GstaadLife

Regular readers will have noticed that posting has been light these past couple of weeks. This has everything to do with the fact that our editor is home with her new baby. So congrats to her, and apologies to you for the news blackout. Normal service will resume in a couple of weeks. Until then, German speakers amongst you can check out sister site AnzeigervonSaanen.ch for the latest local happenings. Or catch up on the most read stories of the year so far...

Taki: Madoff's make away
Bernie Ecclestone: "Here comes the hobbit with the Beatle haircut."
The truth about Federer’s Gstaad cow
Taki: on Tatler’s Gstaad who’s who
Lorenz Bach to open another Promenade boutique
Kirsty Bertarelli speaks with London's Daily Mail
More photos from the Gstaad Symposium
Taki: on the tennis circuit
Claudine Pereira remembered
Fire causes extensive damage to Chalet Papillon in Oberbort-Gstaad
Bertarelli family relocates to Gstaad-Saanen
Alpina construction to begin this spring
Swiss Open tennis tournament moved to late July
Aiglon College reaches out to Gstaad
Gstaad train station gets a make-over
Le Rosey seeks solutions for new campus
Saanenland youth speak out against local property trends
Jane Del Amo dies at 94
Fire guts luxury chalet in Chalberhöni

by Taki Theodoracopulos

GSTAAD—From my desk facing the garden I look out on a vista of wooded green hills with an unblemished blue background. Far beyond, the mountains are grey and white-capped on top. The sun is blazing, the cows are grazing, and I have to leave this paradise for karate and judo training in the Bagel. Plus I have a broken fourth finger on each hand, as if turning 73 wasn’t enough. But I’ve been mountain climbing, and I’m in good shape despite the boozing. The Ionian had purple hills and beautiful seas but this outstrips them all. There is nothing like mountain scenery when there’s an orgy of nature bursting all around. (Or any other kind of orgy, for that matter.)

Just in case you are up in the mountains and hear some shooting - the hunting season is on in Saanenland. This much you probably gathered from all the game specials offered in our local restaurants right now. From September till end of November hunters are permitted to shoot red deer, chamois can be hunted from September 10 through 30, and from October till mid-November deer and rabbits are on the run. Some say cruel, some say necessary, some say delicious...

Remember that they miscalculated the construction costs for the Saanen bypass? Well, now the cantonal authorities have agreed to a further credit of SFr 1.3m to go towards the additional costs of construction.

Now it is certain - from March 2010, it will no longer be possible to obtain passports, identity cards, C-Permits, B-Permits, etc here in Saanenland. The closest place will be in Thun. Hmmm, local marriage registration in Thun, the commercial register for local companies only in Bern. Now this. The slow creep of centralization...

The time has come - Country Night Gstaad 2009 time, of course. This weekend even people who are not Country fans will listen up because Kenny Rogers is one of the stars on this year's program. Other artists include Lady Antebellum and Texas Lightning, and of course there will be the usual food stands, a children's area and plenty of other "country" stuff goin' awn. So don't miss it and if you want a lil' preview click the video below.

Stefan Matti - a positive Menuhin Festival Gstaad 2009 

The Menuhin Festival Gstaad 2009 finished this Saturday with a concert of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras after nearly 8 weeks and 47 concerts. The concert visits were with 20.000 at the same level as last year and administrative director Stefan Matti expects to post positive results. The concerts in the churches were actually better visited than last year whereas the tent concerts saw fewer music fans.

There is more news on the new culture center "Les Arts Gstaad" which is planned for (the seemingly rather small space) behind the tracks at the train station (picture above). 24 architects from 10 nations have been registered for the competition to design the space, and they are to submit their proposals by the end of December 2009. The 24 submissions will no doubt yield some interesting ideas, but we here at GL.com can't imagine they're going to stray far from the Saanenland chalet-style that is the standard fare of our local architectural talent. Let's see...

Gstaad Mountain Rides AG, the company that runs the operations of most of our region's cable cars, has decided to prolong the winter season in Sector 1 (Saanerslochgrat, Hornberg and Horneggli) by one week. The reason behind the extension is the already-strong level of advance bookings for the week after Easter 2010. So this coming ski season will kick off on December 5 2009 running all the way through April 11 2010.