An "Un"-Comfortable Co-existance

Flies. Who would have thought there are so many different meanings. http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=flies

My definition: gross, winged creatures who terrorise me all day at work!

Summer in the Alps of Switzerland is characterised by lush, green pastures covered with colourful wild flowers beneath snow covered peaks stabbing through the blue skies and cute cows grazing peacefully, bells kling-a-ling-a-ling. What one doesn't see in that picture are the pestering flies. Wherever there are cows, there are flies. They pester the poor animals constantly. And they get into people's houses and go on pestering them too.

Well, we've solved this problem at our house by installing nets on our windows. The odd fly still manages to get in from time to time (like when my husband suddenly remembers something very important to tell me as he's walking out the door, so he proceeds to stand in the doorway with the door wide open and tell me that very important thing which couldn't wait till he got back) but I take care of them. Quickly and efficiently. Work was a different story. There were no nets on the windows/french doors, so flies were common in the office. Gross. But that all changed last summer. My dear boss installed sliding net screens on all the french doors and he also installed air conditioning, hence eliminating the need to even open the doors.

You would think that that would have solved the problem, end of story. Not quite. Swiss people hate air conditioning. (I am not a fan myself, but I prefer it to the flies!) They love fresh air. They love opening doors and windows. Together. So it creates a draft. That's not healthy. But what's worse is, in order to create a draft they need to open the front door. It has no sliding net screen. It's a welcome invitation. The flies swarm the office.

Our new associate was resourceful enough to solve that problem. He brought a super duper state of the art fly killer thingie. It looks like a tennis racket with a nob on the handle. You swat the fly like it's a tennis ball simultaneously pushing on the nob which creates an electrical current through the mesh of the "tennis racket" and zaps the fly dead. So humane. And did I mention it makes a very loud cracking noise?!

I keep the door to my op closed at all times. And either my french doors open, with the sliding net screen keeping the flies out, or the air conditioning blasting, depending on how hot it is outside. Unfortunately, my clients and I need to go in and out of the op, so, again, the odd fly comes in. I promptly ring the front and instruct one of the assistant girls to play a little tennis with it.

I have never used the fly killer and I refuse to do so. Ever.