El Andalous - Christmas 2016

Christmas Present from My Brother - Flowers and Christmas Cake with Maltesers, Kit-Kat, Mars Bar...

Merry Christmas everyone!

It’s actually been pretty cold here, but I’m failing to get any sympathy. It’s more the wind than anything else – when I arrived back, I wore bed socks at night, used a blanket, had to wear a cardigan when I was sitting outside. I’ve been back almost 2 weeks, and yet I’ve only managed to swim three times in that period. I am beginning to think I may as well have stayed in Switzerland.

The temperature is around 21-24 degrees (which is why I’m not getting any sympathy), it’s just the wind that makes it chilly. If you can get a wind breaker on the beach and position it correctly, you can be OK. But it’s definitely winter. I’ve never had a year yet like this; previously I’ve been able to swim pretty much every day throughout the year. I was beginning to wonder if I’d just softened up, but when we had our first non-windy day and I was able to go to the beach, I realized that this was how it usually is. It’s most definitely an unusual winter. I feel sorry for people taking a holiday here just now. Another bit of bad luck for Egypt.

An additional sign that it’s winter is that I’m now back to drinking hot (filter) coffee. That seems just unthinkable in the summer months. Maybe it’s a hangover from Switzerland, but I’ve taken a real craving for a piping hot caffe latte in the afternoons. When I haven’t been able to swim, I’ve quite often wandered down to either Chez Paul, Il Gusto, or BestWay for a caffe latte. At home, I finally dusted off (literally) my filter coffee machine and started to make my own coffee, too. I’ve bought 6 cans of diet coke, which are sitting in the fridge, and I haven’t had a single one yet.

I don’t know if it was just me, but it seemed to me that Senzo Mall had more decorations up this year for Christmas. Even locally, they are doing more – there’s a large tent being put up on the beach by Il Gusto for three days of activities to see in the new year. Also the Piazza seems to be having things erected inside it, although I haven’t heard of anything going on there.

I didn’t see turkey this year in Spinneys, but I bought a duck instead for Christmas day (I was originally under the impression that I’d bought a goose, but that’s just because I either didn’t read properly or I bought duck and then changed it to “goose” in my memory).

It was the first time I’d ever cooked a whole duck. I did pretty well. It fitted in the oven, which was one thing I forgot to consider (I only have a small portable oven). It was a bit difficult to time the vegetables etc, since my electricity can’t handle me having the oven and my hob on at the same time. However, I cooked the date sauce in advance, and I cooked the giblets the day before, and I parboiled the potatoes before I put the duck in the oven. This is pretty organized for me. It tasted good, but I completely forgot to take a photograph. The half-mauled duck doesn’t look quite so photogenic, so it’s a bit too late now.

On the 24th, I went out with the Lotus Ladies for a Christmas meal. I was relieved that this year we did not have to prepare stuff and bring it along as in previous years; this time, we just paid and had the meal at Bulls (a restaurant in Hurghada). That was when I got my full turkey Christmas meal. They even prepared stuffing (labeled “stuffiny”), because one of the Brits, who couldn’t attend, had insisted on it. It was lovely to have a typically British Christmas dinner. I think the other nationalities who were there (Egyptian, Dutch, Belgian, Polish... at my end of the table) were a bit perplexed by the stuffing.

So, I think that’s now my 4th Christmas over here in Egypt. Every year, it’s been a bit different, but it’s always fun!

Zurich - The Fun Times

Gluehwein at Stadelhofen Station, Zurich

So, I’ve spent two blogs explaining all my moving woes, but I also spent a lot of time socializing and having fun. It actually started as soon as I landed.

Lena met me at the airport since she had my keys, so, after dumping my luggage, we went out to explore my new local area for somewhere to eat. It was a Sunday, so some of the restaurants were closed.

We didn’t really want to be out exploring for too long in the cold. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant that had a recommendation by TripAdvisor, according to the sticker on the door. It didn’t look particularly open, but there were some people lounging about watching football. We decided against it and left the building until we noticed that it had an extension to the right decked out with plants and brightly coloured paint. We went back in and got a table.

The menu was varied – I had chicken wings and chips – and the portions were large and reasonably priced for Zurich. I would definitely go back there again.

The next day Steph arrived for a stay over, so I did my best to prepare a thank you meal for both Steph and Lena (who also must have got tired of traipsing all the way to Glattbrugg all the time), although Steph was doing her best to continue to be the one to welcome me! I cooked chicken, but failed to realize that her green pan was green because it was in a plastic green container. It wasn’t until it started to make weird cracking noises as the chicken cooked that I realized my mistake. I was mortified at ruining her beautiful pan on my very first cooking attempt. This is the one major downside of using someone else’s things – the responsibility is just huge.

I went out with Caterina for drinks later in the week (I also had a tasty soup). We were lucky to catch the opening night of Oerlikon station, which has been being upgraded for about 6 years or more. They say there are something like 80 shops but I could only see about 15; however it’s great to have places there where you can grab something to eat, pick up something from the pharmacy, buy a book… I never thought I’d still be in Switzerland to see this finalized. Having said that, there are still lots of works going on in the vicinity which will take at least another year to finish, I think. But they are getting there!

We then arranged to meet up with Steph and Nicolas in Basel. Unfortunately, Caterina got ill, so only I went in the end. I’ve already posted a photograph from that two weeks ago. It was very busy, but quieter around the cathedral, where it was really pleasant to wander round. We tasted some gluehwein, which is a must while I am in Switzerland at this time of year. In Basel they serve the gluehwein in a china winter shoe with a snowy Basel picture on it. Very cute!

The following day I went to see Mummenschanz at Theater 11 with Lena. I’d seen it before quite some years ago – it’s a bit hard to categorise. This show was called “musicians of silence” so there was no music but people dressed in funny shapes which somehow gain personality as they move about the darkened stage. There were lots of children in the audience who added to it considerably with their “oohs” and “aahs”.

Thursday was the work Christmas party – the theme was “round the world” so I went in Egyptian attire. I thought the food was really excellent – a nice duo of soups to start with, then beef, and a buffet of desserts. I thought it was taking place in the Kunsthaus, so was really surprised when the bus took us to the Dolder!

On Friday, I went out for lunch with Peter from work – now that I don’t sit in my usual corner as I’m hot-desking, we don’t get much of a chance to catch up. So, this was our opportunity. We’d waited for a few days in the hope that Caterina would get better, but she was still off work.

Pam came over to visit from Friday, so Hye-Youn, Pam, Candice, and I had quite a bit planned – on Friday, champagne tasting followed by queuing and finally getting into the Clouds bar/restaurant in the Prime Tower to take in some spectacular views of Zurich whilst eating. Then I finally got round to visiting the Zurich Christmas markets with Pam on Saturday – only in Zurich can you find a tree in public display decorated with Swarowski crystals (last week’s blog photo). It is quite spectacular. It was good to see the Christmas market after a few years’ break, since I saw some stalls that I hadn’t seen before.

Following that, I went with Hye-Youn to a free 20-minute concert in the opera house, which was part of the open-doors events for advent. And then on Sunday we all went for brunch at the Dolder. I’m sure I must have blogged about that before.

So, if anyone is feeling aggrieved that they didn’t see me, it really wasn’t intentional. I was just chock-full busy for most of the time. My next stay in Zurich will be for longer (all going to plan), so I hope to see everyone then.

Zurich - Still Learning

Christmas in Zurich - Only Swarowski Decorations Will Do!

I had 16 days in Zurich. As usual, I expected to have quite a bit of free time now that I’m working only 60%, but the reality was that my life seemed to fast-forward with no time to pause!

This is the first time I’ve had my own lights installed in a flat. Before, I’ve always used standard lamps, but there are relatively few sockets in my new flat and it seemed easier just to install some lights straight away. It was also an opportunity to find out how this all worked. It turned out to be a bit of an eye-opener for me as this is one thing that is very different in Switzerland than in the UK.

As in last week’s blog, when you move into a flat in Switzerland, you just have wires sticking out of the ceiling, so you have to get an electrician in. What I hadn’t realized is that the Swiss pretty much only buy complete hanging lamps for their homes. In the UK, when you move into a new flat, you usually have a cable coming down with a socket attached into which the new tenant will insert a bulb and add their own lampshade. No electrician required.

Consequently, as a Brit, I just thought I had to get the electrician to put in the cable and the socket for the bulb and then I could choose my lampshades at my leisure. When the electrician came and I asked him to do this, he looked at me as if I was completely nuts!

He looked at the lampshade that I had, laughed, and told me that I’d forgotten to take the cable and the socket with me. I explained that for a Brit, bringing just a lampshade was normal. He shook his head and said he didn’t carry cable with him and I’d have to order it and he’d have to treat it like a repair job. It was bizarre, although he no doubt thought that it was me who was being strange. There was a little friction at first, in part because I couldn’t really believe what I was hearing (“huh, you don’t carry any cable with you or any sockets?”), but once he realized I wasn’t going to go into a strop, he lightened up and ended up being very pleasant.

Anyway, although I had two strip lights and one other light that he could hang, I had to postpone doing the rest of the lights until I’d bought some more lights. This meant I had the trauma of having to use my phone and speak in German again to make another appointment, but once I’d got round to it, it was fine, actually.

Steph had bought a light from Ikea for me that I had chosen, but I hadn’t realized that my ceilings were so low. I had to move my furniture around so that the light would hang somewhere where no-one would walk, otherwise it would just be in the way. I’d also forgotten that, with it being Ikea, some construction would be required. I spent about four hours fixing 84 snowflake shapes to the shade!

You’d think that with an entire nation needing to buy hanging lights, shops would be full of them. However, I found it surprisingly hard to find anywhere with a large selection – particularly since I failed to get to Ikea myself. Migros had only one left of the one I wanted – they had a few beautiful, more expensive lights, but I’m not willing to spend that much when I’m on only a temporary contract. I had no idea that this fixing lights malarkey would be so time-consuming!

I learned another lesson about Swiss life when I asked the letting agent to get a plumber to sort out my shower for me. I actually needed the plumber to sort out my shower, a dripping tap, a blocked basin, and a radiator that wouldn’t turn off. I just mentioned the shower because that was the most important thing and it was otherwise rather a lot to explain in German. I thought it would be easier just to show the plumber when he or she came round.

The plumber eventually came round and sorted out my shower, reluctantly agreed to unblock my basin but, to my surprise, he refused to do anything else. He said he couldn’t do it, because he needed the agreement first from the letting agency. It was so frustrating as it will be another call-out charge. I got the impression that he was in a bit of a rush, so I’m not sure if I was also a bit unlucky, but it had never occurred to me that there had to be some kind of formal agreement with the letting agent before he could do it. That’s what I get for being too lazy to explain things properly, but it’s also a good example of how much the Swiss like to live by rules and to abide by timekeeping.

I also find it quite astonishing that after having been in Switzerland for about 9 years (including my years away in Egypt), I’m still learning new things about the culture!

Zurich - My New Home

Christmas in Basel

Arriving in Zurich this time felt a bit like a new chapter in my life because this time I was going straight to my new home instead of making my way to temporary accommodation. I had two suitcases, but one suitcase was full of bedding – a winter duvet, a summer duvet (which I don’t use even in the winter in Egypt), sheets, covers, etc. It was good to clear some space in my Egypt flat! The smaller suitcase was for clothes, although I’d already left quite a lot behind in Zurich last time I was there.

I enjoyed the fact that the flat is just a 5 mins bus ride from the airport, so once I’ve arrived in Zurich, I’m pretty much already home. There is a price to pay for this, of course, and that’s the noise of the planes going overhead. They are quite loud and I was astonished to see how close they look as they fly past, but fortunately it doesn’t bother me too much. I can imagine some people would find it a nightmare, though.

I had understood that plane noise was likely to be a problem in this area (probably in part why my rent is cheap for Zurich); what I hadn’t realized is that the trains also went past just behind my garden area. It’s a bit frustrating that I have to walk 9 minutes to the station when I could really just hop over the wall if only there were a platform there!

Anyway, somehow, for me, this noise is less disruptive than the church bells, which drove me mad when I first ever arrived in Switzerland and woke every hour as the bells chimed from various churches all at the same time. I got used to that within about three months so I expect soon I won’t even notice the noise from the planes and trains.

I’m still waiting for my good luck in relation to going back to work in Zurich to run out, but for now I still can’t believe how fortunate I am. Steph has been thinking about setting up business helping expats sort out their furniture when they move country and so she was keen to use my flat as a practice run. She kindly let me use all her furniture that she had in storage (she no longer needed it now that she’d moved in with her husband) – it would save me from buying it and would save her the storage costs.

So, while I was in Egypt, she transferred all the furniture, got it all constructed again, and sorted my flat out for me. Consequently, I was able just to move straight into my new flat without too many problems and without having to buy everything. The flat already had cutlery, cleaning stuff, wine racks, sheets, towels, etc.

Strangely, although I’d seen the furniture in Steph’s own flat previously, it didn’t seem too odd to have it in my flat. What freaked me out more was that both Steph and Lena (who was keeping my keys for me) knew more about my flat than I did! It was almost like the flat wasn’t really mine after all. I hasten to add that this doesn’t take away from my huge gratitude to both of them for their help (Lena with seeing the flat handover and being the guardian of my keys, and Steph for giving, moving, and arranging the furniture); it’s just a remark on the weirdness of it!

One annoying thing about Switzerland is that when you move, you also have to remove all the light fittings. I don’t mean removing the lampshades and the bulbs, I mean also removing the rose that holds the bulbs. All you have when you move in are wires sticking out of a hole in the ceiling, or maybe it’s even all been tied up into the ceiling and blocked off. Usually the bathroom and kitchen will have some lights, but that’s it. Consequently, every person when they move in or out has to get an electrician in to do this work. It’s a waste of resources, but I guess electricians in Switzerland must be laughing with this steady stream of easy money.

I tried hard to book someone to do this for me, but it took me ages to find an electrician who had some free time. In the end, I had to wait for five days. That’s being done today (by the time this blog appears), so that’s a little adventure coming my way, no doubt.

Also, there were some plumbing issues that needed to be sorted – my shower only has hot water if you turn the tap to the far left, but then there’s virtually no pressure at all. My tap was dripping in my bathroom, my basin was blocked, and one of my radiators won’t turn off. So, I have the plumber also coming today.

It’s not exactly how I like to spend my spare time, but it has to be done and my quality of life will improve massively if they do the jobs requested of them. And I’m lucky that I haven’t had to spend more time on sorting my flat out, since most of it was done for me!

El Andalous - My Purchases

My  Self-Made Necklaces!

Well, I’m off to Switzerland again, so just a quick blog this week. To make it easy for myself, I thought I’d give a quick report back on my purchases and whether they were worth it.

1. New EasyBreathe Snorkeling Mask. If you want to get attention on the beach, this is the way to do it! Every time I’ve taken this with me, I’ve been accosted by strangers asking me about it, and sometimes also by people I know. It took me a while to place my trust in it. It fits over your face, so you have to be confident that you’re not going to drown with water coming in the mask. It doesn’t. And even if it does, it tends to trickle down the side of your face and run out by your chin, so you don’t drown. You can breathe through your nose or your mouth and is easier than standard snorkeling gear. I don’t particularly notice the wider range of sight, although most people comment on that; I’m more aware that you still can’t see to your side because of the curvature of the mask. After about an hour, my jaw aches because it’s a bit tight; I did try loosening it and it was better, but if I loosen it any more, water starts to come in. A normal snorkel hurts my head after a while and sometimes my jaw aches from gripping onto the mouthpiece, so it’s about even there.
2. Solar Panel, 40W. This was supposed to provide enough energy to charge my laptop but it doesn’t really work. Admittedly, I think it’s supposed to be for up to 19V and my work laptop needs 20V; my personal laptop is 19V but it didn’t come with the connector for that (presumably because I bought it in Egypt and is probably a slightly deviant design). I use it to charge up my powerpack (which can then charge my work laptop), but it takes quite a while for it to charge up via the sun. It’s not helped by the fact that my balcony is in the shade all afternoon and in the morning I have to shift it around every half an hour for it to be in the sun. The sun seems to move really fast in Egypt! In reality, I’m only using it to charge my tablet, my work phone, and my kindle. I’m not sure it was worth the money. Having said that, maybe I’ll change my mind now that electricity prices have gone up by almost 50% in Egypt!
3. Power Bank. This works well, subject to above proviso. To be fair, it's designed to be charged via mains electricity, so it's not its fault that I can't get it charged quickly enough via solar power!
4. Solar Lantern. This worked just fine during my power cut. It has a USB socket where you can also charge devices and it took me a while to realize that it will power devices over charging the light, so I need to be careful not to charge a device so much that I have no light left. Also, it’s not strong enough to charge my tablet or my iphone. It works well for my Suunto Ambit watch, though.
5. Solar Light. I have this in the bathroom and it is great! It never seems to use up any energy and provides a good light for the bathroom during my power cuts. It’s magnetic and sits nicely on my towel rack.
6. Swimming costumes. One turned out to have not very much material on the sides and I feel a bit naked in it; otherwise I really like the pattern on it. It’s OK for Switzerland but I feel it might be too revealing for Egypt. Another one I haven’t worn very much because I’m scared by the fact that its size is “small” (help! Will it really fit me?) as that was the only size left, but actually I really like it – the material is a bit weird and quite thick for a swimming costume, but it’s fine. The final one was just great.
7. Craft Materials. I’d got it into my head that I’d like to make necklaces out of shells here in Sahl Hasheesh, so that I could always have a part of Sahl Hasheesh with me wherever I went. I bought some rings (can’t remember their official name) to hook the shells on to a neck chain and also bought some neck chains (one in a charity shop and three cheap silver ones from Argos). It turned out to be more difficult than I imagined. At the end of the day, I’m not really cut out to do arts and crafts as I don’t have the patience or the dexterity. I’d read on the internet that you can make a hole in a shell with a needle, but I either couldn’t do it or the shell would break. Similarly, I didn’t have the patience to tease apart the ring to fix it on to the chain and then close it up. The rings were so small and my fingers so clumsy, it just wasn’t going to happen. Or I didn’t have the patience to persevere. In the end I used glue. It wasn’t easy. The rings would slide about on the chain, the chain would stick to the cardboard surface I was working on. The shells wouldn’t stick. I got there in the end and I think the necklaces are beautiful. However, one of them is a bit crooked, and when I wore one of them, the glue started to melt over my neck. It’s not a great look. I am hoping maybe a few more days’ fixing time might solve the latter issue.
8. Cereals. It seems that I can’t buy UK cereals any more because Egypt does not have the money to import them, so I brought 5 boxes back with me. I will be repeating this exercise because I love my morning bowl of breakfast cereal and it’s been heavenly being able to have something I enjoy first thing. It makes getting up all worthwhile!

El Andalous - Swimming

Cleaner Fish Entering Mouth of Porcupine Fish

Surprisingly, when I got back to El Andalous this time, I found that I’d lost my confidence in swimming. I’m really not sure what happened. When I went to Zurich, I didn’t have as much time for swimming as I thought – I think it was perhaps partly a function of my studio being quite a long way from work meaning that if I went swimming near work, it would be quite a long time until I reached home, which was quite a disincentive.

Moreover, I was hugely disappointed because when I did go swimming, I found I could no longer do 1km front crawl; I was struggling again to do 50m. I don’t know if it’s a psychological thing of coming to the end of a length and thinking that’s it, or if it’s something to do with the difference between swimming in salty, buoyant water and swimming in a chlorinated, essentially freshwater pool. Or maybe I swam faster in a public pool because of the pressure of people behind me and that just wore me out. I’m used to having the whole sea virtually to myself!

What was more disconcerting was that when I got back to Egypt, I had no particular desire to swim. It was strange. I’d also sprained my thumb, so I couldn’t do front crawl as it put too much pressure on the sprain. Breast stroke was fine, but it was hard for me to muster the enthusiasm to get in the water. Moreover, breast stroke, which I generally think I could do forever if it were possible, seemed quite a struggle. I even felt a bit nervous about swimming a long distance. Really, I don’t know how this happened. My confidence had just plummeted. Maybe I had got a bit out of shape and I was in a downhill spiral. Or perhaps I was just tired and needed a rest?

I forced myself to continue swimming, though, and now I’m back to wanting my regular swim every day. My thumb has more-or-less healed so I can do front crawl, but I’ve yet to return to doing the distances I was doing before; I’ve been keeping mainly to breast stroke, but a breast stroke at a pretty good pace and at a longer distance than before. Admittedly, I’m fantasizing as I swim about leading a fish safari and stopping at the various bits of coral and explaining what all the fish are. Maybe even selling a few books!

I’ve been snorkeling a few times, when I’ve had enough time (when I swim, I’m dipping my head in the water with just my goggles on and no snorkel). I was even out of condition with my cycling and the first time I went over to the Tropitel to snorkel, I found the bike ride there a real struggle. This too was very disheartening, but when I next went out on my bike and tried to change gear, I realized that the bike seemed to have stuck between gears, so I think that was a large part of the problem. Although I did pass my cycling proficiency test when I was at school, I could really do with a few lessons so that I know when I’m doing something wrong! I still feel a bit clueless on a bicycle.

I had the privilege of seeing a cleaner fish cleaning a porcupine fish – the porcupine fish opened its mouth, the cleaner fish swam in and then exited via the gills of the porcupine fish, then went in again via its gills, and then scooted over its back. It’s amazing how much trust there is – the porcupine fish could have closed its mouth and gobbled up the cleaner fish, but it just stayed there motionless with its mouth open while the cleaner fish worked.

Over near the Baron hotel they are building a stage to host the Arabic version of Ninja Warriors – apparently, it’s going to stay there in the hope that maybe the international finals can take place in Sahl Hasheesh. That would be pretty cool. You might see me swimming past in the background with my bright yellow swimming cap!

At the Baron I saw a sixstriped soapfish for the first time and there seem to be quite a few baby crown coris. But generally, at least in El Andalous beach, it seems to be the season for mullet. Well, that’s what I think they are, as I’m not too sure. There’s a huge shoal of them just drifting about at the moment. They aren’t very interesting fish individually (just silver and fish-shaped, if that makes any sense), but it’s pretty impressive when you see a hundred at a time!

El Andalous - The Weather

My Sheltered Balcony

There’s not usually much to say about the weather here – it’s constantly sunny and warm. However, despite this constancy, it’s surprising how sometimes you go outside and the day just seems especially nice. I’m not sure what it is and I’ve noticed that others will say it on the same day, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with my mood on a given day.

Saturday just gone was one of those days – it was sunny, the air was somehow fresh and warm, there was a slight breeze and it was just, well, perfect.

However, since I’ve been back, the weather has actually been a bit temperamental.

Extraordinarily, at the end of October, we must have had about two days of non-stop rain. On the first night, thunder cracked right overhead, and dramatic sheet lightning lit up the bay accompanied by many simultaneous streaks of lightning. Egypt isn’t really equipped for this weather, so a number of people died. Hurghada was flooded, and a total of 150 million cubic metres of rain fell over the Red Sea in those two days. In Sahl Hasheesh, the rain mostly washed down (naturally) into the sea. A friend in El Andalous had to scoop 180+ litres of water off her balcony. Fortunately, I’m tucked away in a corner and got only a few drops. My sofas didn’t even get wet.

I’ve experienced proper rain here before, but never for two days non-stop. Each time it rains, you can see most of the Egyptians running around, bringing in things from outside, and laughing away. It’s a bit like snow for the Brits, I guess – a novelty which makes life interesting and fun for a while (until the reality hits). There was a power cut, of course – I was just waiting for it to happen – but fortunately it was only for a few hours, so it could have been a lot worse. My two newly-purchased solar lights were put to use but it did dawn on me that if I was thinking I could just use the sun to charge them up again, this didn’t work if we had rain! It was something that never even entered my mind.

After two days, things resumed to normal. The sky was blue and the sun shone. However, for the next two weeks we had quite a lot of wind and in the afternoons, cloud would come and cover the sky for some periods (maybe an hour or two only, though). I almost didn’t go to the beach one day because it was cloudy, but sometimes it’s deceptive and it looks cloudy from my balcony, but when you’re on the beach, it’s actually fine.

But now, it’s back to normal. This is really the best time of year here, because the water is still warm from the summer and the temperatures are a bit cooler. Having said that, it still took me some time to adjust back to the heat and I’ve been having air conditioning on every now and then, particularly at night in order to get to sleep.

However, I can see from my dwindling water and diet coke consumption that it’s no longer so hot and slowly but surely, I’m starting to lie in the sun again rather than just the shade. The UK is supposed to be looking forward to its coldest winter in 100 years this year, so I'm happy to be here instead.