Thursday, January 22, 2009

Bungee Powerrrr!

5...4...3...2...1...
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The jump!
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Free-fall
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A HUGE smile breaks out while bouncing
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No don't bring me down!
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I followed Krissie's lead...and now we're certified crazy!
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It was travel buddy Krissie who insisted we do an extreme sport during our November 2008 Bali trip and of course she had to pick Bungee! I resisted, hemmed and hawed and imagined grave bodily danger to myself as we amassed brochures and information about the AJ Hackett facility at the Double 6 Club in Seminyak. We met up with surfer friend Tim and turns out he lives 5 minutes away from Double 6 and knows the manager. Voila! Krissie gets her wish but I'm still undecided.

The deciding factor? When we get to the bungee place, we found out that Tim was able to get us the jump for free! Plus he came armed with topnotch surf photography gear (complete with major telephoto lens) for complete coverage of the big event. So now I couldn't back out.

We take the elevator up the 45 meter tower overlooking Seminyak beach and up there you can feel the platform shaking with every gust of wind. Krissie goes first and she waits a while...then leaps! Happily screaming all the way down. I see she lands fine so then I take my turn.

With my feet and waist strapped in I perch at the edge of the platform and feel even more wind blowing at my face and look out at the sunset sky and sea. What a perfect time of day, what a beautiful view. The instructor says don't think...just do it. I still didn't know how I could. It was a loooong way down. I told him, "Just don't push me." He says its up to me and I should just go. So I did. I JUMPED!

There was a breathtaking few seconds where I was falling and my heart was in my throat. It was just sky and air and my head spinning and the ultimate feeling of freedom! Then I rope caught and I started bouncing slowly, up and down. I wasn't dizzy, I wasn't hurt, I was just smiling and waving like mad! I loved the jump because I felt so powerful!

For weeks after that I still remembered the feeling of the indecision, then the jump and then the freedom. Krissie and I would stop and just remember how wonderful the feeling was of deciding to take that leap. We called it "Bungee Power"! It gave us the great promise of what happens every time you can't decide to do something that could be potentially wonderful. We have the power to just take that leap.


Santorini Select

The other day I downloaded the Picasa photo editor and I'm trying to figure out how to work the cool features like create movie...collage...and basic photo editing. I'm not ready for Photoshop but its time I graduate from Microsoft photo editor!

I tried creating this collage of Santorini, a place so pretty that every photo looks postcard quality. During my recent Manila holiday, while catching up on the cheesy Tagalog flicks that I missed, I watched the KC Concepcion/Richard Gutierrez starrer (the title of which I can't remember) set on the glorious Cycladic island. Though the plot was crap, just revisiting this beautiful place where I spent 4 days last September was worth sitting through it. When I look at the entire 400+ photos that I took of Fira, Palea Kameni, Oia and Kamari, I can hardly believe I was there. Sigh.