Futile but funny [en]

I did the weekly shopping this afternoon (Switzerland is a country that still has closing hours for shops – 6 or 7 pm weekdays, 5 pm saturday, and sunday clo-osed). Back in the kitchen, as I was waiting for my groceries to walk into the fridge on their own, I noticed Bagha looking at me in a queer way.

Damn! I forgot to buy the cat-food.
Got back in the car, went back to the shop, stopped at the doggy-kitty department. While I was hesitating between beef, chicken or tuna flavoured meat mash for the perpetually hungry feline, I noticed a little sign upon one of the tins.
It said “spoon included”. Yep. You know, the little plastic ones they sell with ice-cream cups so you can feast on them right away.
I immediately imagined Bagha opening the cupboard and catching one of his tins (he’s smart enough to do that), peeling the lid off, and using the little plastic spoon to eat his snack…

HA!

Of course, the spoon is meant for the owner, silly – not for the cat. Cat owners don’t want to run the risk of getting smelly meat-mash juice on their fingers when dumping their kitty’s dinner on the plate.

How on earth have we survived until now without those marvellous little plastic spoons?

I remember the days when we needed a tin-opener to feed the cat…

Reverse Culture Shock [en]

Things I could not have seen in India:

  • A few weeks back, a man at the bus stop was spending his waiting time chasing cigarette butts into the gutter, systematically, undisturbed by curious onlookers. Now you understand why Switzerland is a clean country.
  • Two days ago, a woman in the (clean) toilets at my workplace dropped her purse on the floor near the sink. She actually took a piece of paper to pick up the purse with.
    She was doing something with her ham sandwich before that – I now suspect she was washing and drying the ham.

Outlook Beware [en]

[fr] Twitter n'envoie dès à présent plus de SMS aux utilisateurs basés hors des Etats-Unis, du Canada, et de l'Inde: trop cher. Oui, ça veut dire que même vos DM ne vous parviennent plus sur votre téléphone. Très déçue et embêtée par ce changement assez important dans l'intégration de mes communications online et offline.

Some versions of Outlook and Outlook express can be vulnerable to viruses that act as the mail headers are read, i.e. even without you opening the message or the attachment. The good news is that a patch is available.

Flat and Car [en]

I got my flat!
Bagha is happy, although he doesn’t know it yet, because in a bit more than two weeks he will be allowed outside again.
My collegues at work saw me leap in the air with joy as I received the news by phone.

I also found a cheap car. Car, flat, cat, job and studies awaiting me in October… what could I ask more?

Web Insanity [en]

I must be going slightly mad… I’ve registered an email address for my cat at meowmail.com.
You can now write to him directly at [email protected] to ask him how he is coping with Switzerland (locked up in a flat, no pure beef for dinners anymore – canned food instead, no playmates, no dog, no baby…).
I think he’s even more impatient than I am to find a flat where he can taste outdoor life again!

Yea. I admit it – mea culpa. People do such useless things on the web, at times…