As we get closer to the festive season the Christmas events start to open up and this Thursday sees the opening date of the annual Illuminarium at the Landesmuseum. If you haven’t seen it before the organisers do an amazing job in transforming the place and with food, music and drinks, it’s a great place to fight off the winter blues.

If you are looking to revamp your wardrobe then look now further than the Alprausch and friends factory sale. Clothing manufacturers Alprausch are teaming up with Vestibule, Karamelle and Madnomad to offer some heavily discounted items, direct from the factory floor.

Fans of the written word have a treat lined up for this Friday as literary heavy weight, Sir Salman Rushdie visits the Volkshaus. A controversial and colourful character, Sir Salman’s book «Satanic Verses» caused diplomatic relations between Iran and the UK to be suspended and is still living under the fatwa, ordered by Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The fatwa clearly doesn’t bother him that much though as he is going to be doing an exclusive reading from his new book, «Quichotte».

This weekend Gessneralle is hosting its own festival with live music, DJ’s and talks and workshops during the day. The Backslash Festival starts on Friday and will continue through to Saturday night. Check out their website (which is conveniently in English,) for a full list of acts and don’t forget to run your mouse over the circle in the middle of the screen. It’s crazy for the eyes.

Bagpipes and rock music make strange bed fellows but the self proclaimed «most famous bagpipe band on the planet,» manage to combine the two quite convincingly. This Sunday The Red Hot Chilli Pipers are going to be hitting the stage at the Volkshaus. Check out the video to find out what «Bag Rock» is all about…

This Wednesday Kasheme are hosting a new DJ. Yes, it’s you. Bring three of your favourite records to their Open Turntable Night and show off your incredible taste in music. Bear in mind that they have to be vinyl records as CD’s don’t work very well on turntables. Also bring cool records. Best of the Osmonds won’t cut it.

I love a bit of cheese. Whether it’s Raclette, Fondue or just a piece of Cheddar with bread, a good culinary evening usually requires a visit to the cheese shop. But where to go? I put a few of Zurichs cheese shops to the test...