Base Jumping with Survivor Tom

Recently I had this intensely vivid dream. I was trekking in a strange landscape of forests and hills, but it was subtly different to present day earth, perhaps prehistoric even, with massive stands of large and densely leaved alien looking trees and thick coffee coloured loamy soil underfoot. Through this landscape I was making my way with Tom of Survivor Palau. Tom Westman the NYC fireman winner of Survivor Palau no less! I walked up a steady incline
towards a hill crest which became a large bluff and a dramatic cliff edge. Here the path diverged. To my left was a slow meandering trail that wound its way along a hill line and eventually down onto the valley floor and straight in front of me the path proceeded up to cliff overlooking the valley. I peered over the edge of this enormous drop-off, and some 60-80ft below there was a large green lagoon. The lagoon and its surrounds were very beautiful. The panorama filled me with a sad unnameable longing. I considered the paths. I looked at the lagoon and wondered if I might make the jump. I was distracted by fears of broken limbs and alien crocodiles or big fish that might live in the mysterious jade waters below. I turned to Tom and he came up and joined me on the edge of cliff. He paused there for a beat, gave me little smile and then… took a big step off. He descended through the air feet first like a missile, plummeting into the water below with a spectacular splash and then resurfacing moments later looking up at me with a huge and expectant grin on his face. I think I actually spoke aloud and said something like (Smirking to myself) “Now that’s why Tom’s a million dollar Survivor winner and I’m standing on the edge of this damn cliff wondering what to do” I was wracked by fear…contemplating in awe, inspired by Tom’s example, but knees knocking and mind racing at the possible outcomes… I found myself recalling the sequence in Basketball Diaries when Jim Carroll and his friends were base jumping off a cliff, and one of them had never made the jump and was baulking at the edge…I’m sorry to say that I awoke at this point…before this story could force a conclusion…flash images of free fall, underwater rock and being unconscious and isolated in an alien landscape. So it’s somewhat off a cliffhanger I suppose ;-), but I will say that when I awoke I felt as if I were still there, wiped the fine rain forest mist from my face, but quite honestly, and although there’s the benefit of doubt here, I might’ve been just seconds away from admitting defeat and going the long way around.


Listening to: Devoted Few - counting cars

Bomb Jack Coin

We've got this great little 'Cocktail table' arcade computer game at work that has about 50 games from the 80's on it. Me and Neil and some others have been giving the game Bombjack a bit of a belting. Bombjack is a brilliant little arcade game from 1984 that has stood the test of time surprisingly well.
The pub staff can mark their coins with an X on one side and their initials on the other, so they can get their coins back when the computer game chap comes and cashes out the games. Neil left the pub a few weeks ago to take a job managing a store in Kalgoorlie (about 600km East of Perth), and one day after he hadnt been there very long, he looked down on his till and lo-and-behold there was a shiny dollar coin with my very own "DC" & "X" marked on it! What are the fuckin odds huh?! Crazy! I think he's kept that dollar. Cool huh? :-)