When Life Gives You Lemons…

My workmate and I have adopted some quirky in-jokes working together the last few weeks. One of them is to say “Buongustaio!” at every possible opportunity, especially as a greeting or sign of enjoyment. Examples:

• “Buongustaio! How are you today?”
• “Have you tried this sandwich? Buongustaio!”
• “All the tests finished successfully! Buongustaio!”
• “Buongustaio!” (a substitute for awkward turtle)
• “Could I have a piadina Buongustaio!” (an acutal sandiwch and the origin of the now elusive phrase…)
• and the list goes on…

^ Hywel, my buongustaio workmate.

Last Tuesday, after eating the steak of my life, we went back to the hotel and did some work from the lobby. We were running a series of tests on the system and we wanted to check in to see how they were doing… and I can telly you now there is nothing better than analysing performance metrics while slowly drinking a pint of beer. Buongustaio!

When Wednesday rolled around, there was lots still to be done, as the fresh batch of testing gave us plenty to mull over. After another long day, we finally left work too late to get anything other than pizza. Now I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but the Swiss (like most of mainland Europe) eat rather late compared to us Brits. We have it drilled into us from a very young age that its bad to eat just before bedtime, and to that end I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that most of us eat straight after getting in from work at about 6-7pm. Try getting served in a Swiss restaurant before 8pm and you’ll get a turned up nose… possibly because they punched you, but more likely because they have no concept of food being consumed at that hour. They’re still running off that mid-afternoon expresso that seems to fill the cafés like a social wave at 3pm. However, try getting served after 10:30pm and all you’ll get is pizza. Seriously. So you have to time yourself just right.

^ A pizza

So on Wednesday evening, after leaving work too late to get anything other than pizza, we resided ourselves to the nice little pizzeria within walking distance from the hotel. To our surprise the usual woman who served us, as nice as she is, had been substituted for a beautiful Italian lady :o) Buongustaio!

This week has been twice as busy as last week, and still lots and lots to do. I also found out this week that I won’t be in Switzerland next week, but I will be the week after… and the week after… and the week after… and the week after… you get the idea. Not only am I excited about the prospect of getting to stay in this lovely part of the world more, but also about some of the work coming up in those weeks… although very geeky I’m literally loving every minute of my job. Buongustaio!

• Happiness. 9 out of 10
• Tiredness. 1 out of 5
• Free Time. 1 out of 5
• Last Meal. Business class dinner on the plane :)
• Song of the day. Tranne Te and Barbra Streisand….
• Thought for the day. I’m actually going to be in the office in Basingstoke tomorrow! Wonder if those 3 Snickers bars are still in my desk drawer…
• What I’m Doing Now. Writing this post at 40,000ft… business class style.

PS expect an Accommodation post very soon! I’ve got some catching up to do…