BASEL (Switzerland).
Population 161,800 - home base for our stay in Switzerland.

Our address in Basel -
c/o Jesse & Venny
Mittlere Strasse
4056 Basel

Switzerland is effectively 3 countries: German, French & Italian. Even Alsace in France is 'borderline' German, althought they speak French. Road signs are in different languages in different parts of the country. Country did I say?

Mountains make up 70% of the country. Curiously, I think Switzerland is more a compromise than a country. How else would you make of a country that has 4 official languages.

In usage, 'German' makes us 64%,
'French' 20%,
'Italian' 6.5%,
'Romanish' 0.5%,
'Others' 9%

"The Swiss hate excess" Venny said. They charge CHF 0.20 (S$0.26) for ketchup at Mc Donalds. Garbage bags are sold at CHF 2.00 (S$2.60). There is virtually no tolerance for dimensions of carpark design and lots. Jesse adds that when you asked for half size in Switzerland, they really charge you only half the price as opposed to the practice in say, America, which charges you more than half the price for half price, thereby encouraging you to order the larger size even when it will go to waste. Or the McDonald practise of "upsizing"...Chup has no more thought at this moment... ...

So I am going to continue this journal.

Recycling of waste is taken seriously here in Basel. Garbage clearance is only done twice weekly at Venny's apartment. Every household would put their daily garbage in the blue CHF 2.00 bags and place them in the designated locations when the day of the week comes. On public holidays, the garbage may only be cleared once a week! Such schedule and cost of garbage bags force one to compact as much as one possibly can in order to minimize wastage. If garbage is not placed in the blue bags, it will not be cleared. If garbage is not placed in that blue CHF 2.00 bags, it will not be cleared. The city and the neighbourhood would then keep a watchful eye on who the culprit could be. They would even go to the extent of rumaging through the content hoping to find some discarded letters/envelope, hence finding the address of the culprit!

Electrical lights automatically turn themselves off when there is no movement. The Swiss hate air conditioning too. External blinds are widely used everywhere. During hot summer, the blinds would be closed to keep the cool air in hence minimizing use of air conditioning.

GOOD NIGHT......


CHUP & LIN
........... the ones who are on a 7-hour-train from Basel to Paris beacuse of daylight saving hour change...
30 Oct 2005, 3:53 am