Grüezi

Over the last half year, to continue the previous post, my boss has changed, but my job and my situation in London have stayed pretty much the same.  When I walked into my new boss's office the other day, a bit out of the ordinary because there are no weekly meetings, and told him I'd quit, he wasn't surprised and he didn't suggest bargaining.  This is not the only reason that the decision will stand this time.  I'm as determined as I was last time, but this time, it's a decision Flucha and I made together.  In addition, the excuse of "just a few little things to finish up" is no more.  A paper of my work has been published and another has got positive reviews at last.  Projects never end, but my involvement has.  I'm out of here, and no one will notice a difference.

The facility where I work is stable, operating with minimal intervention.  Equipment that was defective for years is working again, procedures have been implemented to make the latest developments in crystallization methods available, as much as is possible with a limited budget.  Everything is working as it should.  It's a good time to leave.

It's a particular good time to leave because I've just signed a new contract, something different, geographically and topically.  I'll be leaving academia and the UK.  Nominally I'll still be a scientist but I'll be working for a company, and it's not biotech.  I'll be helping make equipment better and to get said equipment in the hands of researchers.  Sounds like flogging magazine subscriptions, but it isn't.  Or at least I think it isn't.  It will involve a fair bit of traveling, all over the world, if I understand things correctly, mostly to scientific conferences but possibly also to customers.  It will also involve building a lab to test the equipment, to find ways of using it to better effect or more efficiently.  The latter is where the scientific aspect lies.

The company is located in Switzerland, and living there has long been a dream of mine.  It's not just the mountains but also work that pays, public transport that works, order in anything that happens.  It will be a drastic change from London.  No more lifts that stop working whenever it rains, monthly scheduled emergency steam shutdowns and mild weather as a valid excuse for massive travel disruptions.  If it had been just me, I would have signed the contract in a second.  But Flucha was thrown off by the prospect of small-town life and rigid rules and regulations.

The fanaticism with rules and the happy adherence to them might come as a shock even to me, a normally law-abiding and organized German.  The Swiss take it to extremes.  On my journey to the interview I noticed that the biggest display board at Zurich airport did not advertise watches or financial services but the house rules, take your shoes off and don't spit on the carpet and things like that.  On the side of the train from the airport was a yellow sign warning that this was a self-check area.  At three percent unemployment, the absence of conductors is understandable, and it might be an economic necessity to ask passengers to check the validity of their own tickets.  The sign read further, "Please buy and validate your ticket before boarding the train.  A CHF 100 fee applies to those traveling without a ticket."  As there was no honesty box and no account details to facilitate a bank transfer in case you catch yourself without a ticket, I can only assume that no Swiss would ever be found in such a situation.

But it goes further.  In Switzerland, working on the day of the lord is banned to an extent that would cause Jewish fundamentalists to look twice.  Granted, you can drive a motorcar to your place of worship, but you can't do laundry or hang it up to dry, and you can't do gardening.  Don't even think about firing up the lawnmower.  For Flucha with her Latin sense of freedom and improvisation, this is bound to be a struggle.  Nevertheless, weighing the facts – those laid out before and those that haven't been revealed – we decided to go ahead with it.  We'll be saying Grüezi to Switzerland soon, first me then her.