An Early Morning Communique From Zurich.

A proper wake up call

If it had been from Russia, we'd have had the title for another Bond classic. What might Zurich want from the Bobster and I? Well, alas it isn't the lovely city but our considerate insurance company who sent a text message at the pre crack of dawn.

Being married for eons, makes an errant SMS so early in the morning an alarming one. An accident or a calamity of sorts. Singles of course are more than happy to get the late night beeps announcing a text message because those are usually sent by a tiddly admirer or a friend sending out a call to party.

A case of extreme rain about to descend on our area brought forth this bit of texting. In fact a 50 millimeter rainfall for the next 24 hours or so. Well, fair enough but did it need a SMS? At some stage during the day we'd have noticed the rain falling.

They sent us a warm up of sorts on Wednesday and honestly, I instantly planned a trip to the shops to buy the staples needed for such a lot of rain, but Bob sounded a voice of reason and that is why there are no biscuits, chips, chocolate nor ice cream in our house this morning...

The savvy farmers have of course their own way forecasting the weather. An itchy thumb, the clouds gathering, the birds hiding or just a case of common sense.

Truth be told, when Bob told me about the text message warning of a lot of rain, I pictured a deluge of water running passed our house. Not so at all. Which kind of makes me wonder whether we've all fallen prey to an alarmist frame of mind?

This rainy news would have sent me out to spend money on stuff not needed and as this message went to most of Zurich's clients, at least the shops will have made an unexpected profit.

Spreading the idea of fear seems to become more popular the world over and it sadly fuels politics and business, which sometimes might be one and the same thing. It is a sobering thought to know that there is a much greater chance of us winning the lotto than there is of most of those abstract fear scenarios we've been conditioned to and spent money on, to come to fruition.

Biggi