A while back when our things from Cape Town arrived I was excited to have a printer again. We only got to print a few pages when the black ink was finished. So off to Media Markt to buy ink. Surprise surprise, they don't stock the ink we need. No one in Switzerland does because it's only for South Africa. Our printer was bought in SA so was made to use the cartridges that goes with that zone.
No problem, I emailed HP and they were very helpful. We set up a date when they would phone us and then they will help us convert our SA printer to a Swiss printer! Then we're supposed to be able to use the cartridges compatible with this printer here in Switzerland. We were told to go buy these cartridges first and then they will phone us. The guy on the phone from HP support tried everything but for some reason our printer absolutely refused to be made into a Swiss printer.
Ok, still no problem. They will just send us the same printer and we send our non-Swiss one back to them. No charges at all. Isn't that great? Would that have happened in Africa? I wonder.. We received it today.
In other news, André has also replaced his South African MacBook Pro for a new Swiss one today. Well, actually not really a Swiss one because he asked for a US keyboard. Not going to struggle with a mixed up German keyboard. That would cause lots of spelling mistakes! It's really nice. For me it is important that it looks nice. (That's why my Mac is pink :-)
But this new one is apparently also super fast, something which has been lacking in his old laptop. (So there's a 15" MacBook Pro for sale if anyone's interested.)
My dear husband did not forget about me! Every time we go into the Mac shop, conveniently situated right opposite Media Markt, I longingly look at the... ummm... I don't know what to call it... music making things? iPod players? Speakers? Speakers is basically all it is with an iPod plugged into it. Our house can be very quiet when I'm home alone all day. And I don't like having music on my laptop while I'm sitting in front of it. So today there was a sale at the Mac shop and André bought us these great looking speakers. They're all nice and shiny black with my pink iPod sitting on top! Beautiful beautiful sound... ABBA is playing at the moment.
So lots and lots of nice things today! The plan was to also buy a scale today so I can track my progress now that I've had to give up the best things in Switzerland: chocolate, bread and cheese. Sad I know, but I had to. That's why I'm all into salad now and really enjoying it actually. After two weeks of eating more healthy food and having salad every day I'm starting to get into it and it's not so hard anymore. But I do look forward to the day when I can have chocolate again! More about the interesting salads I've been having on my food blog. And my darling sister has worked out a healthy eating plan for me, kindly including a little bit of ice cream and chocolate :-) It's not that bad.
Oh oh I almost forgot. Today we went to the Zürcher Brockenhaus, a second hand store in Zürich. I was looking for English books. I've finished all my books which I brought with from SA and I find it hard to pay so much for a book which I will finish in a few days and never read again. So I had a list of three places to go looking for second hand books. We didn't have to go further than the first one. I bought 13 second hand books for the price of about two new books. So this will keep me busy for a while!
Now I'm off to choose a book from my new mini-library and start reading!
Hi Annaliese:
ReplyDeleteI lived in Zurich from 1999 - 2004. There were two English speaking churches in Enge that had English book sales at least twice a year - in December for sure. They sold paperback books by the shopping bag for 30 - 40 SFR. I didn't need another trip to Orel Fussle for a few weeks. The expat community also has an English language book exchange.
I lived on Vogelsangstrasse above the Bambushain Korean restaurant. My favorite Saturday morning activity was to walk towards town through the deck at the back of ETH down to Zentralbibliothek. By chance I discovered there English Language book section which was then housed in the basement but could be browsed. The library started collecting these aorund 1993 and have appr. 2000 books per year thru 2004.
Then it was coffee at Cafe Zahringer, browsing at Orel Fussli, and finally around the corner and a little up Uraniastrasse to meet up with friends for breakfast/brunch at the Lions Pub.
There is another private library with English Language newspaper reading room around the corner from the Starbucks at Centrale on Zahringerstrasse. They have English books also.
Cherish your time in Zurich. i have never lived in a better or more exciting city.
Kindest regards,
Bill
Bill Gottschall
billgottschall@acm.org
Dayton, Ohio USA
Lekker inligting wat jy van Bill gekry het. Jy kom baaaie vinniger reg in jou nuwe land as ek in myne! Is miskien goed dat jy die eerste paar maande bietjie tyd het om alles te verken, ne.
ReplyDeleteBill, thanks for the tips. I will definitely look up those churches in Enge. Yes, we feel very privileged to be living in such a beautiful country.
ReplyDeleteHi Ma, ja dit help definitief dat ek die tyd het om te verken. As ek nou al voltyds gewerk het sou ek nie naby so baie goed gedoen gekry het nie.