Random Thoughts: More this and that!

It's almost the end of February and some days you might just think spring was on its way - just! The weather's been glorious, then grey and wet, then glorious again, so maybe spring really is trying to bulldoze it's way through. When I was still working I used to love to wander round Geneva's Botanical Gardens, and that was when you could tell if spring really was on its way because the crocuses (crocii?) would be tentatively popping their heads up. Not here where I live of course because of the higher altitude but lower down you might already be starting to get lucky! I don't miss much about work but I do miss wandering round the gardens or strolling along the lake. Still, that wouldn't be enough to ever convince me to go back!

With the spring of course comes the ever increasing risk of avalanches and there have been quite a few "biggies" in Europe this past week, with one just up the road from here. It takes about 45 minutes to drive to Chamonix (where the Mont Blanc is) and from there you can go through the Mont Blanc tunnel and when you come out the other side you're in the Aosta Valley in Italy. I always say you can feel the atmosphere change instantly, but then maybe that's just because the border guards have Italian accents! The first town you come to is called Cormayeur and that is where they had a huge avalanche earlier this week. Last I knew there were two French people killed, but that may well have changed as there were still quite a few people missing last time I caught up with the news! Someone posted a short video on Youtube where you can see the avalanche careening down the mountain opposite and yet people were still continuing to ski down the mountain towards it! My first thought was "how stupid do you have to be to ski towards an oncoming avalanche" but in reality they may just have been tetanised by what was heading towards them and not thinking straight. Either way, I saw that over 100 people have been killed in various avalanches in Europe already this year and ski season isn't even nearing the end. How sad for all concerned! (You can see the Cormayeur footage here).

I got back from club on Tuesday night and was scrolling through a few Youtube favourites when every time I tried to "like" a particular video, Youtube suggested that "hey Viviane, maybe you'd like to start your own channel". So I kept trying and over and over again YT called me Viviane and suggested I get involved. I finally figured out that I'd logged onto the club's email and hadn't logged back out and as that email address was set up in the name of "Viviane" (the previous president) it must have thought that I was her! Mind you, talking of the previous president, I spoke to Monique (the new president) and Martine (the new secretary) and told them that I couldn't make head nor tail out of one of the tables in the previous financial report and wondered if I was going mad. There were several tables included in the report, one of which was a breakdown of all expenses in connection with "events", i.e. meals, trips etc. where I would attribute certain costs in order to have a realistic idea of exactly how much each event cost (musicians, caterer, table decorations, drinks etc.). Then we have what I would call the master table which was supposed to include all expenses - and that was where I was having a problem. To my mind, if you start the year with XXX in the bank account and then have expenses of YYY, well logically you should have a final balance of ZZZ right? But nope, not a bit of it. I asked both ladies where they would attribute the €61 Monique had spent on bread for the Christmas lunch or the €271 Martine had spent on soft drinks and wine, and they agreed they couldn't find it. According to the previous president the auditor found the accounts "correct down to the last centime", but I call BS on that because it was waaayyy off! The prevous treasurer had also recognized that the accounts were off but Viviane insisted they were to be done the way she wanted - and that was one of the reasons the previous treasurer had quit. So this week I went through every penny spent since we took over (thankfully I had been keeping my own master list as I went along) and posted every penny into set budget lines and guess what, the accounts tally (as they bloody well should)! To be honest I don't believe Viviane had her fingers in the till (although that's what she accused Monique of many years ago) but it does seem more than weird that she wouldn't let the treasurer have access to the bank accounts and would print off partial statements only when asked. Now all three of us can access the bank accounts - which suits me just fine. I'm more inclined to think that maybe Viviane got a few freebies from the various travel agents when she put work their way, but regardless, I'm glad the three of us spotted this early and have agreed on how to handle it going forward!

Last week the club was contacted by a young man who has just started up his own clinic offering diagnostic hearing tests and who was willing to come to club to carry out evaluations on anyone who might be interested. Monique was all for it but none of the rest of us were up for spending a Friday afternoon herding club members into the room for their tests, not so much because of the time spent but rather that none of us wanted to get involved with the "oh, I can't make it on this date, can you switch it for another date"! Actually I do mind giving up my Friday afternoon for something that has nothing remotely to do with the club (and the others all felt the same, except for Monique), so we agreed to add a flyer to our latest mailing giving details of how to contact this man and indicating that the test was free with no expectation of any purchase being made. I learned a long time ago that you hand responsibility for making arrangements over to the party concerned rather than acting as a go-between, because people tend to be far less inclined to constantly make changes if they are responsible for doing it themselves!

We did have another ad hoc meeting last week (hence I wasn't interested in also giving up my Friday afternoon) to meet up with a rep to try to set up another "event" in April. Once a year they do a kind of "tupperware party" where the seller sometimes organizes a free day trip (last year it was to Evian) in return for participants sitting through some kind of spiel (somewhat akin to a tupperware party). This year they are not offering a trip but are willing to pay for lunch for up to 50 participants using our usual caterer, plus make a donation to the club. When I saw what was going to be promoted I had to stiffle a giggle because it was obviously aimed at the "mature" audience. You know, self-raising armchairs, saucepans made of lighter materials for people who no longer have much physical strength, jar openers for arthritic hands, and so on. All good stuff but to say it was "targeted" would be an understatement. Being wicked I thought "if he comes out with self-heating incontinence pads I'm gonna lose it", but it never actually sank to that level. That being said, I'm sure a talented comedian could make comedy gold out of some of this stuff! While I'm willing to help organize it, I don't intend to attend because I'm sure we can put together a group of up to 50 people who would be willing (and maybe even genuinely interested) to attend for a free lunch (although they always say there's no such thing as a free lunch don't they)!

Last week Jen asked both grandmas if we would be willing to look after Charlie overnight in the summer for the first time. I was always willing to do this but obviously felt that Charlie needed to be old enough and that the request should come from Jen. Charlie was so excited as I told him I would take him swimming to his favourite lake but then Jen suggested it might be good to have a trial run in April. Now there isn't an awful lot to do round here so I was racking my brains trying to come up with something I could do with him in April when the weather might not be so good. And then I had a brainwave - how about rejoining the local library and he could pick out a few books to read! La Roche library is stunning and I'm sure we could happily spend a couple of hours there, then either visit the castle or go to the cinema next door, followed by the park and/or lunch in town. I joined the library pre-covid but never went back because I've go so many books to read at home, plus my kindle, plus Audible, but I went back on Friday to rejoin and took a couple of cookery books out to have a shufty at - because I obviously don't have enough cookery books here, do I. So if all goes to plan, we'll be giving it a trial run in April. Fingers crossed for good weather and a laid back Charlie!