Hygiene Freak

This article SwissCleanliness from BBC News' column 'Our Correspondence' reminds me of the day when DH moved out of his studio apartment in Brungasse. And it may remind him of the day he moved out from his Saali 3-bedroom apartment to the studio apartment in Brungasse.

I don't know whether you have read this. But doesn't it remind you of good old cleaning days in Saali? Betul ke sampai ada inspector? :)

They do take cleanliness seriously, especially when you are the tenant and are moving out of their rented property. No matter how hard you've scrubbed that cooker or shined the tiles, or steam cleaned the carpet, at the end of the day they'd tell you

"Nope, theez is not gud. I need subcontractor cleaner to do this job. All this cleaning..nicht gud"

And so, later you would see the cleaning bill substracted out of your returned deposit ..and find yourself slapping your forehead hard ..

DH was fortunate though, Maria (his landlady in Brungasse) was very friendly and was more concerned about DH and I not being able to catch our flight to Heathrow. And so, session of inspection was cut short and the mere half an hour was actually spent asking us things that had gone broken and need replacement.

A short conversation had revealed that the fridge and cooker were almost 20 years old.

"I need to replace them"

We looked at each other, and smiled. What? All that scrubbing and cleaning? Now you are telling me you are chucking those away?

Well, it is true that Swiss people are mad about hygiene. But you may have the luck, like DH has with Maria. If you are a hygiene freak, you may find it nothing but a small matter and you'd probably clean to perfection. But if you are the opposite and not make the standard, prepare to have a heart attack when you receive the hefty cleaning bill!