Mit gefühl

Calabria Kite-fest 2014 took place today with a disappointing showing. Initially, the moderately windy conditions entertained the Clements family for plenty of time. Our newish 'Decathlon' bought kite was an absolute winner though. No rods, packs away into a small package, and is fully controllable. Jasper started proceedings,

but then Maya took over and showed a deft control of the ropes using my 'soft hands' technique.

After 30mins or so, we started to pack up and go for lunch. However, Calabria Kite-fest 2014 had taken on a multinational flavour and began to become more interesting. Norbert, our German neighbour had sneaked out from his van whilst Gabi (his wife) had gone for a long walk. He had assembled his kite, which was on it's inaugural flight. From a distance though, we could all see that he was not quite having the success that he wished to have. His kite was continually dive bombing and smashing into the ground. We all rushed to his aid to get his kite working well. After many attempts of continual breaking and smashing incidents on the ground, I had a go, and the kite worked really well. Norbert was wondering how I managed to get the kite flying so well. At this point Gabi returned, and her translation was much needed. I set about trying to teach Norbert about soft hands, but it didn't translate so well. So 'mit gefühl' was Gabi's translation. In essence this translates as 'with feeling.'

From here on in Norbert was flying high, at which point Paul (the German cyclist from previous post) came and started getting involved. And so it began again. We got our kite out and everyone was flying the kites again. An hour later, we decided we should really feed the children and therefore finished for the day. During our lunch though, we could still see on the beach, Gabi, Norbert and Paul all flying Norbert's new kite with much success. Super kite flying on a super location with some super people! All of this has been said mit gefühl!!!

Ed