It makes me watch those young hopefuls at the Olympics with a different eye – is there anyone out there will go on to a sports career that draws the kind of respect Federer has earned in the past 10 years?

Photo, Julie Schindler. Of course, not all cars can be leased, such as the antique ones on display in Morges at the British Classic Car Show.

The practical life: how to lease a car

My neighbour, who repairs bathtubs for a living, drives shiny new Porsches and Mercedes. I always assumed that he must be very successful in his business. I hate to think what he’s thought of my business, based on our family’s recently discarded old clunker. Fortunately, most of my work is done online rather than in person so I rarely have to impress customers with my car.

When the old family Fiat died I decided the time had come for my company to get a car. I would drive it some of the time for personal use. Two accountants have told me since 2002 when I created Zidao Communication, a small online publishing business, that I should lease a car instead of owning one, then calculating my travel and billing the company for it as a personal expense. Two good reasons for this are that car payments are tax deductible and companies are not obliged to pay a deposit, freeing up capital. Maintenance and kilometres are tax deductible.

Their explanations made sense but old habits die hard. My father drove
thousands of miles a year for his job and he bought a new car, cash,
every two years. He billed the company for expenses. My father was the
rare soul in the United States who was audited by the IRS and ended up
with a refund and a letter congratulating him on keeping excellent tax
records. He studied every angle in the daunting US tax system, so I
always believed that if he bought a car this way he knew what he was
doing.

I almost bought a car for the family when the old one died. But this is
Switzerland in the 21st century. After doing some research it was clear
that this made little financial sense. I learned that more than half of
all new cars “sold” in Switzerland are covered by leasing contracts. I
ended up leasing a five-year-old Volvo for the company.

Here’s what this small-business owner learned about wheels for work in Switzerland:

Rules covering corporate leasing were made more flexible in recent
years. If your company is registered as an s.à.r.l. or SA you don’t
need to make a deposit. If your small company is not registered you can
still have a corporate lease but a deposit will be requested, as for
individuals. You can lease for six months or pretty much as long as you
like, depending on the age of the car. You can lease a new car or a
used one, although at a certain point in the age of the car it doesn’t
make financial sense to lease it.

The monthly payments on a five-year-old car are about half those of a
new car. Although you don’t have to pay a deposit you can make a down
payment that reduces the size of your monthly payments. I’m anxious to
keep overhead low, so a used Volvo seemed just right.

Your first step, if you’re leasing a car, should be to check out the Touring Club Suisse
site if you read French. They suggest pitfalls to watch out for, and
they offer two very useful bits of advice for people leasing privately.
Put your deposit in a blocked account, similar to those used for
apartment rentals. Any bank will set this up for you. TCS suggests you
have the residual value of the car included in the contract to avoid
disputes at the end of the lease period.

Another good source, but also aimed at individuals is Bon à Savoir (also in French), the consumer group’s site, where you can calculate what a lease will cost you.

The two sites are useful background for small business owners, but
sometimes the best starting point, especially for individuals, is your
bank. Credit Suisse has an online FAQ
(Fre) that is worth reading. I leased through a garage, but see what
financing terms the bank will offer you and you have a starting point
for negotiations.

The fine print says I won’t get off as cheaply as I would like, of
course. If you lease a car you have three obligations. Your payments
must arrive on time or the car will be seized. You must service and
repair it. You must, since you don’t own the car, have “casco complèt”
insurance. Our insurance company, Zurich, was quick to tell me how much
this would cost when I faxed them a copy of the car’s details before
signing the contract. Credit Suisse’s web site allows you to do the
same with Winterthur. If we owned the car we might decide we didn’t
need complete coverage in another two years, when the value goes down.
With a car leased for three years I don’t have that option.

Paying off the car: in the past you
were penalized if you paid up before the contract ended, but this has
changed. If I have a windfall next year I could pay off the leasing
difference and buy the car without an interest penalty. Zidao would
then, however, own the car, which gives the company a taxable item. We
might not want to increase our taxable fortune.

As always with a used car, you fear buying a lemon. More than 700,000
used cars are sold every year in Switzerland and the TCS gives good
advice about finding the car that will make you happy.

What they don’t tell you is that leasing might change your
relationships with others. Since last week I have become intolerant of
potato chip crumbs in my car. I carry a rag around to wipe off bird
droppings. After all, the car doesn’t belong to me.

It’s the best excuse I’ve had in years for car tidiness.

I went to bed last night thinking about Sting. I’m probably not the first woman to do that. The man does have appeal. I went to bed thinking about why I deserve free tickets to go see him 16 September in Geneva. I can think of a hundred reasons why, starting with: because I deserve a nice present, no strings attached and no work to get it. It was the end of a long day and I was tired and there are no anniversaries, birthdays or holidays in sight. It’s the slim-pickings season for gifts.

The reason for all this is that glocals.com is giving away two tickets to Police’s 2007 reunion tour, but you have to win a contest by writing why you deserve these tickets. My first reaction to hearing about the contest was that I never win anything, so why bother. Second was: I’m too busy. My mother died a week ago at the fine age of 95 and I will be going home to the US for a family service in two weeks. Work is piling up and everyone is back from vacation, which means more work. Third was: hmmm, but it would be SO nice to hear Sting.

Here’s why: he’s the best icon I can think of for being over-55 and still terrific (sorry, Mick) in every way. He’s smarter, savvier, funnier and it’s just possible his voice is even better than when he came to fame. Good for him! Good for us. He inspired me to tuck an hour’s walk into my overcrowded work day in front of a computer, and I’m the better for it. If he could sing "Roxanne" way back when and give me shivers and do it again years later with "Fields of Gold," there is hope for us all to take a long, slow ride into the sunset in fine form.

Here’s really why it would be so nice to see and hear him: A little girl who has Rett Syndrome, we think, plays a big part in my life. She’s a real jewel, and she’s also a lot of work. In fairness, what child isn’t? But in addition to making life harder for her family, we’ve always worried about her health, and how long she will be with us. Sometimes that gets us down, and everyone in the family has moments where it’s all too much. During one of those I took a walk near Lake Geneva, around the vineyards and through fields with ripening grains. I had to drive to an appointment soon after, and because those fields had given me some peace I drove by them. A small miracle had Sting singing "Fields of Gold" on the radio. I pulled over and dedicated that song to lovely Tara and whenever I hear it I get a rush of golden love for that girl.

Thanks, Sting.

Contest: Glocals web site (used to be GenevaOnline) and it closes today, Wednesday!

The first time I set foot in the Noga Hilton was in 1985. It was cold and gray: November is not Geneva’s best month. I was part of the Time magazine crew sent to cover the Reagan-Gorbachev summit, the meeting that was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. My job was not very exciting for a journalist, but I was told it was essential. I had to guard the table in the Noga Hilton restaurant that gave our photographers the best view in the city of the jet d’eau. The big American television networks had claimed the rooftop area. Between bouts of holding down the table I wrote about Nancy Reagan’s visit for People magazine and walked around Versoix, where some of the meetings were held, looking for local color to add to the Time files we sent to Paris and New York. The Noga Hilton remains linked in my mind to the wallpaper of history’s great journalism stories.

More recently, my impressions of the hotel have been that the hotel’s charm was fading to the point of being almost but not quite funky.

Last week I interviewed the new general manager, with the hotel now under the Kempinski label and a makeover nearly completed. I decided to piggyback the appointment with a late afternoon meeting with another businesswoman. The meeting with the manager was moved up and the second meeting moved back, so I suddenly found myself with one of those unplanned three hours in the middle of the day, too short to go anywhere useful, too long to fritter away. The weather kept changing.

I decided to become one of the new Kempinski’s local customers, sitting down to work in the lounge.  Here’s my verdict:

During the afternoon I was able to find a quiet, well-lit corner of the large lounge area where I could plug in my laptop and work, using the wifi network, which worked fine. The lounge was comfortably busy, a good backdrop for work because the noise level never bothered me. I could see plants in the courtyard and trees and a bit of the lake when I looked up. A good work space. The staff was pleasant and helpful.

It was mid-afternoon, an odd time for a meal, so I ordered a sandwich. I loved my club sandwich, which is something I never order except in hotels, and the French fries were excellent. My favourite touch was the mini Tabasco sauce bottle, cheerful on a wet day. These are the small, stolen pleasures during a work day that make life a bit more fun.

Then I went downstairs to meet my evening appointment at the reception. She was late so I opened my laptop – and failed to get the wifi back. Three people at the reception didn’t know what the problem might be, so I decided it was time to stop working online. My friend arrived and we headed upstairs to the bar. She said someone else had told her the new decor is cold, whereas I had found the lounge just the opposite. But the evening was early, the somewhat empty bar a bit stark and we decided to have drinks outside.

The terrace area is delightful, a mix of wood and aluminum that works. The view of the city is great. She had a glass of wine for SFr6, which is pretty good in the centre of Geneva, and I splurged on a more expensive Pouilly Fuissé, pleased that you can order it by the glass. We sat and watched several weather patterns in the space of a few minutes and continued to sit under our large white umbrella despite a ring of water on the floor outside our table. We agreed there were two negatives, some confusion on the part of the waiter, who seemed to be a trainee and did not know much about wine, and the birds. The waiter will presumably get more training. The bold pigeons and sparrows will need more than training and I will be interested to see what miracles Kempinski can perform to get them to leave guests alone.

The hotel needs a little more time to warm up and iron out small problems, but even with that proviso, I’ll be making more appointments to meet people there. It has parking, is just before the worst of the perpetual city centre traffic jam,  and I like the feel of the place. There’s also always that magic, endlessly changing view of the city’s waterspout.