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Friday 10 October 2008

MULTIPLY Creative Challenge #22: Elusive Dreams

Bycycle

Perhaps a strange photo but it has a lot to do with one of my elusive dreams. One of my dreams has always been to be able to ride a two-wheeled bike since I was a little girl. My first bike was a three wheeler, as was the fashion in the 1950's for children and that was no problem. I grew up in London and the roads were not exactly bike friendly and my mum was always worried that "something might happen" so I never had my bike to learn on. Some of my friends had one so I naturally tried it now and again, but with no success. As soon as I sat on the bike it would start falling and me with it. I just could not keep my balance. The years went by and I eventually left home and came to Switzerland. Now it seemed to me that everyone in Switzerland rode a bike. The children went to school with their bike as soon as they were old enough, the housewives did their shopping with a bike and a lot of the men went to work with a bike. I was a bit the odd one out and did all my journeys by walking or with the bus. My husband needed the car to go to work and I only learnt to drive a car at the age of 36. I somehow had a secret wish to own a bike and ride one. I remember the day when my husband bought a motor scooter. I tried that as well, thinking that the speed would keep me upright. I had a few lessons with my other half, but we gave up - too many problems with the balance, so to this day I still have not learnt to ride a bike, but have not given up hope. Just a small note would be that when I had my driving lessons I also had a problem. I could do everything with the car, just not steer very well. Of course after driving for 26 years I don't seem to have a problem any more, but you cannot fall off a car I suppose. And now for the second elusive dream.


Adelboden Bonderchrinde


When I got married and had a family, part of the routine was going on holiday once a year to get away from things. Switzerland does not have a coast line and with a growing family it was too expensive to go to other countries on holiday so we usually rented a holiday chalet somewhere in the Bernese Overland amongst the mountains. One of our favourite places was Adelboden which is situated in a wide valley between the mountains. What did we do on these holidays? We went for long walks, you could call them hiking holidays. At ten in the morning we were ready. The Rücksack was packed with bread, meat, tomatoes, something to drink and we made off. The weather was usually quite sunny and warm, especially at midday and we usually found a nice spot in the country side on a slope to eat. The particular photo shows one of my elusive dreams. It needed a lot of energy to get to the top of the slopes and it was not as easy as it looks on the photo. On the left of the photo you can see a dip in the mountain outline. This particular dip was known as the Bonderchrinde. We would walk up the slope over the meadows. The last part was pure gravel and very steep. The time given on the signpost was 90 minutes and we never achieved that bit. We were so exhausted when we got up the main slope that we had no energy left to get to the "chrinde" (edge) to see what was on the other side. That is something I would love to have done, but this view remained elusive. When I look at the photos today this always springs to my mind. After our walks we usually arrived back at the chalet around five in the evening and need a couple of hours to relax before we went into the village in the evening for a meal. The kids really enjoyed coming, but that last little bit always remained an obstacle that we just could not achieve. I was younger then, and a bit more movable than today. Just to prove my achievements, here is a photo I found. I must have been in my mid thirties then (note the professional hiking shoes - the areas where we went walking had to be done in those shoes, anything else would not hold over the rocks and the stones and slopes).


Me Adelboden

Creative Challenge #22: Elusive Dreams

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