flying. shrieking. swearing. pleading.

The sister, the bff, the bff's sister and I walked into Sha'ab Leisure Park with one sole purpose. To go on the skycoaster. The skycoaster is a structure consisting of a triangular frame and a tower, connected with cables. Strapped into the cable, it pulls you up to a height of 60 m (15 stories). On reaching the top, you pull a cord. And then, you oscillate like a pendulum at 93 km/hr.

It's on my old bucket list; I've been wanting to do this for years. If you've lived in Kuwait since you were a kid, I can probably surmise your reaction accurately. 'You haven't been on that yet?' Didn't get a chance.

We planned to leave the best for last, as the sister put it. She's been on it twice before, sang 'I believe I can fly!' her second time. The rest of us were virgins.

It was a longggg queue. We waited.. and waited.. a really long while. The bff and her sister were too freaked out to go together, ruining my own sister's plan of going with me. So I paired with the bff.

The sister was her usual hyperactive self, totally pumped to go.

The other two were scared out of their skins, having a fear of heights. 

I was hungry.

We watched the people before us take their turns either two by two or three by three. 

Going up... before us

We gasped 'oh my God!' at one particular trio that didn't hold on to each other as they were tossed down, looking as though they were going to separate and fly out in three different directions. We cracked up at hypothetical scenarios of the bff's sister sneezing (allergies) at the top and then flying face first into the remnants of her sneeze in the atmosphere :D The bff's sister almost chickened out. My sister reminded her she was getting married next month; that was scarier. The bff, still freaked out, gave her sibling her ATM pincode and told her to tell her family she loved them. I tried to console her with, 'dude! Zindagi na milegi dobara! (You Live Only Once - a recent Hindi film). Her sister was nothing less, she called her fiance to tell him she loved him. He told her to get a grip.

And then.. FINALLY.

the tower?

The bff and I each stepped into our harness, posed for a quick pic and walked to the platform where we would be strapped in, all set to be lifted up. I instructed my dear friend to pose like Spiderman does when he thrusts out his web and like Superman when he flies fist forward when we were at the apex. My heart started pounding as the realization hit me. We were going to be suspended from 60 m. And I wanted to go sky diving! They were playing the worst music ever, slow love songs, totally inappropriate. The song that played for us was Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. Was that supposed to be a sign?

I was going to pose like this.

and like this. Went clean out of my head.

Three Arab guys that went before us stood waiting for the platform to be lowered as we were getting buckled up. Since I was going to pull the cord, I had to go on the right. 

The guys started making conversation, 'your first time?' 

Bff said nervously, 'YES!' 

'Ah, it's very scary.' said the tall one.

'Hold tight,' said the guy in the middle.

The attendant told us to let our legs up. Confused, we muttered 'what'd he say?' and then screamed when our feet suddenly went off the ground. We were hanging face down from our tummies like sheep for slaughter. We continued screaming though we were two feet off the ground. I wondered whether the guys were laughing at us because I couldn't see their faces and I couldn't hear anything; the air was rent with our screaming. And then.. we were being pulled up diagonally towards the triangular wire frame.

The bff went into hysterics.

She clutched at my arm really hard, squeezing it, both of us yelling blue murder. I quietened after a bit gazing at the view straight ahead. It was kinda relaxing. But the bff? She wouldn't shut up!

What she shrieked: 'OH MY GOD! Bismillah hir rehman nir raheem (in the Name of God, The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful)! Oh God, please I'm sorry! Dude, I can't do this man! Dude, please I want to go back down! OMG!' And then she closed her eyes.

At a couple of points I experienced weightlessness, which was a little frightening. I'm not really afraid of heights but when we were getting higher, I looked down below me to see hard concrete and people eating right below (ALL staring at us, their attention caught with the high-pitched wails). Even my heart failed a little and I hurriedly looked straight ahead again, warning my unfortunate friend not to let her eyes trail downward. But she did. I desperately wanted to laugh out loud at her reactions but just giggled silently.

When we finally stopped ascending, we heard a voice on the megaphone - '3.. 2.. 1.. FLY!'

This was my cue to pull the cord.

The bff - 'Dude don't pull it! Please don't do it!'

Me - 'Sorry dude.'

I pulled.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

What I shrieked - 'THIS IS AWESOME!! THIS IS SO FRIGGIN' AWESOME!!'

It was so relaxing, the spitting image of rock a bye baby. We sent flying kisses to our sisters. We waved at an old lady calling out to us. We swung around and around.

Once we lost momentum and came closer to earth, one of the attendants cried, 'remove *something*!'
Assuming I had to pull something else, I replied indignantly, 'I'm not removing anything!'

He meant our feet from the harness so we could land feet first instead of face first..

The sisters went next. They had a fantastic experience too. The dialogue was more colourful.

We all wanted to have another go.

So much for fear of heights.

It's not sky diving.

It's not exactly bungee jumping either.

But it's a start!

blogger award.. woot woot!!

Behold, my First Ever Blogger Award.

Fancyflea, I thank thee =D 

She's got a Project 365 going on and her pictures are awe-SOME. Yallah, check out her blog The Fancy Flea already!

The Rules laid down, cold and simple:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.

2. Tell us seven things about yourself. 
3. Award 7 recently discovered new bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and let them know they've received the award.

7 tidbits you knoweth not of me:

1) The first animated film I remember loving to bits was The Land Before Time. I was four.

2) I'd like to study literature at Oxford. 

3) As a tween, when assigned menial tasks around the house, I'd conjure up something to make the drudgery more tolerable. When I was washing lettuce for the salad, I was Little Foot munching on a Tree Star (you won't get it unless you've seen The Land Before Time), when I was emptying a sachet in a cup of tea, it wasn't sweetener but a sleep inducing drug. Etc.

4) When I'm running late, my mind automatically switches on that rhyme the White Rabbit sings in Disney's Alice in Wonderland -

I'm late, I'm late 

for a very important date.. 

no time to say hello goodbye! 

I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!

I'd sing this often (mentally) when hurrying out of my society to catch a rickshaw.

5) I have an inexplicable fascination for things British (not just the accent) - literature, countryside, manors, the old no longer existing lifestyle, fashion, BBC adaptations of classics.. Maybe it's the 'slave' mentality. I suspect my mother, Enid Blyton and the BBC had more to do with it.

6) My favourite period in history is the Second World War. I love watching movies and reading of people's survival stories during the war, especially the Battle of Britain. How the English coped - their collective determination and iron will through a time like that is truly something to admire and marvel at.

7) My mom encouraged me to keep a diary. She bought me my first one when I was in second grade. It had a name on the binding - Electra, for the girl getting off a green scooter on the front cover. The name stuck.

Now disclosing the new blogs:

The Red Door

My Lens, My Life - With Peace, Love and Nappiness

Booktastic! [my first *unknown* follower :) ]

That's with the newbies. I haven't really come across people new to blogging.
This is where my resourcefulness kicks in. *improvises to continue the list with the newly discovered blogs that are a part of daily reading*

Ice Maiden

Kanwalful Meets World

Random Ponderings of a Smalltown Girl

Travel Babbles

To the award God: Sorry if you think I *broke* the rules. You left me no choice.
To the non-blogging reader: Blogger awards are cool.

the tall and short of it

I have one sibling.

The sister.

The sister is 4.5 years younger than me.

The sister also towers over me by 3 inches at 5'7".

The sister and I are often asked if we are twins (this never fails to puzzle me deeply, we look nothing alike).

When we reply in the negative, the public, dissatisfied, then inquire if the sister is older than me.

Infallible logic but we have encountered it countless times.

Much the same thing happened yesterday.

Only nothing was asked, but assumed.

Whole new angle.

The sister was congratulated for completing MBA.

When the bungle was cleared, I was asked in wonder how the sister hit such a growth spurt and I am obviously stunted (not exactly in those words).

'God's will,' I usually reply, an answer which is a huge hit with older people (read uncles who are no relation).

But this time, I merely shrugged, weary of the whole act.

Image courtesy: a forward - how to kill time at work.

getting the wise guys out

My lower jaw is two teeth lighter. Got my wisdom teeth extracted.

Saying it was painful is laughably naive. Since the extras decided not to grow out of my gums normally and to make life miserable for the other inhabitants of my jaw, they had to go. Surgically. Not easy believe you me. The left one was 'sleeping'. The audacity!

I've spent half my life at the dentist's so I have no qualms about getting my teeth fixed. When I was told I was to have a surgery I kinda looked forward to it. I didn't expect pain obviously 'coz of the anesthesia. I pictured my gums being incised. Slowly but surely, the dentist would 'dig' to the root and out would come the bugger..

This is how they extracted teeth in the 17th century (The Tooth extractor - Theodore Rombouts). I assure you nothing much has changed.

The right one came out nice and easy. The left one, on the other hand, was the rebellious teenager refusing to comply. It was then that the ginormous drill made a dramatic entry, the resounding vibrations almost shooting my brain straight out of my skull. It went on for a few minutes, the pain driving me crazy (yes I was under anesthesia, it was still hurting and NO it was not due to the pressure whatever the doc may say) and then the dentist pulled out my tooth and I inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. Correction. A fragment of my tooth. Back to the drill.. another fragment. Another ten minutes pass with me clawing at my palms in pain, the damn thing refusing to budge.. the dentist pulls with all his might and what happens? He loses his grip and the instrument, whatever the hell it was dashes against the roof of my mouth, scraping it and I think I would have toppled off the chair yelling if my tormentors hadn't grabbed my head telling me 'relax, it's nothing..' nothing? NOTHING?!?

Oh the pain! The ah-go-nee! The choicest profanities come to mind but I shalt not pollute the sanctity of my blog, for it is sacred. The medication has yet to take effect; I'm seriously considering taking a double dose. Or an overdose..

As it usually is in these cases, I can have lots of ice cream. So bought a box of chocolate flavoured from Naturals on the way home. When the ice melted all over my jeans I thrust the box against my cheek, the size of which is pretty close to that of the moon. Pity my entire jaw is still numb and I can barely get my mouth open.. I have to slurp it like a two year old resulting in the tablecloth becoming an unsightly mess. And after all that, it has more than a hint of blood in every spoonful.. Ugh!

On a happier note, was finally able to take the sibling for Despicable Me. Hilarious alright, but the climax was astonishingly straight out of your average Bollywood film. Full of lame cliches! Watch it and see if I'm wrong.

One of the girls: 'Wait! We can't sleep without a bedtime story!'

Gru: 'Then it's going to be a long night.'

In your face! xD

I love 'em mean.

Note to self: keep laptops fully charged on loadshedding days to avoid walking from room to room biting fingertips, racking your brains trying to think of something to do, eyes too tired to read but not enough to sleep.

So Vodafone messaged they had a special offer for me and I had to 'hurry and call 123 for more details.' Bored and the loyal customer that I am, I dialed and waited - 1 for Hindi, 2 for Marathi and then.. silence. What happened to English dude?!? You know, that language you texted me in?? Do you expect your entire customer base existing and potential to comprise of only localites in a cosmopolitan city such as this?

As I am now finally on par with Gossip Girl and needed to get my mind off the hedonistic Chuck Bass, I started Shogun. Apart from the excruciatingly slow first 40 minutes (which was the case with the book as well), the minute Rodrigo-san (bungling ole John Rhys Davies) enters, traipsing about mocking bows to the samurai, concealing insults in English to the 'bloody samas' in his poor Japanese, the entire mood lightens. Still too early to judge; it's a friggin' long series with a single episode lasting a little under 2.5 hours.

Spent the past two evenings with the sibling, wandering about in the inner lanes of KP, throwing admiring glances at the lovely villas, some gardens with lawns manicured while others with unkempt grasses running wild, creeper climbing through the cracks of walls with no restraint. All adding to the character of the place.

The younger sibling fell ill last night. High fever, regurgitations and if that wasn't enough, she fainted while getting into the elevator and gave my mom a near heart attack, her high pitched screams probably sending the dead into shock. Got the sibling admitted, my poor dear mother needing hospitalization more in my opinion.

One thing I miss back home is the family. The loving aunts, the jovial uncles, the sporting cousins. I don't think we realize how soothing it is to be able to count on them sometimes instead of always having to go it on our own. And when we shift base once again, it's going to be hard.

Back to the clinic. My sister was put on the drip and was asleep. My mother, frantic with worry, desperately whispering to me that she would not survive if the blood test results gave proof of the diseases going around by those dratted insects, left to obtain the same. After almost 20 hours of barely any sleep passing the night trying to get her fever down, I settled my abused self onto one of those office chairs in the counselling room, the back rest reclining quite decently, kicking my feet up on another chair and declaring myself dead to the world around me. There were glimpses of faces throwing me peculiar stares from the waiting area for an hour or so, until a nurse had the good sense to close the door, and then, I was gone. Head lolling, I was rudely awakened an hour later to clear out, to make way for the doctor. I forgot to mention I was dozing in her office.

The sibling's made a quick recovery by the way. So has mommy dearest. Either of her daughters falling ill is more of a risk to her life than ours. So much melodrama.

But, all's well :)