After the longest time I've spent in a single country since 2011, it was time to catch an aeroplane again out of the country, for two months in another one...research secondment at CERN, Switzerland. I feel a bit iffy about writing this blog, since it encompasses 7 days actually in SA and those days were spent running around not actually doing anything fun (I didn't even do First Thursdays, which seems to have become a standout feature of the last 6 months), but I need to keep some sort of routine, and besides, this rounds out the number of posts since I started 11 months ago to the correct number.
This is bereft of quite a lot of content since my phone decided it would die for a couple of weeks, and I was unable to reactivate it since Telkom are useless in SA, but nonetheless...the important stuff started after having touched down, with a few beers in London (wanted a visit to Borough market, but events the week prior had put pay to that), a meeting with a fantastic magician, nice English gardens, and basically chasing the sun again after having to experience a few late Autumn days in Cape Town.
Landing in Geneva meant more catching-up with old friends and beers from Finland, and a visit to the races in York for a stag do (obviously no photos), and a quick trip to Liverpool. After that, it was straight to work, and so it seems necessary to include some photos of the ISOLDE hall and the MINIBALL experimental setup! It was a big deal for an African institution, and a big part of why I wanted to be here, and it was a great experience for all involved*.
Oh, and of course, the early morning continental pastry breakfasts...
Not much sightseeing was done in Geneva, due to work, and looking back at my phone it seems even less than I thought, but the usual jet d'eau (because if you don't take a photo of that, have you even been to Geneva?). Tour de France was in town, but after seeing it in 2014 in God's own country I focused more this time on just checking out the peloton itself...and forgot to take pictures. Pretty stunning scenery though in the Jura mountains! I was also lucky enough to check out the second largest jazz festival in the world, Montreux, which had been on my list for a while. It was amazing, and definitely well worth the trip, even if I had stayed up most of the night working. I think it was my second day off in a month, because clearly physics, as already seen, waits for no man.
There WOULD have been many more photos of Geneva's old town and of some nice little hidden gems I'd been putting on a list, but events took a turn for the worse; or rather, I didn't turn, and ended up worse. Broken elbow, strained wrist, lots of grazes, stitched chin, and two fractured teeth, were not the ideal end to a hard two months. I also broke my laptop and phone, but they just seem like normal George things. Thanks to the amazing dentists at Young's though, I seem to have managed to fix my face up just enough for a wedding of two good friends at the end of the week, in the same place as my parents had their wedding reception too.
Now back to SA, with my mum and Clarissa, refreshed and ready for the rest of the year. Hopefully I take some rain back...
Song of the month: The Final Countdown, by Europe, because it's by Europe...
*A nice piece on what was happening can be found here
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