3 (7?) Years of Wonderful Madness and Going Strong...!

Zorbing: the impossible dream come true.
Now onto building that London-wide water slide...

Matt and I met one fateful day in Rome, seven years ago, almost to the day. Of those seven years, we have been married, as of August 12th, three. In those three years of marital bliss, we have done lots of random and wonderful things together.

As a couple we don't generally indulge in the exchanging of traditional anniversary gifts, by which I mean that I have never gotten a vacuum cleaner or a heart-shaped box of chocolates, and he's never gotten a grill or a new set of socks. I didn't get him leather this year and he didn't get me crystal last year. And I am happy to say that, despite my appreciation for both flowers and chocolates, we are both a little more creative with the things we give each other. This year in particular I have to take a moment to discuss the awesome, insane and random gift I received.

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*scooby-doing flashback dance à la Wayne's World*

My Dream to Zorb.
or the coolest anniversary gift ever (yet)

Back in the days of fat-hobbitiness (read: pregnancy), I spent a whole lot of time sitting on our faux leather couch (hey, it came with the flat - don't hate.) watching bad British television. Besides annoying our neighbors with my incessant screaming at Noel Edmonds the Paisley-clad freak of Deal or No Deal (the most ridiculously pointless show on earth), I also got to know and love a whole lot of random British commercials (to check out my favorites, go here).

One of those commercials featured something that, like the water-slide-from-work-to-home Barclays commercial, I thought was fake and probably impossible, but genuinely and fervently longed to indulge in with all my heart:

Sadly, I will not have random, fat, Bingo addicts pushing me down the street in my zorb.

I brought this up to Matt, made him watch the commercial, and declared that if I didn't have a little person in my belly, I would jump into one of those human-hamster-balls and roam the streets of London. Matt did not share my dream to bound down the steps of the National Gallery in a giant plastic orb meant to be a bingo ball, but hey, I never said he was perfect.


Anyway, on our anniversary the other day Matt showed up with a bouquet of pink lillies (unopened blossoms, of course, because the gift is so much nicer when the flowers bloom for you at home) and an envelope. Inside the mystery envelope was a certificate for a day of Zorbing and on the certificate a picture of my beloved human-hamster-ball.

Yes, it's called Zorbing and it apparently originated as a "team-building" extreme sport in the land of extreme sports: New Zealand (it doesn't get more random than that).

Here in the UK there is "harness zorbing" in which two people are harnessed into a Zorb ball facing each other, or "hydro zorbing" in which two buckets worth of water are thrown into the Zorb and you bounce around freely (or with other people if you so desire). Matt was extra cool and got me a go at both kinds. I am particularly excited about doing the hydro-zorbing on my own, because there is a chance I could win a free t-shirt if I manage to run down the entire zorbing hill without falling. Somehow I doubt I'll make it more than two feet, and will probably end up gasping for air with water up my nose and a new-age hairdo, but right now that sounds like heaven to me.

Here's to three years of wonderful madness and many more to come. :)

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More Zorbing Videos

Lame-ish-cheesey-car-commercial-zorbing



The Zorbing Anthem

not even kidding, the guy with the midget banjo FUH-reaks me out (wait for it!).

Unadulterated madness.

Yes, my friends, that will soon be me.

*virtual raising of the roof*