Dibs and dabs

I just learned that I live in an extra good neighborhood. My housemate drove me and my four-star guest (see below) down a side street I never knew was there that leads to the lake. We passed a château surrounded by many mansions. The château belonged to the late King Saud and the mansions were built for his 100 servants. Nearby is the mansion of the Aga Khan. Of course neither of them know/knew or care/cared they live in the same neighbourhood as the international writer, D-L Nelson. Dommage.

http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-home.htm is by a young woman who puts her talent where her beliefs are. So young and so principled. I hope she can maintain it. Sadly she has received threats for her courage.

Four star guest – these past few days I’ve been hosting a man I met in Damascus, a friend of my good friend. He is a tour guide and gave me an incredible tour of the old city there as we mapped out a future novel that I want to set in that fantastic city. I showed him Geneva’s old city feeling a bit strange calling it an old city since his goes back to pre-Biblical days and mine is only centuries old. He is the guest from heaven in his consideration and his openness. As my housemate says, he can come back anytime and not just because he helped take the garbage out.

I did have time to use my new 30 CHF movie pass good for a solid year to see Marie Antoinette. I save 7 CHF each time I use it, so I suspect it will pay for itself rather quickly. Considering I will probably be at Versailles with my four-star guest this weekend, it was nice to see the locale again (this will be my fourth trip there). However as beautifully filmed I am not sure how I feel about modern music (although courageous of Coppola to use). I do know that the actor and actress playing the King and Queen were as bad as the rulers they were portraying. Fortunately we don’t behead bad acting.

Geneva was drop-dead beautiful today. It was one of those perfect-weather days with the colors intensified and sparkling, a light breeze from the lake. How I was so lucky to have ended up here, I do not know, but if we are rewarded in this life for things we did in other lives I must have been a saint to deserve this.