Meetings

Today for the first time I sat in a meeting with other top guys from the IS management group. I had been a little apprehensive in the beginning in case I didn't portray the confidence ... basically I just wasn't sure how to behave. The leap that I took to reach this position had not been without any hurdle. There were a lot of questions thrown at my boss as to why me - too young, no experience. He probably had some tough moments having to answer them, but I respect him for standing by me and persisted on taking me on board.

The meeting turned out fine. They were just normal guys. Not the kind that I'd had imagined. I was a semi formal meeting that takes place at the end of every month. It's when the sector gets updates from the businesses of things that have taken place in the month, any issues that they might face, and also a time when businesses share ideas and information. It's pretty much talk, talk and talk, present some PowerPoint slides, may be argue here and there a bit for one whole day. Not to forget the lunch break in the middle. Most of the things discussed were very alien to me. I spent most of the time listened and tried to make sense what they were all about. I'll find out about them later from my boss.

Hmmm ... is all that these people do? Meetings, meetings, meetings?

After one month at sea

After one month at sea, our goods finally delivered the local mover Welti-Furer. 3 hours job and all our things are indoor and the furniture assembled. We pretty much have all the essential stuff, except for may be a couple more wardrobes and a single sofa bed which we have ordered from IKEA.

With the weekend around the corner, we have sufficient time to unpack and arrange things before moving in late on Sunday or early Monday morning.

29″ TV

Now that I’ve learned quite a bit about the life here, I decided to rent a car for the weekend to go buy a TV set and take our things from the current service apartment to the our newly rented apartment in Nussbaumen.

On Friday, I went to book a Ford Mondeo station wagon from a local garage ExtraGent. For 66 Swiss Francs, I got to use the car for 24 hrs. Sound cheap huh! It’s not! There is an additional charge for every kilometers you drive. So, I have to make sure I never get lost not to waste the mileage.

Early this morning I went to get the car. Kind of wary to drive initially thinking of the different driving side to the one I’m used to. But, it wasn’t that confusing after all.

We went to InterDiscount (the only electrical good chain shop which I think exist in this county) to get our TV set. For 399 Swiss Francs we got outselves a 29″ Schneider flat TV. Paying it was easy. Taking is up one floor above to our car was also not bad. But to lift it up into the back of the car was the hardest task. With such weight and box size, it felt like impossible in the beginning. Since we had no choice (don’t expect anyone to help you here), I decided to put the baby on the stoller, let her cry, and with the combined male-female strength of my wife and I, we held our breath and justttt managed to get it into the car. I hope I didn’t damage any part of my back muscle.

And as expected, taking it out of the car into the apartment was also quite demanding … but we managed.

We are ready to move into the new apartment next weekend ….

IKEA

Since we needed a couple of wardrobes, we decided to go and check them out at the local IKEA store in Spreintenbach (a short bus ride from Baden). Hmmm … comparing it with the store in KL, I have to say it is just dull and nothing much to shout about. The building is kind of old. The elevators are more like those used in warehouse than in a shopping complex. The interior design is not like what is synonymous with IKEA. And one particular thing which is NOT like IKEA that I’d always known is it costs 95 Swiss Francs to deliver my goods. What? Have I misheard it ?? And it took 3 weeks. Am I in Switzerland or India? So, do you assemble them too? Oh, yes. That’s another 95 Swiss Francs. This is crazy. Since we found what we wanted, and the sale was still on, and realising that we had to get them delivered no matter what, we ordered 2 wardrobes, one single sofa bed, one coffee table, one computer table and one small round decorative table. There you go, since it costed so much to get them delivered, we might as well get everything now.

I caused a bit of chaos when the cashier didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand her on the way out. What I learned is that always choose young cashier. If you go for those as old as you mom, don’t be surprise if you end up using sign language.

First day at work

I officially reported for duty today. A mixture of feelings. Excited and worried at the same time. Excited that there are new things to learn (I hope), worried if I get killed too early.

In my RM 689 two piece suit, I arrived at the HR department just after 8. After being briefed of bits and pieces I was taken to my desk. Seemed that there weren’t that many people around. May be most were still on summer vacation. I wasn’t sure if my boss had forgotten my first day of he just didn’t bother it. But, he wasnt around. Lerr …

I wasn’t long in the office. After getting my photo taken for staff access card, I went back to the hotel to meet up with the housing agent to go and see a few apartments.

Touching down in Switzerland

Going back a couple of days: At around half six, 30 July 2006 we touched down at the Zurich International Airport (Flughafen Zürich) greeted by what seemingly a nice, warm European summer weather albeit early morning. With excessive luggage with us (I paid RM 4200 for the excess weight!), we didn't waste a single second and went straight to catch a taxi to the city in Aargau where I'd be based for at least the next two years. The baby was in happy mood, which was good - thanked to the 11 hour she had had in the plane. The taxi ride took about 20 minutes, and costed 115 Swiss Francs (CHF in abbreviation)!. Forget about conversion to Ringgit. The value of 115 against 20 minute already sounds atrocious. It's probably the most expensive 20-minute taxi ride you can ever find in the world. Our first introduction to the renown extravagant Swiss life.

Who doesn't know about Switzerland being THE place with excellent courses for hotel and catering management. Ask anyone who in the hotel industry and they will tell you exactly this. We arrived at the hotel with the expectation that there would be a concierge ready to help us with the luggage; after all this hotel was supposed to be the best in the town and the favourite among the top guys in the company. But, as saying goes in Malay "jauh panggang dari api". The only staff on duty were the receptionist and another girl whose appearence suggested that she's probably in the housekeeping department. They had no choice but to give us a hand with the luggage although from the body language I could see they weren't happy. The remark "What do you have in this bag? A stone?" was enough to convince me so. We didn't care. We were tired. We needed a bath. We pay for the service. So shut up! And just do it.

Albeit the shortcomings in the service, the hotel is really nice is a really nice hotel, housed in a newly renovated old building located on the bank of river Limmat.