New Year and Nationals

The week before new year sees Rob back in the air and with people egging us on we decide to have a go at trying some freestyle in readiness to enter a fun team at the Nationals. With all the talk there could be up to 5 teams in the category, one serious and then the rest of us trying it for more or less the first time. I get out my book on freestyle and start trying out the moves and thinking out a routine. I’m even trying moves out in the pool in the morning. Naomi, the girl from the serious team arrives and gives me some top tips, first of all get rid of the baggy suit and big trainers if I can. I hop off into town and manage to buy leggings and tiny plimsolls for less than $20 in total and I’m equipped. Lots of pointing toes and smiling and I should be there.

New Years eve sees the girls back up as the party they thought was going to be happening in Sydney seems a bit flat, even Laura is back up with a gang from Melbourne so it just seems like old times. A few glasses of wine and some beers later and we’re celebrating in the new year as some people do a midnight jump in. Memories are a little hazy after that, although I seem to have collected quite an array of hats, remember wearing the big sunglasses and have a very faint recollection of running round the accuracy pit with a flare and not a lot else on, my only saving grace was that I couldn’t get the flare lit so I wasn’t that illuminated… I’m not going to struggle to regain that memory…

New Years day sees me nursing a headache from hell (which I of course blame on the red wine and not the cocktail of stuff I’d glugged down) and I avoid all daylight rising only to visit the bathroom and drink some squash.

The second is the first day of the Nationals, the practice day, time to register and for the draw to be done. We duly register as “Chocolate Monkey” and by the time registration has closed we discover there is only us and Naomi’s team in it so we’re guaranteed a medal, cool! The draw is carried out at getting on for 10pm and we’re a bit taken aback to discover the moves we’ve been practising are a little out of date (like by ten years) and what we now have to do is a lot more complicated. Treble somersaults with turns thrown in followed by cartwheels with a twist, back loops and front loops and pirouettes… the list is scarily long. Undeterred we’re in for the long haul and Naomi kindly sorts us out with a breakdown of all the moves and her cameraman Luke gets us a copy of the rules, looks like we’ve some serious swotting to do but tonight isn’t the time and I’m off to sleep to dream of it all.

The competition progresses with us scoring consistently lower than Naomi and Luke (no surprise there especially after I see her go spinning out of the plane), but at least we’re scoring something. My new shoes are causing me some grief as they now appear to be a little too short so my feet are effectively bowed inside them and that coupled with “dropping” onto my feet on landing leaves me with bruised heels and a swollen ankle. I rest it and we’re lucky that our next round isn’t until the next day so by strapping it up and returning to my oversize trainers (how good does that look with leggings?!) I complete the comp.. The artistic events are over by Tuesday and we’re awarded our medals. They are huge and we’re well chuffed, okay so there was only 2 teams but at least we gave it our best effort and I’m keen tokeep on doing it. Rob is invited onto a 10-way speed team and Shaz, who couldn’t keep staying away, returns and gets on the team too. I joked about feeling left out but with my feet I’d not have risked jumping anyway. With the other FS events complete by Wednesday the 10-way speed is played out on Thursday which is my birthday (its been a birthday week with Cassie on the Tuesday and Claire on the Wednesday.) Rob treats me to breakfast and then a full body massage from Cecelia mid morning. It’s a full deep tissue massage so it could be quite uncomfortable at times but it felt so good afterwards. Rob and Shaz came in with another silver so Rob collected his second gong that night and the other team members had also won medals in the 4-way and 8-way events so there was much celebrating to be had.

First though Rob whisked me into town for a private meal, which wasn’t as good as we’d hoped but it was great just to get off the DZ for a bit. When I got back I was greeted with a birthday cake with candles, a t-shirt and a card full of well wishes from everyone at the club. The party ran on all night, but after New Year I’d learnt my lesson and enjoyed watching everyone else get trollied instead. I called it a night at 1:30am but some were still up by the pool at 11am, good party!

After a day of rest for everyone a few more days of fun jumping at the club were marred slightly by one of the guys having a hard landing, which fortunately he is now on the road to recovery from, although it looked very bleak initially. Following the Nationals everyone returned to their home DZs or back to work and the place quietened down again. Rob and I got a few more jumps in then gave the van an overhaul and repacked our bags ready for our trip to New Zealand.

Howard had kindly offered to let us stay at his apartment the night before our flight in Brisbane and cheeky as we are he also then agreed to look after the camper and our excess luggage while we were away too. By slight recompense we went out for the evening in Brisi, his girlfriend Claire was unfortunately already booked at the theatre but the three of us enjoyed some Sushi followed by a couple of beers and some good live jazz in a local bar anyway. Claire recommended a good hairdresser in town and Howard rang to book me in while we were out so the next day I was able to get my haircut for the first time in over 7 months and we were all set for our trip to kiwiland.