Diary

26 January 2003

Well I think I finally discovered the secret of living Winters here in Zurich. Background - it is almost always cloudy in Zurich, and this weighs down on the soul heavily. The secret is that people escape to the mountains, to get above the clouds, and see the sunshine!

So I was going to wake up at 5 AM to leave at 6 AM on Saturday to go to a snowboard lesson in Flumserberg, but my alarm clock did not wake me up. When I woke up, it felt like I slept too much. Looking at the alarm clock, I discovered it's batteries were dead! What a day for them to die. At least my internal clock woke me up at 6 AM. So I made it still in plenty of time for the lesson.

It was gorgeous in the mountains. Plenty of sunshine, a good 30 cm of fresh snow, and the temperature was about -5 C. I could not have asked for more. Just next time I will try not to crash so hard when I land from a jump in the fun park ...

13 January 2003

Well I finally got it to pass! I have been trying for weeks to get my car to pass the inspection test at the Dept of Motor Vehicles (Strassenverkehrsamt). On the first inspection everything passed except the lights. Apparently you need parking lights that are not integrated into the headlight assembly, which they are in my car....

Well I am lucky that I have a Volkswagen, as they built the car to USA and European standards. All I had to do was get a new switch/relay and an extra set of lights that mounted into the bumper. VW in their wisdom already cut the holes and put false covers over the holes.

So after spending a day setting this all up, I went again to the Strassenverkehrsamt and passed the test. Phew!! It's a relief since they are very picky on the inspections. You have to bring the car in every 2-4 years, steam clean the engine (they do a white glove - really - test to check for oil leakage), any body surface rust is an automatic failure, and then much more.

SIGN... So no more driving around Switzerland with my cool "SKYSURF" license plates.

1 January 2003

I woke up to an absolutely perfect day outside. Sun was shining like a million candles, the wind was a gentle breeze, and the temperature was a rather nice 45F.

So what better way to start the year than go for a nice motorcycle ride! I did a leisurely two hour ride along Lake Zurich to Rappersville. Plenty of other motorcycles on the road, convertibles with the tops down, and a few sailboats on the lake. What a pleasure to ring in the new year doing something special that one loves.

30 December 2002

Well it's amazing but true, the sun did shine here in Zurich today, for about two hours. So I quickly donned my motorcycle suit and headed out with Natsha. It's been like 2 months since I have gone riding, but did it ever feel good, especially at 45F.

The only hard part was to drive sensible. Left side of the brain wanted to let the throttle rip unleashing all 135 HP at once and lean hard into a corner. The sensible right side won, by remembering the sights of wet slippery roads, fall droppings(leaves), and moss on some of the twisty roads. It was though a good time - and a perfect excuse to go riding to keep the battery charged up :)