Sunday 3 May 2009

AT A LOO'S END

The other day, on one of my weekly hospital visits, I passed a door with a sign...


Out of order loos are, regrettably, common enough, but this loo was out of order for a very specific - or specifically vague - reason...


And this is a --- what's it called? --- oh, yes, HOSPITAL!

Meanwhile (and there is - or will be - a point to this seeming digression), if I were drawing up a list of the ten things I'd rather die than do, then bungy jumping would be pretty near the top!

When our friends Roger and Sheila recently took an antipodean tour, they stopped off at the Kawarau Bridge Bungy Jump, outside Queenstown - to look, I'm glad to say, rather than jump!

"I think," writes Sheila, "it's a place that's better looked at when one is standing upright and not behaving like a yo-yo!"

I think so!


"The Shotover river below," Sheila continues, "is incredibly deep, which gives it a wonderful blue colour..."

Thinking about 'incredibly deep' and the potential snapability of bungy ropes would, I know, turn me a 'wonderful green' colour!

In fact, unlike R&S, I don't think I could even watch people hurling themselves off that bridge and trusting their fate to several hundred yards of knicker elastic!

Anyway, before taking the plunge it's no doubt wise to make a visist to the loo, although even the smallest room had a reminder of what was in store - at least I guess that's what it was meant to represent...


7 comments:

Unknown said...

"You can't beat a BJ". You don't know what you're missing (Yours truly in NZ: http://snurl.com/h97oa )

Brian Sibley said...

Well, it's certainly an impressive photo, but only serves to convince me that I really do know what I'm missing!

After all, you've also hurled yourself out aeroplanes trusting that the backpack you're wearing will turn into a parachute on the way down, whereas I can only cross a bridge -- and I'm talking about London, Waterloo or Westminster Bridge not some flimsy construction of rope and planks -- by keeping as far away from the parapet as possible and most certainly never looking over the edge...

But I certainly envy your 'fear management'!

SharonM said...

I've got some very serious advice for you, Brian - if you're approached to take part in I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, turn it down! I don't know if I could do it, even if I were offered several million pounds. Although with a sum like that I suppose it might be worth considering as long as you made yourself the person everyone wanted to vote to get rid of as soon as possilbe.

I presume the last sign is an upside down version of a pogo stick warning?

Brian Sibley said...

Even I am not sufficient Z-List to get asked to appear on IACGMOOH! ;-)

Actually, I could do it! Like Esther Rantzen and Christopher Biggins I'd be excused all the really difficult ordeals on medical grounds and I could cope with eating bugs and stuff because I've lived long enough to have eaten - and paid for - enough terrible meals that tasted as though they were made out of bugs-and-stuff!

Brian Sibley said...

By the way, SharonM are you, by any chance, related to a former correspondent to these columns, LisaH?? :-0

SharonM said...

Yes indeed, I'm Lisah's alter ego. Since I've now got my own blog, I decided that it didn't really make sense to continue to use an alias, as it was causing confusion to people reading comments on it.

Brian Sibley said...

A-ha!!! Unmasked, at last! ;-)