All you need is a parachute, and one big determined leap.
Yeah, that was one of the stuff I did over the weekend. Mel wanted to celebrate her 21st birthday jumping off a plane so we said we will not only come along to give her moral support, but jump with her as well. How exciting can things get??? Plus, among the 10 of us, only Mel has done bungee jumping before and that was at some dodgy bridge in the middle of Ecuador. We love her, =) I would never have thought of her as an adventurous person at all. She is such a serious, soft spoken girl at uni but to hear of the things that she has tried!!! Your eyes would go as wide as saucers. But I supposed that is sort of the case where people who talk and boast the loudest are the ones who would be the first to shrink back from any challenge. Like needles for example -_-”
The place we were jumping off from is a fair distance away in Goolwa which is about an hour and a half drive from Adelaide. Had leave my place at 6am in the morning. I was so tired as I was at Andrew’s birthday the night before but after we got there, I could feel the adrenaline rush and everyone was just super excited. We had no idea what to expect and most of us were pretty much still surprised that we even agreed to do the jump. I know I am. It was as if part of my brain was clamping down on the super excited part of me, trying to prevent me from just grabbing the people around me to give them hugs. -_-” Lol.
We were given a brief introduction by the instructors and had to sign all sorts of forms. One of it was an indemnity form I think?? And almost every paragraph it was written down that parachuting is a VERY Dangerous sport and by agreeing to it you will not hold them liable to etc etc…. That wasn’t really comforting at all wasn’t it? We also automatically get a student membership from the Australian Parachute Federation which is cool. Not very useful but still fun to have. =D After that, it was on to the crash course. And I seriously mean crash course O_O, I’ve seen stuff like this on TV where the instructors spent an hour or two giving you a whole bunch of safety information and showing you how to jump, what not to do etc. Ours on the other hand took barely 10 minutes. It was just ‘when you’re up on the plane, you’ll be strapped to the instructor and when you jump, remember to keep your arms crossed until you feel a tap on your shoulder, then raise your hands and try to form an arch with your body. 8000ft means 15 secs of free fall and after that, the parachute will be opened and you’ll get to admire the view for a few minutes. While you’re up there, your instructor will tell you the landing technique. That’s it thank you lets got jump now.’ O_O Speechless much??? Haha… I guess all those pre-jump courses were just for show in the TV, to make it seem more interesting and probably safer as well. Because for a first time jumper, all that information would definitely make no difference. I’ll be too concerned about the whole free fall experience to pay much attention to others. =P
Surprise surprise, I got picked to jump first. They could only fit 5 person in the plane so we were jumping in pairs. Two instructors and two of us. I was definitely not anticipating being the first to jump. Like, omg, I know I want to do this, but I’m not so eager as to volunteer to be the first. =P Me and vish had our names down second but turns out the first pair quietly told their instructor that they didn’t want to be the first ones. -_-” So I was kinda surprised with the ‘change of plans’ as the instructor put it and before I knew it, I was in their diving pants and buckled up ready to go. Everyone else was just standing around us with huge smiles on their faces (very funny people) wishing us good luck and to see us soon. =P I was glad I managed to make it over to the plane without tripping over the straps all over me. At the plane, we were given a few more last minute instruction about how to get out before the jump and then all five of use and the pilot squeezed ourselves into the tiny compartment in the plane. Then it was take off…..

All strapped out before the jump. They had this huge poster of all the base jumping sites in Malaysia hanging on the wall behind us. The first one was of course the KL Tower, I was actually quite surprised that Yayasan Sabah (or as it was called Menara Tun Mustapha) was among the sites as well. =)
The view was amazing from the plane. We could see the sea on one side and the rest were just flat green expanse stretching out bellow us. I tried to feel my heart rate and I remember wondering why it wasn’t acting all excited, beating out of control or anything like that. In fact, the only indication was my hands sometimes shaking although I wasn’t really sure whether that was due to my nervousness or the cold. I do remember though at one point high up I was looking down and thinking, ‘hmm… we seem quite far up but it doesn’t look scary at all. I could jump from this height.’ and then looking at the meter thing which they used to measure the altitude. The needle was only pointing at 3000 ft, we still had 5000ft more to go. -_-” Ah, this doesn’t look good, we’re not even halfway up yet. =P
When we got to 8000ft, I was strapped on to my instructor (we’re doing a tandem jump since its my first time), I slipped my goggles on, and they opened the door. Immediately we were buffeted by the cold crisp wind. You know how in movies and shows, when someone opens the emergency exit in the plane and suddenly everything get blown about and sucked out etc?? =) Haha, this is just like that but much milder I believe since planes usually fly at what? 20 000ft??? I don’t know. Anyway, we moved to the door and I peeked out to look at Vish who had just jumped off with his instructor. OMG, I didn’t even have time to register it. First they were both standing on the little platform under the wing, next thing went they jumped, they just fell away SOOOooo quickly. Like blink your eyes and they’re already way bellow you. O_O My turn now and I had to get both my feet out on to the platform under the wing, all this time the wind is just howling mercilessly away and I feel like if I wasn’t strapped to something heavier, I might have just been blown clean off. -_-” One of the rare occasions when an extra few kilos is much appreciated. I had my arms crossed and my eyes were just glued to the ground bellow me that seems so far away. Just a split second before I jumped, I was debating to myself whether I should squeeze my eyes shut but before I could decide, I was falling and tumbling down the sky. Didn’t even get to scream. -_-” It was just sky -land-sky-wait is that sea??-land and then I felt the tap on my shoulders and quickly held my arms up. We immediately stopped tumbling and I could just look down and see the ground rushing towards me but omg, the free fall feeling was awesome!!!! I mean, this is so much better that the amusement park rides, you know the big drop things that give you a sick sensation in your tummy?? There is none of this here. We were just dropping like a stone through the air and keeping in the arch position meant that we don’t get knocked about much. At 5000ft, the instructor opened my parachute and we immediately slowed down. Amazingly, it was as if someone pressed the mute button. Everything went still and you couldn’t hear anything around you at all. No sound, no wind, nothing. We were still descending but after the fall just now, I felt like I was suspended in mid air. Everything was so calm and with such a great weather, we could see all the way to the horizon. The time up there with the parachute open was so amazing (yeah, I have limited adjectives) but it was just the best thing ever. I just felt so exhilarated and glad that I did it. I definitely wouldn’t mind doing it again. I got to steer the parachute as well, tugging at the attachments to make it turn and swivel etc. It was so much much. The landing bit was easy as well, I managed to land on my feet haha… We got quite a few funny lands that day with michael taking the prize by overshooting the landing field and almost crashing into the sheds at the edge of the field.
So I was done for the day!!! I get to spent the rest of my time watching people get all nervous and doing their jumps. =) The first time I saw the whole thing from the ground, I was glad that I went first. It looked so epic-ally high up from the ground!!! I could barely make out the tiny speck of the plane and the even smaller dot that just means someone has jumped!!! It looked way scarier from the ground.

We did it!! =P lol
After that me and Vish stopped by at Mel’s place which is just nearby and we got to try out another new thing that day!!! Two things actually which is cool. She showed us how to ride these four-wheeled thing which I have no idea what its called. I was just going at a very tame pace on her grounds and I think she probably thought that wasn’t enough because she then proceeded to give each of us a feel of how she rides it. Omg, I guess I should be expecting that when she got on. We were speeding around and weaving in and out of the trees and bushes (more like squeezing between the tight spots). O_O But it was good. Another adrenaline pumping adventure on the same day. I can get addicted to this. =P
Then we checked out her backyard and found that her family keeps a few chickens for eggs!!! Okay, so we all had a go trying to catch the hens. =P I know, I had all the opportunity to do that back home at my grandmother’s place and I come all the way here to chase after hyper-excited chickens. -_-” I did managed to catch one though so I didn’t let my mom down there eh. Haha… My camera went out of battery so I wasn’t able to take a photo with my prize. =P

Going in for the kill. Look at the hens, they look so clean and so much like the ones you see in picture books for kids!!! I don’t recall my grandmother’s chicken looking so good. (Oops)
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I mentioned before that I went to Andrew’s 21st on Friday night before. Well, here are pictures. We were treated to a very nice sit down dinner with his family and friends. His family entertained us with all his most embarrassing stories, most of which involved him pooping, peeing, vomiting all over the place, or them. =P I guess it is one of their many traditions. Lol, we each went up to share our own stories of Andrew as well in between changing of courses.

Andrew’s grandmother having fun with his younger brother Stewart.

The birthday boy.
I will end this post with a couple of pictures taken during a massive bake-out day I had at Romain’s place during the break. We made carrot cake, and caramel slices (heaven), and also a sponge cake for Mike’s birthday which we cut into the shape of a saxophone and decorated with smarties and cream. =)

some of the stuff we made.

Ok, see here on the left if Romain whisking the egg white for the sponge cake mixture. He was imitating the pose Dish made a couple of weeks back at Shaad’s place when they were trying to make Tiramisu. I just put both pictures together for comparison. Lol.
I’ve been waiting forever to blog about this. =) First week back to uni after easter break and it has been an awesome weekend. Admittedly, I am now swamped with work to do but seriously, I would not have passed the opportunity up for the world.