We left the Chartreuse behind
just for a quick visit to our Great British neighbours, where a nice surprise was
waiting for us. Our birthday present was hair-raising !
In Regent’s Park, the “Gorilla Circus” flying trapeze school
(gorillacircus.com) had set up shop for the summer, where you can go for a
2-hour session. Cool, I had tried it 10 years ago at the Club Med and had since
dreamed of doing some more. The sensations are super and I take great pleasure
in it.
Of course, you mustn’t have a fear of heights. Firstly, we practised
hanging from a trapeze, 2 metres from the ground. Then we climbed the tall,
very tall ladder. As with the treetop adventure park, we’re always safely harnessed
so no risk of ending up like a pancake on the ground☺
The three guys were tip top and it was just
a case of following their instructions.
1 – We launch ourselves off 2 – and hop,
we bring the legs to the bar 3 – we let our arms go to hang (left) 4 – we bring the arms back up 5 –
we brings the legs back down (right)
then we use our momentum to let go and land after 1 or 2 somersaults.
So much fun, really, and I loved it, I
swear… even if my internal ear played a nasty trick on me. Spinning round and
round like on the Magic Roundabout doesn’t make me as apt as Zebedee, and I
found myself feeling rather flat. After each go, waves of nausea would increase
in strength and on the last one, I could no longer resist. Thankfully, I had
time to come down from the net – though without somersaulting this time – and touch
terra ferma. An ambulance had to be
called because my legs… and body, had given up. They don’t realise how much
your heart and stomach churns, and the journey to the hospital was therefore torture.
Beurk ! Still, all is now well, just a few anti-nausea pills and I should be
back up and running in no time.
A
big thumbs-up to the English emergency services who, before taking us to
hospital, asked us where we lived, so that we could go to the closer of the two
nearest hospitals. Reading was our answer so one close to Paddington (a superb
piece of architecture by the way, and the subject of a blog of its own. London
still has many marvels to reveal !). St. Mary’s hospital was chosen, just a stone’s
throw from the station. All’s well that ends well.
Still,
this damn internal ear needs to be looked into because I loved the trapeze and
would like very much to go again… though not in the near future ☺. If you are
around the area, it’s such a fun activity, and Anton-E was on cloud nine. On the
last try, he even managed to grab on to the forearms of the other trapezist and
let go… me ? well, nearly, because at that stage, I was already quite “out of
it” !
23/08/2012 Regent's park, London
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