El Andalous - Adapting Back

Back to My Other Lifestyle

It’s autumn, so it’s time for me to move back to Egypt. A different residence means different routines, and I’m really surprised at just how much I’ve forgotten.

My daily life for the first few days seemed to have been spent re-learning what it was I used to do.

One of the first things I did wrong, and I only realized after two days, was to make my ice cubes with tap water instead of bottled water. I think I’d got confused because my kitchen tap broke as soon as I returned (maybe a topic for another blog). Consequently, I had to constantly remind myself to get water from the bathroom and on no account to switch on the kitchen tap (which would result in water gushing out over the entire flat). I proudly filled up my ice cube tray with water from the bathroom thinking I was so clever not to have used the kitchen tap, only to realize two days later that I shouldn’t have used tap water at all. Oh well.

As it turned out, I haven’t got ill from using those ice cubes in my drinks, so I’ll just continue to use them up and then go back to using the bottled water afterwards. For those who are reading this and feeling horrified at my total disregard for my health, the water in my flat is filtered twice before it comes to me anyway, so it’s not too bad; I just don’t generally risk it though.

I’d also forgotten that it takes a while for my shower to produce hot water. Consequently, on my first morning, I stood under the shower and thought I’d forgotten to switch the hot water on. I dried myself off, clutched a towel round me in case anyone was looking through the window, and went to switch on the water heater only to find it was already on. Doh.

Another thing that I’m still struggling to remember is to clean my swim shoes after I come off the beach. If I don’t do this, my flat gets covered in sand from the shoes. I think I’m finally getting back into the habit but at the moment I forget more often than I remember and it’s annoying going onto my balcony every morning and seeing a pile of sand by my shoes.

I also have my established routines for the things I do frequently – such as going on the beach or working on my laptop. At first, I’d go to the beach and find I’d forgotten my kindle, forgotten my sports watch, forgotten my sunglasses, forgotten my shampoo for my goggles… these are usually all packed in a bag, although some things, like the watch, the kindle, and the sunglasses, have to be added in before departing because I use them also at other times.

Similarly, I’d get the laptop out, then realize that I’d forgotten the power cord, or my mobile phone, or pen and paper, or the lap table that I have for the laptop (so that it doesn’t get too hot on my lap). I’ve finally gathered all these things together and have them stored in a corner of my lounge, ready for me to pick up and take out on the balcony whenever I need them. It was just second nature before.

When I was in Switzerland, I’d often thought to myself that when I’m back in Egypt I mustn’t forget to turn the TV off as soon as I’m not really watching it anymore, because when I’m in Egypt, my TV usage eats up my internet allowance (and thus costs me money). I remembered this on returning and have been very good at turning the TV off straight away, but I completely forgot that I needed to set it to standard definition rather than high definition, as the latter also uses up at least twice as much of my internet allowance than the former. It’s taken me four days to remember this, so I’ve already used up a third of a month’s allowance now. But at least I remembered in the end!

I don’t recall ever having such a hard time of remembering my old routines, so I’m obviously long-overdue for having a stint in Egypt.

Zurich - Autumn

Autumn Sky

Autumn seems to have arrived very quickly this year; usually there’s a bit of a transition, but this time we seem to have gone straight from summer to autumn. We haven’t been given a chance to get our heads round the change.

I’m slowly adapting back to the rain. On the first downpour each year that I’m in Zurich, I’m always taken aback at just how wet I get. I exit the bus or tram, the rain drenches me immediately, my sopping skirt sucks itself to my legs and I feel like I’m barely wearing anything at all. How did that happen? Now, I’m just back to that state of resignation that this is just how it is for the next few months.

I’ve swapped back from dresses into trousers and am returning to that state of annoyance at all the effort it takes to dress in the morning and to wear all these clothes. I’m so used to life in Egypt where I just pull a light and loose dress quickly over my head and that’s it. Now, if I want to go swimming, it’s a right hassle with all these items (socks/tights, jeans, heavy shoes, t-shirt, cardigan, coat…). I swear it all takes a lot longer.

To my surprise, I’m now using a duvet on my bed. Last winter the flat was too hot because I couldn’t turn the heating down (that’s been sorted now), so I just used the bedspread. Then, this summer, I also needed only the bedspread because the nights were fairly warm (not hot like in Egypt, though, although I did miss having the air conditioning that I have in my flat in Egypt).

The open air swimming pools closed for the season this weekend, which also to me signifies the end of summer.

I’m suddenly getting mosquito bites for some strange reason. I think I must have one trapped in my flat that is using me as its sole feeding ground. I have all my mosquito repellent in Egypt – I’m not used to needing it here.

But along with this sense of a shift, I also feel the anticipation of events starting up in Zurich. Zurich is pretty good for having lots of things to do, but now that autumn is settling in, we have indoor events such as the Film Festival at the end of September / beginning of October, Cirque de Soleil is performing, the Blue Man Group are here, so are some dance events (I went to see Pearls of Ballet just the other week by the Singapore Dance Group). So, although outdoor options are dwindling, indoor activities are ramping up to see in the time between now and the ski season.

It’s this choice of cultural events that I miss in Egypt, but I guess a large part of that is due to the poverty in Egypt where most people are more concerned about finding money to eat rather than spending their precious resources on luxuries. I am lucky to live the life that I do.

Zurich - Mindful Triathlon

Wanderlust Mindful Triathlon in Zurich (photo (c) The Yoga Affair)

An event I booked a while ago was the Zurich Mindful Triathlon (5km walk/run, 90 minutes of yoga, 30 mins of meditation). I think this might be the first year it’s run, but I’m not too sure.

As usual when I book things, I spent the day before the event kind of regretting it – this time, I was sulking about the fact that I had to be there at 8.45am on a Sunday and I’d really prefer to lie in. I really do need to book things for myself because given the option on any day, laziness always wins.

The day started off rather stressfully – not really the aim of “mindfulness”! Firstly, we were supposed to be wearing company t-shirts to the event (work had paid for our tickets), but I’d left it until last thing on Friday to collect mine, and the person who had them had already gone home. I decided I could wear the company t-shirt that we had for a charity day a while back – it was bright orange instead of bright green, so I would be visibly very different, but at least I would have tried to be “corporate”.

And then I realized that actually I didn’t have any gym stuff at all. I’d left it all in Egypt. I’d meant to bring it across to Zurich since I never do the gym in Egypt, but I’d completely forgotten (I think I got too sidetracked into packing the bucket!). I could do the 5km walk OK in my skirt and t-shirt, but not the yoga. In the end I decided to use my pyjama bottoms. Very hippy-like!

And finally, the bus pulled away just as I got to the bus stop. This meant – horror of horrors – that I had to use my phone to inform my friends that I was going to be a bit late. It was all a bit of a shambles.

As it turned out, the others were also late and I wasn’t even the last one of us to arrive. I was surprised to see so many people on my train also heading to the triathlon but at least this made finding the venue easy, even if I was feeling a bit intimidated by their sporty appearance and possession of yoga mats.

It’s amazing how people can create events like this and people actually turn up. If I’d been organizing it, I’d have been petrified that it would fall flat on its face. It takes some guts. But I think there were probably about 1000 people there – apparently all tickets had been sold out.

Most people ran the 5km, but there were also a fair number walking. I don’t really do running but might have tried if I had the correct gear with me, but since I didn’t… anyway, I ran through the finishing line which is what counts but unfortunately nobody took a photograph of that. The run/walk was through a wooded area just by Sihl City and along the river, so it was also good to see a bit of Zurich that I hadn’t seen before.

Then there was time to look round the stands and there were a few other side activities. I tried doing the hula-hoop but I just couldn’t get it to stay round my waist. I’m sure I could do it as a child, so I don’t know how I’ve lost that skill.

The yoga, performed outside on a large field with a stage in front, was preceded by a quick warm-up of “breakletics” which is based on break dancing as a form of exercise.

I hadn’t done yoga for maybe decades now and I was a bit shocked at how demanding it was and how incapable I was of doing it. The weather teased us. It started to drizzle just as the yoga started and then it stopped, almost as if it had heard the collective “no!” that I’m sure all of us were inwardly whispering. At another point, it also started to rain, but again, it didn’t last long. I guess it was one way of getting in tune with nature!

You could choose which bits of the yoga you wanted to do and when you didn’t want to push your body any further. They also had people on the sidelines to correct you if you were doing things wrong. Despite having sat out at various points, I still ached the next few days, so it must have done something.

The meditation was a bit curtailed as we’d overran a bit, but all in all it was an enjoyable event and I somehow felt I’d achieved something. On top of that, it’s got me going to yoga every Thursday now, so you could say it was a life-changing experience!

Zurich - Rainy Day Activity

Glass Labryinth at Hergiswil (c)Mums:Tots:Zurich Blog

The first time Geraldine ever visited me in Switzerland, it was a September, she had glorious weather. Sunshine, blue sky, high temperatures – it couldn’t have been better. And, of course, it was never like that again on any subsequent visit.

So, we had some rain during her stay, but I did have some wet weather activities planned. Somehow, it’s always the children’s stuff that sounds the most fun and I got the suggestion of going to Hergiswil glass factory from a mother’s blog on rainy day activities for children (sorry, Geraldine!). Her blog is actually a far better guide to the factory than mine, actually, so do visit her site if you’re interested.

The factory is located right by the lake, so I imagine on a sunny day it would be really spectacular. It is located close to the Hergiswil train station and was well signposted. It’s a bit confusing when you get there because there’s a museum and then there’s the factory exhibition and there are arrows pointing in two directions.

It was a bit disconcerting when we first arrived because we were told to wait to one side while everyone else went in – apparently it was the next “sitting” which was going to be in English and the others were all German speakers. However, there were lots of people still milling about and we were scared (or I was, at any rate!) of missing our correct time to go in since we were totally reliant on the woman serving at the desk (who was busy).

But all was well and she signaled to us as to when to go  in. The tour was quite clever with doors suddenly opening out of nowhere after each historic scene played out before you, and you just had to hope that you were going to the right place each time. It felt a bit Indiana Jones-ish! They are very proud of the fact that they still use the hand-blowing methods, which is presumably part of the reason for the cost of some of the items.

We were able to watch people making items with the glass afterwards, although the area for the finer aspects of design was closed, so we didn’t see any engraving or animals being molded, etc. My ticket included the cost for blowing my own glass bauble, but the queues for this were long and were clearly primarily meant for children, so I skipped this in the end.

I agree with the mum’s blog that the best bit is the glass maze. You have to pay a small fee to go in and you have to wear slippers and gloves (provided) and leave your bags behind at the desk. You enter through a darkened door and then you find yourself in this maze of mirror and glass walls. Your aim is to come back out of the door that’s just next door to the one where you went in. It’s still fairly dark inside and I’m sure that when they change the lighting, some of the glass turns into mirrors and some of the mirrors turn into glass. You have to feel your way round gently as you can’t tell where the glass ends and a corridor begins.

I didn’t even think to try to get out, actually, as it was fun groping about. In the end, Geraldine spotted a father who she thought knew what he was doing and we followed him to get to the exit. My spatial awareness isn’t very good, so this isn’t the sort of thing I’d do well at anyway, but it was a lot of fun.

There were lots of other games to do with glass as well – from hitting the glass to see what sounds it made (I only noticed half-way through my enthusiastic hitting of it that they warned you not to do it too hard!), distorted mirrors, prisms, etc. Because it was raining, we didn’t do the massive “Kugelbahn” outside where you can buy marbles and roll them down the chute and they go through a whole massive obstacle course. That would also no doubt be a lot of fun.

There’s a seconds shop and a shop with premium quality items, so plenty of shopping opportunities too, if you want them. All in all, it makes a good rainy day activity for children and adults alike!