General Chat

My grandson hates ceiling fans - he will not go into a room if the ceiling fan is on. We have two in our house. If they're not on he will eventually go into the room but he keeps an eye on it. If we were to turn it on he would run off and not go in that room for ages.
S

You are all so brave, I have to confess..... spiders do it for me... I went to a Zoo and I was going to hold a large spider to overcome my fear.... strange I backed away at the last minute... yes I know I am a coward...

Yep well there you go - talk about it and it will happen!

We took our Christmas Tree down today and I was going to put the stand back in the garden shed. I opened the door and this black furry bundle plopped onto the ground, unravelled itself and scuttled off - yes it was the hairiest, leggiest SPIDER I've ever seen in my garden.

I've never seen a live spider in January before - the climate's gone MAD!!

Snailsand slugs are mine, Don't know why!
Also i don't like piers and have a terrifying fear of heights..

Pat

I cant stand balloons,cotten wool and cats are some of mine

my sister has one of Jack Nicholson!

Oh Valleygirl

I understand your sister believe me'
I could never watch a film with
Donald Pleasance in it. He really gave me the shivers. I think as a child I saw him play Christie the Murderer and maybe that's the reason why
I go cold if I see his face and immediately turn the T V off lol so I suppose that's another Phobia I have.

Jackie

I can't stand man-made heights, but I'm OK on natural ones like clifftops and mountains.

Like my spider thing it goes back to when I was a kid. We went on a school trip to Wales and the teachers decided to walk us over Telford's Pontcysllte Aqueduct that spans the River Dee valley. See the link below for images and a description:

http://www.hughpearman.com/2006/11.html

I reckon it is one of the scariest walks on the planet. The aqueduct is 1007 feet long and rises 126 feet from the valley floor. The thing is there are railings ONLY ON ONE SIDE and it is probably no more than 12 feet wide. I was 11 at the time and so my eye level was below the top of the railings, so as I walked along the railings flickered past my eyes. After a while this becomes mesmerising and you begin to feel as though you are starting to tilt over towards the railings. The sensation is like, but much worse than, that feeling you get when you've had too much to drink and the room spins around when you lay down.

So you try to look away from the railings to stop this and then you are looking over the lip of the canal trough at ... absolutely nothing just about 12 feet away. You feel as though you'd fall right over the edge if you slip over that way so you look back at the railings again.

Then, if you walk over in the direction we did, you see about three filter beds through the railings, which are still flickering past your eyes. The arms that rotate over the filter beds assault your eyes even more through the flickering railings and then you get the feeling of vertigo.

There were about 60 kids in the group, and by the time we got over to the other side, the teachers had to deal with around 40-50 of these 11 year olds who were either nauseous or verging on the hysterical. I seem to remember one of the kids clamped themselves to the railings in total panic when they was about 3/4 of the way across and had to be "talked down" by one of the teachers.

I've never seen so much snot and tears in all my life - and I freely admit some of it was mine.

The aqueduct is a wonderful feat of engineering, but nothing on this world (or any other) would make me walk over it again. The experience also gave me a fear of man-made heights - I was fine with them before this happened.

Me again
Wow I find this so interesting. Eyebrows Ed yours was fascinating enjoyed looking at the pics and can undestand why you would be scared, so would I.
It reminds me of a place here in Western Australia and something I said I would never do (being scared of Bridges) but I went there recently with my sister and she encouraged me to do the walk.
It is called "The Valley of the Giants" and is near Walpole in Western Australia.
They are Huge Tingle Trees and they have built a suspension Bridge across the tops of the trees called "Tree Top Walk". The bridge is is not very wide and
is 38 Metres from the ground level and about 400 metres long, I believe
I was petrified but I did manange to achieve the walk. I got Vertigo up the top and had to be helped down, It is a feeling that Eyebrows Ed mentioned in his post.
But wow what an experience that was up amongst the birds and am so glad I did it, I felt really proud of myself that I
did something I said I would never do.
For those who are interested I have added a link of the Tree Top Walk

http://www.discoverwest.com.au/western_australia/tree_top_walk.html
MUMMIES
Such an interesting Topic
Thank you
Regards
Jackie

Eyebrows Ed -

I've walked across that aqueduct, and it IS scary, a very weird sensation as you don't know where to look or what to 'hang on to'! My Mum froze halfway across and Dad had to come to the rescue. I'm normally OK with heights, but this was something else. It didn't help that my cousin, who was on a narrow boat, insisted on leaning over the 'open side' to take photos of the view!

Sheila

my heart goes out to you, scary is beyond what I feel, my kids laugh at me

Hi Jackie,

I just had a look at the Tree Top Walk and wow - that bridge just looks too much. I take my hat off to you for walking across it - well done!

The other one that used to scare me was the Hungerford Railway and Pedestrian Bridge (also known as Charing Cross Bridge) across the River Thames in London. It's much different now as new footbridges have been added on either side, but years ago you used to walk along this slab of concrete bolted to the side of the bridge and surrounded with old cast-iron railings. It was a rickety old thing that used to shake like nobody's business when a 12 carriage train out of Charing Cross station rumbled across it!

Here's a link to a site that gives you an idea of Charing Cross Bridge:

http://thames.me.uk/s00120.htm

The other interesting one is Hammersmith Bridge - there used to be a sign at the northern end advising marching soldiers to break their stride when crossing the bridge; presumably a battalion of infantry marching in step across the bridge would shake it to pieces!

EE

John (David)
my eldest brother also has a phobis of buttons! I thought he was the only one until I read your post lol
It's not so much a single button on clothes but you know how some people save buttons in a tin/box?...well if he had to put his hand in amongst them it would freak him out lol x

edited...my only phobia is men! pmsl

Just for a seasonal one.........................

My 3yo freaks out at tinsel, its ok when its on the tree but if itsany where near him he goes nuts. He stays well clear of a tree with tinsel on it; we had to re-think much of our xmas decs this year as I tend to put my cards on tinsel around the room!


Hopefully he will grow out of it by next Christmas!

love t.x