Monday, 30 March 2015

The Big Holiday - Christchurch

TranzAlpine Train - photo from Relaxing Journeys

Today, we're leaving Punakaiki (don't you just love these place names!) and taking the TranzAlpine train to go to Christchurch. From the photographs, it looks like this will be an exercise of practicing at being in Switzerland again. I'm glad that the trip uses a variety of transport during the two weeks, as that's better than being in a bus the entire time, which could get a bit monotonous.

Happily, wine is included in most of the meals that we have on our tour, so I'm sure we will be having a fabulous trip. Tomorrow, we leave Christchurch and go back to my brother's until our early-morning flights on April 1st (April fool!).

The next blog should be a proper blog...

Monday, 23 March 2015

The Big Holiday - Twizel

Lake Tekapo - photo taken from Relaxing Journeys

Today it's Day 7 of our tour and we will be staying in a place called Twizel (surely you'd get a place name like that only in New Zealand?). On the way there, we should be visiting Lake Tekapo, which is pictured above and looks a bit unreal! Maybe I won't want to come back at the end of it...

Monday, 16 March 2015

The Big Holiday - Warkworth

Warkworth, New Zealand - photo taken from the Warkworth website


[Well, I messed up on this post and published it before you were supposed to see it, so I hope none of you got that earlier blog, particularly those who subscribe by email. I panicked and deleted the entry immediately, so now I will have to write it all again from scratch. Stupid me!]

Anyway, at this point Lena and I will have spent two days in Singapore en route from Zurich and are now staying at my brother's home in Warkworth, New Zealand. What a life! I hope that by now we have recovered a bit from our jet-lag so that we can enjoy the rest of our holiday to the full.

Tomorrow, we start our two-week tour of New Zealand, covering North and South islands, with a company called Relaxing Journeys. I think the name must be a bit of a joke, as I'm sure it won't be so relaxing due to the amount of ground we have to cover.

I'm not complaining, though, as I want to see as much as possible on this once-in-a-lifetime holiday. The trip is grandly called the Splendour tour;  I'm sure the grandeur primarily comes from the wonderful NZ countryside.

It's been a long-time ambition of mine to go to New Zealand, so it will be exciting finally to be there and to do the tour.




Monday, 9 March 2015

The Big Holiday - Zurich

Zurich - photo (c) Geraldine Thompson

Well, today I'm in Zurich, where I'm staying for two days before flying to Singapore on Tuesday. This is the day where I will see my new flat "in the flesh" for the first time and I'll finally meet the person who is renting it out to me. It'll be interesting to meet her after all the emails we've exchanged. Candice very kindly went and looked at it for me and she gave it the thumbs up.

Of course, this also means that I've bitten the bullet and I've paid my first month's rent and my deposit already. The hardest bit about moving to Switzerland is the initial expense before you've been paid. I remember my first month in my previous job - I'd spent so much that I'd ran out of credit on my credit card (and I was trying to be frugal)!

It took me 18 months to finish up all my Swiss admin when I got to Egypt and what did I go and do? Yes, I decided to work in Switzerland again and so I have to re-do everything. And then, the year after, I'll have to close everything down all over again. Oh what a merry-go-round life is! I also hope to be opening a bank account today (I think I'll try Migros bank this time round).

I've had a bit of a rude awakening to working life as I'd forgotten how things can change at the blink of an eye and you need to shift your priorities around as needed. At the time of writing, I've just been asked if I could start work a week earlier than planned because they really want me to be in Japan for a meeting on my original starting date (13th April).

It's exciting, as I like travel, but it gives me only 3 full days after returning from New Zealand, with jet-lag no doubt, to unpack, pack, reorganise my flight, etc. I've asked whether I can do the preparation for the meeting from Egypt (it would give me more time to pack!) and as I write (it's Saturday for me) I am waiting to hear back as to whether this will work out (fingers crossed) ....

I forgot to mention previously that the job interview itself was a reminder of working life, too, since my first interview was scheduled for 7am (yes, 7am!) due to the interviewer having to fly back to the USA that morning.  I am now reminded of the Swiss fondness for (what I consider to be) the early hours. My final interview was at 7pm, by phone, to fit in with the interviewer who was already in the USA. If you work, this isn't so abnormal, but if you've been out of it for a while, it does make you shake your head a bit at the madness of this world (that I am now willingly re-entering).

Oh well, it's all good fun at the end of the day and at least I got my mega-holiday in beforehand. It's good to know that I got my priorities right! I'll leave you in suspense as to where I'll be this time next week....(inshaahllah)

Monday, 2 March 2015

An Awakening

Entrance to Sahl Hasheesh


The problem with “living the dream” is that it implies that you are asleep and that some day you will have to wake up. Someone gave me a gentle shake and I’m on the verge of an awakening (even if the plan is to go back to sleep).

While Sheila was visiting (it was a busy period!), Willem emailed me with details about a one-year contract position in Zurich. It was exactly what I did before, but with a different company. Because it was a contract position, the pay was good and I was surprised to find myself tempted.

I’d recently been wondering about how to transfer some funds to savings certificates in Egyptian banks since the rate of interest here is around 10% and would be a more secure income than my shares. However, I had my usual reluctance to sell my shares (this year, I promise, they will do well!). So, a year out earning some money to put into certificates would actually solve that problem. I could have my cake and eat it (putting on some financial weight in the process).

And the position was in Zurich! I could have a year catching up with old friends, visit my old haunts, use the chance to see more of Europe, etc. Hopefully the position would offer some overseas travel, too, which I like.

Completely astonished at myself, I applied. I even felt enthusiastic about working, which I never thought would happen. Finally, after 18 months, my horror of the world of work had dissipated and I had my mojo back – I felt quite keen to get back to it and make things work.

The timing was perfect, because if I had left it much longer I would have lost my skills/knowledge and in December this year I forfeit my C work permit if I don’t return to Switzerland, so that also fitted in just right. And it was only for a year, so I can go back to sleep afterwards and return to my dream at the end of it. All the stars were aligned!

It all felt a bit unreal because I never had any plans to work ever again. I was as shocked as anyone else.

Anyway, I applied, had a telephone interview about a week later and was then called to a series of face-to-face interviews in Zurich a week after that. The following week I was offered the job. Huh? How did all that happen so suddenly? I'd hardly had time to think.

It was weird flying back to Zurich – I was surprised by the “Gruezi” as I got on the plane (how could I have forgotten the Swiss greeting of ‘Gruezi”!), a bit horrified at how fast the internet was in the hotel (what, no thinking time between web pages??), and the weather was so cold I thought my ears would drop off.

It’s a strange phenomenon that if you ever decide to stop working before the usual retirement age, people have lots of ideas of how you could get back into work or at least how you can occupy yourself. To me, it seems ironic that I spent quite a bit of time looking for alternative employment whilst employed with no success (but eventually came to the realisation that actually I’d had enough), but as soon as I happily settled on a life by the sea working on my own projects as and when I felt like it, a number of options could have come my way had I pushed for it.

Anyway, I’m not knocking it. The time was right for me now, and really it was this particular opportunity that ticked all the boxes I didn’t even know I had.

Even my flat hunting went spectacularly well – I found a fully furnished flat 13 minutes’ walk from my new work place available for one year only at the very same time as I’m there for a year. Bingo! It's even close to the open-air swimming pool.

I move over to Zurich on 9th April. Meanwhile, I have a month’s holiday in New Zealand (via Zurich and Singapore) from 8th March until 2nd April, so my quiet life has suddenly become hectic.

I’ll post pictures of where I’ll be each week while I’m in NZ or en route.

Meanwhile, I need to decide whether to keep the blog during my year away – it might be difficult to find the time, but at the moment I’m thinking I’ll give it a go.