Deja Vu: Undiplomatic Community

Once again we find people with CD plates don't really care about other people - it makes you wonder how they are able to do their job, or perhaps why they even bothered to apply for it in the first place.  Our undiplomatic community raised its head again. Bizarrely the person leaning on their horn this time was the replacement for the woman who leant on the horn last time, same country, same apartment. Perhaps that's how you bagsy a parking space in their home country.

I noticed in my last post on this subject that I suggested the rule of law had managed with some competency for the last 500 years, and I marvel at my credulity to believe that the law actually did anything in this town. Whilst it may have been competent for much of the last 500 years, in the past year, it hasn't been that great. Since my last post on this subject I've witnessed three of my friends get mugged and the cops declare they didn't care; my neighbours flat get broken into and the police refuse to send someone out; and a police force decide to work to rule. That could be a whole other post.

Parks in Geneva are a two faced thing. During the day they are chock full of children running and screaming, accompanied by careless parents assured that their children will be fine, beyond a scrapped knee or two. However, at night, as I found out in my first week in the city, they generally become home to drug takers, pushers and drunks.
Back towards the end of the first week of October, I was toddling home after more than a few beers with a friend of mine, when spying a park near to our house, I thought I'd take a quick look at it to see whether it was suitable for a three year-old. As a reconnaissance spouse, in a new city, these are important things you need to consider in your first week.  However, it turned out, that at night time the swings and slides do not remain the property of the under 4 foot tall.  A guy approached me, what did I want? he asked. In my usual defence I began to answer him in German, rather than give away the fact that I might be from off the continent (I have been accused of being American accented whilst over here!). He was offering me hard drugs, something I wouldn't have understood in French. Anyway, we continued to have a very garbled bi-lingual chat, until I nodded and wandered off, figuring my departure was probably for the best. Fortunately, when the sun rose, there were other parks around to take the girls too and we've never been back to this other one.
But it's not the only park like it, many is the park in Geneva that suffers from dealers staking claim to the patch whilst the swings are still and the sun is down. I was cycling into work the other day, when I heard sirens all over the place, a police van came past me, and I noticed that the park beside the road was taped off, with a couple of coppers hanging around looking like they didn't know what they were doing. In the Tribune de Geneve, the local paper, the next day was a headline about the bodies of two women found in the park, apparently they were known to the city's drug agency.
We'll stick to the parks during the day I guess.

Health insurance - depends what your plan is

The bill from last weekends sirens and flashing lights came in on Friday. Just about all I can say is the excess for both of us for the year is now covered. We can get busy visiting doctors like a hypochondriac with webMD on twitter feed.

Learning lessons; anaphylaxis, pine nuts and dialling 144

Bad pine-nuts! Bad! Bad!

We went out to dinner last night, to a restaurant I don't think I'll name. We went out with some friends of our who are a commuter couple, so we don't get to see them together that often.  Last night was one of the first times in six months that we've actually managed to all be in the same place on a Saturday night, and it all ended in the great excitement of flashing lights and near life-saving panic.