• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.
I just wish that vertigo came with a warning. Sometimes I have it and other times I don't (depending, I suppose, on the conditions). I want my brain to start warning me, round about Floor Seven, that this is going to be a bad idea. I climb confidently up a staircase, full of jollity, and then step out onto a platform and my entire body freezes. I then feel an utter idiot.

Happened a few weeks ago. Went with two of my daughters to Kew Gardens, and up the tower for the treetop walk. I did a treetop walk in Perth some years ago with no problem at all, so wasn't expecting my reaction when I got up there. And, of course, having my girls poking fun at my hand-over-hand walk the entire circuit didn't help.
 
My knees go wobbly and I get the urge to step off the edge for some reason I don't understand at tall places .
Again , late to the ball but once as a skinny teen , a long time ago , I climbed to the top of an obelisk that was easily 80 to 100 feet high and crawled round the ledge at the top that was about two three feet wide with absolutely no barrier to stop any fall..... I made it , somehow , but the sheer brazen stupidity still makes my blood freeze and I go numb....
 
Someone I know suffers from it and recons, lie on the bed with your head and shoulders dangling off the end
so your head is lower than your body, says it cure's her.
 
I get a kind of reverse vertigo in that I can't look up at a high building without my knees turning to water and a feeling of dread. I almost hit Chrissy once when she was trying to get me to look at the Houses of Parliament.
 
Every since I had my flu shot two weeks ago, I have had spells of vertigo which has made me irritable.

I looked on the internet and it said to take antihistamines such as meclizine or diphenhydramine.

The diphenhydramine has help somewhat.
 
Last edited:
That is the craziest stair case I have seen.

Maybe if my life depended on this type of staircase I could go down.
 
Would go down it no problem but would likely have a trombi if I tried to climb back up.

:litg:
 
I know also the famous pictures of the workmen sitting on a girder were only a few feet off the ground. The building was on top of a steep hill.
Are you sure about that? I know the photo was staged for a publicity stunt but as far as I know it was genuinely taken at 800 ft or so.

I realise that wiki isn't necessarily reliable but having googled and lookd at other references I can't see anything to the contrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_atop_a_Skyscraper
 
So I went and did a static line jump from 9,000 feet about 35 year ago.

I've previously posted about my jump and the fear it cured me of :-
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...-but-arent-obviously-scary.68071/post-2050728

Your experience sounds very similat to mine. I did three in the end but never had enough money to continue with the sport and perfect the exit. I too went out of a small cesna (206) and had to put first one foot out out while holding onto the wing strut and then looking down to cross over the other foot and stick the first foot out, look at the jump master and wait for the 'go' command. I hesitated everytime and the first time I tried refusing but the jump master who was such a lovely, sexy, highly fanciable bloke during the training had turned into a really fearsome ugly army major type and commanded that I left the plane as,

"I'm not going to land this plane with you still in it!"

Thicko here was too scared to remember that they hadn't invented perpetual motion yet and tearfully complied, but once in position I was buggered if I could let go of the wing strut. However he leant out of the door and tapped me on the hand (not pushed that would have been unethical!) which my brain perceived as a push and off I went!

It felt like flying backwards I only had time to yell 'one thousand' and then I felt myself pulled up by the scruff of my neck and was looking up to a perfectly deployed chute, L shaped modifications at the back, steering toggles easily grabbed time to enjoy the view ... this ... is ... the ... life ... turning round and round with the toggles admiring a toy townesque landscape below me. All too soon it was time to adopt the landing position (we were trained to recognize the drop zone from 100 ft) and it seemed to take for ever for the ground to come up and give me a good thump!! Ran round the chute to deflate it bundled it up and walked proudly to the clubhouse. As it happened I got nearer to the cross than the rest of the people I'd trained.with.

The club was at Thruxton in Hampshire which is also a race track. I did two more jumps but really messed up on the third and got my rigging lines all twisted up so I had to waste a lot of my decent untangling them and then instead of landing on grass I landed on part of the race track and twisted my ankle. I was able to walk back to the clubhouse but my ankle kept giving me gyp in the cold weather for years afterwards. Plus the confidence of having dealt with a parachute malfunction albeit a not very serious one!

Still I'm glad I've done them and also before this tragedy happened in Thruxton about 5 years later which might well have put me off!
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/48238

Conclusion? Well I'm still scared of heights but no longer scared of spiders ... so result!!
Oh by the way
I was young and foolish
I was not young and foolish but 33 and already able to imagine myself sitting in an old peoples home and needing something to brag about!!! Which I've just done although not in my old folks home just yet!

I think Mungoman that we can both feel chuffed with ourselves and it's nice to have a connection with a fellow FTMB member! We felt the fear and did it anyway!!!
 
Are you sure about that? I know the photo was staged for a publicity stunt but as far as I know it was genuinely taken at 800 ft or so.

I realise that wiki isn't necessarily reliable but having googled and lookd at other references I can't see anything to the contrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_atop_a_Skyscraper
I read entire article about it some time ago. There were photos of the photographer taking the picture and the article described how it was made to look high up. I think, but I'm not sure, the building under construction was on top of a hill in San Francisco.

It seems at complete odds with the wikipedia article.
 
I read entire article about it some time ago. There were photos of the photographer taking the picture and the article described how it was made to look high up. I think, but I'm not sure, the building under construction was on top of a hill in San Francisco.

It seems at complete odds with the wikipedia article.
Well it wouldn't surprise me as we well know the camera can lie!
 
Visited the Atomium in Brussels. All went well until the end. There is a one-way system so you exit at the top of a horrifying external staircase about 5 miles above solid ground. No choice but to go down this grated open stairway with endless switchbacks. Was the constituency of jelly by the bottom. Still makes me shudder many years on.
 
Visited the Atomium in Brussels. All went well until the end. There is a one-way system so you exit at the top of a horrifying external staircase about 5 miles above solid ground. No choice but to go down this grated open stairway with endless switchbacks. Was the constituency of jelly by the bottom. Still makes me shudder many years on.
Here's me in Brussels with the Atomium. Did you also have your photo taken with it on your head? :chuckle:
 

Attachments

  • Me in Brussels with the Atomium..jpg
    Me in Brussels with the Atomium..jpg
    61.6 KB · Views: 14
Here's me in Brussels with the Atomium. Did you also have your photo taken with it on your head? :chuckle:
Crickey no, retreated immediately to one of those lovely bars with a different glass for each type of beer. Sampled various medicines until it was time to go the beer festival.
 
Back
Top