Employment-Enjoyment, Cyclo-Psycho & Quiet-Riots...

Grüezi my friends.  So, after a period of semi-unemployment and poverty, I have managed to land myself a proper job again!  Not one of the bottom-of-the-barrel ones that I had started to apply for in a desperate attempt to just earn some money, not one that involves a dancing pole, not even a 'this is beneath me but I need to just take it because I can't get anything better' job.... I have managed to finally get a proper job.  In a company where the business language is ENGLISH!  Woo-bloody-hoo!  At long last I can venture outside of the 'Budget' section in Migros and actually buy salami slices that include parts of the pig other than the trotters!  I can walk past a shop, see something I like and then actually BUY IT!  I can stop rationing food,  I can even get back in the salon instead of having to administer my own amateur beauty treatments.  THIS, my friends, is a day to celebrate.....

Trouble is.... I think I am so conditioned to not spending money, that even yesterday (the day I got a job) I was not out spending, I was not off on a well earned shopping spree or hanging about in the nail salon.  I was at home eating budget Bratwursts!  I have never had a permanent job in Switzerland as from the day I arrived here I have been saving and scrimping and literally living on the tightest budget possible.  I don't even know where the salon is!!  I suppose this is a good thing - it could have gone the other way and Dan might have returned home from the office to find me in an Aston Martin on the driveway, yacht trailer on the back (complete with yacht), and a credit card still smoking in my pocket... I think he is slightly bemused at my lack of frivolity yet slightly concerned that it is just a delayed reaction...he's not quite ready to breathe out or blink just yet...  still, the nearest Louboutin shop is 3 hours away in Geneva so I'd have to be pretty stealthy to sneak off there for a day and make it back in time to be on the sofa with my tracksuit on, watching E! TV,having discarded of the Louboutin packaging and any other evidence (though in fact, Dan has been with me long enough to be able to spot a Louie a mile off, even if I was to put them into a Vogele Shoes box...)

Anyway, I have 25 days left before I start the job.  25 days left of being a semi-hausfrau!  I am going to use them wisely and do at least one thing each day that I won't be able to do when I am at work.  I have decided to wear all of my most slutty shades of nail varnish for the next 4 weeks, and I am going to cook lots of time-consuming meals (I start today with a Boeuf Bourguignon).  I am going to set up visits to wedding venues, and have a DIY facial every day.  I will nurture the herb garden and read loads of books, and will finally go and see some of the sights of Zürich that I haven't been able to visit yet due to lack of money (yes, even buying a train ticket became a rare luxury reserved only for getting to and from interviews!)  

Speaking of transportation, last week I got a bicycle and I love it!  Having not cycled even once in the last 20 years and having never ridden a bike with gears before I was slightly apprehensive about setting off on this one, but yesterday I cycled 15km and apart from a serious case of gear-fear (I stayed in the same one the whole way), the consumption of 4 gnats (I have a tendency to listen to my iPod and sing as I'm cycling, and they took the opportunity to fly straight down my throat) and dead-crotch (it only regained consciousness this morning) I managed to stay in one piece and felt very pleased with myself by the end of it - though I do, in hindsight think that wearing a sparkly mini-dress,  a not-quite-dry manicure (I ended up with fossilised gnats embedded in my fingernails), dangly earrings and a fully styled barnet may not have been the best get-up for a bike ride.  Nor was the heavy (yet stylish) rucksack on my back containing my make-up bag, pair of gold wedges, hand cream, hairspray & hair accessories the best idea.... (well I thought maybe we'd go straight out after the bike ride!) 

In addition to all of that I'm still unsure of the rules of cycling etiquette and I am pretty sure I pissed a few people off by whizzing across pedestrian crossings during the green man, and veering into the path of a few hardcore speedy pro-cyclists who were probably trying to beat their own personal record until the weird English girl bellowing out the soundtrack to Top Gun cut across their path with wild abandon...  I'm sure there's a price on my head from the Swiss Authorities who are just waiting to fine me for all manner of cycling offences.  I'll just lay low for a few days, and perhaps buy myself a black lycra all-in-one and a helmet with a black visor for future bike rides.  Turning myself into a ninja-style, stealth-cyclist that whizzes beneath any radar.. (oh, but that would mean no more Top Gun soundtrack, sadly...)

Today in Zurich the May Day riots are taking place.  It's pouring down, cold and miserable outside, yet over 15,000 people have taken to the streets to partake in the 'riots'... a term that brings to mind serious bloodshed, looting & brutality... however this being Zurich it probably consists of a peaceful protest in which noise is controlled so as not to offend nearby residents, and missiles are made from polestyrene to prevent serious injury.  I cannot imagine a Swiss person hurling a Molotov cocktail at anything apart from their own cheminée to give it a boost during the winter.  Still, if it was a sunny day and I was feeling in the mood I'd probably head out to see the 'action' (and sunbathe whilst supping prosecco at the same time, perhaps indulge in a bit of looting if the shoe-shops happened to be exposed...), however I cannot think of a single reason or cause in the world to warrant standing in the rain for hours in protest!  Especially in this day and age where everything can be done by video-conference.

Anyway the Boeuf Bourguignon is 10 minutes from being ready, and I need to open the wine to breathe...  Til the next time homies,
Bicycle-Bimbo. xx