long New Year Weekend...

Wow...
absolutely fantastic...

It was the last resort option that we had... to celebrate the new year eve out of our apartment...not really being on our own. And that choice turned out well.. Well.. it turned out "Best New Year" celebration that we have seen... or rather if would limit it... the best fireworks display we have ever witnessed.

We went to Zurich, about 15 minutes from here... and were treated with this wonderful fireworks display on Lake Zurich for more than 30 minutes...

They were launching the fireworks from somewhere in the middle of the lake and the whole city had their lights switched off.. to create the best dark background possible for this. It felt like everybody was waiting for this only.

It had all the elements in it, perhaps... the color of life at best. We saw all colors that we could expect from a fireworks display. I have seen one in Brussels (a new year celebration fireworks display) but this one was class apart. The very idea of staging it from middle of the lake was THE thing, in my view. The reflection and enlightening of the water surface as the fireworks did their job... was outstanding.

They started it with a giant ( I really mean GIANT ) firework combination at dot 12 midnight. To mark the change of year. And then they waited for 15 minutes... why.. don't ask me.

Those 15 minutes passed by no easy. It started getting colder... by the moment... since we were by the lake, we were facing the cold wind. To add to the cold, rain came in. We did not really go 100% prepared and therefore, had to arrange a few polythenes to cover her head. It was fun.. and trouble mixed all over. We did not want to leave the spot, but the cold was not allowing us to hold on to our cameras ( We went prepared with a Canon EOS350D and a Sony HC30E).

But when they started after 15 minutes, it beat everything. All the cold, all the wind, everything was forgotten in the pleasure shock of the display that we were to witness. The rain, wind, the cold, everything gave way to pleasure and sounds of ohh.. wow.. marvellous...great...its the best... etc.. and etc..

I would add a few photos to elaborate my feelings a bit...

Hope everybody enjoyed the new year start in similar ways...

A very happy new year to all the readers...

Some of the photos from the celebration (whatever we could capture while enjoying the show ourselves...) is available on this album.

From New Year 2007

Apartment Blues... finished

finally...

finally...

the search is now over and i am now writing from our new apartment. In this city/country nothing is easy. start from looking for a flat to planning a visit to signing the contract to moving in... all steps include much more than i have previously seen in at least two countries in Europe. Really... Its not simple.

then there are these microsoft guys... god help me from them... but the xp home edition service pack 2 is just unthinkable.... the people from Mcafee are not far behind.

in the name of virus protection, they load your system with so much stuff, that normal things can't work anymore. I am seriously thinking about asking them to refund my payment for their internet security suite...

Apartment blues contd..

Well, just when we thought we have got our apartment, we got another jolt. The renting agency on which we were waiting for a decision as to whether we get the flat or not refused to answer on their predecided date. Earlier they said that they will decide (probably no for me as well) by the friday that passed by.

Unfortunately for us, they did not. Even worse, they said that they cannot give any dates as to when can that decision be taken.

Now, our second best choice, another apartment, for which the renting agency was ok renting it to us. But, when we called them on friday (after getting to know from the first choice place), they were already closed for the day.

This basically resulted in destruction of our weekend from the moving perspective. Now we did not know whether we could have the flat of our 1st choice, and the decision to move to 2nd choice apartment could not be executed since the keys needed to mvoe were stil to be handed over to us.

Here we are ...still in hotel... trying to do things to pass our time.. and not worry about loss of time that we would have to move during the workdays in the coming week.

I believe its a tough test someone has administered on us... really tough... not letting the life stabilize. Its been almost an year plus that we are waiting for things to stabilize.

well...we'll keep trying...

Apartment blues contd..

the search for apartment continues...

really.. its frustrating.. i saw two apartments.. and by the time we were reaching the place for third apartment, there was an SMS announcing that the flat is already gone. nothing doing.

Well.. the apartments are truly costly in this city as well... paying 1200-1300 Swiss Francs for a 2-2.5 room apartment.. isn't that crazy ? Well... as it is...

Earlier I was renting an apartment 2 rooms for 850 SFr only. and now I can only talk about it...someone else is living in it... although from my own company. He took it when I was gone trying to arrange or my wife's travel documents.

People around here in office do sympathize... but that does not help much really.. does it ... I hope some help arrives from somewhere...

Another saturday passed by. A mixed day with almost no tangible results.

Went to visit a flat, had to leave it due to quite a few factors.. all added up to the decision.
Some "shady" residents around there, the approach to the house, the fact that she did not like it too much, the toilet situation.. all in all, not one of those flats where you walk in and say ... wow.. i want it... still in our situation it was one choice... out of the few we have these days.

then i took her to see the flat i was renting earlier.. i hoped she would like it... but then there is another person living there already. She liked it for sure... but now we have to wait for him to find another place and leave before we can move in. Hope that happens soon enough.

If that doesn't happen... quite a few things will go wrong... :(

Apartment blues

hey...

I never knew that finding an apartment would be so god-damned difficult.
Every option that comes across has some or other negative trace.
Either its too costly, or its available next march or the neighbourhood is not worth living in...

It could be so difficult to find an apartment in a city... ohh... ohh... I never imagined that.

On top of that, the hotel I am staying in.... its so damn small room that its difficult to fit in all my luggage let alone live there humanly.... The wife... that poor thing has to spend all her time killing the time itself.. Not knowing the local language its even worse.

Can any body out there in the blog world help me in my ordeal..... :(

Finally Landed here...

Hey... Believe it or not...
I have finally managed it...

I have finally been able to travel to Switzerland after a frustrating 7 months of Spouse Visa processing. During that process I had to travel three times to my home country.

The company I work for cried foul, but then it was their own mess and had to handle it.

Finally, after all that has happened, We landed in Zurich on sunday 26th of nov.

I am still looking for an apartment and therefore we are in a hotel for the moment. But I hope its all headed towards a better future...

Window of Flowers...

A traditional European Window... decorated with Flowers