I just realized I’ve not updated on the status of my job search. Well, the truth is, I kinda gave up a few weeks ago.

Now I can finaly understand and empathize with my fellow german classmates. In class, the topic of conversation usually revolved around the difficulty in finding a job in Switzerland. So far, I’d always been a listener. Now, though a tad late, I can be a participant.

I had always thought that when it came to finding a teaching job here, I might have an edge, considering that I speak English, Mandarin and German, and also taking into account the growing interest in the chinese language. Friends have also been encouraging me to take advantage of this trilingualism in landing myself a position.

This would probably have been true if it was 10years ago.

I used to think that Singaporeans were a lucky bunch, and was proud of it. Our official language is English -the default international language, and mother tongue (for the Chinese, of course) is Chinese - an increasingly important language in the world now.

The sad fact is, we are probably only jacks of all trades but masters of none. Well, at least when it comes to the language sphere. I plough through the Classifieds here, and the one second of hope in seeing a ‘English teacher wanted’ is usually followed by an accumulative feeling of disillusion with the line ’Preferably native speakers’. True enough. Why would an ‘ang moh’ want a Chinese teaching them English in the first place?

I thought I could try my luck at the other end of the equation - teach the ‘ang mohs’ Chinese instead. Then came the same problem. Yes, I am a Chinese, but I’m not a native chinese speaker. Yes, I can also speak English and German, but so do most of the mainland Chinese here.

So, where does that leave me? Even if I were to speak fluent Malay and claim it as my national language, the sight of a Chinese teaching Malay isn’t exactly very convincing as well. And I doubt the language that I can proudly (or perhaps not) announce I’m a native speaker of, i.e. Singlish, would ever be a language highly sought after.

‘And what happened to Starbucks?’ you ask. Well, I got rejected too. I had thought it would have been a 50-50 chance, but I guess I forgot I was in Switzerland.

One of the pre-requisites was ‘German knowledge - Very Good’. I had ticked ‘Good’, cos’ I was being dishonest. If I had been honest, it would have been a tick against ’Average’. Minus one point.

I sent in a written application in German, but also uploaded my CV in its original state, i.e. in English. Minus two points.

I didn’t take a more professional-looking headshot, as I had said I wanted to, but sent in my grubby-looking shot in the round-necked, pink lycra top. Minus three.

Ok, obviously I was half-hearted. But seriously, if I had been an ernest job-seeker, all these setbacks would have left me very deflated. Ahhh, what the heck! Let me just enjoy the last few months of freedom in my life, and be glad I still have a job waiting for me back at home.

Hmm… I don’t know how this term ever came about, but yea, that’s the state of my  poor derriere now.

Remember last week I mentioned I had rectal bleeding. Well, it went away after a few days, but came back again a few days ago. After ploughing through the internet, I suspected it was haemorrhoids. Meanwhile, I self-medicated, while waiting for my doctor’s appointment today.

True enough, it is internal haemorrhoids. In spite of its bombastic name, it is actually not such a big deal. It’s just the sight of the bright red pool swirling under me that scares me. Oh yes, and of course the pain too. So much so that I have a phobia of going to the toilet now.

Well, doc actually wanted to refer me to a specialist to have it removed, (using some supposed rubber band method!) but since I’m flying back home on Monday, there wasn’t enough time to fix an appointment. So he gave me another medication to stick up my a**, so as to reduce the size of the haemorrhoids (I think), as well as laxative to soften my stools. Ok, enough of details.

For now, I will just make sure I eat more fibre, while life goes on as usual. I just don’t fancy the perpetual feeling of having something stuck in my a**.

Heidi and I are still visiting the elderly couple in my neighbourhood every week. She loves them so much and feels so at home with them that she even knows how to let herself into their house.

I was sick yesterday. It’s not the usual kind of illness where you lose fluids, be it from the top or bottom. It was just fever, body-aches, lethargy… and what really killed me, severe chills.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything like this before, and the type of discomfort was strange, and the level high.

It started the day before, when my head was already throbbing and lethargy was setting in. What made it worse was the few sips of wine I had after dinner. You know that we’re not wine-lovers, but a friend of Mr. Tan gave him two complimentary tickets to a yearly wine exhibition on a wine ship, and insisted that we went. Well, I thought a few sips wouldn’t kill me, but it almost did.

By the time I reached home, the aches had got worse, and I had started shivering. Mr. Tan had to even shift the portable heater into the bathroom, before pulling me out from under the covers and shoving me into the bathroom for my shower. The worst thing was that I couldn’t take any Panadol, cos’ of the alcohol I had consumed.

Yesterday, I got up feeling better and thought that the worst was over. Thinking that I might be too ‘juah’ (heaty), cos’ I was also having rectal bleeding (yea… another first for me), I made myself some ‘liang teh’, or chrysanthemum tea to be exact. While waiting for the tea to be ready, I felt the chills coming. So of course, the natural thing to do would be to drink the boiling hot tea. Who would have known that it would have made it worse. The more I drank, the colder I got, and the shivers got more extreme. Even putting on long johns, wearing two jackets and hiding under the duvet didn’t help. I just continued shivering, for what must have had been close to an hour. I don’t know when I dozed off, but when I finally woke up, I still felt kinda weird, and didn’t really dare to step out of the safe duvet-haven.

After that, paranoid me just shuttled between doing stuff in the living room and creeping under the duvet whenever I felt that little bit of chill creeping in. Thankfully, I’m feeling much better today. Other than the slight headache, I feel perfectly fine, miraculously.

Actually, what really baffled me was the chrysanthemum tea. I know it’s supposed to be ‘liang’ lah, but is it really so powerful? Or was it just a coincidence, i.e. I would still have had the chills even if I hadn’t drunk the tea?

My cousin WH and his bunch of friends were here with us the last couple of days. Other than waking up early to prepare breakfast, there wasn’t much entertaining to do since they were out for the whole day, everyday.

During this period, Germany celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I had lunch with some friends, the crazy Taleban militants detonated a few more human bombs in Pakistan, the trees outside shed more leaves and Ris Low continued adding words to her ‘boomz-bastic’ dictionary.

The days are getting shorter and it’s almost dark by 5pm. A few years ago, I didn’t believe that such dreary conditions could really affect one’s mood and lifestyle. But it all becomes clear when you stand in the middle of a busy square in the city and do a lil’ bit of observation: At 5pm, as if the floodgates have been opened, throngs of office workers suddenly flood the place. Everyone seems to be rushing to reach home before the sky turns dark. Compare this with summertime when the pace of life seems inversely proportionate to the number of daylight hours. Moreover, it doesn’t help to alleviate the sense of dreariness when most winter jackets are in black; a sea of black against the already darkened backdrop - perfect ingredients for a bowl of Winter Depression.

I don’t recall taking pictures of the autumn scenery the past two years. Since this is definitely our last autumn here, I decided to capture the beautiful fall colours in the woods behind.

The path behind our place leading into the woods

Snow has already fallen on the mountains

My daily path with Heidi

The lone tree in the middle of the field that has always intrigued me

Beautiful fall colours

Wood chopped and all ready to serve its purpose when the cold sets in

Evidence of camping activities

Impressive campfire ground

I love this spot with its bed of fallen leaves so much…

… that I got Mr. Tan to take this ’so-秋天的童话’ shot of me on another day. Too bad it was a gloomy day.

The season when Heidi’s easily camouflaged

I don’t know if you’ve realized this. Other than the occasional updates and photos about our travels, this blog has been pretty stagnant.

I would like to attribute it to the lack of inspiration, but I’m beginning to believe that it’s a reflection of my life here. Yea, I think I’m starting to get bored. Finally. After more than four years of doing nothing.

Maybe it’s because we’ve been here in zuzuland for too long. Maybe because I miss those Paki days, when there were some strange (though not really desired) encounters every other day. Maybe because I’m alone and bored at home now, knowing that Mr. Tan is in Paris and not coming home tonight. Or maybe simply because it’s just time to move on.

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a friend who lives here. She asked me a question and the answer that I gave was one that even surprised myself. She asked if I was looking forward to going home next year. I didn’t have to think long to give an answer which I believed came from the bottom of my heart - ‘Yes’. (Although this by no means suggest that I look forward to waking up at six everyday and singing the national anthem at 7.20.)

I had never thought that I would feel this way. I had always believed that I would continue enjoying the life I was leading now, indefinitely. Surprisingly, the yearning to go back home has been escalating. I look forward to being with my family and friends, living in familiar surroundings, surrounded by similar-looking people, doing things that I love, and leading a normal working life. (Although this by no means suggest that I look forward to waking up at six everyday and singing the national anthem at 7.20.)

Well, I guess a part of it also has got to do with us knowing when our time here is up. This is as opposed to the past few years when we never knew when we had to move, and where we were going to move to, until the time came. With the end in sight, the psyching process is definitely speeded up.

I know I’ve always been championing the lifestyle here, and been critical of that back home. Now I think I finally understand and am able to identify with what it means by ‘There is no place like home’. No matter what. (Although this by no means suggest that I look forward to waking up at six everyday and singing the national anthem at 7.20.)

Bonjourno!

We just came back from a short (and almost spontaneous) trip to Florence. Over the span of three nights and four days, we put up at three different hotels and drove more than one thousand kilometres.

Well, it wasn’t so much a spontaneous but a planned-at-the-last-minute trip. Back in August, we’ve already had the intention of visting the Tuscan region of Italy. Due to the mind-boggling Italian summer heat and the coincidence with one of their major festivals during the few days that we’d planned, the trip was put on hold. With the news of us going home and the arrival of Winter, I thought it was going to be a trip that would be put on hold forever.

Just two days before our departure, Mr. Tan decided he could actually squeeeeeze out a few days. So we set off after work on Tuesday evening, drove three over hours, stopped for the night just across the Italian border, and continued the other half of the journey the next morning.

Since Wednesday was predicted with rainy weather, we decided to make it a shopping day. Ever since coming to zuzuland, we’ve heard lots about ‘The Mall’ and the ‘Space Outlet’. The Mall is basically a scaled-down European version of the American outlets, while the Space Outlet is essentially a Prada Outlet.

If I tell you that a friend who visited last year entered the Space Outlet and left with twelve bags, you can expect some knock-out prices. Of course I didn’t go as crazy. Well, neither did I leave empty-handed.

Me and my stash! (Of which only 1/4 belongs to me)

The next full day was then spent exploring the Renaissance city of Florence. Even if you, like us are clueless when it comes to art, names like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci should strike a chord. So would Michelangelo’s nude sculpture of David, which now resides in Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.

This is only a copy of David, found at the Piazza della Signoria

The Duomo (cathedral church)

I could only capture six out of the twelve apostles

The fresco-ed dome

Interior of the Duomo

Vespa country!

Ponte (Bridge) Vecchio over the Arno River

Shops (whose tenants are mainly jewelers) built on the bridge. During WW II, this was the only bridge in Florence not destroyed by the Germans during their retreat.

On Ponte Vecchio

View of neighbouring bridges from Ponte Vecchio

Bread and pastries… a common sight

Colours… I like…

It reads, “If you buy fake goods, you could be fined between 500 Euros and 10,000 Euros”! Oooh la la…

Supposedly where the Renaissance movement started, Florence is a city synonymous with art; buskers lining the streets, museums situated at the most inconspicuous corners, sculptures adorning the squares such that they almost seem like an outdoor museum. Undeniably, the place exudes so much charm that even the most artistically-apathetic person would be overwhelmed. The only downside were the throngs of tourists, fighting to strike that picture-perfect pose on Ponte Vecchio or having a go at the corny juxtaposed shot of their hand holding David’s manhood.

The Uffizi Gallery - home to the “world’s single greatest collection of Italian and Florentine art”

Busker 1

Busker 2

Piazza della Signoria packed with tourists… and we were there during the off-peak season

Loggia dei Lanzi at the Piazza della Signoria (now you know what I meant by an outdoor museum)

Perseus With the Head of Medusa (first sculpture from the left in the photo above)

Fountain of Neptune (found also at the Piazza della Signoria)

Palazzo Vecchio (also at the Piazza della Signoria)

Food-wise, we were happy with the dosage of pizza, pasta, tiramisu, florentine steak and of course gelato. Except for gelato, a few more days worth of the italian-styled carbo diet would have been too much.

I think we were ripped off… the cappuccino cost 5 Euros!

Greeeedyyyy…

Candies galore!

More eye-catching candies… I like…

A Lonely Planet recommendation: Trattoria Sostanza, an authentic Tuscan eatery, with super friendly service

The photo really doesn’t do justice to the food. 1/2 kg of Florentine beef (top) and the house specialty - chicken breasts in butter (bottom). Though I must admit the butter-soaked chicken got a bit too ‘gelard’ towards the end’

After dinner, we set off again for the three hour drive back to just before the Swiss border, where we spent the last night. We crossed the border the next morning, before stopping for another round of outlet shopping at Foxtown in Mendrisio.

Now don’t ask me what the total damage was.

My lau gong aka best friend came a visiting over the last weekend. Well, they didn’t actually fly all the way to zuzuland, but rather took a detour from their honeymoon tour of Europe.

Although the time spend together wasn’t a lot, it was some good quality time. We were really touched that they gave up their day tour of Lucerne, a night’s hotel stay, and paid a hundred over francs to take the train up to meet us here.

The least we could do was to cook a sumptuous birthday meal for the birthday boy aka FOO, who coincidentally was born on that day 30 years go. 

Yup, this is the name of the trail that we took. Distance was 14.3km. Time taken was supposed to be 4hr 50min. Err… we took 6hr 30min, including some side-tracking and soup-stops. So, still not so bad lah huh…

After a 3-hr drive from zuzuland, including a very long up- followed by downhill drive along the Furka mountain pass (in the clouds!) we finally reached the Betten valley gondola station in the canton of Valais. The weather from the time we set off had been terrible. Along the way, I was praying hard that as we went west and southwards, the skies would clear up. I guess my prayer must have had been muted by the pitter pattering of the rain.

When the gondola ferried us up to the mountain village of Bettmeralp, we thought we had overshot and reached heaven. The entire village was shrouded in clouds, and the handful of tourists, whose moods must also have had been dampened by the constant drizzle, appeared to be wandering around aimlessly. The poor visibility meant that whatever plans I had of going for a short simple hike to while away the rest of the afternoon had to be shelved. The only thing left to do was to check-in, and wait for dinnertime.

A Walk in the Clouds

Speaking of our hotel, I’m getting excited all over again. Since we were just going to spend a night, I had booked for ourselves the cheapest accomodation in the village. Called the ‘Nebenhaus’ of the hotel (literal translation: beside house), our room was housed in another building beside the main hotel, and had the most basic of facilities; no TV, toilets and showers along the corridor etc. Well, it only cost 45 CHF per person, which added up to be 90 CHF for us. Most average hotel rooms in the village, including a room in the main building of our ‘hotel’, would have set us back by CHF 180.

And… guess what?! While checking-in and waiting to be ushered to our dingy little room, we were told that we had been allocated a room in the main building… for the same price! And that’s thanks to the shoulder season and reduced number of tourists. Woohoo! Now I’m starting to wonder if I have the words ’Please upgrade me’ written on my forehead.

Heidi wondering what I was doing

Thankfully for that and the TV in the room, the wait for dinnertime didn’t seem that long. By the time we settled for the night, Mr. Tan was already immune to my hourly chant of, ‘I hope the weather turns better tomorrow!’

Alas, when the curtains were drawn the next morning, I was crushed. The picture outside was status quo. Argh! This was no way to end the last hike of the season. Plus, we didn’t drive all the way here, stay one night, just to experience living in the clouds. (Hmm, actually that does sound like a nice idea!)

View from our room. According to Mr. Tan, ’Simi sai ma kua boh!’ (Literal translation: What sh** also cannot see)

Nevertheless, we checked-out, and proceeded to take another gondola up to the starting point of our supposed hike, Bettmerhorn. (Well, what else could we have done?) Along the ride up, the scene of us emerging above the clouds kept playing in my mind. Again, I was disappointed.

In the gondola up to Bettmerhorn

Bettmerhorn station

Not wanting to give up, we pushed on. At least make it to the viewpoint behind the station, right? At least try to catch a glimpse of the Aletsch glacier - the largest and longest glacier in the Alps, right?

As though the Gods had heard us (and possibly all the other tourists around), slowly but surely, they began to draw the fluffy curtain of cloud. Bit by bit, the glacier and its surrounding mountains came into view. As everyone started taking out their cameras and snapping furiously, we embarked on our hike, finally.

The mighty Aletsch Glacier

Thirsty?

The lower end of the glacier

Heidi being distracted by fellow hikers behind

Don’t-know-what’s-the-name-peak peering through the clouds

Greedy me still hoping for all the clouds to ’shoo’

Don’t know what these features are called. Any geography experts here?

In terms of difficulty, this hike is graded as ‘medium difficult’. After 2 hours into the hike, I could see why. The trail started out along an easy, generally wide path cut into the mountain, running along the glacier. As always, the view was fantastic. Never for a moment did we lose sight of the majestic 23km long glacier, which together with the surrounding areas have been named a UNESCO Heritage Site. The more challenging part appeared in the form stone steps built into the trail - definitely only for the sure-footed!

Resting along the stone path

At last, the final curtain was drawn

Bettmerhorn: Our starting point

The lower part of the glacier, towards where we came from

Don’t underestimate the size of these cracks-lookalike. They are actually deep and wide crevasses ok

Spot the moon and the plane!

One of my favourite pics

The destination, or rather the turning point was Marjelensee, a glacier lake. The area around the lake has been described to be ‘reminiscent of a polar landscape’. Well, I guess this applies only in Winter. What greeted us was a vast piece of land, bowled by the glacier and the surrounding rocky hills. If it’s any reminiscence, I’d say it reminds me more of Iceland. 

In front of Marjelensee

So does this look ‘polar’ to you? Destination: The hut in the distance, for a pee-break and hopefully something to fill our stomachs

The glacial reflection-wannabe 0f the mountain

More hikers coming down the stone path

Scene of tranquility

However, the highlight for me was the side-track right up to the wall of the glacier. Yes, we’ve hiked on glaciers before. But never have we known the depth of the ice we were walking on. Now we shall find out!

We’re heading down to the ice!

Reaching reaching…

Apparently, the Aletsch at its deepest point stood as tall as almost 1km - that’s more than 600 of me stacked on top of each other!

Can you see meeeeee? Looking from above, your could never imagine how gigantic the glacier was, right?

Icy shelter

Ice Kachang?

Heidi loves it too!

From then on, it’s a walk back to Bettmeralp, except that it’s along the other side of the mountain. Having lost track of time a little, especially at the glacier, we realized we had to hurry. Hurrying for a while is ok. Hurrying for more than 2 hours is tiring. Thank goodness it’s almost downslope all the way. But also thanks to that, I now have a black toenail on a bruised and swollen toe, which hurts just by walking normally. Yes, I do realize that my lower limbs seem to be the unluckiest parts of my body.

Name-less man-made lake nearby

Gletscherstube, the hut where we stopped for some hot soup

I love this pic too!

A 1 km tunnel through the mountain, a shortcut which we decided we had to take

Literally the light at the end of the tunnel

Finally emerging from the darkness…

…to a different kind of scenery

When the village finally came into sight, not only were we ecstatic because we were super tired, but also because we could finally see how it really looked like!

The gondola up to Bettmerhorn, which was still as evasive as in the morning

We almost congratulated each other when we spotted the village in the far left

Car-free mountain village of Bettmeralp

Ahhh… so this is how the village looks like

Our hotel - Hotel Alpfrieden

Pretty swiss cottages along the main street

By the way, I should also mention that Heidi has been the most incredible dog. Throughout the entire hike, she had never lain down to rest at all. Even towards the end of the day when both two-legged beings were deadbeat and aching, she was still paving the way, trotting along like we had only just started. It was only in the gondola down that she finally plopped down to rest, something that she doesn’t normally do in a moving vehicle. So in fact, she was tired too.

‘I love hiking!’

So, that sums it all - our last hike of the year. With the weather turning cold suddenly, and I mean really suddenly, the hiking season’s over. Which means it’s time to usher in the ‘you know what’ season! Yippee!

Watch her go! A true sheepdog, indeed!

I’ve run out of ideas for a title for this post, so it’s just called ‘Five in Four’; the fifth game we’re watching on our fourth trip to London.

From the 25-28th of September, we were back in what can be considered as our second home in Europe - London.

I guess I don’t need to tell you what we have done and what we have eaten. You must be sick of hearing it anyway. I probably wouldn’t even need to dedicate a post to this trip, if not for some unforgettable encounters and exciting photos that I can’t wait to share with you.

Since my Nicky Wu- and Andy Lau-fanatic days more than a decade ago, my star-chasing boots have been hung up and left to disintegrate in the shoe cabinet. Well, we didn’t exactly go chasing after stars in London. What we did was just to hang around at the backgate of the White Hart Lane stadium after the incredible 5-0 match, waiting to get star-struck. It’s actually not our first time doing this. The first and also the last time was during our first London trip more than two years ago. However, then I was just a beginning fan, and the thrill of seeing some soccer personalities up close overwhelmed anything else. I don’t know what made us decide to hang around again this time, since we left right after the match during the last three. Oh, am I glad we did.

Along the road outside the stadium, where everyone’s getting a quick bite before the game

Come On You Spurs!

First time we’re sitting on this side of the stadium

Hat trick hero, Robbie gets to keep the ball after the game

Final Score: Almost hoarse after all the screaming

By the way, the backgate where we hung around is supposedly used only by the so-called non-star players, where they have to exit from to get to their cars parked opposite. The star-players, also supposedly, have their own lots within the stadium, so that they can drive off rightaway. Well, this is probably the reason why we have never bothered to stay behind for the past few games.

I don’t know if it’s a change in policy, or if it’s thanks to Lady Luck. Most of the players exited via That Gate on that day, to some very excited and extremely lucky fans, like us.

Here are some of my favourite photos:

Our Croatian right-back, Vedran Corluka: Whoa, never knew he’s so shuai! Look at his deep set eyes! *Swoooon*

Another Croatian, Niko Kranjca: Are all Croatians so good looking?!

Our Brazilian No. 1, Heurelho Gomez: A friendly guy

Who else but our 2-metre man, Peter Crouch: If only he didn’t crouch. I’d have loved to see how high he towers above me.

On-form English winger, Aaron Lenon: He behaves and looks as cool as he plays

Our steady midfielder, Tom Huddlestone: Another giant

When the security guards started keeping the mobile fences, we thought we must have had seen the last of the players. Then there was a mini commotion, and out came…

Our captain cum star player of the day, Robbie Keane!

To be honest, I must say Robbie is the first player I admired when I started watching the sport three years ago. (Gosh, it’s been three years already!?) Then, he was one half of our mighty strike force, with the other half now in Club Manure. As crap as he may be now, there is still a soft spot for him lah.

And as much as Mr. Tan doesn’t want to admit it, I know he loves him too

Last but not least, another of our favourite player, Michael Dawson: He’s the most friendly player of all, with no airs or whatsoever. Unlike most, if not all of the others, he goes around chatting with the fans, especially the kids. To put it simply, he actually opens his mouth. We got the impression two years ago. Today confirmed it.

Ok ok, so as not to bore you, here’re some non-soccer photos:

A musical every trip. This time it’s Billy Elliot

Chinatown celebrating PRC’s 60th anniversary

Believe it or not, it was our first time on Regent Street. Coincidentally, the Regent Street Festival was on

Colours… Sweets… I like…

Poor roasted pig

A busker

Free hair-tousling by the MSN-inspired mascots

Face-painting