If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
No use to me..
I’ll never fly. I might donate plane tickets to a charity so they can raffle them off as prizes.
Why? Because I am scared of flying. I know I could get on a plane and be safe. But I don’t want to find out if it’s OK…I’ve always been nervous about flying.
I look at it this way, my carbon footprint is minimal, why make it bigger. I love other cultures but I can meet them here. I don’t want to damage the environment. I would ask that the flights were not long haul. No, I won’t use them.
For as long as I know I’ve been scared of flying. So why would I like to learn? Because I would be in CONTROL.
Alerons, throttle, yolk, flaps, landing gear. See I know the names of bits of planes, but not how to use them. I take note of TV programmes I watch. Even the ones where planes crash. But seeing mechanical failures really worry me. Like doors falling off without warning.
I think it stems from watching a James Stewart film when I was a child. It was either called “Glide Path”, or “No Highway”. It’s based on a book by Neville Shute. It is about a professor of engineering or mechanics who works out a series of recent crashes are caused by metal fatigue. The trouble is no one believes him. So he sets up a mechanical test to vibrate part of a plane and sets it going over hundreds of hours. But in the meantime he gets sent abroad and has to take drastic action to save himself and the other passengers on his plane.
It’s worth seeing, it’s set in the 50’s, and it put me off flying!
If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
Never flown, never will. Too scared. I like insects, snakes, spiders, I don’t mind thunder and lightning.
I’m not so scared of flying I guess, just the prospect of crashing. Plus I have no control over the airplane. At least if I’m in a car, train or on a boat I could stop and get out, get off at a station, or jump overboard and swim if necessary.
But planes? No! So if I won two free plane tickets I would give them to someone who needed them, or to relatives so they could fly over and visit me. Or auction them off for charity? I don’t know.
I keep seeing adverts where you can win houses over a million pounds. But I won’t enter the draw. How would I keep a massive house warm? How to light it? How to clean it? I don’t have spare cash. Perhaps I could rent out rooms. But it’s a pipe dream. If I won I wouldn’t want it. I would give it to a charity possibly or sell it to someone else who wants it. I just need enough money to stay comfortable and manage to live on for the rest of my life. X
Esther Chilton has a weekly prompt on her blog giving an idea to post a comment to. This week’s was PHOBIA.
Here’s my response:
My phobia is flying. I just won’t. Most of my family fly occasionally but I just can’t face it. For years my hubby wanted me to go to a local airport to see jets taking off and landing, but just seeing planes coming over a major road towards the airport was scary. The urge to duck was immense. Big metal tubes with wings, no I just can’t. I like spiders and snakes. I’ll visit aquaria and watch sharks. I’ve been on boats and trains, I can cope in a car, mainly if I’m driving. But the thought of nothing underneath me except air… Even if there were no windows, so I couldn’t see out and know I was in the air, and if there was no turbulence. I just am too afraid!
I would like to visit Wales again one day. Particularly around Tenby. It’s a beautiful and interesting place. There is a lot of history and beautiful scenery, plus what’s better than an amazing dragon on your flag?
Scotland is my other choice, mountainous and mysterious, with a possible monster in Loch Ness! I have never been, I went to Carlisle once which is on the border. It’s always felt too far away.
I won’t fly, so unless I travel by boat or train I’m never going to go much further. I think my carbon footprint is quite small and I’d like to keep it that way! Plus I don’t really do heat, and when I hear of places already getting up to 40°C or more this year it worries me. I don’t think I could cope with it. I’ve always felt I can watch TV I’d I want to see a place. I can’t afford the reality. And there’s still plenty of England to explore too!
Kite flying on a breezy day, enough breeze to lift the silk or nylon covered structure up into the air.
We went to a kite flying festival in Wales years ago. I had made a kite out of bamboo tied together with melamine silver plastic taped to it. I’d painted a Japanese symbol on it, I can’t remember what it was (this is about thirty years ago).
It wasn’t just breezy, it was very windy, and most kite flyers had decided not to bother. But I tied a tail onto my kite and tried to fly it. It wasn’t very happy so we added a plastic carrier bag! Then it flew, horizontally, just above the beach, but it flew. I was so proud!
The next day there was a gentle breeze, I took off the bag and the kite rose high into the air. I have always loved kite flying weather since then.
Not flying! I’m scared to fly and it increases your carbon footprint.
Not driving! I’m careful because of health issues. I can still safely drive but I’m being very cautious and not going far…
Not cycling! I’m too old and unfit to cycle any more.. I wish I could…
Not riding on the train! They are too expensive, and the railways seem to have been reducing services recently. If I want to travel on one it would take a lot of planning and probably a lot of money. Plus you are not going to be able to buy tickets at a ticket office, they are being cut back.
Not going by boat! We are near to a local canal, but hiring a boat for a few days can be expensive too, and I think having to go through lock gates could be very difficult. Plus I think steering a 72 foot canal barge must be difficult.
Not by bus! The services are being cut so you can’t get back in the evening. One friend had to walk 9 miles to get home last week because he missed the last bus…. Before 7pm!
I will be walking… Not going very far as in not very fit. But I guess I’m OK with that. I don’t commute and shops are close. Holidays are too expensive so my travel plans this summer? A staycation !
Surreal image just created by mirroring a photo of an ariel in front of a cloud. The angles of the ariels make them look like they are floating or flying. I’ve seen other people’s photos years ago doing a similar process. The images they created looked like strange insects, with wing cases apparently made of windows and antenna from TV ariels. It’s fun to create odd images like this.
Mallaband-Brown 