No Swiss miss

摘要

I'm supposed to know a lot about Switzerland. I grew up there. I went to school there. I speak two of its four national languages fluently, the third one well enough to get myself into trouble (but not well enough to get myself out of it again) and the fourth one not at all -but at least I always get it right when asked to name it in a pub quiz. I was a licensed tour guide. Speaking English as a mother tongue while having a great memory for irrelevant historic, geological and architectural minutiae was a plus that helped me to fund my way through university while saving up enough to take a year off and still have enough left over for the deposit on a flat in London. Although I have lived back in the UK for 30 years, I probably still know more about that little country than most.