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!