El Andalous - Blog Holiday

Christmas Tree Worm

Hiding! (Porcupine Fish)

Tolerated Togetherness (Blacktip Grouper and Hawkfish)

I meant to write last week that I was taking 2 weeks' blog holiday - all is well and I'm celebrating all the festivities here in Egypt. The blog should resume next week as usual, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong! Meanwhile, I'm attaching some amusing / favorite fish photos.

Wishing everyone all the best for 2019 - don't forget to buy your cat / dog / fish their 25 New Year's Resolutions book.

El Andalous - Remembering Habits Old and New

Party Preparations for Army Day

There are always things I forget about being back in Egypt.

One of the most frustrating things – because it’s my own fault – is that it’s very easy to settle into a life of relaxation and to lose the impetus to do anything very much. Therefore, for those who come over here for a week or two, it can be surprising to find that those who are here all the time don’t necessarily have a clue what’s going on. We’ve settled into our home beach routine and often don’t go much further afield.

This also holds for the events that are held here. Since I’ve returned, there’s been a party on the pier for Army Day, a car festival, a trathle and a triathlon. I did actually wander down to see the triathle (it’s a sports discipline in its own right, but is really preparation for a pentathlon; the one at Sahl Hasheesh was swimming, running, and shooting). Admittedly, I only went because Horst and Hilda told me they’d been and I felt ashamed that this was on my doorstep and I hadn’t even bothered to stroll along the bay to take a look.

Galina posted photographs of the motor car event on facebook, but again, I never saw any of it. It looked really good and I could kick myself for not making the effort.

I did look at the entrance to the party on the pier for the army celebrations and it wasn’t until a few days later that I realized I could have actually gone in (I thought it was invitation only). It was someone who was only staying for a short while who had found that out. See what I mean?

I’m not sure why apathy overcomes me when I’m here; it’s somehow just so pleasant on the beach and anything else feels like a tremendous and completely unnecessary upheaval. It’s not just this year; it’s whenever I’m here, and it happens to others too!

I wonder whether it’s a phenomenon similar to how living close to work often makes you arrive later than those who live some distance away because there’s no sense of urgency regarding traffic or transport. Or maybe it’s like the way people often never visit places close to home because you think there’s always time (and then others come over and see all sorts of things that you’ve missed). It does seem a bit extreme over here, though, because we’re talking about things that take just 10 minutes’ walk to get to.

I was dynamic enough on first coming back to make myself some hummus and tahini. It always seems really easy when I read the recipe, but each time I try it, I make the same mistakes (I never learn). One of the things that I always forget is that there are two almost identical jugs on my blender, but they are in fact different. I end up mismatching the connectors and getting a squidgy mess coming out of the blender. Thus, what was supposed to be a quick blending job ends up taking hours on end as I have so much cleaning up to do (and then I have to start again, and look up the instructions for the blender). This time, because I’ve been making a lot of falafel in Switzerland, I’d also forgotten to cook the chickpeas before making the hummus, so I had to yank them all out of the blender where they were with all the other ingredients, so that I could cook them. That was also a messy task. I’m sure it shouldn’t really be that hard.

Now that it’s December, the sea is definitely getting a bit colder (but still perfectly OK for swimming, once I’ve plunged in). However, October was still very hot and I again forgot just how much water I drink and how much my consumption of water correlates with the heat outside. I’m not a big water drinker usually, so I’m always a bit astounded at how much I have when I’m here.

This year, I’ve bought myself a swimming buoy so that I’m visible to the boats when I swim. This was partly inspired by my swimming holiday a year or two ago and partly inspired by seeing some girls using them in the lake in Zurich. I’ve often wished I could somehow be more visible as the boats can come quite close (I don’t think they see me) and the buoy, which ties round my waist and floats behind me as I swim, is bright orange and can be seen from some distance.

I’ve done a fairly good job of remembering to take it with me, but once when I went snorkeling in a more remote part of Sahl Hasheesh, it really irritated me as it was always getting tied up in my legs. I was cursing to myself thinking it didn’t live up to its description of not interfering with your swimming. When I turned to move it out of the way, I saw that, in my eagerness to get in the water and start snorkeling, I’d forgotten to blow it up. Doh. There’s so much to think about even just to go swimming or snorkeling!

El Andalous - My Mohammed is Different

Lionfish - Attractive but Dangerous!

Lots of people ask me if I’ve got an Egyptian boyfriend / partner or if I came over to Egypt because of love. Others ask me if I’d be interested in an Egyptian boyfriend. The Egyptian males, of course, are always asking me to be their girlfriend or to marry them (that’s how it is). Well, I’m maybe exaggerating, but at least when I first got here, before I knew anyone, every taxi driver would want to hook up with me and the occasional shopkeeper. It doesn’t happen so much now that I’m settled and have my own circle of friends.

Anyway, “My Mohammed is Different” is a well-known one-line joke in Egypt among the expats. I’ll start with the caveat that there are crooks and scams in every country; in Egypt you get the Mohammeds and in Europe you get phishing and other frauds.

Anyway, Egyptians are very good at playing the long game. You’ll pair up with an Egyptian man, who will pay you loads of attention, make you feel fabulous, introduce you to his family. The cleverer ones will wait a few years and then ask you to marry them. The not-so-clever ones will ask you to marry them after the first date (or maybe even before!). Maybe you’ll be befriended by their sister, who will make you feel safe and comfortable and like you really belong to the family. You get married and then a number of things can happen, depending on the scam or the mentality of the Egyptian playing the game.

The not-so-bad scenario is just that the Mohammed (because many Egyptians are called Mohammed; they don’t actually have to be called Mohammed, of course) is either already married (they can take several wives) and is really just using you to finance the lifestyle he wants with his other wife, or he takes another wife or lover later and doesn’t tell you because he wants to keep you (and your money) sweet. This is why you can see 20-year old Egyptians with women in their 50s, 60s, or above.

Another thing to be aware of is that the Egyptian may ask you to marry him, but actually all he’s talking about is an Orfi certificate (colloquially known over here as a bonking certificate), which isn’t anything legally binding. It just allows you to be married in the eyes of God, so that if the man has sexual relations, he isn’t going against his religion (which doesn’t permit sex before marriage). So, you may think you’re married, but you’re not. The man may have numerous Orfis.

A worse scenario is that once you’re legally married, they’ll ask for divorce. In Egypt, all the wife is entitled to by law is around 10 GBP and the man is entitled to all the money and possessions – regardless of to whom the finances initially belonged. Thus, the whole family is sometimes involved in the scam, which is why you felt so accepted by them. There have been women stranded in Egypt without even enough money to return to their home country.

I have heard stories that are far worse than the above, but it’s not my place go give out others’ personal experiences. I guess, in order to protect yourself, you could have a prenuptial agreement that in case of divorce you get to keep your money, but battling my way though the Egyptian law system is not something I would like to do!

Many people are aware of these scenarios, but when they get into a relationship, they always think that this won’t happen to them, because their “Mohammed is different”. Stephen Lawley is going to write about this, so watch out for his next book when it comes out!

Of course, there are very successful marriages between Egyptians and Europeans which are genuine and just as successful as any other marriages out there. Nevertheless, “My Mohammed is Different” is a much more common scam here than the frauds we’re used to in Europe. Be warned!

El Andalous - Swimming Frustrations

El Andalous Beach - Unusually Rough Waters

Having taken swimming lessons in Switzlerand and Mallorca (how cosmopolitan!), you’d think I’d be zooming ahead. It has, however, been a little bit depressing.

After my lessons in Mallorca, I felt confirmed in my decision to change my crawl technique to a more “catchup” style (where you always have at least one arm stretched out in front rather than windmilling).

I think the two most useful things I took away with me from the Mallorca lessons were that (i) I needed to focus on getting the “over” water stroke right first (ie, using the catchup style, high arm recovery) before thinking about the catch and pull through “under” the water stroke and (ii) my arm was always dropping on my breathing stroke resulting in me losing out on an entire stroke a third of the time (which is quite a lot, as my trainer said).

The problem with watching swimming videos online is that there’s so much you could focus on, you are never very sure where to start, so at least the Mallorca lessons gave me a focus point and some kind of order of learning. When I asked how I could train in open water, she suggested I stop each time I feel myself starting to do it wrong.

I took this advice on board, but found I could swim only short distances. I had to focus so hard on what I was doing that it took up an immense amount of energy and I was exhausted. This in turn chipped at my confidence levels and I began to think I’d never swim longer distances again. Doubt ate at me. Even before Mallorca I’d started to wonder whether training myself to swim faster and faster was just too much effort and taking away from my enjoyment of swimming; now I was struggling to swim 50m. It was depressing. My confidence was in shatters. I’d lost everything I’d been working on – my speed and my endurance!

I persevered. After about 5 weeks of practicing my breathing stroke and employing a catchup style (daily, and in the sea), I decided to try and work my way up to an entire km. I put the pressure off myself to go fast, so I did it as relaxed as I could to give myself more confidence with the longer distances. I was able to achieve this, but my swimming speed went right down to 3:09-3:12.

I wished I had a personal coach who could give me some encouragement that my style was indeed improving when all my data showed me that I was declining dramatically. My original aim was to attain the average swimming speed, which is 2:00 minutes per 100m, and sustain it with ease over 1km; after my first set of lessons in Switzerland, I’d originally worked my speed up to 2:16 for 1km in a pool, but now, here I was, taking up to 3:12 minutes (albeit in open water)! I was a snail. I did feel I was swimming more correctly, but I began to wonder whether there was any point to it or indeed if I was deluding myself about my improved style when my stats were so bad. Confirmation from somewhere that I was doing the right thing would have been good.

My subjective impression is that my catch and pull improved as I worked on my stroke timing and breathing stroke without even having to think about it. I wasn’t able to put the two together in Mallorca, but as I got used to the new style, I was somehow able to put some other bits into place, too. I was a bit scared that I would drift back into my old style of swimming, but on each swim I did try to focus on a single aspect of my style to improve on and sometimes (time permitting) I would do drills afterwards.

After a while of acclimatizing myself to a slow 1km swim, and getting rather despondent about my lack of speed, I decided maybe I was slow because I was no longer putting in so much effort (since I was building up my confidence for the distance and focusing on improving style rather than thinking about speed and strength).

From there I almost immediately increased my speed to 2:48-2:55 per 100m for a sustained 1km, which for the first time in a long time was a measurable improvement and a lot better than my previous 3:12. This speed isn’t so far off where I was in May (my open-water 1km speeds then seemed to be about 2:38 to 2:48 and 2:57 for 2km). Only now, in order to achieve that speed , I’m needing only 20 strokes per minute, whereas before I used 27 strokes per minute. My swimming must have become more efficient! That, at least, is some reward.

I am continuing to focus on my style rather than increasing my strokes per minute at this stage, though, because I know from seeing other people’s data that it’s possible to swim at my target speed with 20 strokes per minute, so my style obviously still has some major flaws (and I can think of plenty of things to work on!). But at least, finally, I’m able to feel that I’ve made some progress even if I’m only just returning to my original starting point.

El Andalous - The Social Dining Scene

Cafe Coffee Day

I sometimes think that I’m here living the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel or maybe I’m just back in my student days when I lived in halls. Most of the people at El Andalous are sociable and, of course, we’re all living in the same block, so we’ll be round at each others for meals or drinks, or we’ll go out together to socialize.

I hosted hummus, bread, and chicken, plus some Arabic dessert, as a farewell to Kathleen and Tom who were leaving for good (very sad!). After a lot of trauma (this is Egypt, after all), they finally managed to sell their flat amidst changes in the law, struggles to set up a bank account, negotiating with the buyers, getting a visa, and sorting out how to transfer the money back to Ireland, to mention only a few things. It’s disappointing that there last memories of El Andalous are ones of stress, but I hope to visit them in Ireland at some point.

Of course, with there being so many new places opened up in Sahl Hasheesh, I had to try some of these. Kathleen, Nicole and I tried out Café Coffee Day. They hadn’t quite got their full menu out yet, but I think I tried the steak. The weather was still warm enough to sit outside (even at night) and we got the waiter to take a photograph of us. They worked hard to make us feel welcome and create a family-type atmosphere.

Nicole and I tried out Sailors Beach Club (also sitting outside); the food was good but pretty expensive after you’d added on the service charge and tax (not included in the printed prices – it’s a bit annoying but I think nowhere includes them because it’s too expensive to keep on changing the menus in line with changes in tax).

Jeff and Ness had reported that the Indian at the Tropitel was good, so I went there with Nicole. It was a set menu and very nicely presented, but was again pretty expensive (and the wine was extortionate). I felt I’d had better curries, but it’s always a treat to be able to eat an Indian (being so used to the UK!).

Ann was over and she hadn’t yet tried Bus Stop, so I went there with her. Bus Stop is now almost the oldest establishment in Sahl Hasheesh, so much has changed. It’s quite a confusing name as at least one person has thought it was an actual bus stop (given all the new bus stops being constructed in Sahl Hasheesh).

Safi, Ann, and I took a trip into Hurghada to Thai Garden, which is Safi’s favorite restaurant (and it is good); that was the same as ever.

Nicole and I went to have a Chinese at the Sunrise Romance and discovered that the hotel had now opened up an Indian restaurant. This is potentially fatal as I’ve already fantasized on one Friday evening of popping over and seeing if they can do a take-away. Janice and Chris had tried it and were only luke-warm about the food, but what I had was good. I asked for it to be spiced up a bit and I avoided the lamb (which is often a bit chewy over here and Chris had said his lamb could have been stewed for a few more hours) and the end result was very nice. They even had peshwari naan, which is my favorite. All in all, it’s a great addition to the Sahl Hasheesh offerings.

I think the only places I haven’t yet tried are the Mexican in front of the Pyramisa, and Fisawy, which isn’t so news, but is really more of a snack place, so I’ve not done too badly!

El Andalous - Forgetting the Old

View from the Beach at Sunset

I said that nothing had really gone wrong on my return this time. This was sort of true, but at the same time, I think I’m maybe just becoming immune to the trauma of things never being 100%.

The first evening I got back, and this is really quite a big thing, so heaven knows how I forgot – I can only think it’s because it wasn’t new to me – water started dripping from my kitchen ceiling. I went to reception to ask for a plumber, but they were strangely reluctant, saying that the plumber was now in Hurghada (it was night time after all) and could it wait until the next day. I explained that I was worried that the drip would turn into a gush and I didn’t want my flat flooded overnight. I sensed there was still reluctance, but they said they would contact the plumber.

I went back to my flat and fretted for a while and then remembered that I’d had this problem before and it had been something to do with the air conditioning. I went back to reception and asked if they could confirm that if it was just the air conditioning, it could wait until morning because there would be no flood of water. I got the impression they didn’t understand what I was saying. It was a bit complicated with all those conditionals. I gave up because I got the impression they weren’t going to phone for the plumber anyway.

I returned to my flat again and decided to avoid turning on my air conditioning. However, it was really hot and I couldn’t survive without having it on. I decided to use it in small bursts and sure enough the trickle of water gradually became nothing.

There was also a bit of a nasty smell in my kitchen when I returned which I identified as the odour of a dead rodent. I got our resident rat catcher to come and remove the dead bodies from the ventilation shaft above my kitchen. I’ve decided that the word for eat is very similar to the word for “shit” in Arabic as I’m sure one of them was recommending (in Arabic) that housekeeping clean out the shaft due to all the, hmm, mess, but even he was getting push back from the housekeeping staff who were saying it wasn’t possible. I know there must be loads and loads of rat droppings up there. Anyway, I’ve become somewhat immune to all this rodent drama now, especially if the mice and rats never actually enter my flat. I think I had a rodent caught every day in the first week I was back but since then, it’s just been the occasional one now and then.

So, I suppose you could say things did go wrong when I returned, but somehow these are all just normal now and not so noteworthy. And it’s more interesting than living in a world where everything is perfect!

El Andalous - Seeing What's New

New Installation on the Boardwalk

It’s always interesting to see what’s changed when I come back; there’s usually a tinge of sadness for the businesses that didn’t make it and curiosity about the new ones that have just started up. Many of the shops are offered rent-free premises for the first year or two in Sahl Hasheesh and then after that, they have to pay. The result is that most aren’t able to establish themselves sufficiently well within those first two years and disappear after the rent-free period.

However, it all seemed a bit different this time round. Sahl Hasheesh was a hive of building activity. A whole new complex of apartments is just starting to be built behind the BestWay supermarket along to the Sunrise Romance hotel extension (which used to be called Premier Romance so has obviously now been taken over by a new chain). The villa district further behind El Andalous is progressing with some very nice buildings being constructed there. The Sunrise Romance hotel extension at the back has swimming pools installed, the entrance hallway is being decorated, and the windows all have glass. It's almost there! Further along the coastline a whole complex is under construction which is allegedly supposed to be three 5-star hotels, a golf course, an acqua park, and a theatre (really?). It’s progressing really fast.

Rumours are around that Egypt is supposed to be a top ten tourist destination next year and the top destination by 2020; this has no doubt inspired the rush to build.

The resort company for Sahl Hasheesh has installed a funky thing along the boardwalk, which is in the photo since it will save me the alleged 1000 words. See-saws (!) have been placed opposite Bus Stop, there’s a lighted sign saying “Old Town”, there are two swinging benches along the boardwalk, plus some blue benches too.

Everywhere I went, something had changed! Il Gusto was no longer there, but had become Sailors Beach Club. This was quite a shock, since Il Gusto has been there for years. However, the new place has pretty much the same facilities (café, restaurant, beach bar, beach) but a different menu and more expensive prices. That’s not so surprising because prices for everything have risen (including electricity and water).

Chez Paul (cafe/restaurant) had gone quite a while ago, but that’s now been replaced by Café Coffee Day, which is also a restaurant. It does good coffee, but I think with its name people don’t realize that it also serves proper food, so it’s seeming quite empty. The Sunrise Romance has added Indian and Lebanese restaurants to its offerings. An art shop has opened up, so it’s good to see something that’s not clothes or food for a change.

There’s even a free minibus now that will take you round the resort and bus stops have been placed by all the major hotels and residences. As is usual here, it’s in its preliminary launch phase, which means they’re not advertising it, the bus stops aren’t finished, and there isn’t any timetable, but you can use the minibus if you see it or if you ask a security guard. This is OK, but it just makes you wonder if it really is working or not. Most people have no idea that it's there and when people see it, they don't know what it is. Communication isn't a strong point in Egypt. The idea of a free bus is good, though, since once it's established, it should encourage people to explore beyond their all-inclusive hotels and maybe spend some money in the shops. It also gives the hotels something else to advertise.

It’s all very encouraging, but the half-built buildings are still standing empty and don’t seem to be progressing, so we can only hope that all these new activities will complete and not end up as yet other monuments to ideas that went stale. However it does look as if Egypt is finally gearing up to be a prime tourist destination again, at long last. Come and join the party!

El Andalous - Settling Back In

El Andalous from Refurbished Pier

I usually joke that there’s always something that immediately breaks on my return, that Egypt is where everything always goes wrong. This time, however, it was really fairly smooth. I don’t know if I should be worried.

The only thing that was broken was the basket on my Flying Pigeon which was half-hanging off. However, I was able to fix this myself (I was fairly proud of this achievement). My key was also sticking in my lock – it has done this ever since I’ve been here, but it had got to the point where even I found it annoying. I cleverly (by my standards) thought to spray it with some WD40 and hey presto the key now fits in smoothly. I felt very dynamic.

It was rewarding to have the WD40 already there in my flat; similarly, it was good to have the OFF spray (mosquito repellent) and my insect bite cream ready to hand. I was feeling very organized and settled. It’s only taken 5 years!

There are always quite a few admin things to do all the same. I had to go to the bank to change my money, and I needed to get my visa extension. The 6-month visa now costs the same as a 12-month visa, which makes it feel as if I’m paying more than necessary. However, I’m happy and grateful that I’m allowed to be here, and the country needs the money, so I really don’t mind. To be honest, the foreigners can afford the steep price hikes more than the local people, so it’s fair play to raise more money by increasing the visa costs by some multiples vs the rate of inflation (which is in any case high) over the years (I think the visa cost has gone from 80 LE to 1200 LE in 5 years).

I’d forgotten just how many liquids I get through when the weather is so hot. I seem to have gone off diet coke all of a sudden, so I’m drinking more water and iced coffee instead. I completely underestimated how much water and milk to buy on my first trip to BestWay, since I’m not normally a great water drinker. But in the heat, I’m constantly needing another drink.

I thought I’d miss the espresso machine that I have at home in Switzerland when returning to lowly Nescafe gold for my home-made iced coffees in Egypt, but actually it’s been fine. Unlike in most of Europe, where coffee is now espresso dominated, over here many cafes still serve Nescafe. I remember when it used to be like that in the UK. Espresso-based drinks do exist here, though, so don’t get me wrong.

Anyway, I’m now back in the flow – my fridge is fully stocked with juice, milk, and water, plus some diet coke should the urge suddenly return. I believe my skin is already a little darker in reacting to its new climate, and I’m settled in.

El Andalous - Welcome Back

El Andalous from Refurbished Pier

My flight back was fine and it arrived on time. I’d been too busy getting my visa for St Petersburg to get my visa in advance for Egypt, so I had to buy my entry visa at the airport. Fortunately, I had some US dollars (USD) left from my cruise last year, so was able to pay for the visa using that (it’s simpler, since the Egyptians price the visa in USD). They were announcing the visa price in various currencies over the loudspeaker; I’m hoping this is in part to stop people from being conned into paying more than they have to (this has happened to friends of mine before).

Anyway, for me it was smooth. There was no queue as I was one of the first out and my luggage arrived safely. I have my routine off pat now, so I exited customs and went to buy my internet package at the counter at the airport. It’s very handy and I noticed that this time there are also Etisalat and Orange kiosks as well as Vodafone.

Unfortunately, again, my taxi wasn’t waiting for me. My internet doesn’t kick in until an hour afterwards and my phone wasn’t working, so I had no way to contact Esmat. After 15 minutes, I decided to get an airport taxi. This time, I knew the prices were on the board, so when the taxi driver said it cost 400 LE, I went to the board and showed them that it should be 150 LE (there’s no messing with me, I thought!).

However, they explained that the board was very old and prices had gone up since. I knew this to be true and I didn’t even know what Esmat charges now, so I felt a bit lost. I negotiated him down to 300 LE (which was probably a bit much, but as the driver explained on the way – he was actually very nice – when he gets back to the airport he’s last in the taxi queue and he needs to make a living). I was happy enough and I really just wanted to get home.

I entered my flat and it hadn’t been cleaned. I went down to see Medhat, and he explained that I hadn’t given enough notice as I’d only emailed the evening before (this is true, and I had wondered if I was chancing it; if I do it too much in advance, I’m scared they’ll forget). Anyway, they did it for me pretty much straightaway – they were just finishing off another flat first.

I wandered off to BestWay to get my food shopping while they cleaned; I was still wearing my jeans from the flight. My legs don’t usually feel hot or cold, but in that heat, they were soon pretty damp with sweat. I dropped the shopping off in my flat, but the cleaners were still working so I went out for an iced coffee in a local café. I can’t really complain since my life is really very civilized (when you have money, of course, and for that I’m grateful).

Finally, the cleaners had finished. I was amused to see that they’d organized my balcony furniture differently from how I usually have it (they weren’t to know, since I bring in the cushions and drag the furniture to where there is not much sun while I’m gone). I haven’t bothered to put it back yet as it looks quite nice how they have it but is perhaps not as practical if I have guests.

The first night we had a power cut. It’s still so hot at the moment that I need the air conditioning on to cool down and then the fan to keep the air cool while I’m asleep. With the power cut, my fan stopped working and I woke feeling too hot. I have a small USB fan, so I thought I could fetch that to keep myself from sweltering, but then I realized that I didn’t know where the cleaners had put my solar light and it was pitch black. I ended up having to strike a match, since they were where I expected them to be, and light a candle in order to find the solar-charged light (and then to use that to find the USB fan). The joys of being back!

I still wouldn’t swap it for anywhere else, though!

Zurich - Flight to Hurghada

Arriving in Hurghada

I was actually ready to return to Egypt this year; I was working from home in Zurich and a lot of changes were taking place in my work environment, so it was nice to leave it all and go back to a more relaxed lifestyle in Egypt.

I try to make things easy for myself, so I decided to check my luggage in the night before my flight and then check whether I could get the last-minute upgrade within 24 hours of the flight or if it really did have to be the same morning as the flight. I had three laptops to take back with me (don’t ask!), so most of my hold luggage was taken up with that, leaving me no room to pack any breakfast cereal  (which is either not available or very expensive in Egypt).

I got to the airport, feeling quite pleased with how organized I was being. I yanked my suitcase onto the conveyor belt and explained it was for the Hurghada flight the next morning. To my astonishment she asked me if I had any laptops packed in my hold luggage and then said that laptops have to be carried through as hand luggage on flights to Hurghada. This used to be the case for the UK but not for Switzerland and then they changed the UK rules back again to allowing laptops in hold luggage.

I was stunned and wasn’t even sure if three laptops would be allowed in my hand luggage (too heavy?). But there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. So, I removed the laptops from the suitcase and handed what was now a virtually empty case over for night-before check in. What a waste of effort! Had I known, I could have packed some cereal after all. Having said that, if I’d learned that my laptops weren’t allowed in my luggage at 5am in the morning, it might have been even more stressful.

I was fortunate to have a bag with me that I could put them all in to carry back home. I lugged the laptops with me round to the Edelweiss counter (I was supposed to be empty-handed at this stage) in the next terminal to ask about getting a last-minute business class upgrade (I was thinking that at least all that hand luggage would be included in the business class allowance!). They informed me that the price had gone up by 50 CHF and that I couldn’t get the upgrade until the morning of my flight. The man happily explained that there was only one upgrade left but that they were open from 0430am the next day, so I could rush in then and get it. I’m sure only a Swiss person would think that this is a reasonable suggestion. There’s no way I was coming at 0430; in any case the first tram of the day to the airport isn’t until about 0515 and that was going to be painful enough.

After the usual sleepless Angst of wondering if it really is humanly possible to hear an alarm that will wake you in time to catch the 0515 tram, I did indeed get to the airport with my very heavy hand luggage and managed to get my upgrade. I went through the business class security check and felt a bit sorry for the others in the queue knowing I had to unpack virtually all my hand luggage in the process.

The woman at security asked me which two laptops were mine, indicating the first two. I pointed to the third one and said that all three were mine, but she assumed I meant that it was the last two laptops and not the first two laptops, so I had to reiterate that all three were mine. She looked a bit surprised but made no objection. Phew.

Since I was thirsty and had paid for an upgrade, I wanted to go to the business lounge for a quick orange juice and coffee. However, when I got there, I discovered it didn’t open until 0600 in that terminal. Looking at the queue at the cafe in the terminal, it was very long and I didn’t have that much time, so I ended up buying a juice from a vending machine. As soon as I got it (I was really parched, so I drank it within seconds), the flight boarded, so actually I could have waited. Next time.

But apart from all that, the flight was fine!

Zurich - Final Week this Year

My Departure was Not This Calm!

My last week and last day in Zurich just flew. Work was full of budget and I had to do some overtime, meaning that I wasn’t even able to swim that much during my last week. I don’t know how I can look at a budget sheet so often and still see mistakes each time.

The weather continued to be brilliant even up to the end of September and the open-air pools extended their closing dates by a week to take advantage of it. It was a bit galling not having enough time to profit from this, but in truth, although the weather was good, the air was getting colder, so if I went swimming, I still went to the indoor pool at Oerlikon (since my local one is now closed).

It’s not so easy to meet up with people now that I work from home, since even if I want to see people at lunch, it means doing traveling that I would otherwise not do. I went into work for a meeting one day and bumped into Mirlinda, who used to work in my department a year ago but, it appears, has just accepted a position in the same building as me but with a different company. It’s a small world. I arranged to meet up with her, but she had to cancel once because she was too busy and then I had to cancel on the Friday, our last chance, because I was too busy.

I did get in to see Teresa and Candice for lunch and to celebrate Teresa’s pregnancy. I hadn’t seen her all year, so it was good to catch up before I left, but again I had to dash away quite quickly because I had a meeting to run from home.

The last week is always a bit frustrating because I suddenly realize all the people I wanted to see (either again or at all) but that I never managed to. I had wanted to contact Holger and Emil, Gerard, Yuen, Willem, Heaven, Marta, Cristel… and many more. It will all have to be next year now.

I’d been trying to clean up at home in the weeks leading up to my departure since I knew I had only one day to get myself ready when I got back from St Petersburg. I even did all my clothes washing on the Saturday evening as soon as I returned to try and give myself an easy last day on Sunday. However, it always surprises me how the amount of things you need to do seems to snowball once you start.

For instance, even though I’d cleaned my fridge a few weeks ago, I still needed to clear out the remaining food – for once there wasn’t much – and give the fridge a final wipe. Then I discovered that I needed to clean my coffee machine since I found a lot of coffee grounds as I was giving it a final dab with my cloth. But in cleaning it, I broke a bit off in the process (I managed to fix it). And autumn was arriving, so my balcony had leaves strewn over it and I felt compelled to clean it. And then I thought that I may as well just clean away all my plants rather than leave them to die in my absence. I didn’t have time to clean the plant pots as well, but basically this is how the tasks just kept on adding up.

I’d also booked to see Alvin Ailey (Dance) on the last day I’d be in Zurich. So, actually, I had only until 1600 to get everything done. As usual, my ambition is larger than my reason. After St Petersburg I was actually starting to feel a bit “cultured out” and questioned my decision, but the performance was good; it was modern dance rather than the classical ballet I saw at St Petersburg. So, that was my crazy schedule!

Holiday in St Petersburg

I saw a lot of Weddings Taking Place! Backdrop: Hermitage and St Isaacs Cathedral

I ran out of time to do a blog last week, since I had one day to unpack from St Petersburg, clean, and repack to go to Egypt. However, maybe I should have posted a few photographs at least as I can predict that what will take me longest in today’s blog will be deciding which photo to show at the top!

Anyway, Rachel had decided to celebrate her 50th birthday in St Petersburg. It wasn’t really somewhere that was on my radar as a place to visit for some reason (although now I’ve been, I’m wondering why on earth not!). I was a bit stressed that the others (who are all more educated than I am in terms of knowing their art and history) were reading Russian novels in advance, doing a load of research about where to go, and I was finding it hard even to find the time to get my visa (and never got round to getting my Egyptian visa in the process).

I’d forgotten that I really like a lot of Russian writers – Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Chekhov were all favorite authors when I used to read high literature. So, Russia should have been on my list of places to visit, but I’ve become a bit obsessed with sun and sea over the last five years and had forgotten these, my previous loves.

We’d booked a guesthouse for 8 people in case others wanted to join us at the last minute. However, what actually happened at the last minute – the day before we left – was that the guesthouse cancelled on us for no reason. Aaargh! High praise goes to Rachel who found an alternative flat almost immediately that was actually better because it was closer to the centre and also had a huge reduction in price due to planned works going on in the building. So, we ended up saving money and having a better flat with four good-sized bedrooms and several recreation spaces. Phew.

St Petersburg was amazing. The size of the hermitage is breathtaking, the architecture is varied and grand, autumn colours abounded, and the streets were sometimes quite wide. Alastair thought the traffic was crazy, but I thought it was civilized, so it’s all relative. I must invite him to Egypt one day.

There’s a bit of a gold theme going on in St Petersburg. It’s everywhere. It decorates the outside and inside of the hermitage, of the cathedral of Peter and Paul, of the church of the savior on spilled blood, dominates some rooms in the Russian museum, it’s lavished on the fountains and the main building at Peterhof…. You get the idea.

Rachel, as an art lover, was in her element (apart from the gold). It was great to see her so happy; in fact all of us were happy! I went with her to Erarta on the first day, a private modern art museum, which made huge efforts to get people to interact with the art and to engage. We were there 6 hours and it wasn’t anywhere near the size of the Hermitage, so I knew then I had no chance of seeing everything. But I’m with Rachel in that this was actually my favorite art place in St Petersburg just because it was a bit different. However, I saw only a fraction of the Hermitage, so maybe I can’t really judge! The Hermitage is also stunning with its lavish rooms as well as its art, of course. But everyone knows that you need to visit the Hermitage.

It had been a while since I’d really done a museum and art type holiday, so I fed greedily on the art like sampling a dish I hadn’t tasted in a while and had forgotten how good it was.

We went to the opera (the Magic Flute) and the ballet (the Bronze Horseman). I should have read up on the Magic Flute beforehand because it was an artistic adaptation and I couldn’t really follow the plot. Kerstin kindly lent me her copy of Pushkin’s “Bronze Horseman” so that I would get the gist of the ballet. I read it quickly in my favorite café that served a large cappuccino for only 100 rubles (around just over a quid or around 1.5 CHF). I’d always thought that Russia was really expensive, but I’d forgotten that the currency had devalued some years ago, so it was all fairly reasonable in price.

We treated Rachel to a birthday meal in a restaurant with singing waiters who sung an operatic happy birthday to her in Russian. 

I loved all the domes in the architecture, the buildings were varied but impressive with columns and statues. On every corner there was something of interest. I did a canal trip with Kerstin but the river was high and so the boats couldn’t do the usual tour since they couldn’t fit under the bridges any more. Oh yes, the bridges, they were also decorated with gold.

I fretted about flying back as for some reason I didn’t have a migration card. Apparently you can get a hefty fine for not having it and can be refused entry to the country again.

Going back, at passport control, the official asked me for my migration card. I replied that I didn’t have it. She sighed and explained to me that I did indeed have my migration card and showed me an example of one. I repeated that I didn’t have it and asked her what I should do. She shook her head and said that no, my answer was incorrect, I did have a migration card. I again said I didn’t, did an exaggerated shrug of my shoulders and held my arms out in despair saying I didn’t know what to do.

She let out a huge sigh and slumped down on the table with her head resting on her arms, shaking her head for a minute or two. She then looked up at me; I put on a worried face (I was wondering what all this was leading up to), she rolled her eyes and then banged her head on the table several times as if to say “look, this is really, really, bad”. I was waiting for her to take me off to the border police, but instead, she raised her head again, stamped my passport and let me pass. Phew. It was a very Russian final experience as I can't imagine a British official being so dramatic given our tendency to being somewhat reserved. Nevertheless, I remain eternally grateful that she used discretion and spared me a fine or refusal of future entry.

I would highly recommend St Petersburg to everyone! There's just so much to do and I can barely skim the surface in this blog. And a big thank you to Rachel for suggesting it and making it happen! Happy birthday, Rachel.

Zurich to St Petersburg

No blog this week - I'm in St Petersburg!

Normal service will be resumed in the next two weeks... please keep visiting!

Zurich - Eating Out

Service at Casa Ferlin (copyright Casa Ferlin)

I’m now in the manic phase as my time gets nearer and nearer to when I return to Egypt. On top of this, there are a lot of changes taking place where I work, so it’s all quite exhausting.

Consequently, there’s not been one working day last week where I actually cooked myself a main meal. Monday was my birthday (happy birthday to me – this means it’s about 5 years since I made the decision to live in Egypt, doesn’t time fly?). I didn’t have anything planned so I was very British and got myself a curry to take home so that I could just pig out in front of the television. I couldn’t go to the Malabar, which is my favorite curry place in Oerlikon, since it was closed on Mondays. As a result, I ended up trying the Indian Palace, which I’d seen several times from the bus/tram but had never tried before. I don’t think it was as good as the Malabar but it was still tasty and suitably spicy (this can be a problem in Switzerland sometimes since their taste isn’t as adjusted to Indian food as the UK palate), so I’d go back. And they had a peshwari naan, which is quite unusual over here, too. They gave me a free mango juice while I waited and I was able to inspect their outside area, which I didn’t even know they had.

On Tuesday I ate out with my team at work for lunch – it was hard to find a time where we were all available (and even then one person had to opt out at the last minute), but it was good to have the chance for us to catch up. We went to an Italian restaurant across the road – options are limited near work (well, we have quite a few options, it’s just that I’ve been everywhere on multiple occasions), so the meal itself wasn’t so exciting.

However, Wednesday was a birthday meal at Gustav’s. A group of us have been trying to book there for over a year now but somehow we always cancel. It was a little bit the same story this year, since yet again one of us ended up not being able to join. Anyway, it was worth the wait. We took the three-course surprise menu; it started with gazpacho soup, which I don’t normally like but this was very good. The main course, I think, was selections of pork cooked in different ways (one was suckling pig). It was all beautifully presented even though they insisted on putting some cheese on top of the courgette. For dessert I think we had a peach mousse, but it was quite delicate – the almond shavings were lovely. We also had a chocolate cake as a birthday offering. We were able to sit outside because the weather is still good here and the courtyard was very cosy. I’d recommend it.

Thursday evening was another day of fine dining, this time at Casa Ferlin (I find the name very forgettable, which is a bit unfortunate!), an Italian restaurant that I’d never even noticed before quite near Central. It had received good reviews on tripadvisor. It was more upmarket than I was expecting; the interior was very nice (on the old-fashioned side) and all the waiters wore suits and served the meals with aplomb. We had a very nice white wine to go with the food (I had a salmon pasta dish, but they’re famous for the ravioli). It was another good find.

And then on Friday I was at Neumarkt. I’ve been there several times over the years and is probably much loved due to its courtyard with cobbled stones and trees. Even though I knew the place, I somehow managed to walk into the wrong restaurant, so was a bit surprised when they didn’t have our reservation. They then pointed me to the restaurant on the other side of the square. Whoops. I have memories of the menu being a bit sparse and little for me to choose from, but I think they’ve changed since then as there were a number of things I could have selected this time. I ended up with Zueri Geschnetzeltes (the local traditional food) since I won’t be able to have it again for a while.

Next week is my last week and then I’ll be off to St Petersburg, so there’ll likely be no blog next week. I’ll be back the following week, which will be my last blog this year from Switzerland (unless I decide to come back for a couple of weeks at some point). It’ll be my tales from Egypt again (inshahllah!).

Zurich - Holiday in Colonia de Sant Jordi (Mallorca)

Cabrera (National Park)

I was away in Mallorca over the last week – hence the absence of my blog.

My main reason for choosing this precise location was due to the existence of the BEST centre. I’d searched for swimming coaching holidays and I came across the BEST centre, run by two former Olympic swimmers. It holds various family and training holidays and has a ten-lane open-air 50m pool with viewing underneath so that you can see the strokes from all angles. And the weather would be warm and sunny and the pool temperature warm. Plus there was the sea and open water swimming options.

I had been thinking of doing one of their Masters’ training weeks (1 hour group training in the morning and 1 hour in the early evening), but was a bit worried about it being too much and feeling too stressed in a group. And, more importantly, these holidays weren’t taking place in early September and I didn’t really want to go any later since I’m off to St Petersburg at the end of September (it’s a hard life).

In the end, Steph decided to join me, and we ended up having three private lessons of one hour. By booking our hotel via the BEST centre, they allowed us to practice there as well in our free time.

We stayed half board at the Don Leon hotel (all options seemed to be half board), which included a 5-course meal in the evening with appetizers and main course served at your table. Each evening, there was a choice of two for each of the soup, appetizer and main meal courses, plus the option of a vegetarian or Mallorcan dish every day for the main meal if you pre-ordered. The food quality and service were both very good.

The first evening, I chose lamb, and then the following day I had a steak, and then every morning after that I was eagerly predicting chicken (my favorite). As the week wore on, each day it remained absent from the menu (other than once on the Spanish speciality, which you had to order). We did have duck (which was delicious), but I found it astonishing that we never did have any chicken (although the food was so good, I didn’t feel inclined to complain).

The BEST swim centre tended to be either busy with teams training or empty apart from one girl who seemed always to be there swimming up and down in the middle of the ten-lane pool doing either crawl or backstroke. I’m sure she could have been a motif in a movie…

There were photos up of all the Olympic swimmers who had trained at the centre. I had to ask Stephanie if she knew what the “dayer flimpics” were, and it turned out to be the deaf-lympics and not dea-flympics (written as deaflympics). Doh.

Our lessons were useful but tiring, so I’m still wondering whether the Masters swimming is really for me. They hold an open-water swimming festival at the end of May, which I’d quite like to attend but I think the water will still be too cold for me at that time of year.

There’s still a lot for me to improve on in my swimming, but the lessons were helpful for confirming that my recent change to my stroke timing had been the right thing to do, but needs a bit of tweaking and I still need to extend my arms more (among other things). To my surprise, the pool water was salty (yes, I unintentionally swallowed some!).

Leaflet design was a bit lacking in Mallorca. We went to a nature reserve for the day but the leaflet didn’t mention anything about the nature or what you did on the tour. Maps seemed to have forgotten to include the legends to explain the symbols, and the leaflet for the little train seemed to forget to mention that you had to pay and was a little ambiguous about where it stopped.

This all caused amusement rather than being a complaint as such. The weather was amazing, the sea was just the right temperature (you didn’t feel the need to squeal as you got in), the town was larger than I was expecting, and the hotel was great.

Zurich - Calm Before the Storm

Visa Successfully Obtained!

I’ve had a few quiet weekends recently. However, I have just 5 weeks left in Zurich and for two of those I’ll be on vacation, which leaves me with only 3 weeks. It’s round about now that I start to get really busy as I try to see everyone for one last time.

Each time I go back to Egypt, I always seem to have more food in my freezer in Zurich than I meant to have, so I’ve already been doing my best not to buy anything else and to eat up what I have. I’ve also tried to set aside an hour each evening during the week to do something that will need to get done before I leave (I’ve primarily been working on throwing out papers that I don’t really need to keep any more, paying bills, and getting information together for my UK tax return).

One of the things I’ve needed to get done is to apply for a visa for my upcoming trip to St Petersburg. I found it quite a scary process as it started off innocently enough and then the questions got more and more difficult (it was like being on a quiz show!). For example, some of the more difficult questions were to provide the countries you’d visited over the last ten years (and dates) and to provide your previous passport number in addition to your current passport number. And they asked me to say what social media sites I used. I’m not even sure what social media is (is this blog social media? Are my stocks and shares discussion boards social media?), but I mentioned facebook. Hopefully they’ll have seen that I was born pre-internet. Although the internet is my friend (as opposed to mobile phones)!

Another thing that caused me difficulty, a bit like with my UK passport application, was the photograph that I had to provide. I went to a photo booth, but they’re just too technical these days. I took the first photo, but the top of my head (just the top of my hair) was chopped off in the photo, so I took another one. This was successful (in my view), because my full head could be seen, but the booth told me it was invalid. I took another two photographs, but both of these were deemed invalid. I didn’t have the option to abort, so I had no choice but to take the first photo, which I thought would not be accepted. I was so disgruntled, that I thought it would have to do and I wasn’t going to waste more money on the stupid machine. However, I subsequently spent all the time fretting that my application would be declined due to my defective photo.

Anyway, I filled in my application. I had to send off both my passport and my Swiss C permit, so on top of worrying about my photograph, I also felt a bit fretful being without both of these documents.

After ten days, I checked the visa site to see how my application was faring, and to my horror it said “application not found”. Aaargh. I emailed them, but I had a bit of a problem because when they received my email, anything I’d put in red text (in answer to their questions) didn’t show up. However, I’d just realized that the red text was the problem when the doorbell rang and it was the postman with my passport, my Swiss C permit, and my shiny new visa!! So, in the end, it was all actually super quick and not so difficult after all. Hurrah!

Zurich - BadHaus Fest

Lake Zurich, Switzerland

There are some days where you feel you should never have bothered getting up in the first place.

Lena had invited me to her friend’s party at a privileged location by the lake – the friend (or rather, her husband) owned a patch of land by the lake with an accompanying boat house that also had a kitchen, toilet, etc. Each year they hold two parties where there’s a barbecue and you can also swim in the lake (there are steps down into the water). It’s prime real estate in Switzerland.

I seem to be going through a bit of an insomnia phase recently – not sure if it’s age-related, heat-related, too much swimming-related, or what. Anyway, I didn’t wake up until 11am that day, and despite the late hour, I was still in no mood to get out of bed. I forced myself to move, but sat and festered on my balcony with no real desire to do anything.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I should have been full of life and eager to do things. Only I wasn’t.

At the 11th hour (well, probably 3pm), I suddenly forced myself to go to the swimming pool so that I’d have achieved something. I didn’t want to leave my swimming until I got to the party, because I was a bit unsure as to whether other people really would swim and I didn’t want to presume. I could also then wash my hair afterwards, so that I’d look presentable.

So, off I went, got changed at the pool, put my stuff in the locker, closed the padlock … and locked the key inside. My clothes were now irretrievable! I went to the ticket booth at the pool and they sent a young lad to me with a giant set of pliers to snap my padlock in two. Well, in three, actually. I was alert enough at this point to double-check that they were breaking into the correct locker before they started (which they seemed to find quite amusing).

Once all this was done, I barely had time to swim any more. I did a few lengths and hurried back home, completely forgetting to wash my hair.

I was running a bit late, so I dashed off to the station to get the train to meet Lena in town. However, and I’m still not too sure what happened, when I arrived at the station, my train was ten minutes later than I thought. I wondered if I’d got the wrong station (Glattbrugg and Opfikon are very close to each other), so I went to the other station. Indeed, a train for the time I thought was correct was listed, but was pulling out of the station as I got there.

At this point, I realized that mobile phones can be quite useful. I had no idea what was the quickest way to get to my meeting point. I went back to the first station and got the later train.

Actually, it arrived at the time I’d originally planned, so maybe I’d just misremembered the departure time. However, as I got there and met Lena, I realized I’d forgotten that I would need a supplement ticket to get to our final destination. We consequently missed the train to get to the party after all.

The next train got us there. And after that, everything was good. I ate chicken, I swam in the lake – twice! – I got complimented on my swimming, the people were friendly and I didn’t even have to speak German. The location was beautiful; it must be truly amazing to own a bit of land like that – basically, it’s your own private Badi (lido).

Well, everything was good, until it was time to go home. We left rather late, so I was a bit nervous about managing to get back. We got a train OK but then it stopped at a station en route and announced its departure from there was delayed. Then it announced it was cancelled. We got on a train at another platform, but that too didn’t move. Some people got off, some people stayed on. Lena left. I stayed on. There was no announcement. After 15 minutes, I thought I might just leave as well, but then the train suddenly announced it was delayed. I decided this was an improvement over no announcement, and stayed. By this time I’d missed my last bus.

However, it was all OK in the end; the train did eventually depart and it deposited me in Oerlikon, where I got another train to Glattbrugg. The very last train. And so my rather weird day came to an end.

Zurich – New Job (Same Old, New Old)

Home Office - Work in Progress (In More Ways Than One)

I’ve kind of changed employers, but at the same time, not really. That’s my complicated life for you. I’m now working for a partnering company rather than contracting with the company that I used to be with, but my job itself remains exactly the same (same colleagues, same product, etc).

A major upshot of this is that I now have to work from home in Zurich. I hadn’t really given this much thought other than that there wasn’t really anything to stop me from moving to Schaffhausen, for example, if that would reduce my costs.

However, after waiting in for multiple deliveries (new laptop, computer screen, printer, cables, plug adaptors, docking station, keyboard, mouse…), it dawned on me that there was more to this than just continuing with my normal job. I would have to tackle the horror of technical challenges!

Just getting things out of the boxes was a bit of a trial. I think sometimes these things are packed with the assumption that you will have someone there with you to help you unpack. The printer wasn’t the little cheapo printer that I’d been expecting but a fairly large laser printer/scanning machine secured between two large polystyrene walls that fitted very tightly within the box it came in. It wasn’t easy to pull it out of the box if there wasn’t someone to tug at the other end. I tried to shake it out of the box as it almost came free, but the printer fell out of the polystyrene protectors and promptly broke on the floor before I’d even laid eyes on it.

I think it’s fixable, though, but I haven’t got that far yet.

I have now taken everything out of the boxes and have gathered together all the leftover boxes into one single box for the cardboard collection on 26th August (here’s hoping I remember – I've forgotten for the last three months). I have a mountain of bubble wrap and more than a refuse bag full of polystyrene. The mess is quite stressful.

I decided that my old company could dispose of the polystyrene, since it’s always a faff to get rid of (it doesn't fit well in the 35 litre extortionately-priced rubbish bags over here) and I only had the polystyrene in the first place because my old company insisted I move to the new company. I timed this “tourist rubbish disposal” to be at the same time that I knew that there would be cake available in the office (by sheer coincidence, of course). I did the company a favour by eating the last bit of cake as an attempt to tidy up. That’s my thoughtful nature.

At work, we’d recently had an upgrade to our kitchen, so it now contains a freezer with an ice dispenser. I’ve always thought of ice dispensers as a bit superfluous, but in the heatwave that the whole of Europe has experienced this year, it’s been an absolute blessing and I’ve become completely hooked on iced coffee.

At home, I have a typical Swiss fridge with a tiny freezer compartment with no real room for ice cubes. I’ve missed having the ice at the weekends (the ice cube tray was hard to fit in with sloshing water when the freezer compartment was full; there was no level space).

Anyway, I decided I now can’t live without an ice-cube making machine for my coffee breaks. I didn’t even know ice making machines existed until I visited Idette (thank you, Idette!). So, that was yet another box and another load of polystyrene. I don’t think I’ll be able to charge that to work, though!

It took some courage to use it because the manual stated in bold that I could be killed if I didn’t obey the safety instructions immediately. Help! These included not plugging the machine into a multi-socket extension, which is what I’d been planning. I didn’t dare disobey. What if someone came round to kill me?

I used the socket I (never actually) use for the toaster. The ice machine takes a few cycles before the ice cubes get big enough not to melt instantly, and then it was so exciting to see it all happening that I let it go on and on. I ended up with so many that I had to freeze a container full of them, which really defeated the purpose. Hey ho.

However, I’m very happy to be able to have iced drinks at home now. I can work fully stoked up with caffeine. My productivity will be great!

The equipment from the new company also included a mobile phone. It took me a while to find the instructions. Those who know me will know that I’ve progressed when I say that I’ve taken it out of the box and I’ve charged it, but I’ve yet to turn it on (or read the instructions). Gone are the days where I’d be offered a new phone and I’d eagerly say I’d take it, but then just put the unopened box in my cupboard to be forgotten!

Zurich - End of Swimming Lessons

Swimming - Back to Myself

I took a package of six swimming lessons, so this has now finished and I’m back on my own. However, at least I know now what I have to practice and what to watch out for.

Meeting my instructor on the first lesson was actually a bit tricky; I thought we were meeting in the reception area and he thought we were meeting by the pool. Finally, I gave up waiting and went into the pool, thinking I could at least use the time to swim while I was waiting or if he didn’t come at all. It goes without saying that I didn't have my mobile phone with me (but it did occur to me that there are actually some advantages to having a mobile phone after all, especially if you carry it with you).  He turned out to be already downstairs. Consequently, we started late (shock, horror in Switzerland). Fortunately, he was very relaxed about it.

It was a bit tricky at first with “Du” (informal “you” in German) and “Sie” (formal “you” in German). It was clear from the emails we’d exchanged that he was going straight into “Du”, but I’m more used to using “Sie” with people I don’t know and tend to use this automatically. Therefore, in conversation, I’d occasionally switch back to “Sie” without thinking. In return, I think he thought I was being a bit stand-offish, but I’m pretty sure that in the end he realized it was just me as a foreigner struggling to remember to use the correct form!

I was also a bit worried that he may have been the person I once head-banged into in the pool when I was unwittingly swimming the wrong way down the lane (a crime equivalent to driving the wrong way down a one-way street in swimming terms). If it was him, he didn’t let on.

I think by the end of it, I’d managed to cut my 1km swimming pace down by six seconds per 100m (from 2:19 to 2:13; although I could perhaps do more than that if I put more effort in), which wasn’t bad for just six weeks. It’s still slow, though.

However I was pleased and was very happy to have done the lessons as without them I’d have been totally unaware of needing to change my head position or of my legs not kicking properly (among other things). The lessons were also great fun to do and it was nice to have someone’s attention dedicated solely to me. It was a real luxury.

Ironically, I think I’ve made my biggest improvement after the lessons when I decided I’d experiment with changing the timing of my stroke. Once I did this, I felt as if my arm extension and my gliding (that I’d tried during the lessons) both followed on naturally; for once I could feel what it was like to glide and to push forward. Previously, I just couldn’t extend my arm because I had no speed to carry me forward and I felt I was just balancing on the water rather than gliding forward.

Unfortunately the new timing of the stroke seems to make me swim more slowly, but I’m hoping this is because I currently need to concentrate on getting it right and once it comes more naturally, I’ll be able to speed up a bit. It’s still exhausting just now and maybe that’s also in part because of the concentration required.

I have, however, been complimented a few times on my swimming now by complete strangers, which is rewarding!

Netherlands - Another Visit

Figure in One of the Canals at s'Hertogenbosch (Frog is the City's Symbol During Carnival)

I’m continuing on the “same old, same old” theme, in a way. One reason why I was too busy last week to do my blog was because I had spent the weekend in the Netherlands visiting Idette. I did this two years’ ago, although of course this time it was a little different because we did other things.

I arrived easily enough, despite the threat of a “work to rule” at Amsterdam airport. I flew with Swiss and took advantage of the fact that they still offer free alcoholic drinks en route; I was sitting near the back, so by the time they got to me they only had cheese sandwiches left (the meat ones had all been taken). Since I don’t eat cheese, I had to decline (so didn’t get my money’s worth on that score!).

The only thing that went wrong is that I left my kindle on the plane and it hasn’t been found yet (well, I have had a message to say that it hasn’t been found; I’m not sure if that means they delete my notification now). However, the kindle is a few years old and I don’t lose the content, so it’s not too much of a burden (although it’s quite strange to be reading a physical book now).

Anyway, I was met at the airport and Idette had planned a lovely itinerary for me, which she revealed when we’d arrived back at her house and were eating the Dutch equivalent of apple turnovers. We had a bit of a discussion about this because they thought apple turnovers were peculiarly Dutch and had been quite surprised to find a British equivalent. I’m not too sure if either they or we have a particular specification for an apple turnover. It’s not actually a word I think I’ve ever used before, although I know what they are, or at least I thought I did. I think in the UK it’s just apple wrapped in pastry; I’m not entirely sure if it has to be a particular type of pastry or a specified shape. Looking it up on Wikipedia seems to indicate that there are no such strict demands!

Idette has a beautiful garden with a lovely round table around the trunk of a tree for dining. We sat there for a large breakfast on Saturday morning (not too early, I was relieved to hear!). I enjoyed the chocolate sprinkles again and a lovely selection of bread. Of course, the summer this year has been fantastic, so it was wonderful to sit outside in the shade and enjoy the weather.

In the afternoon we went to s’Hertogenbosch. I was surprised to discover that it was actually a city (I should have known!). Even though I came from Switzerland, which is notorious for being clean, I was struck by how ordered and free from litter or graffiti the city was. I had the impression it was cleaner than Switzerland.

We went on a trip on the canals (this is the Netherlands, after all!); a surprising number of statues (maybe better described as comical figures?) were hidden at various places. I chose one as a photo for this blog since that will explain better than my writing! The boats navigated through some very narrow tunnels running under some of the buildings, but it was also surprising at one point to come out into quite a large expanse of water.

The journey took an hour, which shows just how many waterways there are (and I don’t think we did them all). Afterwards, we went to a café to enjoy my favorite Bossche Bollen, which I’ve mentioned when I was there before.

In the evening, we sat outside to have a barbecue in the garden with food aplenty.

The next morning, after breakfast/lunch (again, not too early, phew!) of the Dutch version of a sausage roll (also very tasty – the Dutch do pastry things par excellence!), Idette, Fabienne (her daughter), and I went for High Tea in a local café/restaurant. It was a fine combination of soup (garlic soup!), some wraps, some sandwiches, and then a plate of desserts. And, of course, tea (only I had coffee).

It was then time for me to go home. The whole family was incredibly kind to me and our new-found yearly visits to each other are now a fine tradition! Thank you, Idette and the entire family. You are all wonderful.

Zurich - Busy Bee

Busy Bee

I've been a bit busy over the last week, so am granting myself a week's holiday from the blog. Back to normal service next week All is well!

Zurich - Same Old, Same Old

English Marigold

I’ve written this blog for so long now, it’s hard to find something that I’m doing that I haven’t reported back on before. It’s open-air cinema season just now, so I have tickets booked for both the Allianz cinema (by the lake) and for FilmFluss (by the river). I’ve yet to visit the open-air cinema at Uto-Kulm, so I should look into that. There’s also one at Xenix, I think. So, it’s not as if I’ve done absolutely everything before ; there are some new things for me to try out even now.

I went to Basel to meet up with Steph (been there, done that) and had brunch at the Uto Kulm (but with Candice and Hye-Youn rather than with Geraldine this time).

I seem to be having a bit more luck with my balcony plants this year. Last year, I bought them as ready-grown plants, but for some reason, all the ones in the built-in planter on my balcony shriveled and died. Maybe they had some kind of insect attack?

This year, I planted from seed. I realize now that the seed packets show very magnified pictures of the flowers; they aren’t exactly misleading, but the plants that grew also weren’t quite what I was expecting. I suppose reading the packet more carefully might have helped because some of them were predicted to be 60cm tall, which isn’t really what I wanted.

Moreover, I was a bit surprised that two out of the three plants were marigolds. I had no idea that I’d effectively bought the same thing twice or that marigolds were so diverse (or the English language so poor!). In German, one was called Tagetes. I’ve actually seen these for sale and wouldn’t normally have chosen them, but I only looked at the picture on the seed packet; I didn’t even think to look what they were called. Having said that, they are actually very pretty and they’re doing a good job of blooming profusely, so I’m fairly happy actually. In English, these are called marigolds (or more specifically English marigold).

The other one was called Ringelblume in German. When I looked it up, this was also called marigold (or more specifically pot marigold). It looks completely different from the other one since it has different leaves and a completely different shape flower, so I find it very surprising that they’re both the same plant. And, to be honest, who’d have thought that Ringelblume was the German word for marigold AND Tagetes was the German word for marigold? For once, I think the German language is better since at least you expect two different plants with two different words. Rather aptly, whereas the other one was an English marigold, the Ringelblume turns out to be native to Egypt. It was meant to be! The Ringelblumen were a little slower to flower but are now doing very nicely, although they don’t seem to be able to stand up straight. Maybe I should be tying them up in some way, but I’m leaving them to do their own thing.

The final one was a chrysanthemum; these haven’t bloomed yet, but they’re almost there. Next year, I’ll sow these first and start them off three months earlier if I can. These started off growing tall and straight and looked nice and strong, but we had a storm and it was enough to break one of them in half and for the other one to lie horizontally and never to recover. I have that one propped up at the moment, hoping it will learn to stand straight again. They didn’t look that delicate!

I’ve got loads of seeds left, so next year, this will also be a “been there, done that” moment. However, I’ve learned quite a bit from this year’s attempt, so maybe next year will be even better.

Zurich - Property Market

Out of My Price Range (If it Were For Sale)

For Zurich, my current rent is fairly reasonable and at one point I decided that if I kept my flat on throughout retirement, it would probably cost me less than buying somewhere. Moreover, by renting I’d have more capital available rather than having it tied up and not ready to hand if I wanted to move.

However, recently, quite a few people have been asking me why I haven’t bought, and since I’m a bit of a property addict, I came to question this earlier decision. Property in Zurich is extremely expensive. To have a reasonable choice of apartments, you’d need about a million CHF (if not more); however there is the occasional property still just below 500k CHF or between 500-600k CHF.

The mortgage situation in Switzerland is very different from the UK. In Switzerland, you generally have to put down 20% deposit (although you can pledge your private [not statutory] pension fund for 10%).

Once you have the deposit, most people have two mortgages (yes, two mortgages!) to cover the remaining 80%. One covers approximately 60% of the cost of the property and has an indefinite repayment period (around 1% per year). It’s not really expected that this mortgage ever gets fully paid off. The other mortgage covers the remaining 20% of the property price and must be paid back in 15 years (or before retirement age, I believe).

For those who are used to a system like in the UK, where the idea is that you buy a property and then you don’t have any costs in your retirement, the idea of having a mortgage still to pay until you die is a bit daunting. What’s the point in owning, if you never actually own it?

To add insult to injury, the Swiss system then decrees that once you’ve bought your property, you have to pay income tax on its rental value (even if you’re not actually getting any such income). I’ve heard people say that this is offset by the costs of repairs etc, but it still seems rather weird to me. In addition, your property is regarded as part of your wealth (minus your mortgage / debt), and you are taxed on your wealth.

All this put me off buying property in Switzerland.

However, mortgages are cheap and will often work out as less expensive than rent. So, I would be saving costs. And the old argument still applies that you can sell the property at some stage and thus “save” your rental costs during the period where you lived in the property, whereas rent is lost forever. And although you don’t pay it all off, this also means that actually you still have access to the capital rather than having it tied up in the property. This made me reconsider recently my decision not to buy.

Affordability for a mortgage in Switzerland is judged assuming a 5% interest rate for the mortgage(s), your repayments, plus includes other costs you will have such as maintenance and insurance; you won’t be able to buy if affordability is more than 30% of your income. Interest only mortgages don’t exist.

I saw a property near where I live for less than 500k and that got me thinking. However, it sold really quickly. This is what I’ve observed in Zurich, at least. If a property seems to be very good value, it will usually be off the market within a week or two or sometimes even faster than that. I once saw one disappear in two days.

But all this is still a lot of money and also put me off buying property. For the amount I’d need for deposit, I could buy a property to rent out in the UK and have extra income instead.

And then I realized that if I was prepared to move out to Schaffhausen, which is a town I really like about 40 mins away from Zurich, property prices are about half the price vs Zurich. So maybe I should move? However, tax is higher and the properties do not move so quickly as in Zurich. Having said that, I did view one that I got quite excited about, but this one was sold within about two weeks. At least this means that I have a good eye for which properties are good buys!

I’m a contract worker and I’m still unsure whether I could even get a mortgage. At the moment, I’d also struggle to get the deposit together, even for somewhere in Schaffhausen. This is mostly because I’ve recently started putting any savings towards paying off my UK mortgage (and I’m not sure if my UK mortgages would be a further hurdle to getting a mortgage in Switzerland, although I have equity in the property). I started to ask about whether I could get a mortgage when I don’t have a permanent position, but when the bank started to probe, I realized that my situation is quite complicated and I didn’t have the energy to go through it. I probably need to wait until I have more savings and maybe I need to pay off my UK property first.

It’s all a complicated thought process and I think in the end I need a bit of realism as to my actual current financial situation which doesn’t really match what I need to have. It’s back to “Next year, Rodney…”

Zurich - Swimming Lessons

A Clip from My Swimming Video!

When I spent the month of May in Egypt, I was swimming about 1.5km most days, stretching to 2km at the weekends. I’d hoped that this endurance training would make it easier when I got back to Opfikon and I’d be speeding along for my usual 1.3km. However, to my great disappointment, my swimming speed had decreased while I was away.

Over a few sessions, I gradually returned to my former speed, but I concluded that I was getting faster not because my technique was improving but because I was putting in more effort. I really wanted to swim faster because I was swimming better, not because I was constantly racing with myself.

I’ve watched tons of videos online of swimming drills and I started to do them myself. However, I found it really difficult to work out what I was doing wrong or what I should focus on most to improve. Moreover, even when I did the drills I watched online, I was never entirely sure if I was doing them correctly. I felt I’d reached a plateau and the more I tried to improve, the more confused I got.

So, I decided to take some swimming lessons. I’d been thinking about doing this for a while, but had always been a bit nervous about it. I think in my head I’d got having lessons a bit mixed up with having a training practice. I didn’t really want to have someone forcing me to swim faster than I really felt comfortable with and I didn’t want to have to say that I just couldn’t do it. In the end, I rationalized that I was paying for it and no-one could force me to do something I didn’t want to do.

As it turned out, my fears were unfounded. I’d also been a bit concerned that it would be a young guy in his 20s with high expectations that my energy levels could match his when I’m thirty years older. However, it wasn’t someone in their 20s, and if anything, on my first lesson, I was a bit surprised at how long a break he gave me between lengths.

Anyway, I’m learning loads and he’s videoing me so that I can see for myself what it is I’m doing in the water. The most astonishing thing for me was being told that I don’t look down in the water, when I could have sworn that I was doing this perfectly well. However, once he said it, I could understand what he meant. Another eye-opener was that I use my left leg only 25% of the time when I’m kicking. I also have problems extending my arms. Yes, there’s a lot to improve (that wasn’t such a surprise)!

I’m also understanding that just swimming distance alone isn’t the best way to improve. It’s better to have rests and to do drills that help you swim a good stroke (your stroke will deteriorate as you tire, so then you’re just practicing a bad swimming style). I’ve put this into practice; I’m now resting after each length; of course my speed is faster (because I’m less tired), but that feels a bit of a cheat, since my wish is to swim even long distances faster (and with better technique). However, despite all the rests in between laps, I’ve been exhausted after my practice sessions and my arms have been aching, so I guess it’s doing something. I just need to be able to keep that speed up consistently, so I’ll go back to incorporating the occasional distance swim, I think.

I know my speed will go down again when I do swim further, but I need to have some confidence now that I can still do distance and that I'm not relying too much on all those rests! Incidentally, I’ve found a great calculator that tells you how much time you will need to swim, eg, 1km without rest, if you input the time it takes when you swim, eg, just 100m in one go. The calculator doesn’t just take the speed at 100m and multiply it; instead it decreases the speed incrementally using a formula to allow for the fact that you will tire. It was pretty accurate for me when I compared my "fast" 400m swim in my last lesson with my "steady" 1km that I'd done just the day before.

He’s warned me not to expect miracles (swimming takes a lot of practice), but it’s so enlightening that just the learning is reward enough. Here’s his website for anyone in the Opfikon/Ruemlang area who may be interested: www.besser-schwimmen.ch