They kept playing ads for Red Balloon on the radio before Valentine's Day. I had none of my own gift ideas so for the first time ever (exaggeration) I followed the advice of a commercial and bought two helicopter tours.

I started booking dates in the beginning of April. It rained on every date I picked, either because I chose them so early that a weather forecast wasn't even available, or because the weather forcast lied. After three tries we were about set on doing it on Easter Show/Tastevin/Grace Hotel/Getting Locked Out Of Car day. It was pouring that morning and too late to cancel, according to their terms and conditions. So we were all like, well, surely seeing rain fall from above, from above, would be somewhat interesting. Thankfully a nice man from Helitours called that morning and suggested we change the date.

Today was perfect. We got up early to go to Balmain for breakfast and macarons. Breakfast was unremarkable, except for this smallest serving of hot chocolate that was so thick it was more eaten than drunk.

Left to right macarons: vanilla, mint and chestnut; strawberries and cream; salted butter caramel; and white chocolate and something I can't rememeber. There was also satay, lime and kaffir leaf, and blackberry with liquorice, but they didn't really sound appealing. We bought fifteen in total. If I see these flavours again, the next fifteen will be split between salted butter caramel, vanilla and white chocolate and something.

We left Balmain pretty early to head to the airport. After checking in we learnt that there was another passenger in addition to us. His wife bought him the tour for his 40th birthday. Unlike me, she didn't also buy herself one, but she and their kids came to watch daddy take off in a helicopter, cute.

I've never seen a helicopter up close before. It's tiny! The body is smaller than my car, and fits four people extremely snugly. During the brief about safety and emergency procedures, they emphasised that nobody should ever approach the helicopter from its rear, or go anywhere near its rear, because the propellers are all sharp and stuff. I thought, but nobody is that tall! But in fact, they were probably level with my head.

The seats were arranged in two rows of two, with the pilot on the right side of the front row. There were doors for each passenger, which had locks that were undone surprisingly easily. More surprisingly, we were told that the doors are to stay unlocked at all times during the flight, as they are our emergency exits. As a result, I was careful to avoid touching them the entire time, in case I might somehow throw it open by accident.

I thought since the passengers consisted of Phil, me and the 40-year-old birthday man, Phil and I would surely be put in the back while the birthday guy sat at the front with the pilot. However, they put me in the passenger's seat and the two of them at the back. A few moments ago I was jealous of the views I thought birthday man was getting, so I was pretty happy with this unexpected arrangement.

We were given massive headphones that blocked out sound more effectively than gel ear plugs. They reminded me of the ear muffs the Hogwarts kids used in herbology when they had the screaming Mandrakes. Our pilot, Peter, gave us instructions and commentaries over sound-activated mikes, but it was otherwise a bit awkward for us to converse this way, because you have to speak quite loudly to activate the mike, and everybody will hear you. So I had to refrain from yelling out things like "BABE LOOK THERE'S THE USYD DUCK POND, I WONDER WHERE THE PHARMACY BUILDING IS".

We first flew to the CBD, over the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Darling Harbour. Then we went over to Manly, where Peter decided to throw in a free beach route which we initially rejected at a cost of an extra $60 per person. It's too beautiful today to not see the beaches, he said. Yay Peter! So we flew along the coast over Bondi, Clovelly, Coogee and Maroubra beaches.

The views were lovely. Twenty minutes went by like five. My parents, being the usual drama queens, were all worried that I was going to die in a plunging helicopter, but I felt very safe. If I had an extra couple hundred dollars lying around some time, I'd totally go again.

Now, looking up Mandrakes because I had forgotten what those screaming baby plant things were called lead me to a Harry Potter Wikipedia. Excuse me while I go browse :)