Switzerland – Page 24 – trippingdifferently

July 13, 2012July 10, 2012

Passabene…

Pass…what??, you ask.

Passabene – a self-check system which Coop, one of the major supermarkets, in Switzerland have installed in their larger stores. This system is not new. i believe it was started maybe 4 years ago. But i never got to use the system until a few months ago when we went to a bigger Coop a couple of villages down from us (the ones in our little village and in the old town are too small for such a system).

So why do i want to talk about a system which has been in use for 4 years already? Well, last week i talked about how much trust exists between service provider/stores and customers in this post. i just wanted to show another example of it here.

In brief, this is how the Passabene system works. (You can visit the website here – in German)

You register with your Coop Supercard (ok, you have to have a Coop Supercard first – which is easy to get, just fill in the form and they mail you the card on which you can collect points) to be a user of Passabene. It was a little confusing for me as the lady at the counter had initially misunderstood what i wanted (i blame my poor Swiss German). Anyhow, confusion cleared. The process to register was simple, again just fill in a form with name, address and Coop card number, she keys it into the computer and you can instantly use Passabene.

You swipe your Coop card at the computer screen, next to the rows of scanning devices. One of the devices light up – that one is yours. You take it and off you go shopping. Simply scan your items and put them in your trolley.

At checkout, go to the specially marked Passabene line, which usually has almost no one, give the lady behind the counter your scanner and she loads it up to her screen, you pay and done. It’s quick and easy, saves time; you can be in and out in minutes if you only needed a few things.

She didn’t even ask to see what items i had in my trolley. They trust that everything you put in there has been scanned. It would have been so easy to slip an extra apple or two in there. (Of course i didn’t)

The other thing i love about it is, my son will stay by my side and even help to get things from the shelves so he can do all the scanning. Normally he asks to go and play at the toy section till i finish, which isn’t a bad arrangement, but i just like to have him go supermarket shopping with me. i think it is because i grew up doing just that. My family loves supermarket shopping, especially my dad who insists on walking up and down every aisle even though we only need 2 things (we never leave with just 2 things!). So it’s a family event which i love from my childhood (actually we still do that now when i go back to visit). It’s a tradition i want to pass on. 😉 Plus, i think that it is good opportunity to talk about the food he eats.

i found some interesting discussion on the English Forum. There are a couple of people who don’t like the system and also one who had been constantly spot-checked on. Have a read here if you like to listen to what others have to say about Passabene.

Happy Shopping – wherever you may be shopping.

syc

July 6, 2012

Rented and Collected…

Yep, we have rented our violin and even though mummy (who still can’t believe how trusting they are here) told him he won’t be able to bring it home till August when he does start lessons, the violin is now sitting in it’s case, lying next to the now unused child-sized guitar (mummy is still sad about that but hopeful that he will pick it up again).

That’s correct, you read right – we rented the violin and brought it home with us. Did we have to start paying from July, instead of August? Nope. And the contract for rental was also very simple; it just states what was rented, what’s the value of each item, name, address and contact number of renter (that’s us), how much is rental fees each month and that was it. There wasn’t even a start date or any long conditions of rental. There was just a few lines at the bottom of the A5 sheet (ya, not even an A4 official looking sheet) which states that if rental is for less than 3 months we have to pay for at least 3 months and if we return the violin after 3 months of use, we would have to pay for new strings to be fitted for the next renter. i asked her (the violin shop lady) how she knows when we start – she said she will just make a note, where i’m not sure. Also she did not say that we must pay our fees every month, she did not even note down how often we should or would be paying the fees. She just gave us a few payment slips and told us to pay regularly; how often is up to us. They trust us to pay regularly on our own accord, starting in August.

Where i come from, that’s just not the way things are done. If you did business this way, you would most definitely be taken advantage of and make a loss. But here things are soooo different – there is a trust between service/goods provider and customer. People expect that you would be honest and civil and hold up your part of the deal. In German, i believe it is called “anständig”, which dict.leo.org translate to be fair, becoming, decent, honest, modest, proper, self-respecting, square. i don’t think there is a single word in English which fully describes what this German word means.

Anyhow, i’m getting carried away here. Back to the violin rental.

So we went with a friend whose little girl also chose to play the violin. It was a great time of trying out different violins (so many sizes and tones). i am so happy to have gone with someone who has a music background and get some help on picking a good violin and she also asked questions i would not have think to ask. Thanks my dear.

Here are a few photos:

Camera 360 — Left: she is measuring him for length of arm. Right: she is letting him try playing.

For the last week or so, since we got the violin at home, he has been taking it out of its case and “playing” it (ok, so he is just running the bow over the strings at the moment – but still 😀 ). He is just as excited to start lesson as he was when he made his choice a month ago. i’m excited for him too.

Now this is not a cheap instrument so i wanted to be sure that we took good care of it. Where do i go for help on this? Well, the internet, of course 😉

There are so very many website and Youtube videos which teach everything from how to store your violin properly to caring for the strings and telling you about things like dampits (the use of which is debated among musicians). The one very important thing i have learnt is that the instrument must not be subjected to extremes of temperatures and humidity. This can potientally cause irreparable damage to the very expensive wood body of your instrument. So we now are on a new journey to learn as much as we can. Hopefully the teacher will give us more guidance along the way.

i leave you with these 2 websites which i found helpful about the care and maintenance of violins; The Sound Post and ViolinOnline.

syc

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Jodlerfest… Yodeling Festival…

You would think that after living here for a number of years we would have heard our fair share of yodeling. But we have only heard it up close and personal one time… when we went to a restaurant in the mountain resort of Gstaad and a guest there started yodeling, on the spot, right there in the middle of lunchtime. It was great! Since then however, nothing…

So when i picked up the leaflet for the 47th Bern Kantonal Yodel Festival, i decided we need to go. Unfortunately, hubby was away so just the son and i went, last Saturday, 16th June 2012.

It was held in Schwarzenburg, a lovely village up a mountain, about 30 mins from Bern by train. It was a warm and sunny day, perfect for such an event.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — i think there was like 10 locations and there were even mini buses to ferry people back and fro. Oh i was so tempted to get myself a traditional costume – see the shop.

Once off the train, we were greeted by a large sign post, directing us to various parts of the festival. i had expected one centralised stage and some stalls around it. But this was a fairly large event. The whole village was the stage. There were many locations where competitions were being held. There was a fair with food stalls and other stalls. All the restaurants were opened all day and doing brisk business.

On the train up to Schwarzenburg, there were ladies wearing the official blue polo t-shirt selling the little entrance badge and the program for the day. They actually saw us and walked by us, not offering us their wares. i was a little annoyed that they didn’t think we were their target audience. So i approached them and asked. That’s when i found out why they passed us by.

It would cost me CHF20/. for the entrance to all the competitions and i would also have to pay the same price for the son, a 8-year old child! She sort of agreed it was silly and expensive to charge children that price but she said they were told that as long as the child is big enough to sit by themselves, they would need a ticket too. (So be warned if you intend on going to this next time.)

So needless to say, i did not buy the entrance to the competitions. The lady was nice enough to tell us that there will be groups all over the village performing spontaneously as they sit and have a drink/food. When we arrived, i asked again at the Information Counter, hoping to hear that maybe there is an exception in one of the locations. But no. However, again the lady was helpful and told us that we could go up to the castle and listen to the Alphorns. It was an open-air competition and even though we could not get into the “official” sitting area, we could stand around outside and listen. There you go, you don’t always have to pay to listen to good music 😉

Here’s a visual summary (photos and videos) of our day at the Jodlerfest:

This is the first group we saw, yodeling at an outdoor eating area:

i absolutely loved seeing all the traditional costumes almost every other person was wearing. (You can also see the costumes in the videos.) There was a large variety of traditional dresses worn by the women, depending on which region they came from. The men mostly wore the white shirt under a short-sleeved black jacket, often lined with white and red strips. They usually pin the badges of all the yodeling festivals they have been to on their jacket collars.

Some women also wore fancy headdresses. But i only got a shot of some in hats (see the traditional costume picture above) and this one of the girls wearing a cute little black hat. i adore how the little girls have their hair done up. i remembered having my hair done up exactly like that, when i was a kid, for my Godmother’s birthday, if memory does not fail me. (Visit the Swiss National Costume Association for some history and more pictures.)

Here’s a video of the kids singing:

Of course we saw and heard the Alphorns. i think it’s really neat how the horn can be taken apart and packed into a convenient-to-carry bag. In the video below, you can just see the “official” seats on the right. This gives you a sense of how far/close we could stand on the outside of a low wall.

Here’s a video of an all men group singing (i did not managed to catch the earlier part on video but they were singing about some lovely lady – if my Swiss German proves to be right.):

Last but not least, we ate as one should when at such an event. There is normally a big tent set up for food and one or a few restaurants run the place and that’s where most people would eat. Otherwise, you also have the choice of getting some small snack and munching along your way. We went an hour or so after the lunch rush so there weren’t many people eating at that time.

It was a great day out. We took our scooters and it was great cos’ we could scoot around the village and get to the different locations faster. Maybe something for you to consider if you do decide to visit one of these festivals. That’s right, there are yodeling festivals all over Switzerland. Just google for them, i’m sure you will find one near you 😉

syc