Guest Blogs
Knowitall.ch often invites local experts in their field to contribute to their own blogs on our site. This means not only you will benefit from the useful recommendations that we make on our News pages, but you can also profit from some of the great advice and tips that these experts have to make on their favorite subjects. Whilst each of these bloggers has been recommended to us at some point during the evolution of Know-it-all passport and knowitall.ch, obviously we are not able to test out all the suggestions they make on their blogs, nor do we necessarily agree with all their opinions. So if you do find one of their tips useful (or not!), do let us know!
To make these blogs more accessible to you, we have now decided to group them altogether in one section, entitled Guest Blogs, accessible from our main menu bar. We will also post the most recent blogs on the home page of our site in the right hand column.
We are still building up this area of the site, and are looking for bloggers in a number of sections, including Your Home, Travel, and Leisure, so if you feel you have a useful contribution to make in either of these areas, and have the time to submit blog entries approximately every month, then please get in touch!
By Dean Marriott
This summer I made the move from Morges to Berlin. After 4 years in Switzerland, the time was right for a change.
I had bought my apartment in Berlin some 10 years ago with the intention of one day taking advantage of this wonderful city. Having studied in Germany as part of my undergraduate program, I always knew that eventually I would return and hopefully revive my hibernating language skills.
The curious thing about language is how dynamic it really is – it evolves without you even noticing. That is unless you have been out of that linguistic framework for some 25 years! Indeed, it’s proving difficult to substitute my antiquated German expressions for the modern parlance, especially when it feels that I am adopting the persona of an MTV presenter, injecting apparently ‘cool-sounding’ English words into an otherwise standard German phrase. I never thought that I would feel empathy for the Académie française, but sometimes I can’t help it.
Anyway, as part of my integration into my new world, I felt that I should embrace change wholeheartedly. So, what better way to face this head on than to join a gym. But not just any old gym. Oh no. This is a gym where I only need to (in fact I am limited to) attend a maximum of 3 times per week for a maximum duration of 20 minutes per session. Sceptical? I certainly was. So, I signed up for a free trial.
by Gareth Jefferies, Alpine Property
We often get asked what the weather is like in the Alps. And where we get our forecast from. There are loads of resources available. I rarely use just one, I get used to putting them together to get an overview of the situation.
Our favourite forecast is from an amateur forecaster in Chamonix, it's good for most of the Haute Savoie. We find it works fine in St Gervais, Samoens and Morzine too.
- http://chamonix-meteo.com/bul/metPreMatFr.php taken from the http://chamonix-meteo.com/ website.
We often use Snow-Forecast for long term trends, it's free up until 6 days however don't get too hung up on the actual numbers. It should be renamed rain-forecast in the summer.
And then MeteoBlue, this goes into more depth and forecasts further into the future.
If you want to get back to basics then there is always the pressure charts. The best are probably from the Met Office.
For a more micro idea of the current rain/snow there is a real time radar, this is great for picking dry periods between showers.
Webcams in the Haute Savoie.
When things are a bit grey in the valleys, we use the webcams to see what is happening on the mountain!
- The Lindarets Webcam http://m.webcam-hd.com/vallee-d-aulps/les-lindarets
- The plateau at La Grande Terche http://m.webcam-hd.com/vallee-d-aulps/plateau-st-jean-d-aulps/
- The summit (Sommet des Tetes) at La Grande Terche http://m.webcam-hd.com/vallee-d-aulps/roc-d-enfer
- Various webcams at Avoriaz http://www.avoriaz.com/en/discovering/interactive-tour/webcams
- All the webcams in Chamonix http://www.chamonix.com/webcam,12,en.html
- And these ones at the end of a high valley on the Italian side of Mt Blanc. http://www.comune.valsavarenche.ao.it/it/web-cam
When there is a thunderstorm it can be fun seeing where the lightning is striking. This site shows the real-time strikes and is very accurate.
Author's bio
Gareth Jefferies left the West Yorkshire Police in 1999 to make a new life for himself and his wife in the mountains. A keen skier, with a love for all mountain activities, he really appreciates the distinct seasons that you get in this region. He now has 3 children, all of whom love the outdoors - indeed one is aiming to compete for France as a Biathlete in the 2020 Youth Olympics in Lausanne!
Responsible for marketing and technology at Alpine Properties, a French-registered estate agency with bilingual agents located all over the French Alps, Gareth is usually the first contact you will have the company. He is always happy to discuss your project with you, usually by email, suggesting various properties and making appointments.
Metal Packaging Europe, AGM, Lisbon
By Claire Doole, Claire Doole Communications
A straw poll of colleagues and clients confirmed my view that people often confuse the different roles.
I frequently receive confused requests. Not so long ago, I was asked to moderate when in fact after some discussion the client and I agreed they needed instead a Master of Ceremonies. Another client contacted me to moderate, but in fact what they required was a Master of Ceremonies and facilitator.
When organizing an event, how do you make sure you get the right person for the right job?
Some broad definitions to keep in mind:
- A moderator guides the discussion, often but not always in a panel format.
- A Master of Ceremonies is responsible for the "show* - the whole event as it unrolls on the day.
- A facilitator is responsible for a process - helping people make decisions and achieve results.
While there are differences in responsibilities, there is a common base of skills across the three roles: you need someone who is neutral, is a good listener, and is a clear and confident communicator.
The nuance is that the different roles require more of one skill over another. By understanding this difference, you can be sure that you have hired the right person for the right job.
From my experience, here are the prerequisites:
By Hiba Samawi, Wiser Humans
Rejection hurts. Literally.
And like most human behavior, it makes sense.
It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective because back when we were cave men and women and we did something that was out of line with the social group, we were kicked out.
And being rejected meant social exile, which meant being left to fend for ourselves in the savanna.
And without the group, we wouldn’t have lasted very long on our own in the wild.
So the human brain became hardwired to be very sensitive to rejection.
To avoid doing anything risky which meant avoiding rejection which meant avoiding exile which meant avoiding death.
Or as a shortcut:
REJECTION = PAIN
And because we don’t especially enjoy pain, most of us learned ways of avoiding the possibility of rejection.
- By not taking risks.
- By avoiding social situations where we might not succeed or where others might be critical of us, like public speaking.
- By comparing ourselves to others to make sure we are not doing anything ‘wrong’.
- By avoiding situations where rejection is possible, like online dating.
- By trying to behave flawlessly - to reach a state of perfection where we are beyond reproach.
- By developing these amazing pro-social skills like empathy and compassion…for others - while simultaneously being really hard on ourselves. Because criticising ourselves before anyone else can is a sort of pre-rejection meant to help us avoid real rejection.
by Ceylan Ayik, www.ceylanayik.com/
We are almost approaching the end of September and most of us are very busy settling into the new school year and even busier work schedules.
September is a bit like new year to me! New decisions, resolutions, goals for a new season! Maybe that’s a way to cope to with the end-of-summer-syndrome!
Actually, autumn is a great season to embrace changes, get stronger and lighter as nature does every year.
Here are some suggestions and events that will help you to re-energize and continue stronger on your busy days. We all deserve these breaks and self-investments to continue with fresher minds and bodies!
Hiking season!
We are so lucky to live in this beautiful region with endless hiking opportunities! We always use the Swiss Hikes website to choose, and use its app when we go. Also check out the My Switzerland website for more.
Living in Geneva, we love the hiking trails in St.Cergue, Vevey, Montreux and Neuchatel.
The best part is usually the picnic time with the amazing view of Lac Leman and the Alps! As a healthy eating fan, I always pack some fruits-nuts and raw veggies and can find a salad in bakeries (yes there are salads in bakeries now!) while my family usually prefers the delicious sandwiches!
Start trying new classes!
You might be one of those many who came back from holidays and long summer days with some extra “luggage” and want to get back into shape as soon as possible, especially before the new year craziness start!
This month most of the fitness-gym-yoga-pilates-dance studios have open house trial days. Make use of these days and start or re-start a practice that you really enjoy doing and make it an important part of your life!
If you do not feel motivated enough to start exercising again, then listen to what Mel Robbins says about motivation.
You can also read my blog post on “How to get back on the Wellness Wagon” to get some quick tips to help you on this journey.
