The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill

Guerilla artist Banksy strikes again with a wonderfully hilarious rendition of the relationship between animals and humans. A fake petshop in the Village in New York is full of weird "animals", such as fish fingers in a bowl, little baby chicken nuggets, and a family of hotdogs. Who knew a sausage could look so cute!

This little white rabbit is one of my favourites:

eXtremely dangerous

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Lady of the Lake

In a week's time I experienced the two extremes of the hospitality spectrum. On the one hand there was the Moscovian hotel that treated us like annoying nuisances with silly requests such as clean bedding and less than Arctic room temperatures. On the other hand there was the amazing service offered at last week's equally priced but far more comfortable Genevois hotel where WiFi, travel adaptors and even umbrellas were provided courtesy of the hotel. I was on a pelgrimage to this Mecca of global health for a project meeting. The wonderful hospitality was a great introduction to the city but hospitality alone is of course not enough. Geneva gets measured by a different yardstick. That is, the yardstick of "could-I-live-here?".

I was prepared to be a little depressed by Geneva. Several of my colleagues have lived there and had warned me that although "great for families with kids" the city is on the dull side. Fortunately, I found that although it may not have the buzz of London or Amsterdam, there is a lot to be said for this city. After having lived in London, the obvious pricyness of Geneva does not really scare me so much anymore. It is not just the hotel staff that is friendly and helpful either. It has been a while since I was anywhere where motorists stop to let a pedestrian cross without even an authorised crossing in sight! Sure, there are no canals but that lake is pretty impressive too! Cheese fondue is high on my list of favourite things to eat and best of all of course: o those mountains! As a self-professed snow-aholic the sight of snow on the mountains gets me pretty psyched up. It has been far too long since I have been able to take a holiday and enjoy the slopes so the idea of living somewhere where that can be done as a weekend break is exciting.

So the verdict on the question of "could-I-live-here?"? Well, it's not Amsterdam and it never will be but yes, I think I could. That is, provided of course that the city is not the first to get sucked into that black hole.