We’re the “dindon de la farce” or…

The fall guy, taken for a ride, the captive audience, the idiot consumers.

One recent morning I headed for the train station – fortunately early, which although it isn’t my want, worked due to a train at the most reasonable hour of 10 a.m.  First glitch: bus dumping us out two stops early due to “heavy traffic jams in the area”.

OK so it was a glorgeous day (combination of glorious and gorgeous) and again having sufficient time I decided to walk the rest of the way: through the park, over the main bridge, re-connecting with my city.

Duly arrived in the train station I went to the kiosk to buy some of my normal reading material – and couldn’t believe my eyes when the cashier told me CHF 6.80 for a magazine that had a CHF 3.40 sticker on the cover – and which I bought for that price last week!

You’ve got to be kidding

Doubled from one edition to the other!

I had her run another one – labelled the same – and got the same results. Her supervisor wasn’t there so I said never mind. Went to another kiosk only to find the same price.

Who are we kidding here? Do they really think that we pay so little attention to prices? Even I will no longer purchase these magazines at those prices and I will make sure that all my local English-speaking friends are aware as well so they might as well pack them back up and send them to the publishers – the market is dry for the duration.

By-the-way I checked: it wasn’t a double edition nor a Christmas edition, just someone deciding that gouging the customer was fair.

Funnily enough the third glitch wasn’t one: they were saying that my train was 18 minutes late – good thing I didn’t take them at their word as we left only two minutes late. Oof lunch in Valence was safe.

A recent edition of Woman's Own that I bought for CHF 3.40

« Another beautiful day in the mountains” and other phrases

For many of those I know it’s “another beautiful day at the beach”: for those who know me “it’s another beautiful day in the mountains”.

But before getting out and enjoying it, one does need one’s breakfast (or at least I always have – perhaps as a result of growing up in a household where breakfast was mandatory).

Those who know me also know that I can’t eat and not read: o.k. if I have company I do make the supreme effort and sacrifice, unless they too, are enamored with books and magazines whereupon we can all happily read at the same table.

It’s very rarely a book as I need to be able to at least read one chapter but it can be anything from a newspaper (yesterday’s, today’s, a freebee, a costly) to trashy magazines, to more complete magazines. Or, as today, even just advertising materials (after all I do need to get through every piece of paper with printed words on it that comes into my life (fortunately some only take seconds!)

I exchange magazines and books with a friend and in her latest lot she included an airline magazine of gifts (on purpose? By accident? I’ll return it just in case).

On top of all the wonderful inventions (and thank goodness that I am not in a buying mood as several are very tempting: I mean, a lovely piece of furniture that hides the kitty litter tray, or a padded bench for storing shoes… that would certainly be a good addition in my entryway where depending upon the body count in the house we can have almost wall to wall shoes of varying sizes and styles) there was two pages of “the best t-shirts of 2013”.

Now I love reading, I love plays on words, I love people who can use words judiciously, I love words – get the idea.  But there’s nothing quite like a short succinct sentence – one that can be printed on a t-shirt, a sweat-shirt, basketball cap, etc.

Many caught my attention, but this one stands out:

“Scars are like Tattoos, with better stories”.

I could philosophize on that sentence, but on the other hand perhaps I’ll just leave it stand for you to interpret personally, in light of your own life’s experiences. How wonderful a phrase:

“Scars are like Tattoos, with better stories”