The Independence Day celebrations for Canadians (1 July) and Americans (4 July) are reminders about identity. This is not always easy, particularly if one’s family consists of different nationalities with kids born in places such as Nairobi or Singapore, or attending school in Switzerland or France. How does one explain what it means to be […]
Robyn Goss explores her husband’s efforts to get their kids interested in sport
With all the football fever in the air, my husband has been fantasising about – finally, finally – getting one of the children interested in sport. He gave up with me just after we met, but with his daughters … well, he might still have someone to watch the rugby with; to go to cricket […]
Pet peeve – there is a lot of talk about pets in Robyn’s family this week
So we’re talking a lot about pets again, in our household. It seems the children are not content with four fat goldfish, three layabout guinea pigs, a geriatric cat and a Furby that will not shut up (I’d take the batteries out but what if it goes all Chucky on me and keeps talking?). No. […]
Mountains, bees and books
As long as the Swiss and many expats have their teams (German, English, Spanish, Portuguese…) still in play, the World Cup is impossible to ignore. So it’s refreshing to have outdoor enthusiasts, such as the two Lausanne women, one who climbed Everest, the other who base-jumped off the Matterhorn, remind us about other things, notably […]
Home and away – the consequences of going camping as a family
“We’re going to need a bigger tent,” my husband said, with some surprise. The last time we used his three-man tent, it had been more than big enough. We didn’t take up much space in those days, back in the first flush of romance, when we still fell asleep in each other’s arms. Also, we […]
Swiss resorts: Primed for the summer – and beyond
LAUSANNE According to the World Tourism & Travel Council, the Swiss tourism industry should do well in 2014 with more visitors – and income – for the country. With the impact of climate change and growing competition from resorts elsewhere in the world, however, realising such improvement is not a given. Switzerland still needs to […]
Evolutionary regression
These last few weeks have seen something of a regression in my family, all the way back to our days in the cave. It started when the children watched The Croods, which is a very sweet (if completely factually inaccurate) story about the last Neanderthal family and their moment of personal evolution. The older child […]
The Lake Geneva region: The real heart of Europe?
Lyon – the largest city closest to Geneva – has long marketed itself as “the heart of Europe”. Whether this convinces investors is another matter. The Lake Geneva region has far more reason for assuming this role. For this to happen, it needs to become the pivotal hub of the “Lyons–Geneva–Milan triangle”, as one Swiss […]
EU elections: The Swiss right’s conundrum
Notwithstanding the long-term visions of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson Thomas Paine and other exceptional individuals, the wonderfully patriotic propaganda one often finds in American schools about how united the 13 colonies were against King George III has little to do with reality. What largely characterized the colonies was that they were beset by rivalries, jealousies […]
Of bugs, bacteria and human behaviour
Funny things, bugs. I was pondering this the other day, as I sat watching my children performing in a school play. They were on opposite sides of the stage and I spent an hour trying to make eye contact with them both at the same time, so no one could accuse me of loving the […]
