At Least They Say Good-Bye

I haven't been everywhere. I suppose, if it comes down to it, that I haven't even been most places. But so far, I'm nominating Switzerland (maybe I should say Geneva) as having the worst customer service on the planet, except for the fact that they often say "hello" when you arrive and "good-bye" when you leave.

There are exceptions; every once in a while someone does something right. But it's rare.

Today was a typical example. I have been looking for a bag or backpack for camera stuff. I went to the biggest camera shop in town, called Photo Hall, to check it out and to ask about the price of a little adapter guy that magnifies an image by 2x.

Now, I can preface my story by saying that this: when I first purchased my camera, I was looking at online prices in Switzerland to try to shop wisely. I know that it's more here than in the US, but it wasn't too much of a difference. So I went into the aforementioned Photo Hall and told a guy what I was going to buy. I showed him the prices I could get it for in Zurich, and said that if he'd match the price, I would like to buy it from him.

He took my sheet, opened up his price list, wrote down the list price next to each of the prices on my sheet, did the total and handed it back to me, without saying a word.

"That's it?" I asked, "you won't move at all?". He just shook his head. I laughed, congratulated him on losing a sale but maintaining his honor, hoped almost sincerely that he would be able to make his rent payment out of his extra stored-up honor at the end of the month, and found the door.

So, my expectations weren't too high today.

First of all, the lens adapter thing (called a teleconverter). I went in and asked for the price, just out of curiosity. He looked at me suspiciously:

"For which lens?"

"Huh?" I was a bit surprised... I didn't think that there were multiple versions of it for different lenses. But I told him the lens I wanted to use it with.

"It doesn't work with that one," he said, "that lens only works with this teleconverter." And he pointed to another one (1.7x instead of 2x) that they happened to have in stock.

"Uh, no," I replied, "it works quite well with the 2x. I've seen the pictures."

"With autofocus? No, I don't think so".

I just shook my head. "What's the price, monsieur?"

Now, I can understand that, in technical issues, "the customer is always right" is a dangerous mantra to live by. But "the customer deserves a sliver of respect" may serve these guys well. In this case, I don't know if he was lying or just ill-informed, but he was most certainly wrong. I pity the people who go to this shop for advice without having done their own homework.

The good news, for me, is that they did have the backpack I have been wondering about in stock. I had a chance to try it on, see how the construction was, and check out how things would fit inside. Then I took a look at the price:

$540

Yes, you're reading that right. It's for a backpack... a backpack I can buy online for $150 or $160 pretty easily in the US or Canada.

I thought about asking for a discount, but decided I'd had enough fun for one day. Maybe I'll go back and inquire about it next week.

"Good-bye!"

Before You Knew Me...

... I was a fairy princess.


Crap: there it goes again.

No, that's not some bizarre confession, and no, you won't find related pictures on the internet. But it's a line from a Faith Hill song that I've had going through my head, on and off, for a month or so now. It's pretty catchy, and it's fun to sing.

Unfortunately, that results in me singing it. But mostly just the one line that I remember.

This wouldn't be so bad if I would "sing" it and not sing it. But there are no moderating factors here... I don't imagine it, don't kind of hum it. I sing it, with the words, out loud.

Tough to explain to people who don't know the song.


Oh well. In other news.... well, I don't have a lot of other news. I've had a cold for the past couple of weeks that, somehow, the little chick has managed to avoid (hooray, little chick!). I'm still wearing spring clothes, and spring is still not showing up. And I've tried red sauerkraut, but am not entirely happy with the results.

How have you been?

Blunt

Blunt (definition):

1. Having a dull edge or end; not sharp.
2. Abrupt and often disconcertingly frank in speech.
3. Slow to understand or perceive; dull.
4. Lacking in feeling; insensitive.

James Blunt:

Yeah, he pretty much checks the boxes, too. Maybe not #2 so much, now that I think about it. And there should be something about intolerable amounts of whiny, mid-tempo, acoustic-guitar based songs about people dying/falling out of love/losing their minds/honestly I stopped listening after the first one in there.

The good things about this concert:

• I was there with a friend who, should her current career fall apart, seems well-suited to some kind of crisis intervention work.
• The opening band, The Hoosiers, was pretty fun. Very bouncy. Also, they ran across the stage completely naked (but covering up their saucy bits) after James' set. I'm guessing it's because it was the last show of their tour together, but maybe they do that every time. In any case, it's the most interesting thing that happened while he was on stage.
  
• Blunt's drummer hauled. Actually, the whole band was quite good.
• The girl in front of me not only had great eyes and wonderful cheekbones, but also had the good grace to turn around frequently.
• There were a couple other girls close by who, in every slow song (and trust me - there were a lot of them) would put up their hands with their fingers curved over and their thumbs extended down, kind of in the shape of a heart. Yes, we love you, James. Except that, after a little while, they would kind of relax the posture and it would look more like two zeros instead of two hearts. Less passionate, but perhaps a shade more accurate.
  

There was one point where he stepped away from the mic, and all I could hear was the sound of heavily accented French girls singing, instead of him. At first, I thought, "hey, I came here to see the man, himself". Then I realized that it was just a lot more pleasant with them singing. Eventually, he came back.

I cried.

And if that's not an indication of my high level of musical satisfaction, here are a couple other tidbits:

• By the fourth song I was using my phone to catch up on my email.
• I didn't buy a tee shirt.

I would warn you not to go see him, but this was the last show of the tour. But next year, don't say no one ever told you...

Flashback

I was remembering my high-school English classes today. They were insane, and rather than explain why, I'm going to illustrate with a snippet of dialog:

Mr L: "Who can tell me what a noun is?"
Me (always a keener and, moving from another school, not yet acclimatized to the new environment): "The name of a person, place, or thing"
Mr L: "No, who can tell me what it is?"
Jim: "Something you call something?"
Mr L: "No..."
Sheri: "An action?"
Mr L: "No. Who knows?"
Blair: "A word that..."
Mr L: "STOP!"
Everyone [exchanging blank looks]
Mr L: "What did you say? Say it again"
Blair: "A word that tells you..."
Mr L: "NO! Before that"
Blair [confused]: "A word that..."
Mr L: "That's it!"
Everyone [still blank]. In the back row, Caroline starts to cry.
Mr L [triumphantly]: "It's a WORD!"

Yeah, this was grade 10. It's a wonder I still know how to read.

Please Wait

I take a lot of relatively small aircraft - my usual commute to Lugano is on one that seats just over 50 people. As a rule, they let you put larger carry-on stuff outside the plane as you get on.. .then they load it up and unload it for you at the other end.

It's a pretty good deal. You don't have to carry it (or find space) on board, but you also don't have to wait for it at the baggage belt at the other end. But every time we land, they say the same thing, usually in three languages:

"We kindly ask you to wait patiently while your hand-luggage is being unloaded."

Now, I'm glad that they're willing to unload it. Really, I am. And from what I've seen, they do a pretty good job. I haven't heard of them missing any.

But why the announcement? I mean, if the stewardess would just stand there for a minute before opening the door, would people spontaneously rush forward? Would the guys at the front push her into the cockpit so we could figure out how to get that door open and the stairs down, to tear wildly across the tarmac? Or maybe people who had given stuff to the luggage guy at the other end would just not remember, "hey, it felt... heavier, before. Nah, I must have been imagining it..."

I like to talk - any of my friends will tell you. I even like listening. And, with people who are special to me, I can even talk about/listen to a whole lot of more or less nothing, and still be quite happy just to have the time and the contact, especially if snack are involved. But my relationship with the Darwin stewardess is (perhaps regrettably) not exactly in that category.


I wonder if I should say something?