This morning I decided to take a self portrait from our balcony, which overlooks the village main street and its amazing alpine backdrop.
Stunning.
Please take a moment to appreciate this particular photo, as I contorted myself into strange positions to ensure everything was in reasonable shot.
This exercise revealed that my body is unaccustomed to Cirque de Soleilesque twists and turns, and I was challenged to replace my grimace with a convincing smile.
After several failed attempts, and being disturbed by my constipated expression, I came up with a brilliant solution to utter 'cheese' before each camera click.
And then it came to me, Swiss cheese. I laughed.
Swiss cheese can turn a dull, uncomfortable moment on its head in no time. So too can the queen of le fromage suisse, Suzi. She owns a fabulous cheese shop here called Fromage Etc, which is the social, culinary and information hub of Champéry.
Susy invited me to her daughter's end of school year break up, which consisted of a mini concert of adorable primary school children singing cute French songs. It concluded with kids scrambling for their free ice cream, which marked the beginning of their summer holidays (I never received free ice cream at school, these kids are on a winner!).
After the show, Susy organised for me to read my book 'Nubsy McNoodle Wanted A Poodle' to a small gathering of English speaking children. Who'd have thought that Zia Grace (AKA me) would be putting on a show in Switzerland? It was fabulous and I was thrilled.
So as I sit here on my balcony overlooking the village main street with its amazing backdrop of the Swiss Alps, I remember Swiss cheese. It makes you smile naturally thus instantly eliminating unwanted constipated expressions. And so too does reading to children.
Until tomorrow, have at least one Swiss cheese moment a day.
Grace xx
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