My new toy!! :D

More Go Ape photos...

Photos courtesy of Katharina and others using her camera! These have uploaded in a totally random order and layout, but fixing it would take so long that it wouldn't be worth the difference it would make to you! :D So, this is the rest of our group hanging out/up/on at Go Ape! Enjoy...

Boys in the kitchen!

Well, the first stage of the Incredible Cook-off is now complete and Trev and I are basking in the glow of triumph. The girls were both suitably impressed with our efforts – and that was before they even SAW our dessert!

Anna and I went around to Trevor and Sharon’s on Saturday afternoon (the same day as Go Ape), so that Trev and I could get some initial preparation done to make things a bit quicker and easier to have our meal ready for tea-time on Sunday night.

The biggest thing to get done was to prepare our meat. This was a piece of beef loin (though the recipe we were working from called for veal – three cheers for successful substitutions), cut and pounded to lay out flat, layered with a variety of ingredients (including but not limited to: toasted pine nuts, chopped fresh basil and prosciutto) and tied into a roll... which required going shopping for string at 10pm!

While Trev worked on our meat (the pièce de résistance for our meal), I worked on our surprise attack – the desserts. These were individual serves, similar to crème brûlée, but made with coconut milk and golden syrup. It needed to be cooked, then sat in the fridge to set properly, so it was good to be able to get them done beforehand. We got a few other things ready and that was it.

On Sunday we put our meat in to cook, then started on the rest of the meal. This included thyme and lemon potato wedges (a bit more lemony than our recipe called for), sweet potato wedges with pesto mayonnaise and a rocket and macadamia salad (with asparagus and parmesan, among other things).

All in all, things went very well and it was very, very tasty!

We went Ape!

Now the tale I'm going to tell you

Speaks of adventure death defying;

Of Tarzan stunts and tree-top grunts

And screams most terrifying.

Those of you who know me well

Will ask how I survived...

I, too, am puzzled by this fact –

But yes! I am alive!

So now begins my story –

Oh! But first, the place and time:

Last Saturday, near Guildford...

Now onward with the rhyme!

To the Woodland Park at Alice Holt,

We drove our car that morning;

Met our group of thirteen friends,

And heard the safety warnings.

Too soon it was upon us:

The time to venture on our own

To where Ape alone had gone before

(Insert my whimpered moans).

We clambered up the rope ladder

To platform number one,

And didn't touch the ground again

For quite some time to come!

From tree to tree we traipsed

On skinny bits of wood or wire,

Dangling from our harnesses

As the course got slowly higher.

It was up to forty feet between

The ground and our brave toes –

I must confess, in three whole hours,

I hardly looked below!

We crossed from trunk to tree trunk

On loops and nets of rope,

And 'twas at the first Tarzan swing

That I nearly gave up hope.

I had to hook my harness

To a swing away up high,

Then step off into nothing

And try my best to fly!

It took some kind encouragement

But soon I took the leap...

Launched out over nothing

And hit the netting in a heap!

Up I climbed like Spiderman

And on to the next part;

My legs were actually trembling,

And oh! My pounding heart!

Alone I would have chickened out,

But with friends I soldiered on;

Only two (plus Ben) I'd met before –

But what a way to bond!

A thought just kept recurring:

Of all the stupid things I've done,

To actually pay to do this

Was up there as number one!

As we neared the final challenges,

I thought about the prize:

“The ground! The ground! I'm almost there!”

'Twas music to my eyes.

At forty feet I shimmied through

A tunnel made of planks;

Crossed a holey wooden bridge

And offered up my thanks.

From swaying swing to swing I stepped –

Just two tasks left to go!

I waited on the platform

For the girl in front to go.

Now I'll just pause to mention

What Ben was doing then:

Balancing across a wooden log

Without using his hands...

Back and forth he galloped,

Forty feet up high,

Daring others to do likewise...

“Hrrrummph” thought I!

So I had one last crossing

To get to the next tree,

And then the final zip line

Before I'd be home free!

The crossing had just one wire

For my pink shoes to tread,

With nothing for my hands to hold

But loose ropes dangling overhead.

Halfway across I realised

'Twas much better with eyes closed,

And I later saw a photo

From the ground up of this pose!

And then the final zip line...

Ah, but my word, they were fun:

Just like a giant flying fox;

I landed at a run!

Ben zipped down right after me,

I was nearly faint with joy –

I was never leaving Earth again...

But then that naughty boy...!

He said “there's one more section”

And he pointed over there;

I nearly died from disappointment;

I could have wept with my despair.

Then I really should have smacked him,

For he pointed, laughing, at a sign

That read “Congratulations! You've done it!”

...And rapturous joy was – finally – mine.

And now for the proof that we really did all this!!...

The reason why most of the photos are of me is because I had far more on my mind than taking photos, so I gave Ben the camera for once! :) I'll be getting some of the others' photos from the day soon, so keep an eye out for the next lot...

Here we all are as an ecstatic group after successfully completing the Go Ape course; firstly with our Ape-like tendancies in check, and then just being our new selves...

Coming soon...

...What made us look like this!...

International Bognor Birdman 2007

Hello all! Finally, here is the tale of our day at the Birdman Competition in Bognor Regis on the Saturday before last...

Around midday, we set off for the annual Bognor Birdman, which we'd planned to go to ever since I'd researched English festivals while we were still in Australia! The Birdman is all about human powered flight, and involves people jumping off the end of the pier wearing clever/ absurd/ hilarious flying contraptions and seeing how far they can “fly”! Check out the Birdman website for bizarre sentences you never thought you'd see...

“By 1990 the record stood at 71 metres with the Germans taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, beating a 10 metre Concorde, 4 penguins, 4 Ninja Turtles and an inmate from Ford Open Prison - minus his passport! The jackpot distance was now 100 metres, the prize a cool £25,000.”

Anyway, it turns out that the main day of the two-day competition is the Sunday, and only the serious contestants (aiming for the distance and air time prizes) jump on Saturday as well. No doubt many of the others ruin their costumes after one jump, so they might as well do it on the day when the most people are watching! So despite the fact that we only saw three people in total jump off the pier, and they were all wearing modified hang gliders rather than the giant wings/ bee costumes I was hoping for, there were lots of other things to do and we had a wonderful afternoon regardless!

The drive to Bognor Regis took about an hour and we went through some beautiful country. We even went through the village of Clapham and passed Hamblin Hall! Upon arriving at Bognor Regis, we discovered that there were not too many indications around town that the Birdman festival was currently taking place, and in fact it turned out to be not very crowded at all. The day had quite a “relaxing family day out” kind of atmosphere.

We found the beach and parked in a grassy field where some people were endeavouring to fly a kite. We walked past the “Boat Pound”, a yard filled with colourful tinnies, and onto the beach. There was no sand, just smooth stones of various colours. There were change huts along this end of the beach, only these ones varied in design and colour and were larger than the ones at Brighton. Other than a group sitting on camp chairs in front of their hut, the beach was quite empty.





Once we reached the pier, passing a little passenger train and a skinny but quite friendly cat on the way, we were in time to await the flight of last year's winner, the current record holder. I think he is a hang gliding instructor. We watched from the esplanade, so the action was quite a distance away, but there was a big screen on the shore end of the pier showing close ups of the contestant preparing for his jump, and an announcer giving a running commentary. Anyway, they each have a 10 minute window in which to jump, so they wait on the end of the pier and hope the wind becomes helpful.






That first guy we saw jump went the furthest of the three we saw – 71.5 metres (I think the record is 80-something) – and it was about 12 seconds from when he ran off the pier (only a few metres of run up) until he landed in the water. The waiting boats then went out to collect him and his glider. Unfortunately, I was under the impression that I was videoing this jump; however, due to the fact that my camera was actually set on photo taking mode, my “video” consists of a photo of him running off the pier, and a photo of him getting picked up by the boat (i.e. I thought I was starting and ending the video with those clicks!).

The rest of our afternoon consisted of exploring the local shops and beachfront markets (where we both bought new hats), laughing at the gaudy show-type rides along the esplanade, watching some “Egyptian” dancers (i.e. middle aged English ladies in bright jangly costumes), walking on the beach, listening to a band, and seeing an awesome aerobatics display over the sea! It was one plane, doing amazing stunts such as flying upside-down, shooting straight up until he just hung there, then spiralling downwards and straightening up immediately, plummeting towards the water, etc! Very very good!!!

The worst part of my day was when I ordered an iced coffee (my FAVOURITE drink) and literally received a lukewarm cup of coffee with ice cubes floating in it!!! I had been especially pleased when ordering it, too, since it was 10p cheaper than Ben's tiny glass of orange juice and I thought I had hit the jackpot (or at least the cheap iced coffee shop!). So, as you can imagine, I am quite devastated at the thought that it may be difficult to find REAL iced coffee here... :( Life is tough, I tell you.









We left at 5pm and headed off to Matt and Kat's for tea, taking some detours to fill in time as we were early. We stopped at a muddy little harbour where I took some photos, and we also dropped into a Roman castle complex that was closed for the day (this wasn't as interesting as it sounds, as buildings have been built around it all and we couldn't go inside). And you know how the rest of that pleasant evening went!





Well, I hope that's enough photos for those photo-loving poll voters out there! :) Goodnight!

PS. My favourite (modified) photo from Bognor Regis...