It is ironic that today Shahana was the driver and I was the passenger. We went out for lunch at Karyaneka and on the way back to the office she dropped me off at Wisma Genting to settle some personal matters at the Maybank branch there.
When I was still in KL more than a year ago, I used to drive Shahana to the Ampang Park LRT station after work almost everyday. Towards the end of my stay, she told me she was getting herself a Kelisa with modifications for disabled driver. Today I saw with my own eyes how competent and comfortable she was driving her little purple car. What an amazing girl.
After work, I quickly went to see Sharleen again at SOGO LRT station to pass her the bank drafts I’d prepared for the unit trust investments. From there, I took the LRT straight to PWTC to meet Dr. Badrul (my former university colleague in Surrey, who is attached to the Institute of Medical Research). We had a quick dinner at the Mall.
As my meeting with Fauzi didn’t happen last night, we set up another appointment today. Fauzi and Ann fetched me from the hotel at around 9 and we shot off to Brickfields for yet another dinner for me. The place is called B-Station if I’m not mistaken - a mamak (Indian) restaurant specialises in Southern Indian cuisines. The talks were pretty much all about life in Switzerland. There were some opportunities within my current company which I’d forwarded to Fauzi and he was interested to find out more. In the end, we came up with the conclusion that although working in Switzerland sounded exciting, it won’t be a comfortable life for everyone, them included. The reasons being:
1. Although the salary may sound quite good, he has to consider that the wife may not be able to work or may find a job but not in the same seniority and profile as she currently is.
2. As a result of 1, the household income will most likely be less than their combined income now. Even if it’s more, it will not be so much, and with the high standard of living in Switzerland, it will not help.
3. A young family like us will find our life now more comfortable than it used to be in KL. We don’t mind living in a small flat now since we never experienced anything a lot better anyway. Using the Swiss public transports is also not an issue. Some minor inconveniences are not such a big deal. But, the same may not apply to everyone.
4. Bear in mind that Swiss are very strict with social rules - no toilet flashing after 10 PM, no laundry on Sunday and all these shits! Can you take it???
5. For those who are used to having domestic maids (pretty much every middle class and above in Malaysia) it’ll be a big bigggg change. Unless you earn a fortune (like 30K Swiss Francs or more a month), don’t even think about having a maid. The minimum wage here is 3K Swiss Francs, and that does not include her insurance etc.
6. Life in Switzerland is definitely less colourful than Malaysia. For the past 4 days, my day ended at around 1 AM. In Switzerland, you should expect to sit in front of TV not knowing what else to do at 7 PM latest every day. Swiss in general go to bed at 9 and wake up at 4 or 5. Shops close at 5 everyday except Wednesday, and on Sunday nothing is open even clinics. How much more boring can it be?
7. Even if they move to Switzerland, I’m pretty sure they want to keep their property back home. That is an additional commitment and may eat up quite a bit of his income.
The same sort of thing I was telling another colleague this morning who was also contemplating moving to Switzerland. Honestly, for middle-class families, life is much more comfortable in Malaysia. Even the Swiss agree.
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