My Top 10 groovy Christmas albums

Christmas just wouldn't be the same without them: I am talking about Christmas Carols. We do sing the classic versions at home but I have always had a penchant for the more groovy sounds of Christmas. Here is my top 10 list of Christmas albums.

Elvis' Christmas Album
Here, the original Elvis' Christmas Album. Part rock, part blues and part distinctively Elvis, some say this is the only album from which fans can still get a glimpse into his early artistic inspiration. Fan favorites: "Blue Christmas", "Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)," and "Santa Claus is Back in Town."

Beach Boys, Christmas with the Beach Boys

Sleigh bells are the background instrument of choice in most of the fun-in-the-sun Beach Boys hits—so really, we should have known they'd create a memorable Christmas album, clearly longing for some winter in their world. The most famously broadcast hits from this CD each Christmas are the 1967 single "Little Saint Nick" and "Merry Christmas, Baby."

The Carpenters, Christmas Collection

Although some say the double-disc is exactly what's to be expected from Karen's sweet voice and Richard's "famously light, inoffensive arrangements," it's also noted that these recordings caught the singer's vocals in their prime. Best known hit: "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve."

The Christmas Collection: The Best of Jackson 5

When we think J5, we think joy and novelty, a tornado of energy and little-boy brilliance. The boy-band quintet (young MJ and brothers Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and Marlon) lives up to standards on their Christmas album, too. Get up and groove (with '70s-style moves) to "Up on the Housetop."

Ray Charles, The Spirit of Christmas

Mmmm—soulful and gravelly, just the sound we expect. Ray's only recorded Christmas album, released in 1985, gives you the holiday fuzzies. You can hear him smiling during "Winter Wonderland," a fan favorite, but you'll be smiling during his famous, 1961 duet with Betty Carter, "Baby, It's Cold Outside."

The Christmas Collection: The Best of Stevie Wonder

Stevie's voice bellows young and sweet from these lullaby-like carols originally recorded in 1967. The new collection adds two tracks, but the fan favorites are the same: Swoon over "Someday at Christmas" and "Ave Maria."

Nat King Cole, The Christmas song

To this Christmas album Nat brings a fun and bubbly side best known from non-holiday hit, "It's only a Paper Moon" but also casts a captivating spell, such as he did in "Mona Lisa". Holiday Classic: "The Christmas Song" written by Mel Tormé.

Bing Crosby, White Christmas

Bing's voice is rich and unforgettable. The recordings, most originally completed in the '40s, some in the '30s, are crackly—the arrangements, outdated. But the scratchy changes in pitch are specifically what carries the charm and appeal for Christmas-music lovers now. Best known recording: "White Christmas."

Frank Sinatra, A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra

Frank, unlike other artists, leaves untouched the classic Christmas carols he chose for this 1957 release, but does add his characteristically sly touch to two songs: "The Christmas Waltz" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."

The Temptations, Give Love at Christmas

Recognized mostly for soulful R&B hits "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," The Temptations similarly shine in Christmas hits "Everything for Christmas," "The Christmas Song" and "Silent Night." Let one of the most inspired bands from the 60s, 70 and 80s ignite happy holiday memories.

Ticino's top 10 running songs tracks

There is nothing like listening to the right playlist when you need to burn calories. There are more and more Swiss runners (almost 2 million), and many use the streaming service Spotify. That's how Ticino online established the most popular songs in the different cantons. From Bellinzona to Basel from Zurich to Bern, from Chur to Geneva, they explored the Swiss joggers' preferences.

Starting with the Ticino: Bellinzona's runners like hip hop: there are 6 tracks of this kind in the top ten lead by the Black Eyed Peas.

But the music tastes are not the same everywhere: in fact Zurich's joggers like basking in Latin beats which even include merengue and reggaeton.

The more rhythmic are the Bernese with an average frequency of 142 beats per minute (bpm). The Ticinesi average at 131 bpm. In Basel, they are more relaxed with 122 bpm and their playlist says it all, where they go from Lilly Wood & The Prick' Afro-pop to the rock of Florence and the Machine.

Here is Ticino's Top Ten runners playlist 2015:

Shut Up - The Black Eyed Peas (113 bpm)

What Them Girls Like - Ludacris (170pm)

Westside Story - The Game 115 (bpm)

Furious - Ja Rule 94 (bpm)

Skydive - Chuckie 128 (bpm)

Mozart’s House - Clean Bandit 125 (bpm)

Tom Ford - Jay Z 154 (bpm)

Lights On - Wiley 127 (bpm)

Dirt Off Your Shoulder - Jay Z 160 (bpm)

Locked Out Of Heaven - B. Mars 128 (bpm)

Switzerland is the world's happiest country

Have you heard the news? If you're living in Switzerland consider yourself lucky. You're residing in the world's happiest country.

The scores are in for the 2015 World Happiness Report, and it turns out, the land of watches, chocolate and cheese has been crowned the happiest nation on Earth.

The 172-page report, compiled by the UN General Assembly, factors in six key issues in its rankings, including GDP per capita, life-span, social support, trust in government and businesses, perceived freedom to make life decisions, and generosity.

Since it was first published in 2012, the World Happiness Report demonstrated that well-being and happiness are critical indicators of a nation's economic and social development, and should be a key aim of policy.

The report identifies the countries with the highest levels of happiness:
1.) Switzerland
2.) Iceland
3.) Denmark
4.) Norway
5.) Canada

The World Happiness Report 2015 shows that at both the individual and national levels, all measures of well-being, including emotions and life evaluations, are strongly influenced by the quality of the surrounding social norms and institutions. These include family and friendships at the individual level, the presence of trust and empathy at the neighborhood and community levels, and power and quality of the over-arching social norms that determine the quality of life within and among nations and generations. When these social factors are well-rooted and readily available, communities and nations are more resilient.

Cost of living world infographic

Sometimes it is not great to be top of the list. Decide for yourself. In Switzerland the high cost of living comes with the exceptional quality of life. This is a very personal judgement and often difficult to measure.

Expats think about cost of living all the time, especially when they’re looking to move from one location to another. The perspective is, therefore, generally focused on that country.

The Consumer Price Index, used to determine the difference in the living costs between countries takes into account the prices of groceries, transportation, restaurants and utilities, each containing a number of variables. The cost of groceries, for instance, is made up of the price for meat, bread, rice, eggs, fruits, vegetables and alcohol. The transportation cost includes one-way tickets, monthly passes, taxi fares, petrol prices as well as the prices of a Volkswagen Golf. The restaurant costs comprise of prices for meals in expensive, mid-range and inexpensive restaurants, as well as the prices for coffee products, alcohol and water in restaurants. The utilities costs are determined by the prices for electricity, heating, water and Internet, among the few.

Here is some awesome data that forces you to take a look at the entire world. I am not quite sure how Venezuela got third place. Someone enlighten me?

An interesting map from MoveHub reveals living costs around the world.

The Swiss' favourite sports activities

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."
John Wooden


The Swiss population is very athletic. 11% follow their passion daily, 37% of Switzerland's population do sports several times a week, 17% once a week while 27 percent say that they are not physically active.


Both summer and winter sports are extremely popular among the Swiss. The country's Alpine peaks provide a setting for skiing, bobsledding, tobogganing, mountain walking, and climbing. After skiing, snow boarding and ice skating are Switzerland's favorite winter sport. Summer activities include cycling, hiking, tennis, golf, fishing, and a variety of water sports. Two especially popular sports are handball and soccer.


Traditional Swiss sports are still enjoyed at festivals. These include the baseball-like Hornussen, or farmer's tennis, and stone-putting Steinstossen, where the object is to throw a stone weighing 184 pounds (80 kilograms) as far as possible. In Swiss wrestling Schwingen, each wrestler wears a pair of canvas-like shorts over his pants and tries to throw his opponent to the ground by grabbing hold of these shorts.

Ranking of the Swiss' favourite sports activites:
35.0 % Cycling, Mountainbike
33.7 % Hiking, Walking
25.4 % Swimming
21.7 % Skiing
16.8 % Jogging, Running
14.0 % Fitness, Aerobic
11.7 % Gymnastics
6.9 % Football, Streetsoccer
4.7 % Snowboard
4.4 % Tennis
(Source: Bundesamt für Sport / Studie Sport Schweiz 2008)

So, if you're on holiday this week why not take your kids and your bikes and head for some adventure. Discover a new side of Ticino. Ticino offers something for everyone from a purely panorama ride to "Trailthrill total" hike.

This interactive map includes 42 trails: www.lugano-tourism.ch
For each route there is comprehensive and precise information: short description, elevation profile and basic data such as length, elevation meters, travel time, highest point and route condition.

Happy cycling!

Swiss Hornussen

Top ten most misspelled words in blogs!

Here’s a list of the top ten most often misspelled words. Pay attention though, because these are words that spellcheck can miss based on the context in which we use the word, or because a few of the words are homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings) and we use them incorrectly in the sentence. Make sure that you’ve got foolproof control over them, especially if you tend to write around 3am in the morning!

1.) Your - You're
2.) Then - Than
3.) Its - It's
4.) To - Too - Two
5.) Were - Where - We're
6.) There - Their - They're
7.) A - An - And
8.) Off - Of
9.) Here - Hear
10.) Lose - Loose

One last word my father hammered into my brain many year ago: "alot" is not a word, it's "a lot".

Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English

"With all due respect, I personally think that at this moment in time, shouldn't I have discovered myself that it's not rocket science but fairly unique that at the end of the day I use at least 5 out of 10 most annoying phrases that can be uttered 24/7. It's a nightmare!"

I thought I'd put a smile on your face this weekend and list the top ten most annoying expressions in English. A bunch of Oxford University researchers came up with this list.  The scholars in question keep track of linguistic mangling and overused buzzwords in a database called the Oxford University Corpus. The voluminous record keeps track of books, magazines, broadcast, online media and other sources, watching for new overused, tiresome phrases and retiring those that fade from use (or misuse).

The great hierarchy of verbal fatigue includes:

1 – At the end of the day
2 – Fairly unique
3 – I personally
4 – At this moment in time
5 – With all due respect
6 – Absolutely
7 – It’s a nightmare
8 – Shouldn’t of
9 – 24/7
10 – It’s not rocket science

You’re kindly invited to offer your favorite overused or abused phrases in the comments section below.

Top 10 commercials of the Super Bowl 2011

So the Cheeseheads won the Super Bowl 2011. Congratulations to them.
Personally I went to bed after the first half and therefore missed the brilliant show by the Black Eyed Peas.

I couldn't resist having a peak at the commercials though. Click here to find the USA Today's Ad Meter and watch all the ads. Personally I prefer the Audi and Mercedes ones. I can't believe I just wrote that! Do you remember what car ads were like in the 70's....boring!

May it be that my taste is too Europeanized or I am becoming increasingly Swiss in my old age but frankly none of the commercials had me jumping out of my shoes, so to speak.

One of my favourite ad at the moment is the Swisscom ad "Vivo Casa" created by Nadine Borter, the owner of the Bern Advertising Agency Contexta who has just been awarded the coveted "Egon" prize last week as Switzerland's best advertiser.

10 iPhone music apps

While writing for my previous post about photo passport application, I came across an array of fun and different iPhone apps for music lovers. 


When you think back to the special moments in your life, it's likely that there's a song attached to each one. Any time you hear that song, you are whisked right back to the emotions you felt at that particular time, and its connection has been imprinted in your memory. That's the power of music. The technology available to us to make music an integral part of our lives is staggering, and luckily, it just keeps getting better. Everyone knows about Pandora, Last.fm and Spotify, but the following 10 apps, which have mostly flown under the radar, deserve props for making it easier for us to enjoy the music we love.


1.) Soundhound: Have you ever heard a catchy tune on the radio, sang it all day long, but had no idea what it was called or who sang it? This fun app can actually recognize a user humming or singing a tune and will pull up all the relevant matches it finds. And it really works — SoundHound was even able to recognize and identify a hum from my friend, who we'll just say, has less than perfect pitch. A free, lite version is available as well, but it limits the number of songs you can ID to five a month.
Cost: CHF 5.50


2.) Earworm: There's nothing more annoying than getting a bad song stuck in your head. If you're cruel and want to impart that annoyance onto someone else, use Earworms to send an audio clip to someone in the hopes that it'll stick. This fun app features 20 songs; all you have to do is pick which one you want and email it. Cost: CHF1.10


3.) oo Tunes Radio: If you want to mix up your radio station listening experience and you crave a huge variety of genres and styles, including talk radio, ooTunes Radio is a great app for limitless listening pleasure. Compiling audio from more than 30,000 streams in 150 countries, ooTunes Radio lets you create the exact playlist you want and gives you the chance to listen to radio shows from around the world. If you hear a song you like, the app also lets you purchase directly from iTunes for instant download, as well. Cost: CHF 5.50


4.) Sir Sampleton: At first glance, this app appears to be a simple keyboard that you'd let your kid play around with as you wait in line at the grocery store. But on closer inspection, sir Sampleton is actually a sophisticated and feature-rich app that lets you do everything from recording or changing sounds to mixing beats, adding vibrato, and even saving recordings. It's a fun way for both novices and more seasoned beat masters to get their groove on. Cost: CHF 3.30


5.) Concert Vault: Concert Vault is a great app for music lovers who would prefer to listen to live music recordings. It really is a veritable cache of recorded treasures from past decades, including artists like Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Queen and more. The app, and up to 10 hours of streaming, is free for every user. Cost: Free


6.) Adaptunes: If you run with your iPhone, drive with it or listen to any kind of music on the go, you know what a pain it can be to constantly adjust the volume to adapt to your listening environment. Adaptunes takes care of this conundrum by automatically adjusting your volume based on speed and motion-based sensors. There are also different activities you can choose from that provide different modes of sound adaptation, such as driving, mountain biking, jogging, skiing, exercising, etc. Further, you can create playlists within Adaptunes for on-the-spot volume adjustment. Cost: CHF 1.10


7.) Tune Wiki: Have you ever thought you knew the lyrics to a song and realized you were way off base? It happens frequently, but with TuneWiki, you can memorize the lyrics to your favorite songs and ensure that you have it right from the get-go. TuneWiki is both a radio player and lyrics decoder and provides a wide array of music streams to choose from. You can either listen and get lyrics through TuneWiki's radio options or use your own iTunes library. You can even search for songs if you know just a line or two of the lyrics. Cost: Free


8.) Audiogalaxy mobile: Are you one of those music hoarders who have thousands upon thousands of MP3 files on your iPhone, so much so that your library is starting to affect your storage capacity to the point where you can't add new apps? If this sounds familiar and you are constantly picking and choosing which tunes to store and play on your iPhone, then Audiogalaxy may be the answer for you. This app gives you cloud-based access to your entire music library without the need for syncing your phone or worrying about space. After downloading the Audiogalaxy helper program and syncing your music library to your account, you are all set to stream your music to your iPhone. Audiogalaxy also enables you to access your music from any computer and a large number of other handheld devices.


9.) Top 100's by year: Top 100s by Year is a great app that provides a huge database of the 100 most popular songs from each year from 1947 to today. You can search by year, see the full year's listing and listen to the songs (the app automatically has each year's songs in shuffle mode). It also allows you to buy any song on its lists directly from iTunes and/or see its accompanying music video on YouTube. This is a great reference app for pulling together playlists or just waxing nostalgic on songs that were hits when you were in eighth grade. Cost: Free


10.) Fireworks: Just tap the screen and watch the firework show. Tap with two fingers and watch as the iPhone/iPod touch handles two fingers at once and displays fireworks in two different places. iFireworks is an interactive visualization program designed to run in tandem with your iTunes library. Cost CHF1.10


Well this list should keep you rocking for a while...until then...keep on dancing baby!!!

Christmas family fun

How about a few ideas of what to do with your family on a free day?

Make snowmen paper chains

Select the perfect carrot for Rudolph

Play “Pin the nose on the reindeer”

Make mince pies for Father Christmas

Make paper snowflakes

Put on a Nativity play for the family

Play “Hunt the thimble”

Make crowns for Christmas lunch (so terribly British, isn’t it just?)

Decorate a sleeping Dad

Make an angel for the top of the tree

Wrap up for a winter walk and see who can spot the most robins

Make a snowman

Christmas gift ideas

So, would it help if I gave you some ideas for Christmas gifts? Here goes my list:

Record cover frames

Bloggie by Sony

Slide scanner by Ion

Romantic weekend to Prague

Credit card Monopoly

Stuck on you stickers and stuff

Victorinox pocket knife with USB stick

Subsciption to football magazine like “Match” 

A chess game

Christmas cookbook by Delia or Nigella or Jamie

Wall paper murals

Karlson clocks

Bed linen by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada

A rug by The Rug Company

One piece suit

All I can add is HAPPY SHOPPING at this point.

Feeling that Christmas Spirit?

In order to get you into the Christmas spirit I thought I’d share my all-time favourite Christmas Carol Oldies with you. I am a big-time fan of Dean Martin and the Rat Pack, so you will won’t find any John Denver, sorry!!!

1. The Christmas Blues by Dean Martin

2. The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole

3. Frosty The Snowman by Nat King Cole

4. Here Comes Santa Claus by Doris Day

5. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by Perry Como  

6. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm by Dean Martin

7. It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas by Dean Martin

8. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by Dean Martin

9. A Marshmallow World by Dean Martin

10. Mrs. Santa Claus by Nat King Cole

11. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Remastered) by Dean Martin

12. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town by Frank Sinatra

13. White Christmas by Bing Crosby

14. A Winter Romance byDean Martin

15. Winter Wonderland by Dean Martin   

Off you go dance in the kitchen with your kids whilst you bake your cookies and keep posted for my contemporary Christmas Carol list later this month. 

In the meantime: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!