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Sunday 15 March 2015

A House Divided - Which way shall we go

Pick a divisive issue currently in the news. Write a two-part post in which you take on two personas and approach the topic from both sides. Bonus points for a creative format (roundtable discussion, debate transcript, etc.).

I do not do news at the moment. My Swiss mother-in-law always said the politicians do what they want to do in any case, and she is right. Our problem at the moment is where shall we go today. We could, of course, stay at home. Everything is now ready on the porch for relaxation, computer work, as well as reading a book. I even found a little matching table to put next to my sun bed for cups of tea and eatable goodies when reading. The discussion began.

“We could take a walk to the cemetery. It is not so far and easy to manage” Mr. Swiss said taking consideration of my walking problems.

I have walking problems? I have been in a training camp over the past week and if I had kilometre measures on my shoes, I am sure it would be record suspicious for a golden oldie. I decided we have seen enough dead people this week on our walks. 

“We could take a walk along the river” I suggested. We very seldom see a dead body floating in the river, not even dead fish, and I was thinking I might be able to take some photos of those ducks and swans that were not possible this week due to a dead battery in the camera.


After a heated discussion, we decided on the river. Yes, I won again. I wanted to go left at the bottom of the path, and Mr. Swiss decided right would be better, taking in consideration my physical state. It was not as far as turning left. Turning right meant a handy escape route back to home after an hour and turning left would add kilometres to the journey, although I pointed out that there would be sheep in the fields to photograph and more ducks. To prove it, here is my first picture of a mallard duck.



Mallard Duck

“But if we turn left we could take the stairs up the embankment and walk home from there.”

Mr. Swiss had a worried look on his face. “There are many stairs, a steep climb and we would be home earlier.”

I found this argument to be somewhat contra productive, but I decided if we discuss the matter further, we will never begin our march. At the moment I am writing on the porch on one of these oh-so-comfortable chairs, waiting for the signal to begin. I was thinking of equipping Mr. Swiss with a whistle or flag to mark the starting time. First of all I have to dress for the occasion. My home dress is not suitable for lengthy exhausting walks. I need my super walking shoes and jeans and my camera has to be ready for me. Eventually we set off and we discovered that there was more than a nip in air, more like icicles, but we continued undaunted. 

We arrived at the river bank and turned to the right. After three minutes Mr. Swiss decided we should have turned left and climbed the many stairs and we would be quicker at home as temperatures were sinking quickly and the sun had decided to hide behind a cloud. Who am I to disagree, so I joined Mr. Swiss on the return walk to the stairs. On the way I was taking a few photos.

“Look, swans” said Mr. Swiss, and so I aimed my camera to take then Pulitzer prize picture of the year.¨

“No, you should move to where I am, there is a gap in the branches of the tree where you can take a good photo.”


He was right of course, the problem being that the swans were not waiting for me and were doing swan stuff by dipping their heads in the river and probably sifting through the edible details of the water. We then reached the famous stairs and Mr. Swiss was half way up when I took the first stair. Mainly because I wanted to take a photo of the stairs to prove I did it. 



Steps from River Aar to village Feldbrunnen

This is the top half of the infamous stairs. The figure in the distant on the left at the top is yes, Mr. Swiss. He got there before I did, but he can walk faster than I can. It was time go homewards. Another walk completed and I survived, although I did have cold ears and nose. I decided that a nice woolly hat would be suitable for such future marathons.


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1 comment:

  1. Those stairs certainly look like good exercise all by themselves!!

    ReplyDelete