I travelled from Höxter back to Berlin on Saturday, taking the bus from Hannover onwards. It was more difficult than I anticipated, having to navigate the crowded station with luggage one-handed. I usually have a sling pouch in addition to a backpack on me, and it is no problem. This time, since I am under doctors orders not to burden the neck or shoulder any further, I piled the pack onto the suitcase and rolled around. Then I needed to use the facilities, which was a major complication. It was difficult enough to do so in the hotel or training…
Category: Traveler’s Tales
Air Adventure 5: Silver Linings
Spending the day in pain and my arm in a sling was not how I had envisioned my birthday yesterday, but that is how the cookie crumbled. After the medical debacle on Tuesday, flying and participating in any of the outdoor activities that involved paragliding per se were out of the question. It was a good thing I packed my camera equipment, because I became the group photographer instead, which is not a bad thing. It was certainly my first time to photograph paragliders in action, and also the first time to shoot one-handed with the left hand! It was…
Air Adventure 4: Rendezvous with Destiny (aka a visit to the hospital)
I have never blogged one-handed before, but then again, this is the first time I fractured my shoulder! The paragliding adventure continues, as did the lousy weather. It was almost wintery this morning with 9C as we hit the training grounds by 8:00am. The winds were still strong, which would not have bothered more experienced paraglider in the least, but for beginners, doing the first flight was out of the question… again. But, after a full day of lecture yesterday we were sent out to do more ground handling work with the canopies and harnesses. During the morning session I…
Air Adventure 3: Still Grounded
Sadly, we are still grounded and it feels more like winter than summer no thanks to the cold front currently passing through Central Europe. I woke up this morning to 11c and not a ray of sunshine to be seen. I thought I was doing myself a favour by switching to the lighter fleece jacket but the wind blew right through me to rattle my bones. Like I wrote yesterday, the wind is our master and commander around here, and there is nothing we can do about it. So we had more theory, which is not a bad thing because…
Air Adventure 2: Gusty vs. Gutsy
The assignment of the day was to get it up – and by it, I mean the parachute. It was a gusty day that turned out to be a gutsy one as well. We learned how to unfold the canopy, attach the entire body harness and then the parachute onto the harness. Once that was achieved, you had to sort out all the risers (cords) and pulleys, figure out the direction of the wind and then run against the wind in order to the the canopy up in the air. These are the most basic ground exercises of paragliding. Without…
Air Adventure 1: Up and Away
Originally, this week was planned as a solitary week at the beach to write, which would have been an adventure unto itself in familiar and beloved elements. I could never resist sun, sea and warmth, which are essential to my soul but I can never resist the call to adventure either, to explore the possibility of adding a new dimension in my life and possibly feature the experience in a book somehow. So it has come to pass that instead of indulging on a sea retreat I am taking a paragliding course for the next eight days. Yes, you read…
The Zen of Mud Wallowing
There is a saying I grew up with: el hombre propone y Dios dispone (man proposes, the Lord decides) and this seems to be a recurring theme in my life as of late. The weeks following Easter offer several long weekends to either travel or be visited. Since I don’t work on Fridays, this means an extra long weekend for me to write, catch up on some much needed sleep, or on the rare occasion, be hostess to out-of-town visitors. There used to be a time in my life when entertainment at home with lavish five-course dinners was a regular…
