This wasn't the first time. Hot air ballooning in the mornings seems to be quite popular around here.And then, the next day, I saw this story on The Age website, the best place on the web to find out what's happening around Melbourne.
A Fairfield resident got the surprise of his life during an early morning toilet call when a hot air balloon carrying 10 people drifted over for a bird's-eye view.So that's how they keep their lawns watered during the water restrictions. Anyway, here's the picture from their website.
Paul Pettitt contacted theage.com.au with pictures of his close encounter this morning.
"I was on the back lawn having a leak and I looked up and I was pretty shocked," he said.
"I heard the fire and I looked up and thought, 'hell, they're going to hit the train lines' and then there was the house on the corner and there was a bit of a frantic action of pumping up the fire again."
It turns out the story was a load of hot air. They were nowhere near crashing into anything. Richmond hot air balloon company, Balloon Flights Over Melbourne, said Mr Pettitt had nothing to be worried about, claiming "everything went to plan".Still, I do wonder about where these balloons I see floating over the city are going to land.
Chris Shorten, the chief pilot with the company, said it is a misrepresentation of what happened this morning.
"Regarding the photo of the balloon flying over Fairfield, it is a bit hard to tell from the photo that we flew at least 100 meters away from where the photo was taken, over a large park, as planned.
"We were nowhere near the train line and power lines, nor did we nearly land on someone's house. In fact, we had many local residents in Fairfield this morning come out and wave good morning at the balloon as it passed overhead," Mr Shorten said.
2 comments:
I always think balloons look really spectacular when you see them in the sky. It makes part of me want to go on a balloon ride. Another part would be a bit scared, I think, because I can't imagine they'd be easy to land - especially in a city.
They do balloon rides from Nowton Park sometimes I believe, so maybe one day I'll be brave ...
BTW, have you got an Australian accent yet?
Ithink it would be fantsatic to do a balloon ride over Bury St Edmunds. I hope I do some day.
No I don't think I'm fluent in Strine yet. I can just about manage "G'day". BTW I was amused to hear someone describe something as "fair dinkum" the other day. I never believed they actually said that!
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