Cheating Death

 Tempting Fate

I was watching a YouTube video of what some people class as scary; unpleasnt, yes, but scary no, why?

The video in question, I posted it on my Twitter page with my comment, is about a lady trapped in a car in a flood, why don't I think of this as scary?

Her life, physically, was not in danger as long as she stayed in the car; the most she would hahve come away with would be a slight trauma. I have been in much worse situations. The comment I made refers to a post I did called - Ski- lift Horror - what happened was I got on the ski-lift against my better judgement, to visit a castle at the top of a hill in Germany.

When the lift reached the top, I breathed a sigh of relief, and began to disembark; this is when the scary part began. As I tired to swing off, I put my weight to the front of the seat, to find that I had been jammed in the seat, The chair descended with me trying desperately to get off as the trees below vanished, leaving me sat on a descending lift with my weight on the front quarter.

What caused the jam?

The jam was caused because I had put a small box of chocolates in my pocket, and on the ride they had moved into the slots of the chair.

The post - German Effiency - refers to another incident when I cheated death, along with my friend, Chris Peerot. We'd arranged leave together, Chris lived not far from the old Severn Bridge, so dropping me off was on his way.

A friend who lives not far from Bristol, had given us some instruction to get to Clevedon, my parent's house. After listening to his route, I said to Chris, ignore what Mick said. When we get off the ferry at Dover, head for the M3 onto the Northbound lane of the South Circular Road, until you see the turn off for Fleet. When you turn onto the M4, but your foot down and head West, I'll yell you what to do when we get to the Clevedon turn-off. 

Things went as smoothly as we could expect; the night was raining hard, so navigating was not easy as the rain blocked most of the signs. We were about half-way, when I noticed we were closing in on a car in the middle lane, I told Chris to change lanes, it turned out the car had stalled. In the dark, and raining, with visibity next to nil, that was a lucky sighting.

The next incident happened when we arrived at my parent's, we were having some food, and I went for some air. I have no idea why I checked the tyres, but I am gald I did. After a few seconds, I called out, "Chris, come and see this!"

He replied,"What's up, Al?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't beilieve me."

Chris, and my parents came out to see what the commotion was about. All four bolts, on the four tyres were a finger's width from coming loose. We'd come across the UK, in a car which was not roadworthy, and barely survived.

As the years go by, I have thught more of that incident, and it scaes me the more I think of it, more tings come to mind.

Firstly, if we had taken the route given us, I am sure we would not have completed the trip. why? The wheels for most of the journey were not moving as they would when you travel down a winding road, so they stayed in position.

Today, another aspect of the trip came to mind, I had forgotten until now, we;d had to cross the Netherlands from the border with Germant to catch the ferry, with wheels which could have come loose at any time.

These are a few of the scary times I have had over the years.