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I knew I was gonna volunteer for a charity event, but I didn’t know it was actually in conjunction with World Parkinson’s Day on Friday (11th April). Anyway, I picked Duncan up at his crib around 7 in the morning, and we headed straight to where the balloon was at.

Feel proud k, volunteer for charity!

Organized by the Malalysian Parkinson’s Association, the event was aimed at giving Parkinson’s disease sufferers an opportunity to go on a hot air balloon ride, at Astaka fields, PJ.

I realized that Parkinson’s disease do not only strike old folks, but also younger ones. In particular, I saw one young patient - possibly around my age - whose left hand was immobilized due to Parkinson’s.

Most of the patients understood English, and had their caretakers accompanying them at all times, which obviously made things much more manageable. Some were more comfortable communicating in Cantonese, so I talked to them in Cantonese when I needed to.

The organizers invited us to join them for lunch, which was nice. The hot air balloon crew today comprised of only 6 people, and there was no demonstration, only work. I met two other volunteers for the first time.

That’s the balloon’s shadow on the ground. I was using my newly-bought 10-22mm wide-angle lens the entire morning… I liked it very much. I also had my dedicated SLR backpack with me where I could quickly stow away my camera when not in use.

One of our colleagues’ cars had to be used as an anchor because we couldn’t use the trees, which were behind the tents set up for the event. Thankfully, the car did not go airborne when the balloon went up! As the wind conditions worsened, we had to cut down on the number of flights - and hence passengers. I think this must’ve had been a difficult decision for the pilot to make because it’d disappoint many people. But, you know… safety always comes first… :)

We left the place shortly after our lunch, and I had a quick bath at Duncan’s to freshen up. We were so tired that we actually had doubts about our going for our next programme… which would take place later in the afternoon, at Shah Alam.

That’s right, we didn’t chicken out! We figured that weekends were the only time we get to do all these things so we might as well make full use of them. We actually went jungle trekking - but not your ordinary jungle walk-along-the-path kinda thing. This one involved a 1km-long obstacle course, and lots and lotsss of Flying Foxes…! It was damn fun! Pictures, and story, shall be published in another post… stick around! ;)

Shorttalk: Narrowband will be going for Cheng Beng tomorrow morning in Broga, somewhere near the Nottingham Uni. Anyone going there too? Ehe…

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• Narrowband's First Hot Air Balloon Experience