I am up to my ears in creating a web site for Cosima Inc. I could have given the task to a web designer, but ultimately decided against it because:
1) I am crazy
2) Have nothing else to do… lol, so not true
3) Have to work with a tight budget
4) Need to update the content of the website by myself anyway, and setting up the structure of the site it will give me the knowledge to do that
5) Learnt of Joomla from a friend, which makes it possible to design a nice-looking web site, even if you are only a part-time nerd like me
6) Joomla works similar to a blog, making it easy to add new content and change the look of the site
7) Allows you to be lazy like me and just buy a template from one of the zillion of Joomla template sites and tweak it a little
8.) Joomla is open source, and there are thousands of far smarter people than me working on improving it, adding new features, and helping bloody beginners like me to get off the ground
9) If I fail miserably, I can still hire a web designer who works with Joomla, and I will at least understand the basics
The website has to take a back seat today though. Little man and I will go to two children’s birthday parties, one in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Last weekend, we went to one as well, and we are pretty much booked out until the summer holiday starts in July. June minus nine months… September… yeah, can be such a dark and cold month… better to spent it in bed ;).
Aah, Switzerland… the Alps, numbered bank accounts, cheese, and chocolate. I have visited Switzerland before, on business trips and vacations, but I had never been to Basel, the destination of my latest trip.
I didn’t see the Alps this time. Basel is located at the Rhine River in the northwest of Switzerland, a stone’s throw away from the borders of France and Germany. There are beautiful hills, but no Matterhorn. I didn’t open a numbered bank account either. The small change in my current account can stay where it is.
This only left cheese and chocolate to enjoy, and wonderful lunches at the banks of the Rhine. My ass only expanded a little. I walked it all off during sight-seeing.
My trip consisted of two days of wheelings and dealings for Cosima Inc and one blissful day of exploring Basel.
When I looked for a hotel room on the internet – much too late, I admit – I was only able to find outrageously priced rooms. As Cosima Inc is a start-up company, and its only shareholder/employee/gofer runs a tight budget, the Trois Rois was out of the question… unfortunately. But a call at the Basel tourist office yielded a private room in Dornach, a village just outside of Basel at CHF80 (US$ 66) a night. Private rooms can be a little risky, especially if you haven’t even seen a picture beforehand, but this one turned out to be very nice. I had a huge room with balcony, a bathroom with shower, and even a small kitchen on the upper floor of a house owned by a very nice couple. The only downside was the location of the house, at the outer edge of the village, on top of a hill, far away from the tram and train station. The village bus came every thirty minutes, at night only every hour… I walked quite a lot during my trip.
But my strolls through Dornach were quite interesting. Every morning, I came by the Goetheanum, and other buildings that were slightly out of the ordinary.
The Goetheanum is the the center of the Anthroposophic Society and hosts its offices and a performance theater. The founder and architect was Rudolf Steiner, whose educational and philosophical teachings form the basis for Waldorf education.
Upon seeing it, my first thought was “bunker”. I guess in the 1920s, when the Goetheanum was built, concrete was still seen as a new, exciting building material, valued for its formability. Upon nearer inspection and seeing the sculpted walls inside, I was almost converted to the building’s virtues… almost.
I liked the smaller buildings much better.
::giggle:: This is the furnace building.
I had the choice between a fifteen-minute train ride or a thirty-minute tram ride to the center of Basel every morning. Basel’s old town, built on the banks and hills above the Rhine, and the promenade along the river are very beautiful.
In the old town, houses often have their name and building date above the entrance. In the older quarters, I saw dates from the 13th to 15th century. In the “newer” neighborhoods the buildings dated from the 18th century.
I also enjoyed crossing the river by ferry. Although there are plenty of bridges, at several points along the river it is possible to get to the other side by taking a small boat. These ferries don’t have motors, but are attached to steel ropes hung across the river, and are propelled by the current alone.
Before coming to Basel, I didn’t know much about the city. It’s not known as Switzerland’s most picturesque spot… it’s hard to compete against romantic villages nestled in the Alps. The city is also infamous as the centre of Switzerland’s pharmaceutical and chemical industry. Novartis, Roche, and other companies have their headquarters here.
The Other Side of Town
In 1986, a chemical warehouse of Sandoz (which is now part of Novartis) burnt down, and the runoff fire-fighter water poisoned the Rhine for hundreds of kilometers. The river seems to be back to its old self, but the incident is still remembered by many, and still tarnishes the city’s image.
Boy, I am swamped with work for Cosima Inc. My living room looks like a warehouse. And still no intern to help me out. How come? …lol
Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend, who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. We ate in a vegetarian Indian restaurant. The food was excellent, the company even better. We had a two hour lunch to catch up with each others lives, and smile and laugh together. From the outside we don’t have much in common. We come from different cultural backgrounds and she is ten years older than me, but when we are together we just click. She is one of the smartest persons I know, but charmingly doesn’t take herself too seriously.
Although there was a dearth in internship applications, I still had help yesterday afternoon. My son helped me to count and inspect the products. Before you think that I am guilty of child exploitation… we didn’t get much done. After a short time it deteriorated into a very giggly session of hide and seek among empty boxes.
See… working for me is fun! All applications welcome ;D!
For the last two days I have been swamped with work for my little trading business – let’s call it Cosima Inc – of the dullest kind. It’s repetitive, manual work, and unfortunately it isn’t counting money. I believe the professional term would be “quality control”, the reality is 1) taking an item out of its packaging, 2) looking at it to make sure no parts are missing, 3) pushing all the buttons to see if it works as it should, and 4) giving it a good shake. Repeat 300 times. More to come next week.
Today, I moved on to “handling and shipping”, i.e. buying several rolls of bubble wrap and cardboard boxes, and wrapping each item individually. At 6 pm my brain felt like jelly, and I went for a walk and afterwards took a hot bath. As I was lying in the bath tub, I was daydreaming about Cosima Inc’s first employee. A flat organizational structure is something to admire, but a second layer… say… for quality control would be so much better. For starters, an ambitious intern would do. Diligent and hard-working, young of course, and … male. He would be responsible for shaking, pushing, wrapping, and making coffee ;).
