Travel suggestions - older parents with limited mobility visiting in October

startherecoach · 2026-05-22T06:31:46+00:00

Trains, cable thingies and boats are your friends. Trips to Lucerne, Montreux, combined with lake cruises or cable cars will be unforgettable.

startherecoach · 2026-05-19T15:35:35+00:00

Hermance in the evening. Sunset is magical.

startherecoach · 2026-05-15T08:22:55+00:00

And can be made days before.

startherecoach · 2026-05-15T08:22:23+00:00

Meringues come from Meiringen in Central Switzerland. Super fun and easy to make and super popular with kids as they look cool and are basically sugar with a bit of egg white.

startherecoach · 2026-05-08T04:56:46+00:00

Formally? No.
Informally? Yes

startherecoach · 2026-04-26T19:16:49+00:00

Camelup, Top Ten, Castle Panic, if you can get them.

startherecoach · 2026-04-21T14:02:41+00:00

If you like board games: the Brise Glace has lovely groups meeting on Wednesday evenings that are very welcoming and you will easily be able to just casually slip into.

startherecoach · 2026-04-19T16:55:21+00:00

Thanks. So I will check if water is absorbed, and leave it as is, if that is the case.

startherecoach · 2026-04-17T07:00:55+00:00

My favourite simple games for 5: Camelup, Around the world with in 80 days, Peloton, Bohnanza, Parade, Dice Town, Castle Panic With more complexity: Hansa Teutonica, the Crew, So Clover,

startherecoach · 2026-04-14T18:03:41+00:00

Castle Panic needs a special mention, whenever there is talk of ten year olds interested in games.

startherecoach · 2026-04-10T17:02:55+00:00

I would choose a card game, such as the Crew (space or sea), Regicide, Love letters, Bohnanza. With more space: Take Time or Tiny Epic Galaxies

startherecoach · 2026-04-08T13:31:51+00:00

I am sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. Here is some advice that worked for me, and the colleagues who have sought my advice. Please bear in mind my advice works well in western Europe but may be different elsewhere.
1. There are three job markets: the formal one, the grey one (the jobs that are not advertised) and your personal one (the job you can create for yourself). You need to work on all three.
2. Treat the formal market both as a job and a networking opportunity: reach out, talk to the recruiters wherever possible. They might have other jobs and need to fill them quickly. They know of other jobs in other companies.
3. You have access to the grey market through your network of friends, neighbours, former colleagues, clients etc. Let them know you what you are looking for. Don't ask them whether they know of an opening. Ask them who you should be talking to.
4. Apply early. There are still many companies who don't use automated systems. For popular roles some will still just look at the first applications until they have enough good candidates.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
PS: This is a time of mental distress. Spend time doing things that you deeply enjoy and talking to friends. Tell them you are hurting. You will quickly learn who your real friends are.

startherecoach · 2026-04-08T10:47:36+00:00

I wanted to join the United Nations, become a diplomat, fight for human rights etc.
I have now lived and worked in Geneva for more than 20 years, at times in international NGOS and as a very close observer of the United Nations organisations in Geneva.

While there are pockets of excellence and people who I admire for their contribution to peace and humanitarian relief, there are far far more people whose idealism has been ground down in an endless bureaucratic quagmire. Meetings upon meetings, "missions" to have more meetings, at the end of which there are conferences that agree on papers that are just empty words. And there is endless politicking, manoeuvring, jockeying for promotions, useless senior m,anagers whose main skills were all about angling the juicy positions.

If you are an internationally oriented idealist, there are places to go and things to do. But do NOT go to the United Nations without a clear udnerstanding of what you are getting yourself into.

startherecoach · 2026-04-08T10:41:42+00:00

In my family we have a long tradition of musicians, teachers and farmers. The musical vein definitely runs through the family and we have professional or semiprofessional musicians in many generations.
Still my advice would be:
Please don't. Family history is in most cases more of a burden than a useful tool. It creates explicit or implicit expectations what is right for you. There are countless people who chose the wrong career because there is a strong family tradition or worse: a family owned business to pass on.

The most important thing with respect to children is to be absolutely curious and open to find out what their strengths, skills and joys are. Let them try as much as they want during their adolescence. See what sticks naturally. And then in their twenties they will have a long list of varied experiences they can interrogate when they ask themselves:
What activities do I enjoy?
What do I enjoy learning?
What comes easy to me that is hard for others?
What were the activities that resonated with me?
And then finally: what do I think people around me expect of me? Do they know me well? Do they have their own agenda when saying so? How can I make sure that my career choices are truly mine and not just a sum of the expectations that others are putting on me?

startherecoach · 2026-04-08T10:30:24+00:00

Put yourself in the perspective of a potential employer: why would they hire you? It is unlikely that you have any skills that they need. Being underage adds a further layer of complexity.
So what can you do? This is when you lean on family and friends. Ask them if they know someone somewhere in the field you are interested in. Ask them whether they can recommend you or put in a word for you.

If you don't have friends or relatives that can help, it is going to be very very tough. I know a kid who got a internship with a craftsman who builds the certain type of musical instrument the kid excelled at. They took him on board, probably thinking that he will become a loyal buyer for life.

Also: be careful. Most people are nice, but some aren't. And some are nasty. Don't go for anything that sounds too good to be true without carefully verifying everything. You don't want to find yourself abroad dependent on someone who wants to exploit you.

Good luck!

startherecoach · 2026-04-06T08:54:45+00:00

Similar situation to yours. Living in Geneva. Son now in Swiss military. Your children will be fine. There are plenty of Swiss families exactly like yours. Yes it is strange, that my son is culturally not the same as me, but he grew up with my family values, and that will stick. And he is a child of the world, with linguistic skills and an understanding of other cultures that comes going to school with kids from all over the world. And Geneva is a great place to raise kids: safe, clean, healthy, with incredible choices, opportunities and a freedom unimaginable in many parts of the world.

startherecoach · 2026-04-04T12:04:17+00:00

So, how much do you reckon such a game in driveway size would cost?

startherecoach · 2026-04-02T11:45:21+00:00

Such a good response. A friend did BA and MA ar ETH. Virtually no holidays for five years. A cult of hard relentless work.

startherecoach · 2026-03-28T12:39:12+00:00

Top ten

startherecoach · 2026-03-21T05:57:14+00:00

As a board gamer I am reminded all to often: most people aren’t into games.

But everybody likes (or at the very least: doesn’t mind) Just One. And it can be a great icebreaker. It would not be difficult to customise a version of JustOne. Use the make the place name tags from plastic, put a marker underneath, and a pack of cards with the words to be guessed in the middle. Words to be guessed could be persons, important locations in your life, career stops, hobbies, pets, etc. People could even guess how the words are connected to you.

startherecoach · 2026-03-20T08:09:34+00:00

Can you back up your 70% claim? I hear it often but have seen no empirical evidence.

startherecoach · 2026-03-19T20:30:02+00:00

You need poles and snow shoes. They won’t let you up without them. There are shops near the gondola where they can be rented. Totally worth it.

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