2 Days until we see George
22 days until we SEE Kaylee
I decided to write a little before I walk to the grocery store. Julie wants Tacos for dinner this evening, and I have everything but ground beef! I was just thinking this week, that I really need to fine a good butcher to find meat here. After growing up on a cattle farm, and having all the beef I wanted from Mom and Dad for as long as I can remember, that is probably the food I miss the most. My experience is that overall meat in Switzerland is simply not as good. I think it is because there are very few “cattle” farms here. The VAST MAJORITY of the cows you see are dairy cows. All my farming friends know the difference!! Our new friends Steve and Julie gave me a recommendation for a butcher shop they use. Unfortunately, it is on the other side of the lake, and about an hour away.
I think I told you about Steve and Julie before. I met Julie through Tik Tok. She commented that she was going to be in Zermatt the same weekend we were, and I suggested meeting for drinks. We changed that to meeting for dinner. We went over to their house last weekend for dinner, and I was finally able to use some of my IT knowledge to help them get a VPN running on their wifi router; so that Julie could watch Below Deck. :). There must be something about those shows and being named Julie, because my Julie also gets on me when Bravo and HULU catch on the VPN and it takes a day or two to find another work around.
We are still experiencing a lot of rain. It is not as bad as it was two weeks ago. Now we get rain every other day instead of every day. That seems to make a big difference. Most of the areas that have flood control were really trying to lower the lake levels last week to make room for the storms that were supposed to come through last weekend, and early this week, but for the most part, the storms kept the rain up in the clouds.
I thought I finally had my first job interview lined up. I got a call from a recruiter, we talked three or four times on the phone, and then she told me about a job she was trying to fill. She even gave me dates and times for an interview. Then nothing….. I contacted her the day before the interview saying I had not received the calendar invite and I was told it was being pushed back for a day or two. Then was again told I would get a calendar invite, but . I know I should not get discouraged, but it is very discouraging to not even get an interview. The recruiter “assures” me that my CV and applications are great. That means they either see my picture and say I am “too old” or they are bucking the trend of every company I have heard about here, and doesn’t speak english.
I think more and more about trying to set up a tech consulting business for expats coming here. I would help set up their home networks, VPN, why NOT to change your apple location to Switzerland, those kind of things. I just don’t know if the market is big enough to support a small business here. If I were confident I could at least break even, I would move on it harder, but I am not. I need to do some more research, but so far my impressions are that most of the people relocating to this area are much younger than me. Most are worrying about getting a good cell phone plan, and due to the prevalence of wifi are not buying cable subscriptions or internet subscriptions for their homes. I do need to do some more market research, I guess I could also consider spreading out to other cities. I would just have to change my payment structure to capture a lot more travel time. Oh well, I will probably still be having this same conversation with myself a year from now, but as long as travel is still allowed, and we keep getting visitors having a job will not be as important to my sanity!
Not much else to talk about this week. The apartment has gotten a good cleaning while we prepare for visitors. That is about it! Talk to you next week; I have two bathrooms I have to clean this afternoon! 🙂