Biotechnology Gym Hurdy-Gurdy: June 2004
Dear Jessie
Well now let me see………..
It’s quite confusing for me at the moment but I am slowly beginning to “feel” my way around, with the help of Ruth from the Basel Welcome Committee. There is a very different way of working here and it is makes quite a change from what I am used to. Just having a boss is a bit different from previously and I must learn not to answer back! But I have been asked to concentrate on something called biotechnology as an issue, which means that I must find out all about genetics and the science of seeds and flowers. A bit like a cross between chemistry and biology. Also I am going to help write the next speech for the Managing Director of the company, and I have to provide him with a monthly summary of the information that comes in from the trade association involved in plant sciences. I also have to bring together a big list of every sponsorship and community project that the company is involved in all around the world. Apart from that I am trying to make sure that things are as easy as possible when we eventually move into our house in Oberwil. I have arranged the health insurance and the personal liability insurance. I have arranged for the registrations that we will all have to do when you arrive in August, and I am gradually getting to know what goes on in Basle, such as the museums and art galleries, the sports and gym and swimming facilities, etc.
At the weekend I went to see an exhibition in Riehen, to the north of the Basle (where we looked at a house from the outside only when we were in Basle together). It was an exhibition of pictures by Francis Bacon, a British artist who died about ten years ago, and who is very highly thought of. It was quite good, although his work is interesting it doesn’t really move me very much. I also saw some works by Joan Miro, an artist from Barcelona in Spain.
On Sunday I went to a barbecue organized by the Basel welcome committee. It was good to talk to other people in a similar position, who had also just started working in the area and who were as confused as I was. Two of the couples had children at the ISB, and they all said what a good school it was (even the children said so).
Last night as I walked home there were many different types of music in the streets. There was an old man turning a hurdy-gurdy (a street organ) with lots of children, totally fascinated, looking at him. There was a local choir as well further up the street. A man was practising the organ in the main cathedral in Basle, and all through the evening you could hear music of all sorts. I am living in an apartment right next to where we had dinner together on the first night that we were in Basle. It is nice to live there because there is always a lot going on. I went to the cinema the other night and saw “Kill Bill 2”, which was very violent but quite funny if you didn’t take it all too seriously. More like a cartoon really.
I’m coming home late in the evening of 18th June and staying till the Sunday afternoon, and I’m really looking forward to seeing you all again.
Lots of love
from Daddy