05.09.07
Posted in Cambridge, Dance, Lotte, Photo at 3:57 pm by admin
I not only ‘like’ dancing outside. I LOVE it!
I was reminded myself when a friend of mine took this photo of me at the Cambridge Lindy Hopper’s first ever Lindy Bomb! A ‘lindy bomb’ basically means you choose a place and time, you bring some fine jazz tunes, you invite your dancing friends and you DANCE 
Don’t ask me what I am doing in the photo. It must have been one of my famous improvisation moves. They are all truly amazing, original and like nothing else!
So, proven here, Lotte is in her element when:
She is with friends and family,
outside in the sunshine,
in a nice location, like a park,
dancing Lindy Hop!
YAY
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05.01.07
Posted in Cambridge, Lotte, Photo, Punting at 4:46 pm by admin
So, when I work, I punt on the river. When I get visitors and I take a day off, I punt on the river! Me and the river are getting to know each other really well
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04.26.07
Posted in Cambridge, Lotte, Punting at 9:42 am by admin
Phew – it is easier to tell you which muscles are NOT hurting, because there are not so many of them. Ouch!
Everything hurts, from typing to laughing. Holding the pole and pushing it makes my hands and arms sore. I can also tell you for sure you are using your stomach muscles — I feel them all when I laugh and just when I move around.
4 days of work in a row in my first week as Chauffeur. I am proud of my survival. I have had fun and learned a lot about how it all works. I have had people from many different countries in my boat and I am enjoying that. I also made friends with many of my colleagues and we have a fun time together. I did not fall in the water. Not yet…
I don’t like the current, the wind, the muddy bits and the noisy ducks.
I love the people who are punting for the first time, I love the wind if it goes my way. It is great entertainment when poles get stuck in the mud and against bridges, especially if it is not mine, haha.
Most tours punted in a day: 4 (for me that means about 4 hours of punting – soon I will have to be able to do it in 45 min)
Highest tip: 5 pounds
Next day I work is Sunday — first time to work in the weekend. It will probably be busier.
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04.20.07
Posted in Cambridge, Punting at 1:48 pm by admin
I passed my test
I am now officially a ‘Chauffeur’ -Punting Tour Guide on the river Cam- and I start on Monday. I am working 5 days next week and don’t know how I will survive as I am already super sore after the one tour I did yesterday for my test.
For this test I had to just give my first ever tour to one of my bosses. So, a 12 person boat, with 1 person in it, who probably knows more about the river than anyone else and I was giving him the tour! Yes, I was a little nervous!
I think I gave a very entertaining tour, for all the wrong reasons though, haha. My first tour ever, phew. Pretty clumsy. I was reminded yet again how easy it is to get stuck between punts parked on the banks, under trees and bridges and behind other punts on the river.
I also discovered I am not very good at talking and punting at the same time, let alone remember all the information;
“On my right hand (stick out hand..don’t loose balance, hold on to stick, oops we are loosing speed quickly, punt on) you see Trinity college which was founded in, ehm.., 1546 by…..(pushing the pole, turning the boat, sigh, sweat)..founded by….eeehm…eehem. (Shit, can’t remember, just talk on) The college is known for…ehm..bla bla bla”
I remembered so many names BEFORE I gave this silly test tour, all these Queens and Kings, designers of bridges and founders of colleges. Of course they are all named either William or Henry, Elizabeth or Margaret, which makes it very confusing.
My boss pissed himself laughing for most of the Lotte tour, especially because I simply named every lady Margaret. There were no more Elizabeths or other names in my vocabulary — they were all Margaret!
Anyway, he had a very simple tick list and timed the trip. A little reminder not to do dangerous things…stay on the right side of the river, never move the pole over the people in the boat. Tick for mentioning the names of the colleges and the bridges……okay, passed — start ASAP!
Wish me luck!
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04.19.07
Posted in Cambridge, Lotte at 9:23 am by admin
A little update on my training to become a punt tour guide.
I have been practicing the technique of punting and it is improving. I am slowly remembering more dates, names, history and facts. What I really mastered in the last week is to know all the dangers that are ahead!
1. Falling in the river
2. Losing the pole and having to wait for someone to help me out of trouble (as there is no paddle in the tour boats)
3. Hitting other boats due to someone else’s fault or my own
4. Talking too much on the way there, so there is nothing to talk about on the way back
5. Forgetting information or not knowing enough
6. Getting very quiet, boring people in the boat, so the atmosphere is making the time drag along
7. Getting injuries
I am making friends with colleagues now and they are very relaxed and friendly. I feel very unsure still about being able to go ahead, but everyone tells me they were all like that when they started. I know they are trying to be nice and helpful, but they keep telling me:
“the best way for this job is just to throw yourself in the deep!”
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03.29.07
Posted in Cambridge, Photo at 10:27 am by admin
I seem to have just found myself a job! After months of job hunting and job applications without getting anywhere I had an idea….let’s check out punting!
A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole.
Punts were originally built as cargo boats or platforms for fowling and angling but in modern times their use is almost exclusively confined to pleasure trips on the rivers in the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge in England and races at a few summer regattas on the Thames. (Wikipedia)
Punting is a very popular leisure time activitiy in Cambridge and I have gone punting a few times already. Not as easy as it sometimes seems, but very fun and I always enjoyed it as you can see on the photo.
Now, this might be where you will find me most of the time in the near future– on the river Cam taking the tourists along the colleges, punting and talking away…. They refer to Tour Guide Punters as ‘Chauffeurs’.
First I have to pass a ‘test’ though, which I think just means taking my boss on a tour to see if I am good enough for the real tours yet. I will have to fill 45 minutes of tour talk AND, even more challenging, get this 12 person boat up and down the river in 45 minutes while I am talking, help!
So, over the next week I am studying 8 pages of information on Cambridge bridges and buildings and Cambridge University. I will also practise punting the 12 person boats. Those are bigger than the 6 people punt boats that I have been going on. When I feel ready I will do the test and my ‘Chauffeur’ career can kick off!
(I was told that my boss fell into the river 7 times in his first year. I will have to leave a spare set of clothes just around the corner at Matt’s office I think, haha!)
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