Before popsicles there were swings and slides for summer fun. Vase paintings from the 5th century B.C. Greece had pictures of children and women swinging on swings.
Skip to New Zealand’s Nevis Swing. This is the adult version of the swing thrill. It is advertised as the most famous swing in the world, the most exciting, and the most everything. Here's the home page - that alone gives you the sense of this tourist destination. Here's the video. I assume the young people waving their arms in the air are doing this before the jumping. How many thousands of terrified swingers did they go through to find the smiley-faced jumpers in the video?
Do you want to try the Nevis Swing or the Ledge Swing. And there's the catapult, zip ride and bungy jump. You can do this in Queenstown, Taupo and Auckland. Jumpers are attached to a 120 meter rope and can swing in a variety of positions including forwards, backwards, tandem, truck'n trailer, 69, back2back, Honeymoon and more.
The "thrill" of the swing for children is the combination of speed and the moment of suspension. So you can imagine that speeds of over 128 km/h at a height of 134 metres (440 feet) and then about 8 seconds of the original jump before the cord pulls back.
Our backyards have everything for children today - from tree swings to Hugglepod hangouts (comfy hanging fabric tents) to sky curves (a platform that up to 4 kids change hang on to to get an Aladdin magic carpet ride). There's everything imaginable now - swinging saucers, ropecubes, surfer kick stands, waterproof saucers. Lots of products to keep the children occupied and active.
I think we've reached the "Swing Pinnacle" for children and adults in our lifetime.
I am hoping for rain today - this is one of the Japanese Maples out front. Their leaves are excellent at catching rain drops.
Can we tell the age of a person by simply looking carefully at what they are wearing? That's my theory - the style and colours tell the story. This seems to me to be a sociological study rather than a google search.
On the other hand, I found this article in everydayhealth.com. What makes it remarkable is that it identifies ages such as 30 as being too old to wear various styles. It is clearly addressed to women. There are some articles for men, but fashion is targeted primarily to women.
Here's the concluding platitude: “But what you’re striving for isn’t to look youthful – it’s to look ageless,” DeMartino says. “This way, you’re going to look more fabulous because the look is appropriate for you.” It is followed by a referral to Charla Krupp’s How Not to Look Old(Grand Central Life & Style).
There are lots more top ten lists on what to do/not do: the AARP entertains us with their concluding four items:
Gold chains with your name on them.
Gold chains with anyone's name on them.
Gold chains.
Chains.
We had lots of rain in the garden yesterday, so I took a few shots of the rain drops.
