Wes, Wien, Wasting Time, and Wine...

Wes, one of Mrs. TBF's colleagues, came over for dinner last night. I grilled up some steaks (which is a good thing because "Helmut" the Weber has not been getting enough use lately), we drank a little wine, and had a good visit until the wee hours...
We went to bed around 2 a.m., on a "school-night" no less, and I have to say that since I've been feeling a bit tired this morning I haven't really felt like doing too much. However, I wasn't totally unproductive.

Wien (Vienna): We're going to Vienna for Christmas. I decided that it would be a wise thing to try to make restaurant reservations for Christmas dinner (still working on it), etc. in advance so that we're not scrambling at the last minute. I've sent an e-mail to somebody at the hotel we'll be staying at to see if they'll be serving a traditional Christmas dinner with roasted goose and all the trimmings. Another thing I did was book a couple of tickets to see Falstaff at the Vienna Opera on December 23rd. Now, we're not opera buffs by any means. I mean, I've never been to any opera, and I'm pretty sure Mrs. TBF hasn't been to one either. But, Mrs. TBF suggested that we should either go see the Vienna Opera or the Vienna Boys Choir while we're in town, and I think it's a good suggestion. The opera was definitely my first choice, but I did check into the Boys Choir. As it turns out, you have to request in writing at least eight months in advance for tickets to their Christmas concert. AND, that doesn't guarantee that you'll be able to see them - just hear them. No thanks! I'll just watch them on T.V. in our hotel room for two minutes, lose interest, and then go take a snooze or something. Then, it was time for...

Wasting Time: After doing a little travel planning, I wrote a couple of hotel reviews of hotels we've stayed at recently at Tripadvisor. If you haven't used this website yet, I'd suggest you do so. It's pretty valuable for getting the latest hotel reviews that are written by people who have stayed at the hotels. You kind of have to read between the lines sometimes, but it's still a valuable travel planning tool nonetheless.
After Tripadvisor, I read some of the blogs I read everyday. Then, I went back in my blog to see what I was doing one year ago. I like doing this from time to time. As a matter of fact, I wish Blogger would offer a service where they would print your blog in book form (for a fee of course). I'd order one for myself in a second. They'd make a ton of money doing it. I can't believe they don't do this - or maybe they do. I should check into it. So anyway, one year ago today, I was in Chicago driving around in a black Cadillac. Ahhh, memories. Incidentally, I'll be back in Chicago in less than three weeks to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. I'm looking forward to it!

Wine: While I was checking out the blogs, the doorbell rang. There was a voice on the intercom claiming to be the mailman with a package. I wasn't expecting anything, but I went downstairs anyway to find that the mailman was delivering a case of wine that I ordered at the Weinmesse a couple of weeks ago. Let me tell you, Switzerland is an amazingly trusting country.
I ordered about three cases of wine from two different vendors at the Weinmesse. I paid for the one that was delivered today at the show. This particular case of wine came by normal mail. I didn't even have to sign for it. I'm not really sure what the mailman would have done if I hadn't been home. My guess is that he probably would have left it in the lobby, and then one of my neighbors would have put it inside the locked door for me to grab when I came home...not sure. But, that's not as trusting as the other cases of wine that were delivered last week.
A couple of friends and I pooled our wine purchases together to reduce the shipping costs. Last Thursday, a man delivered six cases of wine to our house. No big deal? Well, it kind of is considering we haven't even paid for them yet and I haven't even received a bill. That's right! The lady at the Weinmesse told me that the wine would be delivered, and then the bill would be sent at a future date. Even after living here for five years, I still find this Swiss way of doing business an amazing thing.

So now it's time for yet another "W". It's time to workout!
Auf Wiedersehen!

Losing Weight Is An Amazing Thing...

I don't know why I find it so amazing, but now that I've lost weight, I'm able to buy clothes that I never bought before when I was twenty pounds heavier. That, actually, was the driving force in me deciding to go on a diet. Before losing weight, I had to buy XXL shirts. Now, I can buy XL shirts. Going down one size makes a big difference in what I'm now able to buy vs. before. For example, I can now buy Lacoste shirts. I don't even have to buy the largest size! So that's what I did.
We went into the Lacoste store on the Champs Élysées and I bought a couple of shirts. One of them ended up not fitting right, so Mrs. TBF returned it the next day and exchanged it for two other shirts. I also bought a scarf at Orly Airport on the way home. Believe me, that's a shopping spree for me on a weekend trip.
I could tell that Mrs. TBF was feeling a little disappointed that she hadn't bought anything as far as clothing or accessories go. How did I know that? Oh, I don't know...maybe it was her saying, "...I didn't buy any clothes, or ANYTHING this weekend!" What...did you think I was a mind reader or something?
So, with the final minutes before our return flight to Basel/Mulhouse Airport ticking away, Mrs. TBF spotted a winter coat at the Printemps store at Orly Airport while I was buying my scarf. She had told me a couple of weeks ago that she needed a new winter coat. Back when I was younger and less wise, I would have said something like "didn't you just buy one last year???". Now, I know better.
We toyed with the idea of doing the whole getting-the-V.A.T.-refund thing, but we determined that it would be too complicated a task on a Sunday evening at Basel Airport. We had just enjoyed a nice weekend in Paris, so what the heck...? Let France keep the tax. We got rid of the packaging and tags (so we wouldn't also end up paying Swiss sales tax) and boarded the flight.
An interesting thing happened on the flight. While we were taxiing on the tarmac, a lady a couple rows in front of us vomited and then passed out. One minute later, and the flight would have taken off. But, the pilot ended up taking the plane back to the gate. A bunch of paramedics came on board, and ended up taking the lady off the plane. It was a first for not only me, but also for Mrs. TBF - the veteran business traveler.


Anyhow...here's a picture of Mrs. TBF wearing her new coat while waiting for the tram in front of the Basel Train Station after getting off the airport bus. She has her (smuggled) winter coat, I have three shirts with little alligators on them, and we're home from yet another great trip to Paris.

You Have Failed...

...in the modest task that was your charge!
On Saturday morning, I gave Mrs. TBF the camera and told her that her assignment for the day was to take some pictures of me. I love having a bunch of pictures of Mrs. TBF, but I also wouldn't mind her taking an occasional picture of me. For the most part, the pictures you see of me on The Big Finn's Big Blog are either self-portraits that I take by setting the camera on top of a shelf/mailbox/beer glass/etc. and setting the ten-second timer. Mrs. TBF took on this assignment with neither vim nor vigor, but I figured it would be a good test-run. Afterall, the plan is that I'm going to buy a new camera in the next couple of weeks and then she'll inherit the old Canon as her camera.
Mrs. TBF wanted to check out some little specialty shops in the Madeleine section of Paris. I wanted to go see the catacombs and Jim Morrison's grave....
So...while we were walking around Madeleine, I gave Mrs. TBF a subtle reminder of her photo assignment....oh, something to the effect of "...how are those photos coming along?" that seemed to not go over too well. After checking out various gourmet shops that specialized in truffles, condiments, and olive oil, I began to have very low blood sugar and began to winge (..as the Brits say) about being hungry and "...not getting to see anything I want to see!" Realizing that TBF with low blood sugar is a very bad thing, Mrs. TBF agreed to stop at a little Brasserie where we ordered a couple of beers and some food.
You know what? I'm forty-three years old now, and I should know better. However, I'll say right now that if I live to be one-hundred years old I'll still never learn to NOT press my luck. I did a very stupid thing. I grabbed the camera out of her handbag and I said something like "...how about letting me see all of those candid photos you've been taking of me so far today?"


I managed to snap this photo of her right when I asked the question. Wisely, I decided not to take another photo.


The camera was taken from my hand, I received a short lecture, and then Mrs. TBF took this photo of me. I must say, that it is a beautiful, candid shot. Notice how she captures my moment of fear and shame. She shows tremendous promise as a photographer!


I like this photo of me in the catacombs even better!

Random Paris Photos That I Like...

...in no particular order.


Official weight loss as of earlier that morning - 20 pounds! But hey, I was in Paris...so SCREW THE DIET!!! This little plate of goodies was delivered to our room shortly after we got settled in. Mrs. TBF was a little ticked off because I got a little possessive with the tray.


Mrs. TBF: "Hey...isn't that Louis Vuitton store somewhere around here?"
TBF: "I don't think they have a store in Paris anymore."


At the top of each hour, about a zillion lights twinkle on the Eiffel Tower for ten minutes. It's quite the sight to behold. My camera doesn't do it justice. Sorry, I did the best I could.

No Riots, No Burning Cars...

...just a really nice evening in Paris!


On Friday evening, after having a nice cocktail in our hotel lounge, we ventured out for dinner at a nice little bistro called Le Rouge Vif. I read a review of the bistro in the Herald Tribune about a year ago, and I kept the review as a reminder to try the place on a future visit.
First off, let me just say how great our hotel staff was. They came to the lounge to tell us "...zat zee taxi we ordered for you for 7:50 p.m. has not shown up, but not to worry because we have ordered anuzzer taxi. We have also called zee restaurant to explain zee situation and to tell zem to hold zee table because you will be about ten minutes late." Damn...I LOVE good service! And, for that matter, forget the French lessons. Just teach me to speak English with a French accent (only kidding Charlotte!)!


So, our dinner was very good. I just love the bistros with the menu on the chalkboard. The owner of the place just set the chalkboard down on chairs by our table, we ordered, then he moved the board to a chair by another table so they could order. We had some classic bistro food, a little vin rouge, some nice dessert, and walked out of the place smelling like garlic cloves.
Just before we left - while I was visiting the little garçon's room - Mrs. TBF was waiting for me out on the sidewalk just outside the restaurant. Suddenly, the owner came out and gave her an apron with the restaurants name on it. I'm telling you, it made Mrs. TBF's day!


We were feeling a bit sluggish and bloated after dinner, so we decided to walk back toward the hotel. The restaurant was in Saint Germain by the Musée D'Orsay, and we walked up to the Seine so that we could walk along the bank. I'm still not sure which one's the Right Bank and which one's the Left Bank. We walked on the side that the Louvre is on. Is that the Right Bank? Somebody help me here.


At first we thought we'd walk part of the way and jump onto the Metro at some point, but the scenery was so nice that we just kept walking. Before we knew it, we were back on the Champs Élysées. We made a quick stop in the Virgin Megastore where I bought Kate Bush's first CD in twelve years (can't stop listening to it!), and then we walked the final couple of minutes to Rue de Berri. Ahhhh...home at last! All in all we walked almost four miles (I just measured it on our Streetwise Paris map), or about six kilometers. The fact that I did this by choice is a far cry from the "Chicago" TBF of five years ago. Back then I walked our dog, but all other walking was deemed unnecessary and strongly discouraged. While we were walking along the Seine, Mrs. TBF said, "...I really love Euro-[TBF]!

EXACTLY As I Planned!!

Even though the media was reporting as if France as we know it was coming to end, we decided to go to Paris as planned. And...I'm glad we did. I told Mrs. TBF before we left that tourists would be canceling their hotel reservations in droves, and we'd probably end up getting an upgrade. They did, and we did!
We checked in at our hotel early Friday afternoon (it was actually a national holiday in France), and we were informed that we had received an upgrade to a suite! Here are a couple of pictures of our room at the Hotel Lancaster. It was our fourth time at this hotel, and we've NEVER had a bad experience. I highly recommend it. Just tell 'em The Big Finn sent you. Ummmm....on second thought, don't tell them that. They'll just stare at you and say... "Who?". But, both Mrs. TBF and I highly recommend this hotel if you're going to Paris and in the mood to splurge. Come on...do it...you know you're worth it!
The first picture is from Saturday night before going out to dinner, the second picture is our very comfortable bed, and the third picture was taken on Friday evening while I waited for Mrs. TBF to finish her business call so that we could go downstairs and have a cocktail before going out for dinner.
The staff at our hotel told us that they were "angry" at how the media had portrayed the rioting. They had "a few" cancellations, but they said that other hotels had a lot of cancellations. We rode the Metro, we walked around, and we went about our normal tourist stuff. We never felt unsafe, and we never felt as if danger was imminent. The only time we came across anything out of the ordinary was when we couldn't make it to the restaurant we wanted to go to on Saturday night because the taxi driver couldn't make it around a peaceful student protest that was taking place. People were walking down the street to a gathering point, and the police had the street blocked off. I asked the driver if there was any danger - he just chuckled and said that it wasn't "the revolution". He said it in French, so that's what I think he said.
There are unsafe places in EVERY city in the world - the center of Paris is not one of them. I feel bad for the people who decided not to go to Paris because of what CNN said - their loss, our gain.

Northwestern - NO. Save-A-Pet - YES.

Mrs. TBF and I just received our "reminder" from our alma mater - Northwestern University - that we haven't donated any money since July, 2004. We normally make a nice donation every year. It's where we met, we both loved going there, and I came up with the idea that we should give every year because it might help our nieces and nephew get in if they should decide to apply to NU someday (There's a question on the application that asks if any of your relatives have attended NU...at that point it's my opinion that the admissions department most likely looks up the alum to see how much money they've donated over the years.).
Hyyyyyy-evah...I've decided, as a result of reading this article, that maybe Save-A-Pet (where we adopted King) could use the money a little more than Northwestern. Ok...OK...I know the article is about Yale and not NU. But, I remember an NU fund raising drive from a few years ago that had the goal of raising ONE BILLION (Imagine TBF saying that like Dr. Evil!)...with a "B"...dollars. NU ended up reaching the goal early, so...they raised the goal to something like $1.3 billion. I think they ended up making that goal too.
So, we've decided that maybe our money - at least this year - can go to help other Kings that might be sitting at the shelter waiting for somebody to adopt them so that they can go shred some nice furniture on two continents over the course of fifteen years.

Long Live The King!

I just spent thirty minutes typing out a tribute to our cat King. I went to save it as a draft, and...poof...it was lost. I couldn't retrieve it, and I'm not typing the whole thing again. So...
I'll just say that FIFTEEN YEARS AGO TODAY, we adopted King from the Save-A-Pet animal shelter. The shelter had named him "Scarface" because he came into the shelter looking like he'd been in a fight. We adopted him (along with Binky, and then Zane the next year) because we came home from a vacation and found mouse droppings in our utensil drawer.
When I look back, it's amazing how we knew NOTHING about pets at the time. We decided to adopt King and Binky, and then we said to the shelter people, "...ummm, what do we do now?" We drove to Petcare Plus, bought litter boxes, food and water bowls, cat food, etc. Then, we brought King and Binky home in cardboard boxes that the shelter provided. King's box had to be taped shut, and he tried to bust out of it the whole way home. We let them loose in the house, and the rest is history.
King's the sole survivor. Binky (the puker) lost her battle to various ailments and ended up in kitty heaven in 95?, 96?...can't really remember. Zane (the pisser) ended up with kidney failure, and we had to put him down shortly before moving to Switzerland in 2000. Dominique went to doggy heaven earlier this year at the ripe old age of 13 years and 10 months. But, King continues to hang in there at the estimated age of 17.5 years old. Since he was found as a stray, the shelter estimated that he was 2.5 years old when we adopted him (according to his adoption papers which I just found a couple of days ago).
King's been a great cat (except for the fact that our furniture has become his personal scratching post kingdom). He's been relatively healthy (just had to start taking thyroid medicine earlier this year), he always uses the litter box (unlike Zane), and he only pukes occasionally (unlike Binky). All in all, just a great addition to our household for all of these years.
The original price to adopt King? $30! It seemed like a bargain at the time, but the costs associated with owning pets is amazing. I just figured out that King's 1.25 cans of Iams per day that he currently eats costs us 866.88 CHF per year. Multiply that by 15 years, and you get a total of 13,003.13 CHF. That's about $10,000 U.S. to all you people in America. This doesn't count vet bills, kitty toys, little kitty snacks, kitty litter, etc., etc. Wow!
But hey...who's counting? LONG LIVE THE KING!

Out With The Old...

I've spent the better part of this morning doing the big summer to winter wardrobe switch. In Chicago, it wasn't really a big deal - we had ample closet space. In Switzerland - no closets, just IKEA wardrobes. So, clothing storage is at a premium and we have to transfer clothes between our downstairs storage area and our bedroom wardrobes. Plus, this year there's another factor to consider.
I've lost nearly 9 kilos/20 pounds on Weight Watchers since September 5th. OK, I'm not going to turn this into a commercial for WW, but I'd just like to say that it's worked for Mrs. TBF, my brother-in-law, my sister, my mother, and me...so far. I started at 250 lbs./113.6 kilos on September 5th, and I just weighed myself a little while ago...231 lbs./105.1 kilos. I was really losing at a fast clip, and then it slowed down a little bit when I went to Chicago and Bangkok and partook in self-imposed gorge-fests, but I'm back on track. Actually, I only gained a couple of pounds on each of those trips, and then I took it off right after returning home - so, no big deal.
My goal weight is 217 lbs./98.6 kilos. That's what I weighed when I graduated from college. According to the weight charts, I have to weigh 208 lbs. to be at the high-end of the normal range for my height (6'5"/195.5 cm.). I think I'd be skin and bones at that weight, so let's not get crazy here.
All this weight loss has prompted my to start getting rid of some of my "fat" clothes like this "Dijon mustardy" number. This is a very, very good thing - especially when you consider the fact that some of my shirts are well over ten years old. You read that correctly...OVER 10 YEARS OLD!!! Take, for example, the wine-colored diddy I'm holding in the picture. I have a picture of me holding my niece Deanna while wearing that same shirt. In that picture, Deanna is probably five or six years old. She'll be nineteen this December. YIKES!!! As a matter of fact, I ended up going through the photo albums and I discovered a plethora of photos circa 1993-1995 with me wearing the various shirts that I'm getting rid of today. I've done the seasonal clothing switch year after year only to give these shirts the "one more year" reprieve. Not this year. They're all going to the charity bin. Somewhere in Switzerland, there's going to be a very large man who's going to get some stylin' shirts. Well, at least they were stylin' a dozen years ago. Actually, they're still in pretty good shape.
(Snap out of it, stupid...) I better get going to that charity bin before I change my mind.

Ahhh...Blogging Is a Great Thing!!

After posting my last blog entry, I decided to do a little investigatin'! And? Look what I found: an excellent blog called Parisist that is related to the Chicagoist blog that I read on a regular basis.
According to Parisist, it's safe to go to Paris. As I supspected, the problems are almost entirely in the suburbs and not in the heart of Paris. No burning cars on the Champs Elysees...at least not at this time.
So, I'm now officially saying that we're going to Paris this weekend. That is, unless things change drastically in the next couple of days.

Now I'm Not So Sure...

Mrs. TBF and I are supposed to go to Paris this coming weekend for a little getaway. In case you haven't heard, people have been rioting around Paris (and all over France for that matter) for several days now. I'm not going to get into the politics of why the people are rioting. But...they're interfering with our weeked in Paris - so I don't like 'em.
At first I took the attitude that the rioting would probably be over by the time we made it to Paris. I figured that alot of tourists staying away from Paris would result in us getting a nice upgrade at our hotel (I, the travel diva, am always thinking upgrades!). However, it seems that the rioting just keeps getting worse. I just read that Canadian officials have advised Canadians NOT to travel to France. That doesn't really cause me too much alarm because I figure that they have to err on the side of caution. Afterall, there are 10 million people living in Paris and THEY aren't staying away. So, there must be some semblance of business as usual...RIGHT? Come on, somebody agree with me here.
Anyway, what started me thinking that maybe we should think about NOT going this weekend was when I heard that a CURFEW might be put into effect. If that's going to be the case for Paris - forget it!
We have until this Wednesday to cancel our hotel reservation. A refund on the airfare is probably a lost cause at this point, but if it's going to be an unpleasant trip I might as well cut our losses with just "eating" the airfare.
Stay tuned.

Looking Back...

Now that we've been safely ensconced in Switzerland for a couple of days (Mrs. TBF is actually on her way to the U.S. right now), I've had a chance to reflect on our week in Bangkok.
Let me start by saying that it's good to be home. I didn't like Bangkok, I'll probably never go back there again, and I'm glad the week is over.
While we were flying home from Singapore, we saw in the current issue of Conde Nast Traveler that the readers' poll rated Bangkok as the "Number One City in Asia". They certainly didn't ask me for my opinion.
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I went along with Mrs. TBF on her business trip. I was exposed to something new, and that in itself made it a worthwhile experience as far as I'm concerned. However, Bangkok has an overabundance of things that I just do not like. Namely: heat, traffic, and pollution.
It was HOT and HUMID!!! You can't walk anywhere in Bangkok. I would begin sweating ten seconds after stepping out of the hotel while waiting for a taxi. That's MY problem...I've always been a heavy sweater. But, the heat is just relentless!
The heat makes it necessary to take a taxi everywhere, and it seems like everybody shares my sentiment because the TRAFFIC IS HORRENDOUS!!! I'm talking one-mile taxi rides taking twenty minutes. I would guess that Mrs. TBF's meetings were in a hotel that couldn't have been more than a couple of miles from our hotel. The concierge told her to allow FORTY-FIVE MINUTES for the taxi ride. I rode with her one morning, and it took at least a half-hour.
The traffic contributes to really bad pollution. The city smells like car exhaust, and there's a smog that kind of hangs over the city. I could feel it in my throat when we were out and about. The policemen directing traffic wear facemasks while they work. It's just very unpleasant.
These were just the big issues. I won't even go into the little things that I found annoying. Do I sound like a big baby? Maybe I am, but I'm just calling it like I saw it.
Let me switch to the positive things. Our hotel was nice. It wasn't great, but it was adequate. One thing I found out is that "minimalist design" is not very comfortable. I'll avoid it in the future. TBF needs a big comfy chair.
The spa at the hotel was excellent. My Thai massages were great, and so was the Metropolitan Bath (I'll blog about that one later). I even asked Mrs. TBF if she thought there was any way we could hire a Thai au pair at home. She would only have to clean house, bathe me, and give us massages. I'll have to begin looking into that one.
The food was good...and cheap. Bangkok, overall, is pretty cheap. Even when you're paying high hotel prices for things, it still seems cheap - at least compared to Switzerland. That might be why it rates so highly as a travel destination.
Our hotel had ESPN, so I was able to watch every game of the World Series live at 8:00 a.m.! We'd go down to breakfast (Excellent! There's nothing like fried rice/noodles for breakfast!), Mrs. TBF would go off to work, and I would watch the second half of the game. Then, I'd go work out in the gym. After my workout, I'd rest a bit, then I'd go to the spa for some "treatment". Hey wait a minute...maybe it wasn't so bad! Really, by the time Mrs. TBF would return, I'd be climbing the walls. I guess my biggest disappointment with Bangkok was that there just wasn't that much to do. Sure, you can go see a bunch of temples, but once you've seen a couple of reclining buddhas you've kind of seen them all. We saw Wat Pho, and there are a bunch of other places that pretty much look the same.
Our daytrip to Ayutthaya was excellent. Although it was a little temple-heavy, it was nice to get out of Bangkok. It was pretty amazing to see all of these temples (some looking like they might topple over at any minute) in such a concentrated area.
So, there you have it. I could ramble on and on about everything, but I've gone on long enough. I'm not going to post any additional pictures of me standing in front of a Buddhist temple sweating my butt off.
I'll just end this post by saying that even though I didn't really enjoy Bangkok, I still appreciate the fact the I was able to go see it. I don't take that for granted.

Home Sweet Home!

We made it home at about 9:30 this morning. I'm tired, and I'm going to take a nap. More later...

Just a Quickie!

We are leaving for Bangkok Airport in a couple of hours, so I'll just leave you with a couple of pictures from yesterday's day trip to Ayutthaya. I'll post more pictures when we're back at home some thirty hours, or so, from now.

....#@$@#*(!!!!!! I just typed a bunch more stuff and saved it. I received an error message (this has happened to me over and over again while at this hotel) when I tried to save what I had written. I constantly have to save partial entries as drafts just so I don't lose everything. I'm annoyed right now, and I'm going to stop.
More about our week in Bangkok when we return home (where we have dependable wireless service)!

It's Not All Fun And Games...

...while we're in Bangkok. We have work to do too! Who "we"? Mrs. TBF AND I. That's who "we".
Mrs. TBF is really here on business. She has a "compensation forum" to go to at the J.W. Marriott this afternoon, tomorrow, and Thursday. She left this morning at about 7:00 a.m. What's a "compensation forum"? She gives me some kind of malarkey about "...comparison of corporate compensation data provided by outside consultants" to throw me off the trail. I say it's collusion designed by "the man" to keep the worker down! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Really, I shouldn't complain. Mrs. TBF might decide not to bring me along on future business trips. You know..."don't bite the hand that feeds", etc., etc.
So, I did say "we", didn't I? Why yes I did Mr./Ms. Doubting Thomas! I too have a "Things To Do List".
The first thing on my list is to blog ("...have a good day at work, honey!") - which I'm doing right now. So, consider that one to be accomplished.
The second thing is to schedule a day-trip for this Friday - which I just did. I called Julie's Taxi, and I arranged a 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. trip to Ayuthaya - a place our travel guide describes as having "glorious old ruins well worth a goggle." I opted for the Volvo instead of the regular car. I hope Mrs. TBF doesn't mind. It does cost an extra $10 U.S. for the Volvo - bringing the TOTAL for the car and driver to $60 FOR THE DAY!!! I inquired about the "guide" for an extra $25 for the day. The lady talked me out of it saying something like "...save the money for your lunch. The driver knows the area very well and can show you around for no extra charge." Wow! Second thing on my list - DONE!!!
Third: Schedule Wednesday Spa Treatment. I'll do that when I'm done blogging. I had a Thai massage yesterday, and I gotta go back fo' mo'!! I'm going to schedule more treatments for tomorrow. I'm thinking about "The Metropolitan Bath":

This cleansing treatment works to gently exfoliate and soften your skin. After dry brushing the body, COMO Shambhala's [that's what the spa is called] specially prepared Invigorate Salt Scrub infused with essential oils, macadamia oil and oat bran is applied to the body. After a rinse in a revitalising bath, this treatment concludes with a relaxing COMO Shambhala Massage and a choice of healthy juice from COMO Shambhala.

Yup...sounds good to me. Tomorrow, I'm gettin' my bath on!!! I have a lot of skin, so I'll definitely get my Thai Baht's worth.
Finally, I have to pick out a place for dinner. I think we should definitely go for Thai food, but it's just a matter of where. Maybe I'll go down to the spa, soak in the hot tub, and then sit in the steam room until I'm all red and pruney. I need to clear my mind before I focus on dinner.
The stress is killing me!

In My Room...

I'm overjoyed by the fact that we have ESPN in our hotel room. I just finished watching Monday Night Football - LIVE!!! on a Tuesday morning in Bangkok. Globalization - good! We also watched the first two games of the World Series. Go Sox!!!!
I've also been perusing my International Herald Tribune. I have a subscription to IHT at home. In addtional to the normal paper (albeit with an Asian versus European focus), it also has a Thai Day section. So it's pretty much two papers in one. Nice!
What isn't nice, however, is the difference in the annual subscription price in Thailand versus the annual subscription price in Switzerland. Right now there is a subscription special for 3,900 Baht per year. That comes out to about 125 Swiss Francs per year. What's the annual subscription price is Switzerland? 765 CHF!!!!

Love You Long Time...

Look at what Mrs. TBF found in our mini bar refrigerator right next to the Swiss chocolate. That's right...condoms - IN THE REFRIGERATOR!!!

Speaking Like a Local.

One of the things I've been surprised about in Bangkok is the fact that people just don't speak English very well. I'm not complaining - afterall, I can't even say hello in Thai - I'm just surprised. Mrs. TBF once told me that everybody in Singapore speaks English very well. I thought Bangkok would be the same - it's not. Even staff members at large hotels with mostly English-speaking guests kind of speak a "velly bloken Engrish". For every four staff members, one speaks English pretty well, and the others get by with basics. For example:

Thai Waitress: "You want more coffee?'
TBF: "Yes, thank you. What is the origin of this coffee?"
Thai Waitress: (looking confused) "You want tea?"
TBF: "No...coffee is fine. Where does this coffee come from? Thailand? Sumatra? It's very good."
Thai Waitress: "Yes." (she walks away...)
Another Thai Waitress: "Is the coffee OK?"
TBF: "Yes, it's great. I was just asking where the coffee comes from."
Another Thai Waitress: "Oh...the coffee beans are from southern and northern Thailand."
TBF: "Oh...thanks. It's very good."

At this point I see the one waitress go behind a glass partition and explain in Thai what I was asking.

Thai Waitress: "Ahhhhhhh!"

Communicating with taxi drivers is even more challenging. The hotels give you a card to give the drivers. It has the hotel information in both Engrish (clap...now I'm doing it!) and the crazy (but quite beautiful) looking Thai writing...plus, a map. It's often the only way to communicate with the driver. Case in point...



We went to one of Bangkok's large shopping centers on Sunday afternoon. By the way...this is what Sunday evening traffic looks like in Bangkok. It was right next to a large hotel, so we just had a doorman at the hotel call a taxi for us.
The doorman asked where we would like to go. I told him "...the Metropolitan Hotel" so that he could tell the taxi driver. The doorman looked confused. I gave him the hotel card, and he said "...ahhhhh....The Metloporitan Hoter!" (I kid you not!). He explained to the taxi driver where we wanted to go, and the taxi driver looked confused. I gave him the card, the doorman and the taxi driver had a one-minute discussion about directions, the weather, football, who knows?...Twenty minutes, and 77 Thai Baht, later we were actually in front of our hotel. SUCCESS!!! I gave the driver 100 Baht (this is $2.50 U.S.) and told him to keep the change. He seemed confused (it's not really a tipping society here), and I just waved for him to keep the change. Of course, he then proceeded to put his hands together in a praying position and bowed about five times.
Mrs. TBF told me I shouldn't tip so much. It's not that she was being cheap - she just thinks it offends the locals. I don't care - I'm not walking around with a half pound of change in my pocket that's worth fifty cents. Now that that was resolved, it was time to head up to the room and resume the "battle of the thermostat"!

What Fo'?

We eventually ventured out of our hotel (Here's the view from our window.) on Sunday to check out some of the sights. Bangkok doesn't really have a city center, and there aren't too many landmark tourist sights so we settled on going to see a place called Wat Pho.













The taxi driver was supposed to take us to some public dock where we were to catch a boat to Wat Pho. Instead, he obviously took us to his buddy's little boat dock where we ended up paying some ridiculous "rich American" fee for a private boat. The price was ridiculous by Thai standards, but it wasn't too bad by Western standards.












Wat Pho ended up being a pretty impressive place. I would have said "cool", but it was anything but. It was downright steamy! We saw unusual things like the enormous reclining buddha which was completely covered in gold leaf. Of course the guidebook says you're not supposed to take pictures with both buddha statues and people in the same picture. But...everybody else was doing it so I figured "what the heck"! There were a lot of crazy looking temples and odd cone-shaped structures which managed to actually keep my interest for about forty-five minutes until I noticed that I was sweating through my undershirt and polo shirt (it's pretty much 33˚C and humid here every single day).
Incidentally, in the continuing saga of me running into Finns throughout the world, I heard Finnish being spoken all around Wat Pho. There must have been a tour bus full of Finns there. AND...I ended up doing Thai/English to Finnish translation.
There were three Finns standing right next to me. Before I even heard them speaking Finnish, I thought they looked Finnish, and like me, they were sweating through their shirts. A Wat Pho employee came up to them and said something to them in Thai - the Finns just stared at him. Then, he said "...you must pay!" One of the Finnish men responded (in Finnish): "...but we haven't gone into anything yet!" So, TBF steps in to save the day. I told the men (in Finnish) that "...it is necessary to pay immediately when you walk into the Wat Pho grounds." They thanked me, and then kind of gave me one of those "who the heck is this guy?" kind of looks.






I took a couple more pictures, including a self-portait, and then left for the Royal Grand Palace. At the RGP, we found out that Mrs. TBF was going to have to rent a wrap and shoes in order to go in. So, we took a pass. Besides, I told Mrs. TBF that I could feel my legs sweating under my pants. It was definitely time to head back to the arctic chill of our hotel's air conditioning and resume the "debate" over the room's thermostat setting.

One Night In Bangkok...

...and the world's your oyster. Everybody knows the first line of the chorus of that song, but how many of you know the second line? Huh...HUH??? We've actually been here two nights already, but who's counting.
All in all, it took us twenty-four hours door-to-door from Binningen to Bangkok. It seems like a long time, but the flight seemed short due to the excellent service given by Singapore Airlines. They RULE!!! The food: excellent! The seats: very comfotable! The on-board entertainment: superb! The flight attendants: BABES! Everybody bowed and smiled constantly. The trip was a real pleasure, and I'm looking forward to the return flight home.

So, we arrived at our hotel. And...here's how we looked after the 24-hour journey. We were tired, but I wasn't too tired to notice that the weight limit of the elevator is: "11 people / 750 kg." Uh...wait a minute. I may have been groggy, but if my math's correct, that comes out to 68.18/150 lbs. per person. I guess the people are a little bit smaller here than I'm used to. Even though I've lost quite a bit of weight lately, the elevator weight limit is still just over "7 TBFs".
We decided to take a nap before dinner, and our two-hour nap turned into a four-hour nap (we slept through the alarm). We went downstairs and had dinner in the hotel bar (where all the "kids" hang out, and the music is loud!). We had Thai food (surprise!), and it was...TERRIFIC. I was surprised to find that it tastes exactly like Thai food tastes in Chicago. So, I'm glad to know that the Thai food in Chicago is fairly authentic (or else our hotel food is Americanized!). Plus, it was really cheap. As a matter of fact, everything is pretty cheap here. You take a 25 minute taxi ride, and it costs something equivalent to about $2.50 U.S. A main course portion of Pad Thai at our hotel cost about $6.50 U.S. (cheap for hotel food!). It would cost WAY MORE in Switzerland - especially the taxi.
When we got back to the room, I couldn't fall asleep. I tossed and turned, and then I decided to take a sleeping pill (my first one ever) that our friend Tom gave me a couple of months ago. I took the pill at 2:00 a.m., I felt it beginning to work at about 2:03 a.m., and the next thing I knew it was 8:15 a.m. I woke up with Mrs. TBF standing next to the bed with the "where's a bucket of water" look on her face. It was time to go downstairs for breakfast where afterwards about ten people pretty much simultaneously bowed at us (in Thailand they bow while putting their hands together in a praying gesture in front of their chests). It makes me feel pretty God-like - and I like it!
It was time to do a little exploring. It was time to explore the heart of Bangkok...