Have you ever thought you were in the mire ?

[Easilyconfused]

I was talking to an old friend tonight who I have not spoken with in almost 16 years. We had a good natter and joked about the good old days. One of the things we talked about was our exploits when we were caving / potholing with some other friends. That gave me some time to think about some of the stupid things we did in those days and how lucky I am to be here now.

One time we were in a cave under the Mendip hills and got to almost the bottom - there was one more narrow bit to the last chamber and it really looked pretty grim. I couldn't fit through easily so off comes the hat and light but still no joy so then off comes the boiler suit and outer layers of clothing and I drop my light down the last 5 or 6 feet into the hole. Head first down the hole with a little help from a boot from behind and I am in the bottom of the cave with my slightly slimmer friend. Great - take a couple of photos and now let's get out and head off to the pub for a couple of pints.

Now I am sure the more wise of you can see the folly of this procedure ? How do I reverse the process to get out ? 2 hours later and a lot of bad language and removal of all my clothes I learnt a valuable an painful lesson - if you are going to apply force in one direction make sure you can reverse it. The worst bit was we missed the pub closing time due to me getting stuck

[jbilton]

Hi John
As a claustrophobic I hated caving .... as someone who suffers from vertigo .... I hated rock climbing and abseiling .....I wasn't too keen on dodging bullets either. ..... I've no idea why I joined the Armed services.
Cheers
Jon

[oldrocker]

As Clegg says . . 'I prefer Terra Firma . . the more the firmer the less the terror!'

[jbilton]

Hi
Yes very true
I always do a 'quick Pope' when I finally disembark from an aircraft ............another why did I join the Armed Services..... and why did the records office, get the idea I enjoyed being Air Mobile ......

Cheers
Jon

[overmarze]

I jumped out of a slam door class 302 onto the platform once proberly the most dumbest thing i have done

[oldrocker]

I jumped out of a slam door class 302 onto the platform once proberly the most dumbest thing i have done

And, presumably, the platform wasn't traveling at the same speed as the train?

[overmarze]

Yup

Didnt fall or anything

Another mad thing i have done at 1 of the london underground stations think its at bank or one of them there are these travleators like at airports i ran along one of them then came to the end lol slid along the floor was shocked at how far i travled lol

Has anyone seen the man on a surf board who went down the escalators at angel LU station madness.
Oh yea Angle tube station has the longest escalators on the whole of the underground.
Takes 7 mins from top to bottom.


I would love to hear what other mad things other people have done

[Lad491]

I got onto a train at Waterloo thinking it was a local when the first stop was Salisbury, so realising my mistake, as it slowed at vauxhall I opened the door and jumped off. Unfortunately I was on one of the disused island platforms with exits to subway and footbridge both blocked off. Not particularly wanting to cross the live rails (even at 10 I wasnt a complete dope) I had to stand and shout at the top of my voice to get attention. It was ages before eventually a member of the station staff came to see what all the shouting was about and they escorted me safely across the lines - having stopped all services first. they werent too pleased when they found out I didnt even have a ticket

A few years later, at about 14, I want ed to be the first to use a new section of road which had been built near my house. So one quiet Sunday morning when no one was about i took my bike and pedalled hell for leather down this brand new stretch of gleaming smooth tarmac. Unfortunately the bridge across the junction hadnt been put in yet and i suddenly ran out of road. I literally flew across the opening, but alas didnt make the other side. That put me in hospital for a while

[Pyromaniac]

Another mad thing i have done at 1 of the london underground stations think its at bank or one of them there are these travleators like at airports i ran along one of them then came to the end lol slid along the floor was shocked at how far i travled lol

Having been to London two days ago i think the place is Waterloo .

I got onto a train at Waterloo thinking it was a local when the first stop was Salisbury, so realising my mistake, as it slowed at vauxhall I opened the door and jumped off. Unfortunately I was on one of the disused island platforms with exits to subway and footbridge both blocked off. Not particularly wanting to cross the live rails (even at 10 I wasnt a complete dope) I had to stand and shout at the top of my voice to get attention. It was ages before eventually a member of the station staff came to see what all the shouting was about and they escorted me safely across the lines - having stopped all services first. they werent too pleased when they found out I didnt even have a ticket

Excellent job there, that made me laugh quite a bit.

A few years later, at about 14, I want ed to be the first to use a new section of road which had been built near my house. So one quiet Sunday morning when no one was about i took my bike and pedalled hell for leather down this brand new stretch of gleaming smooth tarmac. Unfortunately the bridge across the junction hadnt been put in yet and i suddenly ran out of road. I literally flew across the opening, but alas didnt make the other side. That put me in hospital for a while

My dad almost did that once on Royal Artilery Way near where i live, lets just the subway under the road wasn't technically under it at that point. Fortuntely a member of the local plod stopped him.

I can't really think of any really stupid things i've done, i'm just a boring person . Oh i suppose almost getting run over in my local bus garage wasn't smart. Or jumping over a two metre gap that was about a 10 metre drop down to jagged rocks .

Cheers

PT

[Pyromaniac]

Oh i've thought of one, sticking my head out of the window of a Thumper DMU, directly in the path of an express train going the other way. Body in London, head in Brighton might not be good .

Cheers

PT

[Tonysmedley]

Going back to the original posting, many years ago when I was living in Bath, I was cycling up Burrington Combe whan I realised that the opening to a small cave, usually locked off, was open. I parked my bike and went inside.
Some distance in I came across a group of cavers who were exploring the cave. They invited me to join them. Within a very short time I found myself staring into a small vertical shaft jammed up against a rock face at the end of a rapidly narrowing cave. A rope dangled down the hole. The shaft looked about the size of a rather small manhole cover.
I was invited to go down next. My mind immediately thought that going down was one thing, but what about coming up? I had a brain wave. What time is it? I said, and as soon as I got a reply I remembered that I had to be in Wells within a rather short tome. I have never regretted my decision.

[AlistairW]

After a long day hiking we felt like cooling off in a river, however as we were driving a huge thunderstorm struck and we were forced to pull over for 20minutes/half an hour as it wasn't safe to drive. Ignoring the fact that so many centimetres of rain had fallen in the last 30 minutes we felt swimming was still a good idea.

Seeing that the water "was only waist height" my friend jumped in and let the river carry him about 100m down stream where you had make sure you swam to the right to stop yourself being dragged over a waterfall. Off I went and before I knew it I was going legs first and being dragged under the water, I tried to stand up but there was no way I could get my feet on the ground never mind fight the resistance of the water. I tried to move swim to the right but its near impossible as you begin to panic and keep getting pulled under. All I could do was stick my hand up out the water and thankfully my friend grabbed me and pulled me out rather shaken and out of breath but having learnt first hand the strength of water currents.

Trust me water is stronger than you think!

Some amazing stories posted above, I always wondered if people got off trains where they shouldn’t before central locking became common practice! As for pot holing I'd think twice before I entered the cave, never mind squeezing down a small hole!

[Tonysmedley]

At the old Green Park Station in Bath, the Somerset and Dorset terminus, there was a bridge over the river Avon not far beyond the end of the platforms. During the war years when longer trains were often being run, it was not unkown for some coaches to stop alongside the bridge parapets. At night, in the dark and with the blackout being enforced there were several incidents where passengers, usually servicemen, stepped down onto the upper flat steel flange thinking it was a platform. A small move and they fell into the river. Although I heard these accounts whilst living there at the time, I do not know whether there were any fatalities or serious injuries.

[47522]

I felt almost compelled to post in here... despite being a brunette I've had quite a few blonde moments in my time.

When I was 11 or so I was on holiday in Turkey, just about to board quite a large boat for a day trip out to sea. While we were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive I noticed quite a large schole of fish swimming around the marina in the space between the jetty and the boat. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to get on my hands and knees and stick my head down between that gap and look at them.... Lots of shouting followed, still oblivious, I looked up to see what the fuss was about, just as the side of the boat collided with the jetty!

Other mild cases include:

During my first D&T practical lesson in year 7. We all took it in turns to try out the horizontal band facer (a belt sander) by sanding down quite a large lump of pine. We were all standing round it in a circle as the first student stepped forward to use it. He started fine but as he turned the block the belt grabbed it out of his hands and sent it flying - straight into ones head! It hit me square between the eyes.

Just last week I managed to give myself a black eye with a bottle of Cava. I used a teatowl to try remove the cork without it shooting out. After a couple of twists and no muffled pop, I had a peek under the towel just as it decided to shoot out!


Edit - Took me a while to work out why the word "cork" wouldnt appear! Interesting little typo!

[desiro5]

During my first D&T practical lesson in year 7. We all took it in turns to try out the horizontal band facer (a belt sander) by sanding down quite a large lump of pine. We were all standing round it in a circle as the first student stepped forward to use it. He started fine but as he turned the block the belt grabbed it out of his hands and sent it flying - straight into ones head! It hit me square between the eyes.

not as bad as my mate who took the end of his finger off on a belt sander