happy saturday

Happy Saturday everyone. I try to convince myself it's happy too, but I've really come to be annoyed with Saturdays...(back to work for us here in Abu Dhabi for those outside the UAE).

The weekend was really fun, and unusually eventful! It was my friend S's birthday on Thursday, so we stuffed ourselves with a humongous meal on Wednesday night. Thursday morning we set out for Um Al Quwain where we took S and some people skydiving!

No, I did not jump. I've jumped before...on July 31, 2001, to be precise. I remember because skydiving is completely out of my nature. I'm a hypocondriac and a worrier...so jumping off a plane isn't exactly my thing. But my friend M and I had gone to watch M's mom skydive. She came back to the ground, completely serene and calm, telling us she wasn't going to let us leave unless we jumped.

I tried to find every possible excuse in the book, from my ears to my sinuses, and my hair to my feet. But I was assured that my ears would not burst, that my sinuses would not explode, that my hair would be just fine -albeit a little frayed-, and that my feet might feel wobbly once on the ground. Nothing major.

Once I swiped my bank card to pay for the jump, that's when I really freaked out. After that, I was surprisingly calm, except when I turned around to look at M while we were on the plane and she was majorly freaking out.

But I was the first to jump...and oh my god! Amazing amazing amazing. I was on an adrenaline rush for 3 days after that. But I know that I could not do it again, at least not just yet. But I highly recommend it!

Anyway...so the UAQ Aeroclub was pretty cool, although quite disorganised. It took 2 hours from the time we got there till the first person jumped. Four of our friends jumped and they absolutely loved it. It did however take us 3 long hours to get back to Abu Dhabi as we got stuck in ridiculous traffic on Emirates Road. Very annoying.

(those specks in the pic are people, btw...:)

We ended up going out to a salsa/arabic party that night, and it was good times all around.

But it's back to work now...and also back to planning another birthday that is coming up in 3 weeks. M's birthday in fact, who is S's sister. It's hard to beat skydiving on your birthday...We're short on ideas. Any suggestions?

Listening to: Sublime - Santeria