The First Day of Spring

I suppose I should feel full of energy and being glad that the Winter has now "almost" disappeared, although not quite. The photo is the first daffodil to flower in the garden but to coin a good old "cockney" expression it is still bloody cold here. The sun is shining, but that does not mean that we are walking around in short sleeves and leaving the winter coats at home. Temperatures have been around 5-6°C which would be ok if it was not for the cold wind blowing.

Yesterday morning at about 9 o'clock we had snow. Large flakes were falling and I envisaged everything becoming white again. Five minutes later the snow was gone and the sun was shining. My cats were not very happy. They were outside in the garden and came rushing in and full speed. the next snow fall is predicted for Tuesday evening. I had to go to the doctors in town yesterday to pick up some tablets and decided to walk both ways, generally 30 minutes each way. Going was ok as I had the wind in my back, but coming back I had to fight against the cold and was glad to get home.

This week we had the annual general meeting of the first aid group where I am treasurer. We had a good meal, drinks and enjoyed ourselves. It is for me the time when I can breathe out, relax and know everything is ok for a year. I was thinking about giving it up, but there is no-one who can take over at the moment, they are all so gifted in nursing and I seem to be the only one working with excel and computers. I am just pleased that the accounts are in order.

I noticed on the political level in Switzerland our government is not very happy with the German government at the moment, basically the German finance minister. He has made a few (more than a few) negative comments about the Swiss government - I got this bit from the Swiss Info on Internet

"The statement could serve to counter doubts raised by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück in recent weeks about whether the Swiss will follow through on promises to facilitate the exchange of banking information.

Merz (the current Swiss president and finance minister) insisted on Thursday that banking secrecy would remain intact for Swiss nationals.

But he tried to strike a more conciliatory tone after Swiss parliamentarians on Wednesday lashed Steinbrück for likening Switzerland to scared Native Americans living under the threat of a powerful cavalry attack."

Basically the politicians are behaving like spoilt children. We have many German nationals that work in Switzerland for Swiss companies, but live in Germany - so called border travellers. They are not very happy at the moment as they are not very popular amongst the Swiss due to the remarks made by the German minister. It is all politics - Germany are getting ready for their elections so everyone is trying to outdo the others.
Otherwise things are fairly quiet at the moment, or were. My big fat black cat just fell from the top of the cupboard (almost two meters) with a thump on the floor. That does not often happen, but she seems to be ok and is now sitting in the sun outside relaxing.