Zurich

April 2022, a month after Defcon Orange or yellow or some shit like that where we could travel again.

The start of the journey wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped for. Aircraft power tripped. The already dry cabin was getting warmer by the minute. The captain kept giving updates with too many technicalities that most of us wouldn’t understand. It was somewhere in the middle of informative and confusing enough that the passengers would believe that they are working on a solution.

In Economy class, one has to position one’s body to find that G spot of comfort. It really isn’t a pleasant experience being strapped into an airplane seat for 13 hours. But I had to do this. It was my first time travelling after two and a half years being taken away from me. From us. I know, it’s petty of me to write about these silly things when people lost a lot more during the pandemic. Let’s take a beat and give ourselves permission to feel someway about something that upsets us. It’s fine to be upset when expectations aren’t met. Some people go full Karen, but I chose to weave it into a mandala of life lessons. In my twenties, I was all about trying to find enlightenment and reaching an altitude of “ain’t no shit gonna bother me”. But now, I say bring on the drama. Daddy needs you colour of out the lines and get messy. Chaos: That’s the true beauty of a human life.

So I did get an entire row for myself. Yes & Blessed. Shortly after take off, midway to heaven, angels fresh as daisies waltz into the cabin. That Singapore Girl Smile. That isn’t just a smile. It has superpowers. It melts away the hours of you getting ready, hauling your luggage over to the airport, and waiting in line at security. Their kindness tell you, they know what you went through to get here, so here’s that extra pillow and blanket you asked for; here’s your 7th gin and tonic; here’s another bag of chips. The call bells in the cabin twinkle like Christmas lights and we see them whizz pass and solve a problem or satisfy a need. The grace they carry is genuine and wholesome. It’s programmed and branded in their DNA. Trust me, I know this.

So here I am amidst the brisk chill of April in Glorious Zurich. I was lucky enough to have had a friend who lived here and got even luckier that he opened his couch for me to crash for a couple of days. Zurich felt like Singapore’s elder brother. Basically, he has all the good genes, the effortless bouncy hair and a winning personality. While you, ergo Singapore are just trying. And very Desperately. There’s enough rough edges about Zurich to make it liveable and make one not feel like an imposter in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. My friend’s apartment was a short stroll from the Lake. Again how lucky was I. I recently did a Bukit Timah Railway Corridor walk and kept annoying the people around me, asking them, where’s the lake? This place is urgently missing a Lake. The vastness and stillness of a large body of water reminds you that you’re small and insignificant. It’s a blessing to feel vulnerable. We, the superior beings of the planet brought down to our knees by a Cellular Sized Virus. Ahhchoom!

On some mornings and evenings, I ran along the lake. The air was thin and I did have difficulty keeping pace at 14 degrees celcius. But I loved every moment of it. The sky light would change ever so slightly and it felt like a painting coming to life. There were many piers scattered across strategically and I would go up to the edge and sit and watch. The gulls, the swans, small boats and planes at the far distance. It reminded me of a trip to Mykonos a couple years back, before the pandemic. Our hotel room perched on a hilltop looked over the mediterranean and on the few evenings we were there, we would just sit on the porch and watch the sunset. Sit, Bask, Breathe. Singapore does have sunsets believe you me. They are just blocked by blocks and blocks and more blocks.

People often ask me, you’ve travelled so much, which is your favourite place? And after all these years I kept the same answer. It’s never really about the place, it’s about the people you make your memories with. And I was lucky enough to have friends in Taiwan, Los Angeles and Zurich where I got to enjoy their company and catch up on silly things and see the growth we all have achieved.

I prefer open spaces to crowded cities. Not that I dislike humans. I do sometimes. But when you have too much of something, it just doesn’t work. Example: A club with great music but doesn’t have a pax limit and everyone is squished and you’re wearing the wrong shoes is a combination for the worst time period. On a recent Penang trip, a friend and I found ourselves to be the only ones in an Indian Club that had really fantastic music and we had a blast, just the two of us.

Back to Zurich. I truly was broken as a person when I went there. The new normal pretty much feels like the old normal with one major exception. We now have the knowledge of what life is like with a pause break. We allowed ourselves to explore parts of us we never knew existed. Why? Time. We were given time to just be. Like the trees, and the animals and birds. How blissful it was to be a creature of nature and not a functioning cognitive human apart of a societal structure. Not many have this opportunity to tune out. There are many involvements in their life that disallow them the time to break apart. So run away when you get the chance. Call your friends and family over when you need to spice it up. One thing I’ve learnt of my many years of a couch potato, the more force something, the more you’re reluctant to come to terms with. Leave it up to pace. The universe is constantly moving for you so you have to jump on and off at the right spots. Zurich was that for me. Not just a place, but a moment of exploration and introspection of my human life. The human life has many Primes. I think I’m at the end of my sexual prime. I’m entering my Happiness/Energetic Prime. I’ve a got a couple of years more till my physical prime wears out. Then I’ll wonder once again.

This post was a continuation of “You needed to be held.” Oh, to be seen, what a delight indeed. I left his apartment realising what he did to me. Without me knowing and in retrospect, I had been Kintsugi-ed. {the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum}

-T