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Strange Things That Scared You (But Aren't Obviously 'Scary')

bugmum said:
I love a minor key, me...
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CarlosTheDJ said:
For my avatar info, I'll have to quote myself from another thread as I'm not typing that out again.
My new avatar is the next instalment in the occasional series of "Ridiculously Named Star Wars Characters".
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Funny, I always thought your avatar was a tardigrade in a judge's wig.
 
I used to work on a cross channel ferry. On one occasion one of those big container ships passed us, probably far too close. I happened to be on deck at the time and seeing this huge ship so close to us absolutely terrified me. I had to go and hide in my cabin for about half an hour until i calmed down. That and rats but I blame watching a BBC adaptation of "1984" when I was about 7 for that one. Every October my cat would catch one, just one every year. I was so terrified of this annual dead rodent that I used to pay next doors' kid a fiver just to dispose of it in the woods
 
Marsha Klein said:
I used to work on a cross channel ferry. On one occasion one of those big container ships passed us, probably far too close. I happened to be on deck at the time and seeing this huge ship so close to us absolutely terrified me. I had to go and hide in my cabin for about half an hour until i calmed down. That and rats but I blame watching a BBC adaptation of "1984" when I was about 7 for that one. Every October my cat would catch one, just one every year. I was so terrified of this annual dead rodent that I used to pay next doors' kid a fiver just to dispose of it in the woods
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On a similar note, albeit a smaller scale, i had a friend who was terrified of lorries passing her car on the motorway, she would physically shake when she saw a lorry approaching from behind her vehicle, i was once in her car with her when 2 lorries passed her simultaniously on either side of her car, once they had passed she pulled over to the hard shoulder and got out, shaking and crying, i had to drive her car for her for the remainder of the journey.
 
I have every sympathy with your friend @Souleater, speaking as someone who never learnt to drive (long story but it is one of the regrets that can sometimes make me cry in the middle of the night). One of the reasons was 'lack of funds' ex husband insisted he could teach me but would you want to be taught to drive by someone who thought it was OK to overtake a convoy of lorries on the motorway in a ......Reliant Robin?? I have never been so scared in all my life! At the max speed our fiber glassed 3 wheeler could go, eyes level with the wheel hubs, feeling the draw in, convinced we were about to be sucked under ........

In fact I sometimes wonder if I did actually die then and all my life since has just been nothing more than an expiring brains compensatary vision!

Sollywos x
 
Sollywos said:
I have every sympathy with your friend @Souleater, speaking as someone who never learnt to drive (long story but it is one of the regrets that can sometimes make me cry in the middle of the night). One of the reasons was 'lack of funds' ex husband insisted he could teach me but would you want to be taught to drive by someone who thought it was OK to overtake a convoy of lorries on the motorway in a ......Reliant Robin?? I have never been so scared in all my life! At the max speed our fiber glassed 3 wheeler could go, eyes level with the wheel hubs, feeling the draw in, convinced we were about to be sucked under ........

In fact I sometimes wonder if I did actually die then and all my life since has just been nothing more than an expiring brains compensatary vision!

Sollywos x
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I can imagine that being a heart in mouth situation :oops:
 
Marsha Klein said:
Every October my cat would catch one, just one every year.
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Blimey that's Fortean in itself! I'm not keen on rats but if I'd have got rid of it for you for a fiver! Well perhaps a tenner allowing for inflation!

Yep that tanker would have scared me as well, made me shake just reading about it.

Sollywos x
 
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I wouldn't say I'm terrified of, but I avoid doing if at all possible, is driving over high bridges. The one near Selby, where the M65 (I think it is) goes over the estuary in a sharp curve is horrifying and I used to drive it regularly going back down to Devon from York. I always feel as though I am being pulled towards the edge and have a very anti-social tendency to sit in the middle lane all the way over. I have the same reaction to the stretch of M5 outside Bristol, where it's elevated with solid walls on one sid (northbound I think). I have to keep my eyes strictly front.

I was never too worried about being driven over bridges, but when my daughter drives me over the West Gate bridge over the Yarra into Melbourne I get the colliewobbles and have to close my eyes.
 
Stormkhan said:
Spreading a disease is different from being dirty.
Dog poo can spread disease. Dogs are not usually dirty.
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Dogs are domestic animals. People can both control where their dogs defaecate and clean up after them. None of that applies to rats.
 
Souleater said:
On a similar note, albeit a smaller scale, i had a friend who was terrified of lorries passing her car on the motorway, she would physically shake when she saw a lorry approaching from behind her vehicle, i was once in her car with her when 2 lorries passed her simultaniously on either side of her car, once they had passed she pulled over to the hard shoulder and got out, shaking and crying, i had to drive her car for her for the remainder of the journey.
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Your friend's fear of lorries is quite common, particularly for those who don't drive regularly on the motorway. I guess I can understand it, although don't have that fear myself.

catseye said:
I wouldn't say I'm terrified of, but I avoid doing if at all possible, is driving over high bridges.
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Strangely Ms Petes, goes all unnecessary when going over bridges of any sort. Must be due to fear of heights.
 
catseye said:
I wouldn't say I'm terrified of, but I avoid doing if at all possible, is driving over high bridges. The one near Selby, where the M65 (I think it is) goes over the estuary in a sharp curve is horrifying and I used to drive it regularly going back down to Devon from York. I always feel as though I am being pulled towards the edge and have a very anti-social tendency to sit in the middle lane all the way over. I have the same reaction to the stretch of M5 outside Bristol, where it's elevated with solid walls on one sid (northbound I think). I have to keep my eyes strictly front.

I was never too worried about being driven over bridges, but when my daughter drives me over the West Gate bridge over the Yarra into Melbourne I get the colliewobbles and have to close my eyes.
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This footbridge over the A494 at Ewloe.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.189...4!1sZ4K7FXrmDnTpKpNrR0aRiA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Those pieces at the side that look like they contain stairs? They're SLOPES. For some reason I find this terrifying. I cannot imagine how bad it would be if it was frosty.
 
salt-man said:
This footbridge over the A494 at Ewloe.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.189...4!1sZ4K7FXrmDnTpKpNrR0aRiA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Those pieces at the side that look like they contain stairs? They're SLOPES. For some reason I find this terrifying. I cannot imagine how bad it would be if it was frosty.
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They can't possibly be as steep as they look! Nobody other than those under 20 would be able to get up and down them!

Going over bridges on foot doesn't bother me. It's just in a car. I presume because I know how far you can get if you go out of control even for a few seconds at 60.
 
catseye said:
They can't possibly be as steep as they look! Nobody other than those under 20 would be able to get up and down them!

Going over bridges on foot doesn't bother me. It's just in a car. I presume because I know how far you can get if you go out of control even for a few seconds at 60.
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How about in a canal boat?
(Edit - the scary bit starts at about 3.22.)


I've ridden a mountain bike over that! :D
 
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Apparently, there was a nasty incident on the M25 between two convoys of red lorries and yellow lorries due to a collision between the first red lorry and the first yellow lorry, after the second yellow lorry jackknifed into the 3rd red lorry and the third yellow lorry spun into the path of the 3rd red lorry. The 4th yellow lorry accelerated to pass the incident but collided with the 2nd red lorry.

There is no official traffic report on this event.
The person manning the CCTV at the time was Shelia Sellsseashells Seashore who was quoted as saying ‘I have enough to deal with in my life. Red lorries and yellow lorries just get a bit too much at times’.
 
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Analogue Boy said:
Apparently, there was a nasty incident on the M25 between two convoys of red lorries and yellow lorries due to a collision between the first red lorry and the first yellow lorry, after the second yellow lorry jackknifed into the 3rd red lorry and the third yellow lorry spun into the path of the 3rd red lorry. The 4th yellow lorry accelerated to pass the incident but collided with the 2nd red lorry.

There is no official traffic report on this event.
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All those red and yellow lorries could end up spinning around:
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
Touching cotton wool is what sets my teeth on edge - thinking about it sets them off a bit though, as I've just discovered.
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I had to look up "cotton wool" as I've not heard that expression here, and just thought it was a misnomer. So what I call cotton balls made with real cotton (cotton wool I assume) are horrid things. They squeak when I touch them. No I do not hear a squeak, but I feel a squeak. I can even feel the squeak, though not as awful, through vinyl gloves. I can't stand the feel of the real cotton ball.

This particular oddity in senses is called synesthesia, and apparently the one that I have is fairly common as far as synesthesias go.
 
brownmane said:
I had to look up "cotton wool" as I've not heard that expression here, and just thought it was a misnomer. So what I call cotton balls made with real cotton (cotton wool I assume) are horrid things. They squeak when I touch them. No I do not hear a squeak, but I feel a squeak. I can even feel the squeak, though not as awful, through vinyl gloves. I can't stand the feel of the real cotton ball.

This particular oddity in senses is called synesthesia, and apparently the one that I have is fairly common as far as synesthesias go.
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It's the same 'feeling a squeak' as walking on deep snow, I find. Presumably forcing air out between the fibres. I don't have a problem with cotton wool, or nails down blackboards or things like that, and I've always wondered why. But the canal boat over the aqueduct, or that video that's doing the rounds of the guy on the mountain bike going down the steep narrow trail...those things freak me out totally. And the man surfing the world's highest wave.

Although, oddly, I'm not that scared of heights either. I abseiled down a building a few years ago for charity.

Nice to see you're still with us, @escargot and I hope you're feeling better.
 
catseye said:
Although, oddly, I'm not that scared of heights either. I abseiled down a building a few years ago for charity.
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It's control, innit? You're all roped up (usually to hunky men) for the abseiling, whereas with the steep drops it's a one false step situation.

There's a edition of the Julia Bradbury hiking series where she crosses the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on a narrowboat en route to Llangollen.

The camera catches the sheer horror on the boatman's face when Bradbury dangles over the 200' drop, burbling 'Gosh, it's very high, isn't it!' :chuckle:
 
escargot said:
It's control, innit? You're all roped up (usually to hunky men) for the abseiling, whereas with the steep drops it's a one false step situation.

There's a edition of the Julia Bradbury hiking series where she crosses the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on a narrowboat en route to Llangollen.

The camera catches the sheer horror on the boatman's face when Bradbury dangles over the 200' drop, burbling 'Gosh, it's very high, isn't it!' :chuckle:
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Hang on, there are supposed to be hunky men? Nobody told me about the hunky men.... I was strapped into my gear and had to go over the top alone - no hunky men in sight.
It would have been different if there had been hunky men... <wanders off to see who she can sue about the lack of hunky men>
 
catseye said:
Hang on, there are supposed to be hunky men? Nobody told me about the hunky men.... I was strapped into my gear and had to go over the top alone - no hunky men in sight.
It would have been different if there had been hunky men... <wanders off to see who she can sue about the lack of hunky men>
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I apologise. Seems they were all escorting me that day! :chuckle:
 
Sollywos said:
Blimey that's Fortean in itself! I'm not keen on rats but if I'd have got rid of it for you for a fiver! Well perhaps a tenner allowing for inflation!

Yep that tanker would have scared me as well, made me shake just reading about it.

Sollywos x
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They must sacrifice at least one mouse to Bast each year to maintain their feline divinity..
 
brownmane said:
I had to look up "cotton wool" as I've not heard that expression here, and just thought it was a misnomer. So what I call cotton balls made with real cotton (cotton wool I assume) are horrid things. They squeak when I touch them. No I do not hear a squeak, but I feel a squeak. I can even feel the squeak, though not as awful, through vinyl gloves. I can't stand the feel of the real cotton ball.

This particular oddity in senses is called synesthesia, and apparently the one that I have is fairly common as far as synesthesias go.
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EXACTLY the same feeling I get.
 
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