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Home Life - Sunday 15th July 2001
For some reason I thought everything would be different when I got home. That I would be a totally different person, and so would Bromley and everyone who lives there. I was wrong. Within just a couple of days I’m back into the regular swing of things here and I’m hating it! I’ve gotta’ getaway and start doing something different - perhaps I’ll travel the world again?!
As soon as my skydiving licence comes through I’ll probably try and do a bit of skydiving again - I hope to try and keep it up regularly, perhaps every weekend whilst at uni.
I’ve decided to semi-close my web development business InFrame, and will instead concentrate on just a few websites over the next few months and try to do some ‘normal’ jobs as well if I can be bothered.
I actually arrived home last Wednesday but, because my family thought I’d be home in about three days from now, I decided to turnup unexpected and surprise them all - and it worked extremely well too!
Last time I updated this site I was in Brisbane and I’d completed my skydiving course. The next day I got my plane ticket brought forward and went to Singapore for a couple of days to seek out some electronic bargains. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything though so just bummed around whilst sweating like a pig in the humid-day-long-heat.
I arrived home at 5.30am and then arrived on my doorstep at 7.30, just after my dad had left for work, and just before everyone else would be leaving for school. My sister, Rosanna, answered the door and seemed extremely surprised but pleased to see me - and Joe was Joe. My mum, little to my knowledge, was in Germany though so her surprise had to wait. Went round to my gran’s house and surprised her too - with a bit of a scream when she saw me!
Six months with hardly any squash left me itching for a game - by 10am I was on on the court with Peter NG but unfortunately hadn’t gained magic skills over the half year, and instead had got a little rusty. I lost. Next it was round to my Ompa’s house - yet again another big surprise. Got the bus home and then surprised my dad when he got back from work - looked like he’d seen a ghost when he saw me!
Then the conspiracy began - in order to surprise my mum I was banned from using the phone (in case she called) and of course I couldn’t update this site either. All worked to plan, and she arrived back yesterday as happy and surprised as everyone else was to see me.
I Can Fly! - Saturday 7th July 2001
I am now, officially, allowed to jump out of planes by myself and fly through the air for about a minute before opening a parachute. Yahoo! That’s right - I just completed a skydiving course - a total of 14 jumps with about 40 seconds of freefall on each of them. By the end of it, I was doing rolls and turns in the air and having a blast. Totally awesome - what a rush! See some photos of my first tandem jump (all the rest were solo).
Let me just take you through a typical jump… You’re going up in the plane to 10,000ft and that takes about fifteen minutes. During that time, you’re crapping yourself thinking if the parachute’s going to work or not - it always does! Then, you get to your height and the door swings open, air whooshing around everywhere. You’ve then gotta’ climb out onto the wheels and hold onto the wing strut before letting go and accelerating through the air to terminal velocity. Bloody A! Half a minute later, you’re checking your height and when you’re down to about 3,000ft you pull the ripcord and hope to sweet Jesus that the parachute opens. Then, suddendly, there’s the sound of silence as your canopy opens up and you drift gently towards the ground. Hopefully you land in the right field five minutes later (unless the winds are too strong and you’re too stupid - like me - and end up in the wrong field!).
Now it’s homeward bound for me. I’ll be back in ol’ blighty within a couple of weeks, stopping off at Singapore on the way back to get some hi-tech gadgetry.
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