Four months in the making and we finally did it!
Back in October 2006 Kitt received a voucher for tandem parasailing from me for his birthday.
After some strong winds yesterday we had to reschedule and today we finally did it.
Still strong winds prevented from launching the bigger tandem parachute so we went up on a smaller one on our own.
Despite a bit of wind it was the perfect day. Sunny and 38 degrees (Celsius).
Our guides managed to inflate the parachute at the second attempt and from then they were ready to shoot us up into the sky.
I was the third of five people in total that went up this afternoon. Having never done anything like this before I was a bit worried of how this whole thing would go down. After watching the first guy go up I was somewhat relieved that you don't just shoot up into the sky but it all happens at a reasonable pace instead.
The wind threw you around a bit but overall it was great just floating up there and overlooking all of Port Phillip bay.
As hard as I looked, I couldn't spot Tasmania.
I'm not much of a daredevil but you just have to trust in good engineering as your life literally hangs on a string.
I'd do it again and I'd recommend anyone to try it too if they get a chance!
The ongoing drought in our country's south-east is taking its toll not only on Melbourne's dwindling water supply with storages at a record low. The introduction of Stage 2 water restrictions late 2006 turned the front lawns of most suburban homes into a brown patch of dead grass.
City councils across Melbourne are struggling to keep their gardens alive, especially century old trees.
On my way to work I pass Fawkner Park in South Yarra and whilst January is still the middle of summer it feels like autumn. Most trees started dropping leaves to conserve water. It is feared that many irreplaceable trees would die if nothing is done about it.
In an effort to save the trees, city councils are converting plastic barriers normally used as roadblocks into drip watering systems. When I first heard about this I thought it was a great idea. Soon after the news article you could see them popping up in various gardens.
Walking home from work one day I got a chance to witness the refilling of those barriers.
I found it ironic that first we generate all the global-warming-causing pollution which may well be part of the reason why we have a drought and our trees are dying and now we are trying to save them by producing yet more Diesel fumes.
Australian based company Hitwise released interesting statistics on online dating sites.
According to them the overall there seems to be an even number male and female love-seekers (51% vs 49%) it's just that they are unevenly distributed if it comes down to individual sites - as bad as 87% female vs 13% male.
But wait, there's more bad news for women, Hitwise says.
Web sites drawing the highest percentage of male visitors were those geared toward gay men.
Now that's just outrageous! Why aren't those gay male websites attracting any female visitors? Anyone?
Overall it is quite interesting how certain sites attract more of one sex than the other. Maybe the site with 87% females needs to place more butch images on the front page or change the color scheme.
The full article can be found on Information Week.
One might think the heading refers to some third world country with no running water and you use a bucket to pour water over yourself. Fortunately modern technology has blessed us with running hot water, even in the western suburbs of Melbourne, for those who haven't been out here.
So why am I talking about buckets then?
Whilst we still have running water in the house we are rather restricted with water usage outside the home. Thanks to Global Warming, Victoria is experiencing a severe drought and this year water restrictions are tighter than ever.
For the past few months we have not been allowed to water lawns and our front lawn is looking anything but green.
In an effort to bring at least patches of it back to life we are now literally taking a shower with buckets. As in catching water from the shower in them. This means that ever 2-3 days we can water at least one half of our front yard's lawn. I'm not expecting a miracle that this dried out brown patch will turn into a lush green lawn over night but maybe it'll prevent it from completely dying off.
Still, everyone remains hopeful that meteorologists are correct with their forecast of an end of the drought by March 2007.
I feel choky about this picture! read more
on Parasailing