Hello, good evening and welcome to the very first post of The Swiss Ramble.
Or, doffing a cap to my Swiss location, perhaps I should say: willkommen, bienvenu and benvenuto (and whatever the hell "welcome" is in Rumantsch). Yes, I am based in Switzerland, the German part to be a touch more precise.
I have given a lot of thought (at least 20 minutes) to what I should call my blog, initially thinking that I should aim for an amusing one word play on the word Swiss, but then firmly rejecting all attempts. Swiss Toni is a great TV character, but I have never been called Toni (with or without an "i"), so that's not really relevant. I quite liked Swisstory, but, of course, someone far smarter than me has been quicker off the mark and already writes a blog of that ilk. Swissues was getting a bit desperate, not to mention overly pompous.
Reasons why I am writing this blog could also come into play, but Gardening Leave is only a temporary phase, and as for Mid-Life Crisis, it's not as if I am buying a Harley or running off with the secretary (been there, done that).
No, what I really want is a platform where I can place my thoughts on any subject that takes my fancy. Quite often, this may be simply a review of something I like: film, album, book, podcast, etc. There will be quite a few sporting references, many of them on my favourite team, Arsenal. Sometimes, I may even go off on a full-scale rant (see "A Confederacy of Dunces" for inspiration). In any case, it's my blog, so I will develop it however I damn well want.
The idea for this blog came to me during one of my daily walks (a sort of ramble), while listening to one of my favourite podcasts, The Football Ramble. Given that my thoughts are usually rambling, part of the blog name was screaming out to me. It only remained to jam in the Swiss aspect.
So, this will be a Swiss Ramble on all of the above, but, rest assured, it will most certainly NOT be yet another blog stuffed to the gills with pictures of the (admittedly beautiful) Swiss countryside. The world is already very well served with enough of those.
I never called you Toni, but I do recall several other more fruity nicknames. I still remember with pride going to your offices above a cinema. At the time they were showing a Swedish film called 'Fucking Amal', and I suggested to your assistant that the poster should be amended to 'Fucking Finance'. Oh happy days.
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