Zonker in Geneva

I drive around in Geneva a lot. In my job, I visit lots of clients at their homes in many areas in and around Geneva. I have my trusty iPhone which helps me find the addresses to a certain degree, but it’s not a full GPS system, so I end up frequently looking at the instructions and remembering the next major event (“ok, the third left should be avenue de l’Ermitage.”) and then I count streets and look at street signs. Most of the time, it works pretty well.

But, every so often, something goes a bit haywire and I end up on the wrong street. And when that happens, it’s like I’ve fallen into a black hole.

Switzerland has a reputation of being orderly and logical. But, in cases like this, I find it anything but. Or at least the places I’ve been.

When I find myself in unchartered territory, I look at the map on the iPhone and I look at the street that I’m on to get my bearings. I love maps. I have been reading maps since my Dad asked my “help” when I was barely in school. I can read a map, but there are certain things you need. Like street signs.

Inevitably, when I need to find out what street I am currently on, there is *no* street sign anywhere. I can drive up and down, look at all the cross streets, but there is no indication whatsoever. Frustrating. Infuriating.

I went to see a client the other day. I got there with little problem but the way back was a bit more difficult. The way to get back on the major road I had taken to get there was a bit different. Luckily, there was a sign when I was expecting to turn saying “Geneva” so I knew I had to follow a different path. I followed the sign and waited for the next indication. It never came. I drove on and on until I recognized where I was, but it was clearly *not* what I had in mind nor what had been implied.

I returned to that same client today and paid more attention. About 200 meters after the sign that said “Geneva”, there was a hairpin turn to the left at a light which I should have taken. There was *no* sign, no hint from either direction, nothing.

This is but one example. It happens all the time. The city really could improve the road signage here. I hope they do.

In the meantime, pay close attention and don’t rely on signs.

Currently, there is a lot of construction going on, upgrading the bus and tram stops and what have you. Lots of work going on and therefore lots of detours, both for cars and people alike.

But, sometimes, you can be walking along and find yourself in the middle of a construction area. Yes, there are fences everywhere, but it’s not always clear which side of the fence you should be on.

Today, after my weekly free Computer Support hour at the Starbucks near the train station (Gare Cornavin), I was walking to my tram stop. I looked across and saw an old lady looking a bit lost, obviously on the wrong side of the fence. She was not in danger, but really wasn’t sure where to go next.

And that’s when I saw a great thing.

A construction worker – seemingly the only one there at the moment as I couldn’t see anyone else – came up to her, spoke to her and then offered her his arm and slowly, at her pace, brought her safely to the other side of the fence and pointed her in the right direction.

Helping a woman cross the construction site

It’s things like this that just make me smile and hopeful about society.

Last night around 23:00, I visited a friend/client who’s computer was royally phuqued. I told her I’d take the computer with me and fix it at home and bring it back today. No problem-o. In the morning, I took the hard disk out, attached it to my obligatory Windows XP machine and scanned it with AVG, as per usual. Found about 30 infections and cleaned them out. Awesome.

I put the disk back in the laptop, booted it up and …. they’re back! Whups! Back to safe mode, ran rkill and then the Malwarebytes software. It found another 30 or so problems. Cleaned them up. Ran CCleaner for good measure. And….. voilà! Finally. Whew. I was a bit worried for a minute.

At the same time, I took a look at a computer that a client had given me because the hard disk was dying and she didn’t want to spend the money to buy a new hard disk and then to have it re-built. So, I got a hard disk and put it in and…. no dice. So, today I cloned the dying disk to the new disk in order to use the restore function (Acer, Alt-F10). It worked!? Awesome. The only thing is that it’s all in French. I still want to try installing Windows XP fresh. But in the meantime, it works. Can’t complain. Now I can return to the church and trouble shoot there.

I met a friend around lunchtime to give her her external disk with her data and to collect some money. On the way home, I stopped at McDonald’s. Luckily, their menu sucks so bad that I only go there once every month or two, but every once in a while, I just want some fries. Like today. But, each time I go there, I’m reminded of the OTHER reason I don’t go to McD’s in Switzerland: their menu sucks.

My mom always told me “If you’re going to go to McDonald’s, at least get a burger that has lettuce and tomato, something healthy.” And that stuck. But, McDonald’s/Switzerland has only one burger on the regular menu with lettuce and tomato: the Big Mac. Well, I don’t always want a Big Mac. Everywhere else I’ve been, they’ve had several burger options that had lettuce and tomato. Not here.

Next, their so-called milk-shakes. When I arrived here in Sept 2008, they had good, normal McDonald’s milkshakes. They were too small, but at least they tasted good. Not any more. About a year ago, they ditched the normal shakes and introduced “frappés”. What a disgusting concoction! The only saving grace is that the portions are even smaller. But, the taste is so awful, the 2-3 times that I bought one (first time: oh, new item! let’s try it out. Yuck! Second time: it must have been a bad batch that first time. Yuck! Third time, several months later: yup, i forgot. Yuck!), that I didn’t finish it, which is unusual for me.

The prices are WAY too much. Yes, it’s Switzerland. Yes, it’s Geneva. But, come on. McDonald’s is all about fast food and cheap prices. You can get healthier food for the same price or cheaper, so what’s the draw?

Breakfast. If they introduced the Egg McMuffin here, I know I’d be there 2-3 times a week. Sad, but true.

Stupid ‘rules’ just for the sake of rules: today, I ordered a NY Crispy. Basically, a basic burger with fried onions, lettuce, tomato (see!), some bacon and other stuff. I ordered without bacon. To their credit, *both* the cashier *and* the burger preparer made sure I understood that the bun came with bacon bits baked in. I appreciate them telling me that. Really. And I was fine with it. But, for someone who couldn’t or didn’t want to eat even the bacon bits, I know the answer would have been: “we can’t substitute a different bun.” I’ve had so many times where that happened. It just flabbergasts me. Such a simple change, doesn’t cost them any more, but they refuse to budge. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Customer service in general: the cashiers can’t multi-task and they’re slow, the people preparing the food can’t manage a special order, servers don’t understand that I don’t want my order in 2 or 3 separate pieces. I want it all together, at one time, all fresh and piping hot. What’s the point in getting the fries first and then the burger 10 minutes later? And don’t put the fries on my tray while waiting for my burger. They’re getting cold and there’s nothing worse than cold fries.

There’s more, but I’m tired, so I’ll stop now.

In the evening, I went for a run. I decided last week to start running again. Yay, me. I set some goals (distance, speed, number of times) and a week later, I’m already behind my pace. But, it was a cool evening, so I decided to head on out. Got myself all ready. My “coach” on the Nike site said I should run a mile today. First day on a 12-week plan to get to 5K. But, since I’m already pretty comfortable running 2.5-3K, I thought I’d take it a bit faster, even. In the elevator, I set up the new workout for a mile, chose the music and fastened the armband. When I was ready to run, the iPod had gone to sleep, so I pressed the Home button and I saw the Nike application with a big green “Start Workout” button, which I pressed. 6:44 later, I pressed the button to monitor my progress.

The timer was running, but the odometer was on 0.00 km! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! I HATE THAT!

So, already tired and so on, I re-started my workout. And finished it. Which is good. But I still ran more than is on record. I ran slower, of course, than the first 7 minutes. It’s just so aggravating since it’s a PROGRAMMING BUG! I can’t stand such bugs, especially since I mentioned the same bug to them a year ago.

Bastards.

Well, it’s after midnight. I’m actually going to go to bed now.

Tomorrow: my first Paleo experience.

Every once in a while, I buy a lottery ticket. I don’t have favorite numbers. I don’t have a favorite day or a threshold for the jackpot. Sometimes I play when it’s a HUGE jackpot. Sometimes not. I’ve played maybe three times in the last several months. Costs less than a beer and doesn’t give me a beer gut.

So, Thursday I bought two tickets. One for the Euro millions and one for the Swiss lottery. Two sets of numbers each.

Last night was Euro millions. Sadly, I didn’t win the big jackpot, the millions, the jump-up-and-down-and-think-about-what-I’m-gonna-spend-it-on amount. I matched two numbers and one of two extra numbers.

I know what I’m gonna spend it on.

A pizza.

And hope for more tonight.

So, here I am in a new apartment and I needed a can opener. Found it pretty quickly, but it doesn’t look ‘normal’ to me. But, I can figure it out, right? Right.

Ok, the handle is in two pieces, which rotate around one end. I ‘open’ it up and then try to attach it to the can. Somehow, it’s not holding very well. And the blade seems to be on the wrong side, or at least not angling in the best direction. Take a step back and try something else that seems to make more sense in terms of looking at the can and the tool. Suddenly, it snaps together and I twist and I can see….it’s working! Horizontally!

After a full rotation, the head of the can snaps off completely. This makes so much sense. The ones I’m used to always seem to get the top caught in the can and then you have to get a fork or something to pry it open and try not to splatter anything.

I really like this. Very cool.

Dinner time!