2020 - A Year of Unexpected Detours

Story 1: Reflections on a Year Like No Other

Dec 31, 2020

Story 1: December 31, 2020

What a year it has been! As for many, it started full of hope. 2020 surely represented clear vision and kinder times.

This hope was sparked by a month of rare – and peaceful :-) – reunions of our families from around the world to see out 2019. As with most family gatherings, the occasional disagreement can arise, but the time we had together was precious and harmonious. When we said our goodbyes, we thought we would be able to catch up with at least some again in-person before the end of the coming year. Little did we know that 2020 was to become a year like no other.

It started with our first big trip of the year. We have a tradition in our family – when someone celebrates a milestone birthday, a journey of surprise is organized. For my husband’s 50th birthday this year, an adventure in Marrakech was planned. We arrived at our charming hotel, a historical riad in the Medina or old town, to amber fragrance, a courtyard with a fountain and rose petals, and glasses of skilfully poured Moroccan mint tea. We had long been saying we needed a break, meaning a real holiday to explore a new place, but what was to follow was not what we intended. After dropping our bags and an introductory tour of our rooftop terrace, the last step of the medieval stairs in front of our room led to the kind of trip and break you do not want to find in any travel itinerary.

Not quite the original plans for Marrakech but what a great place to recover. We still experienced and learned so much within the walls of Riad Noir d’Ivoire.

The result was a badly broken leg for my husband requiring immediate surgery on Valentine’s Day. Fortunately, the medical care was excellent and the outcome was successful. We were well taken care of until we could travel home, especially by the charming staff of our hotel, many of whom are now friends.

The grand plans for a surprise birthday celebration were firmly put on hold, but it was then that I realized that sometimes you have to go within when you can’t go out.

Sometimes you have to go within when you can’t go out.

Not long after our return to Switzerland, Covid started taking its hold on everyday life. The first lockdown was underway. Hand sanitizer, wearing masks and social distancing became part of the routine. With all the early uncertainty about how this infectious disease was spread, even the joy that normally is grocery shopping became a potentially dangerous ordeal. If there was any lighter side to this, at least we didn’t have to deal with ridiculous toilet paper shortages here - for us, any shortages of cheese, chocolate, garlic, onions, and especially spices would have been things worth getting worried about! :-)

In Switzerland, pasta became the lockdown favorite, we were sad to see the flowers disappear, and of course spices were our priority!

The upside was that my husband has been working from home for most of the year, and new connections and opportunities came with many meetings and events going exclusively online. I began to write for film and took an amazing year-long series of courses on film storytelling by Robert McKee that would normally only have been possible in-person in London, New York or Los Angeles. I became actively involved in interesting networks, like the Oxford Entrepreneurs Network and The Human Gathering. As a result, I often had many late evening calls, which I started to call pyjama parties. And how about Netflix and the revival of 80s music (luckily mostly the good stuff and not spandex rock!)? More on this in an upcoming edition.

Photos in 2020 certainly took on a distinctive look! We really appreciated the treat of supporting our favorite restaurants in Zug when they started home delivery.

It has been difficult not seeing family, particularly around the holidays and summer breaks, but we have found creative ways to celebrate online. We did dress up parties and shared stories. Living in Europe, we rarely celebrate the 4th of July, but this year we spent hours online with my mother in the US. She did her version of a summer picnic indoors at home with hotdogs, nachos, and German potato salad. Our take on hotdogs consisted of grilled Swiss bratwurst and French Dijon mustard, and our nachos were smothered with English cheddar cheese. Celebrating any occasion is great and mixing things up culturally is always fun too!

Many heroes have emerged from this Covid crisis. Medical workers and those working on the science of vaccines and treatments are of course at the forefront. There are also the essential workers who kept delivering the mail, stocking the shelves and performing all the other normally out-of-sight activities that keep a modern society functioning.

Food is always such an important connector, and this situation brought this even more to light. It was inspiring to see how some local restaurants quickly transformed their business to delivery and take away models. We ordered a good deal of delivery during this time in order to support our favorite restaurants (and to satisfy our taste buds and have a break from planning meals and cooking). Chefs like Massimo Bottura and his family inspired us with Kitchen Quarantine. José Andrés, always at the forefront of using food to heal a crisis, again took to the streets to feed those in need.

I thought about what I could do as a writer to help people get through this challenging time. To bring some positivity, I created a short series called “The Hidden Garden” based on the backstory of two characters in my novel “The Spice Temple.” These characters come from another time and have to escape the outside world by hiding away in their clandestine garden. So, while the context is different, they too have to “go within when you can’t go out” as we all have had to do with Covid. They find positivity in pleasant rituals within the walls of their garden. My hope is that these stories will inspire others to discover inner worlds not only while we are all facing lockdowns, but also afterward. I will be sharing them soon and would love to have them made into a short animated series. More to come about these stories in an upcoming edition.