Jaunting

They say that exposure therapy can be very effective for treating irrational fears, so my terror of flying is getting a pretty serious workout this month. At the end of the month I’m flying to Glasgow for work (which I won’t bore you with), and last weekend Chris and I popped over to Switzerland for the weekend to visit his friend and best man from our wedding.

I’m fully aware that being afraid of flying is completely irrational, but sadly rational is still capable of having a panic attack on a turbulence-free short haul flight (seriously, I’ve never been on a flight that smooth). Luckily the steward was lovely about it and she brought me lots of napkins for my delightfully sweaty hands! Shredding napkins is the best therapy I have found so far.

But all my panic faded away when we touched down in Geneva to beautiful sunshine. To say Lake Geneva and the surrounding towns are pretty frigging beautiful doesn’t really do them justice. We moseyed about in the sunshine peeking into shop windows and occasionally popping down to the lakeside, just to check it was still there. I also spotted the most beautiful plant and flower shop ever…

We toddled up a mountain (well, we drove most of the way) and got a look at Mont Blanc in the distance. The tops of the mountains tend to poke out above a choker of clouds, making them look as though they are levitating in a surreal Magic Eye type effect. Sadly without a zoom lens the mighty Mont appears a little small in these pictures, but you’ll have to take my word for it that it’s there.

My parents used to take us to the Alps for summer holidays when I was little, and while I was never destined to become the world’s most enthusiastic mountaineer, there is something very nostalgic about this scenery.

Ooh, I do love a good mountain wood pile. We have a very modest version of our own in our living room fireplace. Which is purely decorative because fireplace fires are strictly verboten under the London Clean Air Act. Spoil sports.

Probably mine and Chris’s favourite excursion was an old steam boat along the lake. The views of imposing mountains were spectacular as always, but even more exciting was the actual mechanics of the boat itself. From an internal viewing gallery you could watch the steam pistons powering round, turning the paddle wheels and driving the boat forwards. Chris could quite happily have spent the entire trip mesmerised by them!

All in all a trip worth working on the flying for! I love to travel, and I get so annoyed that something so silly as being afraid of flying might stop me from seeing things like this. Because life is short, the world is wonderful, and I want to see as much of it as I can.

So for my Glasgow excursion I have bought a handy book entitled “Overcome Your Fear Of Flying”. Let’s see how this works out…