Coup De Cœur

Sara is from Switzerland, and had only spent a month here in Singapore when we caught her. She loves the weather here, she says, and is still slowly exploring the city. One thing she’ll be sure to do, however, is to take some of our currency back with her. “I love collecting bank notes and coins. Every time I travel to a country I have to come back home with at least a few unused bank notes or coins that I can keep as souvenirs,” she says. “Sometimes I find that the country’s bank notes have changed on when I next visit, so I come back with the new ones. I have been doing that since the ‘90s, so I have collected quite a lot.” Perhaps this fascination with currency stems from Sara’s job as a financial journalist, which also allows her to meet new people and learn about all kinds of subjects. “However, my schedule is very unpredictable, so I try to cope by splitting my free schedule between my friends and my family,” she says. “For example, Sundays are reserved as family time, unless I have to work. I always try to have one evening during the week where I go out with my friends.” This time spent with her loved ones fuels her other passion. “If I wasn’t a journalist, I’d love to be a chef. I love organising dinner parties and brunches — basically having my friends around and cooking for them.” Sara can usually dress however she’d like for work, but sometimes this depends on the type of people that she has to meet. “If I can’t wear whatever I want, I personalise it by adding bits and pieces that I think define my personality. It can be a specific colour, or accessories such as jewellery.” Although Sara would like to describe her style as “casual chic”, it is sometimes influenced by coups de cœur, as they say in French, a term describing moments of impulse. “I can walk in front of a shop and fall in love with an outfit and buy it immediately.” In work, and in life, Sara believes in enjoying each day as it it were her last. “If you don’t love what you do, change directions. Life is too short to live with a job you hate.”