things that make you go hhmmm

Nothing is open here on Sunday. Literally, the place is a virtual ghost town. But, for some reason they bend this hard-fast Swiss regulation to make some green (hello, we are in the land of banks & bills, even they can't turn down the chance to make some big Christmas francs). The stores are open from 12-5 on Sunday, basically the US equivalent of keeping the mall open until midnight as Christmas approaches. And, the madness that ensues here does, in various ways, rival that which occurs at home. Some of these things are simply annoying, some frustrating & the others just make you go hhmmmm. The hhhmmm'ers are the focus of this piece.
Some of you may not even believe these things were true if not for our photographic evidence, seen above.
Right, so there is a singing Christmas tree here. I have seen the signage referencing said tree for a few weeks now, but I finally experienced it for myself yesterday when Joe & I went for a walk along the Bahnhof. In my head I pictured a large mechanic tree that sings & sort of dances around. Boy, was I mistaken. I must admit, the reality of it was even more frightening than my imagination. Basically a choir is strategically positioned on a tree shaped/decorated stage. The choir is dressed to look like ornaments & to sing. I must be honest, it was horrific. Then, as I was thinking this could not get any weirder I realized.....they are singing Christmas songs in German (blasphemy!) & as I had this revelation a car decided to attempt to drive through the very very crowded square where the crowd was gathered to listen & view the singing tree. And, hardly anyone even moved, so the car was basically just kind of sitting there in the middle of the crowd, no one even phased enough to move! At this point, we aborted the singing tree mission for greater adventures.
Please try to imagine the longest, most crowded, outdoor mall, where no one really actually seems concerned about shopping, or walking straight or if they bump into you 16 times and don't freaking say "entschuldigung," while trams & cars run down the center & beep at everyone in their way and then you are there with us, on the bahnhof yesterday. Before the tree incident I was handling the crowds about as well as I can handle crowds, but that put me over the edge. So, oddly enough, to get away from the throngs, we entered a store...novel, I know. And I asked the woman "Wie geht es Ihnen," German for how are you. And, she responded with, "Wie bitte", meaning please repeat, so I did. All I was asking was How are you?, you know, being polite. And, she responded in english, "What language are you speaking?" I have taken German class for a cumulative 120 hours & people still claim to not understand me when I ask them "how are you?" This really made me go hhmmmm....as well as many other things, but we shan't go into those...
Lastly, and randomly, I must note the treadmills at our gym. So, the stop button typically would indicate the machine will stop when the button is pressed, well, not on these fancy (code for shitty) treadmills that we have at our gym. The stop button there simply takes the treadmill down to 2k per hour. As you can all imagine, this is just slow enough to confuse the shit out of everyone using the treadmills. I had an issue with it the first time I used the treadmills, so I feel sympathy for all those poor, usually less coordinated, gym goers who really struggle with this. Today, I was on some machines that happen to be lined up right behind the treadmills. I witnessed a man get off the treadmill who had clearly never used them before because the machine was still running at 2k when he attempted to get off, of course the result was not pretty, but don't worry he did not fall, just stumbled a bit. Right, so the man walked away from the treadmill, clearly phased, and got a paper towel to wipe off the machine, when lo&behold, two men walk up and one of them attempts to get on said treadmill that is still, mind you, running at 2k per hour. And that guy almost bites it also. I mean, wow, and I didn't even laugh, hardly even smiled, although it was one of the craziest turn of events.....but seriously, you need to press stop on the treadmill about 6 times for it to actually stop, which as c&c music factory would say it's one of those...... things that make you go hhhmmmm....
Anyone have any hhhmmm'ers to share with us?!