Photographers, artists, poets: show us JUMP.
Now this bloke in the photo is a champion
jumper. You could say he was born to jump.
These days the biggest risk I take is
getting up in the morning. I am not as spritely and active as in my younger
years, and do everything in slow motion. The only real physical training I do
today is a Tai Chi course, once a week and practice once a day: nice and slow,
no rush, one thing after the other.
I was the tallest in the class at school due to XXL size legs, but they just seemed to get in the way. I was never brilliant at anything in the gymnastic class. I remember we had to jump over the horse thing. I even managed it a couple of times, but had a few bad falls where my legs did not come with me, so I gave it up. We also had ropes to climb. I never did find out what the world looked like from the top of the rope. Somehow my feet already became tangled with the ropes a few centimetres from the floor. Head stands, hand stands: forget it. I was just not built for things like that. I could not even get my feet off the ground to put them in a 180° angle to my head. Swimming was another problem. I did manage to do it eventually without the floats to help, but I had to have the ground within body length and I never could go underwater.
I was no good at running, or hurdles, or anything involving springy joints of the body. And now I am being asked what the biggest risk I would like to take. No thank you, I like to stay with both feet firmly on the ground. I have no longing to go for a flight in a gas balloon, or do a bungy jump. The only interest I would have would be to take my DSLR camera with me and take a few photos, but they might be the last photos I take in my life, so I prefer to take the photos with the close up lens from the ground.
I often fly in a plane, once a year to see my dad in London. That is no problem. Everyone flies these days, and if you go up, you can only come down again. When I was in New York I even took the tourist helicopter trip and we have a few good photos taken from the air. At that time I just did it, as it was the thing to do. I felt quite barfy (that seems to be the new word used for the feeling) towards the end of the helicopter trip and was glad to have both feet firmly placed on the ground again. After the flight I read about all the accidents that occur in New York City with the helicopters making crash landings in the East River, so I decided I would not do that one again.
I have climbed a few mountains in Switzerland, but nothing death defying and the real high monsters you can do in the safety of a cable car, the only danger at the top is the thin air where you might get a bit breathless and giddy – not everyone is a Reinhold Messner.
Summing up my death defying attempts, I would say they do not exist and never will. I even needed 90 driving lessons to pass my driving test, and I was then over forty years of age.
I am quite good at computer stuff, I am not a bad cook (have not poisoned anyone yet) and can do housework and ironing with no problem. OK, I did fall once on the concrete outside on the patio when I broke my arm for the second time, but accidents can happen. Today was the day when I went for a drive in our new car all on my own and I arrived home safely with no problem.
I was the tallest in the class at school due to XXL size legs, but they just seemed to get in the way. I was never brilliant at anything in the gymnastic class. I remember we had to jump over the horse thing. I even managed it a couple of times, but had a few bad falls where my legs did not come with me, so I gave it up. We also had ropes to climb. I never did find out what the world looked like from the top of the rope. Somehow my feet already became tangled with the ropes a few centimetres from the floor. Head stands, hand stands: forget it. I was just not built for things like that. I could not even get my feet off the ground to put them in a 180° angle to my head. Swimming was another problem. I did manage to do it eventually without the floats to help, but I had to have the ground within body length and I never could go underwater.
I was no good at running, or hurdles, or anything involving springy joints of the body. And now I am being asked what the biggest risk I would like to take. No thank you, I like to stay with both feet firmly on the ground. I have no longing to go for a flight in a gas balloon, or do a bungy jump. The only interest I would have would be to take my DSLR camera with me and take a few photos, but they might be the last photos I take in my life, so I prefer to take the photos with the close up lens from the ground.
I often fly in a plane, once a year to see my dad in London. That is no problem. Everyone flies these days, and if you go up, you can only come down again. When I was in New York I even took the tourist helicopter trip and we have a few good photos taken from the air. At that time I just did it, as it was the thing to do. I felt quite barfy (that seems to be the new word used for the feeling) towards the end of the helicopter trip and was glad to have both feet firmly placed on the ground again. After the flight I read about all the accidents that occur in New York City with the helicopters making crash landings in the East River, so I decided I would not do that one again.
I have climbed a few mountains in Switzerland, but nothing death defying and the real high monsters you can do in the safety of a cable car, the only danger at the top is the thin air where you might get a bit breathless and giddy – not everyone is a Reinhold Messner.
Summing up my death defying attempts, I would say they do not exist and never will. I even needed 90 driving lessons to pass my driving test, and I was then over forty years of age.
I am quite good at computer stuff, I am not a bad cook (have not poisoned anyone yet) and can do housework and ironing with no problem. OK, I did fall once on the concrete outside on the patio when I broke my arm for the second time, but accidents can happen. Today was the day when I went for a drive in our new car all on my own and I arrived home safely with no problem.
Hi Pat!! That's a fantastic shot of Mr Grasshopper!! Did you take that with your new camera?
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit of a speed-freak myself. I love going fast. I really love to go on the biggest, tallest, faster rollercoasters. What I'd really like the chance to do is take a Bugatti Veyron (the world's fastest production car) on a drive on a test-track, to see what it's like to drive at over 250mph!!
Mr. Grasshopper is a photo from 2009 and I took it with my Panasonic DMC-LX2. I have a couple of macro photos with the new camera, nothing special, just trying out, but here is the link to one of them Kerria Japonica. What I liked is the way the flower is sharp and the background not, similar to my DSLR. I could never do that with my Panasonic Lumix.
DeleteI am not a speed freak, it just happens. I only drive automatic now, and as soon as my foot is on the gas pedal I seem to be driving too fast. Anyhow the new car has a sort of screen and Mr. Swiss has fixed it where the speed is nice and big, so it shouldn't happen again - he hopes.