Bloganuary 5: What is something you wish you knew how to do?

Three things come up in my mind immediately on seeing this question:

• Ride a motorcycle
• Play the cello
• Scuba dive

I don’t want a Harley Davison, I think they are ugly. (And people I know who know bikes tell me that BMWs are much better touring bikes.) In fact it wouldn’t have to be a big bike. In fact I’d settle for something barely motorcycle-like at all, like a Vespa. But I would like to know how to ride a bike. There’s something cool and badass about a bike. And even a Vespa can be cool in a Ciao, Italian, sunglasses and espresso kind of way. If I knew how to ride one I could buy into that coolness.

Think of a film that involves a female musician. What instrument does she play? Chances are it’s the cello. Women in films play the cello. I’m not sure why. Is it because it looks sexy? Is it because it sounds sexy?

I had some violin lessons in my teenage years and the violin was not my instrument. Despite my regular practice, it never sounded any better. “Are you strangling a cat in there?” my mother would shout, encouragingly. (This was obviously not encouraging.)

I have the feeling the cello, with its deeper, richer tone, would be more forgiving to the beginner. And I would love to have the satisfaction of playing Bach’s cello suite No.1 in G Major. I would be happy to play it with just a basic level of competence, not with the liquid grace and beauty of Yo Yo Ma.,

I would love to swim with the fishes and not in a creepy mafia movie way. I would love to be underwater, just hanging out  watching the fish and other sea animals do whatever it is they do underwater. But being human comes with that awkward thing of needing to breathe oxygen. So any hanging out underwater lasts only as long as I can hold my breath.

Snorkelling kind of works, but the one time I tried it there were so many things to think about – breathing through the tube, swimming, floating, looking, not breathing through your nose…I was lucky to get given one of those pool noodle / flotation tube things. That at least took away some of the float/swim stress and I was able to hang in the water and look down and around and be able to breathe and it was magic.

But I want to go deeper underwater, stay under for longer. Hang in the water, the closest thing we humans can feel to flying, just float there, weightless and surrounded by marine life.