They arrived today

What actually did arrive at the local kiosk were the Panini stickers for the EURO 2008 football tournament. You don't know what the Panini stickers are? Well, they are fairly reasonable to buy, but if you want to collect them all, then it can become an expensive hobby.

Actually I did resolve not to allow them in the house since my No. 2 son moved out, but his mum has discovered one of her first loves again, the football. The Panini syndrome has to be explained. Once upon a time there was a man in Italy that had an idea. He took various themes, made an album and issued stickers to go with the albums, each sticker carefully numbered and fitting into the album. The idea is to get the album full. I don't know what the original albums were about, I only know that every 2 years you either collect the world cup stickers or the Euro stickers. There are many other occasions for the stickers, but these are the ones I know. My son had a complete album featuring the world cup in Spain in 1982.

The thing with these albums is they can get a bit expensive. The album itself costs two Swiss Francs, the packets of stickers contain five stickers and cost a franc. The basic collection starts reasonably, but when you start getting double stickers then the fun and expense begins. As you progress with the collecting you might buy a packet full of stickers you already have. So you have to be sly. I bought my album today with stickers knowing that 4 other girls in the office are doing the same (3 being Italians) and our stock room has at least 10 people that are collecting. This is a good backup for when you get double pictures.

I brought my album home today and hubby found it quite amusing. Fluffy got very inquisitive and decided to take a closer look at the stickers, album and packets strewn across the table which did interrupt my concentration. Unfortunately England did not qualify for this years European cup, but the Swiss are there, although my Mr. Swiss told me probably not for very long. At the moment I am sticking photos of East Europeans, Turkish, Russians, Greeks and Romanians into my album as well as some French, which seem to be playing for English teams and do not look very French. I am so glad that the Swedish captain (if not still injured) plays for West Ham. There is also an extra page which highlights the Swiss team in the form of a poster. This will be handy if they do win. Yes, football fever exists again in our home. Up to now I have been lucky, I have stuck half of the stickers into the album and have no doubles. Life at work will be quite interesting for the next couple of months.

There was some sad news in Switzerland. One of our last own brews of beer, Eichhof from Lucern, has been bought from Heineken, meaning that it will now become dutch. The motto of the company was "A piece of home" but this is now finished. It seems that Heineken have assured that the beer will continue to be brewed and sold in Switzerland, but there is many a tear in a beer drinkers eye. As one lady in radio said, her husband always had his glass of Eichhof in the evening. The basic problem is that one by one the Swiss breweries have been sold to foreign companies and the Swiss beer is now practically non existent. Just a little bit of news from Switzerland.

So now Fluffy, move over, I want to stick the rest of my photos in my Panini album.