For someone who loves her husband like crazy I have a funny way of showing it. And if he were to buy me gifts like I do him I’d be very worried. Or at least cancel my life insurance policy so that he’d know I was onto him. I guess I just like giving him a chance to do things he’s always dreamed of doing, but would never dream of actually doing. Like taking a trip in a hot-air balloon, or having a flying lesson in a stunt plane (you know – the two-winged bi-plane types, the sort that look like they should have been retired before my parents were born). The latest adventure for him was probably the scariest, on my part. I’m sitting here, still somewhat amazed that I sent my life partner 14000 feet into the atmosphere only to jump out of a perfectly good piece of aircraft. Especially now that I’ve just read this story. Ugh. (Jessie – if you’re reading this please don’t click on that link!).
But as you’ve gathered, all is well and, despite my last-minute anxiety and fears, he’s sitting safe and sound beside me, grinning from ear to ear. Glad for the opportunity to do things he’d never dream of doing, if not given a gentle shove in the right direction. Or have his hard earned money spent on a voucher he can’t return for a refund. 🙂
Fortunately we’re both believers in the necessity of doing crazy things every now and then, which for me usually just means putting a pair of heels on with my jeans instead of runners. So if it means putting a few selfish fears aside, and allowing each other to get out there and feel the adrenaline take over (seriously – you have no idea how much stilletos scare me) we’re good with it.
Matt’s trying to covince me that I need to try it now. Funnily enough, it’s not the plummeting 9000 feet in 60 seconds that bothers me. It’s the anticipation of it. That’s the part that would freak me out. I remember having a turn on the Detinator at Thorpe Park, in England. Sitting there at that top of that tower, not knowing when it was going to drop (they didn’t count down on the ride I took) was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced. I felt so sick, and so convinced that the one in 2 billion rides chance of something going wrong was going to be this one. Six or seven seconds is plenty of time to imagine all the hundreds of ways things could go wrong. Obviously it didn’t because I’m still here to write about it, but I’d be exactly the same the whole 15 minutes it takes to climb to 14000 feet in the air, knowing that it was too late to change my mind, and that the one in a thousand parachutes that fail to operate correctly was going to be packed in my backpack. That’s me. That’s why wearing heels is scary enough.
So, in a nutshell, I’m glad my husband is happy to do the truly crazy things and allowing me to get the thrill out of encouraging him to. We both get to live a little that way.
Anway – of course I took photos today. Not too many, as there’s only so much you can shoot from ground level.
As it was a tandem jump, he had to be taken through the ropes first, and shown how to position himself for landing.
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Loaded up and ready to go. The plane was a LOT smaller than I thought it would be, which didn’t make me feel any better.
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The view that I was hoping wasn’t the last I’d see of him.
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Which of course it wasn’t.
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They were all coming down so fast I couldn’t quite tell which one was Matt, so I was taking photographs of them all, desperately hoping I’d get at least one shot of him to prove that he’d done it (and survived). Then I saw this and knew for sure it was him.
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Coming in to land. Feet are almost safe on the ground. I start to breathe again.
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Touchdown, and air-pump.
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Only he can make a harness and jump pants look this good.
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That’s my man. My brave, happy, exhilerated, pumped, glad to be on ground again man.
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We did think of strapping the 5DII to his wrist, so he could take some video on the way down (yeah right), but thankfully we have one of these beauties which did the job just perfectly. My thoughts are if I watch the video enough times I won’t need to do it myself.
Feel free to watch his experience below, but consider yourself warned if you’re at all susceptible to motion sickness. And you might want to pause it and wait for it to load first.
🙂
Narrelle x