been swamped with work. it's that time of the year where we're pitching for jobs and working on jobs at the same time.
somehow managed to squeeze in two important occasions in my life.
1. Becoming an uncle - baby sophia was born 29th January 2008. a little (chinese almanac) piglet - who's so far been a bundle of joy although she had had the fever and caused a quite alot of worry. she's adorable from what little I've seen of her so far and i've been playing a clip of her i took while watching her on david's webcam over and over again.
2. Bungee jumped! - spent the weekend in bali with colleagues and ticked off one of the things i wanted to do before i die. because i was so shit scared the whole time and the experience lasted a little over 5 minutes, i'm gonna try to write it out here to enshrine those couple of seconds i put my life in the hands of god and mr. aj hackett.
so we took an elevator ride up to a 150 ft high platform, i was white knuckling it once the ppl below started to look like ants. i go first and the guy gives me instructions that i try to memorise while staring straight out to the horizon to avoid looking at down and pissing my pants. there's a little gap in the platform, facing the horizon and that's where i'm spossed to stand after being strapped up. if i look straight down below to my friends who're recording it on my video camera, my breath gets caught up in my throat. so i stare straight out to the sea, the clouds - hopin to look a merciful god straight in the eye and hope he doesn't teach me a lesson for putting my 24 year young life literally out on a limb.ready? he asks. i don't really know how to respond to that question. not while my legs are strapped together and i'm almost off the edge of this tower platform. the bungee jump staff on the platform outnumber me and there's no way i can possibly turn back now. ready? he asks again and i can feel the wind calling me. this is it. ok. the only thing left to do is to 5,4,3,2,1 ...
jump.
and my arms are outstretched. i forget that i planned to say "woohoo!". instead i yell from the depths of my soul - my spirit soars with my voice and while my body's still upright, it almost feels as if i'm flying. but the glorious part of this lasts about a second before gravity drags the top part of my body down under my legs and the cord starts to pull and just as quickly as the surface of the swimming pool below rushes up to me, i'm swung back up and my voice does an amazing 180 degree turn upwards.
even while i bounce up and down, and spin i arch my feet to avoid slipping out of my leg wraps, forgeting that there's actually another harness attached to me. the feeling is amazing. as if i've cheated death, touched my mortality and almost let it go. the adrenaline rush somehow clenches my fingers into that "rock on" sign as i dangle upside down.
they slowly lower me, i grab onto a bamboo pole one of the staff holds from below and i'm lowered onto a dry platform. it is the most comfortable platform i've ever laid upon in my life. they untie me and as i get up to go, i give the ground a solid kiss.
it's late. i've got a week's work to squeeze into 3 days before chinese new year.
i've got a to-do-list that's not really shrinking. and i've not even done that year end reflection thing i wanted to do and promised ju since december.
life. we're just hanging on.