I’m not scared of flying… I’m afraid I may have to land the plane

Posted on May 14, 2013 by chickstravelflicks

Here she is… the capsule with wings

I will readily admit that I’m not an adventurer. It’s my husband who is and over the 12 years we’ve been together I have willingly accompanied Michel (yes, that’s his name) to countries I would have never dreamt of visiting prior to our meeting.

I am a good wife like that. I’ll follow my husband to places if it means I won’t miss out on any of the fun and he does all the planning and organising.

Then a couple of years ago, just when I thought he couldn’t get any more daring, Michel did something really off the charts. He got himself a pilot’s license.

But as is the case with him, he didn’t stop there.

Last year with just over 120 hours of flying time under his belt, Michel flew a single piston engine plane from Switzerland to Poland and back, all in a span of 48 hours. It was a precursor to this year’s challenge, which is to take the same plane, over the English Channel and into Old Blighty.

But here’s the kicker. This time he won’t be doing it with another pilot for back up. In a few days – weather permitting that is – it will be me sitting in the passenger seat alongside him.

I didn’t bargain for this when I said, “I do” nine years ago.

I’ve hummed and hawed about writing this post for a couple of weeks now as this is our second attempt to cross the English channel into the UK after our first was thwarted by bad weather a few months ago. My blog has a small readership – three people at the most including my mother – and I don’t want to disappoint anyone.

But then one of my favourite bloggers, Torre DeRoche who runs The Fearful Adventurer decided to hold a competition around the launch of her new book, “Love with a chance of drowning”. The book chronicles her yearlong voyage across the Pacific – inspite of her intense fear of water – with her Argentinian lover and his humble sailboat. The competition is looking for blog entries where writers outline an adventure that makes them fearful.

Torre’s timing was impeccable.

In a few days, I may be sitting in a capsule with wings crossing a rather large body of water. Believe it or not I’ve never really been afraid of flying. Want to know just what gives me the heebie-jeebies about this trip? Here’s the list:

Crashing. There, I said it.When I voiced my fears about crashing into the English Channel to Michel, he took my hands in his and looking at me with his soft brown eyes said, “At least we will die together sweetheart”. (Ladies, these words – when delivered with a heavy French accent – make the moment all the more romantic and, just that much more, dramatic.) And I’m not the only one who’s afraid of us crashing. My mother is not so convinced that we’ll be safe just because we have to wear orange life jackets in the plane as we cross the waters of the Channel. In between nervous laughter she also suggested we wear helmets.
I will have to land the plane. Don’t laugh. This has happened and it could happen. Michel could pass out or he could have temporary amnesia and I’d be left holding the stick – literally. If such a calamity came to pass, I just hope it does so over English speaking territory. After 10 years in Switzerland it still takes me time to process someone’s directions in French.
That we’ll land up in Bulgaria. My co-piloting duties will include making changes to waypoints on Michel’s highly technical GPS navigation system for small planes. The man is putting a lot of faith in a woman who systematically gets lost in her own neighbourhood.
That I will not be able to stay awake. Being able to operate the highly intricate GPS navigation system for small planes, implies that you are able to stay awake long enough to make the changes the pilot requests.I have missed entire plane, car and train journeys because I have an inexplicable inability to stay awake in a moving vehicle. This is not very helpful when you’re expected to help fly a plane.
I will not be able to hold in a wee. This will not be the first time that I will fly with Michel, but it will be the longest time I will spend in a plane without any toilets. If I need to go for a wee while we’re in the air, life will be pretty unpleasant.
I will be sick. Being sick in a bag is no fun for the passenger, or the pilot. (Apparently, nervous farts are also hard to handle when having to pilot a really tiny plane).

But if I was to be really honest with myself, I think I’m most fearful of the answer to this question: what the hell is next year’s challenge going to be?

It’s hard being the wife of an adventurer and I’m so afraid that I won’t be able to keep up with the man I married. He’s already talking about a round-the-world trip with the plane at some point in his life and I’m not sure if my bladder will be able to take such a long journey.

There is also a little part of me that wonders how I got so lucky in life. Not many people have the opportunity to experience this world of ours in such a unique way. It feels, for want of a better word, sinful. (Can you tell I’m Catholic?)

Even as a little girl I always dreamed of an existence filled with excitement and adventure. And now that I have it, my biggest first world problem is sitting back and just simply enjoying it. Most women would give their right arm to share a small space with a man who speaks with a French accent. I, on the other hand, worry about what this means for my karma in my next life.

So when we do end up going on this trip my biggest challenge will be to savour every single moment and really, truly appreciate it for all its worth.

P.S. Torre, just so you know – Michel also has a license to operate a boat, which is why I have decided he will not be reading your book. I don’t think my bladder could handle your kind of adventure either.

This post is part of the My Fearful Adventure series, which is celebrating the launch of Torre DeRoche’s debut book Love with a Chance of Drowning, a true adventure story about one girl’s leap into the deep end of her fears.

“Wow, what a book. Exciting. Dramatic. Honest. Torre DeRoche is an author to follow.” Australian Associated Press

“… a story about conquering the fears that keep you from living your dreams.” Nomadicmatt.com

“In her debut, DeRoche has penned such a beautiful, thrilling story you’ll have to remind yourself it’s not fiction.” Courier Mail

Find out more…

When going on holiday can be a ‘cat’astrophe

Posted on April 14, 2013 by chickstravelflicks

(Copyright: Chickstravelflicks)

Our Indira was the only black and white cat in a litter of tiger striped kittens. As I watched with horror as her original owners let her bound from their new dining table to a pristine white leather couch, I could not conceive of having this ‘thing’ in my house to upturn my life. I only became a cat owner a couple of days later because my husband Michel had fallen hopelessly in love.

The thought of becoming a ‘cat lady’ gave me the shudders because cats were for old people who liked to be house bound. That’s what cats and animals in general do – they keep you tied down to one place so you can’t just up and leave when you want. And the people willing to scoop up their poop and feed them while you’re away have a hefty asking price.

Six years later I found myself packing my bags for a four-month work stint in Poland. It was hard enough to leave my husband for such a long period, but when my beloved moggie hammed up the “Why are you leaving us face?” it broke my heart into a million pieces. I am not afraid to tell the world that I shed a few tears when I found her hiding in my suitcase and almost called off everything when she sat on my suitcase in protest the morning I was set to leave.

(Copyright: Chickstravelflicks)

This is just the way it is now. When I leave home for work or a holiday, I usually pack an extra bag to accommodate my Indira’s guilt trip. She’s got it down to a fine art.

Indira’s presence hasn’t really cramped my lifestyle and we continue to travel extensively. Her grandparents, my in-laws, are always on hand to look after her and there is comfort in knowing she is with people who love her as much as we do when we’re away.

What has changed is the level to which I consider her needs in my daily life plan and how much this creature has impacted what I do when I travel.

For starters our photo albums now have various pictures of cats on windowsills in France and I once chased a cat around a garden in Italy for a picture, all because it had no tail. And as a pet owner, I find I’m more tolerant staying at hotels and bed and breakfast establishments, which also accommodate animals. You get used to fur showing up in odd places when you have a cat in the house.

I cannot count the number of times that the subject of animals, cats in particular, have led to long conversations with total strangers on planes, buses and trains. Cat people come in many different guises.

We are now adept at last minute packing to ensure that Indira does not get upset at the sight of a suitcase on the floor a couple of days before we leave. Experience has also taught me to check my suitcase before we leave the house to ensure she hasn’t sneaked in between the beach towel and t-shirts.

Any plans I had of long-term travel have been put on hold for the moment as the thought of leaving her behind kills me. I’m quite sure that Indira would not agree to travel around the world with us in a backpack as one cat did with its French owners.

And that is largely our fault for ensuring she has an electric water fountain that pumps fresh water out to her throughout the day, a comfy basket and free reign of our apartment.

Though when we win the lottery, I have decided to use a pet airline to ensure that Indira arrives safe and sound to our new life on a luxury private island in the Indian Ocean.

The end of a holiday is not a disappointing feeling anymore as we look forward to returning home to find her waiting for us with open paws. I decided to write this post in honour of my furry, feline friend, because that’s what crazy cat ladies do. And also because I still feel enormously guilty for not falling in love with her at first sight all those years ago.

So here’s to Indira, the most loveable, endearing (and did I mention trilingual?) cat ever to exist.

Geocaching across the world

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You’d never think you’d find a cache in here! (©MRandin)

‘Geocaching’, a nine-letter word that has captured the interest of millions of people around the world, is described as follows:

Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online.

When Geocaching.com was launched in September 2000 there were only 75 known geocaches in the world. Today, there are a staggering 1,542,703 active geocaches with more than 5 million geocachers in the community to which M. and I now belong.

Geocaching has given me a reason to stop watching re-runs of Desperate Housewives on a Tuesday evening (there I’ve said it…) and get out of the house for some air after a long day at work.

It is an activity that M. and I enjoy doing together, especially because it has given us a more entertaining use of our beloved I-Phones. This game is the reason why we often get dirt under our nails and mud on our shoes as we follow the flashing blue dot on our I-Phones to locate the hidden container.

But why does geocaching merit mention on a travel blog?

Geocaching is a unique way to discover our region, which up until now we both thought we knew pretty well. Since my colleague Stefan introduced me to the joys of geocaching in August, we have discovered a park in Lausanne that ironically enough, M. drives past practically everyday. Just this afternoon, I was introduced to the Major Davel monument, a mere 500 metres away from where I worked for over two years.

The monument to Major Davel, a major figure in the history of the Canton of Vaud. This spot in Vidy, Lausanne, is where he was decapitated in 1723. We found the cache nearby. (©MRandin)

You may be surprised to find, as we did in Canada, that people have hidden geocaches in your back yard – literally! And as Stefan has shown me, it’s a novel activity to engage in when travelling to other parts of the world.

Interestingly, there are a number of people in our entourage who already know about the game and have some experience finding these caches.

Others, like my brother-in-law to be Darren, are the type of geocachers who prefer the use of a compass and map rather than the facility of a GPS device. According to Darren, a GPS takes all the fun out of geocaching. (He hasn’t been in the family long enough to know about my legendary inability to read even the simplest of maps.)

If you have an I-Phone and want to try out a fun new activity, then this might be it. It’s a good way to involve the children and meet and interact with a new set of people.

Should you decide to try it out, write and let me know about your experience!

On why blogging is cheap therapy

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When this blog first went live I couldn’t contain the thrill of seeing my first post on line. And then later, I couldn’t stop beaming when I received my first positive comment from a blogger who lived on the other side of the world. To use a colloquial expression I was ‘pumped’ and it was good to feel full of ideas and creativity.

For the first time in my life I found disparaging comments like ‘you must have too much free time on your hands to keep a blog’ of no concern. I also had high ambitions that this blog would win all sorts of travel writing awards and it would be the upstart newcomer, breaking through the slew of well-established travel blogs.

Chickstravelflicks was my project – my baby if you will – and I took pride in ensuring that every phrase, word or photo posted here was of my best quality.

I’ve had many mentors in my professional life who have warned me about my excessive desire for perfection and the pitfalls of having overly high ambitions for myself. As with other projects in my lifetime, I let the best become the enemy of the good and this blog became more about crafting the perfect sentence and less about transmitting the joy of travel.

When the inevitable blogging fatigue set in, my ‘three times a week’ posting schedule dwindled down to the weekly post, then the odd post once every two weeks and then the words literally dried up.

Chickstravelflicks would have probably continued on its downward trajectory to oblivion if I hadn’t read Gretchen Rubin’s ‘The Happiness Project’, a memoir of her year spent “test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture” on the subject of happiness.

In the third month of the project she launched her now highly successful blog. For someone who – in her own words – could barely ‘figure out how to use a TiVo’, this blog was a challenge to herself to “tackle a large, difficult, goal”. In doing so she claims that it increased her overall level of happiness and it was an excellent vehicle for her to share her ideas with the world.

I can’t say that the failure to blog has made me ‘unhappy’, though I do have a niggling feeling that there is a missing piece in my everyday life. This feeling made a sudden appearance when M. passed his pilot’s license this past June and I was made aware of the importance of having a ‘passion’ in life.

Whenever M. returns from a flight – even a short one – he seems exhilarated, joyful and yes, why not, happy. His joy has come from overcoming all the time and financial obstacles to achieving his boy hood dream of becoming a pilot.

Although I can’t really remember why I started blogging in the first place, I know that it gave me such an immense sense of pleasure and excitement. I am left wondering why I gave it up so quickly. I could blame my day job but as M. has showed me, it is possible to train as a pilot while having a demanding professional life!

So to ease back into blogging, I decided that it is necessary to note down a few reasons as to why I love to blog.

1) It’s about the process

For me, the fun of blogging is not so much in writing the story itself but finding a way to pitch a travel experience in a novel manner. We travel primarily in Europe and after a while you do find yourself wondering how you can write about a visit to the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Eiffel Tower for example, in a manner that is markedly different from the other million travel blog entries on the same subject.

However, when you do find ‘the angle’, there’s a sudden rush of adrenaline and a mad scramble to get all your ideas written down. I get great joy from letting these ideas slosh around in my head as I chew on lunch, walk to work or commute by train every morning and evening.

Then there’s the magic of having everything click together and seeing the words make their way onto your computer screen. I feel joy in then seeing the text come together in its final stages and a personal sense of satisfaction when it is complete.

2) It’s about the socialising

I don’t know what is more fascinating: the technology of the blog itself or sites like Facebook and Twitter, to help get your message across to an audience you could have never dreamed of reaching a decade ago. You realise the raw power of this technology when someone from Hong Kong comments on your photos, less than 24 hours after you’ve posted them. I find it completely and utterly awesome that this power is mine to use and the tools are all at my disposal.

Of course, it takes time to build trust with your readers and to understand the ways in which you can make your voice heard in these online communities.

Engaging in this form of ‘socialising’ is a challenge in itself, as it is a conscious decision to let the world into your life. It means that you are required to have a certain level of self confidence before going into the exercise, as the community will not hesitate to take you down a notch or two if necessary.

A few months after starting up Chickstravelflicks one reader had this to say about a post I had written on Goa: “Vanessa beyond the mild exaggeration and a hint of self importance, I must say, you write quite well.”

I once had what resembled a nervous breakdown because I received a B+ on an exam in high school. For all intents and purposes this was a B+ grade in blogging terms. But funnily enough I didn’t see it that way. I was so chuffed that a reader thought I wrote (well okay, he used the word ‘quite’) well! It meant that 1) people other than my parents were reading the blog 2) that my writing had some semblance of character and 3) the post had enough substance to criticise! I could have hugged the guy if he was closer. But as he wasn’t, I sent him a thank you email and cordially invited him to become a fan of the Chickstravelflicks page on Facebook, which he accepted a day later!

Sometime it takes a blog to show you how far you’ve come in life!

If happiness is a journey and not the destination, then maybe I should approach blogging in much the same way. So I’ve decided to start the month of October, with challenge number 1 of my Happiness Project: to take time every day to enjoy the creative and social side of blogging.

If you’ve set a similar challenge for yourself, I would love to hear from you!