playgroup's end
Still here! Just... busy.
Today was my last day at playgroup. I can't believe how quickly the last two-and-a-half years went by. Bao was about nine months old when she started at this playgroup, and one of the ladies at the group can still remember how Bao's baby hair looked like and how she used to crawl around when she first came. Now Bao is one of the oldest kids there.
As much as I love the friends and the vibe of the group, it's clear to me (and to some of the more experienced mothers) that she's definitely outgrown the playgroup. She's not interested in playing much with the other children, most of whom are at least eighteen months younger than her, so she's often quite disruptive and won't participate in some of the group activities. I can tell she enjoys nursery much more than she enjoys playgroup, so after Easter break she'll be at nursery four mornings a week (many schools here are not open on Wednesdays, or run for half a day).
For the past few months I've also been working on getting the playgroup finances in order. Thankfully most of that's done now and I'm relieved that I managed to leave the group in the black, not in the red. We had to raise fees for this, but it was unavoidable considering we were bleeding money for the past few years and no one had re-worked the calculations in a long time to work out just how much we needed to bring in to cover our costs. When I took over the co-running of the playgroup, one of the things I 'inherited' was a huge sack of coins amassed from previous years. In a fit of curiosity I counted the coins - about 615CHF.
Now, the thing about Geneva is that there is no such thing as a coin-counting machine that the public can use. It's not like in Singapore where nearly every town centre has a coin-counting machine, open 24/7, next to a bank. You walk up, scan your banking info, pour your sackful of change in, and it's done. Well, I asked around, and searched forums online, but no. No such thing here. What most people did was to go to the bank to ask for special paper to roll their coins in, return to the bank, stand at the counter watching the teller re-count those damn coins. Sorry if I'm being the typical impatient Singaporean here, but that's nuts.
Anyway, I finally read somewhere that the bank near the main train station here had a coin-counting service, so J and I popped round last week while the kids were in school. We expected one of those DIY machines, but instead were ushered into a very private, empty vestibule with a glass panel separating us from a man in a minimalistic, bare office. Handing him my scruffy supermarket plastic bag full of coins, I expected him to pour it into a machine for counting, but to my surprise he took out one of those plastic security bags you use for private documents. He stuffed my entire bag of coins into the security bag, sealed it, and then explained that it would be posted (!!!) somewhere else within Switzerland for counting and that they would credit the amount into my account in a week. (A week!)
Eventually the letter from the bank arrived, postmarked from a small town somewhere near Solothurn, not far from the Swiss capital. I don't know how the Swiss German side of the country does it, but it boggles my mind that there isn't something like a coin-counting machine in the one of the major banks in the entire city. Maybe everyone else just knows not to hoard their coins until it grows into a ridiculous amount. I know the reputation Switzerland has for its banking services has nothing to do with silly things like coin-counting, but gosh - still unfathomable to me.
For the record, France does have public coin-counting machines - at the supermarket, no less! - but they take only Euro coins, not the Swiss Franc.
But back to what I started off writing about. The end of playgroup feels like an end of an era for me. No more sitting with snotty kids at plastic tables, rolling out playdough or trying to prevent them from eating the glue. No more endless variations of 'Row row row your boat' and 'The Wheels on the Bus'. I'm glad Bao got to grow up with some of these other kids, and I'm even gladder that I managed to make some good friends from the group as well. I always did use to say that playgroup was more for socialising ME instead of Bao. It was a lifesaver when we first moved to Geneva. It feels slightly bittersweet, but moving on is a part of growing up, isn't it; no matter how old you are.
Today was my last day at playgroup. I can't believe how quickly the last two-and-a-half years went by. Bao was about nine months old when she started at this playgroup, and one of the ladies at the group can still remember how Bao's baby hair looked like and how she used to crawl around when she first came. Now Bao is one of the oldest kids there.
As much as I love the friends and the vibe of the group, it's clear to me (and to some of the more experienced mothers) that she's definitely outgrown the playgroup. She's not interested in playing much with the other children, most of whom are at least eighteen months younger than her, so she's often quite disruptive and won't participate in some of the group activities. I can tell she enjoys nursery much more than she enjoys playgroup, so after Easter break she'll be at nursery four mornings a week (many schools here are not open on Wednesdays, or run for half a day).
For the past few months I've also been working on getting the playgroup finances in order. Thankfully most of that's done now and I'm relieved that I managed to leave the group in the black, not in the red. We had to raise fees for this, but it was unavoidable considering we were bleeding money for the past few years and no one had re-worked the calculations in a long time to work out just how much we needed to bring in to cover our costs. When I took over the co-running of the playgroup, one of the things I 'inherited' was a huge sack of coins amassed from previous years. In a fit of curiosity I counted the coins - about 615CHF.
Now, the thing about Geneva is that there is no such thing as a coin-counting machine that the public can use. It's not like in Singapore where nearly every town centre has a coin-counting machine, open 24/7, next to a bank. You walk up, scan your banking info, pour your sackful of change in, and it's done. Well, I asked around, and searched forums online, but no. No such thing here. What most people did was to go to the bank to ask for special paper to roll their coins in, return to the bank, stand at the counter watching the teller re-count those damn coins. Sorry if I'm being the typical impatient Singaporean here, but that's nuts.
Anyway, I finally read somewhere that the bank near the main train station here had a coin-counting service, so J and I popped round last week while the kids were in school. We expected one of those DIY machines, but instead were ushered into a very private, empty vestibule with a glass panel separating us from a man in a minimalistic, bare office. Handing him my scruffy supermarket plastic bag full of coins, I expected him to pour it into a machine for counting, but to my surprise he took out one of those plastic security bags you use for private documents. He stuffed my entire bag of coins into the security bag, sealed it, and then explained that it would be posted (!!!) somewhere else within Switzerland for counting and that they would credit the amount into my account in a week. (A week!)
Eventually the letter from the bank arrived, postmarked from a small town somewhere near Solothurn, not far from the Swiss capital. I don't know how the Swiss German side of the country does it, but it boggles my mind that there isn't something like a coin-counting machine in the one of the major banks in the entire city. Maybe everyone else just knows not to hoard their coins until it grows into a ridiculous amount. I know the reputation Switzerland has for its banking services has nothing to do with silly things like coin-counting, but gosh - still unfathomable to me.
For the record, France does have public coin-counting machines - at the supermarket, no less! - but they take only Euro coins, not the Swiss Franc.
But back to what I started off writing about. The end of playgroup feels like an end of an era for me. No more sitting with snotty kids at plastic tables, rolling out playdough or trying to prevent them from eating the glue. No more endless variations of 'Row row row your boat' and 'The Wheels on the Bus'. I'm glad Bao got to grow up with some of these other kids, and I'm even gladder that I managed to make some good friends from the group as well. I always did use to say that playgroup was more for socialising ME instead of Bao. It was a lifesaver when we first moved to Geneva. It feels slightly bittersweet, but moving on is a part of growing up, isn't it; no matter how old you are.