*Chapter 16*

What A Swiss!

 
 
My minder led me through a small gathering of tourists to where the ‘arteests’ were getting set up. We are not talking guitars, drums and big amps – we are talking Switzerland here, no the four lederhosen wearing chaps were setting up Alphorns – you know the things, metres long and needing a lot of puff.

“Whoa!”

“Impressive yeah?” Heidi grinned.

“Um yeah,” I agreed, “er you weren’t really serious about me playing were you?”

“No of course not, we just want some pictures of you with the players.”

“Phew, for a minute there you had me going.”

“Okay Drew,“ Georg got my attention, “over here please.”

And so the last half hour of Drew, photographic model began. The horn blowers, Matteo, Reto, Roman and Alessio were actually quite a laugh and I think Georg got a lot of candid shots as well as the posed views he was looking for.

“Its not working, you look like you are drinking tea.” Our photographer grumbled as I stepped down from pretending to blow one of the horns.

“Don’t be so hard on the girl, she’s trying hard.” Lessi opined.

“So what do you suggest?” Georg allowed.

“How about I teach her to blow it properly?” Matt suggested.

“In ten minutes?”

“So she won’t be at concert level but enough I think for your photographs.”

“Drew?” Heidi put the ball in my court.

“I’ll give it a try.” Well why not? It can’t be that hard can it?

“Okay,” Georg agreed, “best get started.”

 
 
Okay, so it was harder than it looks, I couldn’t get a peep out of the instrument on my first few attempts, it didn’t help that we were gathering a bit of an audience, the boys are giving a concert once we’re done.

“Come on Drew, you can do it, breath from the diaphragm, one and two and blow.”

“Prrr-rrrp!” the horn sounded.

“Yay!”

“Well done girl!”

The crowd called out encouragement, cheered and clapped. I couldn’t help myself; I hammed it up with a curtsey and wave. Now I’d mastered the technique it was a cinch to do a convincing mimed version for Georg’s lens.

 
 
“So Drew, how’d you enjoy being a horn blower?” Matt asked.

“Think I’ll leave the real blowing to you guys.” I allowed.

“I’ve an idea,” Lessi put in, “how about Drew joins us for the overture?”

“Don’t be so daft!”

“I’m serious, you only need to do the one note, we’ll do all the fancy stuff.”

Ret and Roman grinned their agreement.

“Go on Drew,” Heidi encouraged, “you know you want to.”

I do?

“One note?”

“Sure, a long one but just one.”

“Go on then.” I agreed.

 
 
The overture of course was the Willem Tell as used by the post buses and the national TV channel to start the day. The guys got ready, Matt was supervising the guest blower, Ret gave one long note on his horn to quieten the audience then the concert began. Georg wasn’t letting any opportunity go to waste and was filling his memory card up throughout the rendition.

I really am no musician; I usually ended up with the triangle in music lessons and my input this evening was on the same level. How these guys manage to rest a tune out of these things I’ll never know but somehow they do.

“Coming up Drew.” Matt whispered.

I took a deep breath and watched Matt’s hand as he counted me in, three, two, one, “prrr – rrrr - rrrp!”

I blew for as long as I could, the note fading off as I ran out of puff.

The crowd were very appreciative and generous in their applause, we all stood back and I joined the guys in taking a bow.

 
 
“Best get you back to your team.” Heidi mentioned a few minutes later as the horn blowers got on with the concert without one note Bond.

“Yeah.” I agreed.

Inside Rosa helped me out of the dress, returned to my borrowed shorts and top I felt quite exposed.

“Take care girl.” She offered.

“And you, tschuss!”

“Gruß!”

Back outside I looked around for Heidi but a yell caught my attention first.

“Gabeee!”

“Ron?”

“Dur, who else?” my friend enquired crossing the couple of metres between us.

“What you doing here?”

“Sightseeing, cool horn blowing by the way.”

“Um thanks.”

“So what happened to the whole country wench look? Looks cute on you by the way.”

The perishing C word again.

“Not mine, I’ve been modelling for the tourist board. The others here too?”

“Somewhere, Tali wanted a drink so they headed to the snack bar.”

“So where are you staying, we’ve got some place near the Bahnhof.”

“We hit pay dirt, we’re in a big four star place near the bottom of the Bahn here.”

“Nice.”

“Hey, you fancy meeting up later?”

“We’re supposed to have some down time after dinner,” I allowed.

“Bring the other girls, we can have a girly night.”

“I’ll call when I get back.”

“Ah, there you are Drew,” Heidi mentioned, “lets get you back to the Crystal.”

“Okay,” I agreed, “laters Ron.”

“Laters!”
 
 

“Friend?” Heidi enquired as we set off down the path towards the Berg station.

“Yeah, we are on the same team at home in Germany.”

“So she is here for the race too?”

“Uh huh.”

“Ooh, come on quickly, there’s a car just arriving!”
 
 

We caught the downhill train and were soon back in Heidi’s colourful little Smart heading back to the team hotel.

“Thanks for doing this Drew.”

“I enjoyed it, even the horn.”

“It’s been a bit short notice to sort out,” she allowed, “we’ll sort you out some payment, its okay to talk to Herr Bond about that?”

“Sure, um could I ask a favour?”

“I can try.”

“Well I was wondering if I could get copies of some of the pictures?”

“Ah, of course, I’ll talk to Georg. Here we go, Hotel Crystal.”

“Thanks Heidi.” I mentioned climbing out of the motorised skate.

“No, thank you Drew. Take care, I have to dash, Rosa will be waiting at the Talstation for me, I think she has a date later.”

“Bye!”

“Tschuss!”

 
 
I slipped my handy out to check the time, bummer, five past seven, I’m late for dinner. I was about to go straight through to the dining room when I was brought up short by the girl coming towards me, phew, it’s a mirror, oh sugar! I need to change and lose the hair – I hadn’t thought about that when I was up at Harder Kulm so the flowers were still adorning my braided hair and the boobs I spend most of my time hiding are spilling out of my top.

I made a swift about turn and made a swift ascent to my shared room, key, oh bum, still in my shorts in the girls room.
 
 

“Thanks Mand.”

“You owe me.”

“Sure.” I agreed. A call on her mobile had summoned assistance; at least I’ve been reunited with my own stuff.

“I’ll say you fell asleep, Josh was with Mark and Jamie so he wouldn’t know.”

“I won’t be long.”

“Yeah Bond, I’ve heard that before.”
 
 

Dinner was back to pasta, cheese and ham gnocchi with what I now recognise as a Milanese sauce. Doesn’t sound that great but there was plenty of it and with ice cream to follow it filled a good hole.

“So, did you ask him?” I queried while we waited for the coffee to arrive.

“Yup.” Mand allowed remaining tight lipped.

“And?” I pressed.

“Yess!”

“You been wearing earrings Drew?” Sal asked.

“No!” I replied maybe a little quickly, “why?”

“Your ears look a bit red, mine do that when I’ve not had anything in for a bit.”

“Mine too.” Claire agreed giving me a wink.

“Oh by the way,” I tried to turn the conversation, “I spoke to Roni earlier, we’re invited to meet up later?”

“Better than watching Swiss telly.” Laura offered.

“What about the guys?” Sal queried.

“What about them?” Claire countered, “I’m sure they can find something to do.”

I know one who already has!
 
 

“People!” Dave waited until he had our attention, “I won’t keep you long tonight, we’ll have a pre race meeting in the morning to discuss tactics, your coaches are still undecided on that. Firstly then congratulations to everyone, I know today was difficult but you all did excellent rides, no one dropped any places, Mark great ride to get back in the ten, Sally you set a good target for the girls.

We’re more relaxed tomorrow, we start here in town so no repeat of this mornings rushing about. We will go for a leg stretch after breakfast so you will need to be packed and ready to ship when we get back. Not too late tonight please, you’ve all done yourselves proud so far so lets keep it that way eh?”

© Maddy Bell 06.02.14