Thanks, Rick. I've haven't had the bejesus scared out of me for a long time.

Nothing would ever, ever make me climb that thing. I'd be weeping like a child after the first 20 feet.

If you put an 9 bar of sticky-icky and a secret doorway into Helena Bonham Carter's knicker draw up there I'd still pass.

I'm with you, Hugo. Even going up Blackpool Tower, I had my back pressed against the centre so as not to see over the edge.

And when my daughter & her friend were leaping about on the walk of faith (a panel of transparent glass through which you can see the ground, way down below - held in place by bits of chewing gum by the look of it) it took me several minutes of dizziness & palpitations before mustering the courage to lurch forward sufficiently to grab them by their collars & drag them away from it.

Gilly wrote:
Bloody kids. No concern for a grown-up's nerves.

Have you been to St Paul's cathedral? They have - or did when I was wee - a narrow spiral staircase that takes you to the top of the dome. It swayed alot, it was rust flecked and wet, and my Dad made me climb the fucker.
I think I know where my fear of heights - more a fear of being re-introduced to the ground at great speed - came from.

At least I never have to worry about being in a plane crash coz I ain't ever getting on one of those things again.

Never been to St Paul's, but I'll give it a miss.

When I was a kid, I worked out why I hated going on the big wheel at fair grounds, but wasn't scared of the big roller-coasters, which were reputed to be more scary.

It was because while rising into the air, I was focussing on the central hub. When you rise above it, and it goes out of view, I'd feel like I was about to tip upside down, and go all dizzy & weird. Soon as I realised & stopped looking at the middle, it was nice.

But then I re-developed a fear of heights while on a ride at Alton towers where you hang suspended looking down for a couple of minutes before the carriage drops.

Having said that, my sister is a QS who worked on the design of Blackpool Pleasure Beach's The Big One, & she said none of the staff who worked on it would dream of going on it, because they know it's not safe.

Btw, your new avatar reminds me of Jeffrey Archer, pretending to be Biggles.

I can walk to the top a peak, say 2-3,000 ft high, and enjoy the views no problem. But get me on a man-made structure, like a ladder or a tower?
No chance, I need to feel the ground under me.

Rollercoasters make me sick.

Too much candyfloss does too.

I'd rather eat a lot of candyfloss than spend 5 mins on a rollercoaster screaming myself hoarse, then throwing up.

At fairgrounds I stick to the bumper cars and the rip-off stalls.

I could probably handle this one if I didn't eat before I went on.

I am really not a fan of heights but sometimes my job has me in situations a bit like that only not as far up, so far anyway, I would be o.k. until I got to the ladder on the outside. Really though you can kill yourself falling badly from a few feet so the main thing is to know what you are doing.

Before I got into painting I didn't really think about how they painted and repainted stuff up in the air. When I was an apprentice we painted some parachute jump towers at fort benning. There could be zero wind on the ground but up at the top it felt like a windy day. Oh and those towers are designed to sway so it feels like it is about to fall over.

heights have never bothered me. but the ocean does though, and thats kind of like a height i guess.

batou wrote:
Funnily enough the oceans have never bothered me, just as well since I was at sea for 7 years. Experienced some real scary storms too.

Since I can't swim I have a healthy respect/avoidance of the ocean.

i spose you get exposed to things for long enough and you get comfortable with yourself being around them. if your job is climbing towers, maybe first few times its terrifying but after that its old hat.
surgery, babies, dogs, computers, being on stage..
i can understand those things. irrational fears are weird though. like scared of the color purple or terrified of wood etc
i hate spiders. i dont know why. the way they move, the way they die, their bodies.. im not afraid they hurt me, im repulsed i dont want to them to touch me i just want to kill it and stop it existing.

I love that picture, my local Italian barbers has it hanging up.

Sweaty palms time for me, just watching that vid. It's the same when I watch Alain Robert...he. climbs. skyscrapers. without. ropes. Just his bare hands...and chalk

There's a list of phobias here, an some of them are pretty strange - like the morbid fear of women's genitalia, and the fear of string!

I have spoken to guys who have "walked steel" in the days before OSHA (occupational safety and health association) and full body harnesses etc. In those days they could be drunk and eat their lunch up on the steel. They could ride on the crane ball thing and stuff. Some guys you meet in construction are a little crazy.

watch that video in full screen it's even better

Gilly wrote:
Both together scares me. Ha

Gilly wrote:
Strange fear difference between those two things, one thing controls the world, and the other is a cat's toy {the string}