whirling

Today was (how to describe it) carefree and bright.
After finishing homework (some of it), i went down stairs to meet shana (the banana) to play

I got down and sat on the trampoline to wait.
to take up time i swept the leaves from the trampoline and blew the feathers off too. They were down feathers and very soft, because down feathers are the kind of feathers that are close to a birds body to keep it warm.
then i lay on the trampoline-which is a very comfortable thing to do because the trampoline bends and shapes itself to your body to your back is not arched awkwardly- and stared at the sky and the telephone wire and the tree and the corner of the roof and just thought about how long it had been since I'd been downstairs and how i missed relaxing like that and when was shana going to come?

At last shana came (she was a bit late because she had been chasing a horn bill) and we jumped on the trampoline a bit (and i can still do a front flip :) )
then we went to shana's swing which is the most thrilling thing
It's a long piece of sturdy rope attached to a tree. At the bottom, the rope is tied in a loop twice so you can sit on it . There are also two knots at convenient places so you can hold on above the first knot(if you are tall) and the second(if you are not so tall)

Shana swung individually for a while I stood and slapped at mosquitoes.

Then i went on with her. We did a special way of swinging where we both ran, i would jump off the hill first and then shana would be pulled off by my weight, so we would swing round in two arcs (kind of like DNA's double helical structure) around part of the circumference of the hill and then land back on the other side of the hill.

shana had to go to the toilet then so i swung individually, with my arms looped through the loop so i didn;t have to hold so tight to the rope (my hands were already blistering)

it is the most wonderful feeling to rush through the air, like you are the end of a conker or a yo yo being whirled around by and excited child, but in a much more controlled and sophisticated (not nearly the right word but close enough) manner.

As you swing through the air you are flung out, so you are just dependent on the rope and you don;t need to think about maneuvering because there is nothing you can do except go with the rope.
And then as the opposite side of the hill rushes to wards you that's where you have to think fast or you might land (as i have done before) on your bottom, which is funny and not as uncomfortable as you would think but humiliating all the same.

Then shana came back and after a few more breathtaking swings, we saw a monkey.

There has been a lone monkey going round the neighbourhood the past days and it was fascinating to see it close (about 10 metres away) It was eating tree bark and climbing on the telephone wire (and sliding down the telephone pole, fireman style) and doing strange rotor movements with its tail. Shortly, it disappeared into some bushes at the side of the road, whereupon shana took it as her responsibility to warn anyone passing that there was a monkey in the bushes and to please be careful.

One man we warned was so shocked that he dropped his motorbike helmet.
After picking it up, he dropped it again when shana made "ooh ooh aah aah" monkey noises.
i don't think he was amused by shana.

Then we played kick the can with the boys.
when Ned was 'it' shana and i hid on the trampoline by lying belly down on it. as we were lying there, i felt someone underneath the trampoline, someone who bumped the trampoline so it wobbled.

"who's that?"

and Dana, shana's helper came out laughing like anything.

i was amazed and so was shana and we had a giggling fit for a while then remembered that since we were hiding we should be quiet.

when i went upstairs, i did stretching (ballet on Tuesday) and to my delight, i was pretty flexible (in comparison to the past)

so all in all, a good day.

a whirly swirly fun day.