Crazy Things I've done:
Since going to university I have done a couple of pretty bizarre things, and here are a couple of my favorites, I wish to thank my mum for not going absolutely mad, and supporting me through everything.
Bungie Jumping: Okay, I haven't got any photos of this, so you're just going to beleive that I jumped of a really tall crane with nothing but a harness and a bungie cord keeping me from going splat on the ground. When I saw people bungie jumping off this crane, I wondered if I would have the nerve to do that. Especially as I'm scared of heights quite a bit. So I told my friends to wait and I asked how much it was. It was £40, so I ran to the bank and instantly withdrew the money for it. After getting back to the place where this was happening, I handed over the cash, cleared my pockets, and signed a form saying that I wouldn't sue the company if I actually did go splat. Stepping up, it was all very militaristic and formal, and after I was weighed (70 kilos exactly, I don't know why my weight stays at that..) I was even told to 'Spread my legs and lift my bollocks up..' as the harness was put on. After this, I was told to step in the cage and attach myself to the rope. It was some kind of joke, but I was really quite nervous, and had a slight case of butterflies. So there I was, going up in a cage on the top of a crane, standing on the edge, feeling the bungie cord dragging me down, going up so far that all of Sheffield looked flat (Trust me, it isn't..). I asked the bloke in the cage with me about the jump, and if he'd done it before, he said that all the crew had to jump. This made me feel better, and I almost lost my fear. Once the crane stopped at the top, the gate on the front of the cage opened and I saw the great vastness of space between where I was and the ground. I was told to stand on the edge, stick my arms out in front of me, and I was told that on the count of one I would lean forward. Looking down, I really wondered if I could let myself do such a thing, and my mind said an emphatic 'No'. Then he began to count quickly... Three.. Two.. One. I leant forward. Everything all started happening at once, as I accelerated towards the ground, my speed getting faster, my mind was asking me 'What the hell did you lean forward for?'. I didn't know. Everything was just soo fast. As I neared the ground, my nerve broke, and I started to scream 'Shiiiiiiiiiiit!'. But then I slowed down as fast as I had sped up. feeling the bungie puling me back up, I started to laugh about everything. How scared I had been while falling, and how I could laugh and enjoy everything, now I knew the plummeting was over. The cord pulled me up, and I fell again and again as the bungie cord did its work. Bouncing around was loads of fun, with the world spinning everywhere. I began waving my arms around wildly as I enjoyed the rush I had just had, still suspended upside down above everyone. Looking up to see people looking up at me. As this amazing ride slowed to a halt, I continued to laugh as I was gently lowered to the ground, and released from the harness. Putting on my shoes, I made my way over to my friends, and made my way home, on a high for at least a couple of days. Even thinking about the feeling that I had on the way down incites the same emotion, and I cannot help but laugh about it, like a joke that will not go away. I cannot help but think how I overcame my fear to fall into the unknown. Maybe it was the precise way in which the orders were given, and then were obeyed. I feel like I have got some more power over myself from the experience, to do what I want to do, and to order myself through any troubles I might have. I'm really glad I did it, as it proved to myself exactly how alive I was, and if you are thinking about it, I would reccommend that you just did it, instead of wondering what it would have been like when you no longer have the chance to any more.
Getting all the hair on my head shaved off: Yep, all the hair on my head except my eyelashes. Ok, the story behind this is that I devised some schemes for getting some money for charity, and I was told that to do this one scheme, I'd have to go round, and get sponsorship myself. So I did. The main deviousness you have to consider here is that for three months beforehand, I hadn't shaved and I hadn't had my hair cut for about 4 months, so I had a really large growth of hair on my head. And the thing which made this idea was that everyone that I knew (except my gran) absolutely hated the beard and the muzzie (as a friend calls it) and they had been trying to get me to shave for a really long time. So when I came up with this idea, I got loads of sponsorship, and loads of interest in doing it, mostly along the lines of 'I'll give you more if you shave your head as well', 'I'll give you more if you do your eyebrows', and 'I'll sponsor you 20 quid if you let *me* shave your head with a cut-throat razor.' (I didn't accept this.. I trusted the guy who offered, but I thought he wouldn't be able to do it without massive amounts of blood everywhere), plus a weird offer which was 'I'll sponsor you a tenner if you body wax all over'. That last one scared me quite a lot, especially as I wondered if he would actually check that it was *all* over. I was suprised at how many of my friends were really generous with their cash and in the end, I got £50 of sponsorship. I thank them all here. Cheers people!!! Before the big day came to remove the hair, I had time to reflect on this, and created some computer generated pictures of how this would actually look using photoshop.
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Joel enjoying himself jut maybe a little *too* much, and me looking like 'a buddhist monk' with a decidedly dodgy beard.
Close up of dodgy beard. When phil came back, he shaved the beard, and then there was only a gangsta goatee and nothing much else, but Phil soon got rid of that and shaved the rest off, leaving the eyebrows till last. Then suddenly, bzwip, bzwhip, they were gone. After finishing the job with an electric razor, so I didn't have so much stubble, I changed my hairy clothes, and started to notice everyone's reactions. Most of them couldn't resist laughing at it, not even myself, and some were freaked out by the absence of eyebrows on my face which made me look like 'an extra from the film The Matrix.' as I was soon told. Most people were surprised, some even impressed, but that didn't really change the fact that my head was colder, and having no eyebrows felt decidedly weird. One thing that was quite cool about this was that the ladies all wanted a feel of it when it was growing back, which was almost worth it just for that, and my friends eventually got used to the idea of me not having any eyebrows, until they started to grow back. One thing which weirded me out, was the fact that I managed to pull someone in the leadmill when I was bald and had *no eyebrows* which I just don't understand at all really. It was really easy to get the sponsorship money than what I thought it would be, but I suppose I did have pretty convincing evidence that I actually did do what I was sponsored for. And I did give the money in instead of keeping it for myself, all £50 of it, which was kind of hard because I was in £900 of overdraft at the time because of hall fees. Thanks for all the people who sponsored me, Phil for accepting the challenge, Joel for doing some shaving, and Rioch for giving me the photo. Plus a big thankyou to the friends who stuck by me when I looked a lot weirder than usual. Cheers!
Going round Sheffield in Bed Wear. If you live anywhere near Broomhill in Sheffield, you would know the crazy things that students get up to all too well. And when it came to Amy's birthday, that was going to be no exception to the 'crazy student' rule. Amy had given us three choices for her birthday which were: 1) Wearing togas and going out to the pubs. 2) Wearing bed wear and going out to the pubs. and 3) Something even weirder. So surprise, surprise, we opted for option 2. We knew that it was going to be fun, and when I turned up at Amy's house in normal clothes (with pyjama shorts and tshirt underneath), it was fun to see lots of people wearing slippers, pyjamas, and dressing gowns... I got quickly changed, and after a hasty breakfast, we headed out into Broomhill. It was cool, because you would get people looking at you, and then away, and you could tell they were thinking 'nah, couldn't be..'. I hadn't brought me dressing gown, and I was getting pretty cold, and even the people with dressing gowns were cold and complaining of draughts in certain sensitive areas... It was really funny, because there was a mob of about 12 of us, and we all walked into the the pub and ordered a pint. The rest of the day involved much drinking and going to different places, including Broomill Tavern, The Hotel, The Cavendish and Bar One, the main student union bar for Sheffield University. It was just a very cool experience, being different from everyone else, and getting everyone curious.
Skateboarding!!
Boo.com promotional postcard. Sorry to dissapoint you, but I haven't done anything fancy with the fantastic skateboard my dad got me for christmas, but next year, I'll be living up a really big hill in Sheffield (they're *all* big hills..), so maybe I'll get good enough to learn some decent tricks.
Things I want to do before leaving university: Zorbing:
This is where they put you in a inflatable ball, and then push you down a steep hill. Cool or what? Bungie Rocket:
This is where you get launched up into the air, and then you bounce around a lot. Have a tardis in the back yard:
Ok, this is because there was an ad in this shop window for an old fashion tardis type police box, and I thought it'd be cool to get it and use it as the outside of our shed for next year. Have a really big water fight:
By this I mean have a really massive water fight where there are a load of good friends, and everyone has about 10 water guns each. Fall in a freezer at alldays:
Ok, this was in our student paper thing as one of the things you should do before you leave university. I haven't got round to it... Yet. Learn Kung Fu:
This isn't crazy, its something that would be a really good experience, and do me a lot of good, both physically and spiritually.
Here, have a link to my Evil Robot Santa page.
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