decided it was going to rain so he emptied the contents of the organic manure tanks from his cow shed.
It hasn't rained yet but thanks to the wind, at least I can't smell it.

Fence

My neighbour's metal table has been transported to new surroundings and there is no sign at all of her watering cans.
I just wish the bamboo plant would blow away too ...

Table

... not much chance of that happening, I suppose.

I need to do some shopping, I wonder if I should risk going out ...
... what do they mean when they say 'unless it is absolutely necessary'?]]>Fences ...rjhAppenzellerRound and About ...2008-01-28T18:45:38+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e70440a3edd5e9118ef2d142ca511de4-118.html#unique-entry-id-118http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e70440a3edd5e9118ef2d142ca511de4-118.html#unique-entry-id-118switched on or not?
Actually it's quite easy - you just touch them!

If you aren't one of those people who enjoy an electro shock every once in a while, use a blade of grass to touch the wire - the longer the better.
The closer your hand gets to the wire the stronger you feel the current.
At 35 cm the chances are, you won't feel a thing. At 5 cm you will - if the fence is on, that is.

So how do you cross an electric fence that is switched on without grilling your private bits?
Easy! You wear your most robust bovver boots and kick one of the fence posts - hard.
Two kicks should do the trick. Just make sure the farmer doesn't see you!

This fence post was taken down by a car ...

... so I had no problems crossing it and no guilty conscience!]]>The Old YearrjhAppenzeller2008-01-01T19:01:29+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d1309555cee378555262743aee0639f5-117.html#unique-entry-id-117http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d1309555cee378555262743aee0639f5-117.html#unique-entry-id-117If you read my post this time last year, you may be able to guess what this is:

I caught it outside my front door at five-thirty yesterday morning, singing a ditty with five of its friends. They all looked equally as scary!
When they were done yodelling they wished me all the best for the coming new year and were on their way with a great hullabaloo* - to scare off any evil spirits.

When I finally woke, I went down into the village and took a few pictures.

*The German word is almost as nice: 'Tohuwabohu']]>Winter ScenesrjhAppenzellerRound and About ...2007-12-31T17:56:03+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/28357f10080914556a397bd15547d408-116.html#unique-entry-id-116http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/28357f10080914556a397bd15547d408-116.html#unique-entry-id-116According to the calendar.
Meteorologically it began on December 1st so it snowed.
It snowed again on the 7th - only about 30 centimeters.
It has been quite cold since, with temperatures averaging around 0°Centigrade. We haven't had had any fresh snow but what we got stayed with us.

It is still a little strange somehow.
I remember winters in Birmingham when it snowed. We had 2 inches of snow during the night; it was turned grey by the buses by 7 in the morning and had most likely disappeared by evening.
Here the snow plow comes through at 5 in the morning and clears the roads.
If it's a sunny day the remains of the snow on the roads will melt and dry. If the temperatures don't rise above somewhere round 10°C the rest of the snow won't be affected.

I had visitors over Christmas. Their children were thrilled to be able to get the sledges and toboggans out of the barn, drag them up the hill and hurtle back down again. Every day for a week - for hours on end.
They ruined my virgin snow, of course, but they certainly had fun!

My Dad built me a sledge when I was a child. While I very much appreciated it, I never got as much fun out of it as he would have liked me to.
There was just never enough snow.
I've got the snow now - does anyone remember where the sledge got to?

]]>Spot The DifferencerjhAppenzellerRound and About ...2007-11-18T16:09:25+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/977686b2425bc499ce1adc1396d0baa3-115.html#unique-entry-id-115http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/977686b2425bc499ce1adc1396d0baa3-115.html#unique-entry-id-115I tried to capture the vibrance of the scene but was unhappy with the results.
A camera does not always see what the human eye can observe. While a digital picture can be quite striking it is just not alive.

Today, looking out of my window, I spotted a slight difference in the scene I was presented.
I wonder if you can spot it too?

Yes, you are right of course ...
... the fence posts have been removed!

]]>Sundy Morning 7 a.m.rjhMumblings2007-11-06T21:26:37+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/13394f79c3705b4ceec4ce501b37c2c4-114.html#unique-entry-id-114http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/13394f79c3705b4ceec4ce501b37c2c4-114.html#unique-entry-id-114One day I'm going to kill that cat ...

Click to download the .mp4.
I haven't worked out how to insert a film here, so you'll have to download it.

Alternative link to .wmv ...]]>Sign ...rjhAppenzellerRound and About ...2007-09-27T18:50:25+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3b0231b169572a267c20ae5740188c53-113.html#unique-entry-id-113http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3b0231b169572a267c20ae5740188c53-113.html#unique-entry-id-113
I've been playing around with my camera this week.
Adjusting a new panoramic head to compensate for parallax distortion.
Of course once I think I have the settings, the weather turns to rain.
There was a short break this afternoon.

I think I might have the settings!

I'm still playing around with the compositing on this one, but you can take a look anyway, if you care to ... ]]>Oops ...rjhAppenzeller2007-09-21T11:51:16+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/823895e5a30ea91d1129fcc5d809d307-112.html#unique-entry-id-112http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/823895e5a30ea91d1129fcc5d809d307-112.html#unique-entry-id-112A car 'accident' is a criminal offence!

For this reason - after a round of hydroplaning on the motorway - I am spending the month of September without a driving license.

I can highly recommend hydroplaning or aquaplaning, as it is called here. It is fun! It is an amazing feeling to feel the wheels of the car lift off the ground and to have the vehicle float around as if it were weightless ...
... just don't try it in three lanes of heavy traffic - do so at an abandoned airfield or a race track.
Luckily no-one was hurt!

So now I'm spending the month at home and getting used to public transport.
I've still not quite got used to the fact that I can't go out when I want to, but that it makes more sense to go out when a train is due.
And staying out late at night is expensive; a taxi-kilometer cost CHF 2.50.
That makes CHF 45 for the ride home!
Either that - or hitch hike.

The closest railway station is two kilometers away. It's downhill all the way and I can do it in ten minutes, thanks two a public path across one of the meadows en route.

Yesterday evening, just after dark, I decided to take a ride to St.Gallen and meet some friends. I left a little late and was worried I wouldn't make the train. I trotted down the hill in the dark and was relieved when I found the gap in the fence and the steps leading down into the meadow with a few minutes to spare.

Stumbling down the uneven steps, something brought me to a dead halt.
Out of the corner of my eye, I had caught a glimpse of something in the dark.
I strained my eyes and stared into the darkness to see what it was I had seen.
The farmer had obviously moved his cows. He had strung up an electric fence!

What should I do?
Turn back up the steps, go the long way round, miss my train?
This was a public footpath, you can't just rig up an electric fence across it ...
I followed the fence cautiously. Staring at it directly was of no use, in the dark I could only see it out of the corner of my eye.
After what seemed an age, I found what I was looking for. A plastic grip, allowing you to unhook a section of the fence and pass through it without electrocuting yourself!
Hard to do in the dark, even though I've done it numerous times in daylight.

With the fence hooked up again, I stumbled down and across the meadow, trying to imagine where the other half of the fence would be.
My calculations were correct . I found the other plastic grip with surprisingly little trouble, passed through the fence and was just in time to board my train - my hair standing on end!

An electrifying experience!]]>Both sides ...rjhAppenzeller2007-09-20T11:13:59+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/966707b6b1652bbad150ff487ff068b2-111.html#unique-entry-id-111http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/966707b6b1652bbad150ff487ff068b2-111.html#unique-entry-id-111

I'm on holiday at the moment, which means I don't get up before seven in the morning ...

With the weather as nice as it is, at the moment, I'm beginning to wonder what I am missing!
When I got up yesterday, I looked out of my office window to see my very own clouds passing through the trees.
Of course, I just had to photograph the scene ...

You may view a larger version of the image here!

Strangely I was having problems with my computer yesterday (my backup software had decided to delete instead of preserve!), so I didn't look at yesterdays pictures until this morning.

Drop by tomorrow - I might even have todays pictures ready for you!

]]>Thank you Adobe ...rjhMumblingsOther Stuff2007-09-16T13:25:21+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c162647aafa064cab10bbf3b60e0e12a-110.html#unique-entry-id-110http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c162647aafa064cab10bbf3b60e0e12a-110.html#unique-entry-id-110I wanted to offer you a new panorama or two.
As it turned out, I did something entirely different ...

Adobe recently decided to update their so-called Creative Suite.
The thing that bugged me was not the price (believe me; extortionate), but the fact that they have thrown out GoLive - the software I've used to build web sites with for the past few years - and replaced it with Dreamweaver, which they acquired from Macromedia in their last take over.

Well o.k. I'm always ready to learn something new and Adobe states that GoLive sites can be opened in Dreamweaver.
So I opened my 'other' site, wich was due to be brought up to date any way.
I shan't complain about the fact that everything in DW is different - of course it is!
Some things I like, some things will take some getting used to.
What Adobe didn't tell us, though, is that if you convert a site and then add rollovers (those images or buttons that alter their appearance when you move your mouse over them) to pages that already contained rollovers, all rollovers cease to function ...

As 90% of my pages use rollovers 90% of my web site no longer worked!
Thank you Adobe!
I enjoyed rebuilding my web site this weekend.
And just for your information I used GoLive to do it.
I'll try your new software when I'm in a better mood!

For those of you who are interested in the results, the site now looks like this.
It has grown a few more panoramas.

]]>Good deed for the day ...rjhAppenzeller2007-09-09T16:22:26+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7ab9663dc1788e2dbcd7859c7482d2f9-109.html#unique-entry-id-109http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7ab9663dc1788e2dbcd7859c7482d2f9-109.html#unique-entry-id-109After the party everyone landed at a dance-hall - that is to say, a discotheque for twenty-one-year-olds and over.
Just as I was getting into the swing of things, they shut down for the day ...
... well, it was getting on for breakfast time anyway, so I dropped into an all-night-restaurant for something to eat, before they closed too.

There was a group of six young people sat at the next table and they spoke a strange mixture of languages - three of them spoke in Italian and four of them in what I presumed to be Yugoslavian (yes, you counted correctly - one young lady was fluent in both languages!) and when everyone was supposed to understand everything, they used Swiss-German!
Yes - more of those bloody foreigners!

We finished eating at the same time and stood up to leave.
I just beat them to the door.
I went to cross the road, when a hand grabbed my arm. I was just about to scream 'Don't mug me, I'm a foreigner too!' when a female voice said:
"Shall I help you across the road?"
I looked at the tall blonde woman in surprise - it was the one that had been speaking Italian, Yugoslavian and German.
I hoped she was joking, but wasn't about to have her let go of my arm, so I said:
"Yes, that would be kind of you."
She walked me across the road, but when we got to the other side she did not let go of me.
It was obvious we were going in the same direction and I wasn't about to protest about having an attractive young lady on my arm ...
... even if she could easily be my daughter.

We started talking and I asked her where she was heading. She told me where and I mentioned that we had, more or less, the same destination. She mentioned that her car was just round the corner and asked if she could drop me off at mine.
When I told her I wasn't motorised at the moment, she offered to drive me home!

On our drive home, I learned that she was a 'second-generation-foreigner'. She was born in Switzerland, her mother being Italian and her father Yugoslavian. We had a very pleasant conversation and I was a little disappointed that we reached our destination so quickly.
It was nice to learn that she was one of those 'other' foreigners, who won't resort to crime or violence until a later date.
I hope I bump into her again before either of us does ...]]>Goths ...rjhAppenzeller2007-08-26T11:56:58+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2eb7926be3106458e817cb4de42b89dd-108.html#unique-entry-id-108http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2eb7926be3106458e817cb4de42b89dd-108.html#unique-entry-id-108
There is widespread vandalism across Switzerland at the moment.
For once this is positive because it is causing the SVP to reconsider their xenophobic campaign.

The brochure that landed in my letterbox at the end of July was accompanied by billboards plastered with the demand to establish 'Safety in Switzerland'.
The picture on the placards is the same one of the sheep that was used in the brochure.
I'm sure I don't have to reinterpret it for you?
The sheep are accompanied by a further two slogans:
"Swiss Quality" and
"My Home – Our Switzerland"

Schafe

A placard hanging at our village station ...

I'm not sure what the 'Swiss Quality' refers to - the printing perhaps?
I can certainly relate to the 'My Home', though.
Switzerland has been my home for over six years now and the SVP is doing their damnedest to make me feel uncomfortable!

The placard itself doesn't carry any further explanations. It doesn't attempt to explain that most of Switzerland's crimes are carried out by foreign nationals. It is purely and simply hostile towards foreigners!
Of course, I've been informed on numerous occasions, that I'm not 'that sort' of foreigner and my worst crime to date has been that of unlawful parking – a crime nevertheless and I am sure that the Blick-readers of this country have long-since got the message, that all foreigners are criminal at heart.

I am happy to report that even here in Appenzell, one of Switzerland's most conservative cantons, the posters are being damaged, painted over or, where possible, ripped down completely!
This is causing the SVP to reconsider and to recall the posters, while at the same time they are taking court action over said vandalism.

Perhaps the people at the SVP should take a step backwards and take a sober look at what has been hanging in Switzerland's streets for the past month.

Just this once, I can only welcome this form of vandalism ...
]]>Calling home ...rjhMusings2007-08-21T19:15:09+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/669e11347b5374ad8bfa1e88c245d798-107.html#unique-entry-id-107http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/669e11347b5374ad8bfa1e88c245d798-107.html#unique-entry-id-107Bears are loose again!
I mentioned the bears to you, didn't I?
Oh - it was only one bear, wasn't it!
Sorry, I'll have to correct that - we now have two, it would seem.
That probably means that next year there will be more. But only if they stick to the rules!

I mentioned the rules, didn't I?
Yes, I'm sure I did. Bears may be seen, but not ~~heard~~ make a nuisance of themselves.
Ride their tricycles on the right-hand-side of the road and not steal lambs and such!

These bears, or at least one of them would seem to be foreign, or may be lacking, or even both. At least, he didn't seem to understand the rules when they were explained to him. Either that, or he is just contemptuous of Swiss rules.
Although I agree that not all Swiss rules are logical, it is not recomendable to just pass them over.
Sorry, the phones ringing ...

Hello, oh Bruno (the bear is a young male of 98 kg), how nice of you to call.
Look Bruno, we have a problem here - if you get hungry, as you are bound to at some time, please try eating grass or some leaves off the trees.
It might also be acceptable for you to climb up the slopes of the mountain you live on and eat one of the chamois that we are not allowed to shoot - they don't really belong to anyone you see. Like yourself they are just another endangered species.
You are not allowed to wander off downhill and just grab a lamb, when you feel like it.
And keep your paws off those bee-hives!
What was that?
Yes, I know it is easier to catch a lamb than a chamois, but lambs have owners, the chamois don't.

We can't shoot the chamois because they are endangered, we can shoot you if you go round stealing other peoples property.

You have to understand, that when other animals loose their shyness of humans, we call them tame. When young bears like yourself loose their shyness, we get worried and call them troublesome. Well, now we've developed a new "Bear Strategy" .
I'm not sure how sound an idea it is, but we've fitted you out with a bear telephone - strapped around your neck!
We're going to track you via GPS, you see. That way we shall be able to check on you and determine whether or not it really is you stealing our lambs.
If it is, you're in for trouble, I can assure you!

We'll start by letting off fire crackers to frighten ~~the lambs~~ you off. If that doesn't help, we'll pelt you with rubber bullets.
If that doesn't help - beware!

Now about that telephone. You are to phone us at regular intervalls and let us know where you are. There is no point in telling fibs, because when you phone in, we can track you to within 50 cm!
There are further rules, though. Sorry, you can't go up that way - yes, I know you live up there, but that is an area with no reception, you won't be able to phone in, will you. Silly bear!
And stop scratching at that collar - it was expensive! It's not supposed to be comfortable, it is supposed to hold the telephone in place. Now look what you've done - it's all mauled!

Yes Bruno, I know I'm nagging, but it is all to keep you out of harms way.
Yes, I know you are an endangered species, you cant keep harping on that.
To tell you the truth, we thought we'd got rid of the whole lot of you for good, years ago. If you wish to remain here now, you must behave yourself ...

... hello, Bruno? Bruno, I can't hear you. Are you there, Bruno, hellooo?
Damned dead spots!]]>Elucidation ...rjhMusings2007-08-11T09:09:28+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/62cc8a870fb12147a7652a7f48a9216d-106.html#unique-entry-id-106http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/62cc8a870fb12147a7652a7f48a9216d-106.html#unique-entry-id-106Visits to my blog have been tripled all week.
I received a number of mails, my text was quoted on various sites, discussed and often distorted.
A number of people have done their damnedest to prove that they have no humour whatsoever and on more than one occasion, I felt compelled to try and explain what I was trying to say.

Here is an explanation that I wrote yesterday ...

Hi Graham

Thanks very much for your views on my blog.
My last entry drew a number of comments.
As you perhaps saw, one guy suggested I might be a functional analphebet. (He meant illiterate, of course, but otherwise his english is pretty good.)
I was being ironic about the fact that pamphlets urging people to protest against foreigners are posted through the letterboxes of said foreigners.
I did not expect to be quoted on so many sites.

The figures I used are the figures quoted in the SVP-pamphlet. They were provided by the Swiss federal police and are presumably accurate, I read the same figures in a number of newspapers. Admittedly, I deliberately exaggerated the facts to present what a foreigner or a Blick/Bild/Sun-reader may have understood. The way that some Brits and Americans I've spoken to did understand them.

It is a sorry fact that the English speaking nations find German a difficult language to master, as do Turks, Yugoslavians or Thai. Most Brits, however, do try to understand the newspapers and the rubbish that lands in the letter box, some literature gets misinterpreted though. I know a number of expats who found the pamphlet displeasing. Two even returned it to she SVP with a letter of protest.

As for Brits abroad, if you had travelled to Mallorca a few years ago, it would have been the Germans who left the bad impression while during the same period the Brits were rendering the Canary Isles unsafe and the Dutch some Greek Islands.
I think large numbers of young tourists of any nation promote the mutual feeling, that rompish spirits may be presented without retribution. I am speaking from limited (but unpleasant) experience, as I only rarely visit mass-tourist-resorts.

The fact that a Welsh flag flies outside 'my' house is also meant ironically.
Every second house up here on 'my' hill has a Swiss or Appenzeller flag flying. I find it amusing to present a different coat of arms.
My neighbours, of course, haven't caught on to the humor - they put it down to national pride and possibly think I'm not quite doing my best to 'fit in'.
The flag wasn't presented in Wales, because it would be just as witless as flying a Swiss flag here.*

I have lived on the continent for long enough to know what any European means, when he says "not that kind of foreigner". Still, people stand at pub bars and rant about foreigners without taking into account the fact, that they are standing next to one. I am permanently aware of the fact that I am - almost everywhere - a foreigner. Sitting or standing next to one of those ranters does not make for a comfortable evening. It can make an interesting afternoon in a sunny beer garden. I do, however, often feel an urge to protest.

I understand the sentiments that lead a 'neutral' country to play bank to Mr. Hitler. They have been condemned all too often in various publications.
I'm glad to say WWII was long before my time and I don't see any purpose in prolonged pointing of fingers towards Switzerland, or even Germany for that matter.
I did mention the SVP being 'not-quite-national-socialist' in connection to Hitler when, on reflection, I should have stayed with the fact that five of the last seven titel-pages of their monthly magazine have carried anti-foreigner slogans.
No wonder the right-wing-radicals want to take over the Rütliwiese!**

Exaggeration of facts is part and parcel of irony.
You will find similar exaggeration in many of my other articles.
I'll do my best to present something just a little more pleasing the next time I sit down to write ...

*Witless: Without humour
**The Rütliwiese is the meadow (not a mountain as stated in an earlier post) where the official celebrations are held on the Swiss national holiday. It is supposedly the place where three Swiss gentlemen swore:
"We will be a single nation of brothers". The Swiss national myth.]]>Open arms ...rjhAppenzeller2007-08-04T10:38:13+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c78ccfc920ff8e45e0ef3515ef30d080-105.html#unique-entry-id-105http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c78ccfc920ff8e45e0ef3515ef30d080-105.html#unique-entry-id-105
Austrians abroad, it seems, are quite nice, the Dutch are very annoying, the Germans are abominable, but the worst, the very worst of all, are the British!
I resisted getting up and punching someone on the nose. If they choose to visit mass-tourist-resorts, then that is their own fault.
I would guess that, wherever they had been on their holidays, the Swiss and Austrians were a minority, there had been a number of Dutch, a lot of Germans, but most of the tourists there had been young Brits.

The strength of numbers always seems to do something unpleasant to young people in holiday mood abroad. Alcohol flows copiously and people begin to behave over-conspicuously.
Things like that don't don't very often happen in Llandanwg or Gais, but they will in Bodrum or Agios Georgios.

On Monday a pamphlet landed in my letter box.

So that the Swiss may continue to celebrate the first of August (their national holiday) in 'peace and freedom', I was requested to sign a petition to banish foreign criminals from Switzerland. The news that Neo-Nazis had almost managed to have the official celebrations cancelled for fear of their violent protests, was seemingly forgotten!
I read on to find that Switzerland has the highest percentage of foreigners in the world. They forgot to mention that Berlin alone has over a third of the number of foreigners that the whole of Switzerland has - and that is just one German city.

Further, I was informed, 85% of Swiss imigrants are rapists, 66% are into blackmail, 55% go in for murder and the rest will resort to violence sooner or later.
I would hope that I have misinterpreted the statistics somewhere ...

When I asked my neighbour if he believed the statistics, he replied, that
'... of course he did!'.
I asked him if he locked his daughters up at night for fear that I might just get bored and decide to rape them?
'No, of course not, you're not a foreigner!'
I pointed to the Welsh flag flying above his head and he conceded
'Yes, but not that sort of foreigner!'

How many 'sorts' of foreigners are there then?

Just as a side note:
The pamphlet was distributed by the SVP (Swiss People's Party) the most powerful of the Swiss parties. This is the party that was not quite Nazi, but very sympathetic towards Mr. Hitler.]]>Underpants prohibited ...rjhAppenzeller2007-07-29T12:28:11+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fd51146ceee39d63daa4ed5f0426ee42-104.html#unique-entry-id-104http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fd51146ceee39d63daa4ed5f0426ee42-104.html#unique-entry-id-104commented 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.]]>Blossom ...rjhAppenzeller2007-07-22T20:44:35+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/aff581a55b46b195db533069d8dc0d0c-103.html#unique-entry-id-103http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/aff581a55b46b195db533069d8dc0d0c-103.html#unique-entry-id-103
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 ...]]>Engaged ...rjhMusings2007-07-21T17:25:43+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d0b36db58cdad46eac03b9fa700313db-102.html#unique-entry-id-102http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d0b36db58cdad46eac03b9fa700313db-102.html#unique-entry-id-102I 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.]]>HotrjhMumblings2007-07-16T20:54:17+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b86cad15629fe357d6e576199c8d3053-101.html#unique-entry-id-101http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b86cad15629fe357d6e576199c8d3053-101.html#unique-entry-id-101Yesterday 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?]]>When the sunne shyneth make hey ...rjhAppenzeller2007-07-15T11:19:26+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fbe60689cefbd67cc2fcad0432827f60-100.html#unique-entry-id-100http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fbe60689cefbd67cc2fcad0432827f60-100.html#unique-entry-id-100
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 ...

Blog1

]]>Silly Question ...rjhRound and About ...2007-07-11T18:41:56+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1a5589298cb8528b03f15ac128d0140c-99.html#unique-entry-id-99http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1a5589298cb8528b03f15ac128d0140c-99.html#unique-entry-id-99Heidi 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!]]>Missing ...rjhMusingsAppenzeller2007-07-01T19:12:19+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e1cf18552480dec9736f5cf20c781959-98.html#unique-entry-id-98http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e1cf18552480dec9736f5cf20c781959-98.html#unique-entry-id-98
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?]]>Witch Hunt ...rjhMumblings2007-06-30T18:11:35+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0daa5373997516bc994ea7b49b36b0bf-97.html#unique-entry-id-97http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0daa5373997516bc994ea7b49b36b0bf-97.html#unique-entry-id-97The child had jumped directly into his path from behind a hedge.

He was charged with speeding (he was travelling at 53 kmh in a 50 kmh zone) and bodily injury caused by negligence.
He was acquitted of the injury charges and fined CHF 100 for 'minimal' speeding.

The court ruling resulted in indignation and outrage:
'The driver couldn't expect a child to jump directly in front of his vehicle - the child had caused the accident.'

The case was back in court last December and the outcome, confirmed by the appeal courts this week, was even more of a surprise:
The driver was sentenced to two months imprisonment (conditional) for grievous bodily injury caused by negligence and is to bear all costs incurred by the accident.
The reason:
The driver was familiar with the road and had to reckon with a child jumping from behind a hedge. He should, therefore, have matched his speed to the situation - in this case 30 kmh. He was, therefore, driving recklessly in the given situation.
The child was in no way to blame.

To my mind this is quite absurd.
While I do not condone the running down of children, neither do I condone the use of two measures.
The driver, being familiar with the road, was driving recklessly at 50 kmh.
A driver who is unfamiliar with the road is allowed to rely on it being safe to follow the signs.

Have you ever driven behind a vehicle that, for no visible reason, is travelling at 'half' the speed allowed?
I know that I have and - being late for an appointment - I nearly went nuts behind my steering wheel!

What on earth are road signs and speed limits for, if I am not allowed to rely on them?
The person responsible for the accident, was the one that had the signs put there in the first place!]]>AppenzellerlandrjhRound and About ...2007-06-26T10:03:36+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/45a80eacfecbf18417f36eb96b905cfd-96.html#unique-entry-id-96http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/45a80eacfecbf18417f36eb96b905cfd-96.html#unique-entry-id-96Appenzell for Mothers Day this year.

Three pictures; three angles of the same hill ...

... the view from a place called Nord (North) just outside Appenzell ...

... the view from the main road leading into Appenzell ...

... and then a 360° panorama from just below Nord.

As you can see - Appenzellerland, Little Switzerland, is totally overpopulated!
I hope you like the pics, Mrs Mac.]]>Oops ...rjhMumblings2007-06-24T16:33:16+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9358fe3a4128e38c8cbfe14945f24cee-95.html#unique-entry-id-95http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9358fe3a4128e38c8cbfe14945f24cee-95.html#unique-entry-id-95
Well I just made a discovery - if you remove the transparent plastic cap, it makes the world of a difference!]]>The day before the rain came ...rjhRound and About ...2007-06-24T13:33:25+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f97f6cb563c94f0bc879676b5b121e72-94.html#unique-entry-id-94http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f97f6cb563c94f0bc879676b5b121e72-94.html#unique-entry-id-94
There was a strange light that made the grass greener than usual. Quite kitschy.
It rained the next day, so then I knew the reason.
30 Liters of rain per cm in under an hour.
The worst (rain)storm in the last 100 years, or so they say!
When my radio-alarm-clock woke me that day, it informed me that a house had been washed away in Engadin, Grisons.
Then there was news about trees blocking roads and motorways.

I drove to work without noticing anything. So I didn't give it another thought.
At about 10:00 the storm reached eastern Switzerland.
It started to bucket down with rain - it looked like one of those scenes from a cheap catastrophe film, where you get the impression that the camera is being sprayed with a hose.
It turned out that four windows at the place I work are badly sealed!
Of course, one of them is in my office.
By the time I noticed the fact, a pile of papers I'd had on the window-sill and the carpet below the sill were sodden.
The loo, two doors down was literally flooded!
I read in the news that the storm caused somewhere around CHF 10.000.000 damages - I'm not sure our loo was taken into consideration.

So what about the pictures?

I was out locally. The first picture is of the mountain range called the Alpstein (Alp-stone). It stretches from the Hohe Kasten (Tall Cupboard) - the one with the mast on the left - to the Säntis - the one with its peak in the clouds.

The second picture was taken with a tele photo lens so it's quite long.
Looking in the opposite direction to the first, you can see the village of Stein on the left, St.Gallen, in the valley just left of center and Teufen on the slopes to the right.

I shan't bother you with the fact that it took five hours to put the second one together!]]>Third, again ...rjhOther Stuff2007-06-16T13:35:18+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/981de2dcba0379a8061f74027d40e102-93.html#unique-entry-id-93http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/981de2dcba0379a8061f74027d40e102-93.html#unique-entry-id-93
The Lötschberg-Tunnel is 34.6 Km long, which leaves it 15.87 Km shorter than the Channel-Tunnel and 19.27 Km shorter than the Sei-kan-Tunnel in Japan.
Strangely the Swiss also have the third longest road tunnel too - the St.Gotthard-Tunnel which is 16.92 Km long. The longest being the Laerdal-Tunnel in Norway with 24.5 Km.

Today, Saturday 16.06.2007, the public can ride backwards and forwards through the Lötschberg-Tunnel by train. It will be opened for general service in December 2007.
The tunnel was tested intensively as of December 2006 at speeds of up to 280 Kmh. Passenger trains will be scheduled to use the tunnel beginning in August so I presume 'open for general service' means the inclusion of goods-trains ...

The opening of the tunnel means good news for anyone who needs to travel from Germany to Milan or vice-versa - it will reduce their journey by a whole hour!
It is considered to be the safest railway tunnel in the world.

Some interesting facts:
The tunnel is 34.577 Km long, the whole system is 88.1 Km but only 57 Km of tracks have been laid?
If you take a stroll along the tunnel, you should be able to count 133 video cameras, 3200 fire alarms, 2500 emergency lights, 437 telephones but only 6 ventilators.
By the time the tunnel is completed it will have cost somewhere around 4.3 billion Swiss Francs, which is just 1.1 billion more than the original calculation.
They ran into unexpected geological formations along the way ...
... Oh, look! A mountain!!

Fed up of coming in third - on June 1, 2007, 103.672 Km or 67.6% of the total of 153.5 Km of tunnels, galleries and passages of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, had been excavated. When completed, the Gotthard Base Tunnel will be the longest in the world with 57.072 Km!]]>The bears are loose ...rjhAppenzellerMusings2007-06-10T11:25:00+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c027d6ee16ec3a070ab42d1a299469ce-92.html#unique-entry-id-92http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c027d6ee16ec3a070ab42d1a299469ce-92.html#unique-entry-id-92strolled' across the border from northern Italy this week and into Switzerland.

The Swiss authorities, efficient as ever, decided that - seeing as how they had neglected to check the bears papers at the border - they would issue guidelines for the conduct of bears!

The problem is, you see, just recently a bear wandered into the Bavarian Alps and just happened to pass in front of someone's rifle. Of course, the rifle went off and the bear never got a chance to read the rules of conduct for German bears.
The Swiss would like to prevent the same fate befalling 'our' bear.
First, bears have been classified in three categories:
unobtrusive; problematic and high-risk.
I'm not sure you'll find these categories in any zoological encyclopedia, that is just how Swiss minds work.
High-risk-bears may be shot - no questions asked.

Our bear was sighted carrying a white flag, so he's been classified as unobtrusive.

Dear Mr/Mrs Bear,
If you are reading this, please take a look at the guidelines for the conduct of bears in Switzerland. Don't wave at the photographers as this may be misinterpreted as a threatening gesture. And when you climb on your unicycle, please remember that we drive on the right here in Switzerland - we wouldn't want you to have an accident!

Take care.]]>Punctual & Punctilious ...rjhAppenzeller2007-06-04T12:22:04+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0a30a1c99faf8d066abdd3edcd8497d7-91.html#unique-entry-id-91http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0a30a1c99faf8d066abdd3edcd8497d7-91.html#unique-entry-id-91They have leeway!

Take public transport for instance.
A train that enters a station two minutes late is still considered punctual!
However, a train that enters the station on time will leave on time - on the dot.
So if you yourself are a little late, don't bother running - it's not worth it.
Go and drink a coffee instead.

When visiting you are still considered to be punctual if you arrive up to a minute early or up to two minutes late!
So don't rush - you still have plenty of time.

Talking about visiting ...
... you may consider yourself very lucky if you get invited to someone's home in Switzerland. It probably means you haven't practised your sarcastic British humour on them (irony is totally lost on the Swiss) and you haven't asked them what they earn. You've known them for more than two years and during that time you haven't said anything provocative to begin a discussion!

So you arrive on time to discover you have been invited to a party with fifteen other guests ...
How long does it take to say 'Cheers' to seventeen people?
In England 'Cheers everybody', two seconds and then you get to drink?
In Germany it is similar: 'Zum Wohl allerseits' just a second longer.

In Switzerland names are very important.
"Zum Wohl," pause while you wait for eye contact and savour the name you are about to pronounce ...
"Ruedi" (Pronounce the letter 'e' separately)

"Zum Wohl," ...
"Hans-Ueli" (Don't forget the 'e')

"Zum Wohl," ...
"Päddy" (I thought Patrick was an Irish name!)

"Zum Wohl," ...
"Sabine" (Never, never pronounce the 'e'!!)

"Zum Wohl," ...
"Hampi" (Who would ever have guessed that that is Hans-Peter?)

"Zum Wohl," ...
"Chüde" (Kurt-Dieter!! Practice coughing up a hairball 'ch' and don't forget to pronounce the 'e'!)

After half an hour of eighteen individuals saying 'Zum Wohl' to seventeen individuals and if your drink hasn't evaporated in the meantime, you may now sip your drink.
It is best to concentrate hard when being introduced to people - they will always remember your name long after you have forgotten theirs.
If you are like me and forget names immediately, then you have to concentrate on the names the person next to you is saying and toast the same individual immediately afterwards ...

By the way - when visiting in Switzerland, it is usual to bring a present along with you.
I wouldn't recommend the 750g. bar of Toblerone.
Toblerone is now owned by Kraft, an American company and is, somehow, not quite as Swiss as it used to be!
]]>HospitalityrjhMumblings2007-06-04T11:21:19+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/909c6dd36b864e637ecf7068f19cf916-90.html#unique-entry-id-90http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/909c6dd36b864e637ecf7068f19cf916-90.html#unique-entry-id-90
I've ~~moaned about~~ mentioned Swiss hospitality before.
I don't mean meeting the Swiss in their homes (chance would be a fine thing - they are very, very reserved) I mean Restaurants and Hotels.

I had some training to do at a company in St.Gallen one November before I moved here and, because it was a three-day-course I had to stay at a local Hotel.
The hotel is well known as one of St.Gallens high class hotels.

On the last day of the course we finished early and I decided to drink a coffee in the hotel restaurant before going for something to eat.
The restaurant was empty and I sat at a table in the window.
A waitress came along and asked if I was expecting company. I said no and she asked me to sit in the middle of the restaurant at a table for two - I was at a table for six.

I pointed out that the restaurant was empty and I would like to enjoy the remainder of the sunlight ...
She repeated her request for me to move and offered to turn the lights on for me.
I moved - I drove into town and drank my coffee there.

I ate, went to the cinema and returned to the hotel at around 22:00.
At the hotel bar I ordered a beer.
I drank the 0.33 Litre within five minutes and asked for another.
The look the barmaid gave me was withering - she asked if I wouldn't prefer to use the mini-bar in my room - she wanted to finish for the evening!

In my experience that is typical of Swiss hospitality.
]]>Customer ServicerjhMumblings2007-06-04T09:33:10+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2f92d20917b62af15c1f78ce925d6816-89.html#unique-entry-id-89http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2f92d20917b62af15c1f78ce925d6816-89.html#unique-entry-id-89Gin and Teutonic yesterday and was surprised to hear, that Germany is now classed as 'The Service Desert' while Switzerland is 'Service Heaven'.

When I say I was surprised, I mean I was very surprised.
Perhaps I can't waggle with my hips so well or perhaps my voice doesn't sound quite as sexy as Rachel Welch on the phone but then, I'm a man. My experience with Customer Service, however is quite the opposite.

Just last week I discovered that the seal on the fridge door was broken and the fridge froze up even when set to 'Low'.
When the frozen milk began to get on my nerves, I took a look at the identification plate inside the fridge, wrote down the model name and serial number and entered them into the Customer-Service-Request-Form on the web site of the well known international refrigerator manufacturer with the information that the fridge door wasn't sealing properly.

That was Sunday. On Tuesday morning I received a phone call.
A very unfriendly female voice inquired about the oven that wasn't working - she informed me that there is no such model as the one I had noted - the EZ13 refers to the power consumption (the power consumption is noted on the id-plate at 125W). The serial number is non-existent and would I please now read the information directly from the id-plate to her.
I said that the oven was still a fridge and that I would be glad to read the information to her, but she would have to phone back in the evening - I was at work.
"Oh," she said "you work!"
I informed her that, like herself, I had to work for a living.
She would phone me tomorrow at 10:00 - I shall please be at the fridge to read the id-plate to her!

I suggested she give me a mail address, I would photograph the id-plate and send the photograph to her - I didn't want to take the day off just so that I could read her the numbers I'd already given her anyway ...
I started to feel very annoyed when she tried to inform me that it would be easier, if I just read the information to her. But I bit my tongue and insisted she give me a mail address.

I photographed the id-plate, which still contained the exact same information I had imparted, and sent the image to the refrigerator manufacturer via mail.
The very next day the same unfriendly voice informed me that she had found a seal for the EZ13 door and the technician would arrive 'some time next week' to fit it.
"No problem," I said "just have him phone me when he is there - it doesn't take me longer than 40 minutes to drive home ...
... or perhaps it would be more practical to inform me beforehand when he might arrive?"
"He might be able to make it on Wednesday."

After some haggling we were actually able to arrange a time between 08:00 and 10:00.
Not once did she apologise for virtually calling me an idiot the day before, or mention the fact that there had been a mistake in identifying my fridge and if I had let her, she'd have had me take the week off work to wait for a techi who may or may not arrive!

And that is 'Customer-Service-Heaven'?!
I prefer German customer service myself.
]]>An open letter to Heather ...rjhMusings2007-06-02T20:55:29+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d0c2db6b02f695f432670058165c0c9d-88.html#unique-entry-id-88http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d0c2db6b02f695f432670058165c0c9d-88.html#unique-entry-id-88That is what Heather's blog is called.

I discovered it some time ago, but wasn't into blogging then - neither reading nor writing.
Then I read something about a British expatriate winning the Swiss blog-award.
That was how I discovered the magic behind Heather's writing.
Heidi would have been proud of her.

We never met personally. We exchanged a few comments now and then.
I would find something in her blog that I commented on and vice versa.

Her last entry was on 20th February 2007. On the 21st she moved from somewhere in Canton Zürich in Switzerland to somewhere in Germany.
Sadly she hasn't been heard of since.
Perhaps she really does have a new blog entitled 'Don't mention the Leberwurst' or 'Hans would have been disgusted' or something similar.
If she does, I don't know of it yet.

Heather hasn't visited my blog since February and I can't see any of her comments on other blogs she used to frequent.
I do hope that nothing happened on the way to Germany ...

Heather,
if you still have an internet connection, put up a few words to let us know how you are and how Germany greeted you.
You have a faithful audience out there and I know that many of us are waiting to read about your adventures in Germany.

Go on - nudge, nudge ...]]>BodenseerjhRound and About ...2007-06-01T11:07:22+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/05a79f1b579f5a7180aa46b920aeb671-87.html#unique-entry-id-87http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/05a79f1b579f5a7180aa46b920aeb671-87.html#unique-entry-id-87
I have visitors from Germany here at the moment and, whenever the weather has allowed, we've been out sightseeing.
Some of the results have now been put together and you may see them by clicking on the images below.

The Lake of Constance, the Bodensee is known in southern Germany as the Swabian Sea and is the third largest lake in central Europe after Lake Balaton in Hungary and Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Two of the pictures below are 360° images and were taken in the harbour in Arbon, the third is 180° from above Rorschach.
The opposite coastline, visible in all three pictures, is that of Germany.

]]>Pass ...rjhRound and About ...2007-05-20T12:05:47+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5d0d57a0fc8b2091d7854db8c8e75183-86.html#unique-entry-id-86http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5d0d57a0fc8b2091d7854db8c8e75183-86.html#unique-entry-id-86
... but just in case you were wondering if I took any other pictures of the Splügen Pass, on my way to northern Italy -
I did!
Here is the finished composite of the picture you saw below:

Click!
It is made up of 36 shots, stitched together.
Here are the middle twelve!]]>Spring ...rjhAppenzeller2007-05-15T19:46:21+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d16cdd54d00bb2c16f65d952e3e1bb95-85.html#unique-entry-id-85http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d16cdd54d00bb2c16f65d952e3e1bb95-85.html#unique-entry-id-85
How do I know?
Easy - it is warm, every tree, flower and plant is trying to outdo its neighbour - flowers and young green everywhere.
The birds are singing in the trees and there is a bloody cuckoo out there with them, cuckooing its head off !!

This morning it started at 06:00. Obviously I wasn't in bed for very long after it started cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, every five seconds.
When I got up, I decided to shoot it (with the camera, of course) but it was just out of range to make a decent picture.
I was rather surprised at the size of the thing - about the size of a crow.
Whoever has to raise one of those chicks is in for a problem.

I wonder if I can somehow convince my cats to ~~devour the thing~~ chase the bird off, before it starts again tomorrow morning?]]>Petite France ...rjhRound and About ...2007-05-07T19:13:39+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f32382477179efad2d652013484f8078-84.html#unique-entry-id-84http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f32382477179efad2d652013484f8078-84.html#unique-entry-id-84From there I took the motorway to Strasbourg, where the sun was shining.

Strasbourg is a bustling city of 650'000 inhabitants (Metropolitan area) sitting between the rivers Rhine and Île directly opposite the German town of Kehl.
It swapped hands between Germany and France numerous times in the past few centuries - at the moment it is French!
The locals speak Alsatian, a wonderful singsong concoction which mixes both French and German.

The seventh largest city in France, Strasbourg is the capital of the Alsace/Elsass region and houses, amongst other things, the European Parliment, the European Council and the European Court of Human Rights. Yet amongst the hectic there is a quarter that - even when full of tourists - always seems to be idyllically quiet.
It is called Petite France.

You can see some of the Pictures I took by clicking the image above.
While looking at them, please consider the fact, that they were taken on a Saturday afternoon - the rest of the city, just two streets away, was jammed full of people.

I strolled around town for an hour or so and then met up with friends at a local restaurant. We had decided it had been just too long, since we last ate Tarte Flambée!
Tarte is a wonderful experience. A wooden board with a sliver of pastry, not unlike that of Pizza but much, much thinner, topped with cream, Onions and bacon - fresh from the oven. Just large enough to serve six people. When it has been devoured, another appears, as if by magic, in its place.
Cut it into six, eat it, wash it down with Pinot Noir - the local red wine, and ...
... another appears.
If you are fast enough you might catch the waiter as he places another board on those already emptied. If you do, you may order a variation ...
... Forestier - with mushrooms, Munster - with Munster cheese or variations with goats cheese and, when you feel you just couldn't eat another slice, with Apples!

This is the signal for the waiter to stop. Along comes the tarte covered in slices of apples and cinnamon. The waiter has a bottle of Calvados (apple brandy) in his hand. he pours a generous portion over the tarte and ignites it - a wonder the place doesn't go up in flames!

After the tarte flambée aux pommes it is just impossible to move.
I recommend a Marc du Gewurztraminer (The alsatian version of grappa). Afterwards you may try standing up and taking a very gentle stroll to the car.

But not before the waiter has counted the empty boards and bottles ...]]>Spaghetti ...rjhRound and About ...2007-05-05T10:35:55+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/44b43998bd5ac14910116fc88f6a5ddd-83.html#unique-entry-id-83http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/44b43998bd5ac14910116fc88f6a5ddd-83.html#unique-entry-id-83
A drive of twenty minutes will get me to Austria, Thirty minutes and I'm in Germany and - depending which direction I set off in - two hours will see me in France or Italy.

Last weekend I drove south, crossed the Splügen pass and had a plate of Spaghetti with mussels and a glass of red wine in a village on the shores of Comer lake. The weather was marvellous, just like the sunburn afterwards!

The Splügen pass is a narrow road just wide enough to let two cars pass. It is closed in winter because it is just too expensive to move the two to three meters of snow - especially as someone was kind enough to drill a hole through the mountains. The hole is now called the St.Bernhard Tunnel.

The pass winds its way up one side of the mountain in numerous extremely tight bends and down the other side in a similar fashion. It is an adventurous drive because the Italian drivers think nothing at all of taking the bends as wide (read 'fast') as possible, forcing oncoming traffic to brake hard and sometimes even, to reverse!

The spectacular thing about the drive this time, was the fact that the dam on the Italian side was still frozen in places. With temperatures around 24° Centigrade, there were still stretches of water with 30 cm of ice on them!

Dam

So what do you do, when you encounter a sight like this?
You buy italian ice cream, pretend to be on holiday and take photographs just like any other tourists.

I'm off to France today (Elsass, to be more precise) for Tarte Flambée and Pinot Noir.
I hope the weather bucks up - it's raining right now!]]>Spring ...rjhMusings2007-04-29T07:13:03+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/391176527429ef88d90700b2e05c6327-82.html#unique-entry-id-82http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/391176527429ef88d90700b2e05c6327-82.html#unique-entry-id-82 Cherry-blossom

The thing I like here, is that the meadows haven't, as yet, been totally over-dunged so in spring we go through a mass of different colours instead of the typical yellow of suffocated grazing land ...]]>Unwanted ...rjhAppenzeller2007-04-29T06:28:57+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fc496938c3ed1b9e4e6c765bf196fea3-81.html#unique-entry-id-81http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fc496938c3ed1b9e4e6c765bf196fea3-81.html#unique-entry-id-81And the cows are back in the meadows.

In Spring, the cows in the meadow behind my house are those, that are considered useless, i.e. those that don't give milk yet because they haven't calved.
They will spend the next two months here and will then be presented to the bull.
If the farmer is lucky, the cows will, nine months later, give birth to a calf.
If not the bull will return.

The cows aren't allowed to keep their calves. The calves are raised in separate pens.
Instead the cows are now allowed to join their co-workers in the meadows. Calving behind them, they now produce milk which will be subventioned by the Swiss government. They have a purpose in life.
They are woken at six-in-the-morning so that the farmer-down-the-road can have milk in his coffee and they get milked a second time at six-in-the-evening.
The milk is taken down into the valley and turned into cheese.

The calves have a fifty-fifty chance of being turned into veal within a few short weeks.
Male calves are unwanted on a dairy farm.

This makes my f-d-t-r sound like a pretty heartless person, but actually he's a nice guy who is just doing the job he learned to do.
We often have a beer together.

Cow_too

Useless cow (for the moment). It will spend the next two months, day and night, rain or shine, grazing 'my' meadow.]]>Paris ...rjhMusings2007-04-15T19:55:51+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/010c2ab7ac351cf761445a9f8a7528e2-79.html#unique-entry-id-79http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/010c2ab7ac351cf761445a9f8a7528e2-79.html#unique-entry-id-79She prefers Rolex herself ...

303972

Apparently she has problems with her geography.
During a televised interview she said:
"This is my first visit to Zurich"

Perhaps she does too much partying?]]>LogsrjhAppenzeller2007-04-15T19:44:36+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1320097c0d9e08e40770e5f0dda07022-78.html#unique-entry-id-78http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1320097c0d9e08e40770e5f0dda07022-78.html#unique-entry-id-78
Yesterday machines arrived and de-barked the trees.
Now their scent is almost overwhelming.

On the drive up to the house, the house is hidden for a few seconds
as you drive past the trees.
There are two large piles of 15-meter logs and one smaller pile of large logs.
They were too thick to go through the machines.

There are also two large piles of bark.
The larger of the two is almost 2 meters high.

I now have access to my bike again.]]>Timber ...rjhAppenzeller2007-04-10T18:32:24+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3cdedda781e40a58c725c9420034eb4b-76.html#unique-entry-id-76http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/3cdedda781e40a58c725c9420034eb4b-76.html#unique-entry-id-76coppice has now become.

When I came home this evening, I was presented with this:

They hardly made a mess at all, getting them there, they just dragged
them through my back garden:

I'm sure it won't take longer than six months to look decent again
and they didn't drag anything over their own land,
so at least their grazing won't be affected!

So the only problem I have now is - how do I get at my Motorbike,
which just happens to be enclosed behind those logs?!

Well, I shouldn't have to wait for long - last time I had logs lying in my
back garden, they were only there for four months ...]]>March winds and April showers, bring forth ...rjhAppenzeller2007-04-09T17:57:12+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e250b81fd41017f55fbf2b454ca34975-75.html#unique-entry-id-75http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/e250b81fd41017f55fbf2b454ca34975-75.html#unique-entry-id-75In its place flowers have appeared:

tiny_blues

Something tiny in a delicate blue ...

pink

... cyclamen (Alpenveilchen - Alpine Violets) ...

... something in yellow and then some in white, but that picture was un-sharp!

I can't say I really mind, I think I've had enough snow for this season.
]]>Downhill from hererjhMumblings2007-04-09T17:01:19+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/dafb63810b7492d037015860f6865551-74.html#unique-entry-id-74http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/dafb63810b7492d037015860f6865551-74.html#unique-entry-id-74speed of my internet connection, only to find that I am still not getting what I am paying for!
Not even close!
I'm supposed to get download speeds of up to 3500 Kbit/s and upload speeds of up to 300 Kbit/s.

I suppose I have to consider myself lucky - when I first applied for ADSL, I was informed it wasn't available where I live. You see, up here on my hill we still have telegraph poles with wires running from one to the next ...
... not suitable at all!

Then someone changed their mind - it is technically possible after all. I can't have Cable TV, but to prevent me making more silly requests, I may have ADSL. What flavour would I like?
Well, something fast please, so that I can remotely access my machine ...

I suppose the definition wasn't precise enough. I can access my machine remotely but it doesn't do me any good - I can look at my screen but to move anything on it is impossible.

The crazy thing is - were I to swap my 'digital' connection for an analogue connection, I could attain higher speeds. I couldn't be online all day, because I wouldn't be available by phone, but the bandwidth is larger.

Logical isn't it, that analogue is faster than digital?]]>Schwiizertüütsch ...rjhAppenzeller2007-04-01T09:53:32+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/16fc61f8d83a760306f29f3ae99027f1-73.html#unique-entry-id-73http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/16fc61f8d83a760306f29f3ae99027f1-73.html#unique-entry-id-73
Swiss German is basically Middle-High-German, but whereas the language in Germany has transformed and progressed, Swiss German has stood still for some centuries.

I understand Eastern Swiss German quite well (there are different dialects across the country just like anywhere else) but whenever I open my mouth to talk to someone, they immediately switch from Swiss German to [what they think is] High German!

Of course, I can tell them 'Sie chönnt Tüütsch rede - you may speak Swiss' but as soon as a single word crops up, that I didn't understand and I ask for it to be repeated, they immediately switch back to German! It can be very frustrating.

I thought perhaps I might be able to solve the problem by learning to speak Schwiizertüütsch myself, after all I picked up Brummy English and Swabian German quite easily!

'To qualify to learn Swiss German one has to be fluent in German'
it says in the brochure.
Well, no problem there - the Swiss assume that I'm German when I open my mouth to speak ...
... so I enrolled - there was no test beforehand.
Now, I do not wish to be racially discriminating, after all, I'm foreign myself – wherever I go! But the other five people in my course were: two Thai ladies (who insisted in talking Thai throughout lessons), one Indian Lady (whose Saris I liked very much), a Russian girl and an Albanian gentleman.
None of these people were able to build a correct German sentence; the Thai and the Indian ladies pronounced the text in the textbook as if it were English.
We [I] got nowhere at all with our lessons!
After five lessons, I was so frustrated at having learned zilch, that I gave up and stopped visiting classes!

Perhaps I shall never learn to speak Swiss German after all - perhaps I don't need to imitate the Swiss? But how can I stop them from trying to wrap their tongues around High German when they talk to me?

Here are some interesting Swiss German words for you:

Bireweich – As soft as a pear – silly, stupid
Chäuzgi – Chewing gum
Chlüpperli – Clothes pegs
Drufabe – Afterwards
Nòòdisnòò – Bit by bit
Goofe – Children
Liismele – Knit
Vertschudlet – tousled

One of my favourite sentences: Chasch mr es teleofo geh. – You can give me a Telephone – You can call me. (If the first word is raised in tone, it is a question)
I brought one of my colleagues a telephone once when he 'asked for one' and he gave me a blank look!
One of my all time favorites: Chan ii e [Zigarett] - Can I a [cigarette] (please insert an object of your choice)
Sorry?! What happened to the verb - what exactly would you like to do with that cigarette?
]]>ConfusedrjhAppenzeller2007-03-24T09:55:03+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0b3f7fa24f5c5bc789c8df191469788b-72.html#unique-entry-id-72http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0b3f7fa24f5c5bc789c8df191469788b-72.html#unique-entry-id-72
American Tourist - It must be confusing, living in a country where three languages are spoken, all the towns have to have three names.

Swiss Guy - ??

AT - Well, for instance, Lucerne is also called Locarno and Lausanne.

SG - Really - I hadn't realised!]]>Plastic ...rjhAppenzeller2007-03-24T09:11:56+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6517b4b3ee8dc4bfd577e23f330caea7-71.html#unique-entry-id-71http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6517b4b3ee8dc4bfd577e23f330caea7-71.html#unique-entry-id-71
@Esther and anyone else that may dislike plastic tulips - I do too.

The tulips in my window are the real thing and at the moment they are the only flowers around here, that haven't been smothered by 70 cm of snow!]]>InclinationrjhMusings2007-03-22T07:45:44+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/eb76dcefdd0a47d3fb90d42350f8cc17-70.html#unique-entry-id-70http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/eb76dcefdd0a47d3fb90d42350f8cc17-70.html#unique-entry-id-70It was a Thursday and five centimetres of snow fell.
British workers in their hundreds failed to turn up for work on both Thursday and Friday, even though the roads and rails had been cleared.

Bearing this in mind, I decided, yesterday, not to go to work.
After listening to the weather forecast, however, I changed my mind and decided postpone my absence until next week!
After all - we only have 60 cm of snow and down in the valley (St. Gallen) it is even less!]]>ViewsrjhAppenzeller2007-03-19T19:29:01+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5c865bef25fd39d20ef39132544754c6-69.html#unique-entry-id-69http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5c865bef25fd39d20ef39132544754c6-69.html#unique-entry-id-69
These are the same windows, but the view was a little altered by the time I got up this morning ...

Window_IV

My coppice hasn't been tidied up yet, but the felled trees on both slopes are now nicely camouflaged with snow.
I would like to point out once more - they could be in the saw mill by now!

Window_V

I hope my tulips will be warm enough!]]>ParadoxrjhAppenzeller2007-03-18T13:29:13+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/8583cbce4090e076426b010a1b0684a6-68.html#unique-entry-id-68http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/8583cbce4090e076426b010a1b0684a6-68.html#unique-entry-id-68 porzellanhase-1

The best chocolate, the Swiss say, comes from Switzerland.
Nothing else in the world can compare to it!

The best chocolate in the world is made by Lindt.
So they say.
How strange then that the Germans will tell you, that the best chocolate in the world is the German Ritter Sport.
And the Belgians? The whole world knows that the best chocolate is made in Belgium!

I wonder if the Swiss ever considered the fact, that the largest Lindt factory in the world is actually in Aachen - Germany!

Cadburys Fruit and Nut anyone?]]>Rooms with views ...rjhAppenzeller2007-03-18T13:06:12+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/43fb6f7409ca802bd514ebdf77c2bbb1-67.html#unique-entry-id-67http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/43fb6f7409ca802bd514ebdf77c2bbb1-67.html#unique-entry-id-67
We've had mixed weather, I'll give them that, but all in all we've had a lot of sun.
So why haven't they tidied my view up yet?

Window_II

Now even the opposite slopes are covered with trees that have fallen prey to the chain saws.

You can just make them out in the picture - the view from my office window.
Yet they haven't moved the felled trees from my coppice yet, they are still lying there between the trees they left standing, waiting to be taken away to the saw mill!
You'd think they'd tidy up before they moved on ...

... I've taken to looking out of the dining room window instead. The view is less cluttered!

I wanted to go for a spin on the motorbike. You wouldn't believe it, from the pictures, but there is a gale force wind blowing right now. I'll leave the motorcycling to others for now ...

]]>Weather GodsrjhAppenzeller2007-03-10T10:00:42+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f0355a80282b3d558dfaedb701b6d32e-66.html#unique-entry-id-66http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f0355a80282b3d558dfaedb701b6d32e-66.html#unique-entry-id-66
Yesterday I went to work by motorbike.
Not because I am masochistic, but because the weather was so nice!

Today we have 20 cm of snow.

They have promised us 20 °C for Monday!]]>Guardian AngelrjhMusings2007-03-10T09:28:55+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f7aae34c9db13990e05941124265ec37-65.html#unique-entry-id-65http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f7aae34c9db13990e05941124265ec37-65.html#unique-entry-id-65
And who are Webb and Mitchell?
And what is the television series ‘Peep Show’ about?

The answers to all these questions might allow me to understand why this Charlie, whoever he is, recently described me as being a smug, preening, tosser.
(I presume that last word is something derogative?)

This Charlie, apparently, hates all Mac users and even hates people who wished they could use a Mac.
How stupid is that?
If all Mac users hated all PC users and vice versa, there would be bombs lying under our desks in a morning; you would be scared to turn on your computer in case it had been rigged to explode; you couldn’t touch your mouse, for fear of loosing fingers!

The situation would be worse than anything the IRA ever concocted!

My first encounters with computers were in 1980 - I already wrote about that.
I’ve tried them all and I have both Macs and PCs at home. I have to, the costs of developing specialised applications for both platforms are just too high for some developers, so I use this software here, that software there.

I don’t like PCs but I have to use them. I would imagine that's how most users feel ...
I like Macs and I have to use them too. My colleagues feel the same way.

What is the difference? I mean, they both run MS Office, MS Internet Explorer, Outlook, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, QuarkXPress etc. so what is the difference?

An example: I just switched on my Mac (I don’t usually switch it off, but I did some tidying up last night). It booted and I got on with some work.
At almost the same time I switched on my PC (I usually switch it off - regular use is frustrating).

When it had booted, a little message popped up to tell me it was connected to a network. Well, of course you are, silly, you always have been - how else would I swap files with other machines or get on the internet?

Then a message appeared to tell me that my virus definitions are older than twelve hours and I am at risk of being infected.

Another message informed me, that my firewall is inactive and I am at risk of being hacked (silly - there’s an external, dedicated firewall right behind you!)

Yet another window popped up to tell me, that a newer version of Windows is awaiting me and if I wish to be sure that my machine is secure, I should take advantage of it.

I activate my Outlook.
Now the one I like best of all pops up:
'An element requires your attention - no action is necessary, would you like to take this action?'
Come again?!
I’ve tried switching this one off (it costs me $125 a year to maintain) but then a big orange window appears to tell me ‘You are deactivating Internet Security, which will make you prone to all sorts of nasty things. Do you really want to do this?’
So - every five minutes, I click to confirm that I do not wish to take any action.

And so it continues. Ten minutes and I haven’t done anything productive yet at all ...
... are there really people out there, that get paid for clicking away at these silly little boxes all day long?
I get paid for producing magazines and letterheads, brochures and things like that ...

So now this Charlie person, comes along and tells me he hates me!
Because I’m more productive than he is, or what?
]]>Fitting in ...rjhMusings2007-03-07T21:14:25+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f102491e03971aa0cc85a1061c2465e4-64.html#unique-entry-id-64http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f102491e03971aa0cc85a1061c2465e4-64.html#unique-entry-id-64I got to the arrivals hall at Zurich airport at 05:45
I’m an optimist, some flights actually arrive ahead of schedule.

A glance at the flight board:
Planned arrival 06:40 - expected arrival 07:40!
I double check the flight number - correct!

I look at the note that has been tucked into my pocket - 06:00!
Oh no!!
And the time of arrival has shifted again - another ten minutes!
So what does one do at Zurich airport for two hours or more?

While drinking coffee, I reflected on something I’d read on Charlotte’s Web.
I lived in England for the first 21 years of my life and have lived in Germany and Switzerland since ...
I am still a British national, but am I really British?
What am I, if not British?
German? Certainly not! Swiss? No Way! European perhaps?
Whatever - I do have a lot in common with Charlotte!

Things that help me fit in:

• I am not as conservative as British people I know. But I used to be.
• I enjoy dark Weizenbier (as often as possible).
• I always have a crate or two of beer in my Cellar.
• I often visit, or have visitors for coffee and cake on a Sunday afternoon
and go for a walk afterwards.
• I have difficulty changing gears with my left hand
(And whenever I want to use the hand brake it has disappeared).
• I automatically say ‘Sie’ (Thou) to strangers.
• I prefer ground coffee beans to Nescafé.
• I complain about the size and shape of Bretzels in Switzerland
(which would make me German).
(I complain about life in general in Switzerland, which again places me in Germany)
• If someone drops litter in the street, I will reprimand them.
• I get up earlier in Winter to clear snow from the drive.

Things that make me British:

• I never learned to use my elbows in a ‘Queue’.
• I can’t understand, that Europeans can’t see the logic behind said queues.
• I can’t get into the habit of removing my shoes in my own home, but will in other people’s homes.
• I can’t see anything good about a Metzgete.
• I import tea and Daddies Brown Sauce from England.
• I prefer custard to vanilla sauce.
• I still can’t see logic behind ‘the, the and the’ (der, die, das, le, la and les especially as they often conflict in German and French).
• I can’t resist Liquorice Allsorts, Salt and Vineagar Crisps or Ginger biscuits.
(Why on earth does my spell checker want to remove the ‘e’ from vineagar)
• I prefer vineagar on my chips and don’t even want to try to imagine what they would taste like with mayonnaise!
• I didn’t realise you could put the hood up on a Cabriolet!

I shall never be a real German or real Swiss. For one thing I can’t see why I should pay a fee for not having served in the Army, just to obtain a new nationality.

Where do you fit in with the country you live in and what makes you typically different?
If you feel like playing, consider yourself tagged!
]]>Mr. TaxmanrjhAppenzeller2007-02-18T08:49:13+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2026f7f4e05da8e42e020ae08530861c-63.html#unique-entry-id-63http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2026f7f4e05da8e42e020ae08530861c-63.html#unique-entry-id-63Income tax.

When I first started working here, my boss was almost apologetic, when he informed me that I would have to pay Quellensteuer - source tax.
What he was trying to tell me is that, where taxes are concerned, foreigners are discriminated. Workers with a permit of residence class B or L are obliged to pay tax on a monthly basis!
Just imagine - your tax is deducted from your pay cheque every month!

How strange- isn't that how they do it in England, Germany, France, Hungary ...
... and everywhere else I've worked?

Not so in Switzerland. Swiss nationals and foreigners that can be trusted (residence permit C) pay their tax annually!

Our Head of Finances at work asked me last year, if I could please apply for a C permit - he was fed up of having to send my taxes to the taxman every month and, after all, it would mean that I could reside in Switzerland indefinitely!
So how should I pay my taxes? Set up a bank account and put money into it every month! Then every spring, when my tax bill arrives, give the money to the taxman.
What I discovered was - he got paid for taxing me directly!
The tax office paid him CHF 600 a year!
I also discovered that if I pay my taxes on a monthly basis I get to get the CHF 600!

I know a few people that get into financial difficulties every spring because the taxman holds out his hand and the taxes have already been spent.
Wouldn't it make more sense to tax people on a monthly basis and lower the taxes a little in the process?

Can someone please explain ...]]>You Win!rjhOther Stuff2007-02-17T07:57:30+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6bd27b927b7a8373ef2b85812bbf36e1-61.html#unique-entry-id-61http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6bd27b927b7a8373ef2b85812bbf36e1-61.html#unique-entry-id-61
Really, it's true, they wrote to tell me!!
Yesterday I received a mail from the Japanes Lottery to inform me, that I had won the above sum in a lottery and would I please phone to confirm, that I was really me and to inform them where I wanted the Toyota, which just happened to be part of the winnings, shipped to!

Well, of course, you can imagine how excited I was, especially as I have to pay last years income tax soon, and was wondering where the money should come from. Just imagine! My mail address was picked out by a computer, from 2,5000,000 other mail addresses and mine won! Of course, I reached for the phone immediately ...
... you bet I did!

First, they can't even spell 'Japanese'! There were two or three further spelling mistakes and a couple of wrong tenses.
Well - just to give them the benefit of the doubt, you can't just go around distrusting the 'Toyota Claiming Security Agency' (all capitalised) I sent a copy of the mail to Scam-O-Matic at www.joewein.net - Imagine my disappointment, when they informed me of twenty good reasons, why I hadn't won after all!

* The sender address of that email has been used in a known fraud before.
* An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
* The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
• "toyota car international promotion program"
• "toyota fortune lotto"
• "toyota claiming security agency"
• "www.luckyjapan.com"
* This email looks like a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They do not notify winners by email.
2. You can not win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They do not randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They do not use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They do not tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They do not tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
* The following phrases should put you on alert:
• "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
* This email lists mobile phone numbers.
• +8613711016724 (China, prepaid mobile phone) (Why would Toyota use a Mobile Phone Number in China?)
And so on, and so on ...

Spoil sports!]]>Completely Nuts!rjhMusings2007-02-10T16:19:59+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b932eb8e76e385f50b6972bb076fcd58-60.html#unique-entry-id-60http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b932eb8e76e385f50b6972bb076fcd58-60.html#unique-entry-id-60

Talk about 'Post Early For Christmas' - Christmas is just over and already Cadbury is recalling Easter Eggs because they do not carry the correct nut allergy labelling!

If you are not allergic to nuts, by the way, the eggs are entirely safe - just continue as if I hadn't said anything ... ]]>My Other Blog ...rjhMusings2007-02-10T08:47:10+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/189fde455442b9038f3fee8e584a8cd9-59.html#unique-entry-id-59http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/189fde455442b9038f3fee8e584a8cd9-59.html#unique-entry-id-59
These last few weeks I have, on a number of occasions, read:
"On my other blog, I have written about ..."
These are people who purportedly have a profession to practice or studies to follow!

I often lack the time to maintain a single blog or I feel there is nothing profane enough to put down in writing.

How do they do it?]]>Room With A ViewrjhAppenzeller2007-02-10T08:14:06+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/92bb292edb1381399ec19cdb74c32d86-58.html#unique-entry-id-58http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/92bb292edb1381399ec19cdb74c32d86-58.html#unique-entry-id-58"That is going to be my office!"

The window, which is in front of me when I sit at my computer, looks onto a meadow that slopes down into a valley. The opposite slopes are covered in pine trees and there is the occasional clearing, where a farmhouse and meadows can be glimpsed.
Between my window and the valley 'my' meadow is flanked on the left by a coppice of trees ...
... it was, that is, until last week!

This tiny wood withstood two cyclones and a hurricane. It was unable to oppose the chain-saws.
To say that the coppice has been 'thinned out' would be an understatement.
All of the pine trees and a number of birch have been removed. Left standing are two dead pines, two larch and about 25 beech trees.
I can only imagine, that bad weather interrupted work and the dead pines will come down next.

I suppose I'm lacking the degree in forestry, that is needed to understand the mess that has been made of my view.]]>AlarmingrjhAppenzeller2007-02-09T08:34:01+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/430d4046ec1c15a01503bc732bca9b90-57.html#unique-entry-id-57http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/430d4046ec1c15a01503bc732bca9b90-57.html#unique-entry-id-57
The day before yesterday at precisely 13:30 Alarms went off across the whole of Switzerland, just to remind us just what we would hear, if someone actually did press The Red Button.
By chance I heard about the tests on the morning news. Therefore, when the alarms went off, I was able - along with my Swiss colleagues - to pretend that nothing was happening. See Mind over matter.

On my way home yesterday evening, I encountered a large group of armed men dressed in jeans and anoraks and armed to the teeth with Assault rifles and submachine guns. After the initial shock, I realised, that they were members of the Swiss Army on their way to shooting practice.

Military service for Swiss males is obligatory. At the age of about 20, every Swiss male goes through 118 consecutive days of recruit training in the Rekrutenschule. By the Federal Constitution of 1874, military servicemen are given their first equipment, clothing and arms. After the first training period, conscripts must keep gun, ammunition and equipment an ihrem Wohnort ("in their homes") until the end of their term of service.
Enlisted men are issued a SIg 550 automatic assault rifle and officers a semi-automatic pistol, Each reservist is issued 50 rounds of ammunition in sealed packs for emergency use.
Crimes, committed with army guns and ammunition, are almost non-existent - after all, it is against the law to crack open the boxes of ammunition!

Over a soldier's career he also spends scattered days on mandatory equipment inspections and required target practice. Thus, in a 30-year mandatory military career, a Swiss man only spends about one year in direct military service. Following discharge from the regular army, men serve on reserve status until the age of 50 (55 for officers).
After discharge from service, the man is given an assault gun free from registration or obligation. Officers carry pistols rather than rifles and are given their pistols at the end of their service. When the government adopts a new infantry rifle, it sells the old ones to the public.

it might be noted that there are about 420,000 assault rifles stored at private homes, mostly SIG 550 types. Additionally, there are some 320,000 assault rifles and military pistols exempted from military service in private possession, all selective-fire weapons having been converted to semi-automatic operation only. In addition, there are several hundred thousand other semi-automatic small arms classified as carbines. The total number of firearms in private homes is estimated minimally at 1.2 million; more liberal estimates put the number at 3 million.

I have heard it said, that no army in the world can be mobilised as fast as the Swiss Army. I presume, that when the alarm goes off in earnest, they run down to the cellar, jump into their uniform, grab their assault gun and jump on the next bus for the front.

The Swiss do not have an army, they are the army, says one government publication. Fully deployed, the Swiss army has 15.2 men per square kilometre; in contrast, the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. have only .2 soldiers per square kilometre. Switzerland is 76 times denser with soldiers than either superpower. Indeed, only Israel has more army per square kilometre.

In 1847-48, liberals throughout Europe revolted against aristocratic rule. Only in Switzerland did they succeed, taking control of the whole nation following a brief conflict called the Sonderbrund War. (Total casualties were only 128.) Civil rights were firmly guaranteed, and all vestiges of feudalism were abolished.
Despite the hopes of German reformers, the Swiss did not send their people's army into Germany in 1848 to assist popular revolution there. When the German revolution failed, autocratic Prussia considered invading Switzerland, but decided the task was impossible.

During World War I, both France and Germany considered invading Switzerland to attack each other's flank. In World War II, Hitler wanted the Swiss gold reserves and needed free communications and transit through Switzerland to supply Axis forces in the Mediterranean. But when military planners looked at Switzerland's well-armed citizenry, mountainous terrain, and civil defence fortifications, Switzerland lost its appeal as an invasion target. While two World Wars raged, Switzerland enjoyed a secure peace.

Switzerland is also the only Western nation to provide shelters fully stocked with food and enough supplies to last a year for all its citizens in case of war. The banks and supermarkets subsidise much of the stockpiling. The banks also have plans to move their gold into the mountainous center of Switzerland in case of invasion.
Every new home that is built, is required to devote an extensive potion of its cellar to provision of shelter.
A number of Swiss citizens I know are not really happy about this 'waste of space'.
I recently looked into the shelter at the house of friends - it was full of bikes and the geraniums spend the winter there.
Uuhm ...
... this just happens to be against the law.
What will they do if someone really presses The Red Button?

Reference: The Swiss And Their Guns; David B. Kopel/Wikipedia.]]>WinterrjhAppenzeller2007-01-25T21:13:36+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0571bb218438dc676e520a61a0104e72-56.html#unique-entry-id-56http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0571bb218438dc676e520a61a0104e72-56.html#unique-entry-id-56
Winter arrived at last - I already said it would, I read it in the news and saw the satellite images.
The Swiss didn't.
As usual Swiss drivers were taken by surprise.
"Oh!! What's that white stuff on the roads?!"
Drive carefully, don't do more than 30 kmh, it might be dangerous!
It is exactly the same every winter!
I could understand it in the Midlands of GB, where snow is rare and no-one has winter tires, but hey! Hello! We have a meter of snow in this corner of the world every year!

It took me 45 minutes to get down to the motorway as opposed to the usual 15.
On the motorway the inside lane was free of traffic, they were all playing 'traffic jam' in the outside lane.
I hope no-one was offended that I used the vacant lane - it was much quicker and I never heard of a law that prohibits use of both lanes in snow?

After weeks of warm, spring weather, the temperatures have dropped to around zero. All of a sudden it feels chill, I'll have to put my t-shirts back in the wardrobe for a few days until I acclimatise.

Uuhm - if anyone Swiss reads this blog ...
... there may be just a little snow tomorrow, but there will be snow on Saturday. Please don't play traffic jams, I'd like to get some shopping done!]]>A Lover's ComplaintrjhAppenzeller2007-01-22T18:25:11+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/29ab175618a31cec274468deb865c4f1-55.html#unique-entry-id-55http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/29ab175618a31cec274468deb865c4f1-55.html#unique-entry-id-55
A place of work that can not be reached on foot, by bike at the very most, is almost in-acceptable for Swiss citizens.
One of the first questions presented to me, when I was interviewed for the job I have at the moment was:
"Are you sure it won't be too much for you to drive 40 kmh to work every day?"
I replied, that I had regularly commuted backwards and forwards between Stuttgart and St. Gallen (250 km) previously - that seemed to stump them.

The question is, though, if no-one in St. Gallen owns a car (or Zurich/Bern/Lucerne etc. for that matter - they all say the same) why is it, that there is never ever a parking space available when you need one?

I used to have a lady-friend in SG. I was never once on time when I visited her, because I always spent an hour driving around looking for a parking slot!
Hardly any of the houses in SG have garages and the roads are packed tight with parked cars. The parking spaces I found, more often than not entailed either a twenty-minute-walk or a steep fine.
I gave up in the end, it was just too nerve wracking, I exchanged her for a lady in the countryside!

Worse still, though, are the multi story car parks in towns and shopping centres. There are enough of those, but the Swiss engineer that worked out how wide a parking space needs to be, probably owned an Austin 7, a Citroen 2CV or some other post-war model. The standard width of a Swiss paring slot is 190 cm. The result:
You can hardly open your door wide enough to squeeze out of, or in to the car. With inconsiderate drivers left and right, it is impossible to leave your vehicle!
[Please read carefully - nowhere on this page, does it state that the Swiss are inconsiderate drivers, the Swiss don't have cars - they say.]

On Saturday I drove into a supermarket Parkhaus. I turned round to get my shopping bag off the rear seat and while I was doing so, someone drove into the slot next to me, jumped out of his car - beep-beep - and walked off leaving me stranded in my car! I sounded my horn irately, but he just ignored the noise and disappeared into the crowds! In the end I had to reverse back out of the slot and find another one!
Bu**er the ba***rd!

It is interesting, by the way, in this tiny country where no-one owns a car, how many American vehicles you see around - and not a single one of them fits into a Swiss parking slot!]]>The TempestrjhAppenzeller2007-01-21T11:00:30+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0ef6b5c14a6a2c7a262f471c5ad23d5c-54.html#unique-entry-id-54http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0ef6b5c14a6a2c7a262f471c5ad23d5c-54.html#unique-entry-id-54
Looking out of the window I can see blue skies and green meadows, at the same time it is trying to snow.
Yesterday I went for a stroll along the shore of the Lake of Constance.
I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and wondering why on earth I hadn't used the motorbike to get there.

The weather gods have either taken a holiday, or they have gone entirely mad!
We are used to storms passing over Europe and over the years ferries have been sunk (North Sea 1953), Coasts have been flooded (Eastern England and Holland 1962) and there have been regular storms in Northern Scotland, the Hebrides and Scandinavia. It does, however, look as if the global climate changes (be they man made or natural) are slowly moving south.
Christmas 1999 the twin Cyclones Lothar and Martin passed over Central Europe, killing over 100 people in France, Germany and Switzerland.
This year Hurricane Kyrill dropped in on Europe killing more than 40 and creating general havoc. Both Lothar and Kyrill reached top speeds of 200 kmh, Kyrill blew for two days and one night.

On my way home on Thursday evening, I passed a car that had been blown off the road, across some railway tracks and into the concrete embankment. The police came along and fined the driver for loosing control of his vehicle!
The driver was lucky that train services had been discontinued - A short while earlier, just six miles away, a 20-ton-train was lifted off the rails by the wind. I wonder if they fined the train driver too?

Meteorologists are now promising, that winter will begin next week in earnest. Temperatures will drop dramatically, they say: Snow by Tuesday and -10 °C by Thursday. Who knows - perhaps the skiing resorts will be able to switch their lifts on this season after all and prevent some businesses from going bottom-up.

Which reminds me - I'll have to check my winter tires. I've been driving around on dry roads now for four months, in the meantime they are very nearly as smooth as my summer tires!
Image courtesy of tagesanzeiger.ch]]>A Winter's TalerjhAppenzeller2007-01-14T19:40:15+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a85bdd208fe039f87c7eb1c536dde9af-53.html#unique-entry-id-53http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a85bdd208fe039f87c7eb1c536dde9af-53.html#unique-entry-id-53I used to have a blog here!

Today I had the chance of driving to Basel to meet some fellow expat-bloggers.
Because I already had other plans, I was unable to.
This morning my plans were abruptly cancelled, but I just couldn't be bothered to get in the car and drive the 2.5 hours to Basel.

Instead I went out and took some pics around the house.
We have blue skies. We have marigolds and catkins in flower and green, green, green
almost as far as the eye can see!
And my kittens have started catching mice, which wasn't supposed to happen until April, when the snow usually melts.
One of the nicest spring-days I can remember! Especially for mid January!
Some people call the climate change global warming - I wonder what they called it the last time the ice that covered Europe receded. Anyone remember?

If you want to see what it looks like here at the moment you may look at a panorama here, or a Quicktime VR (24 Mb) of the same scene here my first attempt at a QTVR, so don't be too critical!

]]>MountainsrjhAppenzeller2006-12-30T15:39:34+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d80c010d8e4d0a1cd45598d8cef7d6fd-52.html#unique-entry-id-52http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d80c010d8e4d0a1cd45598d8cef7d6fd-52.html#unique-entry-id-52panorama. I photographed it on Thursday.

For anyone that is interested, the 180° panoramas I take are made up of between twelve and fourteen shots, which I photograph freehand using a Sony DCS F828 digital camera. I mount the shots in Adobe Photoshop®.
360° panoramas like this one at Fradley canal junction are more difficult and need to be shot with the aid of a tripod.]]>What happened?rjhAppenzeller2006-12-30T14:02:01+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5732a5dbd73c91f378ec740ccc5431cf-51.html#unique-entry-id-51http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5732a5dbd73c91f378ec740ccc5431cf-51.html#unique-entry-id-51
My first morning here, I woke to the sound of cow bells.
I looked at the clock, it was 05:30.
I looked at the snow on the trees outside and decided:
I had been dreaming - no cow bells.

But yes - there they were again!
And they were coming closer!

After a short while the cow bells were directly under my window, accompanied by yodelling.
I opened the window to find eight fir trees, covered in cow bells and yodelling.
They were still there when I went downstairs and opened the front door - it was not a dream.
When they had finished their Zeierli (a natural form of yodelling), they came and wished me a Happy New Year.
I gave them some money and went back to bed. After ten minutes they were back.
I thought perhaps I'd given them too much money. But no, it was another group.
By 07:00 I was broke!

The Silvester Chläus walk from farmhouse to farmhouse every new years eve or on the Saturday that precedes, if new years eve is a Sunday. They chase away any evil spirits and any troubles the farmer cares to tell them.
They'll also take any money that is given to them and/or drink any alcohol offered to them.
For one reason or another I missed them the last two years, but this morning I was up at five with Glühwein (mulled wine) on the stove and ready for their visit.
They didn't come!

Oh, I heard their bells and I heard them yodelling. They visited the neighbours on the next slope but never managed to climb the slope to our place. They must have found our doors locked the last two years and decided not to bother again.

What does one do with a bucket of mulled wine?]]>FogrjhAppenzeller2006-12-27T00:52:58+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d76937b1708d7bc898d9c1bd799e6163-50.html#unique-entry-id-50http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d76937b1708d7bc898d9c1bd799e6163-50.html#unique-entry-id-50
Remember that picture recently - the goldfish bowl full of milk?
Well the past few days have been just the same.

Yesterday I ventured out to find out if the fog was just local; it would seem that we have a halo around our house.
Up on the next hill the view is entirely different!

I think I might move until the fog has gone.]]>PerspectiverjhMusings2006-12-24T12:00:39+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ce03b55d3a2b30c71f212bdd3aa26d5c-49.html#unique-entry-id-49http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ce03b55d3a2b30c71f212bdd3aa26d5c-49.html#unique-entry-id-49

Bah! Humbug! Father Christmas doesn't exist - or does he?

When i was a child, we used to hang a pillow case at the foot of the bed for Father Christmas to fill in the night from 24th to the 25th of December.
Santa would fill it with all sorts of goodies and I was invariably awake at around five'o'clock, wanting to show my parents the goodies. And I can ensure you, that the mandarins and chocolates weren't half as interesting as that train set, that I had set up in my bedroom by five thirty!
Two things altered my perception of Santa. Firstly: he supposedly visited all good children during that night - the whole world over.
At some point, I worked out, that he would have his work cut out, just sliding down all the chimneys in Birmingham, let alone the whole world.
Secondly: I swear I saw my Dad putting the goodies into the pillow case one night!

Over the years I have always wondered and now my perspective has altered.
It first started, when I moved to Germany.
That was when I discovered that Santa visits the German-speaking-nations on the sixth of December. (Saint Nicholas died on this date - I know, because I remember reading it on his grave in Myra, Turkey!)
At first I thought this was because the Germans are impatient and unable to wait for the 25th. Yesterday, however, Santa was sighted in Toronto, where his sleigh broke down this year.
Perhaps I should reconsider. Perhaps he spreads his workload over the whole of December and does, somehow, manage to visit all of those children after all!
What a nice thought.]]>Pro & ContrarjhAppenzeller2006-12-17T14:37:29+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/18a685c4e31d2b90353c9bb0867a7f41-48.html#unique-entry-id-48http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/18a685c4e31d2b90353c9bb0867a7f41-48.html#unique-entry-id-48
Cloud

It is difficult to discern whether the view is that of low clouds, or of fog that has risen from the valley. I would have to drive down to find out.

Fog in the valley often looks like this:

The picture was taken early one morning just as the sun was coming up over the hills.
Down there in the fog, somewhere, is St.Gallen and behind it is Zürich.

The views from up here can be quite spectacular. I was lucky to catch the scene below - it lasted all of 25 seconds - I just happened to have a camera lying at hand.

In fact I have been lucky a couple of times and have been able to capture a few scenes, that only lasted seconds:

These last three images were all taken from my dining room window,
during evening meals.

The pros and contras of living in the foothills of the Swiss Alps!

]]>QueerrjhAppenzeller2006-12-10T14:10:02+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/34ddc62916b82c9b7ed8529506d67cd0-47.html#unique-entry-id-47http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/34ddc62916b82c9b7ed8529506d67cd0-47.html#unique-entry-id-47
The posts are put in some time in October and enable us to find the roads, even when they have been obliterated by snow drifts.
Because ours is a private road, we are obliged to put up our own posts.
During the first couple of years that I lived here, my landlord put the posts in.
The last two years he didn't. Well, he's over 80 so perhaps he wasn't well enough, or he just forgot.

The year before last, when I realised that the post weren't going to appear, I put up some plastic bean canes I purchased at the local nursery. They were green and not very easy to see in semi darkness.

Last year I phoned the 'Bauamt' - the people that maintain our roads and public buildings - and asked if it were possible to purchase some of their red, wooden posts.

The guy from the Bauamt told me I could have some of his older posts, some that had been knocked down by cars and consequently shortened. They would be a lot cheaper than new ones. He even came along and put them in for me.
I paid CHF 50,- for them.

In May I took them out, cleaned them and stored them in the barn.
In October my landlord remembered, that he had to put in the posts.
The bottom half of the road (the steepest part) he marked with my bean canes.
The stretch between my house and his house was marked with some old fence posts.
His driveway was marked with my shiny red posts!

I couldn't be bothered to go and inform him, what I thought about him, but I did remove two of my red posts and put them in the most important positions on the steep part of the road!

I hope he misses the edge of his drive now and lands in the meadow!]]>WinterrjhAppenzeller2006-12-10T13:08:29+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1c2ede2ed7161a5cf6024668c37f5217-46.html#unique-entry-id-46http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/1c2ede2ed7161a5cf6024668c37f5217-46.html#unique-entry-id-46expats who chose to live in, or near, Zürich.
They are now complaining about the weather.

I chose to live elsewhere, at just under 1000 meters above sea level. I did so in the knowledge that in this area, we can have snow from October to April. That is seven months a year and I love it!
It was a lot warmer this year, than in previous years. We had an unusually long and hot summer and a wonderful autumn. Now, at last, winter has us in its grips and the weather prophets have promised us a meter of snow for Christmas!
I am thrilled!

For those of you who either chose the wrong part of Switzerland to live in, or chose to live somewhere entirely different - here are some photographs I took this morning.

A taste of things to come.

]]>The Down SiderjhAppenzeller2006-12-09T17:05:15+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/28dd1f491a1935f6155474e708a05e9b-45.html#unique-entry-id-45http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/28dd1f491a1935f6155474e708a05e9b-45.html#unique-entry-id-45
The foehn collapsed yesterday.
Last week was warm and, if you ignored the golden trees, you could have mistaken it for spring.
Yesterday I had a splitting headache and wasn't surprised, when the wispy clouds over the mountain tops, were blown away.
A strong wind came up and when I went outside the wind had turned cold and was lashing streaks of rain around.

This morning we awoke to 25 cm of snow.
It hasn't stopped snowing all day long.
For the first time in ages, I had to dig the car out again.
I wish there were some sort of spray to make snow disappear from cars.

I'll have to turn the central heating on now!]]>Bo PeeprjhAppenzeller2006-12-03T17:50:53+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/acd93e3006135804d8ed06a025b10bb0-44.html#unique-entry-id-44http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/acd93e3006135804d8ed06a025b10bb0-44.html#unique-entry-id-44
It is not unusual to see sheep here, but we are not in Wales or Scotland - it is unusual to have them on the roads!
I carefully nudged my car through them and when I got home I phoned the farmer that owns the sheep and asked if it was o.k. for them to 'out on their own'?
"Oh yes," he said "that's fine."

Well, o.k. they are his sheep, not mine - he knows best.

The phone just rang.
Did I, by any chance, observe the direction the sheep took off in?]]>Computer ExpertrjhMusings2006-12-03T15:39:03+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c9dc8af3a26095613de65394de63deeb-43.html#unique-entry-id-43http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c9dc8af3a26095613de65394de63deeb-43.html#unique-entry-id-43"...and this is our computer expert."
My job title is actually something entirely different, as some of you might actually have read elsewhere.
I am not a computer expert - far from it. A computer is the tool I use to accomplish the work I do, the way a carpenter most likely uses a saw every day.

The sales person stood and watched me working in Photoshop for a few minutes and then commented
"Wow, I wish I could use a computer like that! How long have you been working with computers?"

This made me stop and think ...

I acquired my first computer in 1980. It was from Texas Instruments and used Basic.
I fiddled around with it for a few weeks without being able to reconcile myself to the fact that, not only did you have to tell it what to do, you also had to explain how to do it. It couldn't do anything I couldn't imagine for myself.
This is not what they had told me, that computers would be able to do.
I gave it away to someone that - hopefully - could put it to more use than I could.

It must have been around 1983, that I first bought a computer that ran DOS. Green text on a black screen - yuck!
It could do things without me needing to explain what I wanted it to do, but I had to write out commands to get it to do so. The commands got more and more intricate, the more complicated the things you wanted it to do.
But, at least it could do things that I couldn't imagine and I could write letters on it. There was also a software loaded, called MS MultiPlan that allowed me to create rudimentary spreadsheets. A slide-rule is faster.

My boss at work bought a Mac in 1985 and I envied him for its GUI (Grafical User Interface).
It was also in 1985, that A guy at the Motorpresse in Stuttgart greeted me excitedly, waving a piece of paper. The paper had some text printed on it in Black and white. It had been produced with PageMaker on a Mac.
"This is the future of the reproduction industry" he informed me.
Although I didn't believe him for another two years, he was right!
(A few years later I was lucky enough to help produce the first digitally published magazine in Germany.)

I couldn't afford a Mac of my own so I was rather pleased, when Microsoft copied the GUI and introduced Windows in 1986. It wasn't quite the same as using a Mac, but it was similar. The thing I hated was how often it crashed!
Windows was always just that little more complicated than a Mac. It has always been a lot less productive.
I spend the first ten minutes, after booting my Windows laptop clicking away at irritating messages - most of them warning me about something to do with the internet and viruses.

I always preferred to work with a Mac and I have been teaching people how to use them since 1987.
My first very own Mac was purchased in 1991.
There are still six of my old Macs on various shelves in my office and I have three in everyday operation.
Computers have always interested me as a means to accomplish things in the publishing industry. In the meantime, they interest me from a general media point of view. I only ever dug down as far down into their workings as I have needed.

My knowledge of publishing and design applications has been accumulated over a period of 20 years. Some of it has been hard work - most especially, understanding the theory behind the practice.

I'm not sure the sales person was really that interested in my computer past, so I just said
"Since about 1987"
"Well, in that case, it's no wonder!" he said.

I suppose, that if I were unable to use the tools of my trade after 20 years, I should, or hopefully would, have chosen some other trade.

Macs

]]>Greeting GodrjhAppenzeller2006-11-21T08:58:39+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b18694e8b7dacf687d5c47eda742ab31-42.html#unique-entry-id-42http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b18694e8b7dacf687d5c47eda742ab31-42.html#unique-entry-id-42
This is the typical formal greeting in the south of Germany and in Austria.
The guy I was being introduced to is Austrian, so he rrrolls his "r's" and spittts his "t's", the way only Austrians can.

Younger Swabians frown at this method of greeting nowadays - not in keeping with the Zeitgeist.
I find it a little strange too.

Due to habit, I replied "I shall when I see him!", the way lots of Swabians do.
If looks could kill, I would be unable to write this now!

Disclaimer: I am not religious, but neither do I frown on those who are.]]>AutumnrjhAppenzeller2006-11-12T14:18:36+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b879186be31d28f798526d01dc843ab1-41.html#unique-entry-id-41http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b879186be31d28f798526d01dc843ab1-41.html#unique-entry-id-41
I like Autumn. I like the colours it presents us with.
Typical of the Autumn colours are pumpkins.
At the moment you can buy pumpkins of all sorts and sizes, at roadside stalls all over the countryside.
Some of them can be eaten, others are best used for decoration.
If you care to eat them, you can cut them into chunks and pickle them. You can cut them into chunks and boil them to be eaten as vegetables or - my favourite - you can chop them up small and make soup with them, spiced with ginger and garlic and blended with cream.

Warning! When removing the rind - keep your fingers out of the way!!

Pumpkins_2

]]>IDrjhMusings2006-10-27T20:01:22+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/36398c19a73b4f72a4e7e443e08aa729-36.html#unique-entry-id-36http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/36398c19a73b4f72a4e7e443e08aa729-36.html#unique-entry-id-36I couldn't fathom out, what sort of 'stuff' that might be, until I went to renew my contract for my mobile phone (and procure a new phone into the bargain).

Salesperson: Do you have an ID with you, as proof of identity?
Me: No, the war ended nearly 60 years ago and where I come from, they haven't been deemed necessary since.
SP: well, do you have a passport with you?
Me: Yes, I have it in the car.
SP: Could you fetch it, I can't extend your contract, without proof of identity?

I fetched my passport, proved that I am who I am and walked off happily with my new phone.

Then it occurred to me, what it might be, the British are dropping into their bins!

I mentioned, that during my holiday in Wales, the magnetic strip on my credit card got zapped!
Suddenly I was unable to withdraw funds from a cash machine.
There was a bill for B&B waiting for me, so I phoned Visa who confirmed that indeed, it was the magnetic strip and no, the card had not been suspended, I would be able to withdraw up to £x,000 at any banks cash-desk but preferably Barclays.

I trotted off to Barclays in Barmouth, where there was a nice lady behind the glass.
NL: "No, Sir I can't give you cash on a credit card, you'll have to use the hole in the wall"
I explained my situation but she informed me, that she was unable to help.
Me: "Well, who can help?"
She didn't really know.
I explained, that I was 800 Miles from home, had a hotel bill for £200 and was in need of petrol, to continue my journey.
NL: "Well how much did you wish to withdraw then?"
Me: "£300 would have me on my way"
NL: Gasp !!! She held on to the counter for support.
NL "I'm sorry sir, there is no way, that I can let you have, gasp, that amount of money. Impossible!"
Me: "Well, how much could you let me have then?"
NL: "£50 utmost"
Me: Well that will get me back to the hotel, at least."
NL: "Do you have any form of identification?"
Me: "Well, yes, I have my British Passport and my International Driving License.
NL: "I'm sorry sir, I'm afraid that won't suffice. Do you have a gas bill or an electricity bill, addressed to your home address?"
Me "Hiccup?" ( I have always been in a habit of carrying wads of old bills around with me)
Me" What on earth for??!!"
NL " As proof of identity."
Me "And how am I going to prove, that I really live there?"

We finally agreed, that she might give me £10 against my valid passport.
I stood and banged my head against the wall, as she dragged my dud magnetic strip through the slit in her keyboard for the tenth time ...

The ten pounds got me to a Nat West in Caernarfon, where the next nice lady asked if I could be so kind and 'just sign on the dotted line', before she handed over £300.

I have no idea what else might suffice as proof of identity in Britain. It might be worth checking a couple of dustbins.

Gone phishing ...]]>SardinesrjhAppenzeller2006-10-22T11:07:18+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0fdb80b647a886dfd0ead4acefbf95d8-35.html#unique-entry-id-35http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0fdb80b647a886dfd0ead4acefbf95d8-35.html#unique-entry-id-35
The OLMA closes today after eleven days.
No, not the Ontario Lumber Manufacturers' Association, but the Swiss exhibition of agriculture and nutrition in Sankt Gallen.
It would seem to be obligatory for anyone who lives in the area.

I wanted to visit the exhibition last year, but my logic wasn't functioning.
If visitors to the exhibition don't get home until three a.m. I presumed there was no point in getting there early.
I turned up at nine p.m. The doors were closed. Well, they would be, of course.

This year some friends took my hand and promised to show me what it was all about and why most visitors don't just go once a year, but once a day for the whole eleven days.
'You have to be there early to find room' they told me.
We got there at two - p.m. that is.
We rushed past Sewing Machines, Washing Machines, Ironing Machines, Coffee Machines and Snow Ploughs.
No-one really took any interest in them. Too nutritious? Too agricultural?

Oh look!
Hall 9 is devoted to cheese!
And the hall next to it is devoted to livestock.
But who wants to stand around looking at cows until three-in-the-morning?
We sampled some cheese and washed it down with a beer and then rushed along to find our places in Hall 4, before they were taken.

Halls 4 and 5 are devoted to nutrition - in fluid form.
Mounting the stairs to Hall 4 is a feat in itself. The stairs are packed and the noise from above is deafening.
Hieronymus Bosch never imagined anything like the scene that greeted us - even in his wildest nightmares.

People were standing shoulder to shoulder and nose to nose.
If someone moved to let you pass, you could observe how 200 and more people swayed with them.
And, apparently, it wasn't even near full yet.
We somehow reached our 'destination'. It looked pretty much the same as everywhere else to me. I took my position between the bodies and through some miracle, a beer found its way into my hand.
Trying to work out how to get the beer to my mouth, I watched the crowd and noticed that through mutual consent, it was my turn to drink. The people around me swayed away from me just long enough for me raise my glass and take a sip, then it was someone elses' turn.
Don't try to drink while your neighbour is drinking - one of you is bound to loose some teeth.

After drinking my beer, I decided it might be time for me to leave. In the meantime, however, I was packed in so tightly, it was impossible to move. I never learned to use my elbows and 'excuse me' just didn't work!
Another beer somehow found its way into my hand and I resigned to my fate.
After four beers, I was relieved to hear a loudspeaker announce:
'The OLMA is closing, would you please carefully drink whatever it is you are holding and make your way to the exit.'

We all shuffled toward The Exit and the scene from within, was repeated in the street behind the exhibition halls and in the surrounding pubs.

Perhaps I am anti-social, but it didn't take long for me to abandon my friends, wedged there in the crowds and to make my way to the station.
Perhaps it is my being British, but my idea of fun and socialising is somehow different.
Perhaps I missed something.]]>BureaucracyrjhAppenzeller2006-10-21T12:35:22+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0dc068e3aed6a7a8b5515bd09ac281c7-34.html#unique-entry-id-34http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/0dc068e3aed6a7a8b5515bd09ac281c7-34.html#unique-entry-id-34
I remember, years ago, when I first arrived in Germany, I turned up at the Landratsamt (district offices) one day, naive as I was, and said:
"Hi, I've just declared Germany to be my new home!".
They gave me a form to complete, telling them where I lived, my date of birth etc. and then they gave me a document which allowed me to live and work in Germany - no restrictions - for one year. I then went off to find a job.
After that year I went back to have the document extended and got a stamp which said 'five years'.
After the five years they wanted to extend it for another five years.
I politely said, that this was getting tedious - I intend to stay for longer ...
They looked in the computer, looked at my passport and then gave me a new document which had the magic word 'Unbegrenzt/Unrestricted'.
I took the document and put it in my wallet. It was in there for 26 years and I didn't need it once!

When I decided to move to Switzerland I was informed that, for immigration purposes, I needed to have a job beforehand, my future boss would have to apply to have me allowed to immigrate and while doing so, would have to submit proof, that he was unable to find a Swiss person capable of doing what I was coming to do!

Being unaware of the extremes of bureaucracy I phoned my new boss a week after he made the application and asked if he had heard anything yet.
He hadn't.
Did he have a phone number for me?
He did.

I phoned the office in Sankt Gallen and was connected to a polite gentleman.
I know now, that his name is Bünzli.
After a search that lasted several minutes he told me that, yes, the application was on his desk, but it was at the bottom of The Pile. I asked if, seeing as he had just pulled it out to look at it, it might just be at the top of The Pile now?
It wasn't.

Two days later I phoned Mr. Bünzli again, to ask if my application had moved up The Pile any further?
Apparently there were two or three applications, that had crept in below mine ...
I phoned next day.
My application hadn't made any progress, nor the next day.
The day after, Mr Bünzli sounded rather annoyed, as he informed me, 'applying for permission to immigrate into Switzerland, was not like purchasing an air-ticket!'
Well yes - I understood that, but surely it can't be any more complicated, than a move to Germany.
Well, actually it is - there are a great number of facts to take into consideration!

I can only presume, that he had to check all of the Swiss unemployment lists, to see if he might find someone who could be persuaded to do my job after all ...
Obviously he couldn't. I phoned a day later and he told me, he had passed my application on to the Fremdenpolizei/aliens' police. Ooops!
Had I paid all of my parking tickets? There was that one in France a few years back, that I had ignored. Was that going to jeopardise my chances now?

I asked Mr Bünzli, if he could give me the number of the person he had passed the forms on to?
There was relief in his voice, as he told me the number.

I phoned the guy from the aliens' police. And the next day and so on ...
After a week a provisory acceptance of my application fluttered through the letterbox and I moved to Switzerland.

Here the process was remarkably similar to that in Germany.
The difference is, that the slips of paper, allowing residence and employment are restricted to specific Cantons (counties) for the first twelve months and are marked with a large letter 'A', 'B' or 'C' for beginners, intermediates and professionals.

An 'A' allows you to cross the border into Switzerland to work, if you promise to return home in the evening.
A 'B' allows you to reside and work here for twelve months (**new** five years for EU members), after twelve months it can be extended to five years - if you were on your very best behaviour the whole time!
After being a resident for five years, you may apply for the magic 'C' - 'Unrestricted', after ten years it is granted automatically - if you were ...
see above.

Recently, being here the five years, I made my application for my 'C'.
it was granted after just six weeks!
Apparently I had been on my best behaviour. I haven't been arrested once, since being here and have never been fined for speeding!
I don't deal with drugs and they never caught me driving under the influence ...
I now have the magic words:
'Unrestricted until 28th December 2010'

You'll have to excuse me while I fetch my dictionary and look up the word 'unrestricted' ...]]>How many clock?rjhAppenzeller2006-10-15T08:40:34+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a3c4f7cc80f712a58a76e47a41639899-33.html#unique-entry-id-33http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a3c4f7cc80f712a58a76e47a41639899-33.html#unique-entry-id-33
My mobile rang yesterday, while I was in the car on my way home from shopping. My best friend, Esther, complained that we hadn't seen each other in weeks and would I like to go for Brunch ...
Well, of course I said yes.
Then she mentioned a time - half-something - and being in the car, I was unable to jot it down.

When the Swiss or Germans say half ten it is exactly an hour earlier, than when we Brits say half ten.
And that has been my problem since being on the continent ...
Someone will mention a time and I will promptly get it confused.
In my mind I immediately translate 'half ten' to 'nine thirty', but if I don't jot it down, I begin to ask myself 'did she say half ten or half nine?'
So now I have a time span from between 08:30 and 10:30 to go and meet Esther for brunch.
I can't phone her and ask, because she will sleep until the very last minute, jump under the shower and then into her car ...
... I'll either wake her or be too late anyway!

As I say - it has been like this for years. I was supposed to attend a very important dinner with customers once. My Boss said 'We have a table at half seven'.
I turned up at half seven. On the dot. I was proud of my punctuality.
Everyone was just finishing their meal!

It is just coming up to 09:00. I'm off now - wish me luck!]]>You or you - continuedrjhAppenzeller2006-10-08T09:45:24+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9e8125b91502ea8b29ef44fd2aded0a8-32.html#unique-entry-id-32http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/9e8125b91502ea8b29ef44fd2aded0a8-32.html#unique-entry-id-32
Last night I went out for a drink with a colleague.
When we got to the pub there was standing room only, so we stood and drank our beer. While we were standing there, a group of musicians entered and plagued us for fifteen minutes with some Spanish (I think) music then a guy came in and tried to sell us some roses - pretty much a normal night at the pub ...

A table emptied except for one guy. We asked if it was o.k. to sit with him and he gestured his assent. We sat and after a few minutes, two young women came to the table and asked, if it was o.k. to sit down too. We nodded. They sat.

Then one of them proffered a hand and said
'Ich bin Martina'.
'Well, yes uuhm, I'm Rob.'
'Hi, I'm Simone.' (Pronounced almost like Simon - the way only the Swiss can).
'Uuhm - Pleased to meet you - Rob.'

So we spent the evening chatting and drinking ...

But if you call that informal ...
At some point after the third beer, I felt the call of nature.
I ascended the stairs and entered the men's toilets. I swear it was the men's - there was a guy standing in the corner, doing what men do, when they stand at that sort of receptacle. As it was the only one, I waited.
The door to the toilet cubicle opened and out came a woman. The woman called out to someone waiting in the corridor.
'It's vacant'.
Another woman entered the room and the cubicle was quickly re-engaged!

After I was finished, I double-checked.
(The cubicle had changed ~~bums~~ hands once again - another woman)
On the door was a picture of a male in bathing trunks, the door next to it had a female in a bathing suit. The cubicles in there looked vacant to me.

I could only shake my head at how informal the Swiss really can be.]]>HugsrjhAppenzeller2006-10-07T13:10:20+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5833c8e0ce883cf08dc219bd5f16b60f-31.html#unique-entry-id-31http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5833c8e0ce883cf08dc219bd5f16b60f-31.html#unique-entry-id-31Heather or Kate.

Standing at the traffic-lights yesterday, I noticed a sign that said 'Fussgänger drücken / Hug a pedestrian'. I got out of my car and tried it - needles to say, she didn't like it!
When I pointed the sign out to her, she gave me the correct translation 'Pedestrians press', which I suppose is a lot shorter than ' Pedestrians, press this button if you wish to cross the road, it might help change the lights in your favour ...'

I prefer the other translation!]]>FønrjhAppenzeller2006-10-05T19:21:04+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/aa7422718e5e486d7e53a30c8f71f265-30.html#unique-entry-id-30http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/aa7422718e5e486d7e53a30c8f71f265-30.html#unique-entry-id-30
This morning when I got up, even the tom-cat was ill and to prove it he ran into the bathroom twice, after I had cleaned up, to throw up on the bathroom floor again.
I admit that I was thankful for him using the lino in the bathroom and not the carpet in the living room (wonder where he learned that?) but I wasn't feeling too well myself.
In fact, I felt as if I had spent the night drinking, whereas I had, in fact, been a very good boy, drank only mineral water and went to bed early (by my standards anyway).

It was cold and windy when I opened the door to go to work. Then it started to rain while I was on the motorway. My headache got worse during the morning so, to be able to concentrate, I was forced to take a couple of paracetamol.

When I went for a sandwich at lunch time the sun was shining brightly, there were wispy clouds in the sky and the temperature had risen by at least 10°. The mountains looked, as if they were about to fall on top of me!
I should have known - Föhn!

When I lived in Stuttgart, I regularly heard my friends in Munich complaining about the Föhn - I always laughed, I'd never heard such rubbish! When I started training people in Switzerland I had trouble with one of my very first courses, due to a very bad headache. 'Of course,' my colleague said 'there is a Föhn'.

And he was right - I have the symptoms nearly every time.

Wikipedia tells us, that a foehn wind occurs when a deep layer of prevailing wind is forced over a mountain range (Orographic lifting). As the wind moves upslope, it expands and cools, causing water vapor to precipitate out. This dehydrated air then passes over the crest and begins to move downslope. As the wind descends to lower levels on the leeward side of the mountains, the air heats as it comes under greater atmospheric pressure creating strong, gusty, warm and dry winds. Föhn winds can raise temperatures as much as 30°C (54°F) in just a matter of hours. Winds of this type are called "snow-eaters" for their ability to make snow melt rapidly. This ability is based not only on high temperature, but also the low relative humidity of the air mass. Föhn winds are also associated with the rapid spread of wildfires, making some regions which experience these winds particularly fire-prone.

Whole villages along the northern foot of the mountains have been burned down during a Föhn. One village, I remember reading (I can't find the link) burned to the ground more than once.
As recently as February 2001, a fire that started in the centre of Balzers (just round the corner here, in Liechtenstein), burned down half the old town centre. This, even though the local fire brigade was out practising and reached the source of the fire within minutes.
They immediately alarmed the fire brigades of the two neighbouring towns but even so, a total of 9 Houses and 6 barns were destroyed completely and 3 houses were badly damaged.

After taking those facts into consideration, I suppose my headache is almost nothing!
I shall never laugh at anyone who complains about the Föhn again.]]>Fertility rites ...rjhAppenzeller2006-10-01T11:03:19+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2874c047cb4e7c661912eca03854546a-29.html#unique-entry-id-29http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2874c047cb4e7c661912eca03854546a-29.html#unique-entry-id-29The parish fair originated as an autumn fertility festival/harvest festival and was eagerly adapted to Christian purposes in the early middle ages for the church consecration.

Observing the festivities this morning at 4 a.m. it occurred to me, that even though the church has forgotten the origins of this festival, modern youth hasn't.
Watching the mating rituals of those inebriated bodies, writhing to the sound of Eric Clapton's 'You're Wonderful Tonight', it became obvious, that alcohol had made everyone oblivious to the buckets of apples, the pumpkins and the wheat-sheaves that had originally been a suitable decoration for a religious gathering.

Your place, or mine?
I wonder how many virgins were sacrificed last night ...
]]>Little grey cellsrjhMusings2006-09-30T18:00:52+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6fa0f1123630b682d5c1cf06b08e65ee-28.html#unique-entry-id-28http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6fa0f1123630b682d5c1cf06b08e65ee-28.html#unique-entry-id-28
I just went out for a short stroll and my two kittens decided to tag along.
Most of the meadows are fenced off with electric fences - these I have found to be efficient in keeping you on the right path in the dark!
Anyway - just out of sight of the house, there is a meadow without a fence so we walked through the grass around its perimeter and along the edge of the woods.
We didn't venture far into the meadow, because it looks as if the farmers will be able to mow just once more this year and they hate it when those city-people have walked right across the grass!
As we reached the third side of the meadow the house came back into view. I continued to walk along the edge/electric fence, but the kittens decided it would be shorter to run straight through the middle of the cows ...
(Why is it, that cats are wary of dogs at a distance of 500 meters but ignore the much larger cows even at 2 meters?)
Now cows have a tendency to leave those large brown puddles everywhere.
One of those puddles now has two perfect sets of cat-prints in it and I have two kittens with very smelly feet!]]>The Hills Are Alive ...rjhAppenzeller2006-09-23T16:56:25+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a93f76f677e10875835a17f74b9e0928-27.html#unique-entry-id-27http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/a93f76f677e10875835a17f74b9e0928-27.html#unique-entry-id-27
In our peaceful alpine foothills we have, it would seem, a lone boar (that is boar - as in wild pig, not bore - as in blogger).
He is on the rampage in the fields and meadows, ripping up the ground on his forage for edibles. That alone, apparently, is reason enough for him to be shot. We can't have the tidy Swiss landscape being ripped up by a pig! That and the fact, that (in some parts of Europe) the hunting season has started.

Lots of restaurants now have signs hanging outside, advertising 'Wild Woche' - Wild Week means 'Game Week' and gives the restaurants an excuse to sell portions of Bambi and bits of Bambi's Dad at extortionate prices. This season will obviously give us wild boar too! I wonder if he was able to dig up any truffles before they shot him?

As today is the first day of Autumn (Heather your forecast was correct!) a lot of those restaurants are going to be able to advertise 'Metzgete' too - literally translated, Metzgete means Butchered. Autumn is the time of year, when the Swiss celebrate the blood sausage.
When I say blood sausage, please don't envisage anything like the English black-pudding - I am sorry to say, it has no similarity whatsoever.

The Alsatians (Elsaß, France) have blood sausage, as do the Germans and the Austrians. All are edible, most are good - if you enjoy that sort of thing - but I have yet to acquire a taste for the Swiss version.
The recipe? Quite simple:
Take 50 cm of pig's intestine and wash until clean. Tie a knot in one end and fill it with pig's blood. Tie a knot in the other end and twist it in the middle to make two sausages. Do not allow the blood to cool, but preferably, drop your sausages straight into boiling water. Not, however, for longer than two minutes, otherwise the blood will congeal.

I'll try anything once. The first time I tried Swiss Blutwurst was at a bar with standing-room only. When my sausage was placed in front of me along with Sauerkraut, potatoes and bread, I took my knife and fork and went to cut the sausage. The effect was astonishing! The two people to the left and the two to the right of me instantly jumped away from the bar!

"What did I do?" I asked.
"You've not eaten that before, have you?" the guy on my left asked.
"No." I admitted
"We cut them open along the bottom." he informed me, not proffering a solution for something that sounds impossible.

I turned my fork over and held the sausage down with it and slit the sausage open, as gently as I could. The people alongside me relaxed noticeably and I almost turned green! My plate was full of congealed blood!

I pushed the plate away from me and ordered a Schnapps to help me recover.

After a few minutes TGOML nudged me and said:
"You're not eating that then?"
"Definitely not!" I said emphatically.
"Mind if I have it then?" he asked.
"Be my guest," I said "but don't asked me to watch." and turned away.

Just in case you - like me - don't fancy the blood sausages, you may also order liver sausages.
Now please don't go confusing these with the German Leberwurst because, once again, there is no similarity!
The Swiss Leberwurst is similar to their Blutwurst - the only difference being, that the blood has been replaced by a revolting mass of minced liver and fat.

The weenies amongst you, may order a pigs tail or tongue in some places or, if those don't take your fancy, an ordinary piece of salted pork, all menus served with Sauerkraut, potatoes and bread. I wish you a guten Appetit.
I, myself, will give the Metzgete a miss again this year.]]>Cow-bells and church-bellsrjhAppenzeller2006-09-23T14:05:08+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/32c9f75fe08124ff28f1964464fc3f65-26.html#unique-entry-id-26http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/32c9f75fe08124ff28f1964464fc3f65-26.html#unique-entry-id-26Jul has noted this too. "Not that I’m actually considering starting my own religion…"

Vacuuming is frowned upon, you may not wash your car and you most certainly may not take your empty bottles to the recycling containers!
Yet the churches openly break this strict law every Sunday, with bells clanging away for half an hour at a time as if they were trying to wake the dead!

There is another, more subtle way of breaking the law too. Cows!

Outside my window is a meadow full of cows, each one of them sporting a bell.
Surprising, the different sounds a cow-bell can make. First, there are different sized bells for the older and for the younger cows. Then there are the sounds of them cantering across the meadow, the more muffled sound of them eating and the slower sound of them chewing the cud.

My landlord lives in the next house 500 m away. He is 92 and has lived with the sound of cow-bells all his life.
He insists the local farmer remove the bells from the cows grazing in the meadow around his house - they disturb his mid-day nap!
I suppose you must get that way, as you grow older ...
... I, for one, find the sound of the cow-bells to be most calming - the world is in good order.

But no - now I come to think of it, it can't be age. Last month my neighbour had guests from Germany staying for a fortnight.
On their third morning, they asked, if there were any way to stop the cockerel from crowing every morning ...

... well, I thought that was one of the things about getting out of the city, at least they didn't need an alarm clock!

Cowbell

]]>FriendsrjhMusings2006-09-17T14:32:30+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6f6c42067977ee97fa79205353b209e7-25.html#unique-entry-id-25http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6f6c42067977ee97fa79205353b209e7-25.html#unique-entry-id-25
When we first met, she was accompanied by her brother. He lived with us for a few years, but died after being hit by a car.
At eighteen, she was getting old - on cold days, you could really hear her joints complain when she moved. She was unable to move very quickly as she got older, but she always acted with great dignity and only rarely did she complain.

I missed her, when she went - eighteen years is a long time and a good age for a cat.

Neighbours were quick to ask, if I wanted to replace her ...
... last Tuesday I took delivery of this pair.

Becca

They are a pair of nuisances! They can't remember what I have told them for longer than fifteen seconds and are always getting into trouble!
I had forgotten, what it is like to have young kittens around.
I've named them Becca and Benson, but if they persist in presenting me with pictures like this, I might rename them Ying and Yang ...

ying_yang

]]>HandwerkerrjhAppenzeller2006-09-16T09:16:00+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fa6dc4fb5d29e3f6bcb3ba74066b4483-24.html#unique-entry-id-24http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/fa6dc4fb5d29e3f6bcb3ba74066b4483-24.html#unique-entry-id-24Not recognising him, I looked at him more closely and wondered, once again, about how informal the Swiss can be. Then I recognised him as the 'Communications Engineer' that fitted my telephone, when I originally moved here.

He arrived at 8:30, spread out his tools and then said "It's almost 9:00; in Switzerland we have a break at 9:00" Then he disappeared for half an hour!

When he returned, I asked him his advice on a problem I had hit upon.
He gave me the best advice, a Handwerker could give ...

When I moved into this place, I decided, that it was not logical to have the bedroom opposite the kitchen/dining room and the (smaller) living room opposite the bathroom, but that was the way the flat had been laid out.

I decided to swap the two rooms around. This meant moving the TV/radio antennae and to do so, I had started to drill through the wall. After just a few seconds I hit metal and, not knowing what it might be, stopped immediately.

I asked my Engineer what, in his experience, the metal might be and he told me it was probably just a mortice and that he and his colleagues, in my situation, would just continue drilling - not a lot can really happen ...

Not being entirely satisfied with this answer, I made my original hole a little larger (he'd gone by then) and discovered that my metal was a water pipe for the central heating!
I suppose he was right - except for flooding the whole house and rendering the heating inoperative in January (with three feet of snow), not a lot would have happened ...]]>SadrjhOther Stuff2006-09-12T11:06:37+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ffd1a814c74d0f988ec3beeac0fdf7f5-23.html#unique-entry-id-23http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/ffd1a814c74d0f988ec3beeac0fdf7f5-23.html#unique-entry-id-23The site that did the co-ordination is down today - due to overload, I presume.

I read many of the tributes yesterday and today. The personal nature of these tributes, takes me a lot closer to 11/09/2001 (it will take more than a terrorist to convert me to the American date system) than I have ever been before and I feel like crying.]]>Hit the road ...rjhRound and About ...2006-09-12T12:48:16+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c2d1cd67a4cc7fbfead7852025c9be68-22.html#unique-entry-id-22http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c2d1cd67a4cc7fbfead7852025c9be68-22.html#unique-entry-id-22Kate says so, anyway!

My trip through France took me over their motorway system. Most of the motorways in France are privately owned. The Swiss have their Vignette, the Austrians their Pickerl - annual tickets to stick on your windscreen, that cover all motorway mileage (the Austrians also have a bi-monthly option). The French prefer pay-as-you-go.

Taking the shortest route through France helped me to get acquainted with almost all of the French toll roads.
This, when travelling by motorbike, is most impractical - I felt like a jerk.
Drive up to the barrier, put the machine into neutral, take off your gloves.
Take the ticket that is automatically proffered. Think, for a second, where to put the ticket, so that it may be found easily when needed.
Put your gloves back on, ignoring the horns, that are being sounded behind you and the barrier that has been open for almost a minute and drive on.

After about 100 km the motorway owner changes, so it is time to pay.
Drive up to the barrier with the shortest queue (the one for credit cards), put the machine into neutral, take off your gloves.
Undo the press studs and the zip of your jacket, fish your wallet from your inside pocket, push the ticket into the ticket machine, take it out again and put it in the right way round, push your credit card into the machine, take it out again and put it in the right way round.
Ignore the fact that the barrier just rose. Put your credit card somewhere you can get at it easier next time (why didn't I think of that in the first place?), put your wallet away. Ignore the horns sounding behind you and try not to feel like the jerk Kate says you are. Do your zip up and fumble with the press studs while working out, that 100 km at approx 14 € actually costs more than a bi-monthly Pickerl in Austria - and drive on!

After 20 km of public motorway i.e. no toll, the cycle starts again.

Somewhere in Wales the magnetic strip on my credit card got zapped! Due to this fact, I decided to take the longer route for the home journey, avoiding as many toll roads as possible. The stretch between Luxembourg and Strasbourg was the only stretch I had to pay for.
The identification of those Euro-Cents, smirking at you from the depths of your wallet, is worthy of an entry of its own!]]>11th of SeptemberrjhOther Stuff2006-09-11T16:26:55+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/746a9244060869d5a4a564cd24c98b87-21.html#unique-entry-id-21http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/746a9244060869d5a4a564cd24c98b87-21.html#unique-entry-id-21There was something amiss in New York.
When I asked what was happening they told me about some terrorist attacks.
My first reaction was "Yes, I just finished reading the book!" (John Grisham - The Brethren) Then I realised, that they were serious.

Sitting there watching the news and reflecting on the presidential elections of 2000, I couldn't help but draw further parallels to the novel.
Then, when the towers collapsed, I remarked, that it looked more like a well-planned demolition, than an attack.

Recently there was a documentary on German Television 'Loose Change' putting forward a conspiracy theory that is too close to Grisham's novel for comfort.
I hope, for the sake of America and for the sake of all those who tragically lost their lives five years ago, that the theory - however plausible it seems - is wrong!]]>Modern plumbingrjhRound and About ...2006-09-11T11:39:47+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7c5038f2e0babd9578280a269f9c96ca-20.html#unique-entry-id-20http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7c5038f2e0babd9578280a269f9c96ca-20.html#unique-entry-id-20
You'd think that British plumbers don't go abroad for their holidays and have never seen the bathroom fittings on the continent.
I had forgotten all about British bathrooms!

After spending most of my life on the continent, I am used to turning on a tap and being presented with hot, warm or cold water, as I wish.
The hot water system is part of the central heating system (always in the cellar) and - probably due to the fact, that heat rises - hot water is almost instantaneously available.

The system in GB is different - the boiler for hot water always seems to be on the top floor, or in the attic. This allows water to trickle through the pipes unaided, instead of having to use a pump.
The hot and the cold taps are generally a minimum of 30 cm apart and when you open the tap with the red marking, you have to run off 20 litres of cold water before you can be sure, that it really is the hot tap.
This alone is a waste of water but then, if you wish to use warm water to wash your hands, you have to run a further litre into the sink - twice the amount I need to wash my hands under running water.

On those rare occasions when you find a tap where hot and cold water flow from a single nozzle, you get the shock of your life: when you hold your hand under the flow of water, the left side of your hand freezes, while the right hand side is scalded!

Then there are the showers.
Step into the shower-cabin, open the tap and have a shower?
You would have thought so.
But no, first you have to search for the switch to turn on the boiler - a so-called continuous-flow-heater. The switch is usually attached to a cord, dangling from a corner of the ceiling.
You will most likely have to experiment for ten minutes, until you find out which knob on the heater does what and which combination of settings sets the heat closest to your preferences. You may now carefully position yourself under the trickle of water from the almost-adjustable-mini-shower-head.

And then, in one case in Wales, someone bangs the door to attract your attention.
"We forgot to tell you - you can't use the shower in your room - the drain leaks and most of the water ends up in the dining room!"
And all that for just £30-a-night bed and breakfast.]]>You or you?rjhAppenzeller2006-08-17T19:42:58+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/932bca625adc0772d598bcc58c043e71-19.html#unique-entry-id-19http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/932bca625adc0772d598bcc58c043e71-19.html#unique-entry-id-19I read something in Sara's blog yesterday, that set me thinking.

When I first moved to Switzerland I was very surprised at how quickly the Swiss will offer you the informal form of address, Du.
Quite often, someone you just met informally will automatically address you with Du.
In Germany you can go for years, saying Sie to someone that you meet every day, just as you could address someone as Mr. or Mrs. for years on end in Britain.

The rule I learned, is to say Sie to anyone older than sixteen, until prompted to say Du. That is, of course, unless you are higher in rank or older than your opposite, in which case you may do the prompting.
I remember once, inadvertently addressing someone with Du. The response was
'I don't remember that we ever ate cherries together?'
Sorry, could you repeat that?

In German speaking Switzerland, people are rather less formal and I sometimes get the impression, that they even feel uncomfortable with Sie.
If they feel uncertain of the situation, they will often revert to the old third person, formal version Ihr.
It just so happens, that Ihr is also the plural form, so when someone asks
'seid Ihr ...', it can mean 'art thou ...' or 'are you [all] ...'
Some Germans call this the Ghost Form, because you always feel the need to glance over your shoulder - 'me - and who else?'

Children here present a completely different problem.
Children in small towns and villages are brought up to greet people they encounter.
If you pass a child in the street, it will most likely greet you. It takes time for children to learn discretion; when I visited Zurich with friends, they had to say 'no, child, you don't have to greet everyone you pass in the city ...'

So what do you answer a child, that greets you with 'Grüezi' when you pass it? (Grüss Sie - greetings to you) The normal reaction would be to repeat the greeting, but one does not say Sie to children. I personally find the personal Swiss greeting 'Hoi' too informal, when greeting a total stranger - no matter how old, so now I have started to use the German greeting 'Grüss Dich' which is formally informal but sometimes results in strange glances. At least I feel comfortable with it.

You'll have to excuse me - there is a class of school children coming this way and I need to cross the road.]]>Mind your headrjhAppenzeller2006-08-15T18:00:25+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5ff1345c772ff7b225a1a6d7f8f53520-18.html#unique-entry-id-18http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/5ff1345c772ff7b225a1a6d7f8f53520-18.html#unique-entry-id-18After six weeks of sunshine the temperatures dropped by almost 20°C and it rained almost none-stop for what seemed like the proverbial forty days and forty nights. Up in the hills where I live (950 m - as in '3/4 of the way up Snowdon's 1300 m') the rain is often accompanied by wind. And when I say wind I mean wind with a capital W!

The house I live in was built in 1788 to house a small farm with about twelve cows. The cow shed now houses bicycles and gardening tools.
The house is a typical Appenzeller house built entirely of wood. It was 'renovated' about twenty years ago, so now the floors in each room are level and most of the ceilings are too. Though the floors are all level, none of them are actually at the same level - this means my rooms are a series of steps running diagonally across the house - the highest in the front bedroom, the lowest I use as an office.
You would pay a fortune to rent most split-level flats. This one is quite reasonable.

The lowest door frame is 1.65 m and it took me almost a year to register the fact.
The scars are gone now!
The highest door frames just allow me to pass through without injury.

When the wind blows, the house starts to creak and groan all over. There are two rooms with their original beamed ceiling and walls and they make the loudest sounds. At the same time dust spills out from between the cracks in those ceilings and from the (treated) woodworm holes in the walls. At times the wind can howl eerily like a horror film, through one of the kitchen windows.

The other day, I had guests when the house started one of its more Oscar-worthy performances. My friends looked at each other in surprise. One of them jumped up in panic – at the noise, I presumed. He informed us he had to go home immediately, to prevent loss of some textiles, that were now airing too heftily.
He raised his wine glass in a final toast and smashed it's stem against the ceiling as he drank. I wasn't really too happy about that, even though it was amusing.
After apologising, my friend turned to leave and drove his forehead straight into the door frame with a resounding thud.

We just had to laugh! Some misdemeanours are punished immediately.
Mind your head!]]>HospitalityrjhMumblings2006-08-11T07:57:42+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/233dcfc29479588b1179a36603eaf0e7-16.html#unique-entry-id-16http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/233dcfc29479588b1179a36603eaf0e7-16.html#unique-entry-id-16When are Swiss landlords and their personnel going to remember the fact, that they earn their living by being hospitable?
I live in the middle of nowhere, my next neighbour is 100 yards away and the next but one house just happens to be a restaurant.
This is very practical, because I can go there in an evening, drink a beer or a glass of wine and catch up on the local gossip.
The proprietor - a woman - is a gossip, which is a great help in that situation.
The restaurant is closed on Thursdays. It just so happens, that it is convenient for me to visit the place on a Wednesday.

On Wednesday I sat down, ordered a beer and asked what was on today's menu. A perfectly normal question in a restaurant?
Don't you believe it!
I was presented with a torrent of unfriendly sounds.
It slowly dawned on me, that I was being asked, why I had the audacity to order something to eat, when I know very well, that the place is closed on Thursdays and there is obviously (why hadn't I considered it myself!) nothing edible in the kitchen! Mumble, mumble, mumble!

I replied, that I had considered the fact, which was exactly why I had asked what was on today's menu and had not asked for the menu.
The answer was, that I could mumble, mumble, have Rösti (plate-sized hash browns made with julienned potatoes) and Bratwurst (fried sausage).
As I really enjoy rösti, I asked if I could have a plate full with baked cheese, instead of the sausage and the proprietor went mumbling off into the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later a plate was un-gently placed in front of me, accompanied by the comment 'You only come in here when the other pubs are closed anyway!'
I resisted the urge to get up and leave immediately - the rösti looked so good. I ate, drank another beer (I'd come for the news) and pretended nothing had happened.
The Appenzeller can be a little strange, but that kind of unfriendliness is taking things too far. It will be some time, before I go there again.
]]>Eggstraordinary rjhMusings2006-08-07T23:51:20+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c2c6b561803d7aafd7e4bdcc744f0544-15.html#unique-entry-id-15http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c2c6b561803d7aafd7e4bdcc744f0544-15.html#unique-entry-id-15Although I really enjoy cooking, I couldn't boil a soft boiled egg for you, even if my life depended on it.
The problem is, you can ask whoever you like, how to boil an egg and you will get a different answer every time.
I know because I recently asked and almost rekindled the civil war which originally separated the two halves of Appenzell.

Now, at last, help is at hand. As of autumn this year you will be able to go to the supermarket and purchase soft boiled eggs, or hard boiled - as you prefer.

Our very own Lion Quality Eggs are to be printed with an invisible, heat sensitive ink. You will be able to drop your eggs into hot water, boiling water or cold water - which ever your preferred method is - and when your egg is just right for you to dip your toasted soldiers into, the ink will appear to inform you of the fact!

And no, it is not April the first!

0,,325667,00

An egg shell displaying a new thermochromic logo, which becomes
visible when the egg is cooked (PA - The Times)]]>Bonfire Night IIrjhAppenzeller2006-08-01T17:10:17+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2d5f27be6f7859c22b679e1d76dcaac3-14.html#unique-entry-id-14http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/2d5f27be6f7859c22b679e1d76dcaac3-14.html#unique-entry-id-14not do!
On Sunday I got sunburned while sitting in the shadows for an hour.

Today there are hundreds of Neo-Nazis getting soaked to the skin, while they wait to disrupt todays celebrations.
There are hundreds of thousands of sausages getting soggy, because the grills can't be ignited and there are millions of Franks worth of fireworks, that can't be ignited because both fuses and matches are soggy.

Sorry, could you move just a little further to the left, with that umbrella, I'm trying to light this rocket!]]>Bonfire NightrjhAppenzeller2006-07-31T08:28:10+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7f30984a3e59ed546605118fe2a6ab75-13.html#unique-entry-id-13http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/7f30984a3e59ed546605118fe2a6ab75-13.html#unique-entry-id-13The Swiss National Holiday celebrates the founding of the Confederation Helvetica in 1291. A citizen of each of the states Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden climbed to the top of a small mountain called Rütli and swore "We will be a single nation of brothers"
It took them 524 years to complete their task, as it wasn't until 1815, that the last Cantons joined in the fun. And it wasn't until 1994, that it was considered important enough to be worth celebrating.

One of The Three, is often stated to have been the Swiss national hero William Tell, who supposedly had an active part in helping free those parts of Switzerland, that were under Austrian rule a the time.
A few years after the brotherhood was declared, Tell forgot to greet a hat hanging in the streets of Uri. The hat just happened to belong to the Austrian Protector of the area, Gessler, and he, somehow, wasn't too pleased about Tell's negligence and ...
... well, you know the story anyway, because you saw the television series in the 60s just after Robin Hood's third round of repeats!

The thing is, though, where as we have signed documents from our Guy Fawkes, declaring, that it's o.k. for us to set fire to the Houses of Parliament every fifth of November, there is no proof of William Tell's existence. There are no records of the family name Tell, Täll or Tello in Uri - officially he was never born, never got married and never died. In fact, if the German playwright Schiller, hadn't written a play about the whole affair, it would have been forgotten by today.

If Tell didn't exist, then the Confederation Helvetica couldn't have been formed, Switzerland never have been liberated from Austrian tyrants and we couldn't have fireworks tomorrow.
That being the case, I would like to thank Mr. Schiller, for giving us the day off work tomorrow, to let us celebrate his great play!]]>Herbal LiferjhAppenzeller2006-07-29T16:46:35+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f1eee5ec95ab5617b8c14051dba2f26a-12.html#unique-entry-id-12http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/f1eee5ec95ab5617b8c14051dba2f26a-12.html#unique-entry-id-12
The waitress, confronted with a carload of Brits, didn't seem too friendly. She dropped a stack of menus on the table and asked us impatiently, what we wanted to drink. We ordered our drinks and set out to tackle the menu - quite a daunting task, as it was written in the local dialect.

My father found 'Chrütter' somewhere in the menu and wanted to know what it was.
When the waitress came to our table to serve our drinks, I asked in German if she could explain what 'Chrütter' is.
My reply was: 'Na, Chrütter san Chrütter, oder?!' she sounded the words as if she were hacking up hairballs - I haven't mastered the Swiss combination of ch to this day, but the Swiss like the sound so much, they write it on the backs of their cars!

Anyway, it took some time, for the fact to sink in, that I hadn't understood a word she had said, by which time she was gone anyway!

A while later she came back to the table with the soup my father had ordered - and, because she was looking elsewhere, proceeded to pour it into his lap! He wasn't too pleased, but before he could catch his breath enough to do more than groan, the woman was apologising profusely and mopping his trousers with a serviette.

All of a sudden, she was as friendly as a person could be and after clearing up the mess and serving the rest of the meal (without further mishap) she came to the table with a bottle, which she proffered for my inspection - on the bottle was written 'Chrütter' and there was a picture of some herbs.
The penny dropped and the translation in my mind was immediate:
'Well, herbs are herbs, aren't they?!'

Needless to say, we didn't tip and my parents drove back to England with fond memories of Swiss hospitality.]]>CheeserjhAppenzeller2006-07-27T21:43:53+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b3c3dda6e069791249f9a93db143c2a6-10.html#unique-entry-id-10http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b3c3dda6e069791249f9a93db143c2a6-10.html#unique-entry-id-10If I'm ever going to fulfil my dream, I most certainly have to leave Appenzell first.

Whenever I visit a market here, there are always two or three locals selling their home made cheese.
You may go to any of the local supermarkets and find yards of cheese on display, most of it with signs that say 'Local Produce'.
Driving around the area or hiking the mountains, even, you will see signs that pronounce 'Chäs vom Buur/Farmhouse Cheese'.

I can spend hours at the various sales points, wondering whether to take the cheese from Village x, Cloister y or Alp z, whether I might prefer the raw milk, or the pasteurised and which of the goat's cheeses will be better.

There are cheeses with caraway, bear's garlic, mountain herbs, peppercorns, olives, and you may choose between young, medium, mature or very mature - some of them even look as if they could move of their own accord.

The strange thing though, is that between April and October (that is another story, but I still have to do some maths), I seldom see people buying cheese here. There can be queues three deep at the meat and cooked meat counters, but I get served without delay, when I buy cheese. The locals, trying to sell their ware at market, always look a little cheesed off and the paths leading to the farmhouse cheese are deserted.

The meadows around my house are flooded with the sound of cow bells. The milk from those cows goes to the local dairy where 120 loaves of cheese are produced every day - you know, those big, round loaves. The cows produce milk on Sundays too and they don't have holidays, so that means 43,800 loaves of cheese a year - just the one dairy.
There is a dairy in the next village too, and the next but one!

If the people of Appenzell don't eat all that cheese, who eats it then?
There must be mountains of the stuff somewhere,
Hang on ...
I wonder if that's why the mountains here are so high?]]>CH vs. DrjhAppenzeller2006-07-23T18:00:39+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/df2d1146c9ce2f4617df672257419f61-9.html#unique-entry-id-9http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/df2d1146c9ce2f4617df672257419f61-9.html#unique-entry-id-9
A Swiss flat always has a kitchen already built in (that is not necessarily the same as a built-in kitchen!) and a communal washing machine.

When you rent a flat in Germany you have the option of either putting in your own kitchen, or haggling with the previous tenant, over the price for the one he put in (or haggled over).

Of course - no one told me that before I moved to Switzerland, so I now have a complete kitchen in my cellar after moving here from Germany!
I also have a washing machine in the cellar and a dismantled Wardrobe that is 4 m wide and 2.4 m high.
I live in a 200 year old farmhouse - the highest ceiling here is 1.87 m!
(Just as a matter of interest, the lowest door frame is 1.65 m - ouch)

You'd think that Swiss hand-workers would be aware of such simple facts.
Not so. I recently ordered a double-bed, which was delivered and put together by a professional carpenter. He laid it out upside down on the bedroom floor and started securing the joints.
When I realised what he was doing, I said 'That's not going to work!'.
He gave me one of those looks that says 'Keep your nose out of this - I'm the professional here.'
After a few minutes though, his curiosity got the better of him and he asked 'Why don't you think it will work?'
I pointed out the fact to him, that as the bed's frame is 2.6 m square and the room only 1.84 m high (yes - all my rooms are different in height!), he wasn't going to be able to turn the finished bed over.
He had to contemplate that for some time, before he started to dismantle the frame again.]]>Poor CowrjhMusings2006-07-22T20:05:04+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c94bab2d3be5c216e8f72136353f475f-8.html#unique-entry-id-8http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c94bab2d3be5c216e8f72136353f475f-8.html#unique-entry-id-8The skies turned black, wind came up and, for all of ten minutes it poured down with rain.

Cows, it seems, rather like humans, are never quite happy with the weather.
This morning they were huddled under the trees utilising what shadow there was.
For the last ten minutes they have been huddled under the trees sheltering from the rain!]]>NamesrjhAppenzeller2006-07-20T20:28:29+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/25dab32cfcd6cf0b73cd4d9a93afe6cb-7.html#unique-entry-id-7http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/25dab32cfcd6cf0b73cd4d9a93afe6cb-7.html#unique-entry-id-7I do wish the locals would pronounce names correctly.
During an introduction someone said to me: I am Liseli (Elizabeth), this is my Husband Hansi (reserved for budgerigars in Germany) (Johannnes) and this is our grandchild, Denis.
I shook the proffered hands and introduced myself, while thinking, that Denis looked a nice-enough lad.

Six months later, I happened to bump in to Denis at a local festival and was a little surprised at the slight swell under his shirt.
Now, though, even the most unobservant dimwit would realise, that Denis is really Denise!]]>YokelsrjhAppenzeller2006-07-22T11:50:18+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6b7c8dfc6da53b3f1abb0d790763a613-6.html#unique-entry-id-6http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/6b7c8dfc6da53b3f1abb0d790763a613-6.html#unique-entry-id-6they do it?

It was spring. You know, the time of year when the meadows are strewn with yellow and blue flowers and the cherry trees are in blossom.
Everything was covered in snow - and had been since October, including the cherry blossom.

One of the locals:
Do you see that tree on the hill over there?
Yes.
Do you see the shape it has developed.
Yes.
That means it is going to be a very hot summer!

Two days later the snow was gone.
A week after that it was hot enough to mow the meadows.
We have had blistering temperatures for five weeks.

How do they do it?]]>Bleary eyed ...rjhAppenzeller2006-07-22T10:35:05+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/58a6657101cafece0e59221de51d4742-5.html#unique-entry-id-5http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/58a6657101cafece0e59221de51d4742-5.html#unique-entry-id-5
Everyone here moves around like snails at the moment - avoid as much exertion as possible - it is too warm.
10:30 a.m. - the temperature outside is already up to 34°C and more to come.
And it has been like this for the last five weeks!

I have taken to getting up an hour earlier to go to work, because being on a motorbike at 'that' time of day is almost cold.
My social life has changed too. Even though the windows of my flat have been open all day long (please don't tell any burglars where I live), it is just too hot in there to spend any length of time after arriving home from work.
There is a permanent draught and my orchids have long since passed away because of it, but the draught is hot - it is like standing in front of a hairdryer!

To get away from the heat I have developed a new tactic. I drive down to the local lido (open-air-swimming-pool for those with the same vocabulary as my spell-checker) where the terrace is planted with chestnut trees - it is a dark and cool place and almost empty because those dressed in swimming trunks and bikinis pass over it as quickly as possible to avoid the 'cold'.
It is the ideal place to drink a refreshing wheat-beer and read a book.

Sadly they close at 8:00 p.m. and I have to set out for the next place with somewhere cool enough to sit.

The local bar has tables outside and the seats along the wall have been in shadow long enough by now to be bearable.
To sit on one of these seats for longer than 60 seconds involves ordering something to drink - preferably something alcoholic.

After an hour I have been updated on all of the local gossip, know that Miss X has a bun in the oven for the third time and is only sixteen and I can consider making my way home.

On my drive home my neighbours can be seen sitting outside their homes enjoying the cool of the evening.
We have all taken to spending as much time outside as possible, preferably under a large tree, just to avoid having to enter one of those unbearable buildings called homes.

We sit around chatting and every now and then, someone will venture inside to retrieve another bottle of wine.
Then at some point someone will exclaim 'Oh, look, it is (insert a very late time of your preference) o'clock!'
This is the signal for us all to rise and to return to our own homes.
And we hope, that tonight at least, it will be cool enough to be able to sleep!

Everyone here moves around like snails at the moment - avoid as much exertion as possible - I'm too tired to think and I have a hangover.
]]>It makes the world go roundrjhAppenzeller2006-07-19T18:48:05+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b2d19c7bc3d5121b1c1ae2fe1ed7fd8a-4.html#unique-entry-id-4http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/b2d19c7bc3d5121b1c1ae2fe1ed7fd8a-4.html#unique-entry-id-4winner was awarded her prize in Reka cheques. This reminded me of a strange fact - the Swiss officially have three currencies. (five?)

There is, of course hard cash in form of Swiss Franks - nothing to beat them, or so the Swiss think.
If that is so, then why on earth, did they also invent Reka cheques and WIR?

Reka checks are vouchers created by the Schweizerische Reisekasse (Swiss Travel Fund), sold at a discount by many companies and associations to employees or members for the purpose of promoting family tourism within Switzerland. They are accepted as payment medium by many Swiss railway and transport enterprises, hotels and other establishments in the tourist field. Thus said, one would think they were travellers cheques - one would be wrong! You can also use Reka cheques at the petrol station, at the Co-op and in many restaurants.

WIR is an abbreviation for Wirtschaftsring-Genossenschaft, a cooperative based in Basel that has been operating a cashless payment system on the basis of a closed circular flow of money since 1934. WIR cheques are not cheques as defined under Swiss law. WIR booking orders are never paid out in cash, but instead entitle the bearer to acquire goods and services offered by WIR participants by way of exchange. (UBS)
The idea behind both systems, is a closed economy - keep business in Switzerland. Neither currency is accepted outside Switzerland - they have to be spent here. Essentially a sound economic basis, keep imports down and the cash flowing.
How strange then, that when you actually try to use them in Switzerland, people look down their noses at you as if you were trying to pay with counterfeit Turkish Lira!

Reka cheques are held under ultra violet light and rubbed between thumbs, while at the same time you can sense a member of the staff edging towards the door, just in case you try to make a bolt for it.
If you try to pay with WIR, the vendor always starts to haggle 'well, I'll take 30% WIR, but you'll have to give me the rest in Franks' and you can bet your last Dollar, that if he will take 100% WIR, he is pulling the wool over your eyes - either the quality or the price stinks!

I just don't understand why then - if no-one wants the stuff - it is in circulation at all!
Strangely - if you pull out a wad of Euros, you can pay in most shops with them and in Tourist centres you can even pay with Dollars!]]>Alternative entertainmentrjhAppenzeller2006-06-25T20:19:26+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4ef6dff0528f0bd9b38c8f44ade8c94a-3.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4ef6dff0528f0bd9b38c8f44ade8c94a-3.html#unique-entry-id-3without the comforts of a television screaming World Cup results at me from a shelf in some corner, I saw a sign saying "Wild Woche" which translates to 'Wild Week'.
Great, I thought - it's probably Table-Dancing or something like that?
So I went in.

Looking around, I was relieved to see no signs of a TV.
But neither could I see any form of entertainment.

When I sat down, I was asked what I wanted to drink, while a menu was slid discreetly on to the table in front of me.

I ordered a beer, still hoping to catch a glimpse of the entertainment.
When I saw the title of the menu, my mistake dawned on me.

There - on the front of the menu was repeated "Wild Woche" with the picture of a boars head.
'Game Week'

A bit unusual for summer I thought - the game season doesn't start until much later in the year, but there in the menu were listed:
'Reh-Ragout' - Bits of Bambi!
'Hirsch-Ragout' - Bits of Bambi's Dad
In fact lots of various pieces of Bambi and his Dad, served with cranberries and Sauerkraut and things ...
... The Disney film flashed through my head and I wasn't sure, I was hungry any more!

I looked in vain, for the boiled boars head, but I'd decided I wasn't hungry anyway - I'd come in for the entertainment.

I drank my beer and left.]]>It's a boy!rjhAppenzeller2006-07-18T17:51:19+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d6e3f62f2551feaf23419695cd90e163-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d6e3f62f2551feaf23419695cd90e163-2.html#unique-entry-id-2Most of my neighbours belong to this club and so one day my doorbell rang - one of my neighbours wanted to sell me some tickets for the evening, just to make sure I shouldn't get turned away at the door ...
Well, because I do try to take part in at least some of the villages social life, I purchased a ticket and when the evening arrived, duly made my way to the village hall.

Upon entering, my path was efficiently blocked by my neighbour's wife who grumbled at me 'Hender reserviert?/Did you make a reservation?' I held my ticket under her nose and tried to make my way past her but still she blocked my path and grumbled 'Wie isch dr Gschlacht/What sex are you?'

I blinked uncomprehendingly and memories of segregated assemblies at school shot through my head - Boys on the right-, girls on the left-hand side of the hall. Then I glanced down at my legs, just to make sure that I hadn't put on a Kilt by mistake and that this was perhaps the reason for confusion.
I hadn't, so I blinked at her again, slowly beginning to feel a little silly and said 'Male - I think'.

With that, she burst out laughing - most unusual for these reserved mountain-folk - and spluttered "No, no, that means 'What is your surname' here!"
I told her my name, she consulted a list, grinned and said 'Row five, seat number twelve.'
Apparently every single visitor had a hand selected seat.
I was just a little disappointed though, to find that there was no sign on the seats, to inform other people who they were going to be sitting next to.

Well, what shall I say? We weren't segregated and if you like yodelling, it was quite a pleasant evening!]]>No snow to be expectedrjhAppenzeller2006-07-17T23:53:57+02:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c9a1e81b78471bb0e1c0f379d57458f2-1.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/c9a1e81b78471bb0e1c0f379d57458f2-1.html#unique-entry-id-1There was, however, something that made me suspicious - when I got up, the farmer was driving up and down the meadow outside, mowing the grass. They don't do that if it is going to rain, they spread muck around instead!

My first thought, was that he had lost some of his marbles - it was cold and gloomy and was quite obviously going to rain any minute and yet there he was driving up and down as if the sun were out.

Well - he was right, of course. Within an hour the temperature had risen ten degrees and although it still looked as if it would rain any minute, it was almost unbearably hot. Then, just after Midday the curtains were ripped open so that the mountains were suddenly still there after all and then sun beat down upon us as if to make up for the mornings lost time.
And that is the way it stayed for the whole weekend.
Pass the shadow please.]]>The Weather Gods ...rjhAppenzellerRound and About ...2008-02-25T20:26:57+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d0aa5de85e73832c4b9e344447ea3d05-121.html#unique-entry-id-121http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/d0aa5de85e73832c4b9e344447ea3d05-121.html#unique-entry-id-121I have no idea where they are or what they are doing, but they have most certainly forgotten what they are supposed to be doing.

If you take a look at the entry below, you will see that it was written a month ago.
The picture included depicts a sunny landscape.
Here are two new pictures for you. They were taken here in the village I live in and they were photographed yesterday.
The weather hasn't altered during the whole four weeks except, that is, to get warmer.

If you look carefully, you will notice that the people depicted in both pictures above are not wearing jackets - in fact most people were in short sleeves yesterday - getting their first sunburn of the year.

Now, I don't like to complain, but we are supposedly in the middle of winter.
We are supposed to have a meter of snow.
And I know darned well that if the weather gods keep mucking around like this, they are going to throw a meter-and-a-half of snow at us at the end of April - when we're supposed to have started spring!

I'm not sure I'm too keen on the idea ...]]>Snow-ploughs ...rjhMusings2009-02-08T12:56:37+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/db261875fcfb78101919f7eff7a6c298-165.html#unique-entry-id-165http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/db261875fcfb78101919f7eff7a6c298-165.html#unique-entry-id-165There are twenty centimeters of snow on the ground again. And it's still snowing!
Public transport won't be running and the schools will be closed.
The saddest fact is, the guy with the snow plough has by-passed us today and not cleared our road, so I'm snowed in!

Oh, wait a minute, I've been reading those horror stories on the BBC web-site – you know, those about Britain.
The snow plough hasn't been along today, because there are only the 20 cm at the moment and it's just not worth clearing the minor roads. Of course the main roads will have been cleared and public services will be running normally!

The thing I don't understand is the fact that the British train services can get stopped by 12 cm of snow, while services in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland just keep on running with just slight delays where there have been occurrences of ice on the tracks.
Can someone explain please?

Wiltshire county council used 7500 tonnes of salt in three days, so I understand, leaving them with just 1000 tonnes for the rest of the winter.
Are they really doing things correctly? Mr. Highways Agency CEO – you are supposed to clear the roads with a snow-plough and then disperse the salt; you need a little less salt that way!
Last time I talked about snow on this blog, someone commented on the fact that they always have the wrong sort of snow in Britain. I've not talked to Ms. Smilla about this yet, but I have the feeling that the Brits are using the wrong method, the wrong snow-ploughs, the wrong salt or a combination of the three.

We are in for more snow over the next week, so if the people responsible for maintaing the flow of life in Britain would care to come and take lessons, I'm sure you'd be welcome ...]]>Xenophobes ...rjhMumblings2009-02-01T14:03:03+01:00http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4acd312558702257a0403dfbf5f98511-166.html#unique-entry-id-166http://www.hall-net.eu/Blog/files/4acd312558702257a0403dfbf5f98511-166.html#unique-entry-id-166I suppose you're right, I did choose to live here, but why, damn it, do the Swiss try to make me feel so uncomfortable with my choice?!

I am aware of the fact that I am a foreigner and that I shall remain a foreigner — always.
I was a foreigner in Germany too, but no-one tried to point it out to me every day.
The Swiss do:

s2dsplash

This placard greets me wherever I go at the moment. It has exactly the same theme as last time, but this time round we have crows ripping poor old Switzerland apart instead of the multi coloured hands grabbing for passports.
The text has been translated in various news articles as "Free Passports for all? No" But it can also mean "free passage" and "not being held responsible for actions taken". In this case there is a tiny text that is overseen when you drive past the sign that says "Freedom of movement and residence for Rumania and Bulgaria NO" so I take it to mean "free passage".

This is another obscene example of Swiss Xenophobia being exploited by the Socialist Peoples Party.
Since the Schengen cooperation was introduced a few years ago, Switzerland has been forced to watch a flood of French, Germans, Latvians, Poles etc. stream into the country, oh, and myself of course! Same rights for all! Things are getting out of hand.

The Swiss borders have now been opened and the Customs Officers no longer check visitors entering or leaving the country – they only check for goods and then check the passports. Boils down to the same thing as previously actually ...
... but in theory unwanted strangers can now pass our borders unchecked – as in the rest of Europe.
Except, that is, Rumania and Bulgaria.

These are two of the countries that have signed a step-by-step-Schengen agreement (just like Switzerland) and haven't opened their borders for free passage yet. They can, however move freely around Europe.

Now we can't have that, can we!
It's bad enough that we have Brits here, without Rumanians too ...

Dear SVP get your act together and change your politics – there are no second-class-citizens!]]>