Just wonder how, how did things ever get this far

Well. Been a while.

Firstly - my husband, John Watson, is amazing. He ran an entire marathon. And he really did run it - he said apart from the shuffle to get to the start line, when there are so many people you can barely move - he ran every step. Well, okay, he stopped for mere seconds to say hello to us and get a hug - but that was our fault. He wouldn't have stopped otherwise.

We managed to see him at a few places around the route, darting about on the tube to get ahead of him. He got slightly more pink and sweaty as he went, but never stopped having a slightly grim smile of determination on his face.

He's run 20 miles in training, and was fine. So now I know there's muscles in your legs which are only used in the final 6 miles of a marathon and to stand up from sitting down. Because the day after the marathon John would contort himself into a variety of awkward yoga poses going from sat position to vertical....a sort of crouch. Then bent at the waist, then slowly upward. I got things thrown at me for laughing - and this was during the day I'd taken off work to tend to his every need! Ungrateful creature.




So, here's my choice of picture from Geneva:

Yeah, maybe not the most original choice, but it's the Jet! I thought it was brilliant. And not just because it was on the opening to a show about super spies. Water comes out of that thing at 200km/hr!! So this was before we got closer and got very wet.

Here's Mycroft's - it's the first ever Hadron Collider they made, in 1957. It's...all big magnets and stuff. Is that a technical enough explanation? Anyway, it collides things. In the same way, but more slowly, that the big one does today. Amazing. 1957!! There's photos of men on horseback escorting bits of it through tiny rural villages as they were building it.

The boys quizzed the man who took us around - who was a REAL Particle Physicist - and he tried to answer them. But English was his 3rd language. Then I figured out he was Italian really, so I tried to help out with translations. Except my Italian doesn't entirely run to particle physics. So then the boys and the man just spoke in French....so don't ask me what they were talking about.

Here is Sherlocks. This took a lot of thought. He was torn between one from the mountain, which showed lots of Geneva, or another bit of Collider.... but we've gone for a bit of boat.

It's the very very cool Paddle steamer we went on. This was when it had stopped to pick some other people up. Does a lovely job of showing how beautifully clean the lake is.

Okay, okay, apparently now I HAVE to put up a pic of the boat, too...

This was when we were walking along the lake on another day and we saw it. I hope you can make it out well enough. It was stunning.

And John chose this - Broken Chair. And the rows of flags in the background lead to the UN building. Just down from the Red Cross. The broken chair symbolises opposition to landmines and cluster bombs. It's very powerful. And huge - 5.5 tonnes and 12 metres high. It was commissioned to get World Leaders to think about it as they arrived to the UN, and to sign the Ottawa Treaty.

Geneva was beautiful. One of those places you go that you just immediately feel like you could live there. John would go off running along the lakeside, the boys and I would get a coffee, sit on a wall or walk along the edge, watching the birds and fish. Everyone seemed friendly, and even my terrible French got me smiles and encouragement - unlike being somewhere like Paris. 

Work is...work. I feel old. I feel like we're just not making a difference. Finding kids aged 12 and younger carrying huge knives - and using them. I've no idea what we can do about it.