Thursday, March 08, 2007

A VERY Productive Morning...

After dropping Mrs. TBF off at the train station, I brought the Jeep to the garage (by our old apartment) for its "annual" service and oil change. Before you freak out, let me remind you that the garage uses synthetic oil, and they only recommend an oil change once per year. The Jeep also needed its once-every-two-or-three-years emissions test.

Hopefully, this will be the last emissions test we ever have to pay for for the Jeep.

After dropping off the Jeep, I walked over to catch the tram to the gym. Yes...I know... Me going to the gym at 8:15 a.m.???? What did you do with TBF? It...just...seemed like the right thing to do.

Anyway, I was about to board the tram with my big-ass Nike gym bag, and then I noticed a familiar face in one of the cars: Canadian-Swiss!

How nice! We got to ride the tram together as I went to the gym and she rode the tram to her brand-new (temporary) job. Yes...I had celebrated the fact that I had finally lured somebody to the "dark side" of retirement, but...she only lasted three months. Shame!

After saying tschüss to CS, I made my way to the gym to workout with the other retired people; albeit, retired people who are a good twenty years older than me.

You know what? I used to work out in the morning quite regularly, and I'm going to have to start doing it again (it was one of my New Year's resolutions...doh!), because...I LOVE WATCHING SENIOR CITIZENS AT THE GYM! I love everything about it: the socializing, the lack of sweating, the belief that drinking coffee in the café counts as working out, and the standard workout outfit of white v-neck t-shirt tucked into gym shorts.

Who knew that espadrilles qualified as proper footwear for the gym? I certainly didn't.

After my rather vigorous workout (if I do say so myself...and I do!), I walked over to Energy Liquors at the train station to by some overpriced Guinness (Don't forget: next Saturday is St. Patrick's Day!). Of course, when I arrived at Energy Liquors, the door was locked and there was a sign on the door stating that the storekeeper had to "step out" (read: pee) and that he would return in a few minutes.

SCREWING UP MY PRODUCTIVITY!!!!

No bother...the storekeeper returned after about a minute, and I bought my Guinness. Then, I decided to reward my stellar workout with a trip to Starbucks. Starbucks ended up being a pleasant surprise. Usually, Starbucks in Basel causes me stress.

Normally, Starbucks in Switzerland drives me crazy. The Swiss just do NOT understand the concept of fast food. My order is always VERY simple: a Venti coffee-of-the-week. That's it! I order it, and then...they START brewing the coffee. THAT'S RIGHT...THE COFFEE IS NEVER READY, AND THEY ALMOST ALWAYS HAVE TO BREW A FRESH POT WHEN I GO IN. Plus, they are the slowest people IN THE HISTORY OF BARISTAS to fill coffee orders. I'm telling you, if I walk into a Starbucks in Basel, and there are three people in line before me...FORGET ABOUT IT!!! I move on. In Chicago? Twenty people in line before me on a Saturday morning? No problem! I'm served in about 90 seconds. In Switzerland? Three people takes ten minutes - I kid you not!

So, today I walked in (nobody in line), and ordered my coffee from a foreigner (second Asian of the day!), and I nearly had my coffee in my hand before I had my money out of my pocket. Asians RULE!!!

We need more Asians in Basel! And yes...they also mix up the "l" and "r" when they speak German!

I took the tram home, vacuumed the apartment before "Quiet Time" (12:00-14:00) arrived, and...

...that's when productivity came to a grinding halt!

3 comments:

Z said...

Erm, I hope you won't mind my saying that it bothers me when people use the term "Asian", but mean only a particular regional group (either from South Asia as is common in England, or from Far East Asia as is common in the US). The SA people (most of whom are in the Indo-European language group) usually don't have problems pronouncing "l" and "r", to give one tiny example of the gross differences.

The Big Finn said...

z - I don't mind, and I know exactly how you feel. It's kind of the same as when people lump Finns into the group of "Scandinavians".

I was trying to be politically correct by not using an un-p.c. term like "Chinaman." The truth is that I couldn't really tell what the origin of this "probably from the Far East Asian" was.

Bobby The C said...

Tramas Glenn!