Life – Tatia Chiswell

Bicycle Filmmaker Fadi Hindash

By Tatia C. 0, September 26, 20140, July 1, 2018 In Life 0 No tags 0

Palestinian born, Dubai raised, New York educated, and now resident filmmaker of Amsterdam, Fadi Hindash, didn’t intend to make a film about bicycles given they are rather a mundane topic in The Netherlands, but Mama Agatha’s bicycle story touched a nerve.

Hindash was having coffee one afternoon, with a friend, when he saw in the distance a group of veiled Moroccan women learning to cycle in a park.

The image stayed with the filmmaker for days, “I suddenly realized the image appealed to me because these women were trying to integrate in a society that is not considered theirs.

Why Bicycle When You Can Drive?

By Tatia C. 0, July 11, 20130, July 1, 2018 In Life 0 No tags 0

Life by bicycle in paradise found.

Driving a car is like taking a Valium while on a roller-coaster ride: you’ll be there; you’ll have had the ride; but you won’t have acutally experienced all there is to experience on a roller coaster ride.

It occurred to me last night while riding home in the frosty night air, only a week since returning to Melbourne after a year in the African heat, that without exception I would rather bicycle back in the cold than drive in a heated car.

Life has to be experienced to be enjoyed!

Why Paris Is Not A Bicycle City.

By Tatia C. 0, January 19, 20130, July 1, 2018 In Life Paris 0

Paris has a reputation for being a city of love and a bicycle mecca. Who knows where either reputation came from because frankly Paris is 24 hours of car traffic, with few bicycles to be seen.

I had visions of beautiful Parisians in flowing fashions, bicycling down boulevards, casually calling ‘Bonjour’ to each other on their way to the morning market.

Where is that Paris? It’s sure not the one I located on the map of France and flew to.

A rare Parisian.

The Paris I landed in, is a honking,

Vienna’s Woeful Bicycle Share

By Tatia C. 0, December 6, 20120, July 1, 2018 In Life 4 Vienna 0

Vienna is not without its bicycle enthusiasts, it just seems that that were it begins and ends. There are the ultra cool, ultra alternative types that do critical mass, fix their bike at The Bike Kitchen and buy their fixies at FixDich, everyone else takes the car.

Purple Lemons.

Vienna has bicycle lanes, bicycle signs and bicycle parking a plenty, but it seems to be all talk and no action because I hardly saw anyone using it.

Cycling Space Aplenty.

All the right signs.

When I hit town I do a lot of walking and I walked the whole city and I even rode the Danube only to find a couple of leisure cyclists.

Bicycle Helmet Debate in Copenhagen

By Tatia C. 0, November 7, 20120, July 1, 2018 In Life 1 Copenhagen 0

Copenhagen Cycle Chic

What do you get when you cross a city on an urban bicycling mission with a well-dressed population?

The birth place of Cycle Chic.

Copenhagen is where Cycle Chic was invented, for the sole reason it could not have been anywhere else.

Being the best bicycle city in the world is Copenhagen City Council’s mission and the Copenhageners, unlike the Dutch who already have the world’s best bicycle city title, have a serious passion for fashion.

The chic factor is also helped by the striking good looks of a nation of Vikings.

Scientist Wants to Salt Clouds. Get A Bike!

By Tatia C. 0, October 9, 20120, July 1, 2018 In Bicycles, Life 0 No tags 0

This has been a week of everyone getting their bicycle nickers in a tangle.

Geoengineer, Kristy Kuo, wants to spend tax payer dollars to “increase the longevity of [salty rain] clouds” to try and make the clouds whiter to reflect the sun’s heat.

Like seriously girl, go get yourself a bicycle and some desirable ideas. I’d rather ride my bike through a climate-change induced hurricane than a Kristy Kuo induced salt-rain storm.

I like my ground water unsalted, and an “insurance policy for the earth” doesn’t thrill me either.

Amsterdam, a Bicycle Paradise

By Tatia C. 0, August 16, 20120, July 1, 2018 In Life 0 Amsterdam 0

You can’t understand just how awesome a great bicycle city is until you ride it.

We’ve all seen the photos of Amsterdam or heard about the bicycles, but when you actually come here and get to really taste the joy of a bicycle-centered city, it’s like a whole new world. In fact, it’s heaven.

The brilliance of Netherland’s transport system is one that is rarely referenced which is not only a shame, but an international injustice.

That anyone is subjected to the traffic congestion, air pollution, the inconvenience of car parking,

Brussels Brings the Bicycle Back

By Tatia C. 0, July 8, 20120, July 1, 2018 In Life 0 Brussels 0

The Belgians don’t ride bicycles they ride Bromptons, and while nothing will ever compare to the sex appeal of a Belgian on a vintage bicycle there is something very dapper about a well-dressed Belgian expertly whizzing through traffic on a slightly odd, but very funky looking, fold-up bicycle.

Brussels: the folding bicycle capital of the world!

While it is a slight exaggeration that ALL Belgians ride Bromptons, to say the least, there are a lot of Belgians looking slightly odd, but ever so funky on fold-up bikes.

Fold-Up Bicycle Babe

Also slightly odd,

Trips by Bicycle Triple In Dublin.

By Tatia C. 0, June 24, 20120, July 1, 2018 In Life Dublin 0

Dublin, Ireland: not the first place that comes to mind when you think of the world’s best bicycle cities it is however, a city on the bicycle move. And although they may not be number one, in fact maybe not even in the top ten, I don’t think the Dubliners really care because the Dubliners know how to throw one awesome bicycle party.

A rare sunny day in the middle of the Irish summer.

The week I arrived in Dublin it just so happened to be Bike Week, seven days bicycle festivities.

One Billion Bicycles Global Films

By Tatia C. 0, June 15, 20120, July 1, 2018 In Life 0 No tags 0

It’s not everyday that you hear that someone traveled the world in search of bicycles. Adventure and love maybe, but the humble bicycle? Not so much.

It is true that I love my bicycle. I never however, expected my bicycle and I to take things quite this far. Not literally my bicycle and me, but my passion for living the bicycle life has just reached whole new heights.

In fact, I’m writing this from London, England, the first stop on my year-long study tour of the world’s best bicycle cities.

The tour starts in Europe then goes as far south as Mozambique –

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