One is Roz's daughter, Lauren, with whom I meet up twice. Here are a couple of photos taken at our second meeting for brekkie at my hotel. We do know each other already from meeting in Melbourne and we have a lovely rapport.
Another lovely contact I have is my friend Jenny's introduction to me of her alma mater Elizabeth. Elizabeth and I agree that we hit it off right away during our introductory phone call. We emailed one another photos of ourselves so that we'd recognise each other when we met for the first time in my hotel foyer.
Basel's imposing Medieval Town Hall
Elizabeth is a prolific novelist who gives me a gift of a copy of one of her novels, A Perfect Match, a semi-autobiographical account of an Australian who comes to live in Basel where she works, searches for true love and finds it! When I ask Elizabeth if she has any regrets about choosing Basel over Melbourne as a place to spend her adult life she answers: This is where I was to meet the love of my life.
I am reading the book up in the air as I fly home to Melbourne. It's a delightful read, well-written such that I can barely put it down to eat, sleep, blog and be interrupted by on-flight announcements. Elizabeth Karlhuber recounts her protagonist's fascinating encounters weaving information about life in Basel and Switzerland generally, in regard to values, habits, festivals, politics, economics, languages, the effects of being embraced by French and German borders, what it's like being a foreigner and more.
