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Nudge picked me up from the hotel in Brisbane Thursday arvo after work. I quickly bought some food enough to sustain my stay at T’wah DZ. I gave him the chocolate left over from Monday coffee when he dropped me in (long story), and got some laugh out of it. From that, we sort of talked about life and how little things connecting people. Stopped at a pie shop and had a beer in the pub.

 

Cabin 5 stayed the same as I left it on Monday. No surprise. Got a call from Paul, who’s visiting his brother John. How could I forget that John and Sheryl live in Brissy! I missed the chance to catch up with them but we did arrange to meet up at the airport before I return to Sydney.


Friday started beautifully – fantastic weather, although no load. I must say Picton is better at this aspect simply because it’s much busier, meaning frequent loads happening most of time. Although the jumpers and staff did say that normally it’s heaps busier – it takes one month for people to get used to the idea of jumping in the cold… (what cold???) Nudge showed me his sky surfing boards and explained the components of the board. A few rolled in later in the day. Sausages were on the Barbie. Foosball challenge was on. Skydivers take foos game seriously, as in penalty – after the bar’s open (sun down) the null score team has to do a pantsy (dropping trousers to the ankle height) or topless (for girls) run around the table! Of course the alternative is to shout a carton – that is always the ultimate solution! Luckily no one had to suffer the hefty fine. I put a carton on for 1st time jumping at T’wah (from last weekend).


Saturday morning, as overcast as it could be. I remained under the doona for another hour hoping next time I opened my eyes the sun would be poking in. No such luck. Hopped off the bed into the shower, tea and toast, computer. The scheduled big way was on hold. Was this gonna be a foos game day, I wondered. After fooling around talking nonsense for century long, the load was open Yahoo! Couple of people registered including POP’s big way for 2nd load… and bloody hell, not enough of people for a load, we were bumped on waiting list and POP went up. Nice to watch on the grass anyway, great formation and landing.


Finally we got called. Geared up and boarded the Caravan. Normal exit normal fall… all seemed great until last minute! When I was approaching DZ, as usual I am always the last one landing, bloody hell was it a huge crowd or what??? I was so shocked and of course under spectators’ eyes I had to f* up! I finally drew back my focus from the crowd to the ground, had a very hasty strong flare after I realized it’s a bit too low – and luckily it saved my arse. I didn’t have a graceful stand-up landing but instead I glided on me bum – nothing harsh, just a nice sliding along the grass but bum is bum, not as good as feet after all. When I finally got into packing area, everyone past by had to stop and commented “nice landing!” AARRRGGGHHH~  Apparently, since I was always the last one landing after all others have already dumped the canopy into the shed, someone called out “Hey Chrissie’s back” and they rushed out to make it a scene as if they were in a stadium!


Sprained my finger while packing the bloody rented parachute. Never mind, got on another load, it was a double caravan loads – POP’s big way mixed with others. I was in the lead plane, it was great fun to watch the chaser tailing aside, excellent coordination. Being the only female on board, almost got conned into flashing the pilot for extra height (not that I would anyway) – turned out to be it’s planned to go higher at the first place! Cheeky POPs! It was a sunset jump, above the cloud it was glorious, although getting a bit dim towards the ground. Landing was heaps better but Murphy’s Law…


Evening party was bigger than last weekend. We had couple shots and I drank God knows how many rum n coke. Finally met the owner of T’wah dz owner Dave (Macca). Foos challenge never stopped. One of the game Ben and I did not score at all after 0-9, crowd was getting closer and shouting and all wanted to see me and Ben get flogged to d do a nudie run! It was a, no other word, f* scary moment! Finally Ben saved our arse and kicked one goal – crowd let out a harmonious sigh but also cheering for us. I was so relieved and jumping up and down and gave Ben the biggest hug possible!!! Final score of that game was 1-10, but that 1 point meant so much! Didn’t get to bed until 3:30, foosball of course.


Sunday morning, foggy and overcast, but cleared up at about 11am. No more big POP way ;-) but a few tandems. I had 3 jumps and had to run around settling the bill, packing and saying goodbye to others. In order to squeeze 3 jumps in before 2pm, I actually paid for packer packs. Actually I was not aware of how late it was and planned to go for another jump until someone showed me the time. Thanks to Lea and Rod helping me out on paper work and Nudge waiting patiently for me to drive me to the airport.


Dead tired but truly had a fantastic T’wah experience, met heaps of wonderful people, although was unusually quiet but still I have to agree, Ramblers – famous for fun!