JB Birthday & Para-waiting..

March the 3rd is here, which is another day for me, another year older for JB. He speaks of ‘change’ when he comes to Sydney, but you know what? He’s still a couch potato. You’ll see him regularly like this:

It’s no different on his birthday yesterday. Other than a game of basketball game in the afternoon, the above picture illustrates what he was doing for the most part of the day. Actually that’s not true, he did go and get himself a $18 haircut, and bought himself a cordless phone that doesn’t work. But you get the idea..

The real excitement of the day is suppose to come today (Sunday). Marissa asked JB what he wanted for his birthday, and he replied “Sky diving or bungy jumping”. Of course, he wasn’t serious but Marissa took it seriously, and we tried to organise one for him. Knowing him, I knew it would be a waste of money if he backed out one of these extreme activities. So, I organised a much milder adventure for him.. paragliding.

Of course, being a wind-dependent sport, you need a decent amount of wind before you can safely jump off the cliff. Stanwell Park is THE location for these types of activities, although the forecast for Sunday is not too good. We were there by 11:00am, with Martin from Sydney Paragliding being the guide. He introduced a new term to us that afternoon, and we soon realise we won’t be paragliding today. It’s ‘para-waiting’, meaning we’ll have to wait for the wind to reach at least 10knots before we’ll be able to paraglide. By 2pm, it’s clear that the wind is not gonna get much stronger. JB is saved for the day. The day is getting too hot, and all of us are getting a bit sunburnt waiting under the sun. It’s a bit disappointing, but I guess that’s the nature of the sport. The instructor reckoned he hadn’t flewn for a whole week. We left without telling him, and headed off to a shopping centre.

With the day wasted, we’ve got little time left to make the most of what we’ve got. We decided on taking JB out to dinner. He wanted to try ethnic food, and hasn’t tried Laos food. So, that’s where we went. It’s been a while since I had Laos food, but I did remember it being very ‘different’. After checking out eatibility.com.au, we went to “Laos Village” for its authentic run down feel. 🙂 Pictures speak a thousand words.. and I can tell ya, we had some pretty interesting food tonight:

Ox Tongue
Chicken Feet Salad
Paw Paw Salad
Beef Jerky

Even the rice looks interesting, served in a little straw container. As expected, the place does look quite old, but that’s how I like it. To add a finishing touch to the whole experience, we even ordered 2 VB beers..

2 x VBs
The result of a combination of sunburn, chilli and beer

I don’t think I’m gonna get skinny anytime soon..