El Andalous - Trying out the Pool

El Andalous - Larger Pool

Well, it seems that 2019 is all about trying out different swimming pools. Hmm, I guess you could use that as a metaphor for trying out different things in life, since it seems that many people around me are going through a year of change this year.

Anyway, I arrived back in El Andalous and went to the beach (as you do). I’d been looking forward to swimming in the sea and revisiting all my fish friends, but as I dipped my feet in the water, it was just too cold. Either that, or I’m becoming more and more of a wimp. Or I was tired after my flight and not able to stand the stress of submersing myself in water that was less than warm. It was disappointing because I’d come back in May specifically because the sea is usually warmer by then.

Later in the week, Nicole informed me that temperatures had been only 22-23 degrees in the preceding weeks, so I guess the sea hadn’t had time to warm up. On the day of my arrival, and every day since, it’s been around 30 degrees each day, but the sea is a large expanse and won’t warm up immediately. The lake in Zurich can quite often be warmer in the afternoon than in the morning, but that’s not really so with the sea.

So, on that first day, I just sat and read on the beach instead. On the way back to my flat, I dipped my foot into the water in our pool, and it felt OK. The following day was a bit cloudy and I couldn’t come over here and not swim, so I decided to try out the pool.

I’ve been here almost 6 years now and I’ve never used our pool. Now I think about it, that’s quite astonishing. People have recommended it to me, but I’ve turned my nose up at it, saying it’s too small for a proper swim. But now I needed to swim, I didn’t want to try the sea again if it was cloudy, and so I decided that even though the pool was small, I could still use it to do drills and to perfect my technique.

The water was a lovely temperature – I’d guess about 27 degrees (heated by the sun). And, to my surprise, it ended up being a lot larger than I thought it was. I used GPS on the first day to measure how long it was, and the GPS seemed to indicate it was about 24 metres long. The next day, I set my watch to pool setting (setting the size at 24m) rather than open water swim setting. However, my swimming statistics were way out so I decided that my 24m estimate must be wrong. Eventually, I settled on the length being around 30m; my strokes per length and speed were then roughly in proportion to what I swim in a 25m pool. Wow, 30m. That’s bigger than my local pool and the Kloten pool! All these years I’ve been maligning the pool as inadequate for my purposes and actually it’s been ideal.

So, I’m now fully converted to using the pool whenever it’s cloudy or rather windy. I’m loving the extra flexibility of choice. Even better, I often have the pool to myself, which is a real luxury. Its shape is rather curvy (which probably makes it look smaller) and there’s no line on the bottom, so it’s a good place to discover whether I’m managing to swim in a straight line or whether I have an unbalanced stroke. I often end up careering to one side or the other, so it really is useful to try it out and spot my deficiencies in my stroke.

On some days, there are people there and it’s been a place also to get talking to some other people. I met the wife of our accountant in there and got talking to a doctor (who I already knew) who owns a flat here. However, it’s always empty at some point in the day and even when it’s cloudy here, it’s perfectly warm, so I can swim and dry off with no problem. It’s also just outside my flat, I can go from my flat just in my dressing gown as I don’t leave our building’s premises, and I don’t need to wear my swimming shoes / Crocs. It’s absolutely perfect. What a discovery!

Zurich to Hurghada

El Andalous from the Plane

I’m back in Egypt for a month. I think I had the smoothest journey back ever.

Since I’m thinking of returning to Egypt full-time from October this year, I effectively started packing for my removal from Zurich. Of course, many things I still need in Zurich from June onwards, but I packed some of my ornaments (although I wasn’t quite sure where they’d go in my Egypt flat, as it’s already quite cluttered), my European summer duvet (in Zurich I’ll make do with blankets if I need them), and most of my winter clothes (including shoes). It was quite surprising just how much fitted into my suitcases. As last time, I had to take three laptops with me (which will also have to come back with me, ugh). In my hand luggage, I sneaked in a couple of boxes of cereal so that I could treat myself while I was in Egypt to my creature comforts.

I went to the airport to get clarification on what was allowed in your luggage and the restriction on laptops had lifted, so I was allowed to put them in my suitcases rather than my hand luggage. That was already a big improvement over my last journey. Also, the flight was at 0650 which, although horribly early, is still much better than 0610.

I fretted a bit about all the electronics I had with me in my hand luggage (3 phones, my TV streamer, my camera, my tablet, my alarm clock, my kindle, and one other item that escapes me just now). I’d read that you were allowed a maximum of 6, but hoped that they wouldn’t count or that I could take twice as much on business.

I trundled with 2 suitcases and 2 pieces of hand luggage (a rucksack and a handbag) to the bus stop in good time (the pre-dawn buses often arrive early). I must have looked suitably laden down because a guy with a gammy leg and a walking stick offered to help me on the bus with my luggage. I declined, but he insisted and grabbed the largest suitcase (which, unknown to him, was actually the lightest) and heaved it on to the bus for me while I lifted the other one and my hand luggage. I felt a little bad about it, but was also very grateful and persuaded myself that actually he was probably happy to feel useful and not handicapped. He helped me off the bus as well, so really it was all super smooth.

I’d put all my electronics in a plastic bag so that I could just tip them out into the tray as I went through security, but it turned out that they only counted my kindle and my tablet as electronic items anyway, so I needn’t have stressed.

There was enough time for me to go into the business lounge briefly and get some cereal and a coffee. I had no apprehensions at all about returning to Egypt this time. I was happy to be returning and my heart was light. I think this means I’m fully settled!

For the first time ever, I was the only person sitting in business, so that felt a bit odd. I wasn’t quite sure I wanted all the attention, but I did feel like royalty with the whole cabin to myself. The early morning business fight is never as good as the later return flight – no fancy chocolates, smaller meal, and I’m less in the mood to drink alcohol (although I do get to use the business lounge on that leg of the journey)! I had a couple of glasses of champagne and that was it. The mid-morning snack (after breakfast) was a cheese thing, so I couldn’t eat that. But these are minor things; the fight was pleasant and smooth and it went fast enough.

On the return flight to Egypt, they always announce “enjoy your holiday”, and each time I think that this doesn’t apply to me! It always makes me feel a bit special to be living there, though, and not just going for a vacation.

Being the only person in business also meant that I was the first person to leave the plane. I had bought my visa in advance online, so I went straight to passport control. I didn’t dare look behind me to see if anyone just blindly followed me (presumably most of them would need their visas at the airport or from their tour rep). The guy at passport control said something to me twice that I didn’t understand, so I’ll just have to hope that it wasn’t anything important.

I was stopped by security on the way out – they were a bit suspicious of my three laptops and wanted to be sure that they weren’t new. I assured them they were old. They also queried my Jabra, which I use for speaking over the internet on calls. They asked if it was a music box, so I decided just to say it was rather than have to try to explain. You might be able to use it to play music; I’m not sure. And then I was let through.

We arrived early and I’d booked ABC Taxis rather than Esmat – I’ve had problems the last few times with meeting the person that Esmat has sent to collect me and also Esmat’s fares have gone up quite a lot. It was also in part due to the fact that I had a new phone and couldn’t access Esmat’s number (another blog, maybe). Anyway, the guy from ABC Taxis was maybe 5 minutes late, but I met him easily enough and the drive was pleasant and 75LE cheaper than Esmat (125LE instead of 200 LE).

I received the usual “welcome back” from the staff at El Andalous and my flat was clean (with a few things out of place, as is normal). It was the first time that I’ve entered the flat and actually thought it looked like a nice flat (I’m usually aware that it’s a bit over-cluttered), even though there was nothing different about it. Maybe it’s just because psychologically I’m gearing up to this being my main residence again.

All in all, a good trip, though!

Blog Holiday

Bear with Me! (WildnisPark Langnau)

Sorry, totally forgot to write my blog as I'm preparing to go back to Egypt for one month and now need to focus on packing! Back as usual next Monday!

Zurich - Trying Out a New Pool

Swimming Pool at Kloten

It’s quite frustrating with my local pool being closed as it’s not so easy to go swimming. I have to allow more time for the journey and time myself according to public transport rather than just walking out the door when I’m ready (which is much more my style).

I’ve mostly been going to the Oerlikon pool. It has 50m lanes and is often quite busy compared with my old pool. The 50m length is good exercise for me. Even though I do 1km non-stop in the open water, somehow I find 50m in a pool quite challenging. Maybe it’s the pressure of swimming with other people around me, or maybe the whole psychology of being in a pool with lanes giving the impression of serious speedier swimming, or maybe that there’s a fixed / potential stopping point to aim for, or perhaps even all of these things that makes me unwittingly tense up.

Since I don’t want to have to overtake or be overtaken, I’ve changed my training from swimming distance to swimming one length at a time and focusing on technique, with each length having its own focal point. I’m quite enjoying this.

However, I’ve been missing my quiet 25m pool, both because it’s quiet and also because 25m is much easier if I’m trying out a new drill or just generally. So, I decided to go to Kloton and try out the pool there as I’d heard it was good.

I always feel nervous going to a new pool for the first time. I decided to buy a 12-for-10 ticket (although I wish I’d bought a 6-month pass now). This lets you in electronically. It shouldn’t really have stumped me, but the gate to go out had been left open (which, unknown to me, shouldn’t be), so I wasn’t sure if I needed to check myself on the way in or on the way out. I thought about just going in through the exit and maybe getting a free swim, but my conscience got the better of me and so I hopped about on the spot agonizing over what I should be doing. In the end, I was there so long that another person came along and went in, so I just followed her (it turns out that you check yourself in and on the way out, so sirens would probably have wailed if I’d exited without a corresponding check-in recorded).

The changing rooms have a rather (to my mind) strange allocation of a barefoot zone, so I couldn’t go straight to the toilet and I didn’t want to wait until I was undressed, so I broke that rule but was just waiting for someone to reprimand me (nowadays, I just yank my shoes off if I need to go first!).

I changed and then duly took my shower before going to the pool. However, an alarm sounded just as I stepped out of the area. I stood, paralysed, my first thought being that I must have triggered it somehow; I must have looked how I was feeling because someone else who was there reassured me that it was OK. It turned out it was just a man coming in to check for cleanliness. My nerves were in tatters.

I stepped out into the corridor going to the pool but was confused to see steps going up (you usually go down to get to a swimming pool) and so I wondered if I was going in the wrong direction, particularly since there was a strong smell of urine. I returned to the changing rooms, but all the signs indicated that I was going in the right direction, and the steps were the only way to go at the end of the corridor. It was indeed correct.

It was a huge relief to be in a quiet, 25m pool again (not to mention to have actually found it). I had a lane to myself and swimming 25m was so much easier and such a luxury. I felt I could have gone on forever. However, the armband with my locker key fell off during all my exertion and was now in the middle of the pool. I swam over it time and time again as I did my laps, trying my best not to think about it. But I knew that at some point I’d have to speak to someone. Ugh. Eventually, I asked who I thought must be a lifeguard if he could retrieve it. To my surprise, he spoke to two young girls in the children’s pool (they looked about 6 years old!) and they came over to the main pool and deftly dived down and retrieved it quicker than I could blink. It was impressive.

On returning to the dressing room, I found it a bit bizarre that you seem to have to bring your own hairdryer, although plug points are provided. After I’d dressed, I finally located some fixed, wall-hung hair dryers but these were in the dreaded barefoot zone. Once again, I had to break the rules by entering this area in my shoes. I wanted to be quick and unobtrusive, but unfortunately I couldn’t fathom why the hairdryers wouldn’t work. I kept on moving my head underneath one of them, but no hot air came out. I tried another one, but that didn’t work either. It was most puzzling. Finally, the cleaner (who didn’t mention my shoes) informed me that I needed to press a button to turn it on. Doh.

However, despite all these agonizing moments, the pool was great. I’d like to go there all the time, but the trains only go every 30 minutes, so it’s not practical. I now save this pool as my weekend treat to myself. And, of course, I’m an old hand now, so no more traumas.

Zurich - Cultural Events

Museum fuer Gestaltung, Zurich

My time in Zurich is always a time to attend some cultural events, since there’s not much available in Hurghada. Even going to the cinema is difficult in Egypt because the cinema in Senzo Mall closed and even when it was open, it was hard to know whether films were in English or Arabic; the cinema program was also not so easily accessible.

Anyway, I’m back in Switzerland and now I can enjoy these things (along with the ease of public transport to get there, although the amount I pay for public transport is probably more than I pay for taxis in Egypt).

Dance/ballet is always my primary focus, so I’ve already seen a few dance things. One was Terpiscore at Theater Rigiblick. It was the first time I’d been in there (I’m constantly surprised that there are places I still haven’t visited in Zurich!); I’d been outside before, but never inside. Anyway, Terpisocre was a baroque dance (yes, unusual!) with music from Handel and his contemporary Schieferdecker (who I hadn’t heard of before). I didn’t read up on it beforehand; the first piece was obviously about a love interest, but the second part passed me by (although I enjoyed watching it) until Lena mentioned that the woman who I assumed was playing a drunk was actually playing the wind. Oh well.

It was a nice theatre with good visibility from the seats, although it’s nothing grand and holds only 200 people. Seats aren’t reserved, so you just go in and take whatever seat you can find. There’s a bar there and the atmosphere before and after was really nice with people milling around and chatting over drinks at their leisure. It did make me think that the retired in Zurich have a great quality of life going from one performance to another and sipping a wine to relax afterwards.

It was snowing when we went and it was surprising to see how much more the snow laid even just going up the hill to get to the theatre.

The other thing I attended was a Brazilian dance company in Winterthur called Grupo Corpo performing Danca Sinfonica and Gira. I was somehow expecting the dance to be more modern, but I found it quite classical in nature and beautifully choreographed. I preferred the first half, whereas I think Lena preferred the second half, which was inspired by spiritual rituals. This is not to say that any of it was not brilliant; the two halves were very different which is also what made it so good.

And on another day I went to see a photographic exhibition by Sebastiao Salgado – Genesis – at the Museum fuer Gestaltung in Zurich. Again, this was somewhere I’d never been before. What have I been doing all this time? I’d understood it to be nature photography and an exhibition aiming to show remote parts of the world and to awaken understanding that we need to preserve nature. However, quite a large proportion of the photos were of remote tribes. Every time I see man living in nature and having nothing else, I almost yearn for that life, although to be honest, I do enjoy my modern-day, consumerist items (such as KFC).

I think I was most fascinated by the clothes of the tribe in the arctic regions – they were beautiful, made of animal skin and fur and very padded in order to be able to survive in the cold. Another tribe that fascinated me was one that lived in tree houses (it reminded me a bit of a book I’d just read where one of the [science fiction] tribes lived in tree houses). It was also interesting that some of the people in remote tribes kept pets, which for some reason I hadn’t expected. And it struck me that art is essential even in these remote tribes (in the form of entertainment, painting / decorating (burning) their bodies).

Of the nature photographs, I think I was most fascinated by the close-up of a lizard-like creature. The scales looked like silver and so beautifully spaced, it looked like a work of art in itself.

So, I haven’t done too badly since I’ve been back, even though I always berate myself for not being dynamic enough!

Zurich - Wildnispark Langenberg

Baby Bear at Wildnispark Langenberg

For a lot of March this year, the weather was stunning. It’s been fairly cold (at least to my Egypt-accustomed skin), but we’ve had blue sky most days. I haven’t really made the most of it, although the cold puts me off and somehow I’m faffing about a lot these days.

Anyway, last weekend, Steph came over so that we could catch up on each other’s news. She’d suggested going to Rapperswil, which would indeed be beautiful in this weather, but at the same time she’d been there before and it was a Sunday, so many things would be closed.

After thinking for a while, I decided we could go to Wildnispark Langenberg. I haven’t been there for ages, maybe a decade even. I’ve been before with Geraldine and Sheila, I’m pretty sure. The most surprising thing about the WIldnispark is that it’s free – for Switzerland, this is astonishing. Wikipedia tells me that it’s the oldest wildlife park in Switzerland.

Anyway, it’s basically a zoo but all the animals are in huge enclosures of natural woodland, so walking around it is a bit like doing a safari because you may or may not be able to spot the animals. They have informative plaques up with some key facts (number of young, gestation period, etc) and pictures and for me, it’s just enough information to make it worth reading and not so much or so dense that you want to give up before you start.

It’s a huge place and actually we barely touched it. However, we did spot deer, antelope, wild pig, bears, and wolves. Oh, and humans, of course. They labeled the outside area with the restaurants and café as the Human enclosure. It was pretty busy, so there were plenty of humans to be seen, along with a fair number of infants.

Unfortunately, my camera decided not to work on sporadic occasions (it’s not that old, and it was expensive, so I’ll be upset if it’s already had its day – it’s called Olympus Tough, so I expect it to be sturdy!). However, maybe it’s for the best because I’m not sure how many photographs of animals I really need.

Steph was keen to see a lynx, but I seem to have been the only person there incapable of seeing it, although, to be fair to myself, I think it wasn’t that easy to spot. I kept on deliberately looking elsewhere in the enclosure because what usually happens is that everyone’s fixated on the creature that’s difficult to see and then another animal is just sitting there in plain sight that no-one has noticed. However, on this occasion, this wasn’t the case. Or at least, I didn’t see it, which might not be saying very much.

The day went really quickly because we’d been robbed of an hour in the morning with the changing of the clocks; also I am not good at getting up early and on top of that, we spent some time eating. However, apparently, we managed to do 10,000 steps, which was as astonishing to me as it not costing anything to get in. So, I suppose we didn’t really do too badly at all, and it gives you an idea of the size of the place.

Steph managed to drop something in one of the enclosures, so on our way back we tried to retrieve it through a system of getting a stick to get a stick which could then get the item in question. It wasn’t really her fault, as the connector just popped off her water bottle and flew into the enclosure when its logical flight path should have been to go to the pavement (not that any flight path was intended; no take off was planned!). Fortunately, the enclosure housed deer, so we were not in any mortal danger.

Anyway, it was a good day out and I was surprised that it had been so long since I’d last been there. If you have children (or even if you don’t), I can highly recommend it.

Zurich - Swimming Course

Opfikon Pool - Closed for 18 Months

I’m still at a plateau with my swimming and now my local pool is closed, so I feel a little bereft. I decided to get a year’s subscription to the Oerlikon pool since the bus segues quite nicely with the tram, meaning I can get there without too much problem. The good thing about Oerlikon is that it’s a 50m pool; the bad thing about it is that it’s always busy (or so it feels).

I’ve given up trying to do a non-stop kilometer when I’m at the pool and am focusing more on drills and improving my technique while I have the comfort of a pool to do it in. There are certain exercises that are a bit difficult to do in the open water – such as “no arm swimming” (the sea is too rough for something where I won’t have much propulsion, at least given my ability),improving breathing technique (hard to know if you’ve not rolled your head far enough or whether it was just a pesky wave), and also any attempt to see what makes the biggest impact on my speed or lack thereof (because the sea conditions are never the same). Consequently, it’s rather nice being back in the pool and able to concentrate on these things with more confidence.

I noticed a poster at the pool saying that there were still places available on an advanced crawl course. I bravely (because it involved speaking German to a Swiss person and thus me potentially not understanding them or even them not understanding me) enquired what “advanced” meant. The man at the desk said I needed to be able to swim 100m without feeling out of breath, so I decided to sign up.

I got increasingly nervous as the day approached for me to join the group (it was already in its 3rd week) – would I be good enough, would it all be very Swiss, would I be able to do it? Also, the sheet told me that the group would meet at the non-swimmers’ section (!). This itself caused me many a worry. This wasn’t just a beginners’ course was it? Surely the meeting place was just for the first lesson, but this was the third lesson, so where were they meeting now? How would the teacher know I’d paid and was she expecting me?

I stood like a plonker at the designated place, but no-one turned up. I wandered over to the end of the swimmers’ pool where I could see what looked like a lesson taking place, although I wasn’t entirely sure it was my lesson (they didn’t really seem to be doing crawl). I asked the lady who then pointed me to a woman sitting with someone on the steps at the other end of the pool.

She was deep in conversation but I finally got her attention and she told me to go to the other end of the pool. I was confused, so I just stayed there wanting to ask another question, but she got a bit annoyed and said she’d be there soon, so I wandered back down to the other end. It was then that I spotted five people hanging around (who all looked very fit and very professional, throwing me into another tizzy). These things are just so daunting!

Eventually she came and, after introductions, told us to swim 200m as a warm up. Whoops, the man had only specified 100m; I began to panic again about the level required. I’d comforted myself previously that this was a course and not a training session and thus I wouldn’t be expected to tire myself out. Then further confusion entered my mind as it seemed that she hadn’t booked a lane and we were to swim in the same lane as the other course that was going on. This wasn’t very Swiss. The Swiss are supposed to be orgnanised.

The other group was much slower, so although I started swimming crawl, I had to go into breast stroke, since I don’t like overtaking people. I did my designated lengths (mostly crawl, since the other class eventually moved). The teacher then pronounced that I’d never done a swimming course before, so I nodded and then she asked me if I could swim. I thought this was a bit bizarre because surely she’d just seen me swimming? My technique couldn’t possibly be that bad? I explained that I could do crawl, which she seemed to accept (what else could she do, though? This was little comfort).

She then asked if I’d prefer High German since she’d been speaking very strong dialect up to that point, so I said it would be easier for me. She took it upon herself to announce this to the whole group in a tone of voice that said she knew it was inconvenient for everyone but what could they do (or at least that was my take on it). It was all my nightmares and more.

However, I enjoyed the class itself. The others were friendly, but they were Swiss, so I was too shy to speak to them much. Most of the time I didn’t really understand the exercises I was supposed to be doing, but I quite enjoyed giving it a go. I got a bit muddled when we had to put swimming gloves on as she told me I had mine on the wrong way and the black bit had to go on the inside, so I started to turn them inside out. Fortunately one of the others showed me that the black bit was on the palm and then the penny dropped. This was pretty indicative of the entire lesson with me continually misunderstanding.

The teacher corrected my drills a few times, but I’m not sure I was doing it right even afterwards. Nevertheless, at the end of it, I felt I could have continued on and I felt energized, so despite everything I’m glad I went. Another seven lessons to go!