El Andalous - Settling Back

I Hope Everyone had a Merry Christmas!

It’s strange being back. The overwhelming feeling is that nothing has changed and it’s as if I’ve never been away. Yet, a number of things have changed (shops have closed, beaches are empty, a children’s playground has opened), indicating that I must have been elsewhere else in the mean time. But, somehow, that doesn’t really dawn on me; it completely washes over my head.

This is in contrast to Europe. In Europe, when I return after months or years away, I see what’s new since I was last there, and it makes me realize that time has passed, that my life has also gone on, that other people’s lives have progressed. I’m very aware of it.

Maybe it doesn’t affect me in the same way in Egypt because it’s part of the essence of being in Egypt that things always change from one moment to the next. Each time you go into Hurghada, some shops have closed, new ones have opened. I’m on the lookout for change in Sahl Hasheesh, because I report it in my newsletters. So, on the one hand, you have a sense of eternity in Egypt with the constant sunshine day in, day out, and then on the other hand, life is full of continual change, and rumour, and you’re never quite sure what will surprise you next. It’s so continual that it becomes constant and part of the very being of life in Egypt. It’s as if nothing has changed at all.

So, it was business as usual. Having said that, I was jolted into the sense that I’d been away when there were things I couldn’t remember. I’d forgotten exactly how I’d organized my beach routine (which towel did I decide was the best, what things did I need to remember to take with me?), there were items in my flat I’d completely forgotten I had (Isis chamomile tea? Which herb is in that unmarked container?), and when the delivery man handed over the flowers I’d received from my brother as a Christmas present, I worried about tipping all over again.

Other things were different but perfectly normal. My shower didn’t work when I got back. They fixed it for me really quickly (something had to be pushed out and it had been pushed in). My mobile phone no longer worked and it wasn’t even that old – it won’t charge the battery. I wasn’t so bothered by this, but Esmat was very keen on my arrival that I get my phone working and Safi was likewise anxious about how I could survive without a mobile for two weeks. Egypt remained – if only, thankfully, in a minor way – the land where things go wrong.

I went to have my breakfast one morning only to find a kitten looking at me from the sofa on my balcony, just where I wanted to sit! The next evening it was accompanied by its brother or sister and the two of them stared at me with pleading eyes through the patio doors; the next morning a third kitten had joined them and I opened my curtains in the morning to find them spread out on my balcony furniture like they owned the place. I relented and gave them some milk and then they didn’t return after that. This is Egypt – the land of the unpredictable.

I’d had a hectic social schedule in Zurich before leaving and had expected some quiet down time once I’d arrived in Egypt, but actually it’s been equally busy here on the social front. I’ve been on the weekly bus to Senzo Mall (and KFC), I was invited to Christmas celebrations on 24th and 25th December. Apparently, when you buy a turkey over here, it’s not the sanitized version you get in Europe, with a plastic bag of giblets, and a neat, tidy bundle of a bird. In Egypt it’s a hunking great brute. It’s been plucked, but inside, instead of a plastic bag of giblets, you’ll find its neck and head. You’re very aware that it’s a real bird that you’re cooking. After a morning swim, I did nothing but eat on 25th December. Actually, 24th December was much the same. After that, I attended a Boxing Day party on the evening of 26th December. It was probably my most sociable Christmas ever.

By the time I go home, I will have had at least two dinners out, too, and then there have been the Saturday owners’ meetings, as well as coffees with Safi. I feel fully back into the fray.

El Andalous - Back to Dream

El Andalous - View of Fountain from my Balcony

Annoyingly, my flight to Hurghada had halved in price by the time I flew back (I guess due to the allegedly bombed plane from Sharm El Sheikh having put people off going to the Red Sea), so my attempt to be organized and grab a cheap flight by booking early back in May had backfired. Nevertheless, it was a smooth journey. The plane was half-full and the passengers laughed when the pilot announced that it was 26 degrees and a cloudless sky in Hurghada. Even on the plane, I still couldn’t quite believe it.

We landed in the new terminal, which I’m not so well acquainted with, so the arrival didn’t really feel like a homecoming. Maybe the culture is still too different, or my skills in the language still too weak, for me to feel that it is home.

I arrived early but Esmat was already there to meet me off the plane and I reflected on how much easier it was now that I knew people and I had established myself. The sun was shining, the air was warm. The sense of homecoming began and happiness filled my soul.

We stopped off at Senzo Mall so that I could do some shopping and get a KFC. The man who packs my bags at the till in Spinneys recognized me; the person serving me in the KFC remembered what I used to order (“no coleslaw but extra chips?”). I was astonished. The Egyptians have such good memories. I went into Vodafone but they couldn’t answer all my questions because their system was down. Ah yes, I was back in Egypt.

We arrived back at El Andalous and before I had time to pick up my luggage, Ajay and his girlfriend were there, eagerly asking me how things were and updating me as Esmat brought my bags into the complex. They departed off to dinner, I think, I greeted the staff and followed the person taking my luggage to the door of my flat. Fortunately, I still had my key, after 8 months.

The flat was clean! It was wonderful. I sat down on my sofa and suddenly felt completely at home, like I’d never left. It was a strange sensation. I’d left Zurich really quite sad to be leaving Switzerland and questioning why I was going to Egypt, but now I was here, it felt like home. I’ve never had that sensation before, of having two utterly different places feel like home and being in both on the same day.

I feasted on my KFC and sat and watched two films on the television. It’s been ages since I’ve had the luxury of being able just to veg out. I sat there feeling fully content and wondering why that very morning work, and continuing to work, had seemed like such a good idea.

The next day, I woke up to bright sunshine and a pleasant heat and I had my breakfast on my balcony. It was like nothing had changed (if you ignore the fact that the cleaners had shifted my furniture to different places and found different locations for things in my kitchen). I had the weirdest sensation that Zurich had just been a dream, or was Egypt the dream? I can’t really marry up the two worlds as both belonging to my life. Now, I couldn’t believe that Zurich existed and was cold with grey skies. The fountain was gushing beside me, the gardens looked beautiful, it was wonderfully warm and the young boys who work as gardeners greeted me as they walked past.

I don’t know if I’ve just been lucky, but I was astonished at the number of people I bumped into or socialized with on the first few days. I hadn’t realized how many people I knew. The day I arrived I bumped into Steve in the corridor – it was his last day before returning to the UK. Safi appeared the next morning (I’ll maybe leave that story for another day) to take me back to the Vodafone shop. When I went for my swim in the afternoon, I met two people I know (one from Germany, one from Russia). The next day I went to see the horse jumping competition that was being hosted in Sahl Hasheesh and bumped into Amanda and John. Then in the evening I met up with Nicole (we went out for a meal) and the next day I chatted to Ksenia on the beach in the afternoon and then later Kathryn and Stephen. I was well and truly back. That otherworldly sense of timelessness took hold. I had returned to dreamland.

Zurich - Preparing for Egypt

From Sunnier Days at Badi Enge in Zurich
 "If I were a ship, it would be too late, so look ahead".
True, literally and metaphorically.

Geraldine emailed me one day saying that she was finding it hard to imagine that it could possibly be hot and sunny in Egypt, even though she knew full well that it was. I am currently experiencing the same difficulty. I look outside at the grey sky and I try to fantasise what it’s like to have a blue sky and for it to be warm enough to sit outside and eat my breakfast on my balcony, but my imagination fails me. I just feel cold as soon as I even think about being outside and I associate hot with having too many covers on my bed and it being vaguely unpleasant. But I know I revelled in feeling the sun on my face again on my Turkish holiday. I know my imagination has got it wrong! Nevertheless, I still fail to get it into my head. Egypt is like a little made-up world in my head that doesn’t actually exist.

I’m preparing myself psychologically for returning to the land where everything goes wrong for me, which is in sharp contrast to this year in Switzerland, where everything’s gone right.

I’ve asked for my flat in Egypt to be cleaned before my arrival but am already fretting that maybe they’ll forget to do it. I’ve even had nightmares of arriving to a flat with heaps of dust, or a flat where the sea is now overlapping over my balcony and all my belongings are ruined, or all my items are broken. I don’t know why I’m worrying about it, really, because it’s always been cleaned when I’ve requested it and I’ve never heard of anyone being let down (dissatisfied, maybe, but not let down).

If I hear a strange noise at night, even here in immaculate Switzerland, a part of me panics that it might be the return of the rodents. So, that’s another thing for me to worry about. What if the rats have come back and they run to the door to great me?

I’m scared that I’m going to find the sea too cold for my liking (although, since it was an exceptionally hot summer this year, it should be warmer than usual). The fish would be horrified to know that I’m even feeling a little apprehensive about them – if I decide to practice front crawl in the sea, how will they react to my splashing about in their waters in a manic fashion? Will they come and attack me? Is it really going to be that warm while I’m there??

On the other hand, of course, I am very excited to be going back. I’m looking forward to sitting on my balcony and having breakfast with the fountain gushing away next to me. I’ve ordered a load of books on my kindle, so my beach time will be wonderful. I’ve bought a swimming watch with GPS that will tell me where I’ve swum and how efficient (or not) my swimming is. If I drown, my last moments will have been tracked. I’ll be meeting up with my friends there, reconnecting with people, remembering what it was like not to work...

But I have a long list of things I need to do before I leave. Each time I tick one off, I remember something else that I need to add to it, so the list doesn’t seem to get any shorter. I’m getting there, but now I have only problematic items left, which is why I’m procrastinating and writing this blog instead.

I need to sort out my UK tax return. Finally, I can do it online as an expat, but it’s been years and now I’ve lost my login and password. But they won’t send the login and password to me, because they have my address as Egypt and not Switzerland. I have to notify them of my change of residency first. Ugh. I’m only here for a year, well, only four more months now, so it doesn’t seem worth it. But I have no choice. Stale mate.

It’s similar with my trading account which I guess I will need to update for tax purposes. I’d emailed them ages ago to say I was now living in Switzerland but I’d be back in Egypt, so how could I register myself as in Egypt when I got back. They asked me to phone them. That always puts me off. So, months later and I haven’t done anything about it. They tried to phone me, but I never had my phone switched on (of course).

I actually think I know what they will do when I return to Egypt; they will register me as in a country where I can’t be recognised as a tax resident and so they will take the measures they have to do to ensure that I’m paying whatever it is I should pay. However, I’ll have a Swiss tax return to do for this year and next, so I need to register myself as here, but it won’t be easy to prove my residency because I’m a subtenant and therefore none of the bills are in my name. Everything is just so complicated.

It’s easier just to bury my head in the sand. It’s been the year of the ostrich. 

But I suppose that eventually I'll have to face the consequences of  avoiding all this and my chickens will come home to roost. 

Maybe this means that my next book should be 25 New Year's Resolutions - For Birds!

Europe - Christmas

Freiburg - Christmas Decorations

One good thing about being in Switzerland when the weather's cold is that at least I get to experience all the Christmas festivities. Although Egypt tries to do what it can for the tourists, it's not the same as having to push your way through people to look at the wares, seeing people laden with shopping, and smelling the gluehwein from the stalls as you walk past.

It's also something that's probably a bit different from country to country within Europe (setting aside the fact that some people celebrate on 24th Dec, others on 25th Dec, others on 6th Jan, and for some 6th Dec is also important).

The idea of a Christmas market with little huts selling artistic wares originates, I think, from Germany, but is now growing in popularity in Switzerland and even in the UK. Since I was last in Zurich, the Christmas market by the opera house has grown dramatically in size. There's a huge choice of places to grab a snack (my chocolate and pear strudel was really more than a snack!) and a great choice of wares from traditional Christmas items (candles, decorations, wooden nutcracker men, wooden roundabouts) to any variety of other things (gifts from recycled materials, shawls, pottery, hats, knitware, novelty items).

There are several things that are peculiar to Zurich - a huge Christmas tree (and Christmas market) in the main station decorated with Swarowski crystals (only in Switzerland!) and a singing Christmas tree. This latter is a Christmas trees with platforms hidden in it for choirs - usually children, but not only children - to stand on and sing Christmas songs from around 6pm to 8pm, I think. All around you have wooden stalls selling gluehwein, raclette, or other stodgy and unhealthy foods. It's always crowded but that's part of the atmosphere. There are little circular tables where you can huddle round with your food and your gluehwein or you can just stand and watch them singing while trying to keep warm.

I nipped back to the UK for a weekend to visit my brother and I packed this full of Christmas things that are unique to, or at least typical for, the UK. Mince pies, turkey and cranberry pie and the non-Christmas, but essential fish and chips. I can remember returning to the UK one Christmas and the culture shock on hearing people joking in the train about Christmas parties, hangovers, being sick, and planning the next celebratory evening out. You don't hear that in Switzerland! But it was good natured and sociable and the sense of anticipation was tangible. I don't like Christmas cake or Christmas pudding, so those weren't on my agenda, but it was good to see them in the shops and to remind myself of my roots.

And then just this weekend I had a trip to Freiburg in Germany to meet up with Holger and Emil and also just to spend some time enjoying the town and reacquainting myself with it. As is the theme for this year, luck was on my side, because I left Zurich in fog and arrived in Freiburg to see 17 degrees and bright sunshine. I love Freiburg. It's a charming town and I'd forgotten how large it is (for a relatively small place) and how easy it was to get a little lost once you started diverting yourself down the little side streets. The Christmas market was good, but extraordinarily busy and I didn't have the patience for pushing my way through to see all of the stalls. The emphasis there seemed to be more on natural produce (pure honey, raw wood, drinks). The town was very prettily decorated - not ostentatious, but somehow looked as if all the shops had taken care and pride in how they decorated.

So, I haven't done too badly. I've experienced Christmas in three countries this year to get my fill of the experience. I've still to endure the bitter cold that you would normally expect at this time, so I guess my luck will run out in 2016. Still, I've enjoyed it while it's lasted!