And then it was Gary's turn... at which point we realized that if he didn't make it, we would all be out looking for work on Monday!

"Right! Where's the nearest pub?" .

Once I was fixed to the abseil line proper, I assumed the position, holding the line below my buttock. They were using black military grade rope which is normally the lightest, but 110ft of damp rope felt heavy – very heavy. So for the first time I felt quite nervous, I had done this about four times before, and on those occasions I had gone to the bottom and gone back up and done it again, and again, and again… I have even done it in the dark. But never from such a height before. Before I had been bouncing around like Peter-Pan, but the heavy rope made this feel very cumbersome and I didn’t feel quite as confident all of a sudden. So the gods only know how everybody else felt.
As anybody will tell you, the worst part is lowering yourself backwards over the edge, you have to slowly use the abseil technique to swing yourself from the vertical to the horizontal, but once you are there, off you go.
I didn’t mess about, I started big bounces down the side of the building. I have only done this once before with a safety line and on that occasion it slowed be down. So the first bounce was moderate, the next bigger, and then on about the third or fourth bounce, the safety line slowed me and pulled me in and I slammed into the wall at an angle so that one foot planted first. I took a quick look down (for the first time) and saw I was about half way – I carried on down.